We love a good diving game here at Time Extension. There's nothing quite like submerging yourself beneath the ocean waves and exploring a new world full of adventure and mystery. And if we can do all that virtually without the threat of shark attacks or the process of, you know, actually getting wet, we consider that a bonus in our books!
Luckily for us, it seems that a group of fan translators has got together to bring out an English language patch for one of the more obscure diving games released for the PS1 - B.L.U.E Legend Of Water - so we won't have to resort to donning a real scuba suit anytime soon.
Released by the Japanese developer and publisher Hudson Soft in 1998, B.L.U.E Legend Of Water was teased in a couple of English language publications back in the day, including GamesMaster, but sadly never received a proper localization overseas. That means all of its dialogue and menus remained pretty much untranslated up until this year, which is when a team of enthusiasts led by @HilltopWorks set out to give it the long-awaited overhaul.
Its story follows a young girl named Maia as she visits her father who is a marine archaeologist at his ocean-based research facility. The action is then divided up between your conversations with the people working at the base and your time spent exploring mysterious, underwater ruins with an adorable dolphin companion named Luka. While underwater, you'll come across other marine life, uncover mysteries, and command your dolphin friend to perform a bunch of useful tasks for you.
According to its credits, @HilltopWorks acted as the director and programmer on the patch. In the past, they were responsible for the fantastic English language patches for the PS1 title Aconcagua and the PS2 maid game Maid Uniform and Machine Gun. The localization lead Cargodin is also someone whose work we've covered before, due to their contributions to patches for the surreal PS1 game Iblard. Other people who contributed to this latest patch include blametherobots who handled graphics, Oculin and Gwendolyn who helped with testing, and SnowyAria who receives special thanks for their PlayStation know-how.
If you want to give it a try, the patch is available to download from Hilltop Works' Patreon, along with some instructions. If you like what they are doing, we also recommend that you go and support them too.