Fan translation in the works for SEGA Dreamcast Samurai Shodown visual novel spinoff
Dreamcast hacker Derek Pascarella is working on an English translation of the Japan-exclusive Nakoruru: Ano Hito kara no Okurimono.
SEGA Dreamcast hacker Derek Pascarella is currently working on an English translation for a Japan-exclusive Samurai Shodown visual novel. When the translation is ready, he plans to release a patch for the Dreamcast ROM so players can finally experience this elusive title. This will mark the first time this game has received a full English translation since its original release in 2001.
Pascarella has put out the call for translators to help him with the project. Otherwise, he is handling the programming, hacking, and graphics work mostly on his own.
See the trailer for the project below:
About this Samurai Shodown fan translation
Nakoruru: Ano Hito kara no Okurimono (translated by Pascarella as Nakoruru: The Gift She Gave Me) is a visual novel developed by Inter-Let’s. A spin-off of the Samurai Shodown series, it launched in 2001 for Windows and then in 2002 for the Dreamcast.
The story follows a young girl named Mikato who has the ability to sense spirits around her. She is the assistant of Samurai Shodown mainstay character Nakoruru who resides in Mikato’s village. After evil priestess Mizuki (another Samurai Shodown fan favorite) invades the village with her demon army, Mikato sets out to confront her and fulfill her destiny as Nakoruru’s successor.
In order to get this translation patch up and running, Derek had to reverse engineer the game’s systems. Fitting the English dialogue into the game required him to figure out a way to create new text boxes. Thankfully, he found out how to program in as many text boxes as he needed while sticking to the game’s limit of 26 characters per line.
Pascarella is no stranger to translating unlocalized Dreamcast games. Previously, he released translation patches for the Japan-exclusive Neon Genesis Evangelion typing games, as well as other non-English Dreamcast titles like Sakura Wars: Columns 2, Rainbow Cotton, and Taxi 2: The Game. He also released a Universal Dreamcast Patcher to make Dreamcast ROM hacking much easier.
This latest translation project is a welcome treat for Samurai Shodown fans who want to finally play this obscure title. We can’t wait to experience it ourselves.
Want to help Pascarella see this project to life? He’s currently looking for Japanese to English translators to help convert the game’s text. Check out his Twitter account for more details!
