So if I hypothetically wanted to patch Grandia (SS)...

[Original_Name]

to be translated into the English language ala the recent Shining Force III: Scenarios 2 and 3, what sort of work would be required? Would I be able to jump into something akin to a .ini file and copy/paste lines of dialogue or is it some sort of twisted, demented hell I must suffer through, merely trying everything in my power to gain some inkling of an idea of what the hell is going on inside of this wretched program? I've honestly been thinking of using the dialogue translated during the Alent project which got more than half of the main dialogue translated to English before the PlayStation version was released, then either just implementing the PlayStation's somewhat faulty English dialogue into the remainder of the scenarios or letting someone more versed in translating the Japanese language effectively finish the remainder of the main storyline dialogue. Hell, maybe other people would go in and finish the other non-canon dialogue.

I'm just asking, is it worth it for someone like me who is not a programming God to even attempt such a thing, or is it better left to people who know exactly what they're doing.

And please no, "Just play it on PlayStation". It's just something I'd like to do if it doesn't kill me.

[MasonB15]

Let's put it this way. If it was an easy task, it would have been done by now.

[Ziggy]

is it better left to people who know exactly what they're doing.

Yes.

Surely it's not just copying and pasting lines of dialog. From what I've read about translations, it's a fairly complicated procedure especially with larger games who's data is packed tight.

[Original_Name]

Haha, alright, thank you! That's all I wanted to know!

I guess I'll just play it on the *gulp* PlayStation.

[Dylan]

I'd imagine that each character is represented individually, so you'd have to completely restructure the number of characters and the characters themselves. For every letter. Without affecting the rest of the game. Oh, and the whole learn another language and become fluent/literate in it. Wow, the more I think about it the more backbreaking it sounds. Utter respect to those who've done it.

[crux]

The translation and editing and the hacking are almost never done by the same people. Not only because it's rare that someone would be adept at both, but because the hacking alone is a tremendous amount of work.

As a fairly simple anecdotal example, since you brought up Shining Force III: How many years has that project been going on? Japanese and English use entirely different character sets, which brings an enormous amount of hacking difficulties when translating one to the other (and I'm talking about code, not text). It's no easy feat and typically involves teams of people.

Not to mention, using half of an old translation and half of an entirely different translation doesn't really sound like a commited effort. And in general, as much as I'd prefer to play the Saturn version, I'd much more like to see an untranslated game get the attention it deserves (and I'd vote for a non-PS translation of Policenauts before Grandia).

[randombullseye]

Shining Force 3 got translated? I'm trying hard not to get into the saturn emulation, but I really, really want Guardian Heroes. Shining Force 3 in english is as good as an excuse as any.

[MrPopo]

Scenario 2 is translated and inserted, but it still needs editing. It's not release quality, but it's fully playable. Scenario 3 is in the middle of translation. A lot of the work was coming up with the tools to insert the script files. You can read about the progress on Shining Force Central.

[Original_Name]

About how many years it took to translate Shining Force III, it's not like I didn't know it would be HARD, I knew that much. But I thought it might make it alot easier since the whole game was like, halfway translated, and if the translation part was the hard part then I could just try and get it started and let other people finish it. But my fears have been absoluted and it is indeed the coding process which is such a bitch.

And yeah, I'd love to see other untranslated games too, like Princess Crown, Nanatsu Kaze No Shima Monogatari, and so on. It's just... I mean, I EXPECT the PlayStation to run something like Grandia, but it always shocks me to see it running on the Saturn. I wish I could play it (as in fully play it) on the Saturn because that shock factor just isn't there when I'm holding a PlayStation pad in my hands instead of a Saturn controller. Plus, being that I was such a fan of Sega back when Grandia was selling millions of copies in Japan and not even getting a limited-print run over here, getting a translation project of it started would help me feel like I'd begun to undo Bernie Stolar's stupid, stupid, STUPID mistakes, even though those mistakes are long unfixable.

[lisalover1]

I posted this exact same topic a few months back, and I got the same response. I really wish I could play the English version of Grandia on my Saturn, but I guess it won't happen any time soon.