.hack//LINK Unofficial Fan Translation Project

[JunBansyoya]

The first patch is OUT! The major points of the storyline are translated.

Disclaimer: we will not be distributing any patches on this site, but we've made the patch easy to find!

Updated June 3, 2013

Hello .hackers
Welcome to our semi-official thread for the unofficial fan translation of .hack//Link, we are posting important information throughout this thread and in this post in particular.

Current Members of this Team

• Kuukai - Will be translating the story elements
• JunBansyoya - Making things work, Translating menus
• Keii - Will be translating the story elements
• Kazetrigger - Will be translating the story elements, testing

New Videos
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VxVbwazpHco[/youtube]
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XzycRy1zSjw[/youtube]
Bonus video 1 (spoilers) - this a Thanatos Report level that was included in .hack//Link
Bonus video 2 (spoilers) - this a Thanatos Report level that was included in .hack//Link

In case you missed the last thread all the old youtube videos are posted here in a playlist.

Release Schedule
v0.0 - "Shadow Signs" - Released August 2011
A movie version of the main story based on the patch for those who don't want to play the whole game. The final videos have been released to Youtube.

v0.1 - "Terror Infection" - Released September 2012
A basic main story patch that covers all the manga scenes and FMVs, and enough conversations for you to understand the gist of the major plotlines. Game text, emails, and non-essential events in the main story (even some Schicksal bosses) will probably be excluded. Basically the same thing as Shadow Signs but playable, with 100% of the animated scenes included, and with better editing.

• v0.1.1 - "Big T" - Released October 2012
  Fixed a problem with v0.1 where 90% of the translated content was missing.

v0.2 - "Mirage Mutation" - Coming 2014
This patch will incorporate the emails and dialogues that are bridged by "narration" in Shadow Signs. More boss battles, more system text, and more key scenes will be translated. Some sidequests will be translated. Known errors in Terror Infection will be fixed. The first few chapters of the game will be completely translated, and using just the patch you will be able to follow the main story from beginning to end without more confusion than if you knew Japanese.

v0.3 - "Propagation Outbreak" - TBA
For this patch the focus will be on the rest of the boss fights and the rest of the interesting sidequests, and all of the related email. You see more sidestories involving characters like Posaune and Haseo, who are still really interesting in this game, but not critical to the story. This will include more of the exciting, original content that wasn't as crucial to the story as what's in v0.2, including .hack//ZERO. This one is the one we would advise playing if you want to see absolutely everything that .hack//Link has to offer.

v0.4 - "Prophet Quarantine" - TBA
This patch will include the storyline and email for things like Kazumi, Beast of the Apocalypse, and human Cubia, which are cool but either don't differ dramatically from their source material or can be summed up in exactly one sentence.

Known Issues
-Some fskit menu pages crash the game.

FAQ
I have a question can I ask it?
Of course, but it would be appreciated if you read the thread and FAQ first, I know it is getting long but some questions have already been answered and not posted here. If you don't feel like your question is answered feel free to ask, good questions will be added to this list.

Can I help?
Sure, If you got what it takes, Kuukai is screening people who are interested, I will update this answer later with full details.

I cannot translate, can I help?
Yes! Play the game with the patch, and report any mistakes here! Only you can prevent typos!

When will this be done?
The first version of the patch is done! As for the final version, we are aiming for a quality translation and we cannot do this if we are rushing so don't ask, we will keep you apprised of the progress through this thread. Don't fret you will see this one day assuming <--insert appropriate end of world theory--> does not happen.

Where are X located in the game files?
For the most part text and audio are stored in obviously named places, for instance there is a folder called str, for you guessed it strings... It gets a bit weird when you get into the story boards, they are stored in the demo folder, there are 3 types that we reference to; MV, SC, and CM. We refer to them because that is their sub-folders inside the demo folder, generally they begin with the character 'm' or 's' followed by 7 or 8 numbers. There are other files in there as well, I have not explored them as much and don't know their purpose.

How do I decode media type X? How do I extract data type Y? What is a CPK?
The data types involved in this game are protected by patents and copyrights, discussing such things would also be against the rules of the board. Also there are BBS's that you can find on Google that are dedicated to this. We will no longer be providing info on any of this. There is one exception the ccs files are the main datafile that we will modify they seem like a generic unencrypted data package file which cannot have Intellectual Property laws associated with them so I feel they are fair game to discuss.

I still cannot see text?
Try using a text editer that allows you to set a character type, these are UTF-8 non-BOM files, notepad++ is what I use and recommend. I will add recommendations for linux(probably gedit or kate) and osx later.

You haven't answered my PM are you alive?
Sorry I do read every PM, but sometimes finding the time to reply can be difficult, I will be in touch soon .

Please remember this is not our jobs we don't have to do this, we do this because we have fun doing this and we love .hack//ANYTHING, I don't have fun if people are fighting or rushing us please keep this thread a fun place to be

[Kaori]

So..... It is the truth, but I heard that there is a beta somewhere in the internet.....

[JunBansyoya]

If there is, it is not this... all the files are currently on my computer and have not been uploaded anywhere.

[khman145]

Awesome that you are doing this ^^

I might be able to help translating some story sequences if you want.

[JunBansyoya]

thanks for the offer khman, I am hoping to devise a system to make translating easier without overlap between multiple translators.

If you wish to do work without fear of overlap at the moment you could get a start at the e-mails in game, Kuukai i think is planning on just working on the comics so that would be a help with the story. PM me with the details if you are interest, I can get you a full transcript of that part if you need, please refrain from posting the full text translation publicly on this forum, as it might fall into the copyright area that the administrators might not like.

[Shin Amakiir]

Well Jun my friend, I'm sorry I doubted you. If I can help in any way, just say so. I'm taking some Japanese courses with the intention of becoming a translator, but that's pretty far off. I could do editing or something, though.

[JunBansyoya]

Its ok Shin, people should be skeptical when someone offers them candy.

Right now i think the limiting factor is not really translators, but actually editing the files in question. This video only shows part of what has been translated by Kuukai, mainly the files I have located in the system.

To give some indication the scope of this, there are 2000 files that contain the cut-scene data, each one begins with either a "m" or a "s" followed by a 6 digit number, these files contain both the dialog and the script for the scene, eg (drawback ground, display text, draw character#,fade to black, etc). if i was to dig by hand it would take forever right now I have an idea to make the search easier, write a script to parse out the conversation data and put it into a big cvs file with an association between file name and dialog boxes this would make it easier i hope especially with excels search function.

That will be next weekend as I have 3 assignment due this week, and maybe a test.

Where as the menu data and other stuff that is displayed in dialog boxes outside cut-scenes are all stored in two giant file, making thing much easier to find especially when they use xml to denote where the color changes and where to place button icons.

Needless to say your offer to edit is appreciated but at this moment would be like having too many cooks in the kitchen but stay tuned there will be a point when editors would be helpful.

edited to add this: Thanks d5t for the shout out on the Facebook page and Twitter feed.

[Shin Amakiir]

Alright, well, it seems you've got a handle on it at the moment! Like I said, if you need help, just say so. The future of .hack//Link is in your hands!

[khman145]

Well I was hoping to translate some story sequences since my Kanji knowledge isn't that great... My listening skills are pretty accurate however.

[JunBansyoya]

Thats cool khman, I will let you know when I get everything sorted out with identifying the story sequences.

[Kaori]

Anything new to report dood?

[JunBansyoya]

After a few hours of file sniffing I think I have located 100% of the text in the file structure, there is a new type which i need to figure out the encoding but now i have identified all the scenes that the Kuukai has translated so far, now it is just a matter of actually encoding/compiling everything for a second video. While i am doing that Kuukai is continuing his translation.

I got my midterm report for one of my project courses today and it was not pretty (passed but not by much), so I need to work harder on that to at the moment to catch back up, So my time for this will be lessened still, but at least it is 4 weeks till I don't care about my marks anymore. Mostly the stuff that is going to get effected is the translation of the menus, I will be ignoring that to get the story elements done for the time being.

[Kaori]

So is it done yet?

[JunBansyoya]

Well I ran into some trouble with the new file type that I found. In theory my hex editing hacks should work, but in reality they are not working, there is a chance that it is because I used a different hex editor which may have written a BOM to the utf-8 file, but I ran out of my allocated time this weekend.

Sorry guys there wont be anything new to show this weekend, as I said before school work is my priority, but in good news I only have 3 weeks left till my last assignment is due.

[Shin Amakiir]

Well I ran into some trouble with the new file type that I found. In theory my hex editing hacks should work, but in reality they are not working, there is a chance that it is because I used a different hex editor which may have written a BOM to the utf-8 file, but I ran out of my allocated time this weekend.

Sorry guys there wont be anything new to show this weekend, as I said before school work is my priority, but in good news I only have 3 weeks left till my last assignment is due.

Take your time, be awesome.

[Kaori]

So hows the project coming along?

[d5t]

So hows the project coming along?

Pestering the project won't make it go any faster - dunno why you said "is it done yet?" a few weeks ago. You do know that .hack//Link is one of the biggest PSP games in terms of text, voice overs, cut scenes... right?

[JunBansyoya]

I figure i should post an update here, time flies when you are locked in a room chained to a computer and force to work on a project you don't particularly enjoy and a project you love with great passion.

Unfortunately neither of those project have been this translation, but in good news in 5 days from now will be my last day as an undergrad, My last assignment is due on Tuesday at noon, Guess who is going to get my attention when that is passed in, that's right you guys, hopefully I will finally figure out how to modify those damn motion comics.

So everyone enjoy your weekends, I will be here stuck to my computer typing/editing thousand of lines of c++ code for the sole purpose of having a fully functional video game to present to my prof on Monday.

[Kuukai]

Awesome, good luck!

[Shin Amakiir]

Good luck, man. C++ is rather annoying.