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Old 2007-11-17, 05:38   Link #1
selkirk
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Prism Ark translation project



Might as well move here instead of the anime thread
So anyway, I'll be attempting to do an English translation for this game.

Some members of Non-Directional Translations are currently looking at how to extract/reinsert the scripts and whatever else goes into making a patch, but I suppose we will need a couple more people to help out on this project. Right now, it's still mostly translation only, with no news on the actual feasibility of a patch, so mainly:
  1. Translators (always welcome, it's a long game)
  2. Translation checkers
  3. Editors
    • Checking for consistency, grammar, spelling, and moulding the translations to each character's personality / speech quirks. Right now, I don't do that much.
Translation so far is about 4% complete (~2000 lines). But one thing, so far I've been translating the narration in past tenses, so it's more like a typical novel, but the original text is often in present tense. Any suggestions? I just find it weird to have it in present tense.

Translated bits:
Prologue (This post)
Prologue - continuation
Ch1 - Opening to Litte's introduction
Ch1 - Above to Fel's introduction
Ch1 - Tour of the Academy
Ch1 - First class
Ch2 - "Bomb". Comedy. No spoilers
Ch2 - Ein's backstory. Warning: LONG
Ch5 - Takai taka~i! Comedy. No spoilers
Ch7 - Priecia's "confession". Comedy / Action / LMAO. No real plot spoilers
Ch7 - Ein's letter. Comedy. Ein spoilers.
Ch7 - Priecia's rescue. Comedy / almost dere-dere. No real spoilers
Ch8 - Priecia route. Jealous Priecia. Comedy. No spoilers
Ch8 - Kagura route. ~Chuuu. Comedy / Yuri. Very very light Kagura route non-story spoilers
Ch9 - Kisarov game awesomeness translations. Not really plot spoilers
Ch10 - Fel Route. Comedy / LMAO. Rated 16+. No real plot spoilers
Ch10 - Little continuation on the vid above.
Ch11 - Priecia route. Kisarov/Darkness Knight awesomeness. (VERY REAL SPOILERS in further spoiler tags within)
Ch12 - Priecia route. More Kisarov! (MAJOR character spoilers all over)

Fel's image song. Lyrics, romaji and translation


And, translation of the prologue at the beginning of the game is done . I'll be continuing with Ch0 next.

Spoiler for Prologue:
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Last edited by selkirk; 2007-12-25 at 02:07.
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Old 2007-11-17, 16:02   Link #2
relentlessflame
 
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Quote:
Originally Posted by selkirk View Post
But one thing, so far I've been translating the narration in past tenses, so it's more like a typical novel, but the original text is often in present tense. Any suggestions? I just find it weird to have it in present tense.
My first inclination would probably have been to stick with the past tense as well, given that it's sort of presented like a novel. But you're right that the narration does seem to be written in the present tense. It does sound a bit clumsy in English, and it's actually sort of hard to maintain (natural tendancy is to narrate in past tense). But here's an exerpt of part of chapter 7 with the narration re-written in the present tense for comparison's sake.
Spoiler for Chapter 7/Precia's "confession" narration excerpt in present tense:
Basically, you can see by the end of that excerpt why you pretty much have to use the present tense here. He can't have a shocking revelation after the fact, and if he so much as hints that he knows what it's really about (which he would if he's narrating it after the fact), it spoils the surprise. Even though it's weird to write present-tense narrative, I think it'll pretty much have to be done in the grand scheme of things. Except for flashbacks and the like (for example, the prologue there), the reader has to be experiencing things at the same time as the protagonist (i.e. the reader is the protagonist). I never really gave it much thought before, but it makes sense.
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Old 2007-11-18, 06:05   Link #3
selkirk
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Hmm, interesting. I'm still deciding how to go about it. I've also had some suggestions to keep it as mainly past tense on the VisualNews forums. Or alternatively, I could do a hybrid, where descriptions are in past tense, while Hyaweh's "current" thoughts are in present. That's sort of what I do now, but I really don't pay too much attention to that... I'll probably have to look over everything again once the scripts get extracted. Anyone want to volunteer to be an editor?

Anyway, Ch0 is complete now. Moving on to Ch1 next.

Spoiler for Ch0:
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Last edited by selkirk; 2007-11-19 at 08:45.
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Old 2007-11-18, 21:34   Link #4
holyman282
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Oo nice so are you going to do each chapter and post it onto animesuki?
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Old 2007-11-21, 03:19   Link #5
Newprimus
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Your translations are fantastic. I don't know how much free time you have, but it looks like you're very able to do this. Maybe another translator or a few, a bunch of quality control monkeys, and a hacking/coding expert and you'll have a translation team. And later, someone to do all the website and distribution stuff.

If I get more free time and am able, I might be able to help in quality control and testing. I have the game and have played through all of it as well.
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Old 2007-11-22, 09:28   Link #6
selkirk
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Status update: I'll be using the TLWiki to organize the project from here on. (I'll probably still continue posting translations here, since I'm used to it ).
Main project link: http://tsukuru.info/tlwiki/index.php?title=Prism_Ark
I've added a list of all the prisms Hyaweh can use as well as a page for the prologue. For now, there are a couple of things I need help with (in rough order of importance):
  • Prism List
    1. Translate prism names
    2. Translate prism descriptions
    3. Transcribe prism list for each heroine into the correct format (which I have, just not a soft copy)
    4. Translate heroines' prisms + descriptions
  • Prologue
    1. TL check
    2. General editing (including organizing the scene changes better with a separate script table, and removing extraneous lines)
    3. Reorganizing the current script files (ie shift the character names to the right column, and remove quotations. There's probably some braindead-ily easy way to do this for someone who knows programming...)
    4. Grammar / spell check
  • General tasks
    1. Make a list of recurring names, places, proper nouns, greetings, etc. Needed to maintain consistency, etc.
    2. Make a list of each character's speech quirks (such as Filia's ~kana, Litte's desu~, Karin's obsoleteness, etc.), and think of general ways to translate each. I've mostly been ignoring this, really...
    3. (Improve the wikipedia article on Prism Ark. Ergh, what the hell is that thing?)
So anyway, lots of, uh... a number of... no, a small number of people have volunteered to help, and that's great. Please PM me if you're serious and have the time to help out (as in, don't disappear for weeks on end... I work pretty slow myself ).
Currently looking for:
  1. Story translators
    • Obviously, Japanese and English skills are important.
  2. General translators
    • Things to translate: menus, prism information, battle screens, (manual?, readme?)
    • Other general tasks
  3. TL checkers
    • Check over translations, and make sure there isn't anything out of left field.
    • Good Japanese is a must for this.
  4. Script editors
    • High level of English.
    • Some Japanese knowledge would be best, especially for editing my TL's to each character's quirks, etc.
Anonymous editing is allowed on the TLWiki, so go ahead and add translations and things, even if you can't help out more regularly. Unfortunately, no one has really volunteered to help translate, but if you know even just some Japanese, I could use your help. Even just a little bit of Japanese knowledge helps; with things like Rikaichan, it's really not that hard to do translations.


Anyway, first part of Ch01 is done as well. This chapter is horrendously long, so it'll take a good long while to translate everything...
Spoiler for Ch01 - beginning to the end of Litte's introduction:


Oh, and post more! Almost feels like I'm the only person interested in this... .
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Old 2007-11-22, 18:04   Link #7
holyman282
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Nice Selkirk, I really appreciate what you are doing, I'd give you a cookie but I already given you one! Trust me you are not the only one interested in the prism ark game. I've been trying to spread the word about this game for a while. Maybe if people edit the wiki article on prism ark it'll become more popular?
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Old 2007-11-22, 19:27   Link #8
Nightengale
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Hmm... I'm interesed, mildly.

Do you have a raw script of the entire Prism Ark?
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Old 2007-11-22, 20:32   Link #9
Liingo
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You sure like to work don't you Selkirk.

I had a look at the wiki page and I guess I can help out a little in translating some of the Prism names as most of that's in katakana.

I'd have to have a look at what you deem is the "easy" stuff since I've only just finished my first year of formal japanese study.
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Old 2007-11-22, 22:30   Link #10
selkirk
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Originally Posted by Nightengale View Post
Do you have a raw script of the entire Prism Ark?
Unfortunately, no. So far I've been pulling the script out with AGTH. ViruX, the coder from NDT, is/will be looking at how to extract the full script though.
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Old 2007-11-23, 00:25   Link #11
holyman282
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Is there a difference between extracting the raw script and simply pulling the script out with the AGTH?
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Old 2007-11-23, 01:15   Link #12
relentlessflame
 
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Quote:
Originally Posted by holyman282 View Post
Is there a difference between extracting the raw script and simply pulling the script out with the AGTH?
I guess the difference would be that he can get the whole thing all at once in a script, as opposed to having to get it as you play through the game (and thus have to play through the game through every possible variation and path to get the entire script). Also, figuring out how to get the Japanese script out programmatically from the data files may shed some light on how to get the English translation back in, which would also be a Good Thing.
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Old 2007-11-25, 09:45   Link #13
selkirk
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Next part of chapter 1 is done. This section introduces Fel, and has the ear grabbing scene .
http://tsukuru.info/tlwiki/index.php..._Ark_Ch01_pt02
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Old 2007-11-29, 09:36   Link #14
selkirk
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Next part done. From Fel's giant school tour to just before they enter the classroom.
http://tsukuru.info/tlwiki/index.php..._Ark_Ch01_pt03

Another 0.5% done.
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Old 2007-12-25, 02:05   Link #15
selkirk
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Woohoo, another part done.

Spoiler for Classroom scene after the tour:


Assuming a 50k line script, ~6% done now.
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Last edited by selkirk; 2007-12-25 at 02:20.
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Old 2007-12-25, 04:39   Link #16
holyman282
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Wow thanks selkirk I've always appreciated the time you put into this game. Just one question, are you still translating by text hooker or have you found a way to extract the script?
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Old 2008-01-06, 14:50   Link #17
shaolinx
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wow.... 50,000 lines! this will be one long project to finish, or hopfuly it will finish. wouldnt it be faster to do one route at a time?
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Old 2008-01-22, 08:58   Link #18
selkirk
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Script is partially extracted now. Why partially? It's all jumbled, as plain lines one after another. However, work is progressing on that front. Total line count is 56374, of which about 3000 are done.

Translating by route would definitely save a lot of time, but a lot of the scenes are usually shared, including almost the entirety of the first 7 chapters, chapter 9 and chapter 11, of a total of 13 chapters. Furthermore, other than the first three characters, there's a forced route to take, so the first route to translate is really just a choice between Priecia, Kagura and Fel. The other characters have a set order that they must be played through.

Anyway, translation is also progressing, albeit somewhat slowly.
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Old 2008-01-22, 17:11   Link #19
holyman282
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omg thank you Selkirk for the update! I really appreciate what you're doing! Does that mean you have figured out a way to extract the entire script?
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Old 2008-06-28, 17:17   Link #20
sasuke13
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gl man I'll waiting for the final product.
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