Publisher and community work together as one
The Wii's upcoming near-apocalyptic adventure Fragile Dreams: Farewell Ruins of the Moon is on course for a European release on March 19th, with plenty of intriguing characters and a rather moving script all painstakingly translated from its original Japanese. Naturally such translations are huge, costly productions that don't always include every language, but Rising Star has just announced a collaboration that will see the game launched in Spanish.
Not news-worthy, you say? Well, the translation was actually undertaken by a group of fifty fans after Spanish site DSWii.es approached Rising Star with the idea. With over 35,000 words to translate that's a huge amount of work even for professional translators, but the translation will be available as a free download after launch.
Here's the press release that should hopefully give you a warm, fuzzy feeling inside.
In an unprecedented move, leading video games publisher Rising Star Games has today announced it has teamed up with Spanish fans of Fragile Dreams: Farewell Ruins of the Moon to translate the game's script, so they can enjoy it in its entirety.
Spanish website DSWii.es (part of Blogocio.net) approached Rising Star with the unique idea and, following an announcement calling for volunteers to participate in the translation, recruited a group of 50 dedicated gamers from their loyal community to take part in the meticulous process.
The move reinforces Rising Star's commitment to listening and trusting its audience, and the importance it places on being an approachable publisher.
The Fragile Dreams script contains over 35,000 words and Rising Star recognises the incredible effort going into the initiative. When completed, the Fragile Dreams translation will be available as a digital download via DSWii.es and through Rising Star's Hoshi portal, free of charge, following the game's launch on 19th March.
"This is a great opportunity for us to connect with our fan base in Spain through such a unique and innovative project," says Raul Nieto Garcia, marketing manager at Rising Star Games. "We hope Spanish gamers will appreciate the joint efforts of Blogocio and Rising Star games to provide the best experience possible when playing Fragile Dreams: Farewell Ruins of the Moon on their Nintendo Wii."
"The most important aspect of this translation is not that the game arrives in Spanish, but that this is the first time in history in which gamers will participate actively in the development process or the localisation of a title," says Hugo Fraga, director of content and marketing at Blogocio Media SL. "That's the really exciting part about this project."
"We'll try to coordinate as best as possible to ensure all stakeholders collaborate to make this an example of a project created by fans in conjunction with a video game company," adds Raul Millan, technical director at Blogocio Media SL.
"As artistic director I'm responsible for the design of Blogocio's websites and projects, but the layout of this translation guide is a new challenge for me," says Jose Miguel Blanco, creative director at Blogocio Media SL. "Time is limited but a project of this importance deserves a good design and layout work. "
Progress on the translation can be monitored on the Blogocio website fragile.blogocio.net. Fragile Dreams: Farewell Ruins of the Moon launches on 19th March for Wii.












User Comments
1. wiiplayer26
08 Mar 2010, 11:49 GMT
Well great......But the question is should we be happy about this?
2. Oregano
08 Mar 2010, 11:52 GMT
Wait but how will it be put into the game 'legitimately'?
EDIT: Other than, definitely going to pick this game up, don't care what reviews say.
3. Terra
08 Mar 2010, 11:54 GMT
Will this be implemented into the game in a similar manner to the Fatal Frame 4 fan translation?
4. James Newton
08 Mar 2010, 11:55 GMT
@Wiiplayer26 - Why wouldn't we be happy about this?
@Oregano - It'll be a download you stick on an SD card that patches the game, I reckon.
5. Oregano
08 Mar 2010, 12:15 GMT
@Prosody - is that possible? I was under the impression that updates could only be applied through the WFC and that even then it was only glitch fixes. That's interesting.
6. zoipi
08 Mar 2010, 12:20 GMT
It wont be a paych, it will only be a downloadable PDF with a text guide, taht's all. Nothing about including the texts in the game, absolutly nothing. Things like this have been made years ago qithout the approval of an editor and nobody cared about then except this time. The only thing that this is making sound is that just RSG said yes to make the fans work for them and DSWii is trying to look cool, but is just the same that people on dedicated sceen forums are doind in the last ten years.
7. Modo7
08 Mar 2010, 12:32 GMT
"this is the first time in history in which gamers will participate actively in the development process or the localisation of a title," says Hugo Fraga"
LOOOOL!
"The most important aspect of this translation is not that the game arrives in Spanish"
Fragile wont arrive in spanish, don't lie Huguito
8. Objection_Blaster
08 Mar 2010, 12:36 GMT
I hope the final product meet Spanish-speakers' expectations. It's definately a neat idea.
9. tealovertoma
08 Mar 2010, 12:59 GMT
Just learn English you lazy Spanish bums
10. wiiplayer26
08 Mar 2010, 13:18 GMT
@tealovertoma
That was really offensive.
11. tealovertoma
08 Mar 2010, 13:57 GMT
The wink implies it's a joke and that I'm not serious.
12. wiiplayer26
08 Mar 2010, 14:16 GMT
@tealovertoma
I did'nt notice that.
13. lz2010
08 Mar 2010, 14:27 GMT
Those Spanish fans are so dedicated
14. V8 Ninja
08 Mar 2010, 14:38 GMT
Nice to see fan projects rising up more nowadays.
15. Willy105
08 Mar 2010, 16:53 GMT
This is awesome.
All publishers should be like this.
16. MarkyVigoroth
08 Mar 2010, 20:58 GMT
We can only hope that Virtual Console follows suit of this...
17. shake_zula
08 Mar 2010, 22:16 GMT
I'm not usually into JRPGs at all but I'll definitely think about getting this, it looks amazing.
18. Axoloth
08 Mar 2010, 22:31 GMT
Wait, Fragile does include the Japanese dub, right?
19. WolfRamHeart
08 Mar 2010, 23:08 GMT
It's really neat that they're doing this. I just hope that the game will be good.
20. Dragoon
09 Mar 2010, 01:47 GMT
Finally, the developers are letting the fans help out!
21. LEGEND MARIOID
10 Mar 2010, 21:15 GMT
Got a 72% from the latest ONM mag. "Not bad"
22. Gameday
11 Mar 2010, 00:16 GMT
Off the chain im ready to journey
23. SatoriSatya
15 Mar 2010, 00:28 GMT
This sounds familiar
Back in the N64 days the game Shadowgate 64 was translated to Spanish by 4 members of the staff working at a magazine called Club Nintendo (Mexico).
Only that in that case the translated text was seen on screen and was included in the game itself not on a pdf file.