Author Topic: Xanadu II Translation Development Blog  (Read 39266 times)

esteban

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Re: Xanadu II Translation Development Blog
« Reply #390 on: June 12, 2016, 04:32:06 AM »
This is GORGEOUS

I am weeping

I am

:)
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elmer

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Re: Xanadu II Translation Development Blog
« Reply #391 on: June 28, 2016, 11:31:17 AM »
After much serious effing around, the new logo is working in both the Xanadu 1 and 2 Opening Visuals.

It's going to need to be tested on real hardware, because both games are now having to apply their "sparkle" effects to much more data than before.

They both seem to work fine in Mednafen ... but there's no substitute for a test on real hardware.

I added a drop-shadow on the Xanadu 2 subtitle, and although it really does help to stop it from disappearing into the background, I'm not convinced that I like it, yet.

Maybe it needs more tweaking, or maybe it should just be removed altogether.  :-k

What do you guys think?









<EDIT>

Added original Xanadu 2 Japanese logo screengrab without drop-shadow for comparison.

It's interesting to note the huge effect that having the drop-shadow has upon the eye's perception of the colors in the subtitle text.

With the drop-shadow, the orange colors look much darker and more saturated, even though they are exactly the same RGB values as the orange colors in the original Japanese text.

The eye really has a hard time resolving single-pixel-wide text on a similar brightness background.

That's why we went to such lengths to darken the message box backgrounds and add the drop-shadow to the in-game text in Xanadu 2.

But ... in this case, it's not really critical that you can clearly read the subtitle text on this screen, because you get to see it clearly and read it on a black background before the landscape fades in.

In some ways, that makes the subtitle seem to fade away into the background as the landscape fades in, and perhaps that's what Falcom wanted. This is the only time in the game that the subtitle is used. The graphics for it are in the game's Main Menu, but Falcom chose not to actually display them.
« Last Edit: June 29, 2016, 04:54:12 AM by elmer »

johnnykonami

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Re: Xanadu II Translation Development Blog
« Reply #392 on: June 28, 2016, 03:56:21 PM »
The top part (logo) looks great.  I agree about the subtitle being a little hard to read, it's acceptable though.  Could you post a quick screenshot of the same in Japanese for comparison's sake?

SamIAm

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Re: Xanadu II Translation Development Blog
« Reply #393 on: June 28, 2016, 06:49:32 PM »
I think we need another CRT test.  :mrgreen:

_joshuaTurbo

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Re: Xanadu II Translation Development Blog
« Reply #394 on: June 29, 2016, 03:05:47 AM »
I'm not ashamed to be openly drooling on my PC monitor!  :)

Great work as always!

elmer

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Re: Xanadu II Translation Development Blog
« Reply #395 on: June 29, 2016, 04:43:30 AM »
Could you post a quick screenshot of the same in Japanese for comparison's sake?

OK, I've updated the earlier post with the Japanese screenshot.

esteban

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Re: Xanadu II Translation Development Blog
« Reply #396 on: June 30, 2016, 03:20:29 AM »
Call me crazy, but the Anglicized Title Screen (ATS) is actually SUPERIOR to the original.

No joke.

ATS > Original

:)
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elmer

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Re: Xanadu II Translation Development Blog
« Reply #397 on: June 30, 2016, 04:19:26 AM »
I'm not ashamed to be openly drooling on my PC monitor!  :)

Call me crazy, but the Anglicized Title Screen (ATS) is actually SUPERIOR to the original.

I agree with both you guys, I think that Phase's logo looks absolutely wonderful on the screen.  :D

I can't think of any professional game artist BITD that would have come up with anything that fits there better.

************

I've done some tweaking to the drop-shadow on the subtitle text to make a little bit easier to read, but more importantly, have changed the color of it so that it's not pure-black anymore and so doesn't look quite so jarring.

I think that this is looking better.





elmer

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Re: Xanadu II Translation Development Blog
« Reply #398 on: June 30, 2016, 07:27:27 AM »
Here's a thought, but I'm not sure if it's a good one.

There's definitely no room for the subtitle on the Xanadu 2 Main Menu screen, which would give a nasty inconsistency.






SamIAm

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Re: Xanadu II Translation Development Blog
« Reply #399 on: June 30, 2016, 05:53:43 PM »
It's a nice gesture, but let's think about this in terms of how you would write those full titles in plain text.

The Legend of Xanadu - Legend of the Wind
The Legend of Xanadu - Legend of the Wind II

Pros: That is certainly the original cover-art titles with no modifications other than changing the Japanese bit to English and dropping one "Xanadu".

Cons: We really shouldn't have two "Legends" in a single title. Additionally, if you want to say that one is only a subtitle, then the way I look at it, Legend of the Wind effectively becomes the main title. It would be more appropriate for our graphic, therefore, to put The Legend of Xanadu in small gold letters above a larger graphic that says "Legend of the Wind".

If someone wants to try this, it could actually be nice. I don't know what kind of logistical trouble we would have, however.

--------------------------------

Alternative:

The Legend of Xanadu - Legend of the Wind
The Legend of Xanadu II - Legend of the Wind

Pros: This lets us keep The Legend of Xanadu as the main title.

Cons: It ups the confusion-factor for me. When I start reading the second one, I really expect it to have a different subtitle.

Whichever pair you're looking at, bear in mind that this isn't really part 1 and part 2 of a single adventure or anything; these are two totally separate games in one series. Xanadu 2 is so far removed from the first one, it's practically Xanadu Gaiden.

----------------------

Frankly, I think that Falcom's dual-language naming of these games is not really logical, and any attempt we make to honor it perfectly in one language is going to be inherently flawed. The old keep-it-simple rule says we should either go with The Legend of Xanadu only or Xanadu - Legend of the Wind only.

As mentioned above, this one exception might work:

The Legend of Xanadu
Legend of the Wind II

Again, though, this may not be truly practical.

-----------------------------------

One more option:

The Legend of Xanadu - Legend of the Wind
The Legend of Xanadu II - Legend of the Wind II

Surely this would be silly?
« Last Edit: June 30, 2016, 10:00:42 PM by SamIAm »

NightWolve

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Re: Xanadu II Translation Development Blog
« Reply #400 on: June 30, 2016, 09:00:40 PM »
Wow, just caught up, skimmed past 7-8 pages and really fantastic work and detail guys! Sorry BT, I had to skim over some of your posts which I feel bad about but there's definitely interesting reads in here for those that care to take the time!

I really dunno where elmer came from, how he landed here, still hard to believe, but it's INCREDIBLY lucky someone with his experience/background wound up taking such an interest in fan translation projects for the PC Engine CD and in particular two Falcom masterpieces!!!

When I started projects in 2001, one of the big reasons was I felt it unjust how NES and SNES had major talent like elmer giving it attention all the time, but yet you couldn't find one project of any significance/excitement over in the PC Engine/TG-16 realm. There were patches for Super Daisenryaku CD and 3-4 HuCards at the time and that was it, games nobody really gave a shit about...

I was a bigger fan of NES/SNES growing up actually, but yeah, I wasn't needed for projects there, they were doing just fine! Getting Neill Corlett to come over from SNES focus to help us for "Ys IV: Dawn of Ys" took his Finish friend and later on me, and we only got him for ROM analysis, script decompression/extraction, then he took off to work on other projects/interests... Anyway, it's still nowhere near the activity/attention that NES/SNES and other consoles get, but it's nice to see some real dents being made towards changing that for our beloved platform...

P.S. I love you guys... :)

elmer

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Re: Xanadu II Translation Development Blog
« Reply #401 on: July 01, 2016, 02:47:24 PM »
It's a nice gesture, but let's think about this in terms of how you would write those full titles in plain text.

Uncle! Uncle! I give in!  :lol:  :wink:

You are, of course, absolutely right.

I loved the idea, I tried it, and I didn't really like the results.

Even if I were to ignore all your good arguments about the naming ... it just doesn't look good on the screen.

The logo without the "II" at the end of it just doesn't look good with a subtitle that's as long as it is hovering beneath it.

With the large "II" at the end of the logo, it has the extra visual anchor to allow the "THE LAST DRAGON SLAYER" to work well underneath it.

Well ... that's my unprofessional "programmer-not-artist" opinion, anyway.  8-[


I really dunno where elmer came from, how he landed here, still hard to believe, but it's INCREDIBLY lucky someone with his experience/background wound up taking such an interest in fan translation projects for the PC Engine CD and in particular two Falcom masterpieces!!!

Thank you for the kind words!

The SuperGrafx was the first console that I personally chose to buy after working in the industry for a few years.

Folks that don't program, or who haven't programmed on the different 4th-gen consoles, can't understand just quite how revolutionary and how well designed the PCE was, especially in comparison to the later 4th-gen consoles.

Most of the "hacker" community seem to be folks that grew up loving the NES/SNES as kids, and so want to keep that love alive as adults.

I was writing games in those days. I love the PCE because it's the most forward-looking and elegent design of its times.

It deserves more love because it's just that darned good, and IDGAF about whether it sold well in the USA or not.

It heralded the change from ROM into CD, and it did it with a design that is pure-genius. That's something that I wish that more folks could appreciate.

SamIAm

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Re: Xanadu II Translation Development Blog
« Reply #402 on: July 01, 2016, 04:16:01 PM »
I loved the idea, I tried it, and I didn't really like the results.

... it just doesn't look good on the screen.

The more you play Xanadu 1 and watch the story unfold, I think the more you'll feel a slight itch of worry that maybe "Legend of the Wind" is something that should be featured in the title.

However, The Legend of Xanadu alone is still completely reasonable, IMHO. Falcom put us in a position where there is no perfect choice, for one thing; for another, "wind" is almost completely gone from the second game as a story element.

Now...if someone wants to make a 192x64 mock-up of "Xanadu - Legend of the Wind", that would be completely reasonable, too.

("Legend of the Wind - Xanadu" kinda sorta works, too, but I think the order is a little funny when you consider how "Xanadu" is supposed to be a series of its own. It's like saying "Rondo of Blood - Castlevania" instead of the other way around.)

P.S. I love you guys... :)

Aww, we love you too, NightWolve.  :mrgreen:

I never imagined when I first saw him posting on the forums that elmer and I would make this partnership. I've said it before, and I'll say it again: I really couldn't have asked for a better person to work with. His skill and work-ethic make me want to do the best that I can, and it's largely because of this motivation and the high-quality results that this project has been the most engaging and enjoyable thing I've ever been lucky enough to work on.

Poor old elmer hasn't even really gotten a chance to play the games yet, so he probably hasn't felt the magic all along quite like I have. I'm hoping that when he finally does get to play them, he'll feel all the more rewarded for his efforts.  :D
« Last Edit: July 01, 2016, 04:31:18 PM by SamIAm »

Phase

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Re: Xanadu II Translation Development Blog
« Reply #403 on: July 02, 2016, 03:48:51 PM »
Now...if someone wants to make a 192x64 mock-up of "Xanadu - Legend of the Wind", that would be completely reasonable, too.

Heres a quick mock up using the same style in the second game.     

esteban

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Re: Xanadu II Translation Development Blog
« Reply #404 on: July 03, 2016, 04:11:10 AM »
Now...if someone wants to make a 192x64 mock-up of "Xanadu - Legend of the Wind", that would be completely reasonable, too.

Heres a quick mock up using the same style in the second game.     



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