"My White Whale Has Finally Been Slain" - Samurai Shodown RPG Translation Is Live

I love a good fan translation, and I love Samurai Shodown, but these things usually take many years to release, so I generally try to forget about them until they appear in fully playable form.

I was never a big fan of RPGs growing up, but This is one that I was always intrigued by. SNK's sprite work was insane, and she SamSho characters designs are just amazing in anything I've seen them in.

Good luck to your sir!

I've always found the look and concept of this game intriguing. I know there have been efforts to translate this before. I believe the game was either fully translated, or largely, into French and maybe Spanish which may be helpful, though actually changing the text in game is probably quite the undertaking as well separate from actually having a translation. But good to hear of this.

I'm excited for this. SamSho rpg was one of the first jp Saturn games I played back in the early 00s. Printed a guide off of gamefaqs and played through most of it. Its really good, especially if you're a fan of the series.

You should intend those puns! Embrace them!

I was always excited about this game. I can't wait to try it.

Does Ukyo Tachibana show up in this game?

@Grail_Quest while I don't know a lot about this game, footage I've seen show that Ukyo is in the game and playable.

@sdelfin Awesome! Thanks for the reply. That really makes me want to play it!

@Grail_Quest Glad I could help. Ukyo was my favorite character in Samurai Shodown so it was good for me to learn it as well. And just to be thorough, it looks like the game has six different starting characters which should lead to some story differences between each, so there's some replayability there.

@sdelfin Awesome! Ukyo has always been my favorite too!

i just ***** myself

I know almost nothing about Samurai Shodown, except I have to wonder why SNK had no interest in localizing at least the PS1 version.
Although I've been told that even SS5 was barely localized, with SNK removing story rather than translating it. Maybe restored in one or more compilations, I've heard?

@Damo From that GamePro article "Samurai Showdown RPG", I have to wonder if that issue also had any Mortal Combat coverage.

@KingMike Waning viability in the West for 2D visuals in 1997, a niche IP, and subject matter that would have earned unwelcome scrutiny from religious types. There was zero chance that it would get an official localization.

As for SS5, yes, the English version removes the story entirely. A translated version with story came out on Xbox.

@Sketcz There is no PS/SS translation planned. And if it ever happens, I won't be involved in it. The NGCD version is far superior in every way other than bonus materials, besides. More animation, more features, significant differences to the combat.

@MoriyaMug in the case someone else decides to translate the PS1 and Saturn versions using your work on the Neo Geo CD as basis, would you give the team the A-OK?

By the way, congratulations for the release of the English fan translation

@KGRAMR Thank you. It's surreal to think it's finally done and no longer hanging over my head. As for another translation project, if someone wants to take it up and hand me a script dump for the other versions, I'd be happy to help them get it in parity with the NGCD version. The only real reason I'd be interested in them, though, is because the other versions have different bonus material which needs to be translated. With the additional features added to the NGCD translation by Justin Gibbins, the bonus material is the only thing that is missing.

I've been aware of different efforts to translate this game into English for the various platforms. I'd check periodically. It was nice to learn earlier this year of the progress made here, so it was really great and unexpected news to see it today. I was legitimately surprised when I saw that it was complete.

@MoriyaMug thank you for your efforts in doing this. I have no doubt it was quite a lot of work to make this happen.

@sdelfin Thank you. I cannot even begin to guess at how many hundreds of hours I sank into this project. It is still surreal to think that it's finally done.

Only one minor error has been found (since fixed, but not released). I'll compile them as they get reported and release an update in a few months.

I consider myself a long-time Samurai Shodown fan, but I didn't even know about the existence of this RPG until now.

So many good fan translations nowadays. I really should get myself a good emulation device.