Hoping to make your life's design a bit more dynamic!

Hey. Some time ago I was looking at the little-known usernames behind some of the in-progress translation projects and I noticed this one at the bottom. I tried to google it. But I found out that it is mis-spelt. It should be 'Traverse' (Omitting the 'ns' letters). Yeah, tricky word there!



The proof is in the pudding, so to speak! It had a quite unusual and simple box cover.
It also led me to check out the company Pandora Box, which seem to be as interesting as Riverhill Software. They both made a huge, great body of diverse works, especially on the SNES as well as similar-era consoles before somehow disappearing come the end of the previous millenium!
I also noticed that this group is actually working on Oni 2 for the SNES, which is interpreted from Bakumatsu Kourin Den: Oni. It's from Pandora Box. Ban Presto was just the producer/publisher. For what it's worth Natsuko Hayakawa also did scenario writing for Magic Knight Rayearth, which is already fan-translated. I can't understand why the people from these two studios mostly disappeared for good!

Box cover/cart shots & blurbs:
http://vgcollect.com/item/53020
http://www.japangamestock.com/videogame ... +6994.html
http://www.museumofplay.org/online-coll ... 6/113.3589
http://www.amazon.com/Traverse-Starligh ... B000068HPI (Beautiful custom box photos)
http://www.nin-nin-game.com/en/super-fa ... on-en.html
http://global.rakuten.com/en/store/moum ... g-sfc-960/

Videos:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i_w7JoIigco (Long description. As with above there are suggestions with the title screen, some menu words and story bits that the producer/developer were already preparing to release this in Western markets, but it was too late for that .)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SPdrogEOHh4 (This page's video links to that one)

Anyway, Pandora Box had 14 SNES titles between 1992 and 1996 and many PSX titles before they shut down in 2001.

Some noteworthy SNES RPGs they built that are un-translated include Soul & Sword, which is the prequel to Traverse, but unfortunately nobody had been working on it; Burai 3 (I already asked about this one at Wildbill's sub-forum. It's OK.); Ryuki Heidan Danzalv (Similar to Shin Megami Tensei?); Kishin Korinden Oni (Not the Oni 2 this group's working on); Gakkou Deatta Kowai Hanashi (School horror adventure) and Tsukikomori (Visual novel adventure).

Today I have PM'ed LostTemplar whom Implicid assumed to have done the translation work for Traverse. But he was last active at romhacking in September of 2014 - that's over 1 year ago! So I don't think he'd reply anytime soon. . Maybe after your group finishes your Oni 2 and some other game works maybe you can start on Traverse and/or Soul & Sword and try to elicit a response out of LostTemplar. What do you think? What are your opinions on these games?

Out of the two.. Soul & Blade OR Traverse: Starlight & Prairie, MY vote goes to Traverse to be done first BUT no doubt if it's a series it'll prob be Soul & Blade first
But hey ho.. i'm not part of the translation group so i'm happy with whatever get's translated first if D-D ever took up these two as projects. Personally though, i'd LOVE
to see the TWO "SD Gundam Gaiden" games translated, those look fun BUT it seems for now D-D has just taken on a new project also.. to get "Xak" translated also on
top of the other projects.. these guys work so hard for us RPG fans

I guess you guys never want us to ever retire, do you!
Damn...Not winning the Powerball sucks.

LOL! your damn right we don't.. i'm hoping to see the entire Snes rpg catalogue translated before I die! JOKE!

Haha! And how do you, sir, propose to use that winning to fund your romhacking activities? Would you be buying boutique-quality coffee beans and a high-grade coffee machine for endless drinking into the late nights; snorting something or buy an expensive car and drive around in it for hours? Nah, almost none of those would be healthy! Hehe!

To SylarDean, those SD Gundam Gaiden games do look interesting. I've checked that both games do have almost complete patches. Well, I've contacted two sources whom I thought would be capable of tackling either project to stitch them up properly once and for all! I might catch a reply from them. But I won't ever call out names. Just wait for any person to confirm it by themselves.

And the Xak series? Well it turns out that Xak 3 for the TurboGrafx/PC Engine CD platform actually has a complete English translation patch. Check the name of the team behind it: "Xak III De-Japanization". LOL! Don't know how this group would react to it! But it's sad what happened to the project manager. He's a very good man. But just stay out of his affairs.

Here's a great comparo of all of the Xak games AND every platform version each of them was released on in a very dated webpage design; and a series retrospective video.

Xak 1 on the SFC is looking great. But Xak 2 unfortunately was limited to older computing platforms including the FM Towns and PC-98 so its GFX are very tiresome on the eyes. But there was a Xak 1+2 pack that was released on the TCD/PC Engine CD but not outside of Japan. So it still remains untranslated . The visuals and cutscenes do look beautiful.

Edit (31/01/2016): Actually there is a complete English translation patch for Xak 2 on the MSX2. The graphics are not bad so this is probably the best we can go with for that game so far while waiting for a complete Xak 1 SFC translation!

Well, there's actually 3 SD gundam games for the snes, BUT only 2 of them were rpgs. I know KingMike WAS working on one, BUT i'm not sure if he's still working on it or not. As FAR as the other one for the Snes, the RPG one, iv'e NOT seen anything about the net that a teams translating it. Post a link to the other SD game being translated please, I want to take a look at the progress, page etc.. cos IF work is still being done on it.. I can add it to my website and list it as In-Translation.

Here's the link to kingmike's apparent translations in the works.. http://web.archive.org/web/201208150931 ... haven.net/ god knows how long those lists have been there though. Come to think of it, i'm sure KingMike shows his face around here from time to time, (or COULD BE someone else), Maybe he'll pass by and see there's still interest in that SD Gundam game and hopefully he'll kickstart it again, that's if he's not shelved it for now, passed it on to another group, OR god forbid.. given up on it, that would be a shame

There IS an in-translation list about the net of snes games BUT it's years old and MOST of the groups and their links/emails to their forums/web pages/etc are all but erased from the Net's Memory, this is why the list is small on my website, cos there's NO WAY I can confirm a LOT of the games. Iv'e NOT even listed a lot of AeonGenesis in-translation games cos their boards are not that active with updates on their progress, iv'e only listed 2 of theirs out of their possible 31 on my site.. the ones that seem to get some type of update every so often.. "Shin Megami Tensai IF" and "Romancing Saga 2".

You see, I totally understand that life comes first, so there no definite release dates given on ANY translation that's happening, it would be silly to do so cos it only leads to people ending up being disappointed and furious when the delivery date is NOT met, just like these... http://www.mother4game.com/ .. the flack these guys have been taking off people is unreal, they promised the game to be released LATE 2015 and well.. need I say more?

Okay, I have a nomination from a fellow RPG-lover that I have finally had time to research a little bit. His name is Jeff C., the game is called (SFC) "Dark Kingdom", and and here is what he had to say about it:

*Pasted information*

"I have another translation suggestion for you. This is the last one for quite a while because I don't want to give you guys too much work. This is a JRPG where instead of joining the forces of good, you actually join the forces of evil! Here is the summary from Moby Games: Dark Kingdom lets you experience a traditional story of a Japanese RPG from "the other side". In this game, you play the role of a mercenary named Gene Dorman. Instead of becoming a world-saving paladin, Gene joins forces with the Demon King himself! He offers his services to him and receives from him various assignments. Gene doesn't yet know that fate will make his path cross with that of the "good" hero Lux, with whom he shares a mysterious connection...

Gene must complete the missions of the Demon King in a specified order, and each time he completes a mission, his rank raises, allowing him access to higher levels of the hierarchy of the Demon King Castle, new abilities, etc. Other servants of the Demon King join him on his mission, and fight together with him as a party. The battles are turn-based and are viewed from first-person perspective. The game has an internal clock with day and night cycle."

*End of Paste*

I watched a Youtube intro https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oNbXmwSjLnw and battle for this game. A lot seems to happen setting up the battle, but it's a classic turn-based RPG with a little bit of a 7th Saga feel to it. Guess who has done the FAQ. Why Ritchie, of course! Here's is his very short introduction:

"A peculiar story where the player becomes a character on the Evil Empire side
and takes revenge on man. In combat, the swing meter battle of a new system
is adopted, and the usual special attack method of two other types of magic
attack is prepared."

Here is my only reservation: If the main character serves Evil from beginning to end, I'm not sure I would enjoy working on the story. But if some form of redemption occurs before the end, this appears right down my alley. If the game is hackable and we can dump a script, and get a basic insertion system cobbled together, I would be happy to translate the intro and get the game going enough to see what's up, as Richie did not say much about the story in his FAQ.

It's up to the group whether we want to consider latching onto this, but I would need someone knowledgeable enough in Japanese to investigate the late stages of the game and see if the conclusion turns away from this "Dark Kingdom" prevailing at the end.



And this part of what an author on Wikipedia had to say:



The mention of a character named Lux suggests a 7th Saga connection and possible redemption for the main player called Gene.

Edit: Jeff has also requested we take a look at SFC Verne World. I did, and it's a turn-based RPG by BanPresto, about a kid in an amusement world setting where everything goes awry. Verne World looks interesting. Of the two, the look and feel of Dark Kingdom is closer to my preferred type.

Ritchie has done the Verne World FAQ, and this is his short intro:

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
About the game
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
The stage is a huge theme park "Verne World" composed of seven islands. An
earthquake occurs on the day of the opening of the park, and the control
system inside the park collapses. The story where You goes to look for his
parents who became missing because of that influence.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

I can understand your trepidation towards doing a Dark Kingdom project. But I do like the look of that game from the linked video, whereas Verne World's visuals do look a bit stiff. I like the character portraits in Dark Kingdom. But I do like the idea of Verne World's backstory.

Dark Kingdom is actually from Telenet Japan, which produced many games for the Megadrive, MegaCD, SFC and PC Engine.
They did the Xak 1+2 port on the PC Engine CD, which I mentioned here just recently, and also the Tenshi no Uta series, which never came outside Japan. The first two Tenshi no Uta games came on the PC-Engine CD/TurboGrafx CD while the third one on the SFC is almost being completed by Transcorp as stated before.

I've had a youtube playthrough of SD Gundam in the works, that I need to bring back, along with Monster Maker III.
(mostly dictionary translation. I guess if I can finish a -bad- translation, that should show it possible to later insert a good translation, if one is ever done.)
I had done only a little of SDG2, like working on a font table.

Another game I've been looking at is a SFC action game called Trinea (by JAM, the company that made the Aretha games). Kinda of interests me even though it's a game that certainly has some flaws (the camera is my top complaint). There's probably quite a bit of text for an action game, but hopefully not as much as an RPG.

I have PM'ed Kingmike at Romhacking today, so hopefully he'll respond sooner rather than later as he is very active there. I have checked Kingmike's even older site from 2002, which still works! But so far in either case he still needed someone to help translate the game before he could insert the script back into the game. I found two incomplete English-language translation patches for a couple of the SD Gundam strategy games for the SFC on Romhacking - SD Gundam GNext and SD Gundam X.

But it turns out that there are a lot more of it than either you or I thought! There was a SIX-part SD Gundam: Generations series where its games were linked to each other and released for Bandai's official SFC accessory Sufami Turbo. Check the wiki's links there for documentation and media of this multi-cart accessory. But I have no idea if any romhacker would ever bother romhacking into any of those ST cart games, thus leaving them potentially untranslated forever!
Putting that Generations series aside, there were 9 SD Gundam games on the SFC as follows below:

Dragon Quest clone JRPGs:
SD Gundam Gaiden: Knight Gundam Monogatari: Ooinaru Isan
SD Gundam Gaiden 2: Entaku no Kishi (" It is the sequel to the Super Famicom game SD Gundam Gaiden: Knight Gundam Monogatari: Ooinaru Isan...")

Strategy:
Super Gachapon World: SD Gundam X (Has an incomplete patch)
SD Gundam GX ("Sequel to SD Gundam X.")
SD Gundam G Next (Has an incomplete patch)

Cross-over Strategy game:
Battle Commander: Hachibushu Shura no Heihou (3rd game in "Banpresto's Compati Hero Series, focusing on battles between characters from the Gundam, Ultraman and Kamen Rider universes." I'd like both Battle Dodge Ball 1 & 2 in that Compati Hero Series to be translated too. They look cool as! Maybe Implicid should type "Compati Hero Series (All sports and arcade games, excluding the side-scrollers)" and add it to his non-RPG list. The Great Battle series of games are there too. The untranslated Hero Senki RPG from the series is also in his post. Hero Senki's developer Winky Soft also co-developed Villgust which was translated by a former subsidiary of this group. Villgust's other co-developer Plex also made the untranslated and nice-looking action-RPG Ruin Arm)

Puzzle:
SD Gundam Power Formation Puzzle

Shmups:
SD Kidou Senshi Gundam 2 ("A shoot 'em up sequel to the first SD Mobile Suit Gundam.")

Side-Scroller:
SD Kidou Senshi Gundam: V Sakusen Shidou


Lol, Mother 4 does look beautiful, very similar to the Earthbound game on the SNES or Mother 3 on the GBA!