Watercrown Productions

…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.

Since the initial release of this patch, several bugs have been discovered including two that may potentially destroy save game data.

Until an update patch is released, do not attempt to use the Fairy Flute item, and please savestate before opening treasure chests.

The upcoming update patch will fix these bugs as well as several text formatting errors discovered. Thank you for your patience.

HEY! Mission: Zero Visibility? Cloudy Skies Ahead!

Now that I’ve gotten that gruesomely-mangled reference to Elite Beat Agents out of the way, I’d like to announce the latest member of the Sylvanian Families Fan Translation family: “Sylvanian Melodies”. If the Drum Bridge minigame from the first title wasn’t enough rhythm-action for you, this should more than satisfy: Willow Cottontail is recruited by the fairies (who bear no resemblance to Commander Kahn) to save Sylvania from their stupidity once again, and do it with smooth moves and elite beats. That’s right: in case you couldn’t tell from the title alone, Sylvanian Melodies is a rhythm-action game, and a pretty decent one at that. The game has minimal dialogue, all of it done as uncompressed graphics; problem is, almost all of the other graphics are compressed, but never fear: the decompressor has been written up, and a recompressor isn’t far behind.

You’ll also notice that this page is now officially the headquarters for all my Sylvanian Families-related fan translations, so watch this page for further details.

Oh, and if you don’t have Elite Beat Agents yet, or a Nintendo DS, consider this a shameless plug.

It’s done. It’s finally done.

Download the patch from the link above, or at the left.

It’s been a long road, gettin’ from there to here…

Announcing the newest addition to the family: the Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters OCG Structure Deck Card Listing. Because I care.

Check it out at the link above, or in the sidebar.

Watercrown Productions now officially has a page for its first near-complete fan translation: Sylvanian Families – The Fairyland Pendant.

Feel free to laugh now.

Check the Project Background link at the left if you want to know what the heck possessed me to do something like this.

Granted, it’s coming very late in the production cycle: I’m considering, once again, removing the pesky Hanauranai Jiten/Flower Dictionary from the project entirely, replacing it with something the player can actually use. Yes, this was inspired by Atlus’ decision to remove the explanation-free Mahjongg minigame from “Raidou Kuzunoha vs. the Soulless Army”. Granted, this is a translation with a distinctly different target audience from most, so the chance to actually play the game in English despite the missing (mostly worthless) feature may go unappreciated…but then again, Atlus’ work on the Shin Megami Tensei games also inspired me to turn that pesky intro monologue into a poem, so when have they steered me wrong?

If enough people get ticked off, I’ll finish the Flower Dictionary and release another version of the translation. Don’t worry, I’ll figure out some way that players who have already finished the sidequest can get their Flower Dictionary anyway…

Check out old news on my DevBlog.

A while back, I translated the text in the “Doa ga Hirakanai, Buchiyaburou” animated GIFs. Now you can view both parts of “If The Door Won’t Open, Break It Down” entirely in English (not much of a stretch, as there are exactly three pieces of Japanese text between them, though the joke is still funny) here on my website.

Check it out on the sidebar, or below.

If The Door Won’t Open, Break It Down (English Version)

If The Door Won’t Open, Break It Down: Part 2 (English Version)

(A hint for others using Googlepages to display animated GIFs: Googlepages will attempt to butcher anything you upload. Make sure you disable image optimization under Site Settings, and Edit HTML on the field they’re displayed in to make sure your originals are shown instead of the .jpg thumbnails Googlepages will generate.)

After several days of unannounced updates and almost a month of silence, TheCheat 1.4 is now available for download with a bunch of new features.

Get it from the link at the left. Or below. Whichever you prefer.

TheCheat, my completely unannounced homage to/ripoff of Stefan Pettersson’s Bitmap Font Writer, has been completed and is now up for download here.

If you ever had problems with formatting VWF text for your translation work, here’s the answer to hopefully at least one of your prayers.