What a fabulous way to kick off 2018: the Ripened Tingle's Balloon Trip of Love English translation patch has been released

Eight months ago, I published a post that declared an English (fan) translation of Ripened Tingle's Balloon Trip of Love for the Nintendo DS was nearing completion.

Well, a patch containing that translation was released last night, just in time to close out 2017 with a wonderfully fabulous bang. (Download it now at tingletranslation.blogspot.com.)

I plan to start through it this coming week, and I'll do my best to share at least a few thoughts on the experience here by the end of the month.

In the meantime, those of you who are curious to learn more about the Ripened Tingle's Balloon Trip of Love fan translation should check out my interview with the guy chiefly responsible for getting the project off the ground.

Ten questions with the guy chiefly responsible for the (nearly complete) English fan translation of Ripened Tingle's Balloon Trip of Love

You're all waiting with bated breath for the English fan translation of Ripened Tingle's Balloon Trip of Love to be released, right?

Don't tell me this is the first you're hearing of it. I wrote about it back in May--in a post titled, "Coming soon-ish to a DS near you: a fan translation of Irozuki Tincle no Koi no Balloon Trip"--for crying out loud.

Unfortunately, we've still got a bit of a wait before the patch is finished and made available to the hand-wringing masses. In the meantime, here's an interview with the guy who not only got this project off the ground but is seeing it through to its release.

I can't share his name in this post for reasons that should be obvious. I can, however, share the handle he tends to use for his fan translation work: joesteve1914.

With that out of the way, let's get to the 10 questions I recently asked joesteve1914 about this tantalizing project as well as his responses to them.

The Gay Gamer: Why did you decide to translate Irozuki Tincle no Koi no Balloon Trip? Are you Tingle fan from way back? Or maybe you're more of a general DS, Nintendo or Zelda fan?

Joesteve1914: I'm a big Zelda fan. I've loved the Legend of Zelda series my entire life, and I've played almost every game in the series. When I learned of the Tingle series, I was instantly intrigued since Tingle is one of my favorite characters. (Not many people share that opinion!) I played Freshly-Picked Tingle's Rosy Rupeeland and liked it, so I wanted to experience its sequel as well.



The Gay Gamer: When did you start this project? You launched its blog in early 2013, but based on your first posts, it sounds like the project began before that?

Joesteve1914: Yeah, the blog was something I thought of a few months after I started working on the game. If we're being really technical here, I suppose the project started on July 31, 2012, at around 5 pm EST. That's when I posted in the RHDN forums asking for help with hacking the game, since I had never done ROM hacking before. I basically spent the next two years trying to learn about ROM hacking in my spare time. I didn't have the help or the knowledge to start a long-term project like this until the beginning of 2014. So realistically you might say the project started “for real” in 2014.

The Gay Gamer: How many people have worked on or are currently working on the patch? Also, can you explain what each person on the team has worked on or is working on now?

Joesteve1914: In total, around 13 people have contributed to the project so far. At the moment, our team consists of five people. First up we have our translators, waldrumpus and DaVince.

DaVince joined in early 2014, right around the time a major development occurred that made the translation of the script a realistic possibility. He translated the first “page” and some other miscellaneous stuff in the script. He also sometimes stops by our Slack channel and helps us with localization decisions (names, how to translate puns, etc.).

As for waldrumpus, he joined in August of 2014. Like me, this was his first time working on a fan translation. Despite this, he went on to translate nearly 90 percent of the very lengthy script by himself. The dedication waldrumpus has had over the last few years has been amazing. He also is going to be involved in the editing process and will be there to assist the other editors if they have questions.

Next up we have chir-miru, who's been helping out here and there since 2012. At the beginning of the project, chir-miru and I both worked on hacking, which included figuring out how to edit the script and the graphics in the game. We parted ways for a while, but chir-miru came back in 2016 and helped out with some graphics editing.

Zell0s joined in July of 2016 as a graphics editor. He’s been a great help to the graphical side of the project. He did, by my estimate, nearly half of the graphics in the game himself before he left the project this year. We also have masterofzoroark on the graphics side of things. He joined in June of this year. He's been a great help in recent months, too--especially as we near the end of the graphics editing. Finally, we have Pandamanu, who very graciously did the English graphics for the chapter scrolls in the game. There’s around 44 of those, so this was a big help and sped the project up a lot.

And then we have our script editors. We’re still assembling this team, so that work hasn’t really begun in earnest yet.

Although not part of the team, these next few people have also been a huge help to the project. There’s DarthNemesis, who coded the awesome script dumper and extractor (I can’t even imagine editing the text manually), as well as FShadow, who created the new English title logo.

There’s also Auryn, Kelebek, Normmatt and FAST6191; they have given advice and assisted me with some of the more difficult (at least for me!) hacking.


The Gay Gamer: What has been the biggest stumbling block to the project so far? Or what has been the biggest problem you've encountered since you kicked it off?

Joesteve1914: For me personally, the biggest stumbling block in general has been my inexperience with rom hacking. When I started this project back in 2012, I had no experience whatsoever in hacking; in fact, I decided to learn rom hacking for the purpose of translating this game.

I’ve had a lot of problems in terms of hacking that I’ve had to overcome, but the most major one would be figuring out the game’s text engine; specifically how to fit in more text, since English takes up more space than Japanese most of the time. Thanks to the help of Kelebek, we now know that the game uses an unconventional way of determining the length of text. Long story short, it ranges from extremely painful to impossible to expand the amount of text displayed manually. Fortunately, DarthNemesis’s text editor makes editing the text as easy as editing a .txt file.



The Gay Gamer: Have you been pleasantly surprised by anything while working on this translation?

Joesteve1914: I think what surprised me the most was the support and encouragement we got from people. Seeing hundreds of people view the blog every day, as well as the comments that people leave, is very encouraging. I’ve even received a few offers to donate money to the project! Unfortunately, if we accepted anything we’d be asking for a cease-and-desist letter from Nintendo.

Coming soon-ish to a DS near you: a fan translation of Irozuki Tincle no Koi no Balloon Trip

Most Nintendo fans know about two of the Tingle games the company published for the DS a few years back.

The first, of course, was the Zelda-esque Freshly-Picked Tingle's Rosy Rupeeland, which hit the streets of Japan in 2006 and Europe in 2007. The second, Tingle's Balloon Fight DS, also was a 2007 release, although it never left the Land of the Rising Sun. (If you'd like to see some snapshots of the latter title's case, cartridge and instruction manual, by the way, you can do so here, here, here and here.)

Well, Nintendo offered up a third DS game to Tingle fans two years after Tingle's Balloon Fight dropped. Its name: Irozuki Tincle no Koi no Balloon Trip, which apparently translates to Ripened Tingle's Balloon Trip of Love.

Unlike its predecessors, this title isn't an action RPG or a rehash of an arcade classic. Instead, it's a point-and-click adventure game.

As if that weren't appealing enough (I don't know about you, but I've long been attracted to point-and-click games), the story that envelopes the gameplay of Ripened Tingle's Balloon Trip of Love is based, at least in part, on The Wizard of Oz.

Combine all of the above with a rather glorious art style (see screenshot on the right) and you've got a game that looks to be right up my alley--if my understanding of Japanese were in a more advanced state than it currently is, I mean.

Thankfully, I probably won't have to wait another year or two to stumble my way through Balloon Trip of Love's oddball story. That's because an English fan translation of the Vanpool-developed game is rapidly approaching its finish line.

Unfortunately, no one really knows when the patch containing Balloon Trip of Love's English translation will be offered up to the masses. Considering the most recent update on its progress suggested the project was nearly 80-percent complete, though, I have to imagine a release by the end of this year is a possibility.

In the meantime, you can keep an eye on how things are going by checking out the translation team's blog at tingletranslation.blogspot.com. (Threads devoted to their efforts can be found at gbatemp.net and romhacking.net as well, if you're curious.) Something else to keep an eye on: my upcoming interview with the person heading up this ambitious project.

See also: my Tingle's Balloon Fight DS review

It's easier than ever to take a Magical Vacation--even if you don't know Japanese

Like a lot of people, I've wanted to play the Brownie Brown-made (and Nintendo-published) Magical Vacation since I first became aware of it in the lead up to the GameBoy Advance's early-2001 release.

What's stopped me from doing so? The language barrier is the biggest reason, no question. Although I'm (slowly) learning Japanese, I still haven't learned enough to understand the story in games like this one.

Thankfully, that's no longer an issue--or at least it no longer has to be an issue. That's because an English fan translation patch hit the Internet the other day that makes Magical Vacation accessible to schmucks like me who aren't quite ready to stumble their way through an RPG that otherwise displays text they don't understand.

To learn more about this patch--or, you know, download it--go to romhacking.net.

Before you grab it, though, you might like to know the Magical Vacation patch contains a few glitches, typos and chunks of untranslated text. It's still quite playable, and even enjoyable, based on what I've been told, but I thought some of you would appreciate hearing about the above-mentioned issues before diving into this candy-coated (yet also surprisingly dark--again, based on what I've been told) adventure.

Are any of you planning to give this a try? Or maybe you're already making your way through it? If your answer to either of those questions is yes, please let me--and others--know in the comments section below.

Okaeri! Chibi-Robo! Happy Richie Oosouji (DS) now playable in English

Until a couple of days ago, I had no idea anyone was working on an English patch of this previously Japan-only DS game, which is a direct sequel to the first Chibi-Robo! game released for the GameCube back in 2005.

Specifically, Okaeri! Chibi-Robo! Happy Richie Oosouji (localized here as Chibi-Robo: Clean Sweep!) "takes place a couple of years after the original game’s story, where little Jenny has grown up and has a family of her own," according to romhacking.net. "However, they live a hard life--dealing with poverty and a very dirty home."



Chibi-Robo sweeps in to save the day, of course. In Happy Richie Oosouji, the adorable tin can toils away to "solve the problems of the family [as well as] the toys found around the house." He also does what he can to rid the not-so-humble abode of the grime that covers nearly every surface.

Want to learn more, or even download Cjuub's patch, which supposedly translates all of Okaeri! Chibi-Robo! Happy Richie Oosouji's dialogue and graphics into English? Click on the Romhacking link above. Additional info can be found at gbatemp.net.

I guess this means I'll have to get myself a copy of Danganronpa (PSP) soon

Although I remember being intrigued by the Spike-developed and -published PSP title, Danganronpa: Kibō no Gakuen to Zetsubō no Kōkōsei, around the time of its original Japanese release back in late 2010, it fell off my radar pretty quickly when it became clear it'd never see the light of day outside of the Land of the Rising Sun.

That all changed a few days ago when I discovered that not only has someone (or a team of someones) decided to produce an English-language fan translation of this portable "murder mystery visual novel," but a patch containing said translation already is available for download at danganronpa.wordpress.com.

My own personal reason for wanting to play Danganronpa has less to do with the unique quality of its content, by the way, and more to do with its absolutely superb art style. Cases in point:

I mean, really--who wouldn't want to play a game that's filled with illustrations like the ones above?

If that's not enough for you, though--and there's certainly nothing wrong with that--here's the fan-translation team's rather enticing description of the title:

"Danganronpa ... is a unique kind of adventure game. Described by its creators as 'psychopop' and 'high-speed action mystery,' [it] takes your typical whodunnit mystery and straps it to a rocket, fusing puzzle-solving with real-time action elements inspired by shooting and rhythm games–and it does so to incredible effect."

My only qualm with all of the above at the moment is that I'm pretty sure I'll have to softmod my PSP in order to patch the game (after I pick up a physical copy of it, of course), and for some reason I'm a bit nervous about doing so. Should I find a way to overcome those fears, though, you can bet your butt I'll play through this thrilling-sounding sucker as soon as possible (i.e., after my Animal Crossing: New Leaf obsession wanes a bit).

Checking in on Captain Rainbow's English translation

To all of you who forgot that someone was even working on an English fan-translation of the skip-developed, Nintendo-published oddity known as Captain Rainbow: No worries, I forgot, too.

Now that you've been reminded, though, you'd probably like to hear how things are going with said fan-translation, right?

Well, according to an update that was posted to kirameki.altervista.org on Jan. 15, the project is back on course after taking a couple of wrong turns over the last few months.



Along with that hopeful message, the folks at Kirameki also shared on their site a new trailer, above, which highlights some of the progress they've made in translating this fabulous (in all senses of the word) Wii title.

Here's hoping that their good fortune continues and that they can get this long-awaited (by me, at least) patch out before the Wii U replaces the Wii as my go-to console.

(Via gonintendo.com)

How could I forget about Captain Rainbow?

Did you forget that a fan translation is being created for Captain Rainbow? I sure did. Thankfully, a recent post over at GoNintendo reminded me of it.

Sadly, although it sounds as if said translation--which I believe will released as a patch, à la last year's Fatal Frame IV fan translation--is coming along nicely, it also sounds as if it won't see the light of day anytime soon.



To help make the wait more bearable, the folks at Kirameki recently uploaded the video above--which shows off their translated intro for this Skip Ltd.-developed game--to YouTube.

(Via gonintendo.com)

If you like The Legend of Zelda, you'll probably like For the Frog the Bell Tolls, too

So, I spent a good part of this past weekend playing Kaeru no Tame ni Kane wa Naru--aka For the Frog the Bell Tolls. What do I think of this amphibian-focused, import-only-until-recently GameBoy RPG thus far? Read on to find out.

It looks a lot like The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening--I don't know why that surprised me, as I knew going into this game that Link's first portable adventure was created using the engine that the folks at Intelligent Systems came up with for Kaeru no Tame ni Kane wa Naru.

The game's story is as charming and cute as its sprites--That's saying a lot, as I'm a total sucker for the art style Nintendo's designers used in so many of the company's GameBoy titles. Anyway, the gist of this one's story: Princess Tiramisu has been kidnapped, and rival princes--Richard, from the Custard Kingdom, and, er, you, from the Sable Kingdom--compete to rescue her from the upper-reaches of Mille-Feuille Castle.

Battling enemies is ... interesting--In most Zelda-esque ARPGs, you fight foes by slashing them with a sword or other weapon (which is accomplished by mashing the A or B button). In For the Frog the Bell Tolls, you simply run into them and then watch as the battle takes place in a cloud of dust. Whichever character is stronger wins. I know it sounds lame in theory, but in practice it works pretty well. It also keeps the game from feeling like little more than a Link's Awakening hack.

The whole package feels like a breath of fresh air--Especially if you've had your fill of everyone's favorite plumber and his friends. Don't get me wrong, I love Mario and Kirby and all of Nintendo's other go-to characters. That said, I miss the days when Miyamoto and his colleagues regularly churned out new IPs like this one.

Are any of you playing through For the Frog the Bell Tolls? If so, what do you think of it so far? If not, no worries--I'll continue to share impressions of the game as I edge ever closer to its finish line.

See also: 'Well, I guess I know what I'll be playing this weekend (and probably next) ...'

Well, I guess I know what I'll be playing this weekend (and probably next) ...

There are two reasons I've been wanting to play the import-only-until-now GameBoy title, Kaeru no Tame ni Kane wa Naru (aka For the Frog the Bell Tolls), for some time: 1) Its protagonist, the Prince of Sable, is tasked with rescuing someone named Princess Tiramisu (she lives in Mille-Feuille Kingdom, by the way) and 2) Its engine was later used to make The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening.

Well, it seems I can stop wanting and start playing, as someone calling himself RyanBGSTL (catchy name, I know) has just completed an English translation of this Intelligent Systems-developed title. (Download RyanBGSTL's patch at romhacking.net.)

In case you'd like to know a little more about the game before giving it a go, here's a video of its first nine minutes:



(Via tinycartridge.com)

To those of you who have yet to play EarthBound Zero (aka Mother) ...

... may I suggest you do so soon now that a fan translation of the GameBoy Advance title, Mother 1+2, has been released?

Why should you play the version on Mother 1+2 rather than the available-for-eons EarthBound Zero? Here's how Tomato, the person behind this translation (and the translation of Mother 3), recently responded to that question:

"The EarthBound Zero ROM has a good number of changes, censoring and mistakes with plot details and dialog. The text in the EarthBound Zero ROM is also very dry due to limited NES resources. Doing a retranslation with this GBA version allowed for a lot more text, and censoring/changes weren't necessary. The result is a script that should hopefully be more engaging and natural-sounding."

Another reason to skip EarthBound Zero and play the version included on Mother 1+2 instead: The latter includes an "Easy Ring" (found in Ninten's room at the beginning of the game) which can be used by those who hate having to grind for experience and money.

According to Tomato, "this item, when equipped, greatly increases the experience and money you win from enemies while also reducing the amount of random battles. It makes the game much less of a chore, which is one of the main reasons EarthBound fans have a hard time getting into the game."

For more information on the Mother 1+2 fan translation, or to download the ROM patch needed to play it, go to mother12.earthboundcentral.com.

Reason #846 to be thankful for fan translators

The folks at kirameki.altervista.org (along with a few "external staffers") are hard at work on a fan translation of the cult-classic Wii title, Captain Rainbow.

Once the translation is complete, a patch will be released that will work much like the one created for Fatal Frame IV (i.e., all gamers will need to play the translated version of Captain Rainbow is an original copy of the game, an SD card and the kirameki.altervista.org crew's patch).

(Via gonintendo.com)

See also: 'Reason #845 to be thankful for fan translators'

The 'Mother' of all novel translations

Reason #2,516 to be jealous of the Japanese: In 1994, not only did they gain access to Shigesato Itoi's Mother 2 (aka EarthBound), but they gained access to Kumi Saori's novel adaptation of the Super Famicom/SNES title, too.

Thanks to Lindsay Nelson, we may soon be able to scratch that reason off the list. Why? Well, the Wisconsin-born blogger has decided to spend this Golden Week translating (into English) Saori's 492-page paperback.

Although Nelson won't be posting the full translation on her blog--due to a pesky little thing we call "copyright law"--she will be posting "excerpts from the book that are really worth taking a look at."

Anyway, all of this is a rather long-winded way of letting you know that I heartily recommend checking out Nelson's blog if you have any interest in the Mother series whatsoever.

Finally! GiFTPiA in English

OK, so only the game's intro has been translated into English. You've got to start somewhere, though, right?



Anyway, the folks at kirameki.altervista.org translated this Animal Crossing-esque "communication adventure" game, which was developed by skip Ltd., into Italian some time ago.

If you'd like them to translate it into English, too, head on over to their site tout de suite and take part in their most recent poll.

(Via gonintendo.com and tinycartridge.com)

Reason #845 to be thankful for fan translators

I just discovered that a talented group of gamers (Crimson Nocturnal) are translating Square Enix's DS remake of SaGa 2 (known to most Westerners as Final Fantasy Legend II) into English.

Not only that, but the patch they're working on is coming right along. According to a recent update on Crimson Nocturnal's site, v1.0 is nearly complete and should be released "soon."

Although I'd prefer to (buy and) play an officially localized version of this game, I'll take what I can get.

See also: 'Reason #844 to be thankful for fan translators' and 'Reason #843 to be thankful for fan translators'

Reason #844 to be thankful for fan translators

The team over at DQ Translations has released its long-awaited translation patch for the PS2 remake of Dragon Quest V. Here's a video showing the pixelated (or maybe I should say polygonal) fruits of their labor:



Honestly, I shouldn't describe the patch as "long-awaited," as I didn't even know it was in the works until it was released. Don't take that as an indication of my interest (or lack thereof) in the project--I just don't pay attention to such things (e.g. PS2 fan translations) because I'm unable to benefit from them. (My PS2 hasn't been modded and my PC isn't powerful enough to run PCSX2.)

If you are able to benefit from such things, by all means give this patch a try. Dragon Quest V, with its multi-generational plot, is one of the most unique JRPGs around and, as such, is well worth your time.

See also: 'Reason #843 to be thankful for fan translators'

Reason #843 to be thankful for fan translators

For some strange (or stupid) reason, the powers that be at Nintendo's American and European subsidiaries have decided against releasing Fatal Frame IV: Mask of the Lunar Eclipse in their respective territories, despite the fact the that Japanese version of the survival-horror game was a ratings and sales success.

Tired of waiting, a dedicated group of translators and programmers decided early last year to do what Nintendo wouldn't and began working on a patch that would allow English-speaking Fatal Frame fans to play Suda 51's take on the series without modding their Wii systems.

Well, the patch was released today. All you need to play the fully translated version of Fatal Frame IV: An original copy of the game, an SD card and, of course, the patches that can be downloaded at zero4.higashinoeden.com.

No worries if you're like me and you don't (yet) have a copy of Fatal Frame IV--you can watch a playthrough of the patched version of the game here: