(EDIT - Whoops, doesn’t look like SFC didn’t appreciate me hotlinking their image!)
shiningforcecentral.com/news.php?m=0&story=281
Excellent news! If this is successfully completed I may just have to get a modded Saturn to play these classic games in English. Simply awesome…
Holy crap! 
I haven’t even played SF-III, yet I got it brand new for free!
I should really play it, I’ve heard it’s good.
Geoffrey Duke is gonna be bouncin’ off the walls! 
Cool.I might do that myself Solo.
Wow. After helping with Dragon Knight’s old Shining Force 3 petition and running two of my own in an attempt to get Sega to do something, it all boils down to the fans once more.
Looks like Shining Force 3 will get a full replay from start to finish in the near future. This definitely makes my day.
The problem is that Sega never takes the considerations of the fans seriously. I’m still steaming that they had ShF3 for download on their site
a while back.
I’m not getting my hopes up just yet. For a start, the guy responsible for doing the translation hack has only just begun, and claims that the whole process will take some time which will also be dependent on how much time he has to spare in the future himself.
Once the English text has been implanted, the hacked ISO should be compatible with Giri Giri.
I can just imagine Sega sueing someone for distributing translated incarnations of games they never had any intention of translating themselves. I’d love to see how Sega reacts once the translation hack is finished.
I think the project will die before its even finished, though i’d like to be wrong.
Way to be positive…!
[quote=“Editing, I”](sees Raizen1984’s new avatar)
Wahey![/quote]
Yeah. Probably. I started reading the SF3ii translation a while back, and am on the Epilogue. I won’t just stop reading it because I doubt this will ever see the light of day.
Holy crap, that would be AWESOME if it was true. I’ve really been wanting to play Scenarios 2&3 since I was such a big fan of the first one, but obviously I gave up hope on that years ago.
And sure, the project may or may not get done, but since they’ve cracked the encryption on the text it would be possible for any group to take up the task of translating it (if they make the code public, anyway). And there are LOTS of groups out there willing to translate games, just look at Tales of Phantasia, FF5, or Bahamut Lagoon. It might take a while, but I’m confident that where there’s a will, there’s a way.
I’m sure this will be finished eventually, the guy doing it promised to at least make his work and progress publically available, should he ever quit.
It’s just a matter of time.
He said he even found out (to a degree) how to do the text effects, like shaking, expanding, etc. Very nice!
Surely these translations would be distributed as patches rather than full ISOs, though…? I wouldn’t have though that Sega would lift a finger for this sort of thing… in comparison to Nintendo on the other hand, who seem to approach legal action as a hobby half of the time…
But yes, if this comes to fruition I’d certainly be happy to play through these games at last. I’m sorry to say that I still haven’t played through SF3 Part 1 yet, but I think this’ll convince me to finally do so…
You never know how Sega might react. A part of me believes they will simply overlook this little project out of respect for their fans. It really all depends on whether or not Sega has any intention of recycling this particular intellectual property in the future, which is highly doubtful. Until we know what form the other unnamed Shining Force game Sega is developing at the moment will take, Sega’s plans for this series continue to remain unclear.
As for the translation hack, I’m not quite sure how the person responsible plans to implement it. It’s my fervant hope that a fully-working bug-free user-friendly Saturn emulator becomes available sooner or later, because my modded Saturn is screwed. Plus, Shining Force III will look wonderful in any of the higher resolutions an emulator has to offer. As graphically intense as SF III Scenario 1 was, the graphics paled in comparison to the following scenarios.
Really? I was under the impression that all 3 used the same engine basically and were on par with each other graphically?
Oh, no no, for one thing the 3d model quality in the fight scenes is MUCH better from Scenario 2 on (the new summon spells are beautiful as well). Cities are a bit more detailed and alive, you’ve got additional, minor effects like fog during some battles…
There’s also more animations for the sprites, though they seem limited to the beginning of Scenario 2…Synthesis’ and Uryudo’s antics in Saraband come to mind. Lots more going on unlike the constant nodding and wagging in scenario 1. 
Thank you for clearing taht up for me and welcome to the forums.
Yes, I also heard that they improved the engine quite a bit for the later games. Heavy texture mapping on characters, etc. But the base technology is the same, so it still looks similar. Well, this is what I’ve been able to deduce from pictures and videos, anyway.
That would be quite a feat if he manages it. I never finished SF3 (battery died 
), but if that’s ever finished I’d probably pick up the series again. I own the imports of Scenarios 2 and 3, but it’s harder to get enthusiastic about a game when you’re looking up every other word in a dictionary. ^^;