Soul Hackers translation underway

[cj iwakura]

Alternate topic: Gemini & Tom rule.

SOUL HACKERS IN ENGLISH. (http://gemini.aerdan.org/forums/index.php?topic=137.0)

http://i239.photobucket.com/albums/ff233/Geminimewtwo/Soul%20Hackers/hitomless.png


I bet this will take a while, but it's a start.

General
Genre: J-Rpg
Version: NTSC/JP
Publisher: Atlus
Platform: Playstation
No. of Players: 1
No. of Discs: 2

Status
Translation: ?%
Hacking: ?%
Complete: ?%

Short Story Description
If you're a MegaTen freak just skip this part: you'll love the game anyway, no matter what I say about it.
You're a member of the Spookies, a group of hackers investigating on Algon Soft and its newest, suspicious product: the Paradigm X, a virtual world where its users' souls are mysteriously vanishing.
While doing your stuff, your best friend (or should I call her a girlfriend?), Hitomi, is attacked by a supernatural entity known as Nemissa. The two become a single being, and you are the only one who knows exactly what's wrong with her (everybody else will just pretend she's acting weird).
Will you be able to stop Algon Soft, restore your friend back to normal, and fight hordes of demons while you're at it? Oh yeah, and you also have a weird gun computer, a "GUMP", to kill things with through a nice yet weird summoning system.

Misc Information
This project started about 8 months ago, a few weeks before the Innocent Sin beta testing. It has been sitting there for most of those 8 months, until a few weeks ago, when Tom and I decided to give it the spotlight once again.
I don't have a status report yet, but the game feels a lot smaller than Innocent Sin in terms of text. On the other hand the hacking will probably be as annoying as IS's because of the idiocy of a Saturn game forced to work on the Playstation hardware making it still behave as if it was running on the Saturn. The fact that TOSE handled the porting makes it even worse, especially because TOSE is the company who converted the whole FF4-5-6-CT compilation to the Playstation (and later to the GBA/DS). From what I can see from their code, they sure didn't know #### about the target hardware and in fact the result is a terrible mess, harder to hack than the average game.


I wish you all the best of luck. My Saturn copy's ready and waiting. (...assuming it's patchable. :P)


Yikes, I just realized how old that post was... ah well.

[SickleCellAnemia]

Hells yes.

[unknown]

I can't wait.

[Sleepless Neko]

Is this Saturn version or Playstation ver?
Neverthless, YEAH, Soul Hackers!!

[Tom]

Looks like the cat's out of the bag. :)

By the way, cj... The patch will be for the Playstation version, not the Saturn version. Patching is a rather delicate process, so it's not possible to make a patch that works with either the Saturn or PS version.

Gemini is even planning to get the Pocketstation mini-games playable in English, not that anybody has a Pocketstation, anyway. ;) (Gemini does, though.)

Anyway, back to translating!

(By the way, that post is so old because he only decided to work on it back then. He made some dumps, but told me not to work on them because he wanted to focus on other things. We've really only just started to work on it seriously, and things have been moving quite quickly in the past couple of weeks.)

[diosisback]

Hell yeah, way to start the day !!!

You guys are awesome, allowing us to enjoy such gems.

[SomethingDifferent]

Hell yeah, way to start the day !!!

You guys are awesome, allowing us to enjoy such gems.

^this. Someone finally decided to translate Soul Hackers for real, and I can't think of anyone better than you two to do the job. Good luck. :)

I can't believe I missed such an old post, though.

[Gemini]

I can't believe I missed such an old post, though.
You didn't really miss it. It was hidden until yesterday.

[Emilio Morales]

Soul Hackers... I can't wait!!

[Ike.]

Is there a blog for this one?

[Kenji]

I think we were all hoping/expecting this... and there certainly have been enough hints dropped. :P But, like Atlus finally making the announcement after all the teasing in P4's manual, it's nice to see Gemini and Tom finally announcing Soul Hackers! :D

Finally, I'll get to see what all the buzz is about... now I just have to find an actual copy of this game. Hopefully, I'll get as lucky as I did with P2...

[Ike.]

The PSX version pops up on eBay once in a while.

[cj iwakura]

The Saturn one also sells for pretty cheap. I got mine for like $15.

[Enzeru]

Awesome! Can't wait. I'm loving what you did with IS so far. ^^

[Tom]

All of the rooms (which account for almost all of the game's story) have been translated, so the bulk of the story is pretty much done now (though it's only a first draft). I'll work on the shops tonight. Once I'm done with those, I can start working on the big old demon conversation scripts.

On the translation side, it seems a lot easier than Innocent Sin, actually. Shop talk isn't always very fun to do, but there's been some interesting stuff so far. I've enjoyed it. In any case, I want to get it finished quickly.

[Ike.]

If you need proofreaders or beta testers you can always come to us :D

[Tom]

One star, I see. Somebody's trying to be cute again.

[Yukichin]

Ooh. Awesome. I'm lookin' foward to this! =D The story sounds interesting!

[Onion of Mystery]

Just for form's sake, let me remind y'all not to link to downloads or download sites, or sites listing places where you can get downloads of copyrighted material.

Thank you, and namaste.

[raiku]

gemini and tom now owe me a new pair of pants

now i can play my first megaten game in english

[Tom]

No problem, Onion. We're actually fans of the game and the series, so we definitely encourage everybody to play by the rules here. The PS version of Soul Hackers isn't so rare; you can buy it on ebay pretty easily. (Though the price is a bit steep.) It's definitely worth the price of admission, though.

[jeffx]

No problem, Onion. We're actually fans of the game and the series, so we definitely encourage everybody to play by the rules here. The PS version of Soul Hackers isn't so rare; you can buy it on ebay pretty easily. (Though the price is a bit steep.) It's definitely worth the price of admission, though.

Really? I see a ton of Saturn games, but no PSX version. Either way, it's not like that money is going in Atlus' pockets...

I think everyone should buy Brandish 2, BTW. Thing is like 5-10$ mint on eBay.

[Ike.]

No problem, Onion. We're actually fans of the game and the series, so we definitely encourage everybody to play by the rules here. The PS version of Soul Hackers isn't so rare; you can buy it on ebay pretty easily. (Though the price is a bit steep.) It's definitely worth the price of admission, though.

Really? I see a ton of Saturn games, but no PSX version. Either way, it's not like that money is going in Atlus' pockets...

I think everyone should buy Brandish 2, BTW. Thing is like 5-10$ mint on eBay.

That's because I bought the last one ten minutes ago. :)

[Tom]

Buying used games contibutes to their scarcity...

That scarcity makes the games become more valued by collectors, who then yearn for a complete collection (and are thus more likely to buy new releases of later games in the series - and Atlus makes money)... Buying used games may not support Atlus directly, but it still supports the series, and they can profit from it in the long run.

http://stores.ebay.com/Japanese-manga-and-Video-Games

This store is selling the game. Just type Soul Hackers into the store's search bar. It's the PSOne Books release. (That's the one that I have.)

[Emilio Morales]

To bad the one on Amazon (http://www.amazon.com/Devil-Summoner-Hackers-Japanese-Sega-Saturn/dp/B001U9OHRC/ref=sr_1_28?ie=UTF8&s=videogames&qid=1242778690&sr=8-28) is for the Saturn. :S

[Ike.]

Books edition for $47.00 (http://cgi.ebay.com/DEVIL-SUMMONER-SOUL-HACKERS-PS-one-Books-Import-Japan_W0QQitemZ280299995890QQcmdZViewItemQQptZVide o_Games_Games?hash=item41432e82f2&_trksid=p3286.m20.l1116)

[Kenji]

So, is that implicit confirmation that the prospective patch will be geared toward the PSOne Books edition? ;)

EDIT: (in any case, I bought it... because I am a tool)

[Tom]

From what I understand, and Gemini can correct me if I'm wrong, is that there are three releases of Soul Hackers... Original printing (that came with an Innocent Sin demo disk!!), PS One Books, and Playstation The Best.

Gemini and I both have the PS One Books version (unless he has the Best version, but I don't think that's the one he got)... He was intending to get the original pressing, but the ebay seller ended up sending him the Books version! :O

I guess it's most likely to be a Books release patch, but if there's no change in coding between the various releases, it may also work on those versions too. I'm guessing the Books version is the one that is most widely available, anyway. It's Gemini's decision in the end.

[jeffx]

I guess I suck at searching. Maybe it's cause I'm using ebay.ca(nada). I understand your point about the used games, but it only really applies to niche publishers like Atlus. Besides, these days most devs are completely against the used game market...

Anyway, best of luck to you guys! Great project.

[Tom]

I think most developers are opposed to the used game market when it applies to new games... For example, some people will wait a week after a game has been released until a used copy arrives for a few dollars cheaper. They buy that game instead of the new title, which cuts into the company's profits.

For out of print titles that can't be purchased new anymore (like Soul Hackers), it's always a good idea to buy a used game to contribute to the scarcity and allure of the series. If people have a hard time finding used copies, it's more likely that they'll buy the next game in the series while it's new.

In any case, this is a fun project to work on, and I hope that the Devil Summoner series continues to do well in the future. :)

[Emilio Morales]

Just a question. Did both of you waited until now to make this public because of the release of DS2? Maybe in that way you can catch even more fan's attention to the Devil Summoner series? Hehe, just curiosity :)

Good luck with the project.

[MetatronTorment]

I love you guys.

[Tom]

You'd have to ask Gemini about the timing. I think he was waiting until he got the variable width font working to reveal it. (You can see it on the status screen.)

That was a pretty big step. (The dialogue screenshot just uses the old in-game font.) With Gemini's new font, he'll be able to fit a lot more text on the screen!

I don't know if he was inspired by the new Devil Summoner release, but it does seem like a good inspiration to work, doesn't it?

[Emilio Morales]

^Yeah that's why I was asking ;) Damn, I can't wait for this one!! ^O^

[Himuro]

This is frakking awesome.

I love you guys.

[Gemini]

Did both of you waited until now to make this public because of the release of DS2?
It's just a mere coincidence. I haven't been following at all the release of Devil Summoner 4, Japanese or Occidental. Also, I don't really see how chapter 4 can make the release more interesting: Soul Hackers has been famous on its own for several years now, and Raidō sure ain't gonna make it more popular than it already is. :p

[Enzeru]

Thanks for the link, Tom! I'll just need that and Swap Magic and I'll be set!

[AbsyntheDelacroix]

Yes. YES, Gemini. Thank you. I'm proud of even being of your same nationality. Thank you both. Thank you.

[OverGAR]

YES, YES!! (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P3ALwKeSEYs) xD great new!! I always wanted to play the old Devil Summoner in English, now my dream will become reality D: :cool:

No. of Discs: 2

Two disc? :confused:

[Iris]

Best thing to come back from vacation to find ever? I think so. \o/

[Ike.]

YES, YES!! (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P3ALwKeSEYs) xD great new!! I always wanted to play the old Devil Summoner in English, now my dream will become reality D: :cool:

No. of Discs: 2

Two disc? :confused:

You know how Final Fantasy 7 had three discs? It's kinda like that.

[OverGAR]

YES, YES!! (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P3ALwKeSEYs) xD great new!! I always wanted to play the old Devil Summoner in English, now my dream will become reality D: :cool:

No. of Discs: 2

Two disc? :confused:

You know how Final Fantasy 7 had three discs? It's kinda like that.
I'd lol

But there are two old Devil Summoners right?

[AbsyntheDelacroix]

Yes, there are. Soul Hackers is the second of 'em.

[OverGAR]

Okay. Now i understand. But was a surprice for me that Soul Hacker had two disc, Persona was only one for each version.

[Enzeru]

Okay. Now i understand. But was a surprice for me that Soul Hacker had two disc, Persona was only one for each version.
It has two discs? I always thought that the second was referring to the demo disc. Hm!

[Gemini]

The game has several movie cutscenes, so no wonder it had to be spanned on two disks.

[OverGAR]

Good, movie cutscenes, I tough was only one. But i was a fool, I saw the ending because I didn't think someone will be translate the game XD

We have to wait until the next year for play it or the 2011 xD :very_sad:

PD: I fall in love with Nemissa D:

[Enzeru]

Are the Cutscenes like Tsumi with 3D environments and 2D character art? To Youtube!

[Tom]

Just don't spoil it like Overgar did. I would recommend just getting the game and waiting for the patch rather than watching it on youtube. The youtube videos only show the big scenes in the game, really, so you will get visual spoilers even if you can't read the text.

For anyone who is wondering about this game: yes, it has a mixture of 3D and 2D cutscenes. People appear in 2D, but everything else appears in 3D.

[OverGAR]

For anyone who is wondering about this game: yes, it has a mixture of 3D and 2D cutscenes. People appear in 2D, but everything else appears in 3D.
I miss that. I mean that's the animation I like. I don't mind the news SMTs but when the game have anime characters design (Persona, Devil Survivor) I really want to see this kind of movie cutscene.

Please, don't see anything in youtube I'm spoiled to much ;_;

[cj iwakura]

From what little I've played of the Saturn version, I know the art design is wonderful.

[AbsyntheDelacroix]

Well, I will start then. Gemini, Tom, have my babies.

[Kakizaki]

Awesome.

DC told me about this when I saw him, but I thought he was referring the old project. Nice.

[Kenji]

Well, my copy of Soul Hackers came in, and in rather good condition, too (not a scratch on the discs or case, manual in pristine condition). So, I'm all set for the release... y'know, 2+ years down the line. :P

It's kinda odd that I got into the franchise about two years ago and suddenly realize that I own a copy of every installment of the Devil Summoner series. :surprise:

I know it's odd that something like that snuck up on me, considering I bought each of those... but it is strange to consider.

Now that I'm done gloating, I do have a question about Soul Hackers and its place in the series. I note immediately that "Redman" contacts both the protagonists of DS1 and DS2, and I assume that the two are connected to each other by chain of events (via the chart I posted in another topic and the presence of the delicious Rei Reihou), but I wonder... aside from those incidental bits, what connects Soul Hackers to the rest of the Devil Summoner series? To my knowledge, this is the only DS game where you don't play a Kuzunoha or a detective, so what is the central element that binds it to the rest of its own series?

[Gemini]

Theoretically, you aren't using a Kuzunoha even in the first Devil Summoner. The main character is Kyōji Kuzunoha on the outside, but it's so only because you're "borrowing" his body.

[OverGAR]

Is related with the Kyouji Kuzunoha from the Raidou's history? I mean if on the original Devil Summoner they mention the Yatagarasu or the other Devil Summoners families.

In Soul Hacker there is a Kuzunoha or something like that?

[Kenji]

Actually, Kyouji Kuzunoha is present in at least four games... though I could be mistaken. However, as Gemini has said, you only see Kyouji in his own body for the first ten or so minutes of Devil Summoner... every appearance after that is significantly more... esoteric in nature.

That is one of the reasons why I thought that Persona and Devil Summoner (generally) take place in the same timeline, minus a few divergences.

That said, has it ever been said which number Kyouji Kuzunoha of 199X is? I know that there's a Kyouji Kuzunoha in the novel vs. the Undead Messenger, but he claims he's the First (whether he's the "undead messenger" or whether he's lying is something I don't know), but what about the Kyouji who's referenced in vs. King Abaddon?

[pedrovay2003]

Wow, this would be amazing. I keep hearing that Soul Hackers is one of the best SMT games ever, but I can't read Japanese. I'd grab this in a heartbeat.

[Tom]

Soul Hackers has a few cameo appearances from DS1, but for the most part, Soul Hackers' storyline is totally seperate from the other Devil Summoner games. I think the cameos are just there in order to establish that it is a "Devil Summoner" game.

The characters from DS1 show up every now and then, point you in the right direction, and then leave. They don't really go into any detail about why they're there, nor do they really talk in detail about what happened in the past... So any questions you might have about the Devil Summoner "world" are probably going to remain unanswered. This isn't like Eternal Punishment retelling the entire story of Innocent Sin. ;)

I am still translating the demon dialogue (not as fun as it sounds), but I'm working my way through it steadily. I want to finish translating the text by August.

[Emilio Morales]

^Wow, you guys rock! Translating a game that has tons of dialogue it's something to be recognize. Atlus should hire both of you ;)

[Tom]

I'd love to work for Atlus. But hey, even if they won't hire me, I'll still do translations. And if Atlus won't hire Gemini, maybe Konami will?

[Zenieth]

Day one Tom and gemini, your translations are always excellent.

[Kenji]

Soul Hackers has a few cameo appearances from DS1, but for the most part, Soul Hackers' storyline is totally seperate from the other Devil Summoner games. I think the cameos are just there in order to establish that it is a "Devil Summoner" game.
I see...

I've been developing a theory for awhile that, originally conceived, the Persona and Devil Summoner series really meant Playstation and Saturn series, respectively (ignoring porting for now), and that so long as a MegaTen was on a particular console, it would be a part of that particular series. So, conceivably, Persona 2 could've involved straight-up devil summoning via COMPs and still be a Persona game, so long as it was released on the PSX while that idea was still in effect, since Devil Summoner didn't seal itself as a detective-work/Kuzunoha-centric series until the Raidou installments.

[Ike.]

Tom ilu

[DC_Lov]

I finally got around and bought the first print version from ebay.

At first I plan to wait for your great translations but after I played the game just to test the discs and , well ,I became addicted! I think the way the enemies were cut to half when you slice them or how they fill with holes when you shoot them is beyond cool!

I hope I can finish it with my minimal japanese knowledge. Anyhow, I plan to to play it with your translation whether I finish it on my own or not.

Thanks, guys

[falconzss]

I finally got around and bought the first print version from ebay.

At first I plan to wait for your great translations but after I played the game just to test the discs and , well ,I became addicted! I think the way the enemies were cut to half when you slice them or how they fill with holes when you shoot them is beyond cool!

I hope I can finish it with my minimal japanese knowledge. Anyhow, I plan to to play it with your translation whether I finish it on my own or not.

Thanks, guys

lucky you :)

i am still looking for a first print version of the psx release. hopefully i can get my hands on one of these in the next few months.


anyway, you guys rock! keep up the awesome work. can't wait ^^

[Tom]

I'm just as eager as the rest of you. :)

[Bernard Summoner]

Heard a lot about this here game and this is pretty exciting. I'll be playing it nonstop when this is finished!

[dungeon_man]

Darn, I only have the Saturn version. Saw it in a store for $5 and bought it just because it was Soul Hackers. I guess I'll have to learn Japanese.

[Zachalmighty]

This thread deserves a bump, we haven't heard anything in almost two months and the anticipation is killing almost as much as having to wait to play Dragon Age Origins, Mass Effect 2, Borderlands and all the other great games coming out in the near future.

[Enzeru]

According to their website, the translation's done save for dungeon and map dialogue. However, no work on the hacking side has been done, and nothing will be until Dracula X and Echo Night 2 are released (Dracula X has been released, BTW).

[TheDoctor]

Everyone seems to forget than Aeon Genesis was working on this for a while and they haven't made much progress. I think they both ran into the same roadblock.

http://agtp.romhack.net/project.php?id=soulhackers

[Enzeru]

No, I remember that, but not only are Aeon Genesis' translations full of errors, but on the website Gemini said she (?) knew how to hack it, but she had to finish other games first.

[HIRO]

Tom are you from the old Devil' Summoner's Network by chance?

[AbsyntheDelacroix]

No, I remember that, but not only are Aeon Genesis' translations full of errors, but on the website Gemini said she (?) knew how to hack it, but she had to finish other games first.

She? I'm pretty sure Gemini's a he. But, well, I don't know for sure, so everything is possible. Back on topic, Gemini has still one secret translation to announce, so I suppose we'll have to wait until that too is finished. And Echo Night 2.

[Ike.]

Quit bumping this thread unless we get some significant info. You keep getting my hopes up. :very_sad:

[Raksha]

Regardless, DO WANT.

[TheDoctor]

I personally hope that Atlus makes a port on the PSP. I think this hack is going to take a very long time to be completed if it ever does.

If we would only get that Devil Summoner PSP port in the mean time...

[Gemini]

It's been said already: Devil Summoner for PSP won't be translated officially because of technical difficulties. Plus, it would cost them more money to hack&reinsert than to actually translate.

[OverGAR]

Any new about the translation?

[Kenji]

About how long did the translation and hacking for Innocent Sin take?

That's probably how long Soul Hackers will take. :P

I know that sounds pessimistic, but it's probably better to just let Tom and Gemini work and come to us with updates.

[Emilio Morales]

About how long did the translation and hacking for Innocent Sin take?

That's probably how long Soul Hackers will take. :P

I know that sounds pessimistic, but it's probably better to just let Tom and Gemini work and come to us with updates.

And probably even more, since it has 2 CDs. I agree, we better wait for Gemini and Tom for updates, because they know their work rhythm and we're not going to accelerate things if we keep asking every time.

[JeanM]

Tom and Gemini - Thank you for everything!! You guys are my heroes! ^_^'

Small question: I'm going to buy the PS version of this game and wait for the patch but I want to make sure that the version you guys are working is the Books one right?

I almost had a heart attack last time with IS because the patch didn't work for the Best version and I had ordered the game without knowing that but thank God I ended up picking the original print on ebay T__T

Keep up the awesome work!!

[Gemini]

Any new about the translation?
Not even one. I haven't touched the game in months. As I said already in the previous update, Soul Hackers won't be worked on as long as Echo Night 2 isn't released.

About how long did the translation and hacking for Innocent Sin take?
That's probably how long Soul Hackers will take. :P
I don't think Innocent Sin can be used as a comparison case. Soul Hackers is a very different game, converted in a horrible way to the Playstation. Hacking the code is a lot worse than the work done on Innoncent Sin, which is a native Psx game.

[OverGAR]

Any new about Echo Night 2? LOL

Ups so the translation is worse than Persona 2? OMG! D: well good luck with that...