RPGe's translation of Final Fantasy V was one of the early major fan-translated works. Original Japanese is on the left; RPGe's translation is on the right.
The fan translation practice grew with the rise of video game consoleemulation in the late 1990s.[1] A community of people developed that were interested in replaying and modifying the games they played in their youth. The knowledge and tools that came out of this community allowed them to work with translators to localize video game titles that had never been available outside of their original country of origin.
Fan translations of video game console games are usually accomplished by modifying a single binary ROM image of the game. Fan translations of PC games, on the other hand, can involve translation of many binary files throughout the game's directory which are packaged and distributed as fan patch. In dealing with translations of console games, a console emulator is generally utilized to play the final product, although unofficial hardware, hardware mods or software mods can be used to run the translated ROM image on its native hardware.
Purpose
The central focus of the fan translation community is historically of Japanese-exclusive computer and video games being made playable in English for the first time, and sometimes of games recently released in Japan that are import-worthy and are unlikely to be officially localized to English-speaking countries. It has since expanded to include other languages as well. Fan translations to English have provided a starting point for translations to many other languages. A fan translation is also started if a certain game released in Japan is not announced for localization within one year from its Japanese release.[citation needed]
Fan translations may also be done to titles that have received official localizations that fans perceive as flawed; for example, if the game had controversial content removed (such as Bionic Commando), or there were unnecessary changes in plot and character names (such as Phantasy Star).
The fan translation community was at its most popular, and attracted the most media attention, when certain popular game titles were still being worked on. These were usually parts of popular series such as Square Enix's Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest. Some[who?] consider the peak to have been reached with the translation of Seiken Densetsu 3 (sequel to Secret of Mana, eventually given an official translation as Trials of Mana), a title that was highly desirable to RPG players and also very difficult to translate on a technical basis.
Some already translated RPGs are available on reproduction cartridges to play on the real hardware for some systems like the SNES.
Origins
The earliest English fan translations were done by Oasis, a group formed by Dennis Lardenoye and Ron Bouwland, two Dutch fans of the MSX system. Konami’s RPG SD Snatcher was translated in April 1993, and Dragon Slayer: The Legend of Heroes was translated in 1995. Their other projects include Fray, Rune Master 3, Xak - The Art of Visual Stage, Xak 2, Xak - The Tower of Gazzel, Ys, Ys II: The Final Chapter and Wanderers From Ys.
In Korea, many fan translations of games made by ELF Corporation were produced for DOS PCs, starting around 1996. These patches were successful and ELF hired some of the translations teams for official Korean releases later on.
These were possible before emulation on PCs became popular (or even adequate enough to play games) because the games were on floppy disks, and were therefore easier to distribute to the users, in comparison to ROM cartridges used by video game consoles (the MSX also used cartridges, but methods were discovered to copy the content onto floppy disks and other media too).
Revival after emulation
The development of console emulators led to access to foreign video games. A revival began in 1996 when a group calling themselves Kowasu Ku formed under the lead of one "Hazama". The group stated plans to translate Final Fantasy V, but their efforts were never publicly released. Later that summer, a user called Demi announced work on a Final Fantasy V translation and founded Multiple Demiforce. It was eventually dropped in favor of Final Fantasy II (NES), a more manageable goal at that time. Demi and Som2Freak used Pasofami to post four screenshots of their work to Archaic Ruins, an emulation website. Shortly after, the translation stalled and the group disbanded.
Derrick Sobodash (Shadow) and David Timko both saw the Archaic Ruins website and contacted Som2Freak expressing interest in translating Final Fantasy V. He provided each with some primitive tools, and for the next few months, Shadow and Timko worked against each other. Both projects generated renewed interest in fan translation.
After months of working against each other, Shadow and Timko began cooperating.[2] RPGe, the first major translation group was established on July 8 in the #ff5e IRC channel, on the EsperNet IRC network by Shadow, Timko, Hooie and Thermopyle.[3] The start of RPGe sparked many other efforts to unify and within months, Translation Corporation, DeJap Translations and Starsoft Translations had formed.
RPGe's translation of Final Fantasy V was completed October 16, 1997 (version 0.96).[4]
It is unusual for copyright holders to object to fan translations. This is probably largely because the electronic games in question are generally not considered commercially viable in the target language, so the translation is rarely seen as a source of lost revenue.
However, in 1999, one well-known incident in which copyright holders took action involved the translation of a Windows game maker called RPG Maker 95. The Japanese company ASCII had their lawyers send a cease and desist e-mail to the translation group KanjiHack Translations. However, unlike most translation groups, KanjiHack was caught linking to a site to illegally download the entire then-recently released RPG Maker 95 software (including a copy-protection crack).[7] The group shut down immediately but others eventually finished the project. Titles from the RPG Maker series were eventually localized and officially released in the US for the PlayStation and PlayStation 2.
In 2014, publisher Square Enix issued a cease and desist order to Sky, a romhacker who had completed a highly anticipated[8] fan translation of the PSP game Final Fantasy Type 0, soon after they announced an HD version of the game for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. This forced him to remove all posts and pages pertaining to the project (which were eventually restored months later). Sky claimed that Square Enix had made "threats and false accusations".[9] According to Kotaku, Sky had released the translation early against the team's wishes, possibly to preempt any legal action following a localization announcement at E3, and Square Enix may have been forced to announce the HD version prematurely as a reaction to the patch's release.[10]
In September 2022, translation group ZeroField, responsible for English translation spreadsheet and overlays for Trails games, received a cease and desist order from NIS America.[11]
A popular belief in the fan translation community is that distributing only a binary patch, which must be applied to the full, original game, is legal. The reasoning is that the patch only contains the new data and directives for where it is to be placed, and does not have the original copyrighted material included in any form, and therefore it is useless unless the user applies it to a (copyrighted) ROM, the acquisition and legality of which they are left completely accountable for. This belief is untested in court. Regardless, the patch must still contain a translated script that is derived from the copyrighted script of the original, but this anti-software piracy attitude by the fan translation community may have convinced copyright holders to, by and large, turn a blind eye.
There have never been any legal cases involving fan translation issues, and such projects have been relatively widespread over the Internet for years. In recent years, anime fansubbers have started to attract the attention of some American anime distributors; and as of 2004 one manga scanlator has been handed a cease and desist by a Japanese company, but most of this attention has been restricted to polite entreaties asking fan translators to refrain from dealing with licensed material. As with the fansub and scanlation scenes, most sites devoted to translation hacks will not acknowledge projects that compete with commercially available localizations, and respected groups will generally attempt to steer clear of projects that may see localization.
An article of Helbraun law firm remarks in the context of fan translations that redistributing complete games with adaptions most likely does not fall under fair use, but in patch form it might fall under fair use, but this was never tested in court.[12]
Game company acknowledgments
On July 12, 2007, RPGamer released an interview they did with Koichiro Sakamoto, a game producer from Square Enix, acknowledging fan translations: "On a similar note, we told Mr. Sakamoto that a fan translation had been done some years ago for Front Mission 1, and asked how he felt about such efforts. The producer replied that he actually found them very encouraging -- it's something the developers should be doing, but because they're not, the fans are doing it instead. He stated that he'd like to be able to give something back to the fans, and would like to thank personally each of the fans that worked on the translation."[13] Clyde Mandelin, a professional localizer and lead of the Mother 3 fan translation project, received letters of thanks from employees of major game development companies for his translation work.[14]
In 2010, publisher Xseed Games licensed and paid for the use of a fan translation of Ys: The Oath in Felghana (PC) in the PSP port in order to offset the localization costs of such a "niche" game.[15]
In 2011, adultvisual novel publisher 0verflow acknowledged the fan translation group Sekai Project and its efforts to localize School Days. Eventually, American bishoujo game publisher JAST USA licensed the game and paid for the use of Sekai Project's work in their release,[17] offsetting the localization costs in a similar manner. JAST USA also licensed Xuse's Aselia the Eternal[18] and paid the fan translation group Dakkodango Translations for use of their translation.
In 2010, the Japanese game company Minori sent two cease and desist emails to No Name Losers, a fan group that worked on an unauthorized translation patch of their game Ef: A Fairy Tale of the Two. However, a partnership between Minori, No Name Losers, and American game publisher MangaGamer was later negotiated to allow the official release of Minori's games in English.[19][20]
While many studies covering fan translation examine the more technical aspects of extracting the text and manipulating it to translate it,[22] some others emphasize on the literacy and language related practices gamers develop through their engagement in the fan translation of games. They adopt many roles, acquire and put into practice not only IT skills but also linguistic and sociocultural skills, and maintain interesting conversations online with fellow gamers that lead to meaningful and situated metalinguistic discussions on language chunks and translation strategies.[23]
Chrono Trigger is a 1995 role-playing video game developed and published by Square. It was originally released for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System as the first entry in the Chrono series. The game's development team included three designers that Square dubbed the "Dream Team": Hironobu Sakaguchi, creator of Square's Final Fantasy series; Yuji Horii, creator of Enix's Dragon Quest series; and Akira Toriyama, character designer of Dragon Quest and author of the Dragon Ball manga series. In addition, Takashi Tokita co-directed the game and co-wrote the scenario, Kazuhiko Aoki produced the game, while Masato Kato wrote most of the story. The game's plot follows a group of adventurers who travel through time to prevent a global catastrophe.
Final Fantasy is a fantasy anthology media franchise created by Hironobu Sakaguchi which is owned and developed and published by Square Enix. The franchise centers on a series of fantasy role-playing video games. The first game in the series was released in 1987, with 16 numbered main entries having been released to date.
Final Fantasy IV, titled Final Fantasy II in its initial North American release, is a role-playing video game developed and published by Square for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. Released in 1991, it is the fourth main installment of the Final Fantasy series. The game's story follows Cecil, a dark knight, as he tries to prevent the sorcerer Golbez from seizing powerful crystals and destroying the world. He is joined on this quest by a frequently changing group of allies. Final Fantasy IV introduced innovations that became staples of the Final Fantasy series and role-playing games in general. Its "Active Time Battle" system was used in five subsequent Final Fantasy games, and unlike prior games in the series, IV gave each character their own unchangeable character class — although at a few points in the story, a dark knight will choose the path of a paladin, or a summoner will evolve to a new tier of spellcasting.
Final Fantasy VI, also known as Final Fantasy III from its initial North American release, is a 1994 role-playing video game developed and published by Square for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. It is the sixth main entry in the Final Fantasy series, the final to feature 2D sprite based graphics, and the first to be directed by someone other than series creator Hironobu Sakaguchi; the role was instead filled by Yoshinori Kitase and Hiroyuki Ito. Long-time collaborator Yoshitaka Amano returned as character designer and concept artist, while composer Nobuo Uematsu returned to compose the game's score, which has been released on several soundtrack albums.
Final Fantasy VII is a 1997 role-playing video game developed by Square for the PlayStation console and the seventh main installment in the Final Fantasy series. Square published the game in Japan, and it was released in other regions by Sony Computer Entertainment, becoming the first game in the main series to have a PAL release. The game's story follows Cloud Strife, a mercenary who joins an eco-terrorist organization to stop a world-controlling megacorporation from using the planet's life essence as an energy source. Events send Cloud and his allies in pursuit of Sephiroth, a superhuman who seeks to wound the planet and harness its healing power to be reborn as a god. During their journey, Cloud bonds with his party members, including Aerith Gainsborough, who holds the secret to saving their world.
Final Fantasy Chronicles is a compilation of Square's role-playing video games Final Fantasy IV (1991) and Chrono Trigger (1995), released for the North American Sony PlayStation on July 2, 2001. TOSE ported both titles from the Super Nintendo Entertainment System; each had been previously released as individual Japanese PlayStation ports in 1997 and 1999. Several bonus features were added to each game, such as art galleries, bestiaries, and cutscenes—including computer-generated imagery full motion video used at the beginning of Final Fantasy IV and anime scenes used throughout Chrono Trigger.
Bahamut Lagoon is a 1996 tactical role-playing game developed and published by Square for the Super Famicom.
Nihon Falcom Corporation (日本ファルコム株式会社) is a Japanese video game developer, best known for their Ys, The Legend of Heroes, and Trails series. The company was founded in March 1981, making them one of the oldest active video game companies. They are credited with pioneering the action role-playing and Japanese role-playing game genres, as well as popularizing the use of personal computers in Japan.
Quintet Co., Ltd. was a Japanese video game developer, founded in April 1989. The company name is derived from musical terminology, as well as five elements of game design—planning, graphics, sound, programming and producing. Quintet was most active in the 1990s, when it had a strong relationship with Enix ; the company was also a member of the GD-NET group of Sega Saturn developers. Quintet has not been active since the 2000s and are likely defunct.
Tengai Makyō, also known as Far East of Eden, is a series of role-playing video games released in Japan and Taiwan. The series was conceived by Oji Hiroi and developed by Red Company, debuting on the PC Engine CD-ROM² System in 1989.
Xak: The Art of Visual Stage (サーク) is the first game in the fantasy role-playing video game series Xak developed and published by Micro Cabin. It was originally released for the NEC PC-8801 computer system, with subsequent versions being developed for the NEC PC-9801, Sharp X68000, MSX2, PC-Engine, Super Famicom, and mobile phones. The first four versions were re-released for Windows on online store Project EGG. An English translation of Xak: The Art of Visual Stage was also released in 2007 on the now-defunct retro gaming service WOOMB.net, and became available on Project EGG.
RPG Maker, known in Japan as RPG Tsukūru, is a series of programs for the development of role-playing video games (RPGs) with story-driven elements, created by the Japanese group ASCII, succeeded by Enterbrain. The Japanese name, Tsukūru, is a pun mixing the Japanese word tsukuru (作る), means "make" or "create", with tsūru (ツール), the Japanese transliteration of the English word "tool".
Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions is a tactical role-playing game developed and published by Square Enix for the PlayStation Portable (PSP). The game is an updated version of Final Fantasy Tactics made for the PlayStation, which was released in 1997.
A video game console emulator is a type of emulator that allows a computing device to emulate a video game console's hardware and play its games on the emulating platform. More often than not, emulators carry additional features that surpass limitations of the original hardware, such as broader controller compatibility, timescale control, easier access to memory modifications, and unlocking of gameplay features. Emulators are also a useful tool in the development process of homebrew demos and the creation of new games for older, discontinued, or rare consoles.
The Japanese video game developer and publisher Square Enix has been translating its games for North America since the late 1980s, and the PAL region and Asia since the late 1990s. It has not always released all of its games in all major regions, and continues to selectively release games even today depending on multiple factors such as the viability of platforms or the condition of the game itself. The process of localization has changed during that time from having a one-person team with a short time and tight memory capacities to having a team of translators preparing simultaneous launches in multiple languages.
Chrono Trigger: Crimson Echoes is a fangame developed by the international team Kajar Laboratories as a ROM hack of Square's role-playing video game Chrono Trigger for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. It was conceived as an unofficial installment in the Chrono series, set between the events of Chrono Trigger and its sequel Chrono Cross.
While the early history and distinctive traits of role-playing video games (RPGs) in East Asia have come from Japan, many video games have also arisen in China, developed in South Korea, and Taiwan.
The Mother 3 fan translation is a complete English-language localization of the 2006 Japanese video game Mother 3 by members of the EarthBound fan community led by Clyde "Tomato" Mandelin. The original game was released in Japan after a decade of development hell. When fan interest in an English localization went unanswered, members of the EarthBound fansite Starmen.net announced their own fan translation in November 2006.
Final Fantasy Type-0 HD is an action role-playing game developed by Square Enix and HexaDrive, and published by Square Enix for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, and later for Windows via Steam. It was released worldwide in March 2015, while the Steam port was released in August. Type-0 HD is a high-definition remaster of the Japan-exclusive PlayStation Portable game Final Fantasy Type-0, a spin-off from the main Final Fantasy series and part of the Fabula Nova Crystallis subseries, a set of games sharing a common mythos. The story focuses on Class Zero, a group of fourteen students from the Dominion of Rubrum who must fight the neighboring Militesi Empire when they launch an assault on the other Crystal States of Orience. In doing so, the group become entangled in both the efforts to push back and defeat the forces of Militesi, and the secret behind the war and the existence of the crystals.
Ys vs. Trails in the Sky: Alternative Saga is a 2010 crossover fighting game by Nihon Falcom. Similar to the concept of Super Smash Bros. and Dissidia Final Fantasy, the game involves players choosing a character and participating in up to four-player fights against other characters sourced from Falcom's Ys and Trails role-playing game series. It was released only in Japan for the PlayStation Portable on July 29.
↑ Parkin, Simon (October 29, 2008). "Mother 3 Review". Eurogamer. Gamer Network. Archived from the original on September 4, 2014. Retrieved September 7, 2014.
↑ Muñoz Sánchez, Pablo (2009). "Video Game Localisation for Fans by Fans: The Case of Romhacking". The Journal of Internationalization and Localization. 1: 168–185. doi:10.1075/jial.1.07mun.
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