Thanks to Kingcom’s hard work, I’m proud to announce the return of a beloved feature of the Tales of Phantasia translation - the selector. However, this selector will go far beyond what Tales of Phantasia’s did. As many of you know, ToP’s selector would appear every time the game was booted and ask the player to choose between two options - Translated or Romanized. However, we have added a third option for Tales of Innocence - Namco!

Namco Features

• Gel instead of Gummi
• Cape instead of Mantle
• Magic Lens instead of Spectacles
• All Artes will conform to (or be translated in the style of) the US standards

Additionally, unlike Tales of Phantasia where the option had to be selected every time the game started, Tales of Innocence will store the data in the options menu, where it can be changed like any other option at any point during the game. And perhaps most impressively, the data will be stored in your save data, so once you have set it up, you may never have to think about it again.

This is what I meant when I said that we were doing our best to please everyone! Now fans of Namco Hometek localization, translation, and of romanization can all find things made just for them in the same translation! We hope that this kind of selector will become a standard among Tales translations and game translations in general. It gives the player just what a game should give them - options. We’re proud to bring you this option and hope that you will enjoy the game no matter how you choose to play it!

This is unrelated to game translation, but it’s something that I definitely wanted to post about.  A friend of mine who goes by the name of Hisoka runs a blog known as the one and only:

Lakamida Laboratory

He only updates on occasion, but he recently made an update that I truly feel is worth spreading the word about. He currently has two posts, but they really show his dedication to seeking lakamidas wherever they may be.  For those of you with any kind of interest in anime, I highly suggest that you check out his site. He currently has two substantial posts, one focusing on Touch and the other on Maison Ikkoku.

What my friend does is that as he’s watching the show, he picks out some of those little details that many might overlook while viewing.  However, more than just that, he counts how many time certain common events occur throughout the course of these classic anime series. This might seem like no big deal until you see the sorts of things that he’s counting. Do you know how many times each door is opened at the Ikkoku-kan? Do you know how many pitches Tatsuya throws?

These are the kinds of facts that I guarantee that you won’t find anywhere else. If you’ve got a minute, head over to his blog and take a look at what he has up there, I don’t think you’ll be disappointed.

With the menu translation marching onward, we wanted to share a few more screens with you guys. You will notice, of course, that the names have been adjusted as promised.

Questions or comments?

First and foremost, I need everyone to make note of something very important. The person hacking this game is NOT Gemini (who I worked with on Tales of Phantasia). Gemini is currently busy with Persona 2.

Kingcom (or KC as I have referred to him in the past) is the one hacking for this project.

I know that a lot of people here are familiar with the work that Gemini and I did, so I’m glad that when people refer to “that group who did ToP” it’s usually in a good light. However, it drives me crazy to know how much work Kingcom is putting into hacking this game only to have Gemini get credit for it. Both of these guys are absolutely incredible hackers and they’re both very worthy of your praise and thanks, but let’s make an effort to give credit where credit is due. Thanks.

———————————————————-

So, with a fair number of votes in, I’m ready to settle on some names. If you would still like to cast a vote, the poll is still available at http://zettaizero.questionform.com/public/Innocence1. So, these should be the final names barring some kind of strong objection or huge swing in the votes. Most people seemed to agree with my choice of Luca and Asura, but Ilia was strongly rejected, so we’ve gone back to Iria. Also, Chitose no longer has an X in her name, so that’s great.

Luca Milda

Iria Animi

Spada Belforma

Ricardo Soldato

Hermana Larmo

Ange Serena

Asura

Inanna

Durandal

Orifiel

Himmel

Coda

Mathias

Chitose Charma

Hasta Extermi

Gardel

Sian Tenebro

Albert Grandioza

Oswald von Cruella

Translation and hacking are both progressing nicely. We do have other screenshots to show, but we don’t want to burn you guys out on them, especially until naming conventions are sorted out. As always, feel free to leave comments. I’m sure I’ll be hearing from those in the minority who voted for “Ruca” whether I like it or not. ^_^

——————————————————————

——————————————————————

Attention all!  Please visit the following link and submit your preferences there!

This will make life much easier on me!

http://zettaizero.questionform.com/public/Innocence1

——————————————————————

——————————————————————

All right, I knew this would come up, but I was hoping I would have a little while longer before it did. There are, technically, “official” names for the characters in Tales of Innocence. They were created by Namdai Japan, so keep in mind that they do not represent the only possible translation. Names are works of interpretation. However, I am not doing this project for just myself, and as such, I want to ask for the input of those who will actually play the game. Therefore, I will be providing a short name list. I will include both Namco’s official names and what I would prefer. Anyone interested in helping to make this decision, please post a comment with your preferences below. Those in bold are the only ones that have changes or possible changes, so if you have an opinion on them, please comment below.

Ruca Milda (th413: Luca Milda)

Iria Amini (th413: Ilia Amini)

Spada Belforma

Ricardo Soldato

Hermana Larmo

Ange Serena

Asras (th413: Asura)

Inanna

Durandal

Orifiel

Himmel

Coda

Mathias

Thitose Cxarma (th413: Chitose Chalma [LAST NAME?])

Hasta Ekstermi (th413: Hasta Extermi)

Gardle

Sian Tenebro

Albert Grandeioza (th413: Albert Grandiosa)

Oswald fan Kuruela (th413: Oswald van Cruella)

Note that some of these were made up on the fly, so if you have a suggestion for a name other than what I posted, please feel free to comment.

Also, you can feel free to comment on the usage of Gel vs. Gummi, Magic Lens vs. Spectacles, and whatever else might be lingering in the back of your mind.

That’s right, a project to translate 2007’s Nintendo DS title Tales of Innocence is officially under way! The project is a collaboration between myself and KC (whom I met on the Romhacking.net forums). You may know him from his work on some of the portable titles in the Super Robot Wars series (and if you don’t, it’s never too late to get acquainted). I was first contacted by KC on July 8th, this project officially began on July 9th, 2008.

Tales fans have been patiently waiting and hoping for an official announcement for ToI, but sadly, it looks like that day may never come. We believe that Tales of Innocence had all the makings to be a big success outside of Japan. However, with the development of newer games (including the upcoming Tales of Hearts for the DS) and the localization staff already working on Tales of Symphonia’s spinoff sequel and Tales of Vesperia, we believe it is unlikely that Tales of Innocence will ever see the light of day.

Tales of Innocence has many of the features that Tales fans both old and new have come to enjoy:

• A 3D battle system that follows in Abyss’ footsteps (Free Running!)
• Voiced Dialogue
• Voiced Skits
• Not Sucking (Never Before Available on the DS!)

So how are we going about this? Unlike my translation of Tales of Phantasia, I have decided to give in a little and use the official localized names for many of the series features. Namco has made efforts with recent games to create a standard and recognizable set of terms for their series, which I will respect. This means that I will be using Artes, Magic Lens, and many of the enemy names will be taken from Tales of the Abyss and Radiant Mythology.

However, I’m still sticking to some of my guns. Gummi shall remain Gummi. Shūsōraizan, the technique often translated as “Lightning Tiger Blade” will be the same as it was in Phantasia, “Thunder Claw”. “Grave”, the earth spell that strikes the enemy with spears of rock, will still be translated correctly as “Glaive”. This method allows me to give credit where it is due, gives fans the familiar Arte names that have been in use since Symphonia, and still gives me the freedom to add my personal touch to the Tales series.

Our translation is being tested on both emulators (primarily no$gba) and on real hardware using flash carts. Menu translation is currently at about 50%. Battle specific text is 100% complete. Skit and Event translation has not yet started, but I don’t think it will be all that long before we get started on it. KC has made things really easy on me and I look forward to continuing to work with him going forward.

We’re proud to be bringing you some of the freshest and best that the Tales series has to offer. I hope you continue to check back here, as my blog will once again be the home of the project. Any updates I post elsewhere will almost always be posted here first. Screenshots will also be available as part of the ongoing updates, though we will likely save most of the menu shots for the long lull that must occur while I translate the main script. With no further ado, allow me to present to you just a taste of what we have produced in less than one week:

Please leave us some comments and help us spread the word!

Related Links:

Romhacking Aerie (Annoucement)

Yes, I’m sorry, it’s another teaser.  Many people (?) have been waiting to hear about my current Tales translation project.  Well, I’m not ready to announce the previously mentioned project, but I DO have something to announce.  I have begun work on translating a SECOND Tales game.  That’s right, there are active projects on two of the remaining untranslated Tales games.

Project 1, which was previously hinted at, will likely be formally announced in August.

Project 2, which has just recently gotten underway, should be announced some time in the next several weeks.

For Tales fans everywhere, I hope this is news to look forward to!

I threw up a translation of the Chrono Trigger DS trailer over at Kotaku, so I figured I might as well post it here as well.

Trailer is available on Kotaku or it can be seen at GameVideos or the Official Chrono Trigger DS Website.

13 years have passed…
“Time” now starts to move once again.

From the forgotten past…
To the distant future…
To the farthest reaches of time…

The curtain will soon rise on
a grand adventure to span the ages
and save the world.

Am I excited about Chrono Trigger coming to the DS? Absolutely.

The editor for ToP has been selected.  Our v1.1 release should truly be something to look forward to.  Sorry for the lack of updates lately, been quite busy.  I’m packing and getting ready to return to the US from Japan pretty soon.

Also, if anyone is interested, I’m now on The Facebook.  Not sure what that has to do with anything, but if that’s your thing, do what you will with that knowledge.

We are no longer seeking applicants for the editor position, thank you!

Original Posting

Many here are probably already familiar with the Tales of Phantasia PSX translation that Gemini and I released last Christmas. It’s been several months since then, but we’ve been working hard ironing out some of the problems that remained in the 1.0 release. We were focused particularly on typos and various small issues, most of which are now under control. However, in order to assure the absolute highest quality for our v1.1 release, we are now seeking a dedicated editor to help us polish the script.

We’re looking for an English major or at the very least, someone with sufficient qualifications and/or experience in editing scripts. The one stipulation is that this person should be accustomed to working with American English. While we have nothing against British English or anything else, our script is written in American English and we would like the spelling and grammar to continue to conform to American standards. Familiarity with Tales of Phantasia is of course a plus, but should not necessarily be required.

Our hope at this point is that the job should mostly be double-checking. In order to avoid introducing more typos, we hope to avoid major edits (beyond those already performed). Of course, if there are any lines that seem truly out of place, we are open to suggestion. We want someone reliable and who can keep in good contact, too often projects have members vanish these days.

If you are interested, please send me a PM on RHDN, e-mail me at AbsoluteZeroTranslations at gmail.com, or contact me through my blog. Should multiple people express interest, we’ll use qualifications and experience to decide. Thanks for reading and I hope to hear from some of you soon. ^_^