The Legend of Heroes Thread - Trails of Cold Steel in the Sky

[HoboForEternity]

 

[Urthor]

Only 6 more months to go yay

 

[Somberlain]

Better late than never. I wouldn't ruin the experience by playing the barebones translation either

 

[HoboForEternity]

if you guys wanna put your "Trails in The Chest" message you can submit it trough google form: https://goo.gl/forms/kM61lGFMhvWB36ow1

or from the attached geofront update:
https://geofront.esterior.net/2018/09/04/trails-from-zero-scenario-text-and-treasure/

also why the translation / editing takes a damn long time

Trails from Zero: Scenario, Text, and Treasure

• By Ribose5 in Progress Report
• September 4, 2018
  

Hello bracers, priests, nuns, students, and soon-to-be detectives!

This post is going to be different from a progress report this time around. Today it’s Ribose here instead to talk about the game’s text in great detail. I also have a fun little thing to unveil, so if you like treasure and don’t like technical details, skip to the end!


Breakdown of Text
In the 15% milestone, Gu4n discussed the general breakdown of the scenario and touched on the non-scenario text briefly. Here, I’m going to go into more depth, just so I can show off some quick little charts at the end.

Here is the breakdown of various parts of the game’s text

• scena refers to the stuff in the “scena” folder, and includes dialogue with NPCs (talk) and main story and side quest dialogue (event). In Trails in the Sky through Trails to Azure, talk and event functions occur in every scenario file, though it’s conveniently sorted and in reverse chronological order. Starting in Trails of Cold Steel, and in several modern Falcom games such as Tokyo Xanadu, talk and event functions are split into separate locations (sometimes seen as “tk” and “ev”). Each scenario file represents a single location in the game (a “map”), organized very neatly in files named with the form X###Y.bin. “X” is the region, one of “C” (Crossbell City), “E” (Events), “M” (Dungeons), “R” (Roads), and “T” (Towns). The three numbers specify a hierarchy of locations in each region, with the general rule of thumb that each sub-region is specified by the first two numbers. “Y” is either “0” for normal, “b” for night, or “c” for festival variants (“e” is used once in the game for an event in the morning for that map).
• text refers to the stuff in the “text” folder, and includes all “data tables”. Incidentally, several of the tables have no text and specify things such as how orbments are laid out and item statistics. But, of course, the rest of the tables do have Japanese strings in them that were translated and are in the process of being edited. The following is the breakdown of data table text:
  • t_cook, t_fish, t_memo: Cooking Notebook descriptions, Fishing Notebook descriptions, and Detective Notebook tab text.
  • t_ittxt, t_ittxt2: Item names and descriptions.
  • t_magic: Skill (arts, crafts) names and descriptions.
  • t_town: Location names. This is used in all sorts of places such as the state map, quick travel, area map, save file text, Combat Notebook locations, fishing locations, when you enter a new area, and possibly more.
  • t_shop: Names of shops (item, food, quartz, hotels, medal shops all included).
  • t_record: Achievement/record names and descriptions.
  • t_mgame: Minigame explanation dialogue.
  • t_quest: Quest names, request text, and progress bullet-pointed text.
  • t_book00 through t_book05: Books. As in readable ones. You’d think this would be the largest portion, but t_quest actually has more text than all of the books combined!
• monsnote refers the stuff in the “monsnote” folder, which includes the monster guide, which can be found in your Combat Notebook in Trails from Zero this time around.
  • MS structures: Technically, there is the file “data/monsnote/monsnote.dt2” which contains a sequence of every MS structure in the game. “MS structure” is my name for these as they show up in files named “ms#####.dat” in “data/battle/dat/” as well. The data in MS structures is highly detailed and contains all of a unit’s stats inside of battle, including a reference to their sprites, statistics, immunities, efficacies, some AI parameters, and a table of their skills. They also contain strings: their name, their description, and their skills’ names. The reason it appears in both “monsnote” and “battle” appears to be that the game uses “monsnote” for the Combat Notebook only, and “battle” for, well, in-battle analysis and behavior. You could end up with these differing, where it would appear and act different in battle from what your Combat Notebook claims! Of course, we don’t want that so we’ll be using the same MS structures in both locations, and I only count these once in my charts.
  • AS files: “data/battle/dat/” contains additional files other than the MS structures, specifically AS files. These appear in files named “as#####.dat” with corresponding unit IDs to all other locations, and they specify how units and skills behave. They also happen to occasionally hold text! There are only 14 strings translated in here, all of which are “over the head” callouts during battle.
• exe/eboot are strings in ED_ZERO.exe and the PSP EBOOT respectively. This is all of the game’s non-sceanrio text which doesn’t classify as needing to go in some kind of table to function. Good examples are the descriptions in the menu, the options menu, some tutorial text, and numerous parts of the user interface. JoseJL has made a way to edit any exe string and very quickly iterate in the PC version! The PSP version has already been hacked and we’ll use the same tools to insert the eboot strings. There is a similar number of lines in the exe and eboot, so only the exe strings are counted in my charts.
• In the PC version only, the debug features are preserved. As strings, it appears a little in the exe (but we’ve left this alone), and as a set of several scenario files (the debug rooms) with the region of “A”. With JoseJL’s help, I’ve translated that and we have an English-language debug room for the use of quickly testing many parts of the game! There are several other debug functions such as the F8 menu, jumping (to unstuck yourself), and free camera rotation, which we’ve been using to test many parts of the game.

And here is how they stack up to each other
The numbers are all the number of Japanese characters in all charts. The spreadsheets now track this number directly (as well as the number of English words in the final edit, which should be interesting to see when the project concludes), and it should be as accurate as I possibly could make it.
From the start of the project, we’ve actually been using a more arbitrary “line” count to calculate the overall percentage, which differs between our edit, the base translation, and the Japanese. To understand why, consider a two-line dialogue box in Japanese. In the edit, that could become three lines or one line. We still use this to calculate the overall percentage, but I’ve corrected the way it functioned so now it properly should use the contents of the spreadsheet and not hardcoded numbers.

As for these graphs, the Japanese character count includes all Japanese and ASCII characters in scenario column E (ultimately using the Google Sheets functions SUM() over the LEN() over every row in the project, which counts characters, as opposed to bytes).

• The count excludes all “control codes” which specify, among other things, item display by ID, text color changes, and page breaks.
• The count excludes all “function codes” which specify, among other things, character portraits, text size changes, and various other text properties, including furigana.
• The count includes the content of furigana (text above other text, usually indicating how Japanese text should be read or for emphasis.
• The count excludes line breaks, as I believe if you’re counting the number of Japanese characters, it doesn’t make sense to count the line breaks along with the text. If I wanted to count English characters, I would want to count the line breaks because reconstructing it as a single sentence would require you to place space characters in those places. Of course, I think it’s not very useful to anyone to count English characters and not English words, where the definition is more clear regarding line breaks once again. Line breaks aren’t words.

More on Text
As some previous posts have noted, more than Zerker are working on this project. There are two people directly editing/proofreading what Zerker has already edited (mostly to fix consistency and style from editing done over a year ago on this same enormous body of text!). Gu4n is working on various parts that can be related to the Kiseki Wikia project, specifically the books Back Alley Doctor Glenn and Crossbell Times. I (Ribose) am working mostly on non-scenario text and scenario consistency. This includes the now completed arts, crafts, and quartz text and soon-to-be completed item text.

Treasure Chests
Okay, so that was interesting and all, but here’s why I made this post. I catalogued the location (in files and in game) and contents of every chest in the game.

We are revealing a submission form here for treasure chest messages, sometimes called chest quotes. To celebrate the fans of this game, we’re opening a form to allow people to submit their own treasure chest messages for the game. There are 230 chests. The form allows you to specify a specific part of the game if you have one in mind (like “near the start” or a specific map like “West Crossbell Highway”), but for the most part, this shouldn’t matter. Please try to make sure that it is reasonably interesting, funny, or silly, and not offensive. Abstract and bizarre is absolutely acceptable! It can be referential humor, but the best chest messages work without any context, as I’m sure many of you have seen from the existing ones in Trails in the Sky FC, Trails in the Sky SC, and Trails in the Sky the 3rd, out on Steam, GOG, and Humble Store for Windows PC.

 

[Gearmos]

I still haven't lost hope on XSEED releasing Zero/Ao before CS3 and CS4. They work with different translators, so the job could have started at the same time as CS 1 and 2.
And the programmer responsible for coding the Trails games at XSEED said recently that she is excited for the projects she is currently working on. Having said that, I'm grateful for the amazing job Geofront Team are doing with Zero.

 

[HoboForEternity]

Yeah. Anyway any idea what to put in the chest?

 

[Somberlain]

Of course.

Spoiler

 

[HoboForEternity]

Of course.

Spoiler

Seboist i summon the and spread the flames of judgement upon this infidel.

 

[Valestein]

Spoiler

 

[Somberlain]

Sen 4 TGS gameplay demo stream Spoilers, obviously.

Spoiler

 

[LESS T_T]

Trails of Cold Steel I and II for PS4 are coming west via XSEED in early 2019: https://gematsu.com/2018/10/the-leg...el-i-and-ii-for-ps4-coming-west-in-early-2019

The PlayStation 4 versions include the enhancements of the PC versions, including 5,000-plus additional voiced English lines, and the bonus of both English and Japanese voice-overs for the first time in the series’ history. The PC versions will also receive Japanese voice-overs via a free update.

 

[Deleted member 7219]

More Trails is always good, even if it is nothing new for those of us who have it on PC (Japanese voiceovers don't matter much to me since the English voiceovers are good).

 

[Gearmos]

More Trails is always good, even if it is nothing new for those of us who have it on PC (Japanese voiceovers don't matter much to me since the English voiceovers are good).

This will definitely help XSEED to get the rights of Cold Steel 3 and 4, and that means a lot for a future PC port.

 

[Somberlain]

Looks like I'm getting a third copy of both games

 

[Deleted member 7219]

Looks like I'm getting a third copy of both games

Hmm. The only reason is if you really want the collectables. You can get the soundtracks from iTunes with a larger tracklist.

 

[Valestein]

Can't fault Somberlain for wanting to experience Sara on all of his platforms.

 

[Somberlain]

 

[Hyperion]

Thought I did once, but...

 

[Mark.L.Joy]

Replayed both tits.
Unsung hero of the dine-and-dash scene

Spoiler

My spirit animal

estelle

Spoiler

k.

drag

Spoiler

jap humour

chestpression

Spoiler

If only you knew how bad things are

 

[Urthor]

Spoiler: If you're laying off Brittany that 100% means you didn't get the contract for Cold Steel 3

Real spoiler

Spoiler

https://media.discordapp.net/attach...355476/Screen_Shot_2018-10-26_at_22.50.10.png

 

[Somberlain]

inb4 NISA gets Sen 3 and Brittany applies for a job there

 

[Deleted member 7219]

Sad to see Brittany go, but it doesn’t necessarily mean anything for Trails localisations going forwards. She didn’t do the translation on the Cold Steel games. She oversaw the extra VOs.

 

[Gearmos]

We'll miss her talent and dedication to the series, but it's not the first time this happens (and won't be the last). Jess was the lead editor during FC and SC, Nick and Kris on CS1 and Hatsuu with CS2 and 3rd. Indeed, XSEED was hiring a lead editor a month ago... And they wont last for more than two games. You alll know the reason: the huge scripts.

 

[Deleted member 7219]

We'll miss her talent and dedication to the series, but it's not the first time this happens (and won't be the last). Jess was the lead editor during FC and SC, Nick and Kris on CS1 and Hatsuu with CS2 and 3rd. Indeed, XSEED was hiring a lead editor a month ago... And they wont last for more than two games. You alll know the reason: the huge scripts.

Mmhmm. I imagine only the programmers get decent salaries, working for companies like XSEED.

 

[Somberlain]

Wish me luck, men. I just ordered Sen 3 from eBay and I'm going to be playing through it with kitsune547's spreadsheet translation that's out there