Anybody Re-Translate Cross Yet?

[maggiekarp]

When I spout my catchphrase "the only thing Chrono Cross did wrong was the plot and characters", lately I've been asked "so was there any difference in the Japanese version?" I don't have an answer for this beyond the Honeygood accent system, so I figured I'd ask around here.

The major things I want to know are character "voices" (accents/lack thereof, development, etc.) and plot differences, but a full translation would most likely end up with a lot of good surprises, and might make for new questions.

[alfadorredux]

I must admit that I've been curious myself about how much character-flavour-text was removed in the course of the translation (if any—there is a fair amount of empty space on the CDs, and thus no technical reason that I'm aware of that a whole lot more script couldn't have been fitted into the English version, so why didn't they? Lack of originals is one possibility, but there are others.)

I don't think a retranslation currently exists, but I'm 90% sure that we have the means to extract the text from a JP version of the game, and I know there's someone here who has access to one, so the main barriers to creating one would be 1. kanji IDs (remember the CTDS dump? I think we'd have to do that again) and 2. getting an actual translator.

[maggiekarp]

Just a text dump can answer so many questions with a cursory glance. Was there some pproblem with the game that the script couldn't be extracted easilly?

Let's start with the basics

[alfadorredux]

There's a limit to how precise I can be here without violating the "no hacking" ban, but...

The script is 1. compressed and 2. uses a relative alphabet encoding (we have the encoding table for the English version, but, as far as I know, not for the Japanese). Fortunately, we have a working decompresser, so the big obstacle is the encoding table. Building it is going to require the extraction of the Japanese font graphic (probably not difficult once we find it), a bunch of kanji/kana IDs, and possibly some screen caps of the Japanese version in action to help in figuring out any double-byte encoding they may have used.

(Before anyone asks, I'm pretty sure I know how the basis for our existing English script was dumped, and that utility doesn't have the Japanese encoding table either.)

So: it's doable, but I can't do it working by myself (and I expect that if you could, you would already have offered)--we need either utunnels (who, if I'm not mistaken, has both the Japanese CDs and the mad kanji skillz necessary to build the table), or someone with the Japanese CDs who's able to follow my instructions to do the dump and someone to work on the kanji.

[utunnels]

Someone else has already dump the complete Japanese script, so probably we don't need the Japanese CDs.

But I have a feeling that Cross doesn't contain as many interesting differences as Trigger. But if you insist, it is at least not bad to have another script collection.

[alfadorredux]

If the text dump already exists, then all that's needed is a translator. Dunno if anyone's "insisting", exactly, though.

[utunnels]

We also need a person who puts the lines in order (figure out the speakers of the dialogues and replace those accent control codes with proper texts). 

[alfadorredux]

Did whoever did it not translate the speaker tag codes? They should be in the script files with all the rest...

[Vehek]

At least in the English version, there are lines which don't have specific speaker tags, even though they're meant for only one person to speak.

For instance, these two lines about the Neo-Epoch from the Compendium's script:

Member:
   What is this thing?
   How did it end up in here?
   
Member:
   This is one strange ship...
   Could it belong to that old man?

Despite using the generic tag, the fieldscript shows these lines are exclusive to Viper.

[alfadorredux]

Mrph. I'm almost tempted to say that the English script should be redone, or at least re-examined, first, then. (There are some lines missing from it too--I can't remember where, but I ran into a couple of gaps while working on Chrono Helix.) However, I'm not willing to put my money where my mouth is and actually do the work

[ZeaLitY]

Yeah, in the unlikely event anyone with Japanese skills is reading this with interest, please, please do Material Requiring Translation instead or first. Kato supervised Honeywood's translation of Cross and even added in extra clarifying information, so in terms of hidden gems there's a lot more to be gained from these developer interviews/Missing Piece/etc. right now.

[Vehek]

Whether Chrono Cross needs a retranslation might be debatable.

From a previous conversation:

I can tell you for sure it's not that much accurate. And I believe Kato only helped with the ending, where they added the clone child part. For the rest, the script is just terrible, in perfect Square style.

I get the impression from now-lost posts elsewhere that he views Honeywood as one of those inaccurate localizers. I wonder who's right.

[ZeaLitY]

Damn, I see...

[utunnels]

So should I prepare the raw scripts?
It might take a while since there are lots of control codes here and there.

[chi_z]

I for one would read a retranslate of RD or CC in one sitting.