Sakura Wars - Translation Notes
(or: from PC to Saturn and Back Again)
From cj_iwakura:
I've owned a copy of Sakura Wars for many years, and like most, I played it using the legendary
GameFAQs translation.
And that was the only way I knew of, until one day, at RPGFan's message board, I learned that Sakura
Wars had actually been localized... in Russian.
So myself and EsperKnight got the crazy idea to try and localize that version, since we figured the
hardest leg work had already been done. (The Russian script was reportedly the equivalent of a google
translation, so we sure weren't using that as a base, hilarious though it might have been.)
Thanks to both Nym from RPGFan for bringing this to my attention, and a translator named Nezumi,
we were making real progress.
Then we started getting deeper into the game, and realized that not only was it based on a roughshod
translation, it was also for a super old OS, and getting it to run smoothly on modern computers was
providing extremely difficult for even the ones doing the translation.
Imagine how it would have been for however many people who wanted to play it.
Then we found out there was a Saturn one in the works...
From NoahSteam:
“The Saturn version started off as an independent project being announced on Twitter on May 10th
2018. About eight months in, the Saturn version was about half way done as far as the main story
dialog goes. Other technical hurdles such as image patching, battle dialog, battle menus, and some
system menus were also partly done.
The translation was coming along really well mostly due to the work of MatatabiMitsu. Then about
eight months into the project, it got another another boost of energy when cj_iwakura reached out
which gave us access to his translators Nezumi and Schlomo. Those two, combined with the super
talented MatatabiMitsu and CrouchingMouse from the Saturn team blazed through the rest of the
untranslated text over the next several months.
Later, the team grew larger as trekkiesunite118 and BowlOfLentils joined in. TrekkiesUnite118 was
able to pull of an amazing feat of actually adding subtitles to all of the movies and taking on other
hacking tasks which to this point had seemed out of reach. This included two of the minigames which
were originally going to be left in Japanese (Maria's and Kanna's minigames), and helped me figure out
how to patch the load screens and the intro logos. The final version of the minigames and the intro-
logo are mostly the work of trekkiesunite118. BowlOfLentils, cj_iwakura, and several others on the
team went through the whole game during the testing phase with a fine-tooth comb editing lines of text
and point out bugs. At the end of it all, I believe this is almost a professional level product when it
comes to the polish and the sheer amount of data that was modified. Thank you to everyone involved
and I hope you all enjoy the game!”
So what did we patch? I'm glad you asked!
• All of the story dialog
• All of the battle dialog
• All of the minigames
• All battle menus
• All system menus
• Added subtitles to every movies(!)
• Every load Screens
• Bootup screen
• Intro logo
The only thing we were not able to translate in game is, sadly, the end credits.
You can find a video with the translation here.
Any changes to the original script were made with the intent of conveying the Japanese meaning(s) to
Western audiences. In case you're curious, a style guide is as follows.
“Ogami-han” (Kohran) = Chief
“Taicho” (Kanna) = Boss
“Onii-chan” (Iris) = Mon Frère “Black Web” (Kuronosu-kai) = Hive of Darkness
The villains' Japanese titles have been replaced with their English color equivalent(i.e. Aoi Satan –
Cerulean Satan).
シルスウス鋼 = Celesteel
Teigeki-dan = Imperial Floral Assault Troupe / Troop
Shogeimaru = Soaring Whale
Gourai-Go = Thunderstrike
Without further ado, here's the credits of everyone who made this possible, to the best of our
recollection. If we missed you, please call me out and we promise you a public apology and to add you
in and to send you your very own life-size Koubu*.
*may vary
Project Lead
NoahSteam
Hackers
NoahSteam
TrekkiesUnite118
Lead Editor
cj_iwakura
BowlOfLentils
Editors
CrouchingMouse
Schlomo
MatatabiMitsu
Lead Translators
MatatabiMitsu
Schlomo
CrouchingMouse
Nezumi
Translators
Kate Robinson
Eien Ni Hen
Cal Hampton
Eben Williams
Margie Obendorf
Sarah Dopierala
Mason van Dyk
Image Editing
Joqu
Ibnu
Testers
BowlOfLentils
cj_iwakura
CrouchingMouse
PsionicStorm
Paragonias
burntends
Talent Recruitment
cj_iwakura
Kevin Walters (Turbo857)
Trailer
Edited by TrekkiesUnite118 and Bowl of Lentils
VO by CrouchingMouse
Narration Script by Eien1No1Yami and CJ Iwakura
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_H5BL8NzLBo
Song Lyrics
“Arise! Imperial Floral Assault Troupe!” (Geki! Teikoku Kageki-dan)
Transliteration: Shinobi Chirlind-Byouko
http://www.virtual-rotation.com/chirlind/others/sentai.html
Translation: bluepenguin
http://ejtranslations.wordpress.com
Lyrics: cj_iwakura
“Flowering Maidens” (Hana Saku Otome)
Transliterated: Shinobi Chirlind-Byouko
http://www.virtual-rotation.com/chirlind/others/sentai.html
Lyrics: cj_iwakura
Special Thanks
EsperKnight - For some great hacking advice. The script would have been butchered in certain parts
of the game were it not for his suggestion of how to cram so much text into the given amount of space.
CybwerWarriorX - For providing some very initial clues into how the text in SakuraWars is stored.
ItsumoKnight - For managing the discord channel and giving us all some awesome icons :)
Mym - For introducing me[cj_iwakura] to the Russian PC version of the game.
Victor Ireland - For inspiring fan translators and having tried to bring Sakura Wars to the West.
FaustWolf - For introducing me [Noah] to the amazing world of fan translations, Saturn hacking,
showing me that what seems impossible can be made possible.
Sega and RED - For creating this amazing game and a badass console!
To Guillaume Duhamel, Theo Berkau, Anders Montonen, and EsperKnight for making Yabause's
debugger the most user-friendly tracing tool out there. This patch would not have been possible
without their work.
To everyone involved with Mednafen, by far the best Saturn emulator I have used.
To SadNESCity and PhOeNiX, for making Delta Patcher.
To the Romhacking.net community, for being awesome, and for keeping a central
hub for fan works alive.
