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Seiken Densetsu Collection announced for Switch (SD1-3 roms, 4800 yen)

Link_enfant

Member
Amazon Japan won't accept to ship the game to my current adress for some odd reason. Tried other random 3DS/PS4 games and it worked fine, I also ordered my Famicom Mini there and had no issue.
Anyone else has this problem?
 

Aeana

Member
Because IPS patching is a ton of work.

You need to find every single string in the ROM (which is where a lot of the work comes in), make sure you're modifying the string correctly, not fucking up the pointers, make sure the strings fit the textbox, make sure that this brute-force insertion doesn't break anything else (and unlike other insertion methods, this is far less of a sure thing) and then you need to bug-test it, and if something goes wrong, repeat steps two through four.

People massively under-estimate just how much work the fan patches of these big SNES-era RPGs represent; it's kind of a miracle they happened at all.
Not to mention that the text is stored compressed in SD3. That was why the fan translation was such a big deal; Neill Corlett managed to break the compression in an age where that kind of thing wasn't being done.
 

komorebi

Member
Amazon Japan won't accept to ship the game to my current adress for some odd reason. Tried other random 3DS/PS4 games and it worked fine, I also ordered my Famicom Mini there and had no issue.
Anyone else has this problem?

Yes, won't ship to my US address even though I just did this a few months ago with the Switch Pro Controller. I take it as an omen if you know what I mean!
 

PillarEN

Member
For the Switch of all things. This is something I would have expected to come to the 3DS especially since it's in Japan. Very cool though to have an official refresher for this series. Can only hope this might push forward a localization effort for SD3.
 
Wow! That would be so cool to have in the west. I've been wanting to replay Secret of Mana since I watched my Mom play as a kid. Never played the first one or the third one either.
 
Not to mention that the text is stored compressed in SD3. That was why the fan translation was such a big deal; Neill Corlett managed to break the compression in an age where that kind of thing wasn't being done.

Yep, there's also that. It also involved a fair bit of technical wizardry to make the font not look like garbage, as I recall, because the way SD3 handled fonts was unusual and an attempt to fit more text onto the screen in an era where that was a problem.

It's really going to come down to whether or not Square Enix still has the full source code and a real means of recompiling it. If they do, then it's actually not completely impossible it could be in English (though it'd still take some work to reproduce the font stuff and whatnot). If, as I highly suspect, the source code isn't extant after 22 years because of the state of archiving in the 90s... then, well, unless they want to bring in Corlett to hack their own game...
 

duckroll

Member
Yep, there's also that. It also involved a fair bit of technical wizardry to make the font not look like garbage, as I recall, because the way SD3 handled fonts was unusual and an attempt to fit more text onto the screen in an era where that was a problem.

It's really going to come down to whether or not Square Enix still has the full source code and a real means of recompiling it. If they do, then it's actually not completely impossible it could be in English (though it'd still take some work to reproduce the font stuff and whatnot). If, as I highly suspect, the source code isn't extant after 22 years because of the state of archiving in the 90s... then, well, unless they want to bring in Corlett to hack their own game...

None of this would be a problem if this wasn't a cheapass 50 buck rom dump package though. :p
 

WarRock

Member
IAR1zgd.jpg
I love Seiken 3 so damn much.

Sword of Mana can stay in the garbage dump though.
 
Not to mention that the text is stored compressed in SD3. That was why the fan translation was such a big deal; Neill Corlett managed to break the compression in an age where that kind of thing wasn't being done.

Neill Corlett is my personal hero.

This collection should include Evermore and Legend of Mana.
 

Shizuka

Member
Wow I was really excited until I realized, is this like.... 3 roms for 4800yen on a card? Literally? These are all the original versions (that's not a bad thing), with none of the remake options or touched up enhancements (maybe I'm mistaken?!)....?

It must be a big deal for Switch owners to be claiming this is a huge get.
 

Nairume

Banned
Yep, there's also that. It also involved a fair bit of technical wizardry to make the font not look like garbage, as I recall, because the way SD3 handled fonts was unusual and an attempt to fit more text onto the screen in an era where that was a problem.

It's really going to come down to whether or not Square Enix still has the full source code and a real means of recompiling it. If they do, then it's actually not completely impossible it could be in English (though it'd still take some work to reproduce the font stuff and whatnot). If, as I highly suspect, the source code isn't extant after 22 years because of the state of archiving in the 90s... then, well, unless they want to bring in Corlett to hack their own game...
What does it mean then that they've been able to mod in three player support in SD3 then? Obviously that'd have little connection to the text compression issue, but would that suggest that, if these are just straight rom dumps, they do have what they need to modify them?
 

FinalAres

Member
This is weird considering the remake, Adventures of Mana, that came out recently.

It's like they've remade the first one twice, and then thought nah! Original is best.
 

StereoVsn

Member
It must be a big deal for Switch owners to be claiming this is a huge get.
I don't quite get why though. This should be like $7-8 each on VC and instead it's $50+ for 3 ROMs on a physical cartridge. I do think that box art is quite well done but that's not worth the asking price.
 
For the Switch of all things. This is something I would have expected to come to the 3DS especially since it's in Japan. Very cool though to have an official refresher for this series. Can only hope this might push forward a localization effort for SD3.

it makes sense since both seiken 2 and 3 have multiplayer and switch has 2 player multiplayer out of the box
 

Shizuka

Member
I don't quite get why though. This should be like $7-8 each on VC and instead it's $50+ for 3 ROMs on a physical cartridge. I do think that box art is quite well done but that's not worth the asking price.

Exactly. People are really, really thirsty.
 

Waji

Member
The cover is nice but that's about it.
I was expecting Legend of Mana after reading the title.
But only the first 3, nah...

But good for people who are happy with it ^^, it's still "one" more game.
 

Northeastmonk

Gold Member
I'd love to have this. I ended up purchasing an English translated reproduction cart of Secret of Mana 2. I don't see why SE just can't localize that one.

The west loves this series NINTENDO!
 
Because IPS patching is a ton of work.

You need to find every single string in the ROM (which is where a lot of the work comes in), make sure you're modifying the string correctly, not fucking up the pointers, make sure the strings fit the textbox, make sure that this brute-force insertion doesn't break anything else (and unlike other insertion methods, this is far less of a sure thing) and then you need to bug-test it, and if something goes wrong, repeat steps two through four.

People massively under-estimate just how much work the fan patches of these big SNES-era RPGs represent; it's kind of a miracle they happened at all.

Ok well I'll graciously bow to your greater knowledge then :(

in other news, localisation and price notwithstanding, this is exactly the sort of thing Nintendo need to encourage.
 
Exactly. People are really, really thirsty.

Mana fans have been staggeringly thirsty for an official SoM2 English release for twenty two god damn years, is the other half of it.

Also, yeah, this is SD3's first reprinting in literally two decades, in any format. That's a bit of a big deal.

What does it mean then that they've been able to mod in three player support in SD3 then? Obviously that'd have little connection to the text compression issue, but would that suggest that, if these are just straight rom dumps, they do have what they need to modify them?

I don't believe it's confirmed that the version of SD3 included here has three-player support; I see nothing on the promo site about that. (I saw one or two English news reports, but I see nothing to corroborate.)

SD3's gotten a fan patch for 3-person multiplayer, but that's another fan effort.

Notably, in that teaser video, it was two players playing SD3, which is what it natively supported. SoM/SD2 probably has three-player support, but that's because it had that natively and they're just making the game think a multi-tap is connected.

Now, if the SD3 in this collection does have three player support, then yes, that means they either paid the fan patchers for that particular bit of code or can modify the code themselves (or are being very dumb about appropriating the work of others, but...) both of which would be encouraging, but I'd really wait for clarification that three-person multiplayer is in this version of SD3 before thinking along those lines. That'd be something they'd trumpet out the gate, and from what I, at least, can see, they don't seem to be doing so.

(The site says that "SD2 and SD3 support multiplayer" and 1-3 players are listed, but that doesn't outright confirm 3 man multiplay in SD3. They'd list it that way because SD2 supports 3 people.)
 

kswiston

Member
People who say "Region Free". What is the advantage if the game is in Japanese?

There are a number of Japanese game and anime fans in the west who can read Japanese. Presumably it would be of interest to them.

Region free consoles have a lot of other benefits though. Europe can import from the US when they have an Atlus situation. The US can import those Asian versions that sometimes include an English translation for Hong Kong/China/etc. Also, some Japanese games are simple enough that the language barrier isn't really a barrier to playing and enjoying the title.

I know some dedicated fans who will play through a Japanese game while looking at a translated script to cover the story, but I have always had zero patience for that, even in my younger days when I had the time.
 
Why is this big?

Also it's only in Japanese?

If nothing else, first reprint Seiken Densetsu 3 has gotten since 1995. Either you bought it used for the SNES since then or were forced to pirate it.

It looks like it might only be in Japanese, but... well, even while tempering your expectations, see the top left of this website.
 

Link_enfant

Member
so they can sell that later in another 4800 yen compilation with SD2 iOS

iOS SD2 is simply awful. I'd say almost as bad the mobile port of Mega Man X.
Having more seems better especially at that price, but getting the original version of the games regarding Seiken Densetsu is definitely the best choice.
 
I don't know the perspective of Mana fans, but if by chance this does get localized, in my opinion, I'd pay for the $50 price tag. To wait years for a localization, but not pay because its too expensive just feels kind of cheap and weird.

I've been waiting for a MOTHER 3 localization for 10 years, and I'd pay $50 dollars if we get a localized version of the game on the Switch, even if it is not bundled with Earthbound and Earthbound Zero.
 
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