Today’s update is going to be text only. Sorry for those of you looking for a screenshot.

First, let’s talk about my jackassery. If the most recent post seemed out of place, it’s because I directed it at the wrong people. Or at least that’s how it looks on the blog… On other forums, specifically Namco’s Tales of Series Forums, there have been several individuals who opposed even “Luca” because it wasn’t Ruca. It was impossible for them to believe that the “official name” created by the Japanese might not have actually been the intended name.  I had just grown tired of such comments and that came out very strongly in the blog post. That, of course, left me looking like an idiot because the people who post on my blog (and most people in general) have been nothing but supportive. So while I did have a reason for posting with the tone I did, I realize now that it was totally unnecessary. I’ve always encouraged input from those who follow my projects. Other people can see things that I often don’t and catch my mistakes. My projects wouldn’t be where they are now if people weren’t there supporting me and telling me when I slip up. So please don’t think that I don’t want input, because I really do. Sometimes negative comments pile up in my mind and we end up with posts like we had the other day. Feel free to tell me when I’m being a jackass, I’m usually aware of it myself, so it doesn’t take much to set me back on track.

Next, I want to revisit the Luca/Lucas issue. Both are viable options at this point and I’m going to take back what I said about changing the name. I realize that this seems silly after making such a big deal out of the name change. The fact is, changes like this happen every day behind the scenes. The mistake I made here was presenting it as fact before I was completely sure of myself. Since then, I’ve talked to several translators and several knowledgeable parties. The general conclusion was that it could very well be an Italian name. Many of Regnum’s inhabitants have Italian names (and Luca’s last name certainly seems Italian). So for right now, his name is Luca. It might end up being Lucas in the end, it might not. It really depends on the results of the research I do on the names. In the end, all that I care about is that the game is translated accurately and properly. No matter what else happens, as long as I can do that, I will personally be happy with the project. So just know that is the method to all of my madness.

Finally, let me apologize just once more. Some days, I’m a jackass and I’m sorry for that. I’ll do my best to avoid posting on the blog those days. I realize that it’s not possible to please everyone, but with input from all sorts of people, I still hope that this project will be able to extend its appeal. So please, keep contributing. I’ll do my best to remember that what I’m supposed to do isn’t to start random drama over details, it’s to translate. Thanks for sticking with me even through my idiocy. >_<

As I’ve been working on Tales of Destiny over the last few weeks, I’ve been doing some thinking about how I translate now compared to how I want to translate. I realized that the only reason that I was keeping Luca as Luca was because I wanted to try and make people happy. I knew that some were already upset about choosing Luca over Ruca, so I didn’t want to make it worse by making another change. That wasn’t the right way of thinking. I realized that translating properly is far more important to me than pleasing people. Luca was a half-assed translation because I wasn’t bold enough to make what I knew was the right decision in the face of pressure.

The name Lucas has origins in many languages, thus why both Mother 3′s Lucas (リュカ) and Tales of Innocence’s Lucas (ルカ) can share a name with differing pronunciations but a single English localization. The strong romance language influences on Tales of Innocence’s names further illustrate this point. The French language, for example, has a habit of dropping final letter when spoken. The name is pronounced Luca, but written Lucas. What I am changing is not the pronounciation of the name, only the spelling.

I do not ask for you to understand my decision, I require you to accept it. I am rarely into totalitarian statements like that, but I no long have the patience to tolerate comments that I am making arbitrary translation decisions without a basis. I have done my research and spent plenty of time considering this change. I originally intended to wait for a localization of Radiant Mythology 2 before making this decision, but instead, I am making the choice that I think is right. This is my decision as a translator. If you disagree with my translations, find another project, another translator. I am not here to cater to whims, I am here to translate accurately (to the best of my ability). Both Kingcom and I want to provide a quality product that will read and play like real localized game. I know that there are many people who support us in that goal. If you do not support that objective and choose not to play our patch, I will consider that your loss, not mine.

Feel free to comment, but know that I am hesitant to leave the comments open on this post. You do not have to agree with me. You also do not have to use this patch. As I stated above, if you don’t like what I’m doing, you have the right to leave. No one will force you to play this translation. So that’s it. Sorry for this post being a bit of a downer. For the Ruca crowd, nothing has changed – the name is still not Ruca. However, I do apologize to those who had become used to Luca, it was my mistake. As always, the translation marches onward.

People have been speculating for months, but we are indeed working on ToDr. Despite what some believed, Cless and I have been on good terms in spite of Tales of Phantasia (mostly because he’s very forgiving). Lately I’ve really been regretting Tales of Phantasia and all the drama that came of it. I didn’t have the skills that I needed and I really wish I hadn’t stepped on many of the toes that I did. I worked on Phantasia because I loved it, but still, it was too soon for me to attempt a project of that magnitude on my own. I made a lot of mistakes and a lot of claims that I couldn’t live up to. I disappointed some people and I realize that some still worry about my translations. My point is that I’m thrilled to be working with Cless as well as with gogs, Kajitani-Eizan and Carnivol. The three of them have always been the first to tell me when they think I’ve slipped up and there are few people I trust more when it comes to editing. With their help and Cless’ experience working with the PS2, I’m confident that this patch will be one that everyone will love.

As most of you know, this project has been going on behind the scenes for months now. However, Phantasian Productions has been putting most of their time into Tales of Phantasia just as Kingcom and I have been focused on Innocence. From the beginning, Cless and I agreed that Destiny wouldn’t take priority over other projects. Now that’s it has been announced, I expect it to speed up a little bit. The translation is all that is really holding us back from a menu patch, so it really shouldn’t be far off.

Of course, neither Cless nor I like to do things halfway, so our intention from the beginning has been a full translation. The plan is to release the menu patch first and then begin work on the story. The translation will retain many of the original (PSX) Destiny localized terms. Expect to see many of the same ones in the translation (with the exception of some names like Johnny, Mighty Kongman, and Woodrow). We hope that fans of both the original translation and the Japanese text will be able to enjoy this translation.

So happy new year from Absolute Zero and Phantasian Productions! We hope that this coming year will be one of the best for Tales fans and ask for your continued support.

Be sure to check Phantasian Productions for more images and Cless’ announcement message! And to celebrate the occasion, I made myself a new banner. ^_^

This video shows off the first several minutes of Tales of Innocence! Don’t worry, there are no spoilers, this is the beginning of the game.

A few things to note – the audio sounds like crap and the frame rate is a bit choppy. That’s not anything related to the patch, both are byproducts of Kingcom recording from an emulator on his older computer. That aside, we hope that you enjoy the video.

And of course, let’s not forget that it’s the 1 year anniversary of Tales of Phantasia’s patch! Thanks for supporting us in this past year and we hope that everyone will continue follow us in the new year! ^_^

I’m sure many of you have seen this screenshot floating around by now. I know we did a really great job of hiding it, but yes, Kingcom and I made it.

First, let me apologize. Things kind of ended up going the opposite way of what I wanted. I had hoped that a screenshot like this might help drum up some support for an official English release of Tales of Hearts. Instead, it became some kind of weird viral marketing that not only gave the wrong impression, but probably disappointed a lot of people since it wasn’t official.

Second, let me state this clearly, WE ARE NOT WORKING ON A PROJECT TO TRANSLATE TALES OF HEARTS! We’re currently working on Tales of Innocence (among other projects) and it would be too difficult to manage all of these projects at once with just the two of us. Also, Tales of Hearts has literally just come out. We are strongly opposed to Day 0 translation projects. Those sorts of projects are irresponsible and can do serious harm to developers. That’s the last thing we want to do for a series that we love. Buy Tales of Hearts in Japanese. Beg Namdai to bring it over here. Don’t just pirate the game and pray for a fan translation, that’s not why we’re here. If you love the game, get the word out about it. That’s the best way to get the game in English.

Third, just because we are not working on a project now does not mean that we never will. The screenshot was real, the translation was real, and the work was real, but that’s as far as it goes for now. We are still hopeful for an official release and we do not want to do anything to hurt the chances of Hearts being released in English. When the companies fail to provide legitimate options for their fans, that’s when fan translators step up. However, it’s far too early to make that call.

Again, I apologize for any trouble this caused. We never intended to deceive anyone or pass our work off as an official translation. We wanted to get people to pay attention to Tales of Hearts and to ask for it in English. What we didn’t want was for people to ask Kingcom and I. So this kind of backfired…

Finally, I want to say one thing as a translator – if I translated this game, the default names would appear just as they do in this screenshot. Kohaku and Hisui are not just randomly selected names. They are meant to fall in with the many mineral references in the game and as such, they should be translated to maintain that reference. Kohaku is Amber. Hisui could be Jade, but in order to keep him unique within the series, I chose to go with Jadeite. I know there are many of you who disagree with these choices, but I will not change my position on this. However, Tales of Hearts does feature a naming option, so if you hate seeing Amber and Jadeite, you are free to change their names as you like. (Also, Kohak is the worst romanization I’ve ever seen. I can’t imagine a responsible translator using a name that fails to capture the intended reference in both Japanese and English.)

That’s all I’ve got for now, but there will hopefully be an Innocence update coming soon. ^_^

It’s been quite a while since our last update. As some of you may know, Tales of Innocence had its big first birthday this last week, so that’s cool. I was out of town, so we weren’t able to make an update that day, but better late than never. With that out of the way, we have a new screenshot to show off.

First of all, we show off a little bit of the summary text. Translating the summary is really boring, but I guess maybe someone will read it someday (though I never do). Perhaps more importantly, we at last have the conclusion to the Great Bottom Screen Debates. I’m sure people remember our last discussions about how to format the bottom screen – well, this is what we decided on. We felt that we should have the Name line in order to keep the screen balanced, but we really liked the idea of having the text left justified. Thanks especially to thedicemaster, Kaji, and Carnivol for helping us to make this decision, we hope that you’re happy with the final result.

Overall, this past week was one of our most productive in a very long time. I got a fair amount of translating done and Kingcom made some great progress on hacking. As he it wrapping up some of the remaining loose ends, I’m just getting started. I’ll be moving slowly for the next few weeks as I complete my finals, but I hope to make a lot of progress during winter break.

And now some things that have been bothering me:

I want people to stop posting comments asking when this project will be done. I said that it will be done early next year.

I want people to stop assuming that we have stopped working on this project. We aren’t going to quit. And if we did, don’t you think we’d say something?

I want people to read more recent posts instead of commenting on the announcement one. I realize this is the problem with a blog and it’s my fault for not updating enough, but encourage people to check the more recent posts.

I’m doing my best to keep people informed, but I really get nothing out of making these updates. My time would be better spent working on the translation or studying up. I’m doing these updates for you guys, because I know that people want to know what’s going on. I don’t mean to sound like a bitchy project leader (because I don’t like that kind of attitude either). I’m just asking you guys to bear with me and hang in there. I want to make the final result something that will be worth the wait, so just believe in me a bit. That’s all for today.

First, Tales of Innocence is moving along as always. Kingcom has been taking a little time off from ToI, but he has totally earned it. I’ve been poking at the script and as always, editing the menu text. I will be having someone begin the preliminary edits on ToI’s menu and current script text within the next week, I hope. With any luck, doing these edits early on will save time when we have to do the final editing on the text.

Next, Tales of Phantasia’s version 1.1 has been mentioned here and there since the patch’s initial release almost a year ago. Honestly, I was hoping to have it out by now, but the editor that I had placed my hopes in has vanished. Despite my efforts, I’ve had no word from him in several months now. This is the sad reality of fan projects, people disappear sometimes. I’d still like to make the v1.1, but I don’t know when that will happen now. If I’m going to do the editing myself, I don’t know when I’ll be able to set aside the time to do it. Frankly, ToI is much higher priority for me right now. For the time being, I have little motivation to work on ToP. Ideally I would like to go back and fix all of my mistakes (including rechecking the original Japanese text), but who knows if/when this will happen. I could reopen the search for editors, but I’m uncertain if I want to do that at this time.

Well, that’s about it. I hope this post doesn’t sound as depressing as it does in my head. Things are still moving along with Tales of Innocence, that should be good news for everyone I hope.

So, we’ve been silent for a few weeks now. It wasn’t intentional, just kind of how things worked out. Kingcom and I have been busy with Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia lots of real life things. Progress on Tales of Innocence has admittedly been rather slow since the last posted update. Some sections of story, a few scattered skits, and more menu revisions have been the main focus during this time.

So, here are our screens for this week. The left screen gives a shot of the menu in battle, which I think is looking great. The right screen shows off the Strategy window, which I don’t believe we’ve shown up until now. One of the biggest things to notice in both images is the bottom screen. As was suggested, we have changed the names to match the rest of the text in the window. The layout of the lower window has also been altered slightly to try and fill the space more effectively. Below we have one more screen, but it’s nothing different. The reason for showing this screen is that we want your input. Do you prefer the vertical layout as shown above or do you prefer the horizontal layout shown below? Let us know if you have any suggestions for the layout of the lower screen!

Finally, I want to talk a little about this project and when it will be released. I know people are excited about this, but we aren’t willing to rush it. We initially wanted to shoot for a release by the end of the year, but that is looking highly unlikely. To provide the highest quality at release, we really want to take our time both with the translating, the hacking, and the testing. I release that many people are used to fast paced, incremental release of patches from places like GBAtemp, but that simply isn’t how we operate. Do not expect Tales of Innocence to be released until early 2009. We thank you for your understanding and hope that you will still look forward to the final product. We assure you, it will be worth the wait!

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EDIT:

Version Kaji

Version thedicemaster

Please note that these are shopped, so we can’t promise that we can reproduce them perfectly in-game.

Persona 2: Innocent Sin Released!

If nothing else, at least enjoy Gemini’s cruel sense of humor with the post title and first paragraph.