Boredom + Tales of Destiny PS1 = side project

[Cless]

So not to hijack justin's thread...




Notice anything different?

Yeah, so I'm tinkering with this game right now. I replaced the menu font with the one we're using in ToP PSX (because I think it looks a lot better). Numbers are the same as the originals though, except I got rid of that stupid-looking football they thought was a zero. Fixing the letter widths (and heights) was a pain in the butt at first, because of the incredibly retarded and inefficient way the game gets them.

And the twinkling Star of David save point has returned, no more spinning triangle.

If this takes off, the goal is to:

1) Update the menu translation to be more consistent with newer localized games
2) Uncensor as many thing as possible*
3) Improve the menu cosmetics, because whoever did them for the English version failed
4) Reduce the enemy encounter rate, at least cut it in half

*Includes the skits/map chats, and perhaps even getting them subbed. However, at this point I'm unsure how easy it will be to put them back in, since I'm basing this on the US version of the game. The code could either be dummied or possibly even completely removed. But either way, adding this back is likely out of my league.

At any rate, I still need to code a text dumper. We'll see if I get around to it.

[ForceCube]

That's SO cool ;__;

It looks like ToD PSX is finally going to receive the treatment it deserved. I can't believe now all the annoying/censored stuff in the US version will be fixed

BTW, Cless, I know this may sound a bit dumb and not worth your time at all, but can you do anything to change those WRONG hints for that "FATE" password at Helios? That got me stuck for weeks when I first played ToD, and I got really pissed of when I found out that the hints are wrong. It's not really that important, but I'd love to see those stupid hints corrected. ._.

But then again, maybe I'm asking too much. It's just a password anyway.

[justin3009]

DARN IT!  That was the first thing I wanted to do was change the font!  XD!  My friend and I were wondering, how are you changing graphics so quickly and easily...I haven't found crap when I researched about Graphics hacking ._.''

PS: Friend says: Yes, that would be useful

PSS: We really have no clue how you are doing this >_>..

[Cless]

Well, my ToP experience has made what I've done not super difficult. Though it did take me extra long to find the menu font because it wasn't stored as I expected it.

The biggest thing though is that the fonts (as well as pretty much all the graphics) are compressed. Since the compression is in the same format as ToP, I already have the tools necessary to deal with it. For whatever reason, the save point graphic is also stored with the menu font.

Had to run an assembly code trace to figure out how to correct the widths and heights of the replaced font, too.

BTW, Cless, I know this may sound a bit dumb and not worth your time at all, but can you do anything to change those WRONG hints for that "FATE" password at Helios? That got me stuck for weeks when I first played ToD, and I got really pissed of when I found out that the hints are wrong. It's not really that important, but I'd love to see those stupid hints corrected. ._.

I'm pretty sure that won't be too difficult if/when I get around to making a script dumper and inserter.

[justin3009]

That is a bit strange to have the savepoint with the fonts ._.  I guess it makes things easier though.

[Rathcrosse]

I can't help but ask, but what program are you using to decompress the sprites?

[Cless]

A custom-made one based of the game's decompression routine.

[Cless Aileron]

What you're doing certainly looks nice.  While I'm probably too spoiled by the remake, this may be a good excuse to play the original again.

[Cless]

Oh, I forgot to mention. I'm pretty sure I can eliminate all of the spell/item name abbreviations. With my thinner ToP font, and some text area widening (they left plenty of margin space where it matters), you can kiss them goodbye. No more "D. Bottle".

[Xiul]

Cool. Finally this game will have justice.
i will love a good localization of this game.

[Cless]

Well, I'm not intending to retranslate the story (felt that that was probably the best part of the original localization), but just patch up a few things like that stupid password screwup, and maybe put the ToP questions back into the quiz.

...speaking of the quiz, I could probably fairly easily replace the SNES sprites of Cless and Arche with the PSX ones.

Tried writing a menu text dumper, but failed. Guess I'm getting a bit rusty, and will try to reapproach it tomorrow...

Eh, and one more screen of the main menu, but there's nothing new about it in regards to hacking (there's still plenty I want to do with it). It's just filled in with more characters and higher stats...

[LenaAndreia]

 Ooooo--I've been wanting to play this again. I'll hold off on it. And is that Justin? XD You found your way over here, man! Cool, cool. ^^

[Xiul]

Well... tech names is more than enough.
Maybe you can fix Lilith somehow and make her playable without hacking.

[FSLink]

Menu's looking awesome. "D.Bottle" and such always annoyed the hell out of me when I first played it years ago.

Question, are you planning on keeping the main character's name changes? >.>
I think a lot of us here would prefer Johnny over Karyl (speaking of those name changes, anyone know why they changed these? I mean Kongman->Bruiser made some sense due to the Engrish sounding name..though Woodrow should probably stay Garr to be consistent with Symphonia...), though I don't think anyone would mind too much if you don't since I'm pretty sure you can change their names anyway...>_> Sorry if this sounds like complaining, I love the progress so far. ^^

[justin3009]

Yar!  It's me Lena XD.  I've actual browsed around this site years back...Just never actually signed up.

^- That was something I kinda wanted to do.  I also wanted to see if we could give her some new attacks or use existing attacks and edit it to fit her.  Still a long ways to go though.

[Carnivol]

anyone know why they changed these?

Not good to say, but I have my own little theories:

Mighty Kongman -> Bruiser Khang
-Original was very Engrish
-Name is probably an artist name and not really the character's birthname, so "translating/localizing" it isn't really a problem.

Woodrow -> Garr
-Possible name width length issues?
-The name Woodrow is originally a surname. (Which ofcourse would make Kelvin Woodrow sounds more "correct" than Woodrow Kelvin. However, TRIVIA seems like the US actually had a president Woody at some point in time. Thanks, Google! You just tought me that Woodrow Kelvin is a WOODY KELVIN)


Johnny -> Karyl
-Johnny is not a proper name (It's a nick/slang for names starting with John. Could be seen as unlikely for a family of such status as the Sheeden family to carry a slang name)
-Johnny is very "American".  (The character doesn't strike you as a person representing "American culture/style")
-Karyl sounds more exotic, the character is exotic.



Ofcourse, the tough part about making decissions about name changes would be that if there's audio referring to characters by name (in ToD or ToD2), as one would usually prefer to have names stay the same between audio and translation. (Though, anyone who's from a Non-English country who've seen stuff such as Harry Potter and/or Lord of the Rings in English with subtitles in their native language have probably noticed quite a lot of given names being different between audio and subtitles)