Breath of Fire 1 Unfinished Retranslation

I started this retranslation project in 2013 with Ryuusui, the English retranslator of Breath of Fire 2. We never finished it. You can see how things were going in this clip, though!
The whole game uses a proportional font. It pulls off elaborate tricks to keep performance up on the SNES hardware with the proportional font.
The in-game menu system for the original game was pretty bad, so I set out to redo it. I got pretty far with it, as you can see. Ryuusui did most of the edited graphics for this: the menu icon names, the "The Dragon Warrior" on the title screen...
I expanded the character names to 7 letters instead of 4 because of the characters whose default names needed it: Gilliam, Builder, Manillo (Woolsey's Bo, Ox, Gobi).
There are some visual design issues. The intro text is hard to read in places where the screen behind it is bright. The original game and the Woolsey translation got away with it by having a thicker font. Also, the menu screen's backdrop makes some of the text hard to read, even with the text shadow.
Holding down B to run is a debug feature in the game, one that I would've kept enabled for the final version. Breath of Fire 1 and 2 are notorious for their slow walking.
The hexadecimal numbers in the corner are a dialogue debugging feature in the original game's code. It tells me the string ID of the current dialogue window. I enabled it for my development because of how useful it is.

[@RaytheonThunder]

This retranslation project looks so amazing. Such a shame it got abandoned.

[@thomaspolaino3188]

Hey! Finish this. The world needs a new BOF translation. It's for the good of mankind!

[@thomaspolaino3188]

BTW that menu looks really good. Hope you guys get back to this one. And good luck to ya.

[@kefkarothsephka7708]

for real and PLEASE keep the dash button feature in

[@sankhasubhrahaldar380]

it makes me happy that people still remember this series❤️😭.... best childhood memory❤️❤️❤️

[@melting.asphalt]

This is like... a brand new game. I'm currently playing BoF1 because I wanted to play through the series starting at the top, and I'm incredibly underwhelmed so far. There are cool worldbuilding and narrative moments, but everything is lost under the pallid, lifeless translation. A translation like this could turn a game I relatively dislike into a genuinely engaging experience. If you two ever finish this, I might replay it just for that. This is so good. At least the retranslation of BoF2 exists. Hopefully it'll dramatically improve that game for me, versus the alternative.

[@scorpionsapprentice3248]

Despite its simplicity, this is one of my favorite RPG's mainly because it is one of the first ones I have played. so i do have a lot of nostalgia for it.

[@demolitionizer7686]

I wish this would be resurrected. There are thousands of fans who would love to play this.

[@JadePharaoh]

That's an amazing job you guys did! Shame it wasn't finished :(

[@yadielgaming5337]

One day I plan on remaking these games and I wonder if I can use these same retranslations for the dialouge, menu, names, etc. (For both Breath of Fire 1 & 2) Hopefully this will be continued! I would love to see more! 👍

[@gamergeekgx5254]

Yo how's it going for you i'm thinking of doing something like that if you need help contact me on twitter

[@RenegadeX28]

Damn it...this was amazing. I have a soft spot for this game, but the original translation was so devoid of life or any character. If you ever complete this, you are doing a great service to BOF fans like me.

[@Mahaveez]

Just another soul hoping that this game will get the retranslation it deserves, to give the whole series a proper launching point and help invite newcomers to see the series as a whole (especially II and III)!

[@isayasbashiri5371]

I hope this project finishes

[@Beldark]

I love how Wordy it is. The more information the better I always say. I really hope you finish this one day, I'd love to revisit my Favorite entry in the series with new Fire Breathed into it >:A

[@KalJenko]

Shame this never got finished, would have loved to have played it with a retranslation

[@MatthewThomasParker]

Looks beautiful. I'm sure you get this question a lot: any plans to finish it in the near future? BoF the first RPG I played as a child, so being able to replay it through another fan's artistic touch would be amazing.

[@Myriachan]

If I had enough time and obsessive motivation, yeah. But Ryusui would also need that. I think that it's unlikely to ever be finished, but I might put the source code online someday.

[@omnisel]

Wow, this is amazing! Even though it's not finished, it's be awesome if you publicly released it in its unfinished state. Maybe somebody could pick up where you left off?

[@xaviertwist4419]

Wow, it's a real shame this was never completed, because this is a professional-grade retranslation. It would probably have looked like this if Capcom had given BoF the Final Fantasy treatment when the games were ported to GBA.

[@mopoz90]

I once also did VWFhack for BoF =) My first VWF =)

[@inuyasha009]

I finished the game recently but I had to actually watch some Japanese play through to understand what on earth the dialogues were supposed to mean. I can read Japanese, but not so well. A retranslation would make me want to play it again and see the story actually make sense.

[@RedScorpion2005]

Any chance to release your version so that other groupts and translator could participate from your work? It would a pity to lost this great hacked menu and so on.

[@livnatkris]

I wish this will be continued!

[@jaaj.]

please finish this... ive been playing the game on switch and all i can think about is how much cooler the original dialogue probably was

[@scorpionsapprentice3248]

do you know where we can find the original script?

[@edsonspeedrun]

Hi Myriachan, is there any patch or ips of the transparent box or how to change the transparent color palette to my Portuguese language? I'm very grateful if you have.

[@Myriachan]

I never finished this hack, so there isn’t a working patch for all this. Various parts of the game are in an intermediate state.

[@edsonspeedrun]

Both version I & II deserved a tool like Lunar Magic or Hyrule Magic. Congratulations for the wonderful work.

[@SandroOliveira91]

It's so frustating this never got finished. The game deserved it. I just skip BoF1 when playing through the series nowadays, its impossible to go through it after playing the awesome BoF2 patch. Let me ask you something through. How good are the Localizations for BoF 3 and 4? I'm sure they are better then the ones seen in rpgs of the snes era, but the psx rpgs had some problems in localization too.

[@SaotomeLuna]

This is really impressive. I'm not one to beg for projects to be finished, but I am curious: What caused the project to end?

[@Myriachan]

We started the project over Christmas break. Then after, I returned to work, and eventually lost motivation/interest to continue it. I would guess that the same happened to Ryuusui.

[@SaotomeLuna]

Ah, I see, that's too bad but it happens. Thank you for responding!

[@KaiserMazoku]

Is there a Github or something for the tools you used to make the retranslation?

[@bardhi09]

I'm not sure I dig the BoF2-style start menu and inventory menu and stuff. BoF1 had its own look as far as menu interfaces go...which albeit admittedly primitive I thought had its own charm. And I know Sara's japanese name is "Seira" but it feels pretty weird seeing it as "Sayla" though I suppose that's because I'm used to "Sara". The rest of the stuff is cool though.

[@DragonQuarter]

This is really neat! Although, "Sayla" instead of "Sara" ?? Ehhhhh. Some of it feels overly wordy too, but I guess it's unfair to judge when it was barely finished and there was no editing phase.

[@Myriachan]

That's what it says in Japanese: セイラ (seira). Sara[h] would be サラ (sara). Me dunno.

[@VivendoemUSA]

How many% of the game has been translated so far? by the way nice work.

[@Myriachan]

I'd say that 10% of the text had been translated, and that 40% of the programming work was finished. In terms of the translation, other than monster names, item names, place names, the dialogue in this video is all we had. In terms of code, the big missing things were the item menu and the battle menus.

[@gamergeekgx5254]

What happened to it why wasn't it finished?

[@Myriachan]

I guess I lost interest in working on it when work started up again after the 2013-2014 holiday break.

[@Melchior82]

Any chance it will ever get finished? and can you make a patch that at least keeps the names the same as the original? I won't recall/know who you are talking about with the new names...

[@Myriachan]

The character names only, or the NPCs/enemies also? If I ever do finish this, I suppose I could have an option for "Correct" versus "Woolsey" character names. Check out tcrf.net/Breath_of_Fire#Regional_Differences for a list of some names.

[@Melchior82]

Original character names for sure, and maybe enemies too... city/town names too... correct? are those much longer names really correct? they seem so different from the ones from my childhood memories.. :( general story script is fine I guess..

[@DragonQuarter]

I think it's fair to strike a balance, ultimately up to the translator in any case. Retranslating older games is an additional challenge because people who grew up with the original will always feel that some of the new redone names feel out of place because it's not how they remember it, even if it's not close to the original Japanese. I think BoF especially has it where some names sound fine in their original English format, but not always. Examples IMO: Manillo becoming Gobi was OK because Manillo is the name of the fish species in the game. Wyndia becoming Winlan on the other hand, was strange. Myria becoming Tyr was also strange but understandable since text constraints were an issue. Danc becoming Karn is just straight-up nonsensical to me, though >_> A llloooottt of creative liberties were taken by Squaresoft's US localization team. Some out of necessity (size constraints).

[@Myriachan]

Sometimes the original Japanese name just...doesn't work. In Breath of Fire 1, for example, the Dark Dragon capital is simply called "imperial capital" in Japanese. Ted Woolsey gave it the name "Scande". I'd probably go with "Scande" because "Imperial Capital" or "Capital" is too generic. A similar issue occurs with the anthropomorphic cow character: his Japanese name is the English word "Builder".

[@Myriachan]

One problem with using the original translation's names is that associations with later games is lost. For example, Myria is the last boss of both Breath of Fire 1 and 3, but in 1, the translator changed her name.

[@oofley8346]

Hmm. Someone should give a new coat of paint to the 3 remaining snes/psx games. The last two don't need it as much but consistency and removal of censorship (excluding Danc's racist original presentation) is worth it, I think.

[@LilacLegeret]

In when I mean where you can send that information to is my Twitter account which is under the same name as my KZbin But the avatar Is Tamaki Kotatsu From fire force Anime Which the 1st season is 24 episodes and they've got season 2 up to 12 up a Episodes Which there eventually supposed to make 12 more episodes for the 2nd season has bowl seasons they're supposed to have 24 episodes The people that make the series has already announced that both seasons each have 24 episodes Fire force Because even Dub happy Website has both seasons listed to have 24 episodes

[@LilacLegeret]

Yo dude below me I agree I like the 2nd one Japanese version better I wish he would do one thing use Breath of fire One GBA fire Title screen and create a cool intro Like the 2nd one where chose all the characters that the hero runs into throughout the game like breath of fire 2 retranslated doesThat would be awesome But I wish they would make an update so if you re download those games you can also get some of the new improvements made in GBA versions But in a super Famicom Experience in English patch what the tax but everything else is Japanese along with all the new GBA features making them the perfect breath of fire 1 and 2 making everything all right with the world he he he he he

[@LilacLegeret]

It would be cool to have All original Famicom and Super Famicom Retranslated English patch would be nice the actual normal games and movie and TV show games like Star Wars ninja turtles And pretty soldier sailor moon and pretty soldier sailor moon R Would be nice on a switch in English cause I have them on my phone in English perfect English And both sailor moon games play like Batman returns and final fight games similar gameplay style when it comes to have beat him up if you play the game show understand what I mean just like Capcom Beatem up collection on the Switch That's give you a pretty good idea of what both pretty soldier sailor moon and sailor moon R games are like what I mean by final fight type style gameplay but in a sailor moon skin world Because as you know how to play final fight you won't have trouble surviving both pretty soldier Sailor moon and moon R And when it comes to the theme pretty soldier sailor moon R Is just like the same time of the year Batman returns and Bayonetta 2 Holiday theme You will notice it in the department stores on the 1st level of pretty soldier sailor moon R how it has something in common with the other 2 games because it has a similar holiday theme when you see into the windows looks department stores you'll notice same theme same time of the year That relates to putting up a big tree now

[@LilacLegeret]

If you have any comments upon my Tax I have a Twitter account under the same name Avatar on my Twitter is Tamaki Kotatsu From fire force Avatar and background on my Twitter account is both her

[@LilacLegeret]

I win when I meant send that 1 message to let me know when you actually got that perfectly translated but I need to know where I can download it for free The Japanese version breath of fire one Super nintendo game retranslated Like number BOF2 Japan Version Version I have on my cell phone rom emulator game I want the same thing for the 1st game so I can have the good ones instead of the crapy ones

[@LilacLegeret]

Well if you ever get the Japanese version of this game Like the 2nd game the translation is perfect once you get that done You can text my name so that you know it's me so that I know it's you Like you could text my name and say cool dude that way no it's you that's your way of texting me and sending me a picture showing that you finished it it's finally get a perfect translation the original breath of fire Japanese version English patch tax Allowing me to play the good version like how I have on my phone the good version of the 2nd one Japanese version I mean they really cut a lot out of the games when they brought them to America and made a lot of changes in when they did after playing the Japanese version of to I find the American version krapp I'd rather play the Japanese versions with an English patch translation Plus the Japanese versions are properly graphically superior in some ways in probly play a lot nicer and look a lot macer in certain parts of the game that the American ones Worked As nice to look at and play they seem like it when we 1st got them but after you play the Japanese versions you feel like breath of fire 1 and 2 Japanese versions are better in the American versions of disappointment when it comes to the super nintendo games Considering people like you were out there maybe you should temporarily work with Nintendo And Capcom To help them give nintendo switch the good versions with an English patch retranslated Breath of fire 1 and 2 So they're super nintendo online service can finally removed the crapy versions and put the good versions on there instead with an English translation patch Japanese versions So thus which can have the good versions of breath of fire 1 and 2 But technically I think they should change their name and add a suck name called director's cut because there's nothing missing from the game unlike the stupid super nintendo versions