Dracula X Sega Saturn (No translation? WHY?)

So guys this may sound lame, but i just find out that the Legendary Castlevania SOTN had a Japanese only version on the saturn, called Dracula X, i imediatly got exited, because, well beacause its a great game, and i would love to play it on my saturn, but as most people i dont understand japanese. I googled a bit and find out that some guys once had actualy worked on a translation

http://home.comcast.net/~heavyweight...drac/index.htm

they got 30% of the game translated once the project was canceled.

Its sad, and why the hell no one continued this awesome work.

What do you think about this guys, shoulnt anyone finish the Translation so that we could all have this great classic.

It already exists on a bunch of other platforms. I dunno, maybe I'm just not fucking nuts enough about SOTN to want to beat another version, just because of the slight differences. After beating the PSX, 360, and PSP versions - I think I've had enough SOTN fill to last me a life time. My opinion is why waste effort on doing this, when we could be getting a game for the Saturn that *never* came out here.

Actually Dracula X and SOTN are two different games.

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Originally Posted by Jared

Actually Dracula X and SOTN are two different games.

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The Japanese name for SOTN is Akumajo no Dracula X: (Subtitle).

They don't call it Castlevania over there, and since it was a direct sequel to Dracula X: Rondo of Blood...

I heard Dracula is a pretty cool vamp.

Well im those odd cases, i dont have a psx, or a psp or a xbox 360, i only have pc, and of course my sega mega drive, mega cd and 32, and saturn, and i dont like playing games on emulator, so i only have the chance to play SOTN on the saturn, but anyway it was cool to see this project finished.

All you gotta do is use a regular PSx walktrough. I pretty much beat it with no major issues.

It's not like with Policenauts where no english language version exists and unlike Policenauts, you don't need to understand any of the dialogue to play through the game.

SOTN is now cheaper and easier to obtain in english than ever. So anyone who wants to play through the Saturn version and understand the tiny bits of dialogue only has to play an english version first. The extra content is all gameplay based.

Same deal with the PC Engine Dracula X, which was actually brought over for Virtual Console without a translation.

Yeah, the motivation for doing a Saturn translation is pretty low.

A. There is already a PSX version in English, and it is superior to the Saturn port

B. Programming for the Saturn is a bitch

If someone is going to go through the trouble, there are plenty of other games that don't have any kind of English localization that they could work on. Like the PC Engine Dracula X! (yeah, it has a PSP version, but I want to play it on a real system!)

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Originally Posted by GohanX

There is already a PSX version in English, and it is superior to the Saturn port

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The PSX version may have better graphics and something else I don't quite remember, but the Saturn version majorly improves the gameplay by adding a third hand for items and the ability to run through the second castle.

Plus it has stuff like Maria and Richter fully playable, extra areas and items.

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Originally Posted by Black_Tiger

The PSX version may have better graphics and something else I don't quite remember, but the Saturn version majorly improves the gameplay by adding a third hand for items and the ability to run through the second castle.

Plus it has stuff like Maria and Richter fully playable, extra areas and items.

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IIRC, I think either the 360 or PSP one adds those features.

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Originally Posted by Black_Tiger

The PSX version may have better graphics and something else I don't quite remember, but the Saturn version majorly improves the gameplay by adding a third hand for items and the ability to run through the second castle.

Plus it has stuff like Maria and Richter fully playable, extra areas and items.

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Yeah, but the elitists point out that the loading times suck and the sprites are stretched out.

Personally, I'd go with the Saturn version.

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Originally Posted by Baloo

Yeah, but the elitists point out that the loading times suck and the sprites are stretched out.

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On the playstation version? If that was the primary/original version, then they wouldn't be stretched out. Just that they didn't correct it for the Saturn version (assuming it ran in a higher horizontal res).

This is one I had to pass on when it came out. I bought the original SOTN for the Playstation when it was released in Japan. Back then we were waiting up to a year or longer for companies like Konami to localize things for the west. I figured why wait.

The Saturn version came a bit later and didn't fair so well. There were two extra levels and Maria was playable, but the game wasn't optimized for the Saturn. The beautiful lighting and transparencies became meshy messes and slowdown reared its head far more often than the Playstation original. While the game was still quite playable, it was one of the few instances where the Playstation version of a 2D game was arguably better than the Saturn one.

If I'm not mistaken, both the PS and Saturn versions were titled "Dracula X: Nocturne in the Moonlight". The game did not receive the "Castlevania: Symphony of the Night" title until it was released in the western maket.

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Originally Posted by Pulstar

I heard Dracula is a pretty cool vamp.

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Drinks blood and doesn't afraid of anything! :mrgreen:

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Originally Posted by GohanX

Yeah, the motivation for doing a Saturn translation is pretty low.

A. There is already a PSX version in English, and it is superior to the Saturn port

B. Programming for the Saturn is a bitch

If someone is going to go through the trouble, there are plenty of other games that don't have any kind of English localization that they could work on. Like the PC Engine Dracula X! (yeah, it has a PSP version, but I want to play it on a real system!)

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Well i Agree with you in A, but has the the programing part, it really seens simple, the guy who started the project, has all the necessary programs on his website, mostly, the process resumes on extracing files, and then use an HEX editor, locate japanese text and change it into English. but of course i dont have any practical knowlage in programing.

http://home.comcast.net/~heavyweight...drac/index.htm


Offtopic: By the way does anyone has a guide with the spells?

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Originally Posted by konio38

it really seens simple

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God i hate when people say that, if it was so simple wouldn't he have finished it a long time ago already?

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Originally Posted by tomaitheous

On the playstation version? If that was the primary/original version, then they wouldn't be stretched out. Just that they didn't correct it for the Saturn version (assuming it ran in a higher horizontal res).

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Nah, I meant on the Saturn version.

The only 3rd party Saturn game that has been ported to another system was Dead or Alive for the Xbox. And Tecmo did that because they seemed to like the Saturn.

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Originally Posted by tomaitheous

IIRC, I think either the 360 or PSP one adds those features.

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I bought both the 360 and PSP versions hoping that the Saturn gameplay updates would be included, but from what I remember they weren't. I read an interview with Koji Igarashi in which he said that he had zero interest in anything original from the Saturn version since it was all done by a different team.

I played through SOTN when it first came out and later picked up the Saturn version once it was released. I played the Saturn version to death and it looked great since I wasn't coming straight off the PSX version (and because it does look great on its own). But when I tried the PSX version again, I could only play through once since the trade off wasn't worth it and I'd rather stick to the Saturn version for the third hand and running ability alone. Even with what is supposed to be longer load times (although saving was probably much quicker), it just took way too long to clear that second castle (the game now seems too artificially long in general now).

I'd hoped that the 360 port would become the 'ultimate' version, but I'm not too disappointed since the game has aged terribly for me after playing the GBA sequels.

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Originally Posted by Black_Tiger

I bought both the 360 and PSP versions hoping that the Saturn gameplay updates would be included, but from what I remember they weren't. I read an interview with Koji Igarashi in which he said that he had zero interest in anything original from the Saturn version since it was all done by a different team.

I played through SOTN when it first came out and later picked up the Saturn version once it was released. I played the Saturn version to death and it looked great since I wasn't coming straight off the PSX version (and because it does look great on its own). But when I tried the PSX version again, I could only play through once since the trade off wasn't worth it and I'd rather stick to the Saturn version for the third hand and running ability alone. Even with what is supposed to be longer load times (although saving was probably much quicker), it just took way too long to clear that second castle (the game now seems too artificially long in general now).

I'd hoped that the 360 port would become the 'ultimate' version, but I'm not too disappointed since the game has aged terribly for me after playing the GBA sequels.

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Huh, the one thing SOTN Isn't, is artificially long, It's legitimately long. There's two huge castles, I hope you weren't expecting a small game lol. On top of that, unlike games that really are artificially big/long(that POS Oblivian comes to mind, such a huge map, but no content to fill it), the castles are full with all kinds of powerups, relics, and content in general, not to mention certain monsters drop unique items as well.

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Originally Posted by Zoltor

Huh, the one thing SOTN Isn't, is artificially long, It's legitimately long. There's two huge castles, I hope you weren't suspecting a small game lol. On top of that, unlike games that really are artificially big/long(that POS Oblivian comes to mind, such a huge map, but no content to fill it), the castles are full with all kinds of powerups, relics, and content in general, not to mention certain monsters drop unique items as well.

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Going back now, many hallways feel like Kung Fu on NES. There's a ton of stuff in the game, but it doesn't feel very well balanced or polished design-wise compared to something like Circle of the Moon which is now my favorite Castlevania game after Rondo of Blood. SOTN was an important experiment that led to much more refined games, but it feels bloated and sloppy in comparison to the three GBA sequels.

I agree with you Black_Tiger the game is very long, for what has become a staple.

As for the translation, i contacted the guy trying to figure out if he made any progress since 2005 and if not, if he is willing to share the program technics that he used, and if so, im going to persue diferent forums to find out if anyone would like to pick up the project and hopefully complete it.