The patch is fully complete. 1.1.0 should be the final version, unless critical issues pop up.
What's next:
Check out my SEQUEL colony translation thread. Or don't.
Latest patch version's (1.1.0) download:
You must be registered to see the links
Older versions:
You must be registered to see the links
This patch is for game version 1.10, which is the latest one. Compatibility with earlier game versions is not guaranteed. Save games between versions of the translation patch are compatible.
Please use the guide found in the "How to Apply a Partial" thread to install the patch to your (perfectly legally acquired, I'm sure) copy of the game.
Shit, well take all the time you need but I really love your work, and I want to experience the full trilogy with your translations.
Also nice job and thanks for this one.
Also, even if a formal english translation comes out, a lot of times it sucks the personality out of it. I remember MGQ and Sengoku Rance and how I far preferred the amateur work to the professional. Also, I'm not just saying that to make ya feel better. I mean it.
Still going through the game, but I noticed two things to point out.
From one of Nazuna's conversation events, on the second line "she has can't", I think the has is stray.
From one of Nosh's conversation events. I believe the code that refers to the player's name was put in improperly here.
Also, the game is amazing, and so is the translation, so I'll get back to it.
You should ask those things in the game thread (linked in the op), but you're probably supposed to go somewhere else now (if you haven't gotten the event that asks you to go to the ghost town).
Edit: Also, since I'm already posting, there is another mistake I noticed:
It should say that it grants ice attacks, not fire.
Currently making my way through the postgame, and I have three more things to point out.
The text says it increases Atk, but from the status gains I think it should be Matk.
There are also two problems with the battle text. one being a lack of a space in Sheila's Whirwind Rend skill, and the other being that the second line after the use of Lec's Hasten Command skill is fully in japanese. Edit: I believe the second one may be in the States text, since it is pretty much saying "X has been hastened!"
Also, I've racked up over 26 hours of playtime in only two days and a quarter. I'll probably take it easy for a bit. But I've posted a question on the game thread, and I'd like sub-par to take a look just to make sure that my problem isn't related to the translation.
Thank you both for pointing out the errors. As for Arenara's question in the game thread, it's indeed a patch issue. I copypasted the wrong line and the hint should say "entering Alma's room during the day" instead of "spending time by yourself in your room". Sorry about that. Right now, my list of issues is looking like this:
TYPO: extra "has" in the line: but apparently she has can't avoid having times
TYPO: no "\" in "\N[21]" on line So you're here too, N[21].
TYPO: Clar's skill Coldmight grants ice attacks but claims to grant fire attacks
TYPO: Nosh's skills Mind Shell, Aurora Veil, and Magic Curtain claim to increase MAT but actually increase MDF
TYPO: Sheila's skill Wicked Whirlwind Rend has no space before the use message
ISSUE: (postgame content) Beryl has perpetual youth and immortality, but only the perpetual youth part gets mentioned in the translation
ISSUE: the "talk" option when talking to the magician in the forest hut is left untranslated
ISSUE: Alma's 1st scene variation 2 should have "entering Alma's room..." instead of "spending time by yourself..."
ISSUE: Sheila's 1st scene variation 2 should have "entering Sheila's room..." instead of nothing
ISSUE: Face-Sealing Bead uses wrong special effect ATK instead of MAT? (the +1 version probably has the same issue, but I haven't checked)
ISSUE: Auto conversation mode message オート会話 is left in japanese
ISSUE: Lec's two action speed modifying skills' effect text isn't translated
In addition, there is a small but important consistency fix I need to do which relates to where SEQUEL colony takes place. This gets revealed right away in the intro sequence so it's not much of a spoiler, but some may still want to avoid it.
SEQUEL colony takes place on Schisma, which is called the "country of insects" 蟲の国. The problem is that it uses the archaic character 蟲 'insect' instead of the standard 虫. Somehow, I've lucked into using "bug" pretty much everywhere else where the games use 虫.
The problem with "insect" is that it's a common English word. The word 蟲 isn't, and it's strongly associated with Schisma. If I strongly associate "insect" with Schisma, I'm going to end up with cases where I want to use "insect" for something else, but can't or it'll be confusing. There are two ways to solve this.
First would be to use a capitalized noun: refer to them as Insects with a capital i. I'm not a huge fan of this idea, since it falls into the young adult novel style capitalization of Words to make things sound Cool and Important. In addition, it's still rather close to insect without a capital i, and there's a Blighted Insect in SEQUEL blight which I would prefer not to have to patch it again.
Second would be to use a different word: the ones I've thought of this far are "pest" and "vermin". I'm leaning towards "pest" for being short and sweet. It's also far enough from commonly used words that there likely won't be any conflicts.
Anyway, I'm leaning towards "pest", non-capitalized. But if you have any other good ideas (or bad ideas), feel free to voice them. In spoiler tags please, to respect anyone who wants to go in the game 100% blind.
Yes, you can take this as admission that I want to translate colony too.
Since "蟲" is archaic, you could use an analogous etymological root language to English; instead of Modern English, use Middle English, i.e. budde (beetle) or bugge (goblin, scary thing), or bogey/bogle (similar to bugge, and could let you use "bogeyman/men" to refer to any residents of the area).
The greek word for insect, Entomon, sounds pretty cool if you were using it to refer to a race of monsters. Or just make up your own term like Entomites or Insectids or something.
And so, I've defeated the Trancendent now, which means it is time for more things:
From the scene at the top of Floating City Karm, the first letter lacks capitalization.
The text of the Piercing Spell weapon skill should say it reduces MDF.
I did notice some small grammar and spelling mistakes along the way, but you already have the most glaring ones listed previously. The thing I'm most impressed with is how you managed to maintain that unique sequel game feel. Even though the blight and awake games feature different characters, I felt right at home. Small details like the text box dialogue between characters honestly had a bigger impact on me than the actual main story dialogue. I'm not sure if you took extra care in translating those small side conversations but the flow was very good.
Looking forward to your future patches. Time to grind out this postgame
I'm not sure why this is in a spoiler. But I guess I'll keep my answer in a spoiler too, if people feel they're better off not knowing the dirty details of smarrel.
First question: anyway you like. I would personally pronounce it /'smæɹəl/, but if your regional dialect has a differently pronounced a in smashed and barrel, you're going to have to cope with it.
Second question: I answered this in the thread, but here's the relevant part: Originally, Rabi says われたる。It is a portmanteau of われた [wareta] 'split, cracked, broken, smashed' and たる [taru] 'barrel'. Spelling everything out in kanji kind of ruins the joke, but if you wanted to do it anyways, it would be 割れ樽. The gag works easily in Japanese, because the simple past tense suffix is -ta and barrel begins with ta-. Unfortunately, this isn't the case in English, so compromises had to be made.
I didn't really explicate on what the compromises were, so I'll do it here. Technically, if you discount the gag, it would be most accurate to have the line be "a split barrel", as 割れる is closer to the connotation of a thing neatly going into two pieces rather than a bunch of pieces or even a powder like "smashed" implies. But "splirrel" just doesn't feel right because the i is a near-close vowel while the a is a near-open one.
If you'd like, I can go to full detail about all the smarrel-likes, but be warned that it may cause them to lose their mystique.
The Smawolfie is a different species to the smarrel. The resemblance is an unfortunate conclusion of translation decisions. Here comes a big explanation, because there's nothing more I like than going into painful detail about little things.
Originally, the monster's name was コウルフー [kourufuu]. While some monster names are apparent gibberish, (for example: Olnishia were originally オルニシア [orunishia], which bears no resemblance to anything as far as I can tell) some names have meaning that can be gleaned from them. In these cases, it would do the game a disfavor to try and construct a name with English phonetics that keeps the pronunciation similar. As the meaning would be lost on an English reader. The Smawolfie is one case.
The most reasonable way to parse the name is ko+urufu+u, where the ko is likely a standin for the kanji 小 'small'. This is evidenced by the monster log entry where its characteristic small size is pointed out. The middle part of urufu is an anglicism: 'wolf'. The vowel is then extended. Reconstructing the monster's name with this information would then leave us with "Small Woolf". However, this name has the following problems, in order of importance:
It's pretty stupid and sounds much less fantasy-ish than the original.
It leaves the player asking where the regular Woolf or the Big Woolf are, neither of which are actual monsters.
In the original name it was the last vowel that was extended, but we had to extend the middle one here because it was the only one in the english 'wolf'.
The first problem is quite bad, and there's not really a way around it when you use two very common words like that. So, I invented the prefix "sma", hoping that's enough to carry the "small" aspect of name and jammed it into the front. "Smawoolf" would have done the job, but I decided to prioritize the idea of having the name end in a long vowel instead of having a vowel of the word 'wolf' lengthened.
You may then ask, "but wait, sub-par. You have a monster called Little Howler. How does that not have the same first two problems," and I'll tell you. It's because the whole name was an anglicism to begin with: リトルハウルー [ritoruhauruu] ie. ritoru+hauru+u, 'little+howl+extension'. This time I went with an -er instead of an -ie because it's close enough and gets there.
Of course, this is not perfect translation practice as a lot of the loaned English words are there for mostly the 'cool foreign' factor, but whatcha gonna do. I really don't want to bumble around with Latin as I don't speak it. I described this problem a little more in the patch readme file under the subtitle "About skill name translations".
Re:colony
Thank you for the input, but I think I'm going to have to settle with "pest". I'll explain when the time comes.
And thank you for pointing out the Piercing Spell and the transcendent thing.
