Greater than 21 years after it was initially launched, one of many true holy grails of Japanese-only video games has been translated into English. Fan translator Hilltop Works, who beforehand translated cult favourite Sq. Enix carPG Racing Lagoon, launched an English patch for all times sim Boku no Natsuyasumi 2 on Thursday. The trailer above celebrates the discharge, exhibiting off a two minute slice of the sport with English subtitles, UI, and in-game paintings.
In the event you needed to evaluate Boku no Natsuyasumi 2 to different well-known video games, it is most much like the likes of Animal Crossing and Harvest Moon or Stardew Valley, however solely broadly. You are not tending crops or doing a lot in any respect that feels actually “gamey” in Boku no Natsuyasumi (which interprets to My Summer season Trip). You tackle the position of a younger boy residing a month of summer time break within the Japanese countryside circa 1975. That will sound mundane, however the sequence appears to depart a deep mark on those that’ve performed it. I am very excited to be a type of individuals, quickly, because of Hilltop Works’ translation. However do not take my speculative phrase for it—take it from Tim Rogers’ six hour video:
There aren’t many video games that really feel actually autobiographical, however this sequence attracts closely from the childhood of creator Kaz Ayabe, who was 10 years previous in 1975 and has been making video games on this life sim vein for the previous 23 years. “I used to be pondering that I wished to create a recreation that simulates the true world, so I used to be looking for topic for that,” Ayabe stated in a uncommon English interview a number of years in the past. He continued:
“However again then I used to be tremendous busy with work, and after I was all the time clogged with work, I’d bear in mind this hill that was at my kin’ home that I visited throughout my childhood summer time holidays. So I stored coming again to that scene, and questioning why I stored serious about it, after which thought, OK, perhaps I may make a recreation that replicates your summer time trip.”
Regardless of seeming like fairly a easy recreation, Boku no Natsuyasumi 2 was a difficult localization undertaking for a number of causes. The obvious barrier was that its Japanese textual content was displayed vertically, relatively than horizontally—Hilltop needed to fully reprogram that facet of the sport in low-level meeting code to show textual content alongside the underside as an alternative.
It took lots of handbook tweaking of the position, kerning, textual content coloration, drop shadow, background, fade in/out, character widths, baselines, character mapping, texture mapping, and spacing to get it the place it wanted to be: 🧵 pic.twitter.com/Q5cwLWQbajMarch 7, 2023
There have been different main hurdles for this translation, too, like vital bits of Japanese audio that had been missing subtitles completely:
In an effort to add English subtitles to some voice-only traces, I’ve decrypted Boku 2’s inside scripting language. Connecting the references between the scripting, textual content information, and audio banks, I can pinpoint the place every line of textual content and voice clip seems. pic.twitter.com/FnR4Fr4iRkJune 13, 2023
And the various drawings and different textures that had Japanese textual content, requiring intensive picture modifying:
I wish to spotlight the outstanding work by @oldgamebox and @blametherobots to translate the sport’s graphics, notably the work to take care of the type of Boku’s crayon writing: pic.twitter.com/PAgk8zptqDApril 16, 2023
“This has been one of the vital difficult video games to wrangle with however I am past delighted on the state it is in,” Hilltop wrote concerning the undertaking when he first introduced it again in March. Eight months later, the English patch is completed, and downloadable from Google Drive right here. For a PC recreation in the identical vein, take a look at final yr’s Shin-chan: Me and the Professor on Summer season Trip, a spin-off additionally designed by Kaz Ayabe. It was the primary recreation within the Summer season Trip sequence to obtain an English localization.
