Chrono Trigger Retranslation using Chrono Tools

[Teh Mick]

OK here's the point.

I started my frenzy summer with a lot of work ahead and the Retranslation project is my last priority. I have a summer job, extra school during 3 weeks and the Google Summer of Code.

I sended a email to Bisqwit about script relocation problems, thus far I got no reply. And now I got no time to investigate this problem myself.

So, instead, Iet's work on improving the script. I'm seeking help from this forum for the harmonization process. As you know, the Retranslation contains a lot of Engrish sentence. I will register a project on assembla.com to get a nice SVN server. SVN is a tool used to keep all revision of a text(ex: source code) and greatly simplify a collaborative process like this one.
So Uncle Mick wants you !

My contact information:
Email/Jabber: larouche at kde.org
MSN: michael.larouche at kdemail.net

[stenir]

I'd be willing to help de-Engri-fy it. Or however getting rid of Engrish would be written. But that gives me a question to ask: In the spreadsheet, everything is in blocks. Do we need to keep to those blocks and deEngrify that way? Or are we able to do one character's line in full? Here's examples:


During the campfire scene, Robo has this line:

Original Translation:
Robo:
After 400 years of experience, I have come to think that Lavos may not be responsible for the Gates.

Retranslation:
Having now journeyed over 400 years, I have
realized something.

WE HAD thought that the emergence of Gates
WAS from the distortions from Lavos' power,
but the feeling HAS come upon me that we
were mistaken.


Are each of the two lines ("Having..." and "WE HAD") needing to be separate from each other? Or can it be treated as one line of text?

Then again, I guess it wouldn't really matter, because it would still have to be typed in.

Let me know what I can do to help!

(I'm just gonna start translating each character's lines separately. That way, just in case, it won't be hard to change.)

[justin3009]

Do the words need to have that much emphasis on them?  Doesn't seem to fit right, especially for a robot.  I'm also not sure if you capitalized just to show that they may need changing, but since "having" wasn't captialized I took a stab at it.

[CyberSarkany]

I think that's how Robo talks, LIKE this, stressing the "wrong" words.

[stenir]

Placing the stress on those words was not my doing, I took it from the retranslation. I copied it word for word.

But de-Engrification would take this:

"Having now journeyed over 400 years, I have
realized something.

WE HAD thought that the emergence of Gates
WAS from the distortions from Lavos' power,
but the feeling HAS come upon me that we
were mistaken."

To this:

"After four hundred years, I have come to the realization that Lavos may not be responsible for the Gates."

That'd be the simple way. Trying to get all the same information and thoughts from the retranslation would be this:

"After four hundred years, I feel we were mistaken. We thought Lavos' energies may have caused the Gates, but perhaps something else may be responsible."

[justin3009]

I see.  Just wanted to make sure >_>

[ZeaLitY]

If this goes through, whoever does it had better be a damn good script writer. KWhazit produced the retranslation precisely to be faithful to the original Japanese so we could analyze what they saw and even leave their idioms intact. It was the goal.

[stenir]

Perhaps those of us interested should go through the entire script and do a massive rewrite, and then post it. We can them combine the best parts together (or whoever's is the best). I'm already working like mad on it.

[Teh Mick]

Sorry all about the late reply

@stenir:
Hey thanks for the interest ! you should work on the ct.txt I included in my latest release instead. I'm currently setting up a Subversion server on assembla.com to ease management of rewritting the script. Subversion keeps tracks of all revision(i.e save) of the text and it's very useful when several people are working on the same project.

http://www.assembla.com/wiki/show/ctretranslation

@ZeaLitY:
Sure, that's my goal to be close as possible to the Japanese meaning.

But we need to find a good speech for Robo that fit with what the Japanese intended with the characterisation

[stenir]

The ct.txt file is in a weird order. Is there any way I could do it in game order instead? That way I can follow each scene like the story and make certain that everything adds up the way it should.

But if you want me to work from this file I will. I've just been going from the excel spreadsheet version, so I can compare the old and new translations.

EDIT:

I'm still new at modifications, especially scripts. What are the limitations on the amount of text for each "screen", I'd guess you'd call it?

[Teh Mick]

No, a game order ct.txt does not exists. It is how the text is stored in the ROM and I use this file to insert the text into the ROM with Chrono Tools.
As for the text limit by screen, I will checkout to get a exact version but my guess would be 220 characters.

You should grab the latest copy of ct.txt using TortoiseSVN and right-clikc in a empty folder and select SVN checkout... and enter this URI:

https://tools.assembla.com/svn/ctretranslation/trunk

Can you add me to your MSN roster, unless you already did ? Anyway I will guide you into this new world for you.

[stenir]

I'll get that when I get home, as I'm currently at work. Mostly, I'm just translating the game order spreadsheet, as I mentioned before. So, about 220 characters...hmm....

Is that per text box? I'm assuming there's 4 or 5 lines to a text box, so that would mean about 40 characters a line?

Then the next question is do I have to separate each line, or does the system automatically enter a "hard return" when it reaches the end?

By MSN, do you mean hotmail...cause that's my e-mail. I'll PM you with my e-mail address.

EDIT:

nvm...I forgot you can see e-mails in the profile screens.

EDIT 2:

We need to have a task force for this. How long do you think it will take to fix up the translation? Because I figure after that, we'll have to scrutinize it to make certain all the information lines up before the final product goes out. Thoughts on that, please.

[Teh Mick]

I'll get that when I get home, as I'm currently at work. Mostly, I'm just translating the game order spreadsheet, as I mentioned before. So, about 220 characters...hmm....

Is that per text box? I'm assuming there's 4 or 5 lines to a text box, so that would mean about 40 characters a line?

Then the next question is do I have to separate each line, or does the system automatically enter a "hard return" when it reaches the end?

I just tried to fit a lot of characters in a text box. The max I've got is 176 characters including the spaces. I used "wc -m"  command which is part of every POSIX system. My recommended number would be 150-156 characters. But that's really depend of each dialog and how Chrono Trools generate the line break.  Just use your common sense

As for the number of characters per line, the average is 42.
Yes that's 4 lines per dialog box but you can add many [pause] as you want.
Also, the 3 space indenting is implement just a one byte so you don't need to worry about it.

If you looked closely in ct.txt you will find some text like this

Code: [Select]

Gina: I'll bet you wound up too excited to[nl]
   get to sleep last night, didn't you?[nl]
   Well, it's the Millennial Festival,[nl]
   so that's only natural, but...

or something like this:

Code: [Select]

Also, the treasure boxes that are in this house,
the mayor left for the sake of adventurers.
Take them with you without restraint.
Chrono Tools will format correctly this text according to width of each character per line. This is very handy when writing script because you don't have
to worry about line breaks.

By MSN, do you mean hotmail...cause that's my e-mail. I'll PM you with my e-mail address.

EDIT:

nvm...I forgot you can see e-mails in the profile screens.

EDIT 2:

We need to have a task force for this. How long do you think it will take to fix up the translation? Because I figure after that, we'll have to scrutinize it to make certain all the information lines up before the final product goes out. Thoughts on that, please.

Well this look me like 3-4 weeks working 2-3 hours per session to reinsert the whole script from the Excel file. I was trying to do 2 blocks per day. A review process is much much more longer because you need to understand fairy well the meaning of the script and getting a correct English sentence out of it.

For about 20 dialog box, I have done this but something I've written my understanding in French and retranslate back in English but that's because French is my primary language.

[stenir]

So, basically, 4 lines of 46 characters?

[Teh Mick]

So, basically, 4 lines of 46 characters?

I would say 40 characters but don't abuse the limit