Zoroastres

Thanks. (I'm only on 1-6....).

Anyway, I edited the thing--should be Bowen, not Daoren.

I think the main draw really is to see all these characters we love actually interact with each other. So far it's hilarious. It's incredible they put in so so much voice work on this.

But cliched? Yeah, the plot is an excuse to bring together damn near every main Macross character ever and have them interact. I'll accept any lame excuse for that, welcome it, and please may I have another sir.

My general experience with Macross games:

"God, these people are stupid."

(Some time later)

"God, Basara is awesome!"

....

Anyway....

Somewhat... since I last checked, they've updated the wiki w/ pages for individual towns--listing out items sold & guild quests. It's not complete, but it seems better to segregate guild quests by town. From that, I had some time to day to quickly translate the guild quests for Doaren and Skuld.

Like I've been saying, I haven't really been playing the game. I've got the kana spelling for locations, but I know the game uses English--which is what I'd prefer to use for the translations. So if someone could tell me the english for the following locations, I'd appreciate it.

(Bowen)

-Vuvazu

-Bareigu

-Gangueri

-Beruveruku

(Skuld)

-Kanonasu

-Furoputo

-Gagunrazu

-Iyaruku

-Fabuniru

-Yuruba-Aga

...

I'm not very far into the game (1-6 or so) but I'm actively avoiding the story stuff because the story (so far) is anything -but- interesting. Leon's whole background seems incredibly cliched; Aisha is an insufferable stereotype... and mysterious-frozen-girl-with-amnesia? Really? Yikes. I don't know. Maybe I'm just angry at the game for being a Macross product that insists on using bad, generic music for 99% of gameplay.

...

Anyway:

I'm loving GoogleDocs/GoogleDrive.

Anyway, I wasn't able to get as much work done on it this weekend as I'd hoped. I probably won't have a real decent chunk of time to devote to it for another 10 or 11 days... but in the mean-time, I've got this:

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B6r3Sy1LnkpxSGJxOUR4VFVac0k/edit?usp=sharing

It's a link to my in-progress guide. The cool thing is that, with GoogleDrive, it will automatically sync to the file on my PC, so every time I change or add something to the file, it's automatically updated.

It's very rough at the moment and doesn't really contain much information that I haven't posted already, but hey, it's cool!

Pretty sure I've already done that. I think you're talking about the charge boost, which is L2 + X for control scheme C. (Or Guard + Boost).

All right, I think I've finally figured out GoogleDocs. I think. Here is the full set of item translation tables:

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B6r3Sy1LnkpxZUZDUU91NmY0Z0k/edit?usp=sharing

Everyone should be able to view it. Let me know if you cannot. No, it's not complete for the game, but it is a complete translation of everything on the wiki. I know I found some stuff in the game, myself, that wasn't on the wiki, so right now I'm going to take the few hours I've got before class to hunt down some blueprint locations.

Thank you so much for these translations! On a vain note, I know you can switch between 1 of 4 paint schemes for your Valkyrie, is there a way to customize these paint schemes?

No. It's just another awesome element of the older games they've decided to do away with.

Okay, nice. I can post Japanese text here. I've gone ahead and added the (partial?) list of consumable items translated from the wiki to the first post.

the last two is "concentration" and "spirit, or soul (tamashii)". I can read only kanji.....but nothing else.

I actually got a Robot Damashii Tallgeese in the mail today... really had a strong "So that's what it is!" moment. I tried looking it up at least a dozen times in my Nelson's to no result. Really annoying, that one.

...

Anyway, as I've said before, I don't really have a lot of time to play the game myself. This means most of the translation stuff I'm doing won't be from my own game, but from the Japanese wiki. Which is... very incomplete.

Right now, for example, it has ZERO information on any of the sidequests.

In class today I had some spare time (thanks to an insipid discussion resulting from poor reading comprehension and general ignorance of 11th century social and religious dynamics) so I went ahead and made a translation table for all of the items... from the information in the wiki, which is pretty incomplete.

Due to how incomplete it is, I probably won't include it in any version of the FAQ (Because, due to GameFAQs being terrible, will have to be actual screenshots of tables) but I am exploring the idea of putting it up as a GoogleDoc. I've never messed with GoogleDocs before, but I -think- you can set up files that anyone could edit. That might be helpful.

Since the Japanese wiki has no side-quest information, I guess that's the one thing I need the most here. So if anyone can help out with that....

Otherwise, I'll just have to wait for the Japanese wiki to update. I'll be doing most of my work on the guide on-campus, but maybe I can get an hour or two to play the game this weekend.

Yeah we need two separate threads

One for menu/quest/how to translations.

One for storyline.

And then attempt to stay on topic.

It's really bugging me in the other thread people are giving continual playthru spoilers interpersed with translations of the menus/quests or non-plot tips, even in the same post.

Well, then maybe we should just keep this thread spoiler free, and if anyone feels like contributing to a summary, he or she can toss me a PM. I'll amend the opening post.

I'd like to help contribute what I can, but I'm curious, is there a way to take screenshots on a ps3?

My biggest thing right now is translating item names and quest requirements... I have several quests that all ask for the same exact thing, but even translating, I have no idea what they're asking for.

That's next on my list. Since a lot of that stuff is on the wiki, should be easy to translate. Thing is, wiki isn't complete, so it may take some time before item/quest information is finished.

EDIT:

Finished photo-translations. See first post.

Man, I wish I had a capture device. As for the physical strength. Could it be for the Melee attacks with the triangle button?

I don't think so. The pilot stats are:

Strength(?)

Ranged Combat

Melee Combat

Defense

Speed

???

???

I haven't figured out the last two yet. The very last one I can't read, period (too low a resolution to make out the strokes) and I haven't found the first kanji in the second-to-last one in my dictionary yet.

I haven't messed with the game enough to really say too much about, well anything, but at the very bottom of the pilot screen there's a "growth settings" set of buttons... which might affect how stats are upgraded upon level up? I don't know, but you can select between things like "speed" and "defense" and "balanced," etc.

Most up-to-date version of (still in-progress) translation guide HERE.

Photo-Translations of the game's menu screens are HERE.

I've gone ahead and set up a web-version of the guide, which should be easier to access (and navigate) than the GoogleDocs version. Here's the table of contents (just click on the links to access).

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

If you need to contact me directly email is usually the fastest way (mwulf.0079@gmail.com). However, if you're looking for basic advice/answers, you're probably better off posting your question here in this thread, so that other people can answer! (I'm not always the fastest option, ya' know?).

---

Original Post:

Hey, all. Been a while since I posted here. Anyway, I'm working on a translation guide for Macross 30 (in the same style as some of my previous guides--so lots of image translations). Some fine folks at GameFAQs suggested I ask around here for some help, as that whole "life" thing is pretty busy for me and, working on my own, it could take some time to finish everything. Particularly given how incomplete the Japanese Wiki for the game is.

I'm fairly busy with that whole "real life" thing right now, so on my own, it could take quite some time to assemble a decent guide. Therefore, I'd like to approach you fine people for aid. If you feel like helping me out--great--if not, that's fine, too. Here are the elements I'd currently like some help with:

1. Description of evolution/upgrade mechanics (I've only had maybe 30 minutes to play the game today; toyed briefly with system, upgrading VF-0, but wasn't exactly sure how the process functioned--i.e., what variables were or were not affected; which items were better to use/not use; etc.).
2. General item data.
3. Brief synopsis of plot per chapter (Please PM me or email me mwulf.0079@gmail.com -- please do NOT post any content that could be considered a "spoiler" in this thread.
4. General help with Japanese-to-game-mechanic literacy:

• The stat in the pilot menu is "Tairyoku," which translates to "physical strength" -- but what does the stat actually effect, game-wise?

So... what do you guys think will be some of the scenarios in the game? Me? I'm looking forward to Isamu, Sheryl and Basara bouncing off each other. (figuratively speaking)

Isamu: What the--?! Guld, that crazy guy's flying his Valkyrie with a guitar!

Basara: LISTEN TO MY SONG!!

Guld: Heh, doesn't sound any crazier than you, Mad Skywriter.

This is literally the ONLY thing I'm aching to see.

Er... that's not how it works. Most Japanese companies, aside from the really, really big ones (like Sony and Bandai-Namco) can't afford (too much money & too much risk) to tap into the overseas market directly. They rely on third-party companies to license their media--these third parties pay for the rights, and then take on all of the bills and risk of translating, localizing, distributing and advertising the product outside of Japan, with the hope of earning a profit. The biggest reason why anime is "dying" (assuming, of course, it's not already dead) in the West is, well, a plural--reasons. The third-party companies (like Funimation, Viz, Yen Press, etc.) generally spend so much on translating, localizing and distributing products that they really can't afford to advertise on anything risky, anything they don't KNOW will turn a profit. This is why Dragonball has seen a half-dozen different releases in the past decade. The fact that advertising is cost-prohibitive makes it harder for them to compete with Western animation, which has grown quite a bit in the last decade, and is a far cry from where it was during the "anime boom" of the 1990s thanks to shows like Avatar: The Last Airbender, etc. Keep in mind that prior to the anime boom, Japanese companies really didn't see much potential for an overseas market, so licenses' were a bit easier (and, more importantly, cheaper) to acquire. After the boom, they recognized that potential, and instead of undervaluing their licenses, they began (in certain cases) to overvalue their licenses.

None of that, of course, is enough to burst the anime bubble--but it does set the scene, if you'll pardon the double metaphor. The second factor is, of course, risk. You never know what will be a hit and what won't. One Piece is the most popular anime in the world, for example, yet it completely bombed in the North American market, whereas Dragonball, History's Strongest Disciple Kenichi and Yu Yu Hakusho were all fairly-to-incredibly popular here.

Thirdly, perhaps the biggest reason for the collapse of the North American market (and I should clarify here, that the anime markets in Europe, South America and Asia are all fairly strong, the big decline of the industry is most apparent in the United States) is, simply, piracy. It's a matter of competition: wait months or even years to buy an overpriced DVD of a show, often dealing with grating English dubs, shoddy translation and technical issues... or download a fan-translation for free within hours. It's kind of obvious why many consumers simply stopped purchasing anime and started downloading it--a habit that, once started, is very hard to break. Hell, I know people who routinely download torrents of anime episodes that were aired on Youtube or Crunchyroll, officially. There's literally no difference in quality or timing, but for them they're simply too used to the illegal method of acquisition.

And finally, I should point out that anime isn't "dying" at all. The anime boom was a boom. Or a bubble. A few shows (specifically Dragonball and Pokemon) became insanely popular, so those third-party companies began buying up the rights to shows left and right. It was a bubble. And they kept inflating it, more and more. And then it burst--because that's what bubbles do. The industry in the United States has declined because it had to decline, because the consumer base was not as large as they thought it was, and more frugal with their wallets. Those companies had to either adapt to the changing market or die. Many adapted--and are as strong as ever. New Japanese anime and manga are continually being released. Hell, even Japanese light-novels have found a new market in the West in the past few years--which is VERY exciting. Sure, a a few big companies did go under, but that was mostly because they kept relying on broken business models. Bandai Visual America, for example, shut down only this year. Why? Let's just say they weren't able to make much money selling 50 minute anime movies for $60 USD.

...

And it should go without saying that NONE of this has ANYTHING to do with the status of the Macross franchise overseas. Harmony Gold owns the rights to Macross, and several other mecha anime that they picked up dirt-cheap in the 1980s, some of which--including Macross--were butchered and jammed into a chimera of a cartoon called Robotech (which itself managed to be quite popular here). They own the rights to the ENTIRE franchise outside of Japan, and are insistent on not doing anything with it. Some (probably most) of the people here are familiar with Battletech/Mechwarrior, a Western gaming franchise. Well, back when Battletech started, they plagiarized many of their robot designs from Japanese anime (Because who would know? It was the 80s). Harmony Gold sued them, so they got rid of the designs and began to draw their own. A year or two ago, some game developers began working on a Mechwarrior 5, a sequel to the beloved PC series that had been dead for quite some time. But those developers sought to set their game earlier in the Battletech timeline, and the possibility that they might use some of those stolen Macross designs was all it took for Harmony Gold to start making noise, effectively killing the project.

The problem with Macross overseas is that Harmony Gold has the license, and nothing else. Harmony Gold is murder for a show--it's worse than ****ing 4Kids Entertainment.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harmony_Gold_USA

All they do is own licenses and own real-estate. They don't do anything with either. They just smother everything until it stops moving.

...You're looking at this the wrong way. It demonstrates that of those people who DO import, these games are very popular.

And, yeah, you could dismiss that by saying, "well, how many people import?" and imply its too small a number to be relevant... BUT enough people import for sites like Play-Asia and NCSX, etc. to exist.

And keep in mind, the world is a big place, and Macross (and Gundam) are bigger in Europe, and far bigger in Asia, than they are in the Americas. The simple fact of the matter is there's plenty to indicate that Macross has a decent-sized fanbase around the world... and nothing to indicate that it's "miniscule." I mean, hell, if it were miniscule, a forum like this couldn't even exist.

lol, no, it's most certainly NOT a "miniscule importing fanbase." Macross games and Gundam games, even those obscenely overpriced hybrid packs, routinely hit the top of the bestsellers list on the big importing sites like play-asia, amiami, etc.

Ace Frontier has the same color scheme system as Assault Horizon, the only difference being that most planes in AH have around five different sections to color, while the Macross games only have three.

If the Shark's Tooth is an actual decal (rather than a custom skin ala the Last Frontier skins) it could be more similar to Armored Core style customization. That would be... pretty awesome.

I do hope that, if they do go with that, we get more than three colors to play with per Valk. I always had a hard time making 'em look good w/out going all out in a single color.

Holy crap that's awesome! Decals would be really cool, In the PS3 games, there were different skins--like the ones for the VF-25s with girls drawn on 'em, or different color Valks (Klan had a red VF-25)--and the PSP games let us fully edit the color of our valks (full RGB range). Decals would be the next logical extension.

As for Macross II, it was in all of the PSP games... so maybe it is in, but they're just not talking about it because it's only the Valks and they don't feature into this original storyline due to their non-canonicity? It seems strange, particularly for a "small" franchise like Macross, to celebrate their 30th anniversary with a game that omits a big chunk of that franchise. Or maybe DLC? I don't think they'll omit Macross II. Or, rather, I don't want to think that.

You should find a good copy of Do You Remember Love?, especially if you've never seen it before... it's the pinnacle of 80s anime in my book and always time well spent.

I'm hoping the Blu-Ray hybrid pack will eventually go on sale... I saw it once, years and years ago. It was actually one of the first anime I ever saw. I don't remember much about it other than that it looked spectacular, and that whole ending scene w/ Minmay singing while Hikaru fights. Brilliant.

You don't recognize the SDF1?

Not really. Not without the Daedalus arm, at least. It's been a while since I last watched any Macross stuff, though.

Ebay, huh? I've been checking HLJ and AmiAmi fairly regularly... never seen anything but the VF-25s and VF-29.

So I take it that's the Battle Frontier? I've never been big on any of the non-Valk machines. It certainly looks to scale, assuming it was to-scale in Last Frontier. From the looks of the mini-map in the screenshot and the background, it looks like the areas will be VERY large. I wonder... is the "Archipelago" area the floating island terrain, do you think?

...

Anyway, at the GameFAQs board for the game, someone brought up the fact that the title, Ginga o Tsunagu Utagoe, is very similar to the title of the last episode of Macross Seven (Ginga ni Hibiku Utagoe). Is it a coincidence? A reference? A possible indication that Macross 7 characters/events will figure more heavily into the storyline than other series?

Scale was a limiting factor on the PSP due to memory and processing power. The PS3 should not be so limited, I would be expecting to see an SDF at proper scale. On the PSP a fly by in Gerwalk mode should take more than a few seconds but doesnt. Hopefully this will be better scaled on the PS3. The Gundam Battle Engine is the playstation equalent of the havoc engine in that it is scalable and versatile. Can't help thinking that if it was on the PC it would be modded in the same way as the Crysis engine or Halflife or even Quake.

I'm pretty sure all the ships in the Trial games were to-scale. In Last Frontier, for example, there were launch-videos done with the in-game engine that had your Valk. launching off the deck of the Battle Frontier.

But keep in mind that the new setting/story may get around having to have everything to scale by limiting what big ships are actually in the game. For all we know, none of the big ships, not even the SDF-1, will appear.

I'm very excited for this game, but I'm a bit worried about the gameplay since I have a feeling that it will play like the psp games.

Everyone here seems to love them but I find the controls to be poor, especially when compared to the Macross game by Sega for the ps2. That game made me feel like I was actually in control of a Macross plane in a middle of a heated battle. The psp games always feel like chore to properly control. The camera angles are not too great either.

Regardless of this I will still get it since its Macross, despite what I think will be a very high price like all Japanese ps3 games. Anyone know if its up for pre-order anywhere yet?

Artdink's improved the engine a lot since the PSP days. The second analog stick they have to work with on the Vita/PS3 helps a lot, and the games let you use the left analog stick for movement, the right for camera work, and the d-pad for transformation. IIRC, the default controls for their PSP games were no camera control, period, and D-Pad for movement.

They've also implemented different flight controls, so if you like you can play the game (while in Fighter mode) almost like an Ace Combat game.

Ah, sorry. I only noticed the different links to Magazine scans.

And I agree, the floating islands look pretty awesome, and given the mechanics of the game, they could be really fun to play with. Assuming we can fly over AND under them, AND walk around on top of 'em in Battroid mode, I can easily see 'em becoming my favorite map type.

I keep checking AmiAmi and HLJ for new stuff, but all I've seen are the same VF-25 and VF-27s. I thought they'd move on to other Valks, but it looks like all they've done with it is release custom-skins like a bad Ace Combat combat game I could name.

When they first announced the line, I was stoked. Macross merch is SOOOOOOOOO expensive. Affordable model kits of the fighters sounded perfect. I've been waiting for some Sturmvogels, some VF-171s, some VF-2SSs, some VF-0s, some VF-11s.... but there hasn't been anything in years. Have they given up on the whole idea of affordable Macross models?

Looks like no one has posted this yet... Famitsu is running a big feature on the game in their weekly magazine. They've put up a "preview-of-the-preview" kind of thing on their website. The guy who's scanlating The First for us did a quick translation of it:

http://red-shoulders.blogspot.com/2012/10/macross-30-famitsu-preview-translation.html

There are a TON of actual screenshots (well, low-resolution screenshots) but enough to tell that the game looks gorgeous. I skipped the DYRL hybrid pack, thank god, so I can't compare it to that, but compared to the other two hybrid packs it looks a LOT better. I just hope it runs better, as Last Frontier had some nasty FPS dips. Everything looks great, even if I'd much rather have the usual missions-from-the-show set-up, but I am a bit concerned about the fact that there's no mention of Macross II. I really, really love the design of the VF-2SS. Sure, the other valks are cool and all, but compared to the Macross 2 stuff, they just feel too conservative.

Looking forward to picking up Famitsu tomorrow to actually see what some of the details are. Like the 'Hunter guild' mentioned in that pic- so either there's coop play or....Rick Hunter is back! Lol

Apparently it's the "good guy" faction of this crossover story. Every single crossover story I've seen in a game has been absolute ass, from Trinity Universe to ACE:R. I can't imagine this game-original tale will be all that good. Well, that said, Gundam did a game-original story for their 30th anniversary (Record U.C. 0081 Gundam Senki) and it was pretty good, if a bit by-the-numbers. Kind of a cross between 0083 and 08th MS Team. If they put in a similar amount of effort, maybe it wouldn't be too much to ask for if we kept our hopes high?

Aw, hell, who am I kidding. As long as Sheryl and Ozma get to interact a bit with Basara, I'll be happy. Aw, hell, who am I kidding again. As long as Basara sticks around to irritate everyone else with his antics, I'll be happy.

1. Why is Artdink a good thing?

Artdink is an experienced developer that has already produces a great many Gundam and Macross games on the PS3. They've basically only got the one game engine (Gundam Battle Engine) that they've used for all their games, but they've been making steady improvements and enhancements so we KNOW it's going to be a great title. They just released Gundam Seed Battle Destiny on the Vita last summer, and it was a really great game.

Honestly, a PS3 Macross game is a long time coming. They've made 3 kind of half-assed sub-games bundled with Macross blu-rays in Hybrid Packs... and a lot of us have been waiting for them to make a full Macross game since that first Hybrid Pack, which was in 2008 or 2009 or something.

2. What does the subtitle mean? Galaxy something song?

Ginga = galaxy, Utagoe = singing voice, Tsunagu = to link, to connect, etc. It directly translates to "the singing voice that connects the galaxy." It seems like everyone who's translated the title has chosen different words. My preferred translation (at the moment) is "The Song that Crosses the Galaxy."

3. What's the red freighter-looking ship?

I don't recognize it. Most likely it belongs to one of the native organizations on the planet.

Ah, I see. That makes more sense now.

Regarding the movie... that's an awful long time. Was anyone here able to see it in theaters? I'm looking forward to being able to watch it myself.

Hm... thanks.

I'm a bit confused as to how the Tornado pack is supposed to have "lower air resistance than Super Packs." It's got more than twice the surface area and mass of a VF-25 equipped w/ Super Pack and the turret alone, each time it moves off "center" would generate a whole, whole lot of air resistance. Oh well.

And since this is a newbie and short-question thread, I think I'll ask a couple more basic questions.

1. Any news on when the second movie will get a release? (BD/DVD)? Last I heard, people were expecting it to be released this Autumn, but I haven't seen it listed on Amazon yet.

2. Has anyone here bought any of the new 1/100 fighter kits? I was pretty disappointed with the transformable MG kits, but the fighters look good. And CHEAP too, which is very, very nice for Macross stuff. I'd kind of like to see some user-pictures, since publicity images are always so... immaculate.