ファイナルファンタジーVII (FFVII Japanese Translation)

[cmh175]

This mod is meant to add Japanese support for those interested in playing outside of Japan. The International version of the game is only available in Japan and is quite difficult to get without a JP address and credit card. It also isn't moddable outside of lgp changes since using the conversion tools on Qhimm only lets you play in the four supported languages. As of now you're better off just playing the version available on the PSN as it's also easier to get.

What I'm trying to do is make the files from the International game compatible with the original 98 game and those converted using conversion tools. That way it's possible to play in Japanese but with still fully modded games. When it's completed I'll make a 7thHeaven mod so this can be easily toggled on and off (direct files will be available as well).

To do list:

Retranslate Menus/ Import JP Menus - 98% done

Add support for Menu Overhaul

Test JP Kernel vs English/Reunion Kernel for major differences and support - 50% done

Test JP flevel for issues and possible animation errors (like Vincent's ballet animation during Aeris' death scene) - 35% done

Consider possible option to toggle on and off Kanji (translating all text into Kana)

Upscale JP FMV's

Add Japanese character support with either a patch or hex file

 

[cmh175]

I've tested JP files and managed to get them all to work with 7H, so full support shouldn't be an issue. As of now though all Japanese text is displayed as jibberish, like trying to open an encrypted file. The game doesn't seem to just display what ever text is in the kernel and flevel, it actually needs to be able to read it. From what I can tell there isn't a font file or anything, I think I've narrowed the issue down to the games executable. If this is the case it maybe possible a hex file could add Japanese support. This really isn't my forte though so I'm having trouble getting it to work. The best I've done is patch the english FF7.exe into the ff7_jp.exe, which wont play without a legal serial number from square. If someone with hex editing experience could check this out that would be really helpful. Or someone with extensive knowledge of the game has any tips or ideas.

I've saved the converted ff7.exe and ff7_jp.exe as txt files for anyone who's interested in checking this out and trying to make a hex file. Any help and contributions would be appreciated with credit in the completed mod. These files are long, so don't open them in word or notepad, I suggest Notepad++.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B4mp96TAOq6eM0ZGNURqQThyWFk/view?usp=sharing

Otherwise the game probably wont be able to display Kana or Kanji. As an alternate option I could translate the games text to Romaji, but this wont have the same effect and appeal as playing with the actual Japanese text.

 

[Covarr]

This is a good project, and you get the Covarr stamp of awesome. This is totally out of my league, so there's not really anything I can do to help, but I am excited to see what you do with this

 

[cmh175]

lol thanks Covarr, that alone makes it worth it. Either way I've decided I'll at least do a release of the mod with Romaji. If Kana and possibly Kanji can be supported as well than I'll do options for those too. Either way you'll be able to experience the Japanese version of the game.

If some understands how the game works well enough to have an idea of where language or character support is that would be great. Honestly I've hit a wall trying to figure out how to add support for the Kana and Kanji.

It's curious, because I see Makou Reactor supports Japanese characters. So it seems like saving the flevel in Japanese should be possible (which I tried, when I reopened the flevel the Japanese was just jibberish). I'm really not sure what the issue is.

On a side note anyone interested in checking that out, I've included the two executables for comparison in the download above. If necessary I can make a list of the Kanji characters that would need to be supported.

 

[genesis063]

Sorry for the necro but will this allow to get the old Supernova and use it with my Sephiroth mod?

 

[cmh175]

Sorry Genesis, I totally missed your post and just happened to catch it by chance. An over all update on this, mainly for fact at this point. So the Japanese games files are formatted differently, so they cant be used with other versions of the game. When I altered the JP files they'd get corrupt because the tools we use here would reformat them. So there's really only one option available for playing the Japanese version, and it involves VPN software and buying the game from the Japanese Square website with a Japanese IP. Modding wise you can use anything that only alters the .lgp files (and not the flevel!). So you can still update the models in the game (world, field, battle) as well as the soundfx and music. But you cant use any gameplay mods, or background mods that require aali's driver (the game absolutely cant be converted to support it, at least not without a convertor made specifically for that version of the game). So you have to do a bit of extra work to get the game and mod it (or just snag the lgp's from your modded Steam game), and you'll end up with two different copies installed (also, keep your JP game installer as you may need the VPN tool again to download it). Over all it's worth it if you can read Japanese or have an interest in learning it, but it wont have the modding potential of the Steam version. I may eventually do a version of this mod with just Romaji, but it wont be for quite some time.

As for your question about the Sephiroth mod, I'm not sure what you mean, but I assume it's something in the kernel, so probably not. The kernel is formatted differently from the version of the game we can mod, so we cant just plop it into our games, and we cant mod it because the tools will reformat it. You'd need to figure out what it is you want from the game, and try to mimic it in the Steam version.

 

[Ansem]

Basically, he was asking if it was possible to get the short Supernova animation from the original Japanese version (not international) but that won't happen since the animation was never ever ported to any PC version to begin with.

 

[xarbin]

Hey cmh175. Wondering if there has been any update on this? I'm really interested in this mod since I would love to play it on it's original language! I also want to practice Japanese so it would be great. It's been almost 5 years since the last post but might as well just ask here instead of making a new topic.

 

[markul]

I have investigated too the posibility to make the japanese language compatible with 7th heaven. But its complicated. Main problem is that the japanese text-fonts, needs a lot of symbols (characters) to be used , for example if the english textfonts needs 1 set of symbols, japanese needs 6, and the ff7 english version seems to be limited to only 1 block. So after think a lot how to break that limits or make some tricky change , i only have two posibilities, if someone wants to keep going with all of this:
1-In the FF7 PSX the texts characters came from the file Window.bin, in FF7 PC the texts came from a .png files from menu_us.lgp (usfont). If in someway the PC version could be forced to use the window.bin file to print the characters, maybe it could use the window.bin file from the PSX japanese game
2- This requires a lot of work and the japanese version will lose the texts with color. The idea is : the english version has two .png files that has all the english characters, the equivalent to 1 set of symbols, but we can use the other files that contains the same block of symbols but in other color. But as i said this would require to remap the .png files ,the window.bin (the font space values), and replace every japanese character ingame with the combination of  color-character, for example   i know that the character  ç its only displayed if in makou reactor  use this  {CYAN}*{CYAN}. An unknown problem its if its posible to use this technique in the Wall Market and Proud Clod tool.
I hope this could be helpful to someone

 

[Kuraudo]

I have investigated too the posibility to make the japanese language compatible with 7th heaven. But its complicated. Main problem is that the japanese text-fonts, needs a lot of symbols (characters) to be used , for example if the english textfonts needs 1 set of symbols, japanese needs 6, and the ff7 english version seems to be limited to only 1 block. So after think a lot how to break that limits or make some tricky change , i only have two posibilities, if someone wants to keep going with all of this:
1-In the FF7 PSX the texts characters came from the file Window.bin, in FF7 PC the texts came from a .png files from menu_us.lgp (usfont). If in someway the PC version could be forced to use the window.bin file to print the characters, maybe it could use the window.bin file from the PSX japanese game
2- This requires a lot of work and the japanese version will lose the texts with color. The idea is : the english version has two .png files that has all the english characters, the equivalent to 1 set of symbols, but we can use the other files that contains the same block of symbols but in other color. But as i said this would require to remap the .png files ,the window.bin (the font space values), and replace every japanese character ingame with the combination of  color-character, for example   i know that the character  ç its only displayed if in makou reactor  use this  {CYAN}*{CYAN}. An unknown problem its if its posible to use this technique in the Wall Market and Proud Clod tool.
I hope this could be helpful to someone

An interesting thread but for PS1.

Btw Markul you can check FFNx GitHub thread, as well.