Saturn Dracula X (SOTN) is getting an English Translation !

[Ziggy]

https://segaxtreme.net/threads/translat ... otn.24647/

The member Knight0fDragon over on the SegaXtreme forums is giving an English translation to the Sega Saturn version of Symphony of the Night! It's already in an alpha state that you can download and try. Most of the items and enemies are translated and some of the story as well.

Unfortunately, this translation is not compatible with the 4MB RAM cart hack that was recently released. On November 1st, Knight0fDragon posted "As of right now, there is no way my patch and the 4MB patch are compatible. YZB would have to some how rebuild it with my files."

For those that don't know, YZB is the guy that made the 4MB RAM cart hack for the Saturn version of SOTN. This hack gives the game some huge quality of life improvements. There is a hotkey to pull up the map screen (R+B) and there is much less of a delay to go in and out of the menu, which basically gives you instant access to the map and menu where as in the vanilla version there was a long delay to get into the menu and getting in and out of the map was a nightmare. This hack also has faster loading for the teleport rooms, the ability to skip cut scenes, and easier inputs for Maria's spells.

[Ziggy]

So I posted my thoughts regarding the YZB quality of life improvements over on the romhacking.net forums, and it turns out that knight0fdragon is a member there and responded to my post. It sounds like he is implementing his own quality of life improvements, so the YZB 4MB hack might be irrelevant.

He stated that his translation will have the ability to skip cutscenes.

Regarding the delay to enter and exit the menu, it sounds like this will be improved. And possibly more than the YZB hack did. With his translation hack, the game will no longer switch resolutions to go into the menu. This, among other things, should help with that delay. But this is also HUGE for anyone using an upscaler (or anything that has a resync delay when switching resolutions).

It sounds like he will be working on file order, which should help with load times. I would expect the improvements (small or large) to be game-wide, but he also cited this as one of the causes for the menu delay.

I'm not 100% sure, but it sounds like he may be doing something regarding the in-game map as well.

This is all great news. I know the Saturn port of Symphony has its problems, but I believe it is absolutely still worth playing because of the content unique to this version (at least, for fans of the game that have already played the PS1 version).

[Anapan]

Version 0.99 beta was just released. I just tried it on my Satiator. It seems pretty complete from what I played.

[IrishNinja]

wait, this thing is functional now? fuck yeah, can't wait to replay!

[Ziggy]

New patch alert: Dracula X: Nocturne in the Moonlight Ultimate

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l6Ua3OfYEsg

Someone combined the 4MB patch with the English translation. I don't know if more work was done outside of that. But here's some bullet points I've found for it...

Translation by Meduza Team

- Version 1.0
-Release Date: Jan 1, 2024
-Translation 100%
-Release Site: meduza-team

Basic changes to the «Ultimate» version of the game:

-Fully translation into English
-Restoration of translucency of many objects
- Direct access to the global map
- Finalization of the global map
- Restoration of the original proportions of some sprites
- Removing horizontal black bars of the screen
- Skipping videos and dialogues
- Access to Richter's alternate costume
- Reduced loading time
- Support for 4MB expansion card
- Bug fixes
- Hard Mode

[opa]

Thanks for the heads up. I don't have real hardware to try it on but it plays fine on mednafen so far.

[Ziggy]

Where did you download the patch from?

[opa]

The meduza-team site is Russian (where you can find the patch) but I couldn't get it to work with the original game files I have.

Cdromance has a prepatched rom to download.

[Ziggy]

Oh, that's a pre-patched image. I was wondering why the file size was so large for a patch. I was looking at it first thing in the morning and didn't realize it said ISO. I'm going to give it a try later today.

[Ziggy]

This is from the included READ ME file...

************************************************************
* Dracula X: Nocturne in the Moonlight [Sega Saturn] - Ultimate (v1.0) *
************************************************************
This is the most complete and advanced version of the game with many quality changes compared to the original.
Basic changes of this version of the game:
I. Fully translation into English;
II. Restoration of translucency of many objects;
III. Direct access to the global map;
IV. Finalization of the global map;
V. Restoration of the original proportions of some sprites;
VI. Removing horizontal black bars of the screen;
VII. Skipping videos and dialogues;
VIII. Access to Richter's alternate costume;
IX. Reduced loading time;
X. Support for 4MB expansion card;
XI. Bug fixes;
XII. Hard Mode;
(I) Fully translation into English;
 From now on, all text and speech of characters in dialogues are translated into English (port from the PSP version of the game);

(II) Restoration of translucency of the objects:
• Full translucency of the background of the dialog box (for sprites and tiles);
• Translucency of backgrounds of windows with names of locations (the palette of sprites in the background may be distorted);
• Translucency of window backgrounds with the name of the resulting artifact (the sprite palette in the background may be distorted);
• Translucency of the backgrounds of pop-up message windows (the sprite palette in the background may be distorted);
• Translucency of the backgrounds of windows with the names of enemies and objects (the palette of sprites in the background may be distorted);
• Translucency of the effects of explosions and smoke (for tiled backgrounds);
• Translucency of effects from the use of weapons and magic (for tiled backgrounds);
• Translucency of blood splashes of characters and enemies;
• Translucency of some enemies (Ghost, Phantom Skull, Ectoplasm, Skull Lord, Vandal Sword, Azaghal, Frozen Shade);
• Translucency of the inscription "Game Over";
• Translucency of Count Dracula's portal pillar during his teleportation in the prologue (Alucard's and Richter's portals are replaced with flickering ones). Translucency of the Maria's recovery pillar when fighting her;
(III) Direct access to the global map:
• Access to the global map is performed by pressing the "Up + Start" button combination, bypassing the pause menu (for all playable characters). When playing as Alucard, calling the global map from the pause menu no longer works;
(IV) Finalization of the global map:
• Gray highlighting of loading rooms of locations on the global map;
• Gouraud shading was applied to the global map to increase color depth;
• When playing for Alucard, the map will display information about the orientation of the castle (a normal castle or an inverted one);
(V) Restoration of the original proportions of the sprites:
• The proportions of Alucard's HUD have been restored;
• Restoration of proportions of explosion and smoke sprites;
• Restoration of the proportions of the sprites of icons of objects, additional weapons and hearts;
• Restoration of the proportions of the sprites of the window frames, which display information about the receipt of the item and the names of enemies;
• Restoration of the proportions of sprites of trees, bushes and grass in the background of some locations;
• Restoring the proportions of portraits of characters in dialogues. The character portraits on the hero selection screen were replaced with alternative portraits from the art catalog on the game CD;
• Correction of text scaling for descriptions of items in the shop, the inscriptions “Elevator activated” and “Final stage - Bloodlines”;
(VI) Removing horizontal black bars of the screen:
• Removed horizontal black bars at the top and bottom of the screen (title screen and ingame). However, in some locations without vertical scrolling of the screen, part of the image on the top of the screen may be missing due to the limitation in the tile maps;
(VII) Skipping videos and dialogues:
• Skipping videos and dialogues by pressing the "Start" button is now available by default (even if there are no previous game saves on the memory card);
(VIII) Access to Richter's alternate costume:
• Richter's alternate outfit is now available by default (prologue and regular play). But if you want to return to the classic costume of Richter, then when choosing a character (Richter), you must hold down the "UP" button. However completely changing Richter's alternate costume to the classic one in the prologue will no longer work;
(IX) Reduced loading time:
• The access time to the pause menu has been reduced because the screen resolution change has been disabled. Now the loss of signal on TVs is no longer observed.
• Exiting the pause menu and returning to the game is now faster by expanding the data caching area (loading time depends on the specific room);
• Significantly reduced access time when returning to the title screen (from the main game menu or from the sound test menu).
(X) Support for 4MB expansion card:
 The game now supports a 4MB expansion card, but this is optional. The expansion card is automatically activated if installed. But when the cartridge should be used exclusively for saving the game, “Caching Data” process can be disabled by holding down the L + R key combination while animating the "Sega Saturn" logo;
 When using the extension card, the access time to the pause menu is reduced even more than without using it. Also reduced loading time when moving to the library, when entering to teleportation rooms and when moving between castles (normal and inverted);
 Loading sprites of all playable characters is performed directly from the expansion card without using streaming unpacking (as was the case in the original version of the game). This solution allows you to achieve more performance in the game;
(XI) Bug fixes:
 Fixed a bug where Alucard gets stuck inside a huge rock. In one of the rooms at the very beginning of the game there is a hollow rock in which you can break through passages on both sides. If the passages are already open and you re-enter this room, then being inside the rock you can get stuck there after exiting the pause menu. Visually, the passages will seem open, but it will not be possible to pass through them.
(XI) Bug fixes:
 Added an increased difficulty mode for those who found the game quite easy (now your enemies are 2 times more powerful). Difficulty selection is performed in the title screen menu each time the game is restarted and is independent of save files;