Issue 6. He’s the hardest. And, by the way, about the new project. As you may have noticed a little earlier, my team Failing Forward the first project was released. Not Fire Emblem Echoes (although we want to present the first chapter this month), but it’s also an interesting project that I killed a lot of time on when I first bought it 3DS, namely – Resident Evil Mercenaries 3D. I won’t say that the project is so difficult, but.. Remember: even the EASIEST LOOKING project can contain problems that you don’t think about when translating an AAA game. Why is this… Oh yes, "Mercenaries"managed to be delayed for more than a week because of one problem. And more about that below..

But first, a little about the game itself. It was released almost at the launch of the console, it has no plot value, it’s an excellent time killer, but the demo Revelations, that it came on a cartridge at least forced me to buy the full version. In principle, the game did not need translation, but then the need arose for a project that could be used to prove that "Failing Forward" not liars and deceivers. The choice fell on "Mercenaries"also for the reason that hacking experience was needed M.T.Framework For 3DS…And we got this experience.

Now let’s go back to the standard scheme, yeah? Font, text and textures.

1) Font.
There are two of them in “Mercenaries” (excluding the font from the Revelations demo). One (Optical) is used for menu buttons, time/combo interface and other little things. Second font (ENG) is needed for everything else. Guess which of these fonts had the most problems?? Just for comparison:

Optical – 3 versions.
ENG – 8 versions and a lot of fixes.

Here, it’s probably worth saying that the version M.T.Framework, where they gathered "Mercenaries" – a piece of crap in terms of hacking. Starting from strange file formats (without the necessary changes, programs for working with M.T.Framework simply refuse to understand them), ending with the font. About the font, according to the hacker:

“The difficulty is in parsing the coordinate table so that everything is turned back to front, relative to the original engine M.T.Framework, the construction of the tables is all identical starting from Revelations. Maybe I’m wrong, but the game was released earlier than anyone else on this engine, and the software version was still raw, the first version on this engine.»

As a result of everything, I only succumbed normally Optical. Font ENG I had to leave it the way you see it in the final version of the translation.

2)Text.
In addition to the fact that the text files also had to be edited so that the converter GMD understood them, it’s worth talking about the fact that I had to make two versions of the file with the text. Yes, there is only one in the game and it contains all the game text – tips, a few subtitles, descriptions of skills, techniques, etc.d. Unlike Revelations, which will be released later in "Mercenaries» didn’t bother with breaking the text into files. But that’s okay, half the trouble. The problem was that “Mercenaries” has two versions – with a demo and without. Moreover, in the version without the demo you can erase saves. Because of this, several more lines were added to the file and because of this, you cannot simply take and paste one text file of one version into another. Also the question was that because of the font it was necessary to cut the text extremely mercilessly. Just for comparison:

Also, due to the font, we nonukcasinosites.co.uk/review/love/ had to add a bunch of abbreviations in the game. I understand that it looks quite painful, but… There weren’t really any options. Either this or not at all.

From "household" stories about the translation/editing of this text, I can tell you about one thing – the entire text was translated in one evening (1300 lines) by me and this had a sufficient impact on further editing. Therefore, my advice is to never repeat this.

3)Textures.
The easiest part, if you don’t take into account the next file editing. For "Mercenaries"It was necessary to make only four textures. Which we successfully did, but the fun started when I discovered textures not only from the final version… But also from the E3 demo. CAPCOM they even left all the necessary menu files, which in theory allows modders to recreate the demo based on the full version, but this is so… Reflections out loud.

I could have ended here if it weren’t for my brilliant idea to also translate the demo Revelations. If I already said about the font above (making it was no longer a problem), then I can say a few more words about textures and text.

1)Text and textures.
If the text is a small file with several phrases when inspecting objects, then the textures contain most of the text (up to the menu). That’s just funny. Only four phrases are used from the text file.

[start]Mediterranean Sea, 21:13 Jill Valentine[end] (Not used, this text is in the demo as a texture)

[start]Tied up guy? From here I can’t tell if he’s breathing.[end]
[start]Locked[end]
[start]The wiring is mercilessly corroded[end]
[start]I can’t go there[end]] (In the English version of the demo "Hmm, dead end")
[start]Smells bad. Looks like it hasn’t been used for a long time[end] (Not used)
[start]Something is stuck there and now the door won’t open[end] (Not used)
[start]Torn with terrible force[end] (Not used)
[start]Looks like a report. No useful information[end] (Not used)

However, in the file "Mercenaries" you can find some lines that confirm the previously planned leaderboard, and also the mode for 4 players.

Judging by the file above, the demo was clearly planned to be longer. Then the same feature can be found in the demo Revelations from Eshop, where the game was supposed to be Parker, but I’m getting ahead of myself.

As a result, we have a small project, but one way or another it provided food for thought, as well as experience in working with MT. Framework for 3DS. Who knows what else we will translate on it… Thank you all for reading and see you soon!

Resident Evil: Revelations

Best comments

Something is somehow strange O_O I of course understand that this is issue 6 and I haven’t read the previous ones (but that doesn’t mean it should be so incomprehensible) but damn, it’s chaotic, incomprehensible, and by the end it’s even more confusing. I am writing only because I want to say that I did not understand either your thoughts or the idea of ​​​​writing (I leave the point that I am the only one who is such an idiot, but still). I love articles like this, about the process, about explanations of how and why this is done, the same difficulties in the process, but I was left empty as before reading the article =(

I don’t think Denmrsmith really meant it that way. It’s not for nothing that the blog received a thumbs up, because it’s interesting. But it’s still a little difficult to read, it seems to me, due to incorrect references in the sentences themselves and the logic of the narrative (?). I understand that I myself am not an expert at writing texts, but something is wrong here. Here you can parse the first sentences, for example.
attention, the following analysis contains a lot of criticism, corrections, empty grumbling, tediousness and in general you can just forget it, because who am I?

It seems to me that sentences and references in the form of “he”, “it”, “it” are not used quite correctly here. The most difficult release or still yours project? This is important, because the text clearly states that project it turned out to be complex, with its own nuances, and not writing this text. “By the way” is used after a more or less long conversation about the topic A, in which the topic was slightly touched upon B, "about which (about the topic B), by the way, now we can talk".

As you may have noticed a little earlier, my team Failing Forward released its first project. Not Fire Emblem Echoes (although we want to present the first chapter this month), but also an interesting project that I spent a lot of time on when I first bought the 3DS, namely Resident Evil Mercenaries 3D. I won’t say that the project is so difficult, but..

The team came out a new project, but not that Fire Emblem Echoes, which has not yet been released, but Resident Evil Mercenaries 3D, which has been released… This is strange. If the only project released recently is Resident Evil, then why mention Fire Emblem?? This is really very confusing. Also, the insert “which I killed a lot of time with when I first bought the 3DS” is a little off topic in the form in which it is present here. If it was so important to mention that the author played this game a lot on 3DS and that there is another Fire Emblem project, then it could have been inserted in other places. I know, I know, I’m saying too much, so here’s the text of the first paragraph, which may look more cohesive, but at the same time retains the full meaning of the original version.

Issue 6. The most difficult project. As you may have already noticed, our Failing Forward team has released its first project! It just so happened that it turned out to be not Fire Emblem Echoes, but another, no less interesting, exclusive for the Nintendo 3DS console – Resident Evil Mercenaries 3D. It seemed like an easy task at first, but here’s what I learned on my first release: even the EASIEST LOOKING project can contain problems that you don’t think about even when translating an AAA game. So “Mercenaries” managed to stay for more than a week. Because of what? More about this below.

I really don’t think that the text is bad, I just need to devote a little more time to working it out, to understand that right here I want to say this, this and this. This way it will be clear which inserts can be safely removed, because they break the narrative. Ivan Loev, for example, in the History of the Rockstar Series makes a “Random Fact”, which connected with a recently touched upon topic, but at the same time it was specially placed… out of brackets, or something; so much so that it still looks complete. And in general, I myself am not an expert, I don’t write blogs, and my comments often contain some kind of unreadable nonsense (like, perhaps, this comment), so the author may not listen to me) However, I wish him all the creative success in the future and more information about the behind-the-scenes of the world of translations, because it’s interesting.

Honestly, such articles are extremely specific and it’s nothing strange that you might not understand something. =D

But I advise you to read previous issues. The structure and concept will become clear.

1) Heavy release. Because writing this article turned out to be more difficult than translating it.
2) Firstly, not “new”, but precisely the first. I emphasized this because initially we were putting together a team for FE Echoes. Therefore, this is not taken out of scope, but is necessary to explain why “The Mercenary” was released here in the first place.