Zoroastres

I would like to pose a question. While I have seen related issues discussed obliquely here, the ethical muddiness and, well, controversy (deserved or not) has made me reconsider posing that question directly. I, therefore, chose to post the question to my blog, to avoid breaking any rules, written or unwritten, that I might otherwise be breaking. If a staffer would be so kind as to inform me as to whether or not the content of the linked material would be acceptable here, I'll go ahead and paste it into this post--I'm not trolling for his or anything moronic like that, is what I'm saying. To summarize things, I'm simply trying to wrap my mind around the justification--or lack thereof--of unlicensed translations of Macross media. Is it right? Is it wrong? You can easily offer your opinion from just that summation, but due to the existence of certain specific circumstances, you may be better served reading the article proper (it's a short read).

Before anyone gets confused, I've re-worked the version numbers to better reflect the status of the guide. New version number is 0.94. I've also updated the web version, so both are identical. In terms of today's content update, I've added a bunch of other small additions & corrections. I have received a few requests to add the shop information back into the game. I previously removed it because I felt it was cluttering up the Items section, and acting as "filler" making it harder to find the more useful item tables, describing the effects of consumables, where to find blueprints, etc. I will add it back in, but unless anyone has some strong desire to see it re-integrated into the Items section, I'll probably either dump it in its own section, or in Miscellany. .... And on a personal note, I've received many emails of support and gratitude for the guide... some of which have been very moving, actually. I really appreciate it. I really do. When I first started writing guides, well, I started out with a translation guide for an Artdink mech game... I didn't know any Japanese at the time. Making a guide can be tedious at times, but what makes it all worth while is knowing that I'm able to help share something I love with other fantastic people who love the same kinds of things. Anyway, I just want to say thanks to everyone. If I did so, I'm very glad to have helped you better enjoy the game--or, better yet, given you the necessary courage to play a game in a foreign language in the first place.

Still.... I could marginally justify pirating the games to play on a PC emulator, but not on a modded PS3. Both are "wrong," I know, but the one just seems more wrong to me. Funny how our minds can stratify things like this.

There are no add-ons. Aside from the very last mission, all of the story missions have very clearly marked objectives. Just follow your map.

Pretty sure I got that quest done without even looking for Havamal bandits, specifically, If you're having trouble, notice how enemies are identified with a red line, and the aircraft type written below that line. Some enemies will have an additional line written in kana above that line, indicating that they're special. Havamal aircraft are typically painted black, and identified as ﾊｳﾞｧﾏﾙ｡

For some reason, it seems like the Item Box bit in the menu-translations got deleted. It's back now. I've also added in some corrected quest information.

It's impossible to find the GCN version. I know, I've looked. EDIT: And as soon as I post that, I go on Amazon and find 50+ copies starting at $0.01. Huh. Guess who's ordered some Battlecry? I've only ever played in on PS2 before, but even then, I've bought the game maybe 5 or 6 different times.

To elaborate a bit on the controls, despite being an "action RPG," M30 plays much more like a third-person shooter than any of Artdink's prior Macross games.

I'm used to CGI never blending seamlessly... but the movie had, by far, the best CGI/animation blending I've ever seen. Granted, I don't really watch much anime these days, much less anime movies. But DBZ? I couldn't resist. As for Goku... well, I wasn't too surprised. Goku always sounded a bit like an elderly Japanese woman to me.

1) Races are accessed in Yue (Archipelago), Jurgen (Desert) and Urthr (Glacier). They're the third option in the town menu, under the hunter's guild. The Race menu consists of three options: the first will let you select a "race," the second will give you an explanation of racing, and the third will return you to the town menu. 2) Yes, it has to do with races. Each area only has the first 5 or so races open at first. To unlock the higher-level races, you have to complete the requisite quests. 3) If you can't complete the quest, it's because you do NOT have all of the required items. You need 10 stones -AND- the actual course plans, which are a course item. If you haven't found them yet, they'll be in a blue search field on the map; if you have found them, odds are you dumped them in your inventory--look for a quest item with "LV6," etc.

There are only three games under the Robotech license: Robotech: Battlecry (PS2), Robotech: Invasion (PS2); and Robotech: The Macross Saga (GBA). Of those, only Battlecry and Robotech actually use the Macross content; Invasion, IIRC, uses Mospaeda content. There are no Macross games available in English due to the licensing nonsense w/ Harmony Gold. If you're looking for a good Macross games, you're simply going to have to play a Japanese game. I'd recommend anything by Artdink, particularly their latest title, Macross 30. If you're worried about the language barrier, well, see my sig.

I'm hoping for cheaper, same-quality merch. And they didn't go out of business, did they? I thought they were just bought out? But, yeah: I would have killed for a 1/60 VF-2SS. Easily my favorite valk design, right up there with the super-sexy VF-4 and VF-11.

What most impressed me was the animation. Good god, is it a beautiful movie. Finally, DBZ looks as good on screen as it always has in my imagination. Movie is absolutely gorgeous. And Bills is just cool. I really hope to see him in a new DBZ fighting game. A new, good, DBZ fighting game. Emphasis on that last point.

Ooh, a VOTOMs thread. Don't see many of those. Anyone care to share their thoughts on Shining Heresy? I apply Kawamori-Canon to everything: to me, it never happened. BURN IT WITH FIRE. I've never been able to get a sense for whether or not my opinion of it was shared by anyone else. Is it?

I'm at the point where I'm not sure if I like GoT, or dislike it. The only character in the book I like at all, or find at all interesting, is Tyrion. Everything else is increasingly difficult for me to tolerate. The only character in the TV show I like at all, or find at all interesting, is Tyrion. The fact that Dinklage is a fantastic actor only improves this. I'm really only watching the TV show because I know what awesome stuff he'll get to do. Shame his character kind of petered out in books 4 and 5. .... I think something "funky" must have happened with Martin after book 3. The first three books of the series are fantastic, but the last two are... excessively verbose and tedious. Reading on the series, he originally intended to do a time-skip after book 3, and book 4 would have started several years later, with Daenarys invading (finally). How awesome would it have been if Martin had been able to sustain the pacing of the first three books like that? So awesome, that's how.

Well, it wasn't so bad as that godawful, super-long-winded explanation of fighter/gerwalk/battroid controls. I think if you read through all of the explanation text, the first three tutorial missions would take around 75 minutes.

Well, my impression of the game is nearly the complete opposite. I did like the character interaction that was funny/humorous/amusing, but there wasn't much of it, and I found the new cast & new music & new story to be very tedious and dull. Every time Mina or Aisha or Leon was on screen, I was pressing that R1 button. So I could be wrong, considering I was skipping through a lot of that nonsense at the end, but I'm pretty sure the unvoiced post-credits bit was an explanation of NG+.

I've got most of the items translated and detailed in the guide proper. What items are showing up in your inventory that are not translated? Well, odds are they're either unique quest items (icon: box w/ exclamation point), or aircraft parts (see icons in Mechanics Room photo-translation part of my guide). There's really no point to doing detailed translations of those items, as they serve no real unique function. As for superfluous quest items, the unique ones cannot be sold, and all of the others can be sold (you'll just have to gather more if you sell too many of 'em). The only item I would not sell is the Rare Metal Coin quest item, as they're really annoying to have to farm. You can spot them as they have a roman "G" in the name. Also keep in mind that several of the item tables have multiple columns--i.e. each row has 2 different items listed. ____________________________________________ All right... GoogleDocs version up to 0.98... basically just a bunch of small things. >added notes to trophy list >removed shop stuff from items section (didn't seem useful) >filled in missing rewards for races; added in some details for a few of the trickier quests (explicitly stating where to go) >completed the special equipment item list (I think?) >fixed a bunch of romanizations (like “vanquish races” instead of “bankisshu races”) >added two additional translations to gallery war records list; >finalized glacier map >added some additional character information; etc.

All right... just managed to finish the game. Will do a mess of updates to the guide tomorrow. .... @LOW_ALT: I will not be doing an aircraft section as it simply would take up too much space and convey too little information. There are only a handful of different SP attacks, and only a handful of different weapon types. The only, -only- aircraft I've seen with something "different" is Ozma's YF-29. For that, and any other aircraft that have something similar, I'll just make a simple note in the FAQ subsection at the end. IIRC, Ozma YF-29's sub-3 boosts offensive power. @Graham: actually, that stuff was in the guide--I removed it. There's little point in listing out frame/armor/engine parts, I don't think. The only thing that really matters is their point-value. .... I've gone a bit out of my way to "clean" the guide (re-writing sections, removing other sections) to make it as simple and clear as possible. The ultimate goal is not to place every possible piece of information into the document, but rather all of the (and only the) pertinent, necessary information.

Or, conversely, use reaction missiles to kill all of the spikes at once.

I went with the English spelling in the game... the game calls it "fovos" but the kana spells "fobosu." It's weird, I know. There are no Fovos ruins, both quests are sending you to the same dungeon, the base directly North of the Gefion.

Glad to be of service. I think I've long-since passed over the threshold of being an Artdink-fanboy. --- Anyway, I'm nearly done with the game, so I've got all 20 skills and will be PMing my save to you, SkyYuyo, so check your inbox. --- Also, I haven't heard from the guy who was handling chapter summaries for me. I've been playing the game off-and-on prescription meds, so my memory is pretty hazy and I've skipped a lot of dialog, so I'm not really able to do detailed summaries myself. If anyone else feels like stepping up...? Please. About all I can remember of the "meat" of the story are the few "fun" scenes, like Ichijo meeting Max & Milly, Sara showing up, etc. I could do it after my second playthrough, but odds are I won't be able to get around to doing that until after this semester, long past the point of anyone else caring. --- And, uh, lastly... I'll be going on my "spring break" trip tomorrow for 2 or 3 days, so no posts from me for a while (I'll be very intentionally sans-internet). Hopefully I can pop back in before school starts back up and finish both the game and the guide. Anyway... have fun! Oh, and some advice: try playing through the game w/ a fully-tuned Koenig Monster. It's an entirely different (and awesome) experience. GERWALK-only.

GoogleDocs screws up the formatting for some reason. It won't display the same number of lines per page in the googledoc viewer as there are in the actual doc. EDIT: Oh, yeah, and those icons did help. I haven't put them into the guide yet as I'm not certain how I want to use them. The only thing left that I need is just the skill icons.... but, yeah, for the most part, the guide is done.

Those are the support skills. They've been in the guide for nearly a week now. Please actually look at the guide before asking questions. .... Anyway, version 0.97 update: re-wrote menu translations section for greater clarity; added some new photo-translations. The big news? I spent an inordinate amount of time setting up a web version of the guide. Should be much easier to access/navigate than Googledocs. It's HERE. I'll also go ahead and post the table of contents here, and in the first post in this thread. TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION Game Information Controls Gameplay Tips MENU TRANSLATIONS My Ship Menu Town Menu In-Game Menu CHARACTERS & STORY Story Premise Characters Plot Summary (Spoilers!) SKILLS Auto-Skills Support Skills FIELD MAPS Yuria Archipelago Sierra Desert Madis Glacier STORY QUESTS Chapter 1: Planet Ouroboros Chapter 2: Harsh Cry of the Ancients' Servants Chapter 3: Fold Out Chapter 4: The Desert Land Chapter 5: Desperate Rescue Chapter 6: First Live Chapter 7: Havamal Madness Chapter 8: Sharon's Revenge Chapter 9: Voices Across the Galaxy HUNTER GUILD QUESTS Daoren (Yuria Archipelago) Vrlitwhal City (Yuria Archipelago) Yue (Yuria Archipelago) Leopold City (Yuria Archipelago) Bowen (Yuria Archipelago) Cleef Town (Sierra Desert) Moriconehill (Sierra Desert) Ramad (Sierra Desert) Raghbar (Sierra Desert) Jurgen (Sierra Desert) Urthr (Madis Glacier) Verthandi (Madis Glacier) Skuld (Madis Glacier) ITEMS & SHOPS Consumable Items Special Equipment Delivery Quest Items Blueprints Yuria Archipelago Shops Sierra Desert Shops Madis Glacier Shops SECRETS & EXTRAS New Game Plus Races Slate Locations List Trophy List Custom Music DLC Aircraft MISCELLANY Frequently Asked Questions Update Log Credits & Acknowledgments

I'll try and blaze through the game tomorrow (today...? Time is weird with insomnia) and if no one else has, I can send you my save once I've got all 20 skills.