Games with good fan translations/In English but not released in NA?

@ Otherarrow, post n°15:

The FE4 joke translation parts you're talking about were, if I remember correctly, placeholders made by Twilkitri (the maker of the Reparation Patch) so that the game doesn't go bonkers at those specific moments, like it did until he made them. It's just that he didn't care adding a proper translation for those at the time.

I dunno how faithful the main script is, given that I wasn't the one who translated it (for the little comparison I did with some of the Japanese scripts though, they look good), but as far as the endings go, at least for the parts translated by me, I can guarantee on the faithfulness of them.

Speaking of it, I really, really need to finish the Jungby ending convos. It was the last part I needed to work on for the ending translations to be complete.

On topic, a fan-translated game not released in the US I'd recommend you that wasn't mentioned until now, would be Policenauts on PS 1.

Doki Doki Majo Shinpan...unfortunately, the translation is still in development.

Well, I did say they were filler. I could get if it was something towards the end and they just haven't gotten around to it, but the event I specifically recall was "surrounded" by stuff already translated. Parts both before and after it were already translated, so the fact that it wasn't and had to be replaced by joke filler seems bizarre to me. However, the "funny" wordswap has no real justification. I suspect that it was a jab at how No A chose to localize swears much more "colorfully" in the localized games, but it does kinda kill all the tension in that scene, IMO. Sorry, now I'm just going off on a tangent.

I didn't say the FE4 translation was bad. I said it was decent. I personally thought some parts of it read as pretty bleh, but they got the point across. (I heard somewhere that this may be because the original Japanese read as bleh, but I forgot where I read this. It might not be true.) It seems that some of the characters' dialog is translated in a way to make it look like they have accents, but I personally think it doesn't work the way they intended. (depending on the scene, Trabant reads like he is either a Southern hick or a Scotsman. Beowolf also comes off as a hick, but this may have been the point.) But I am just whining for no good reason now. Sorry. I'll stop.

The FE5 one is just bad though. It starts looking fair enough, but then it goes into Gag Dub territory.

Sorry if I offended you.

Also, sorry that I got off topic. I don't know any other fan translations to recommend, sorry.

edited 4th Aug '11 4:51:39 PM by Otherarrow

Did anyone ever get a good fan translation of Ace Attorney Investigations 2 done?

Offended? What made you think I was offended? Don't worry, I wasn't offended at all, I just wanted to bring up some clarifications and trivia and share my experience about the FE4 translation project, as a FE veteran who witnessed most of the post-JC 2 E translation progression back then from 2003 to nowadays, and even worked on some bits of it. :p

edited 4th Aug '11 5:03:23 PM by AceNoctali

I can at least say that the current popular FE 4 patch is better than the older one. Though I don't remember much about the older one except that it had uglier font (I think the current one's font is similar to the GBA FE font).

Also, that ending generator is pretty sweet. Gonna plug in my last pairings and see what I get. I remember reading some of the ending conversations and random backstory files back on Sanctuary of Strategy, so this should be cool.

FE 4's story really does seem like it could do more fleshing out in the game. Many of the more interesting details are All There in the Manual. Although I imagine that a lot of it is also locked away in Thracia 776, aka the game I really need to get farther than Chapter 2x on.

edited 4th Aug '11 6:45:06 PM by Barrylocke

Here's a list from Romacking.net of "Fully playable" translations: http://www.romhacking.net/?genre=&platform=&status=A&languageid=12&perpage=50&page=translations&transsearch=Go&title=&author= It's currently at 569 entries. There are English patches for previously untranslated and previously translated games.

So yeah, here's some commercial games with fan translations which I think are notable. It's rather long, sorry... Regarding quality, I can't personally vouch for these works. Hopefully someone else knows more. These include a bunch of games that aren't often considered commercially viable outside of East Asia. Some fan translators work on out-of-print games which were created by companies that may no longer exist. And yes, there's some Widget Series...

• Big Bang Age (adults only)

• Bloody Bride: Imadoki no Vampire

• Brandish 2

• Brave Battle Saga, a Chinese game.

• A much-improved Breath Of Fire II translation.

• Canvas2 (Windows version, plot with porn)

• Crescent Pale Mist, later licensed by Rockin Android.

• Cross Channel (Windows version, plot with porn, inspired the Flash game Nanaca Crash)

• Dragon Quest V, both Super Famicom and Playstation 2 versions. As someone said earlier, Nintendo licensed the DS version, which has different graphics, and a bit of new content.

• Dragon Quest VI. The fan translation of the Super Famicom version is unfinished but mostly playable. Again, the official localized Nintendo DS version has different graphics, and a bit of new content.

• Dragon Quest Monsters 3: Caravan Heart

• Emerald Dragon (SNES)

• Famicom Detective Club (SNES)

• Fate Stay Night (Windows version, plot with porn)

• Fans were the first to translate Final Fantasy 2, 3, and 5. FF2 got its first official localization in 2003, thanks to a late Playstation collection. FF3 got an official localization through a DS version with polygon graphics and some gameplay changes. The first FF5 translation was on the original Playstation, with rather low-quality writing and slowdown. The GBA port was better.

• Freshly-Picked Tingle's Rosy Rupeeland was officially translated, but only in Europe. It's not an amazing game, and the translation is nothing special, but if you like odd stuff, look for it.

• G Senjou No Maou (adults only)

• Gadget Trial

• Galaxy Angel (Windows version), and Galaxy Angel Moonlit Lovers.

• The two Hatsune Miku Project Diva games have partial English patches. I don't know how accessible they make the games...

• The first Inazuma Eleven game is available in English only in Europe, due to the relative regional popularity of the sport. Also, fans have created an undub patch which restores the original Japanese names and voices.

• JAST USA has licensed a number of games and visual novels which fans had already translated, or which fans were close to finishing work on. This includes School Days, Saya No Uta, Eien No Aselia, and more.

• Jump Super Stars

• Kanon (Windows version, plot with porn)

• Kara No Shoujo began as a fan translation, and was officially released through Mangagamer. (The company may have licensed Soul Link, Shuffle, and Ef A Fairy Tale Of The Two because they had unfinished fan translations. It is currently in negotiations over Muv Luv, which has a partial fan translation.)

• Last Window: The Secret of Cape West. An English version has only been released in Europe.

• Lennus II

• Love Hina Advance

• Love Plus. It's a work in progress - the June 2011 patch covers a decent amount of the game.

• The original Metal Gear for MSX was translated by fans, as well as its authorized sequel Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake. Both games were issued in English some time later through Metal Gear Solid 3 Snake Eater: Subsistence.

• The GBA port of the first Mother game.

• Mushihime-sama Futari for the Xbox 360 has no official English version, but the game is region-free, and requires no reading.

• Narcissu

• Neugier. At one time, it was slated to be released as The Journey Home, but the official release was quietly cancelled. A fan translation happened years later. At one point, the translator attempted to have his work removed from the web. However, you should be able to find a patch for this SNES action RPG if you search a bit.

• Parodius was released in Europe quite a few years ago. Not that it has much text...

• Persona2: Innocent Sin. Set to be officially translated by Atlus on PSP.

• Planetarian

• Radical Dreamers. It would be nigh-impossible to license it, since it was only sold on the long-discontinued Satellaview.

• Sengoku Rance, and two of the early Rance games. Adults only!

• Shining Soul was licensed for Europe first, and released elsewhere a bit later.

• Soma Bringer

• Several of the Sono Hanabira Ni Kuchizuke Wo stories. Adults only.

• Fans translated the first Star Ocean game (Super Famicom version) long before it was released in English on PSP.

• Starry Sky in Spring was the first reverse harem visual novel to get a full fan translation. JAST is talking about licensing the franchise.

• Suguri, later licensed by Rockin Android.

• Tears To Tiara (Windows version, adults only)

• A strategy RPG based on Tenchi Muyo for SNES.

• Terranigma was officially released in English, but only in Europe and Australia.

• The first two Tokimeki Memorial Girl's Side games (Nintendo DS versions).

• Treasure Of The Rudras

• Tsukihime (Windows version, plot with porn)

• Utawarerumono (Windows version, adults only)

• A licensed game based on Violinist Of Hameln.

• Wanko To Kurasou (adults only)

• Welcome to Pia Carrot (PC-FX version, adults only)

• Both Wonder Project J games.

• Quite a few Ys games, from the NES versions to some modern Windows versions.

Freeware games:

• Akuji the Demon (a Metroidvania game)

• Brass Restoration

• Until the Wiiware version was created, the only way to play Cave Story in English was through a fan translation.

• Guardian Of Paradise

• La Mulana. As far as I recall, it has not yet been released on Wiiware. I don't think it has been cancelled...

• Some 2D shooters are in English thanks to Non-Directional Translations (see http://radicalr.pestermom.com/game.html )

• True Remembrance

Doujin games: because they often use characters from licensed properties, they are very unlikely to get official English releases...

• Battle Moon Wars

• Magical Battle Arena

• At least a few Melty Blood games.

• Rosenkreuz Stilette

• A bunch of Touhou games, and even fan games based on the Touhou universe.

• At least some of the When They Cry and Umineko No Naku Koro Ni sound novels. (Mangagamer has published its own translation of When They Cry.)

...wow, this post went on and on...

Remember though that he's trying to stay from the ones without commercial releases, any many of those have versions that were released in America, even if the original ones weren't (DQ 5 and 6 being notable examples)

EDIT: Although I didn't know that Jump Ultimate Stars had a patch. I heard that game was good, so maybe I should check it out.

edited 4th Aug '11 8:08:04 PM by Barrylocke

Point taken, Barrylocke. I was writing my overly long post based on stuff in the Fan Translation article, and general games mentioned in the old Translation Library site. It got disorganized, and a bit out of hand...

If you want to talk about fan translations that just don't seem to work, then consider the freeware game Romancing Walker. From what I recall, the writing is pretty flawed, and players might have to guess to figure out what to do next. Also, I've heard a lot of bad things about the full Flyable Heart patch.

Earlier today, I remembered the only English version of the offbeat Gamecube title Doshin the Giant was released in Europe.

The Wii game Another Code: R – A Journey into Lost Memories (a sequel to the DS game Another World: Two Memories, aka Trace Memory) was another Europe exclusive.

Likewise, the Wii game Disaster: Day of Crisis was only released in Europe and Australia.

One thing I neglected to mention earlier... the first fan translation of a Boys' Love game was Silver Chaos.

Also, I was browsing /jp/, because I remembered hearing there that the Idolmaster SP fan translation project was still going. From what I read today, it seems they're using TLWiki's unfinished work, and making some progress on the Perfect Sun version.