Watercrown Productions

Special thanks to Shadowsithe for some vital bugtesting work.

Download it here, or at the link on the left.

Enjoy.

…concerning one of gaming history’s most infamously bad translations. Happy belated new year, Watercrown fans.

Thanks to Tauwasser’s help, I’ve gotten a handle on Sylvanian Melodies’ end credits, though I’ve been too busy on another project to delve into the finishing touches: a little SNES game by the name of Breath of Fire II.

Yes, you heard me right.

Not too long ago, d4s finished his German-language translation/enhancement patch…and what enhancements they are. His improvements are so unbelievably professional-looking, I might have thought they were part of the original game if I hadn’t seen the original myself. The title screen music is now a vocal piece, background artwork has been added to several screens, text boxes now have transparency and gradient effects, the world map now has a nice Mode 7 pseudo-3D effect (more like a scrolling sphere than the perspective background used in Final Fantasy VI), VWF has been added in numerous places…this is some genius work, and I’m proud to be able to make his work accessible to the English-speaking world.

Find out more at d4s’ homepage for the patch: http://bof2.blogspot.com/

This is the first time I’ve had the luxury of multiple translation scripts to help provide context: they’re not the perfect solution, but they help me work through the spots where my Japanese knowledge is imperfect.

Breath of Fire II’s localization is infamously weak, and I have every intention of rectifying this problem. Names were changed due to lack of space: since this is no longer a problem, you’ll be able to fight with Ryu, Bosch, Nina and Lin in both Breath of Fire V and Breath of Fire II now. And don’t forget Rand, Tapeta, Aspara and Sten. The demon who rips into you at the start of the game is Barbaroi; as it happens, this is actually the Greek word for “Barbarian”. The English script has been rewritten in my inimitable style: I’ve tried to give all the major characters distinct speech patterns to match their personalities, and I’ve added detail and flavor to NPC dialogue. Never again will you feel like you’ve wasted 10 seconds of your time talking to someone.

My translation effort is currently up to the Capitan scenario; I will probably need to make some edits for context and for textbox space, but things are going smoothly. Like d4s, I’m not ready to make any estimates regarding a completion date, but expect it sometime this year.

I really want to finish this. I like the story and I want to see it done justice. I just hope everybody is satisfied with the end results of my work.