John had a once-in-a-lifetime adventure across Japan conducting 80 interviews in 90 days with the most heralded (and unfairly less heralded) names in Japanese videogame-development history!

John and I have been a bit of mutual admirers and pen pals for years now, so hearing his first-hand account of a never-before-attempted whirlwind trip through Japan to talk to industry legends was amazing.

I'm supremely glad to share his story of his career in videogames journalism and his epic adventure writing multiple books of Japanese videogame development.

His books are an undispensible, one-of-a-kind treasure trove of game history, knowledge and anecdotes, and are absolute must-owns for any videogame historian or lover of '80s and '90s Japanese videogames.

Learning Japanese the old-school way -- books, in the '90s! -- The Price of Reason's SamShoRPG fan translation was 16 years in the making, Regarded as one of the Holy Grails of English fanslation, Jeff made fans' around the world dreams a reality with his recent (and incredibly polished) release.

He joins Chris to talk about his official translation work for XSEED on Ys and Trails of; surviving hard drive failures and more setbacks on 16 years of solo work on SamShoRPG; the stories and characters of SNK; and whether all fandoms are poison!

What's even more vintage-weird SEGA than a Japanese strategy-RPG + visual-novel period piece? How about that (Sakura Wars) mixed with its own proprietary puzzle game (Columns)?

Much more than a Sakura Wars skin of a Columns game, Sakura Wars Columns 2 has tons of content (60-75% of a full-blown Sakura Wars title). All 12 selectable characters have a full, unique story script to play through, plus there's a variety of other modes, puzzles and bonus content.

Thanks to a dedicated core team and a myriad of knowledgeable long-time fan-subbers, the English team went above and beyond the "normal" (and already exhausting) fan translation to bring you a wholly professional localization effort.

Part 1 focuses on the translation/localization:

-- Adding English not just to text boxes but to compressed images (English hogs so much space!)
-- Creative solutions to localizing Japanese puns and wordplay
-- How fan translators juggle completely different interpretations of the universe (including diverging official sources!)
-- How an effective, diverse team makes fan translations better (and easier on everyone!)

Staff (with @Twitter -- they'd love to hear from you!):

Project Manager/Programming Lead:
Derek (aka ateam) - @DerekPascarella

Translation/Localization:
Burntends - @burntends2
Danthrax - @Danbo_4
Natsume38 - @blaster_mania

Found in Fanslation hosted by Chris Hatala "GhaleonUnlimited" (@Ghaleon),
and as always, let me know what you think or what you'd like to hear more about!
FiF Homepage & Phantasy Star IV retranslation project + PS resources

Part 2 -- Listen to Part 1 first, please! We had a ton of fun, so rather than cut a bunch, I made it 2 episodes!

I hope you enjoy this, but more importantly, enjoy the game! :)

Part 1 or 2 -- Napple Tale is an amazing Dreamcast game full of literary references and a NiGHTS-esque, dreamlike realm. Working off and on for 6 years, Cargodin (translation) and EsperKnight (programming) -- both veterans of many successful fan-translation projects -- at last released an English-language patch for Napple.

Filled with creative, mysterious characters (many of which are modeled after Alice in Wonderland and other Lewis C. Carroll books/characters), It's a unique Action RPG experience and a must-play for every SEGA retrogame fan. And it's thanks to them we're about to!

We were having so much fun that instead of trimming down the episode to an hour, I split it into two.

Hope you enjoy it! -- Chris "GhaleonUnlimited" Hatala

BGE, creator of the French fan version of Phantasy Star IV, on why he loves Phantasy Star enough to take this on, and how he made it happen. Great insight on fan translations from a bilingual programmer!

Part 1 of 3, covering:

-How do you make someone speak "old timey" in French?

-The things we do for our kids (e.g. translate an entire videogame)

-How do you translate already-poorly-translated things into another language?

Rebecca Capowski has contributed mightily to English-speaking fandom for Phantasy Star and Lunar (among other series) by translating and analyzing many Japanese texts from both these amazing (but limited) gaming universes.

She is JLPT certified, credited as contributor to SEGA's Phantasy Star Online 2 English release, and she's got searing insight on the nature of Japanese-to-English translation. If you ever learned some basic Japanese because of videogames, you'll enjoy her ProTips and perspective of gaming localizations.

And she's a fabulous writer, which I probably don't do full justice too with my one-take reading of our email interview.

It's been 15 years since SMS Power release its last update to the Phantasy Star 1 (SEGA Master System) retranslation. Why a 2.0? A look into a comprehensive "fanslation" in 2020 -- decisions made, resources used, and quality-of-life updates.

-Updating an '80s JRPG for the modern videogamer

-How a team can be transparent and invite fan-feedback into the localization process.

-The difference between a "writer" and a "translator".

-Using resources outside of the game text itself for a translation project

I hope you enjoy this talk with Maxim (his real name) as he talks about his lifelong passion for Phantasy Star 1.

Apologies for the sound quality -- had mic problems before we went live (which are now fixed).

More exciting fanslation news coming for Phantasy Star fans in future episodes!