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Dragon Force 2 (Saturn): English Translation released!

R

RiZ III

Member
pCaw4Ad.jpg


http://verve-fanworks.com/dragonforceii.html

Originally released in 1998, the sequel to one of the best games on Saturn has finally been completely translated into English and the patch is available for download. All of the story, menus, and other random dialog have been translated.

Dragon Force is still one of my favorite games ever and the sequel is also great, though the visuals and soundtrack aren't as good as the original. This along with the Shining Force 3 games was one of the greatest gems on Saturn that sadly never made it State side.

I imported this game back when it came out and played a few hours of it before giving up due to the fact that I knew absolutely no Japanese. I joined the translation project about a year ago so I've played this in various stages of stubbed in Google translated text. Overall it's a great game and it's just as addictive as the original.
 
dream

dream

Member
Oh fuck. How do we play this? I think I still have my Saturn somewhere, but I'm pretty sure my 4-in-1 is long gone.

edit: oh fuck, I forgot I'd need a mod chip too...wonder if those are available anywhere these days?
 
cj_iwakura

cj_iwakura

Member
Fantastic news. It's not as good as the original, but well worth playing for any fan.

dream said:
Oh fuck. How do we play this? I think I still have my Saturn somewhere, but I'm pretty sure my 4-in-1 is long gone.
Click to expand...

You rip it to the PC, patch it, and play via an emulator, presumably. I think Faust said he did it on actual hardware, but I have no idea how.
 
R

RiZ III

Member
dream said:
Oh fuck. How do we play this? I think I still have my Saturn somewhere, but I'm pretty sure my 4-in-1 is long gone.
Click to expand...

The instructions are on the site, however the short version:
-Create ISO from your DF2 disc
-Apply patch
-Play on emulator or burn a disc to play on your Saturn

SSF runs the game almost perfectly. I play it on the actual hardware though. I modded my Saturn ten years ago or so back when the chips were available. You can use the swap disc trick to play it if you don't have it modded.
 
S

Sunnington

Banned
OH! Nice! I loaded this game up once on an emulator and it looked really good. I absolutely loved Dragon Force 1. Definitely going to check this out soon. Thanks!
 
R

Ramzastrife

Member
Fantastic news! I have been anxiously awaiting this. Thank you to all involved. Now to get some use out of that imported copy of DFII!
 
cj_iwakura

cj_iwakura

Member
By the way, I helped test this a little while ago. Here's some things you need to know:

Dual formations are BROKEN. (And awesome.)

Put mages in front, then when they approach, send the rear troops to the front and bring the rain.

BEWARE THE DEMON CASTLES. They will break you. 100 troops strong.
 
T

Tohsaka

Member
I need to get an old CD burner that is capable of burning CD-Rs slowly sometime. My Saturn is modded, and I tried to burn discs for the Shining Force III translation a while back but it can't burn them slowly enough for the system to read.
 
W

whiteninja

Member
I chipped my saturn a few moths ago (got the chip from someone on assmbler games) and it was real easy to do. I actually had no idea this was being translated. Hopefully princess crown gets finished soon since that was why I got a saturn (I just dont really like the emulators for saturn right now)
 
S

Sunnington

Banned
There's the Rhea mod that turns your Saturn's disk drive into an SD card reader. Only works for early model 1 Saturns at the moment though. I ordered mine about a week ago. Perfect timing!

Edit: I've all but ruined my model 1's laser by heavy use and disk swapping trick. Sometimes games won't load or they'll take a little longer to load. I find putting a fan on the Saturn helped. Luckily Sega had really-really good lasers for Saturn. So good in fact they gave Dreamcast shitty ones.
 
A

Aeana

Member
Sunnington said:
There's the Rhea mod that turns your Saturn's disk drive into an SD card reader. Only works for early model 1 Saturns at the moment though. I ordered mine about a week ago. Perfect timing!

Edit: I've all but ruined my model 1's laser by heavy use and disk swapping trick. Sometimes games won't load or they'll take a little longer to load. I find putting a fan on the Saturn helped. Luckily Sega had really-really good lasers for Saturn. So good in fact they gave Dreamcast shitty ones.
Click to expand...

Didn't know about that. My Saturn still works very well and I don't use the disc swap trick for anything but one game I play every couple of years. That said, I see the same person made something for Dreamcast called GDEMU which does something similar... I'd love to get one of those, since my Dreamcast has serious trouble reading discs. Sadly, it doesn't seem like he's taking orders for those anymore.
 
S

Sunnington

Banned
Aeana said:
Didn't know about that. My Saturn still works very well and I don't use the disc swap trick for anything but one game I play every couple of years. That said, I see the same person made something for Dreamcast called GDEMU which does something similar... I'd love to get one of those, since my Dreamcast has serious trouble reading discs. Sadly, it doesn't seem like he's taking orders for those anymore.
Click to expand...

The DC card reader is super popular and is on a first come first serve basis. Check back with him frequently to see when he has any in stock. The Rhea isn't nearly as popular and only works on a minority of Saturns which is why he takes preorders for that.
 
E

ElectricThunder

Member
Fantastic to see this project has finally made it---2015 continues to be a very strong year for this sort of thing!

If only Brigandine: Grand Edition hadn't met a fate nearly worse than death, if it ever "really" gets the quality rendition it deserves, then this would be just about the last remaining of the "Big" Grand Strategy/RPGs of old to at last break through wouldn't it?
 
K

kswiston

Member
How is the quality of this game in regards to the first? Unlocalized Japanese games tend to gather unwarranted prestige simply because they are unobtainable (without being fluent in the language). Is that the case here, or does Dragon Force 2 measure up to the first title?
 
cj_iwakura

cj_iwakura

Member
kswiston said:
How is the quality of this game in regards to the first? Unlocalized Japanese games tend to gather unwarranted prestige simply because they are unobtainable (without being fluent in the language). Is that the case here, or does Dragon Force 2 measure up to the first title?
Click to expand...

Victor Ireland explicitly passed on it because it isn't as good. He's not wrong. The art style is dim, sprites are less detailed, the world map is filled with impenetrable 100-strong demon castles, etc.

Compare:

Dragon Force 1
gfs_62362_2_10.jpg

015-1.jpg

DragonForce009.jpg


Dragon Force 2
1622screenshot1.jpg

1622screenshot2.jpg

1622screenshot3.jpg



That said, the game is still worth playing for any fan, and Faust & co did a phenomenal job on the translation.

Also, there's voice acting in DF2.


In terms of language barrier, it's easy to play untranslated if you beat DF1(I sure did), but you'll have no idea what's going on.
 
L

Lucumo

Member
Nice, awesome to see this finally translated. I remember Faust looking for recruits everywhere.

I liked Dragon Force 1 but the English voice-acting was just awful. Sometimes I couldn't even understand what they were saying.
 
cj_iwakura

cj_iwakura

Member
Lucumo said:
Nice, awesome to see this finally translated. I remember Faust looking for recruits everywhere.

I liked Dragon Force 1 but the English voice-acting was just awful. Sometimes I couldn't even understand what they were saying.
Click to expand...

Dragon Force 1 didn't have voice outside of cutscenes.
 
L

Lucumo

Member
cj_iwakura said:
Well, there's so little there that it hardly warrants mentioning. There's, what, seven lines of dialogue, excluding the narration by John Truitt? (And he has the best voice ever.)
Click to expand...

Depends. I still don't know what happened/was said at the end because of that awful, high-pitched voice.
 
K

kswiston

Member
(Dubbed?) Voice acting was almost universally awful when Dragon Force came out.

Between the shitty streaming of audio, and the hamfisted deliveries, I think it did more harm than good for most of the 90s.
 
cj_iwakura

cj_iwakura

Member
Lucumo said:
Depends. I still don't know what happened/was said at the end because of that awful, high-pitched voice.
Click to expand...

I'm guessing you mean Teiris' voice(who only says one line in response to Astea :p).

kswiston said:
(Dubbed?) Voice acting was almost universally awful when Dragon Force came out.

Between the shitty streaming of audio, and the hamfisted deliveries, I think it did more harm than good for most of the 90s.
Click to expand...

As said, John Truitt was still incredible.
 
cj_iwakura

cj_iwakura

Member
kswiston said:
Did he do the opening sequence narration?
Click to expand...

Yep.

"As with all such tales bordering on morality plays, one lied in wait to cast a dark shadow over the tranquility and prosperity of Legendra."

I want that man narrating my life story. Inimitable.

He was also Ghaleon's voice.


The JP narration, unsurprisingly, is very dry and straightforward in comparison. WD also did a badass shred-heavy original end credits song.
 
R

RiZ III

Member
cj_iwakura said:
Victor Ireland explicitly passed on it because it isn't as good. He's not wrong. The art style is dim, sprites are less detailed, the world map is filled with impenetrable 100-strong demon castles, etc.

That said, the game is still worth playing for any fan, and Faust & co did a phenomenal job on the translation.

Also, there's voice acting in DF2.

In terms of language barrier, it's easy to play untranslated if you beat DF1(I sure did), but you'll have no idea what's going on.
Click to expand...

I would say that the visuals and music are nowhere as good as the original. The gameplay however is just as good if not better due to the fact that each general can now control two kinds of troops at the same time. The story is a direct sequel to the original as well. If you liked dragon force, you'll like this.
 
J

Jetman

Member
Awesome! Always wanted to play this sequel and never had because of the language barrier.
I think the first one was my most played Saturn game...even though I never could beat it with Tieris as the Main Commander :(
 
R

RiZ III

Member
Jetman said:
Awesome! Always wanted to play this sequel and never had because of the language barrier.
I think the first one was my most played Saturn game...even though I never could beat it with Tieris as the Main Commander :(
Click to expand...

I started playing DF1 again a few days ago using her as my main commander and did end up losing quite a few battles. I was thinking.. Wait I don't remember this game being this hard(?). I'm really going to have to level her up for the final fight, she's definitely weaker than the others.
 
cj_iwakura

cj_iwakura

Member
RiZ III said:
I started playing DF1 again a few days ago using her as my main commander and did end up losing quite a few battles. I was thinking.. Wait I don't remember this game being this hard(?). I'm really going to have to level her up for the final fight, she's definitely weaker than the others.
Click to expand...

Give her every HP boosting crest you can find, and Dragons. She should lay waste to everyone. Just never, ever let her into a duel.
 
ss_lemonade

ss_lemonade

Member
Oh wow. Honestly thought this would never be completed but I remember checking on updates for it and seeing people still working on the translation.

What sucks is I don't have a Saturn anymore :(
 
D

Dragoon En Regalia

Member
Great to hear this patch is done! I hope this means Saturn patches will be a little easier to plan and complete if one more team's gotten more experience.
 
G

GamerJM

Banned
This is really random but is there any reference to the Power Metal band in the fan translation? If not it would be such a missed opportunity imo, they always get brought up whenever someone mentions the first game on a forum or something so it would be such an easy joke/reference to make.
 
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