Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!

[Arjak]

A guy going by the username SamIAm is currently working on a translation for LoX2 (Why the first one was skipped, we may never know!) with EsperKnight. How do I know? Romhacking.net is your friend: http://www.romhacking.net/

Along with translating all of the in-game text, they are also endeavoring to dub the game as well...
Link: http://voiceactingalliance.com/board/showthread.php?64437-Kaze-no-Densetsu-Xanadu-II-PC-Engine-CD-Action-RPG-Fan-Dub

I am currently in the running for the part of Nuse. (I tried out for several roles, and Nuse was the one that worked best with my unusual voice.)

I'm so excited about all of this! It's always good to see a little love for our favorite system! Hopefully, this will be completed, as I am really wanting to see full translations of all the great PCE games, so I can, you know, fully appreciate them. It really feels to me like the PC Engine is one of the last great, unexplored frontiers of translation hacking. I would definitely like to see more! Who knows? Maybe if this project succeeds, more people will become interested in translating other PCE games...

[ParanoiaDragon]

Already been discussing it here https://www.pcenginefx.com/forums/index.php?topic=9441.0 

I beatcha to the punch :-"

[Bonknuts]

Wasn't SamIam the guy who supposedly was translating Emerald Dragon for Dave Shadoff, then just completely disappeared/abandoned the project? Or is that a different Sam? If Esperknight is working on this, there's hope. One reason for translating this game over the first one, is that this one has MUCH less text and is much shorter game. So on that level, it's an easier project. The game is awesome though.

 And for you guys that think PCE needs more translations - shit... make some damn noise over at RHDN (romhacking.net). There are quite a few very talented translation hackers over there (more important than the translator themselves, IMO). But they're not going to waste time on games that don't have much demand (these translation hacks take a ton of personal time and a lot of skill (well, game dependent) - especially for a CD based system like the PCE. Don't let anyone tell you different).

[SamIAm]

Same SamIAm. You're just going to have to trust me with this one. Progress is going very, very well. By the way, if anyone wants to finish the Emerald Dragon script, they can go for it. Dave and I both have the last drafts.

Whether the hacking or the translating is harder really depends on the game no matter what the system. In this case, Esperknight and I are both fairly lucky in that the script isn't huge and there is no complex menu or battle engine to hack. On the other hand, to say nothing of the hacking, whoever translates Far East of Eden II is pretty much going to have to be a god among translators.

[sunteam_paul]

I wish I had the skills to translate or hack the games to translate. It's one thing I'd love to do on a lot of games (and not just spralling RPGs). I hope this one goes well, very much looking forward to it.

[SamIAm]

I'm taking a break from translating, and I thought I would post this since it's been on my mind for a bit.

If anyone's wondering why the Emerald Dragon project didn't work out, there are a couple of reasons involved. The SNES version patch coming out of nowhere didn't help. Real life got in the way a lot, too. However, the primary reason, frankly speaking, is that the game turned out to be the single worst RPG I've ever played, and working on it ceased to be enjoyable.

I asked Dave for help when I was about 1/3 of the way through playing Emerald Dragon for the first time. At that point, there were still plentiful cutscenes, unique new areas, a nicely developing story, and a simple but fun battle engine. The last 1/3, by contrast, was a disaster. The story stalled a lot, the cutscenes basically vanished, and the environments were mostly rehashes. There wasn't enough music to go around, either. Worst of all, the dungeons became maddening mazes, and the random battles became incredibly boring due to the player being almost uninvolved in them. I never would have made it to the end without Magic Engine's 5x fast-forward feature. For a 2 minute battle, you'd have 10 seconds of inputting and 110 seconds of watching the AI. I can't believe there are Japanese people who have played this more than once, I'll say that much.

Why translate a game I'd warn people against playing? It's easy to see why things stopped. I felt bad for wasting Dave's time and getting people's hopes up, but on the other hand, I'm pretty sure that the lion's share of wasted time was my own. The script was at 60% when I quit, and there hadn't been any substantial work done on reinsertion or hacking any menus.

Finally, I promised myself that I wouldn't ask for help on another game until I had beaten it first. Years passed, I bought a Duo-RX, and I popped Xanadu II in to try it. I practically couldn't stop until I had beaten it, and I knew I had found a winner. Not only that, but I'm on my second playthrough and I'm loving it even more this time around. I'm actually excited to share it with people. I'm even looking forward to play-testing the crap out of it.

So yeah, that's the story with that. Has anyone here ever beaten Emerald Dragon on this system? I'd be curious what you thought of it.

[runinruder]

So yeah, that's the story with that. Has anyone here ever beaten Emerald Dragon on this system? I'd be curious what you thought of it.

Yes, I've played through it twice.  Here's a link to the review I wrote for it:

http://www.thebrothersduomazov.com/search/label/Emerald%20Dragon

[SamIAm]

Good grief, that other review you linked to was astonishing. It's like reading a review of The Phantom Menace by someone who thinks it's the greatest movie ever made.

To each their own, and I understand why ED would appeal to a certain taste, but sheesh. I'm glad you found a lot of the same problems that I did.

[Bonknuts]

Emerald Dragon was the first Japanese RPG I imported for any system back in the day. IIRCC, sometime in '93 (thought it would have been early '94). I knew zero Japanese at the time. I learned while I played that game (well, learned Kana and a lot of Kanji, but not the language itself). I loved that game and beat it. It's the reason why I ordered more JRPGs, although mostly for the Duo. I ordered Legend Of Xanadu I next and beat that. That was tough. Emerald Dragon was very easy in comparison. I almost beat Ys IV, but got stuck near the end of the game and all the broken english translation I had made notes for, didn't help. So yeah, I thought ED was amazingly great game BITD. On a side note, good thing I never did start that new print routine for ED >_>

[SamIAm]

Well, I'll shut up about it, then. I guess I just wasn't born to be the translator for that game.

[SignOfZeta]

A lot of PCE players think of ED as a "top five" game, easily up there with the Tengai and Ys stuff.

I guess the "Holy shit!" stuff in the beginning of the game keeps people going through the boring shit at the end.

[shubibiman]

I cleared this game and enjoyed it.

[TheClash603]

If this were somehow released in a physical format, I would buy to support the PCE/TG16 homebrewers.  However, part of the reason I like the TG16 is the lack of RPGs, which tend to be tedious.  The RPGs that are out, like Ys, are action RPGs, so I am cool with those.

[SamIAm]

I prefer action RPGs as well, and I'm really happy to be working on one of the best ones I've ever found. You know what I like about Xanadu II? There's no bullshit. Pardon my French, but seriously, there's nothing tedious, nothing wasted, no filler and no cheap tricks in Xanadu II. You could say it's short and easy, but that's really to the game's advantage. The pacing is excellent, the graphic/sound/game design is wonderful, and the story is good fun. It's modern and old-school at the same time, so it's very accessible. When we're finished, I'm betting this one's going to be a hit. For now, just writing this makes me want to work on the translation more.

[TheClash603]

I prefer action RPGs as well, and I'm really happy to be working on one of the best ones I've ever found. You know what I like about Xanadu II? There's no bullshit. Pardon my French, but seriously, there's nothing tedious, nothing wasted, no filler and no cheap tricks in Xanadu II. You could say it's short and easy, but that's really to the game's advantage. The pacing is excellent, the graphic/sound/game design is wonderful, and the story is good fun. It's modern and old-school at the same time, so it's very accessible. When we're finished, I'm betting this one's going to be a hit. For now, just writing this makes me want to work on the translation more.

I'm sold.