So this one is probably more for the Sailor Moon fans than the PC-Engine fans, but since PCECD translations aren't exactly an everyday occurrence, I figured I might as well post it here...
I'm new around here, so hi, I'm Supper and I occasionally do game translation hacks. In collaboration with TheMajinZenki, cccmar, and Xanathis, I've just released a complete English translation patch of Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon for the PC-Engine Super CD-ROM² system. It translates all in-game text to English, including subtitles for voice-only scenes, vocal songs, and even the error message for having the wrong System Card version.
You can download the patch from ROMhacking.net
(link), or from my own web site
(link). Check the readme for patching instructions.
Credits:
- Translation -- TheMajinZenki
- Hacking -- Supper
- Editing and Testing -- cccmar
- Lyrics Translation -- William A. Braell (via Sailormusic.net)
- Testing -- Xanathis
Special thanks to Aerialrave for kicking off this project with a well-timed message back in 2018, without which none of this would have ever happened.
This game seems to be pretty obscure even within the Sailor Moon fandom, so some explanation is probably in order...
Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon (Pretty Soldier Sailor Moon) is a PCECD visual novel/adventure game based on the Sailor Moon franchise, which I hope needs no explanation. Don't get it confused with "Sailor Moon Collection", an unrelated minigame collection; contrary to what many web sites would have you believe, they're completely different games. This one has an original plot set between arcs of the anime, and deals with the probably-not-canonical resurrection of the Dark Kingdom. All five of the original Sailor Senshi are playable, each with their own story that overlaps with the others', and the dialogue is voiced by the cast of the original show.
The game bills itself as an "adventure-style digital comic", with the story illustrated through numerous individually-drawn "panels" rather than the cheaper and more typical visual novel technique of layering generic character sprites over different backgrounds. While the results are a bit mixed -- there's some noticeable stylistic clash where different images were clearly drawn by different artists -- it's not a bad game, especially if you're a fan of the series. And the music is nice, especially the vocal opening and ending themes (which were written specifically for this game).
The patch comes in two editions: the standard release, and one geared more toward hardcore Sailor Moon fans that includes Japanese honorifics and some Japanese terminology like "Senshi" and "Shitennou". Use whichever one you prefer.
As a bonus feature, I also added a gallery to the game that shows off the massive collection of unused/unfinished graphics, voice clips, and scenes that I found on the disc while making this. You can access it using a cheat code -- check the readme.
This is the first translation hack I've done for the PCECD and I've only been able to test on emulators, so I still have my fingers crossed that this will work properly on real hardware. Let me know if you run into any problems playing it on a real PCE. If all else fails, it should definitely run on Mednafen and Ootake.
Hope you enjoy!
Topic: Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon translation released (Read 2609 times)
