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1

Gaming / Re: Rosenkreuzstilette - A Love Letter to Retro Gaming - Official English Release

« on: February 03, 2017, 05:55:09 AM »

1. HOW DID I LET MYSELF MISS THIS YESTERDAY?!

"The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing."

2. Can we merge this post with my RKS Thread?

I forgot RPM's policy on necroposting; since your thread hadn't been touched in over a year, I erred on the side of caution and started a new one.

3. I think you messed up posting the video on Rockman PM, so allow Phi to help you get up to speed with the changes here and I'll fix it up for you.

Thanks.  Fixed.

4. I know what I'm getting (early) for my birthday alongside my copy of Mega Man Legacy Collection (3DS).

-EDIT-Seems to be up on Steam now, but I'd rather get it on Playism since you score a DRM-free copy as well as a Steam key.

Yep.  I wish I'd known that before I bought my Ys & Trails in the Sky games for the fourth time.  That's not an exaggeration; I imported them directly from Falcom, bought 'em on PSP from Xseed, grabbed 'em again on PC through Steam, and again, DRM-free, on GOG.  I never knew that Humble was offering both unbranded DRM-free versions and Steam keys...

Oh, before I forget, I'll just leave this here:

http://youtu.be/P37FRi2Ojps
It's not ours, but we wish it was.  Fans can be awesome sometimes.

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Gaming / Re: Rosenkreuzstilette - A Love Letter to Retro Gaming - Official English Release

« on: January 27, 2017, 06:54:54 AM »

As far as I'm aware, the game will be priced at $9.99 USD.  Steam typically discounts the game by 10% at launch, so you should be able to grab it for $8.99.  That's quite a bit cheaper than DLsite's asking price for the Japanese version of the game.  When I first bought the game years ago, it was around $14.

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Gaming / Rosenkreuzstilette - A Love Letter to Retro Gaming - Official English Release

« on: January 26, 2017, 12:23:55 PM »

Hello, everyone.

I just popped in to announce that the official English version of Rosenkreuzstilette will be available on Steam and the Playism storefront next week.  I could gush about what the game is like, but I think a trailer would do the job faster.  If you consider yourself an old-school gamer, I can guarantee you're going to love it.

http://youtu.be/j436-Xoz2uo

Full-Disclosure:  I'm the lead programmer / graphics editor / localization specialist at Darksquid Media (formerly Darkside Translations).  My crew and I translated the game entirely for free back in 2009.  A few years later, we were scouted to handle the official release of the game and its sequel.  The rest is history. 

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Gaming / Re: Rosenkreuzstilette ~Blades of the Rose Cross~ Thread

« on: October 23, 2011, 09:41:25 AM »

I took some time to listen to the *mp3 on the other blog post you made earlier after making the posts here. And I try to practice typing fast, but I usually make those kinds of mistakes.. Would it be better if I refer to you as "Darkside" instead?

Darkside is the name of our group.  Yes, the 'D' in my handle also stands for "Darkside", but the two are not interchangeable.  You can call me just "TDO", if you prefer - keeping in mind that my proper handle is TDOMMX.

After hearing the *mp3, I can't wait to hear Freudia, Grolla, Sichte, and Liebea dubbed in English by you guys.

To be fair, Kira did an excellent rendition of Freudia's "I'll lay you to rest on a cool bed of ice..." that literally gave me chills.  On the whole, though, I didn't think the role of Freudia suited her.  Amanda really surprised me with how well she portrayed Liebea's emotional incontinence (this girl deserves a prize for the energy she puts into her performance - just listen to her Zorne), but, again, her voice didn't quite match what I was looking for.  Nobody has auditioned for Grolla and Sichte just yet; Mint is fully prepared to propose to whoever is cast as Grolla (I wish I was kidding...).

We're still recruiting voice actresses, so if you know someone who has talent and wouldn't mind coming to either California or Montreal for the voice recording (or has access to a home studio that would allow them to phone in their performance), please spread the word.  I'm hoping to have a good chunk of the voices ready before the snow hits (pun not intended, but it works).

Again, Studio SiestA should take notes and stop hiring bad translators to localize any doujin games that might be coming to XBLA (Trouble Witches NEO! annoyed me enough already with the bad translations and dubbing, although I kinda use the "two sides of every coin" approach with this game since the awful localization can be seen as funny as Castle Shikigami II's English localization).

Not a member of the "so bad, it's good!" camp here.  I think the voicework for both Castle Shikigami / Castle of Shikigami titles is just plain bad.  Castle Shikigami 2 had a terrible translation and an obvious lack of care, but Castle Shikigami III's campiness was intentional.  Shame.  To me, that's a sign of disrespect when the game is intended to be taken seriously (like, say, Symphony of the Night).  On the other hand, I welcome it when the title is supposed to have a self-deprecating sense of humor ("I HAVE FURY!").

Atrocious works like The Room should never receive the amount of respect and acclaim that they have garnered over the years.  Sadly, it seems like the future predicted in Idiocracy is a likely possibility, seeing entertaining works that have valuable messages to convey be overshadowed by tripe staunchly defended with the phrase, "what do you mean, it's not awesome?!"...  This applies to video games, too.  Why was Okami a commercial flop while Madden can release the same game over and over again with no penalty and even Big Rigs has sold more than ten times as well...?

Okay, enough of that.  Rant over.

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Gaming / Re: Rosenkreuzstilette ~Blades of the Rose Cross~ Thread

« on: October 20, 2011, 06:05:40 PM »

Well, I'm a little late with my reply, but what the hey...

Was that you as Count Zeppelin, TDOMXX?

Nope.  That was a segment from one of the MP3s Tristan MacAvery sent me back in August.  I thought my next bowel movement would consist of bricks when I read his email and heard the clips - a mere two hours after I first contacted him, no less.  I had a bit of trouble sedating my inner fanboy while recording the announcement, which is why my voice sounds a little odd (well, that and I'd just recovered from an acute case of bronchitis).

The lesson learned:  Aim for the stars; you just might reach them.

By the way, it's TDOMMX, not TDOMXX.  When people see photos of me from before I shaved off my mustache, they could swear I looked like an out-of-work porn star.  I don't need anything else tacitly reinforcing that idea, even if unintentionally.

And Iris officially scares the [parasitic bomb] out of me dubbed in English.

Yep.  Kira's great, isn't she?  Her takes on Tia, Lilli, Luste, and Iris are all awesome.  Her Trau isn't bad, either.  Only three of the roles have been cast as of this writing, though.  I have yet to hear renditions of Freudia, Grolla, Sichte, and Liebea that I'm fully satisfied with.

[spoiler]To think that the voice of the current Dracula from the Castlevania games would have an interest in being a VA in the English Dub of this game...

It would be beyond easy to figure out who he'll be in this game...[/spoiler]

Yep.  Patrick makes an awesome Mister Zeppy.  

...

...What?  You've never heard Joji Nakata's Neco-Arc Chaos?

Man, first Christina Vee is helping out Reverge Labs with Skullgirls by voicing Cerebella and voice directing the game, now she lends a helping hand to Darkside and Zeppy with Rosenkreuzstilette's English dub? She is one swell lady. I am excite.
Maybe Studio Siesta (the doujin team behind Trouble Witches NEO!) can learn a thing or fifty about English localization from them.

Heheheh.  Incidentally, Alex and I will be handling the directing for Darkside Montreal.  Cristina and Mint will be handling the directing for Darkside California (or is that Zeppy California?), with me attending via teleconference.  

My mantra: if you're not going to do a job you can be damned proud of, you shouldn't be doing it in the first place - let someone who knows what they're doing handle it instead and take the opportunity to learn from them.

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Gaming / Re: VG Villians

« on: June 01, 2011, 01:52:44 AM »

Viper, pardon the nitpicking, but you might want to look up what "penultimate" actually means before using it.  It means "second-to-last" (ie: Eve is the penultimate boss of Parasite Eve; her son, "The Ultimate Being", is the final boss).  Also, there's no hyphen in the word.

As for my not-by-any-means-comprehensive contributions:

Count Vlad Tepes Dracula (nearly every Castlevania title)
- The Prince of Darkness who makes his opponents question if they're really doing the work of God as they claim with an unshakable air of dignity and class surrounding him.  Ironically, his awakened human form is far more dangerous than his many, many demonic incarnations.

Ganondorf / Ganon (every odd-numbered The Legend of Zelda title)
- Needs no introduction.  The Ocarina of Time version is one of the few final battles for which the word "epic" can be used without hyperbole.

Kefka Pallazzo (Final Fantasy VI)
- Face it: when was the last time you saw a villain try to destroy the world, and SUCCEED!?  Every single one of your party members must recover their nearly-non-existent will to live and tattered resolve to fight before even thinking of taking this "clown" down.  A batshit insane sociopath, and he's loving every minute of it.  Basically, Square's answer to The Joker.

Galbalan / Galvaran (Ys ~The Oath in Felghana~)
- Synthetic lifeform loses his sanity and swears vengeance against his creators, turning himself into a God in the process.  Easily has one of the best battle themes in all of gaming this side of Castlevania (slowly builds up before hitting full throttle at 0:40).

Meta-Knight (nearly every Kirby title since Kirby's Adventure)
- Only a "villain" in the sense that he opposes the protagonist.  When the "hero" a greedy, shoot-first-ask-questions-later glutton who beats the crap out of you if he so much as thinks you stole his strawberry shortcake, it takes a sword-wielding masked protector-of-the-peace to put him in his place.

Wolfgang Krauser (Masami Obari version, Fatal Fury II: The New Battle)
- A young, charismatic nobleman just looking for a good fight, and doing a damned fine job of making enemies to get it.  Paul Dobson's voicework makes the character just that much more classy ("Joe, once again you are being far too loud.  Die quietly, please, or I shall have to ask you to leave.").

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Gaming / Re: Rosenkreuzstilette ~Blades of the Rose Cross~ Thread

« on: March 15, 2010, 02:23:53 PM »

It's about time RKS saw some attention on the Rockboard since the English version was released.  Vixy said that she'd be making a news post when there was something to report, but I haven't seen anything aside from Viper's review in eight months (strangely, a Japanese-only minigame in the Lucky Star PSP game warranted a mention...).  I don't like popping in places for the sole purpose of plugging my own projects, so I'm glad Viper brought up the subject.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again:  Darkside Translations and Dark Translations are not one and the same.  One handles translations of all kinds, while the other focuses almost exclusively on [twin slasher]-themed porn games (naturally, the second link is totally not work-safe.).  Please don't confuse the two.  We predate Dark by a good seven years (even though we only released one project during that time...); it's just a coincidence that our names are so similar.

That said, Mint has been in close touch with [erka:es] lately.  If I'm understanding the situation correctly, Isemiya and WOMI were facing problems in real-life and have not been able to touch Freudenstachel for quite a while as a result.  That's also why they couldn't attend the last Comic Market.  I'm not about to fault them for keeping their priorities straight; I've had similar problems with my job hunt and my father nearly being killed a few months back (incidentally, today's his 65th birthday).

Anyway, if you like what you see in the demo, be sure to pick up the full version of the game from DLsite.  The full translation was released back in July; the v1.06a patch will implement the latest executable and tweak a few things here and there.  Ryusui for Breath of Fire II fame is currently touching up the script, but that won't be finished for a little while.

8

Rockman Series / Re: Ancient Theories/Fanon

« on: June 02, 2009, 06:28:58 PM »

Saving you some time and trouble here. ^^

I was well aware of these, actually.  I showed this page to Mint after I presented my credentials when our groups first teamed up (note that RKS is a joint project between Darkside and Zeppy - I can't (and have no intention to) take full credit for it).  That's when he and Tanin expressed interest in reviving the project.  Still, I appreciate the thought.  Thanks.

What I meant in my last post was dumping the script in Shift-JIS and running it through a parser to make sure that Boco's transcript is 100% accurate.  Flat-out romanizations are easy.  Converting loanwords and names is the hard part (and, if katakana is capitalized, that saves a lot of time when I skim the output).  I could romanize the whole thing using the images, sure, but that'd be time-consuming and I'm occupied with other things at the moment (RKS full version, reformatting my laptop, and preparing for my university graduation next week).

As for every Megaman series starring the same character:  that'd be a bit boring.  You need variety (one of the reasons why Adam Sessler can't stand Megaman games - Capcom doesn't really seem to know where to innovate).  Plus, wouldn't it be odd if Megaman Zero was the original Megaman?  That's make the Megaman X series a total mess...

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Rockman Series / Re: Ancient Theories/Fanon

« on: June 02, 2009, 11:43:55 AM »

Blame MM3/5?

I'm more inclined to blame Ruby Spears.  I pointed out the fact that there were impostors in those games, but her response was "WHAT ARE YOU ON?!?"

Just wondering, with the two translation documents up at gamefaqs, are the Japanese transcripts correct?

I would assume so; the entire game is in katakana and hiragana (no kanji), so I doubt she messed any of that up.  With my current knowledge of Japanese, I might eventually be able to make such a transcript myself once I zero in on the text in the Japanese version.  On that note, if I revisit the project, I will not be editing the US version as I had in the past - Japanese source material all the way.  My currently-inactive pet project gave me the skills to add variable-width fonts and edit graphics in SNES games, so it'd be possible (unless I run up against some really funky compression).

Maybe they should have been the same robot.

Nope.  If we're talking about fanon, my theory would be that the original Megaman did something horrible at the end of the original and had to be destroyed.  Why else would Dr. Light stress that X be thoroughly tested before being activated?  He seemed pretty adamant in the prologue: "If 'X' were to break the first rule of robotics, 'a robot must never harm a human being', <b>the results would be disastrous and I fear that no force on earth could stop him</b>."  Granted, I know that the ending of Megaman 7 was entirely made up, but that doesn't change the fact that Dr. Light's message sounded panicky (by the way, that was English in the original version, so there are no translation errors).

Also, I noticed MegaMan X Complete on the translation site, any chance we'll be seeing the X games redone again?

That has yet to be seen.  At the moment, it's there because the projects section records every (announced) project that we have ever touched.  If it was my name instead of Darkside, you would see Ys II, Felghana, the NNL stuff, etc. On that note, it's a bit of a pity that my work on Haru no Ashioto and Wind went unreleased, and my name was stricken from the ef staff list since I recused myself in January (I was sick at the time and the RKS project was beginning to hit full stride, so I had to make a choice).  I'm still credited in the ef Supah Preview (God, I hate that name...), so I'm not sour about it.  Besides, GipFace did a pretty good job building on my work, from what I had seen, so there are no hard feelings.  I'd like to return to that project, but I'm not about to leave my guys high and dry, especially not anytime soon.

Whoops.  Tangent.  Anyway, since Maverick Hunter X was already released, I'm wondering whether or not I should bother revisiting the project - MHX was superior in every way (barring the campy dialogue).  My staff is interested, to say the least, and RKS easily has more text than Megaman X-X3 combined.  Once the full version of RKS is out, I'll make my decision.  Mint already reports that he and Tanin are interested in tackling it.  If I can find another translator, then it might just happen.

10

Rockman Series / Re: Ancient Theories/Fanon

« on: June 01, 2009, 06:06:56 PM »

WOW!  That was a quick reply.  I'm honored.  And thanks for the mention earlier.   You learning about the patch here sort of short-circuits what I did in the RKS:F thread, but it's all good.

11

Rockman Series / Re: Ancient Theories/Fanon

« on: June 01, 2009, 05:33:51 PM »

I don't remember whether I was on that game's credits or not - but I was in close contact with TDOMMX back then.

But the lead translator was Boco.

So, "Zero died in vain [like a dog]" became "You'll soon be reunited with your DEAR ZERO!". Whoddathunk eh?

I think that wasn't in the patched ROM itself, since before the ROM was released someone who knew more Japanese came in and debunked that and some other fanon unproperly labelled as such.

Wily paranoia was in full rage with "recent" gamebook info concering Serges and Isoc, so everybody was like "IT WAS SOMEBODY ELSE PULLING SIGMA'S STRINGS BEGINNING WITH X1!".

Editing-wise [altering the ROM structure to accomodate the different chunks of text], though, I think he did a good job. For what's written in the translation I can't vouch since I don't even remember the retranslated script and because of what I said above, but it was an honest effort. Both Xtremes were in the "ToDo" list, but then Boco quit the Community and TDOMMX got that thing we all need to get sooner or later: a life.

Heyya, Rodrigo.  It's been a long time.  I haven't heard from you in ages.  Ever since I reformatted my old PC and didn't get around to reinstalling ICQ, as a matter of fact...  Lame excuse, I know.  But you're right about me getting a life... sorta.  I now have two Computer Science degrees and hold a minor in Human Relations.  Well, that, I became a diehard anime fan for a good decade, started programming professionally, and had some semblance of a social life...

In any event, Darkside Translations is back, and I've posted a little writeup about what happened back then on our About page.  I'll give you the non-abridged version here since I know you and think marshmallow man and the others deserve to know the full story:

When I was playing through the Megaman X series, I often found myself thinking I could do a better localization.  This was especially true in X2 and X3, where characters were arbitrarily renamed (the most annoying being changing "X" to "Mega Man", which confirmed to me that the marketing department at Capcom USA couldn't tell the characters apart - and they still can't, if you check the back of the X8 box...).  I didn't know Japanese, so I tried to see if I could find someone who was willing to translate the game for me.  I was a pretty good writer in high school, so my plan was to recruit a fellow Megaman fan, have them do the translation, and handle the editing and hacking myself (incidentally, my SNES hacking skills are self-taught, and as Rodrigo noted, I was pretty good at it).

As you already know, Boco was the one who answered my call.  To this day, I don't know his/her gender, but ended up using "she" for convenience because I kept getting the image of an anime fangirl from him/her.  S/he didn't mind (or at least didn't object).  Anyway, she was very enthusiastic about it and offered to help for the entire series up to X6.  She only ended up doing the first two scripts before we ended up getting out of touch, not unlike how I unceremoniously fell out of contact with Rodrigo.

Boco was in the process of learning Japanese and begged me repeatedly for a translation checker to verify her work.  Of course, she was the only person who responded to my request, so I had little luck granting hers.  I don't recall if I was aware of places like Romhacking.net or if they even existed back then.  Either way, no one got back to me, so I decided to do the best I could with what I had.

I recall having very odd arguments with Boco, such as whether Protoman was genuinely evil to begin with (she insisted he was and even wrote a fanfic where he branded Dr. Light as something akin to a brainwashing bastard).  In any case, when Boco posted her script on The Megaman Network, I made a point of finishing up my hacking & editing and releasing the retranslation to the masses, dubbed "Megaman X Complete".  My plan was to collect feedback, integrate them into the rom, and re-release it alongside a purist version, "Rockman X Special", which retained the original Japanese names to satisfy what I perceived as a purist streak in her.

This was not to be.  Though people were initially enthusiastic about the retranslation, that sentiment quickly soured, and everyone began to pan the release - Boco included.  Boco was not happy with how I modified her translation, and everyone else was unhappy since some parts read like a yaoi fanfic (which I tried to curb, but Boco insisted was accurate - I distinctly recall her stressing that Sigma actually hit on X before the final battle, and I gave her the benefit of the doubt...).  I eventually retracted the release and made a promise, both to Boco and to myself:  "Megaman X2 Complete" (or whatever I decided to call it) would never see the light of day until I had done the original game justice and released a "Rockman X Special" we could both be proud of.  And I have not forgotten.

Over the past seven years, I have worked with a variety of translation groups on several projects to learn what it really takes to do a good localization job.  I have worked on game translations: Ys II Complete and Ys -The Oath in Felghana- for Falcom Fan Translations; as well as visual novels: Haru no Ashioto, Wind -a breath of heart-, and ef -the first tale- for No Name Losers.  In fact, the ef project was what led me to meet Darkside's current lead translator.  Last summer, I finally thought I was finally ready to spearhead another translation project.  I was an administrative assistant at the time and occupied my downtime translating documents from French into English (oui, je parle le français couramment).

Let's skip ahead to the present day.  I mean that literally - this morning, Darkside Translations released its localization of the trial version of Rosenkreuzstilette, a Megaman-like game that I quickly came to love early last year.  I refused to release a translation that relied on a single translator, however skilled s/he may have been, and last December, I got more help than I could have ever asked for.  And I have Romhacking.net and a few extremely talented individuals to thank (all of which are credited on our staff page).  The English localization (penned by yours truly) is based on the full-pass interpretations of two Japanese translators and was edited round-table style to ensure its accuracy.  Additionally, I had four German-speakers on the team to guarantee the quality of the game's German flavor text (which was originally "Germish", as our resident German native called it...).

So, I submit this for your approval:  the Rosenkreuzstilette English Trial.  I'll let you decide if we - referring to both Darkside Translations and to myself personally - truly learned anything these past few years.  Feel free to check it out and let us know what you think.

It feels good to finally tell that story in its entirety...  And it feels even better to be back.  I hope you'll all be happy to have me.

And before I go:  Rodrigo, you were credited as a Playtester, as I recall.  The first in the list, if memory serves.  Either way, it's great to hear from you again.