r/Super_Robot_Wars • u/Level-Ad3420 • 2d ago
Currently Recruiting! Human-made Super Robot Wars Z translation in development!
Hello everyone,
As you know, there was a recent AI patch for SRW Z released in the community. We have been working actively on a Human patch for this game over the past 10 months and we are currently looking for additional people who can work with us towards the same goal. This game can be quite a challenge with the amount of text it has and the hacking required to move/update the text in the menus.
While we want to do a proper job of the translation, we also don’t want it to be a 10 year project. This is why we decided to break out the releases into smaller milestones to better show progress on the project & aid in recruitment efforts.
Releases
- 1st release would be a Menu patch
- Following releases will be more focused on stages
We’ll focus on Rand’s route for now as this is what our team decided and move to Setsuko after that. The most up to date news will be on our discord server.
Releasing a menu patch for us is a milestone that we can focus on and stay motivated.
We also think that this will help us show to the community what we can do and bring new collaborators.
Who can help us
We currently have 2 hackers, 2 translators and 1 editor and are mostly looking at recruiting more translators / editors / proofreaders.
We will make another post when we get closer to a beta and need more testers.
You can reach us on our Discord server: https://discord.com/invite/AwM4wBzCFC
So again, this team is real and our plan is to show more frequent updates on our Discord server.
I leave you to some images of what we have in progress so far.
Stewie, Project Lead
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u/BassForever24601 2d ago
Not much I can do to help this project, but sending y'all my best wishes and energy!
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u/Raidou317 2d ago
Honestly, happy you guys at least let us know it's being worked on. Will be looking forward to a release. I really hated reading summary's of the game, rather a line by line translation.
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u/Putrid_Common_6820 1d ago
For real, really glad people are starting to step up and announce their intentions instead of there being a vague whisper of someone putting together a group of crack translators on some ancient romhacking proboards years ago.
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u/Raidou317 1d ago
I mean, this is one of them times now where AI is around. If people don't announce anything, it might as well not exists until they make themselves known, so you're going to get people who uses AI to bring it out.
So at least this announcement being out will give people hope to hold out and wait.
Like originally was going to play Z2 translated by AI at some stage but now we getting a remake, just waiting on that now instead
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u/Putrid_Common_6820 1d ago
Yeah I really do not want to play the AI translated copy, so this is great. I will wait knowing there's active work to try and do it in a reasonable amount of time before the remake.
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u/mikethemaster2012 1d ago
I mean the translation of the AI is getting better but hey I understand ya I'll play both anyways one with rand the other Setsuko
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u/Putrid_Common_6820 2d ago
Best of luck, big dog! Rooting for you!
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u/Unlikely_Return6669 1d ago
Oh exciting stuff, best of luck to the team! Really excited to eventually play this version whenever it is finished.
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u/Rajang82 1d ago
This is great news.
People one day get to experience the gem that is the first Z!
Fixed Seed Destiny, the Tri System, TV Eureka Seven, classic Toei's Dynamic Planning mecha. All these in English.
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u/VashxShanks 1d ago edited 1d ago
I wish you the best of luck with translation.
Though I do have one note to make here based on the screenshots you provided.
I just had a quick question about the translation names for some of Gunleon's attack names:
Boomer Spanner (ブンマー・スパナ): This feels like a weird translation. Wouldn't a literal translation be something like Bunmer Spanner or least Bunmar Spanner. For localization it would be something like Whirling Spanner/Spinning Spanner. So I am not sure why you went with Boomer, especially when "Boomer" already has a meaning in English.
Riot GiaWrench (ライアット・ジャレンチ): Here I can see what you were going for but it still misses the mark for me. If you're localizing it, it should be Riot Giant Wrench, and if you're doing literal translation it should be Riot Jarench. I assume you tried to copy what the Japanese words were going for by abbreviating Giant and Wrench into one word, but I feel that doesn't work in English as it does in Japanese. Words in Japanese are often abbreviated in this manner so the reader can guess the meaning from just reading the name, while in English, GiaWrench is hard to figure out until the game explains it or the player watches the attack and puts 2 and 2 together.
Just my two cents of course, I am still learning Japanese so am not expert, just someone who played the game and knows the context for the names.
Also I want to make it clear that I am not complaining here, just wondering as to the reasons for the translation as I may have missed something. Translating JRPGs is hard work, and translating a SRW game is even harder with its novel worth of text and complex terminologies from so many different IPs. So all the best, and looking forward to the final release.
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u/TelevisionAlert1591 1d ago
That's how they're spelt in the HG Gunleon's manual/box
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u/VashxShanks 1d ago edited 1d ago
But surely you realize that those manual/box translations are probably machine translated, or translated by a Japanese person who isn't proficient in the English language. I would not use that as the actual official translations, just from how those two attack names alone you can tell the box/manual translation shouldn't be used.
Just to be sure, I checked multiple sites selling the HG Gunleon box, and all of them have different spellings for the weapons, though none of them is similar to what is used in the screenshot when it comes to those 2 attacks:
https://global.bandai-hobby.net/en-us/item/01_5369/ (Official Bandai site)
https://www.gundamplanet.com/products/hg-gunleon
Edit: Found the official HG manual/box, and it spells Rand's name as Land, but this translation is using Rand, so it doesn't look like they are following the manual/box translation. There is also no mention of Boomer Spanner, in the manual/box.
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u/ArcTempest 1d ago
What's on the kits and in their manuals will be using the official terminology and names, anything else will likely be MTL or otherwise quick and dirty translations, even official sites.
Best example, as usual, is over here: https://global.bandai-hobby.net/en-us/item/01_3417/
You have Cybuster and Cyberstar used within that page alone despite what is on the box itself, and a "Discutor" and "High Familia" as weapons, whereas the manual is fully consistent on everything, even including the stuff nobody likes like RA GEAS usage.
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u/VashxShanks 1d ago edited 1d ago
But then that still feels off. I searched around and found the manual and box, with the official translation. And there they:
1- Translated Rand Travis as Land Travis, but the screenshot in this translation uses Rand, not the official translation of Land. So they aren't really following what is in the box/manual.
2- While GiaWrench is there, there is no translation for Boomer Spanner, because box only has name for the parts and not the attacks. So Boomer Spanner is not from the official box/manual either.
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u/ApplefatGOV 1d ago
Boomer Spanner sounds rad as hell in English don't whine so much. At most Giawrench just needs a hyphen, like Gia-Wrench.
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u/Selynx 1d ago
Boomer Spanner (ブンマー・スパナ): This feels like a weird translation.
Given that Rand yells 「話の通じねえ相手は、ぶん殴るしかねえ！」("Hanashi no tsuujinee aite ha, bunnaguru shika nee" = approx. "For enemies that don't care to talk, nothing for it but to beat them up") as one of his quotes before attacking, I think the ブン in ブンマー is likely meant to be same "bun" as "bunnaguru" (meaning to shake/swing, the"naguru" part means to hit, the word "bunnaguru" together means to hit hard).
And that the whole word "bunmaa" (ブンマー) actually meant to be a pun on "hammer" using it (which is written ハンマー "hanmaa" in kana). "Ha" and "Bu" are part of the same kana gojuon group in the kana alphabet (the kana group in question is "ha", "hi", "fu", "he", "ho", which becomes "ba", "bi, "bu", "be", "bo" with dakuten).
That being the case, it's kinda tricky to preserve the pun.
"Boomer" is probably not too bad an attempt at doing so, "Slammer" might be another. "Smashammer" (i.e. from sledgehammer) might be a bit of a mouthful.
This is probably one of the things there's no right answer about and the translator has to use their best judgment to pick what they think is the most suitable/least bad from the range of possible options.
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u/VashxShanks 1d ago
That's a good guess, but not correct since they already explain the meaning of what Bunma means in the game, it is one of the few things I remember since I found it funny at the time.
Bunma is from BunMawasu (ぶん回す) = to swing something around wildly or whirl it around. Which is what he does with the spanners when he uses them as nunchucks.
Here is a screenshot from her spelling it out when he uses the attack, as she starts by saying "Darling, give it a good whirl/swing" (image link).
Which after Land confirms with this "Yes, it is the Bunma (Whirling) Spanner!" (Image link). Basically explaining the bun.
As I said, I played the game and Gunleon is on one of my all time favorite mechs, which is why I had to comment on the attack names.
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u/Level-Ad3420 22h ago
Did you both join our server, if you have a strong knowledge about these and want to help, we can talk with you :)
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u/Selynx 22h ago
Huh, so it seems. In which case, yeah, if the explanation for the name is laid out explicitly like that in-game, I agree you'd need to choose a more directly-equivalent name, otherwise the dialogue in which it gets explained wouldn't make much sense (or else that dialogue would have to be swapped out for something else entirely).
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u/Arraxis_Denacia 1d ago
This is awesome to hear! SRW Z is one of the one's I've really wanted to play and did play alongside an LP part of the way. Looking forward to seeing how your version goes!
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u/KamenRiderHelix 1d ago
Someone already pointed out the shown translation for Gunleon's attack here seems off, but 'this is high end goods with markings of' is also straight-out wrong in multiple ways.
I understand the desire to be petty towards the AI translation that happened, I truly do, but if your human-made translation ends up being consistently worse, that sends the exact wrong message, doesn't it?
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u/Rdogg114 1d ago edited 1d ago
it turns out ai does have a practical use ragebaiting people into working on translations.
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1d ago
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u/momoharu-taro 1d ago
This is awesome!
I’m doing the ai patch play through with setsuko, can’t wait to do Rands path when you guys release this project.
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u/retrorevive 2d ago
Ehh, I am wondering why contacting the guy who made AI translation and build your release upon that is not an option?
AI Slop or not, it's an easier and more sensible route to take. I think the author of AI release would not mind, stuff is on GitHub and you can contribute.
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u/Level-Ad3420 2d ago
Hello,
similary to what u/Fistinguranus69 said, the hacking is not the issue at the moment. We have our own process of translating, editing and proofreading. The editors are able to collaborate and discuss with the translator when they do. Our translators would also need to redo the full translation because there's no way you can tell if the AI did a good job or not.
That's why we decide to do it ourselves•
u/retrorevive 1d ago
Sure, I don't have anything against your approach. As I said, it's a chore. In that regard for the matter of discussion you can eventually show us the differences in quality in between AI translation and yours. It's an interesting situation where AI translation was done first and it's considered good enough to play and enjoy it? I dunno how much the AI guy was invested in SRW lore that the translation was rendered crap.
I am not a proofreader or translator, but my first comment came from a simple deduction that it's easier to correct than to start over. Sorry if I made someone offended.
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u/Selynx 1d ago
It's not easier to correct than start over. That's the problem.
When checking for accuracy, the checker needs to translate the original Japanese themself and compare it against the other one (in this case, the machine output) to be sure it matches. They have to do translation themself in the first place, in order to check.
Time is only saved if there are portions already confirmed "good" that don't need to be checked. However, this particular machine translation in question has apparently not even been proofread by anyone. So there isn't even someone on that team who can say which parts are "safe" and don't need to be revisited, versus which parts will need to be focused on.
That means the whole machine output needs to be gone over and checked for accuracy. And whoever does the checking has to translate the whole script themself, to check against the whole machine output script for accuracy.
And if they need to translate the whole script again themself to do the checking..... then it is not actually much, if any, time saved.
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u/Fistinguranus69 1d ago
Why would a hobby be a chore? Do photographers just stop taking pictures cause ai can generate a picture? The reward is the work, you only see the end result and you think the journey has no value when the fact of learning and getting better is rewarding as well.
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u/Fistinguranus69 2d ago
Because it's not the hacking the issue it's the translation. The hacking needed is not done on the AI patch. The ASM needed to make the text fit and look nice is something the AI doesn't give a FUCK about.
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u/retrorevive 2d ago
A valid point but still doesn't justify what it can't be build upon AI translation. All the best to the team though, it's a chore and that's one beefy release to translate and adjust.
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u/KaelAltreul 1d ago
There is no point to doing that when you literally have to redo the entire translation since you cant trust the AI to have properly done it. It's actually more work to use AI translations.
MTL/LLM/Etc commonly skips Japanese characters when translating which skews the translation as well as flattening out the dialogue to make it more streamlined which removes personality and quirks. Mainly due to lacking context and such to actually see it.
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u/Moondrag 1d ago
MTL/LLM/Etc commonly skips Japanese characters when translating which skews the translation as well as flattening out the dialogue to make it more streamlined which removes personality and quirks. Mainly due to lacking context and such to actually see it.
And this is excluding any typos cause yes, even Japanese games have them. There is no way MTL/LLMs would know if something is a typo or not.
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u/UFOLoche 1d ago
Ok, let me put it this way:
What's easier to gloss over, a bunch of words in your primary language that're clearly wrong in a jumble together.
Or something that's clearly supposed to be translated?
Like, if you're going to be re-translating it anyway...why not?
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1d ago
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u/Known_Strength_9726 1d ago
Good Luck. When it comes out I would like to see how it compares with the ai version.
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u/Klonoa18 1d ago edited 1d ago
i posted this translation project few days ago but the moderator remove it and people keep saying its an ai slop project, shout out to the moderator who remove my post about this translation project
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u/RinconAniki 2d ago
Good luck.