Overdue Update

Wow, been almost a year since any new posts.

I started this blog while I was still working alone on this project. But since then, it has made some progress.

There are two translators currently working on the dialogue. And the project has a new home on the Romhacking Aerie. Please visit the site for future updates.

I don't have any new pictures or files to release, but I am working on getting some extra content that may be of interest to people interested in Kyuuyaku Megami Tensei or the series in general.

Thanks for all of your encouragement and support, it is greatly appreciated. Don't worry, we won't give up on this game. :)

Combat fixes

Finally finished making the changes for names appearing in combat. This includes the parts that broke when I added the 8x8 VWF code. When the game was converting the smaller 8x8 font into the larger 12x12 font, it was looking at the tiles used in the VWF instead of the letters. So running into a demon would say something like "Demon IJKL appeared!". Here is a pic of the message working correctly.



I also added a fix to display the full class name. It says "Kaijuu" right now, because I'm still contemplating changes to the final class name list. Right now, "Monster" seems like the most likely candidate. In Japanese, Kaijuu is the term they use to reference their many movie monsters, like Godzilla or Gamera. I don't want to imply size with the term that will be used though, since not all Kaijuus are huge. But also, "Monster" is a bit generic considering that everything in this game could technically count as a monster. :(

I also fixed the Devil Analyzer for combat. I moved some of the stats and values around so that the window would stay the same size. The Japanese game had them arranged as:

Vitality	Intellect
Strength	Speed
Luck

Here is a pic of what it currently looks like:



I'm not sure what to work on next. I guess there's no rush since no one's stepped forward to translate the game's script yet. After I make a few more improvements, I'll try Romhacking.net's board one more time.

Updating the To-Do list

Just another item off of the To-Do list. When I moved the list of demon names, I only tested it in MT1. But loading a save from MT2 just displayed empty space for names. This is fixed now, and here's a picture.



While testing this, I also noticed another thing that needed to be added. Whenever you enter a city or village, it displays the name in the upper-left corner. The game always seems to have more text drawing routines than it should, and this was a new one that I missed. So I changed this one too, and now it looks like this.




Looking over the old To-Do list, some things have been taken care of while there are others to add to it.

High Priority

1. Fix name display for status screens, combat and fusion menu.
2. Fix demon class and name display for combat and analyzer.
   
3. Translate the Game Over screen, and replace the graphics just like in the intro.
4. Finalize names for demons, items and spells.
5. Work on further compressing text in dialogue.
6. Make sure that strings display correctly with new dialogue.
   
7. Verify that item names work in shops and equip screen.
   

Low Priority

1. Change the font used in the intro and title screen.
2. Fix the flickering when drawing 8x8 text.
3. Figure out what to do with decidedly Japanese names (Jakyou Manor, demon class names).

For the High Priority items, I didn't want to have to do it, but it looks like I'll have to work on #1 next. It's a real show-stopper, and shouldn't be too hard to fix, but it's gonna be long and boring.

I have an idea for handling #5, but I can see a potential for breaking some other things in the game, which is why #6 and #7 have been added to the list. Instead of compressing the text, I may just move it out somewhere so that I'll have all the room I need. The game has built-in routines to print text from other areas, so I'll just tweak it a bit.

Things are starting to get more interesting now. After these things are taken care of, I might finally be able to play through MT1 in English. :)