Faxanadu Retranslation

[Ascended Mermaid]

It seems that "Euler" is... a name? ...and Eura is a municipality of Finland, and also a chaotic good female deity of fertility in AD&D 3.5? I wonder if at all, this is another case of weird spelling; after all, we're looking at the same people who gave us a "Giant Bag" instead of a "Giant Bug". There is also Eura-wan in Japan.

The AD&D thing makes sense though, since a lot of names were lifted from it... but does that mean the Pope is a woman?

[goutetsu]

The most famous Euler is of course the mathematician Leonhard Euler.

Since they had only the 1st Edition of AD&D available, I don't think the name comes from that Eura (I think that deity is user-created even?)

[Ascended Mermaid]

Also, I think instead of removing the Momotarō Densetsu reference, we can replace it with a Crystalis or Dragon Warrior/Quest reference, as all 3 games share similar spells. A Dragon Quest reference would also keep the translation chronologically accurate, as it was released before Faxanadu.

// We could keep the casing from Dragon Quest and/or use "healmore" to reduce the chance of those being misconstrued as actual in-game spells.

// I've also cross-referenced with Catholic history, lists of Popes and Antipopes, and found "Eulalius" (the antipope). Now this may not be a connection at all, but a coincidence -- and a somewhat fascinating one at that.

[goutetsu]

Yeah, it doesn't really matter what you put there. I'm more familiar with Final Fantasy myself so I would use Curaga and something else. If you wanted to be silly, you could use "I'm all out of Escape Ropes." 

Eulalius... It is pretty close, but like you say, it is doubtful that that's what the developers were referring to.

I think I should explain some things about the word 法王 (houou). Literally it means "king of the law", and what it refers to depends on the context. When talking about Christianity, it refers to the Pope (ローマ法王 would be more specific), and this is the only definition of the word that Japanese-English dictionaries give. As a Buddhist term it refers to Buddha, and a few dictionaries say that it can refer to Yama.

Now, the elves clearly seem to be Christians, but it is not certain if that applies to the dwarves also. Although worshiping a piece of a meteorite kind of reminds me of the Black Stone at Kaaba, translating the word as "Ayatollah" or "Imam" would obviously be a highly questionable choice. "Buddha of the Dwarves" sounds silly, so you are left with either "Pope" or a less quotidian synonym like "Pontifex" or "Supreme Pontiff". Otherwise you could go with something more general like "High Priest".

[SkyeWelse]

Jan 8, 2016 15:43:44 GMT -5 goutetsu said:

Now I'm even more confused. What manual are you talking about? I used the guide book, so apparently they differ. In the guide book it is unquestionably ボラボーラ (boraboora). 

You know, that is definitely the very same guidebook that I was referring to and that I scanned in originally... And now that I've checked it, my statement about the names being actual scans from the guidebook doesn't check out. They are in RED in the guidebook. This was such a long time ago that Unsavory and I worked on this, I think I must have mistaken the origin of the names. I think that I may have taken the names in kana from a website instead which listed all of the names and I believe that site was in fact DraSleLabs, which is now no longer live for whatever reason.

In any case, since the red text clearly does say ボラボーラ, then this definitely needs to be changed, so I can edit it no problem.

Jan 8, 2016 15:43:44 GMT -5 goutetsu said:

The site where that fish picture comes from actually talks about エウラー船長 (captain Euraa), so I'm pretty sure that the エウラー in the picture is the human, not the fish. 
Most of the google results for エウラー seem to be Euler misspelled. You will also find a site that says (in Japanese of course) "Note that Euler is not pronounced エウラー, but オイラー".

Ah, so these pictures are from a fishing trip showcasing a large blue fish caught by none-other than Captain Euraa. Mystery solved!.. except for the back to square one on what might have been originally meant for the ultimate final big boss of the game, which you would think would contain some meaning in place of a weird name, especially since the first part of his name is an English word, "Shadow".

Jan 8, 2016 15:43:44 GMT -5 goutetsu said:

That period in the name makes zero sense, since it has the grammatical purpose of a full stop. Would you put a monster called "Fire. Giant" into an English game? 

That's fine, we'll change it.

Edit: Changes have been made.

-Thomas

[Ascended Mermaid]

Unfortunately, their weird spelling does make it impossible to say that any one way is definitive. I'm not entirely convinced that they didn't mean "aura". They've misspelled a lot of things in their English to Japanese translations, and "Shadow Aura" implies that the Pope/High Priest has changed to something dark and sinister. He may have been dark and sinister to begin with. I suppose he led the dwarves in the worship of the meteorite.

[SkyeWelse]

Well, like we tell our other team leads on their respective projects, something such as a naming convention or spelling is really up to the project lead to decide on. So ultimately whatever you think it best should be what you should decide to go with. I can change it on the Bestiary anytime.

I think Shadow Aura sounds cooler to me, but then, that "thing" doesn't much look like an Aura to me. It looks more like that fish that Captain Eulaa caught... if it had bipedal legs.

And for the restoration, I know you have to fix this bug as you mentioned it on your to do list, but I'm going to rather miss getting the King to refill my pockets with gold when I run out of money. I always took it as the King being senile and forgetful. Probably sees so many adventurers stop by, he can't even keep track of them all anymore.

-Thomas

[goutetsu]

I have been looking at the guide book more carefully and there's not that much to write about. The difference with the Ruby Ring was probably the most interesting one. 

Here is the story from the guide book:

A story that takes place in some other world. Here, humans, the elven race, and the dwarven race of monsters were living peacefully around the World Tree, the source of all life. However, one day something terrible happened. A meteor crashed into the World Tree and the balance of the world was demolished. Eventually, the elves and the dwarves ended up in a state of war, and because the World Tree had fractured, the wells of the capital at the base where the humans lived began to dry up. The time has come for you to save this world with your own hands!!

Compared with what you find in the game itself, you can see that there are a few strange things in it. Humans? Dwarves a race of monsters, instead of having been transformed into monsters? The World Tree fracturing as the cause for the wells drying, instead of the springs being blocked because of poison?

The story from the Japanese instruction manual:

Eolis, the capital at the base of the World Tree had been enjoying an age of peace and prosperity, but was now on the verge of destruction. It was because a meteor had hit the World Tree, which had acted as a catalyst for frenzied monsters to go berserk. Wells are drying up and people are in the grip of fear. In order to restore peace once more, someone has to make their way through the giant World Tree and defeat the evil overlord who lives in the Infernal Knoll...... Now, with the hopes of the people on his shoulders, one brave warrior sets forth on a journey.

Other things that you might find interesting:

-The explanation of the shields makes it sound like they are useful for more than just protecting you from magic. "Together with armors, they protect the protagonist from enemy attacks. They especially block magic attacks from the front, reducing damage to a minimum." In the description of the Magic Shield: "Protects you reliably even from the magical attacks of enemies."

-Sapphire Ring of Elf: "If you entered the World Tree without this, people might not tell you the truth."

-Says nothing about the effect of Wing Boots going down as you gain experience. Just says that, "You can only fly for 20 seconds."

-Mentions many times that the people in the bars have probably had a few and you should not believe everything they say. 

-A strange thing is that the Black Onyx and the Magical Rod are not introduced with the other items. In fact, I don't think they are mentioned by name anywhere in the book. In the part where the Tower of Mist is explained, it says: "Your objective here is to get the mysterious item hidden here." As for the Magical Rod, in the section where you can find it it says: "An item that doubles the power of your magic is hidden here." Which is also at variance with what the manual says about its effect.

-Concerning the last boss: "The Hour Glass and your magic are of no use."

[Ascended Mermaid]

Sounds great everyone! I will make some notes and get back to work.

// I've been trying to figure out how "Foahoo" became "Forepaw". Obviously Foa is Fore, but then we have "hoo". After looking it up, there seems to be a p~h alternation -- also known as "debuccalization". Even still, how "poo" became "paw"... I would think it would be spelled "Foaha" / "Foapa" if they were going for that, right? Could this be more WS?

// Also... what about "Rocksturn" / "Rocks Turn"? I know it's not a pretty name, but it does seem somewhat logical.

Turn (knot), a component of a knot
Turning, a machining operation
Turn (biochemistry), an element of secondary structure in proteins
Turn (geometry), a unit of angle
Turn (dance and gymnastics), rotation of the body

He has an odd (almost gymnastic) pattern, his legs (somewhat mechanical in appearance and nature) appear to turn and rotate. He even has a very basic geometric figure.

[goutetsu]

Jan 10, 2016 18:45:06 GMT -5 Ascended Mermaid said:

// I've been trying to figure out how "Foahoo" became "Forepaw". Obviously Foa is Fore, but then we have "hoo". After looking it up, there seems to be a p~h alternation -- also known as "debuccalization". Even still, how "poo" became "paw"... I would think it would be spelled "Foaha" / "Foapa" if they were going for that, right? Could this be more WS?

"Paw" can be written either ポー (poo) or パー (paa) as the pronunciation of the English word can vary depending on the region and speaker. I believe ポー is the more obvious choice.

[Ascended Mermaid]

We've moved on to the next phase: formatting the text. After that? Testing.
// At line 6 of 15, with 1024 characters per line.

I need to add the specific "sell" dialogues to the shops, as well. The shops in the game just use the generic "sell" dialogue.

---

Sent in my edits as a courtesy to the team. If all goes well, we'll move on to the final phase of the retranslation project.

---

False alarm. I can insert the translation without any hiccups. I just need to format it correctly.

After inserting the translation, I've come to realize that there is yet more hacking to be done. The old theory was that all of the bugs were fixed if they did not occur with the old script. I now know that by using just one script, I have overlooked a few things.

- The repeat 2nd letter bug is back.
- Sometimes the character's name messes up the dialogue.
- Sometimes line breaks fail to operate.

This doesn't affect Faxanadu Restoration Vanilla in any way.

---

Awesome, thank you for clearing that up! I've been working on the enemy list for the (optional) updated GUI. This is the tentative list. Note that some names had to be shortened or heavily modified to fit within the allocated space. (12 characters. This can probably be boosted to 14, but that may not be very helpful.) The blank spaces are things like other projectiles, townspeople, dropped items, and general unused space. The numbers are simple place holders for now.

00
01
02
03 STONE
04 RAIDEN
05 NECROPHIDIUS
06 ZOMBIE
07 HORNET
08 BEHOLDER
09 LILITH
10
11 UINAL
12 SNOW MAN
13 NASH
14 FIRE GIANT
15 ISIS
16 HANGMANSHOOD
17 LOCSTERN
18 SALAMANDER
19
20
21 CHARON
22
23 GALEB DUHR
24 SUGATA
25 GRIMLOCK
26 GIANT BEE
27 MYCONID
28 NAGA
29 DARK KNIGHT
30 GIANTSTRIDER
31 SIR GAWAINE
32 MASKED MAN
33 WOLF MAN
34 YARI-IKA
35 MUD MAN
36 SLUG WARRIOR
37
38 IKEDA
39 SLUG
40 LAMPREY
41
42 MONODRONE
43 GARGOYLE
44 TAMAZOTZ
45 REAPERSHEIK
46 ZORADONA
47 BORA BOURA
48 PAKUKAME
49 ZORGERIL
50 KING GRIEVE
51 SHADOW AURA
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70 EYE
71 ZOTHRA

[Ascended Mermaid]

Up through Conflate with more... MORE dialogue bug shenanigans!! There's an easy fix for all of these, although it is irritating that I have these bugs to begin with. Work-arounds, yay.

---

Up through Victim (Before "Veteran") tested. Made a ton of fixes, took a ton of screenshots (of minor dialogue bugs) for my to-do list. Building toward Veteran and the Magic Shield.

---

Changed it to this, instead:

For 200 ducats,
I shall initiate
you into the art
of wizardry. [PAUSE]
Well?

---

I'm also thinking about splitting up this line as follows:

I shall initiate
you into the use
of magical
powers. Well?

---

Alternatively, we could split it up like this:



By shifting the text down, the line will end like this:



I very much am in favor of doing this.

---

Alright, we've moved onto the testing phase. This is where we painstakingly test every line as it appears in game, hoping that nothing goes wrong. If the test is successful, the patch will be released.

Wanted to know what you guys think of the format. The current version does pause breaks (aka page breaks) after nouns and pronouns if the total amount of new lines exceeds the alotted space. In many cases, this leads to a multi space if this occurs on the first "page" if less than 4 lines are present. Examples:

Dried meat to
restore your
strength.

strength.

How does 50
ducats sound?

For 200 ducats I
shall initiate
you

into the use of
magical powers.
Well?

I think this format is a bit ugly. It could be remedied like so:

For 200 ducats I
shall initiate
you into the use
of magical

shall initiate
you into the use
of magical
powers. Well?

The reason I didn't do this, is that I wasn't comfortable with the dialogue flowing this way. It makes me think "Why don't you just finish what you're saying?!" Worst case scenarios include this:

For 200 ducats I
shall initiate
you into the use
of magical powe-

shall initiate
you into the use
of magical powe-
rs. Well?

I can't stand using hyphens to split up words. It just looks ugly. The last idea I have, is to eliminate the pause entirely.

For 200 ducats I
shall initiate
you into the use
of magical
powers. Well?

Which means that the window still starts and ends the other way:

shall initiate
you into the use
of magical
powers. Well?

It eliminates the feeling of unnecessary pauses in dialogue, but... having the dialogue on auto-pilot could be inconvenient for some.

---

Jan 31, 2016 21:36:42 GMT -5 Ascended Mermaid said:

Disappointed to see that a fan work was not only funded on Kickstarter, but shut down by Konami and still running. It looks awful.

[goutetsu]

Playing through the game to test the translation reminded me of an oddity in the ending theme. Some years ago I made MIDI transcriptions of all the music tracks in the game and noticed that there is a mistake(?) at the end of the ending theme. The bass part ends before the melody and countermelody. It is barely noticeable on the NES and you can easily miss it as you hear the end theme only once. 

Recording from FCEUX

Here is the score as it appears in the game:


MIDI Piano version

Here is a score that I have edited:


MIDI Piano version

If you'd like to hear my work, here is the whole soundtrack with different SoundFont arrangements:
goutetsu.mbnet.fi/faxanadu/Faxanadu%20MIDI%20ST.7z

[Ascended Mermaid]

Great find! I can probably isolate the bass by freezing the RAM, and then set up a break point for the bass. The only question I'll find after is whether or not writing to the score is like using Famitracker. I know you can load NSFs to it, and write NES-compatible NSFs with it. Hmmm... that may be an option too. I've never changed music in 6502 ASM before.

There's definitely some stuff I'd like to fix with the Vanilla Restoration patch.

- Ending BGM
- Ladder bugs... oh boy... (Going down a screen can result in a fall... even when there's a ladder.)
- More ladder bugs... (Going down a ladder too quickly can hurt... when there's an enemy above the ladder, on the top of the screen.)
- Enemy placement (The Charon before Victim makes it difficult to backtrack. You have to cast magic immediately.)
- Dialogue bugs (The Retranslation has shown that my engine isn't perfect.)
- Title length (For instance, Swordsman became Fencer.)


You will fall if you climb down from the screen above.


The Pakukame on this screen killed me when I climbed down the ladder on the bottom. Notice how I'm now on top.

// The Pakukame Ladder Bug could probably be fixed by isolating whether or not the player is on the ladder as such:
On ladder -> BEQ Scroll Movement Speed 5
Else -> Scroll Movement Speed 4

I suspect this much. I only changed the scroll movement speed for the fountain of Forepaw; I suppose I could make it only affect that screen instead, which would make it easier to also get past the Charon before Victim.
On screen # -> BEQ Scroll Movement Speed 5
Else -> Scroll Movement Speed 4

// Goutetsu is impressive. He also added the specific sell item dialogues back in. We need a thumbs up smiley.

// I'm in the process of moving from computer to computer.

[Ascended Mermaid]

Faxanadu Retranslation v1.03b: Public Beta Edition!

It crashes and has some dialogue bugs. I didn't even get to anything listed on the Feb 17, 2016 update. Even still, I didn't want to just leave it in limbo. Here you go, guys.

[RyuKisargi]

I'm going to give this a go once I can! If you want, you can send me a patched ROM. -wink wonk-

[Ascended Mermaid]

The OP has been updated with Faxanadu Retranslation v1.04! This new build has been tested and so far, no crashes or bugs to report. Please let me know at your earliest convenience if you experience any crashes or bugs. Thank you. The only changes to report are dialogue changes -- no ASM has been modified for this release, so bugs are possible.

[RyuKisargi]

Can you send me a patched ROM of that? I've been itching to replay it this year. Need my fix.