Translating Assault Suit Leynos 2

[Original_Name]

Hey there everybody, it's been a while!

A few months ago there was some buzz on the boards about starting a translation project for the Sega Saturn. Assault Suit Leynos 2 [a game I am terrible at] and Tengai Makyou IV: The Apocalypse [a game that's a little bit too long for me at my current pace] were the top candidates. The thread sort of meandered for a bit, but I think that going ahead and providing transcriptions of the original in-game text, then offering rough translations and refining them as I go along (and slowly improve my Japanese skills) would be a great way to kick-start a full translation project or at the very least produce a handy FAQ.

Furthermore, I am using this more as an opportunity to hone my Japanese skills. I know that there are a few members on this boards who are also learning the language or speak it fluently, so I openly invite you guys to help out and/or give me pointers. I want to update my progress frequently in order to get the best possible help with the translation, and because as someone waiting for translations of Segagaga and Rent A Hero I know very personally how frustrating it can be to wait on translators who do not have a transparent process, not knowing if they're even working on the translation or not.

Anyone interested from the Saturn Translation Project thread feel free to join me, but let's correspond with each other so that we don't accidentally end up stepping on each other's toes. My goal is to transcribe and roughly translate the dialogue from the first mission by the end of the weekend. Since I'm an absolute joke at this game, I can't really look into the intricacies of the menu in later levels and with secrets unlocked, but I will gladly translate everything in the first level menu as soon as I'm done with the dialogue.

I've posted this in a couple of relevant threads, but I don't want to keep bogging them down with frequent updates, so I'll shift to this thread to record my progress now. This is only my second day on the job, so I don't have a lot, but here's what I've got so far:

A.D.2120

人口増加による
食糧難が深刻化

植民地間で
テラフォーム紛争勃発

コロニーサイド、
移住計画案 自紙撤回



A.D.2121

コロニー[RIF] 独立宣言



A.D.2122

各地で領土問題による
紛争が多発

各国の崩壊、分裂進む



A.D.2123

ゼネス連邦首相暗殺

サンラール、ゼネス連邦、
全面戦争へ突入



A.D.2124

そして現在……

------------

For a quick and dirty run-down, in 2120 population growth lead to mass food shortages. Among the colonies, a dispute over "Terraform" broke out. On the colony side, their immigration papers start to be revoked. In 2121, the [RIF] Colony drafted their declaration of independence. In 2122, resultant territorial disputes caused conflicts everywhere, causing the nation to collapse and divisions to deepen. In 2123, the prime minister of the "Zenesu" (I believe this is meant to translate to "Zenith") Federation is assassinated. The Zenith and "Sanraaru" (trying to figure out loan word this is meant to be) Federations rush to all out-war. 2124: "And now..."

This is extremely rough, and it's a bit tricky due to the grammatical sparsity and lack of contextual clues -- I'll work on it and try to get opinions from people (including those of you on the boards who are better at Japanese than I), and turn it into something solid as I go along. The opening cutscene would be extremely easy to edit into English given that all the CG video is exclusively on the left side of the screen, and all of the scrolling text is on the right side on a black background. All we would need to do this effectively is take the video file, edit a black bar on the right side of the screen, and insert our own English scrolling text over it. Of course, I could imagine that even extracting the video could be difficult knowing how Saturn programming can be.

Select Set Up Disk text:

起動するディスクを選んで下さい

[Please select a disk to launch]

Mission 1 preliminary text:

俺たちの最初の仕事は森林地帯に
潜んでいる敵遊撃部隊を一掃する
事だ。 情報によると大した敵はい
ないらしい。

ま、久しぶりの実戦だからな、 肩
慣らしにはもってこいだぜ。

Rough: Our first job is to wipe out the enemy guerrilla forces lurking in the woodlands. According to our data, there does not seem to be many enemies.

Also, because of the long period without actual fighting, this is ideal for a warm-up.

Mission 1:

森林地帯潜んでいる敵残存兵力を一掃せよ

Rough: You must wipe out the wipe out the remaining enemy forces in the woodlands.

[marurun]

Very good idea, sir. As the translation is tweaked, we should also crowdsource editing. The best translations are not merely transliterations (I used to feel exactly the opposite, but I've come around), but almost akin to rewrites in crafting the use of language to preserve the important elements and streamline or supplant the unimportant elements (mostly structural or overly culture-bound).

[bacardipr05]

I actually never heard of this game until a old thread popped up. Im assuming it must be a good game?

[marurun]

An awesome game. It is in the same series as Target Earth on Genesis and Cybernator on SNES.

[bacardipr05]

have to put it on my check it out list Marrurun

[Original_Name]

marurun,

Great ideas, man! When the time comes I will call on you to help me out with that sort of stuff! Also, I saw your response in the other thread, I'll definitely send him a PM.

Sorry I've fallen short of my deadline, by the way. My sister's legally blind friend's brother went on a rampage a couple states over and she needed a ride over there late last night when I would've otherwise been doing the translation. Can't make this stuff up. Should have time to finish up the first mission tonight.

bacardi,

It's been a sort of Racketboy favorite for a long time. I think most of the members here joined because of the ~*real Racketboy's*~ retro gaming articles, and he featured Assault Suit Leynos 2 a couple of times in hidden gems articles and the like. The game has a good reputation amongst Saturn gamers in general, but I think people around here are particularly fond of it. As I said in the original post, I am awful at this game, but it's a high-quality game that has that great Sega home-ified arcade feel, and that seems to be well within my range for a translation project. If this goes well, there were lots of folks insisting on a Tengai Makyou IV: The Apocalypse translation -- personally, I think Princess Crown would be the best way to go, considering how big Vanillaware has gotten with Odin Sphere, Muramasa, and Dragon's Crown and that with their more recent Japanese-only PSP port we could garner interest and assistance from the PSP scene... but all of that is way off in the future.

[bacardipr05]

I youtubed it my first thought was it had a metal slug vibe to it. I then looked at a Racketboy article that said most people says it Metal Slug with Mechs...

[marurun]

Well, maybe. I think that comparison is a little off. Leynos is slower. Your mech feels heavy and has inertia that other run n' guns don't have. Also, since it is much harder to avoid getting hit, you have a life bar and various other defensive strategies.

[Original_Name]

Sorry about the delay, everyone. Someone's hacked my wireless connection and my bandwidth ratcheted up like crazy. It actually got so close to the limit that I just had to stay off the Internet entirely. Anyway, here's the dialogue for level one:

Stage 1 Intro Dialogue:

ジョージ：そろそろ作戦ポイントだ。みんな準備はいいか。
エディー：いつでもどうぞ。しかし、はみ出し者の俺たちに大統領直々の特命とはねえ。頼りにされてるってわけだ。なあ、カイル。
カイル：どうだかな。
マリア：どうせ困った時だけでしょ。
[ジョージ：]まあそうぼやくな。日頃の態度はともかく、おまえたちの能力を高く評価しているからこそ、この作戦を命じられたのだ。
ドルフ：俺は誰の命令だろうと関係ねえ。思いっきり暴れられればな。
[マリア：]あんたは単純でいいわね。
オペレーター：オペレーター：降下ポイントに到着しました。
[ジョージ：]よし、作戦を開始する。全機降下せよ。
[マリア：]お先に、皆さん！
[ドルフ：]気の早い女だぜ。
[エディー：]それじゃ我々も行きますか。
[カイル：]しょうがねぇな… 行くか！！

Stage 1 During:

[カイル：]どうせやるんだったら派手に暴れてやるぜ！！
[エディー：]大した敵はいないぜ。
[マリア：]油断は禁物よ。
[マリア：]誰か上のうるさい奴を何とかしてよ。
[ドルフ：]俺がやる。まかせとけ。
[エディー：]なんだ。もう音を上げたのか、マリア。
[マリア：]うるさいわね。けんか売ってんの。
[エディー：]おーこわ。
[エディー：]いくら倒してもきりがねえな。
[カイル：]よしエディー、ザコはまかせた。俺は先へいくからな。
[エディー：]あ、きったねー。自分だけおいしいとこ持ってちゃう気かよ。
[ドルフ：]おい、敵が逃げていくぞ。俺たちに恐れをなしたか。
[エディー：]もう終わり?口ほどにもねえな。
[マリア：]なに？このレーダー反応… みんな、強敵が来たわよ。NN-3型バズラム機甲戦車！
[エディー：]おいおい、なんでこんなとこに"ゾウガメ"がいるんだよ。
[マリア：]重戦車が相手じゃ分が悪いわね。どうする？
[カイル：]相手が何だろうと、やるしかねえだろ。
[マリア：]そうこなくっちゃ。
[ドルフ：]おまえならそう言うと思ったぜ。俺は最初からやるつもりだったけどよ。
[エディー：]まったく、どいつもこいつもいい度胸してるぜ。
[ドルフ：]もうぶっ壊れちまいやがった！うおおおおぉっ、物足りねぇ！！
[エディー：]みんな乱暴者が吠えてるぞー。
[カイル：]お楽しみはこれからだぜ、ドルフ。

[Original_Name]

Quick update:

I've been basically barred from using my PC for the past week or so due to a nasty, nasty virus. I'm in the process of backing up files so that I can reformat, so I'll be able to pick this back up once that's all dealt with. Sorry for the delay, folks!