Minor Downtime Warning & Ideas

Just wanted to give everyone a heads-up that I'm going to be doing some site maintenance on January 2nd, 2012. The site may be down for a few hours as I make these changes--rest assured this won't happen very often (once a year at most). Just expect a few new couple of things as we head into the new year.

On an unrelated note, what do you guys think of having prize giveaways and/or graphic contests? (I'd say "graphic contest prize giveaways" but that seems a little inclined toward the artistic and I'm not artistic so I can't endorse that :P.) Would you enter if there were such a thing? Just throwing out an idea for fun to keep the Fire Emblem community going, especially to get into gear for the release of Fire Emblem: Awakening (the Japanese 3DS installment coming April 12th, 2012).

Edit: Also, 200,000 hits for a translation blog shows that the people who really enjoy Fire Emblem haven't given up on it! =)

Boring base conversations progress report

As most of you are probably not aware, New Mystery's base conversations are divided in 8 pairs (for male/female My Unit) of files. And those 8 pairs are divided in 3 types of dialogue.

Files 1 and 2 are mostly explanations given by various characters to My Unit about various topics. They mostly feature background info and various hints.

Files 3 and 4 are "support" talks between various characters of the game, like Marth/Caeda, Bantu/Tiki and Paola/Est. Since these don't involve My Unit directly, they're two pairs of identical files.

And finally, files 5 to 8 are My Unit's "support" conversations with pretty much every other playable member of the cast. (Those who have already played the original game probably have an idea of which characters don't get conversations, and why.)

The purpose of this post is to report that the base translation (before proofreading/localization) of those #5-8 files has been finished, which puts us at roughly 50% overall progress... well, actually a little more, but hey. It isn't exactly easy to count.

Expect teasers from Vincent soon! He's going to kill me for saying this

Poll Results Summary

A summary of some recent polls since nothing else is going on publicly (everyone is hard at work behind the scenes):

Fire Emblem 7 and 8 are the most played games, being almost equal. Given Fire Emblem: Sacred Stones' release for the 3DS Ambassador program, FE8 might get a little more playing done for it than FE7. FE9 and FE10 follow a little behind, with FE4 being the most commonly played "old generation" game (i.e. between FE1-5). Unsurprisingly a good portion of people have played FE6 despite it being a Japan-only release due to the long-time existent translation patch for it.

While a majority of people will NOT use the game's online functions, we intend to do whatever we can to make it so people CAN use it in English, to the best of our capability. The poll was close anyway, and we tend to favor doing a good job over a lazier one, so unless the poll said like 90% of people won't use online functions, we'd still end up translating it.

Lastly, Marth and Lyn are the two most wanted Fire Emblem characters in the next Super Smash Bros. game, followed by a good portion of people wanting the return of Ike, with decent support for Hector, Ephraim, Eirika, Roy, and Micaiah (other main characters, really).

Story progress 1

I think it's been good news all around with regards to the translation team. As Blazer mentioned earlier, we've made a major breakthrough in terms of certain graphics... but I'll discuss that at a later date since the subject of this post is to show some progress of Agromono's hard work on the main story : )

Screenshots are from Prologue 2 and 3. As usual, the text is not final.

Wi-Fi Connection Setup Menu Translated

Yay for long blog post titles!

The truth is guys, I failed at getting the graphics into the English ones for the Wi-Fi connection menu. Yup. Thankfully pleonex, the maker of Tinke, is much more capable than me and whipped up a solution for us that he graciously allowed us to use to remedy the old Japanese screen.



The 3rd Screenshot

Also due to some behind-the-scenes epic work from Vincent I think we've solved like 99% of all of our graphical hacking "problems" (as in graphics that we needed to hack but didn't know how so had to find out how--we should be able to hack ALL the graphics now :D).

I could be wrong though, you'll have to wait for Vincent's update for more info. See ya!

EDIT: Since it may not be clear, the in-game wi-fi settings menu is different from the one with the hardware. Thus the in-game one was Japanese and to make it English you had to actually hack the files within the game. Which is what pleonex helped us with. ^_^ Also a shout-out to Auryn for helping out as well (though we ultimately used pleonex's solution).

New kid on the block

Hey there everybody,

I'm not really sure what the write here, but at the behest of the rest of the team I'm writing this post to say hi as your new translator!
VincentASM has put me to work on the script of the main story, so I've been working on the prologue, which has plenty of cheesy dialogue so it's been great to translate. I hope that I can see this project through to the very end, and look forward to the day that we can all play FE12... in English. I probably won't be making very many posts here, but you can be sure that I'll be working hard backstage to make sure this comes to fruition.

Base conversation progress 3

Ahhhh, super-slow internet connection.

It's that time again! TheEnd has been patiently working on the base conversations and we're now 35% complete.

Screenshots:




(NOTE: Text is preliminary and hasn't been finalised. As usual, I've tried my hand at localising the text. However we now have a team of localisers who will hopefully do a better job than me, although this text is hot off the press so they haven't had time to touch it.)

In other news, a new translator has graced us with their presence and soon we may be able to post progress of Prologue 2. Dun dun dun!

Online functions...?

A couple of things are going on behind the scenes, including somebody undergoing a gruelling ordeal from TheEnd. Meanwhile I'm busy playing Skyward Sword... Er, and working on the online text.

Which brings me to an important question. I'd like to know, is anybody actually planning on using the online functions (eg. multiplayer battles, online shop, loaning units, etc.) in conjunction with the translation patch? You can send a response by voting in the latest poll (to the top right) and/or by replying to this post.

I haven't looked up the state of DS emulation, but I have doubts that online support is well supported and I'm not sure how many people have a flashcard to play the patch on an actual DS system.

Progress report - Tutorials

It's been a while since I did anything major, so I figured I'd tie up another loose end and complete the tutorial translations. Since there's been some important news recently (keep scrolling down), I'll just link the screenshots so this post doesn't take up too much space.

Screenshots:
001 - 002 - 003 - 004
(NOTE: You may notice some Japanese text still present- these are all graphics, so they'll be changed later. Probably much later, now that Zak has quit the team ^^;;;)
(NOTE2: I also left a small joke in one of the screenshots.)

I think the last menu-related text that needs to be translated are the online-related stuff. Not long until I'm done with this particular job!

Zak's Farewell

Hi everybody,

Zak here with some unfortunate news. I'll be leaving the translation team due to my own personal work and commitments. I worked on the graphics side of things for a little while, but can't really continue due to other priorities.

However, I'm 100% confident this project will see completion, as the team behind it are all talented and wonderful individuals.

To save Blazer some hassle, please use this blog post to apply for the newly opened Graphics Manipulation position. If you've got some skill or experience with Photoshop or any other image manip software, please comment below with your email address and Blazer will get in touch.

Regards,
Zak

Proofreader Search Complete; Translator Search In-Progress

See post below for translator search details.

The search for proofreaders and "localizers" is complete. I am not taking in any more applications. If you did not get a response to your application but you sent one please forward the e-mail you sent to me back to me--but I will not accept any late proofreaders as I already have enough and will only look at an application if I accidentally didn't give it a fair chance like the rest of them before the deadline ended.

Thanks to everyone who volunteered. It may not seem like it but the whole team appreciates the enthusiasm of people to help make this project go as fast and smooth as possible while still keeping it professional.

Last but not least, if anyone has a suggestion for a new poll, knock yourselves out--I'm all out of ideas and am not in the mood to invent a filler poll. XP

Translator Search #2

We're not translating at the speed we'd like, to say the least. Thus I'm starting up my search for translators again. We need a Japanese to English translator with a good amount of experience and time, preferably 8 hours a week at minimum, though the more the merrier. If you are one or know anyone who could help us translate, please tell us, noting that there will be proofers and localizers to make the process as easy as possible for the translators. Also if we can get more than one more translator (I'd like a total of 4 and we have 2) that would be the best--just throwing that out there because most of the time I only expect 1-2 translators to actually be available and working. XP

Thank you for your time and have a great day!

Base Conversation & Misc. Progress Display

Shows graphics and base convos (betas) in action. Description says:

"Please read the opening messages. Please do not report mistakes in the scripts yet. They are being worked on, wait until we've gone through and fully proofed them first before reporting them.

Note that this is just a progress display to show some things like the graphics, base conversations, and general stuff. I meant to show at the end that a dialog bug was fixed but I accidentally hit enter, so meh, whatever."

Take that into mind; please don't comment on the proofing yet, we know it has tons of errors. However we need some motivation and that includes us posting progress which gives us a false sense of accomplishment. XD



Special thanks to TheEnd and Zak for all their hard work on translating and graphic editing respectively. I can't give them enough props. There's also NomadicTrooperGirl who has also helped with graphics and proofing. And everyone knows VincentASM is doing awesome stuff 24/7. Arch and I are just losers... I just update and manage shit and occasionally do some hacking now adays...

EDIT: Potential localizers should be receiving an e-mail or PM later today. Sorry for the delay, we're just finishing off the application. XP

EDIT2: The e-mail has been sent. If you did not receive it or want to sign up anyway, please post your e-mail, as it is not too late. See the added note a couple posts down for more information. Thank you.

EDIT3: Sorry for all the edits I've been hard at work haha, I updated the screenshots and videos page to reflect some more progress our personal version of the patch has made, even if it's not in the current download...

Patience on Localization Contact

Have patience on being contacted about becoming a localization editor. It is not a small thing. Please do not ask when you are going to get e-mailed or PM'd or anything, everything should be revealed by the end of the week assuming preparations follow schedule. All I ask is that you continue to wait quietly. You have not been forgotten, I am simply not ready for the process to begin. When I do begin I have to commit myself and be prepared and I am not ready. Thanks to everyone who has had said patience.

P.S. We are using an American localization. You're free to discuss the localizing between yourselves but please refrain from questioning any of the teammates about how we're going about this. It will all be answered soon. Thank you and have a great week--hopefully you'll hear more from us later!

EDIT: I've just completed the rough draft of the e-mail you will be getting. It is currently undergoing approval and should be verified by tomorrow or Wednesday at the latest (EST). Thank you for your continued patience.

Base conversation progress 2

It's been a month and a bit since the last progress report. Right now, progress on the base conversations is around 22%, thanks to TheEnd who has regularly put in much time and effort while working on this task!

Anyway, more images... As before, these screenshots are for illustrative purposes only (I've tentatively tried my hand at localising the text, but that's not my job).

This post has been hacked by Blazer to inform you that we are doing a strict search for professional proofers and localized well-versed in English language, especially dialog. If you think you can help, just post your email or a link to your profile on Serenes Forest forums if you have one. Don't be too afraid though, as we'll be testing first to see if you're cut out for the job, so if you aren't sure try anyway! :D

Rounding up the Final Technicalities...

We're on a roll--with some more advice from Nagato I managed to fix a problem that limited the length of text entries, which would cut text from appearing if a dialog was too long. The new limit should be MORE than enough for any entry, and well, although I can't exactly show anything since it's a technical hacking matter, it's good news nonetheless.

This just leaves a couple more graphical problems and possibly a couple other random miscellaneous things before we don't have any new things to "solve" and it just becomes a matter of straight-up translating.

And since some people have asked how the main story progress is going, the truth is, our translator's "AFK"... i.e. he's busy and it seems like with just him we won't go as fast as we want to. But I'm totally not suggesting that we need another translator to help speed up the process or anything. :P I think if anything he needs some motivation, so send a word out to Snow and wish him best of luck in taking some precious time out for this community service. ^_^

The Dictionary

With some expert advice from Nagato, who worked on the now-completed Nanashi no Game fan translation, we've managed to solve another technical issue, this time related to the in-game dictionary (guide).

Originally, we were struggling to figure out how to rename the symbols on the category sorting page, but as the first image shows, that is no longer an issue.



The other images just show some other basic progress. Before anybody asks, the names in the second image haven't been alphabetically sorted yet- this is easy, but I'd rather wait until finalising all the names before I start sorting them!

Additionally, the last screenshot still has a lot of Japanese left- those are all graphics, so we have to manually edit them and thus they'll be done later/last.

Supports vs. Base Conversation Deadlock

Wooh! That poll is SO close. Almost everytime I check the amount of votes are within 2 of each other, if not the same #/%. It's crazy intense--but with that being said, which do you think is really better, and why? Do you prefer them to be in-battle and take-up turns or be part of a menu and be outside of the battle?

Oh and since I know I'm supposed to be talking about the translation, progress is going well. We're almost 12.5% done with base conversations already. Snow is Slow (he's the other translator who does the main dialog) but I'll get his ass rolling eventually whether he likes it or not. *wink* Graphics have sort of taken a halt as Zak and Arch are busy and I am waiting for them BUT there's not much left to do in that department so don't let it bother you, PROGRESS IS GOOD. ^_^

Here comes a new cha... I mean, member.

Blazer told me to make an introduction post here, so... yeah.

As Vincent announced a few days ago, I've joined the group as an assistant translator. Hopefully I'll be of assistance in the noble task of translating this beautiful remake.

Don't expect to see me posting updates here (though others may or may not do it in my stead), but rest assured that I'll be working slowly and steadily behind the scenes, one support a day.

Base conversation progress 1

As Blazer mentioned just a while ago, we've added a new translator to the team. This person is none other than TheEnd, who's no stranger to the fan translation scene; Fire Emblem fans may recognise him as the translator of the Hasha no Tsurugi manga. Here's what they had to say about their new job:

"Some people thought the addition of My Unit would ruin the story.

They were wrong."

If the clue wasn't immediately obvious, TheEnd will be helping us by translating the newly-added base conversations. There are a total of 366 (lengthy) conversations in all, so it's no easy task. However, having completed not one but two (and a bit) manga scanlations (one of which contained 12 volumes), I'm sure he will be a huge help to the project!

Also, images... By the way, these screenshots are for illustrative purposes only and the text has not been finalised (I tried my best to localise some of the lines, but this kind of work isn't really my forte. Arch, where you!?).

Yes, we're alive

We're alive, and kicking. No worries. This will take a while though. When we have something worth showing we'll show it. In the mean time, sit back and enjoy life. Just a heads-up before people get cranky since we know we haven't been updating a whole lot. Unfortunately everyone on the team has a life. ^_^

Oh and we've hired a new translator. He'll say hi sooner than later, I think. You'll like him. He's pro. Super pro. Yes. Pro.

NEW FIRE EMBLEM 3DS!!!

Hey guys, remember that poll to the right that I actually still haven't taken down in honor of this moment?

Well that's right guys. There actually IS a new Fire Emblem for the 3DS. It's the system you guys wanted the most, funny enough. And while I didn't want to say anything and end up being wrong, I had a good feeling a Fire Emblem game for the 3DS would come out, and I remember reading somewhere that VincentASM (one of the team members and owner of Serenes Forest) had that same feeling. The point being that we've been anticipating something new for a while, and it's finally come!

I'd put all the details here but there are far too many and this is technically a Fire Emblem 12 blog, so instead I'll link you to the greatest Fire Emblem resource ever.

http://www.serenesforest.net/

If you want to keep up with news, this site has everything. Seriously. My sites are always 500 steps behind this one and no general gaming site will have every single little thing you could want to know about this game like SF does. :D

Post what you think and what else you want to see etc... and let's all be positive and hope this game ends up awesome and comes out in North America and Europe!!!

A New Member Has Appeared...

I joined the team recently as a graphical assistant and I'd just like to say "Hi!" to everyone and to show some progress. Zak did the english version of this "Multiplayer Battles" background image and then I helped to insert it into the game.

...hey, this whole screenshot is in english now! Doesn't that look cool?

Vergil Wins with a Landslide!

Garnering 67% of 521 votes cast, it looks like Vergil has won with an outstanding margin! To put things in perspective, Vergil collected 3 times as many votes as its nearest challenger, Belves, and twice the votes of both challenges combined.

With such a landslide victory, it looks like Vergil will become the project's very first official outright name change. Goodbye, Belf, your name shall hardly be missed.

Stay tuned as we continue to ask for fan input. We've still got names to decide, so keep an eye for a new poll in the coming days.

More Menus

Zak and I have been working our butts off, rest assured, Zak has done an incredible job with these menus IMO, the crap he has to deal with is pretty hard but he manages fine every time. Just gotta give my props to him. :)




Just a notice, most of the team is busy due to school/college/personal issues/whatever, progress isn't going to be as fast as it was during the rest of the summer. In fact I can't think of a member who isn't busy right now so you guys are just going to have to be patient.

Oh and we are looking for an extra translator to help lighten the load of Snow, our main dialog translator. Please e-mail me directly at smashfire17@gmail.com if you'd like to help and have plenty of experience and time, or know someone that does. Thank you.

Until next time~

EDIT: Before anyone asks again, the title text at the top of each screenshot WILL be translated, just not at the moment. We just do things as we can, so we'll get to everything when we do. The title logo on the other hand might not be translated due to various complications... can't say for sure at the moment though...