iwakura.p state of the union – 2020

Crazy year, ain’t it?

Actual depiction of most 2020 social life, I imagine

Thankfully, we’ve been busy, so here’s where a few things stand.

Persona 2: Eternal Punishment

As you may or may not know, I was able to test out the first playable build earlier this year.

Unfortunately, it only gets me so far, so I’ve been asked to keep it on hold until the rest of the gameplay text can be finished. This is fine by me, as it will make testing worlds easier on me, my Japanese is NOT that good.

Fate/Extra CCC

Thankfully(?), the updates are largely handled by the CCC team, so be looking forward to that soon-ish.

Things That Were Completed

(disclaimer: iwakura.p was only cursorily involved in some of these. Napple Tale and YaruDora in particular are the results of hard work by people I’ve worked with and am more than happy to signal boost.)

Napple Tale, c/o Cargodin and EsperKnight:

A quirky Dreamcast RPG with a devout cult following.

http://www.romhacking.net/translations/5091/

YaruDora, Double Cast, again, c/o Cargodin and EsperKnight:

A fully animated visual novel! We all knows what it is.

https://www.romhacking.net/translations/5777/

Sakura Wars (editor)

The classic RED/Sega strategy RPG, on Sega Saturn(shiro).

https://www.romhacking.net/translations/5318/

Last Blade 2 (editing and revision)

The classic SNK fighter, now with a new translation! And a happier ending. (May vary)

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/19rXmrdl1f1nIyTUrIIi_RCDOfgzbC1SQfkQdb1rv9Ps/edit

And now, a taste of things to come…

Moonlight Syndrome

One of Suda 51’s first outings as writer/director, a precursor to The Silver Case and the Kill The Past series. Suda is in full unhinged crazy town. If you think you’ve seen madness, you have NO IDEA.

Castle Shikigami 2

The sequel to the original, and IMO, one of the best shmups of all time… with one of the worst translations ever. Which, I for one, have no intention of abiding.

Here’s hoping 2021 will be better than 2020. It’ll sure be an exciting one, I think.

Catch you on the flip side.

-cj

Castle Shikigami fan translation – official release!

First one in, last one out.

http://www.romhacking.net/translations/3086/

Have an enjoy.

Castle Shikigami has gone official. How does it compare to iwakura.p’s version? Let’s find out!

In case you haven’t guessed, I’m kind of a fan of Castle Shikigami. This very group’s first project, and the REASON IT EXISTS, is Castle Shikigami.

Myself, EsperKnight, and a freelance translator named Cckerberos decided to take it on, and the rest is history.

Or is it?

Yep, through some ritualistic mumbo-jumbo, CoS has actually gotten an official release on Steam.

http://store.steampowered.com/app/582980/Castle_of_Shikigami/

I was as shocked as you. What’s next, Ougon Musou-oh. Yeah.

Anyway!

Despite that most of the internet seems to not be aware that there IS a fan translation, I happen to recall vividly, having edited the damn thing.

There’s a billion reviewers out there talking about Shikigami’s gameplay, so I’m going to talk about the most important thing(well, at least to me): the story.

As most of you hopefully know, Shiki 1’s first US release was… less than optimal.

Yeah. All the story was removed. So we translated the PC version to fix that.

And now Degica’s put their own spin on it. So without further ado, let’s compare.

Fan Translation

Degica Translation

Nitpicks aside, the Degica script does convey the meaning of Kohtaro’s dialogue. But it lacks kick. Kohtaro’s never that calm!

It’s a solid translation. But it lacks flair. (Also, notice the Degica text is left-aligned and doesn’t fill the bar. That’s a forced thing in the translation. We fixed it in our version. Degica did not. You’ll see it in our version of Fumiko’s text below, likely a line we didn’t correct, as it required manual updating. )

Again, the sentiment is the same. The delivery isn’t.

Also, have some Engrish. Shiki tradition, right?

 

I gotta give them credit for that. It comes across as very clinical and autopsy-like in tone.

So in short, they made a valiant effort. It’s not perfect, but I applaud them for bringing Shikigami’s story to a wider audience… even if most won’t even notice it.

Rhythm & Gaming Obscura Podcast: Episode 1

After listening to a ton of podcasts over the holiday, I was inspired to do something a little different.

Download Links:

http://iwakuraproductions.akaisora.org/RGO1.mp3

http://www.mediafire.com/?6hkv4w6stybnze6

Note: the audio is a bit off balance. The music came out louder than the spoken portions. This should be fixed next time, so just be careful if you have the speakers up high during the spoken segments.

Little under an hour long, you can listen to me ramble on about assorted projects, rhythm games, and quirky stuff I’ve been playing recently.

Legend:

00:50 – Devil Summoner: Soul Hackers

11:27 – Pump It Up Fiesta 2

20:43 – Shikigami no Shiro

27:14 – Bulletstorm

30:46 – Persona 2, Persona 4 Golden, DJ MAX Technika Tune

38:36 – Shadowrun (Sega CD)

 

 

Music:

Big Bang – Fantastic Baby

Garoad – Out of Orbit

Jake  Kaufman – City Stage 02 / Mango Tango – Neon Jungle (Double Dragon Neon)

Yoichi Shimamura – Stage 03 / End Credits (Shikigami no Shiro)

Toshiko Tasaki – Amami Airport[Reality] (Devil Summoner: Soul Hackers)

Toshiko Tasaki – Knights of the Holy Lance (Persona 2: Innocent Sin)

Shikigami no Shiro: The Fan Translation Fan Dubs

65% of the recordings are done. Here are the final reads for much of the cast. Enjoy.

Shikigami no Shiro / Castle Shikigami – Open Beta!

Yep, you heard me right.

All the endings and story dialogue is done. The gallery and errata’s gonna take a little time.

So I want to share what we have done.

It’s time.

http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?q3l1mekyopodt87

You need Shikigami no Shiro !!EX!! installed on your computer to run the patch.

(We in no way condone piracy, and you don’t want Alfa System out for our heads, do you?)

I have included everything you need beyond that.
Replace the appropriate files, and enjoy. (We’ll work out a proper patch installer before long.)

Of course, this is a beta, so this isn’t quite finished. We expect feedback(and/or hatemail).

Read the translation guide if you have questions, I spent like an hour of it.
(Read all of it, I think you’ll like what awaits at the end.)

Thanks for the support. We got big things coming down the pipeline.

ENJOY! 😀

New Castle Shikigami [PC] Preview

The ending is in Japanese, but this is the last time you’ll see it that way. The endings have been complete and will be patched soon.

Spoilers for Tagami’s end route.

Castle Shikigami: Fantasy of the Seven Moon Night

AKA Nanayozuki Gensoukyoku.

http://hardcoregaming101.net/shikigami/shikigami.htm

This crazy little game is a hybrid of a visual novel and a shmup.

We’d love to localize it one day, but we gotta finish Shiki 1 first, I guess.

 

Until then, enjoy some screens!

 

 

Far as I can tell, everyone’s favorite Shiki cast are out to fight some soldiers and Septentriones, while Kohtaro seeks love from one of many eligible bachlorettes(seriously).

 

 

Shikigami no Shiro Update

It’s been a while since I updated progress on Shikigami here, but now that the Gun Bullet Children project is done, let’s get back to the Shiro bullet hell!

Tagami’s script is complete, marking the game at 85% completion.

A mysterious character from Alfa System’s lightgun shooter, Elemental Gearbolt, Tagami makes her first appearance in Shikigami no Shiro to put a stop to the invasion of the spirit parasites.

So what’s left, you ask?

*Endings (Contained in a separate .dat file)
*Gallery (Viewable as extras)
*End Credits (This is gonna take a while!)
*Errata (Tutorial, incidental text, scoreboards, etc.)

Almost there, crooked castlers.