You might have noticed that the first half of 2019 has been rather exciting for Super Nintendo fans worldwide – with several new hardware and fan projects ensuring that the old 16-bit powerhouse remains relevant to this day and age. This latest news will do very little to dimmish such a trend because Project Exile has successfully assembled a complete English translation of the next-to-last Super Famicom cartridge ever officially released: Fire Emblem: Thracia 776.
The third and final Fire Emblem game to exclusively grace the Super Famicom started out like many late generation Super Famicom games in 1999: A Nintendo Power kiosk exclusive released in September 1999 that eventually saw a proper cartridge release in early 2000. You will not be surprised to learn it features some of the finest graphics and music ever produced for the system – with a huge story-driven campaign set in the continent of Jugdral detailing the struggles of the young deposed Prince Leif (whom you might be familiar with if you play Fire Emblem Heroes) as he tries to restore his birthright with his makeshift army of irregulars. Some unique gameplay elements like fatigue and the ability to capture enemies instead of simply defeating them help to freshen up the more traditional FE game elements.
While Thracia 776 began as a small side project within the development of Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War (whose events share the same timeline) it grew into a complete standalone game and as you can imagine. A very plot-heavy one at that. By the year 2000 – and with no pedigree established outside Japan, there was no chance Nintendo would ever commit any resources to even attempt an English translation for the overseas market. The game (along with all the rest of the series up to that date) remained impossible to comprehend outside anyone with a complete grasp of Japanese... yet twenty odd years later and several partial attempts at fan localization, Project Exile released a complete menu and script translation of the game just as the pages of our calendars turned to June 2019.
As you can imagine a project of this magnitude was not without a fair share of hurdles. You can read an extensive Interview with members of Project Exile that turned this 'impossible' feat into reality over Serenes Forest, the biggest Fire Emblem community hub for English fluent fans.
Project Exile
A Complete Thracia 776 Menu and Script TranslationThracia 776 has long been the FE community’s white whale. Project Exile is my own attempt to finally put this English patch to bed, using the remnants of Kirb’s patch as a foundation and taking the menu translation (and considerable technical advice) from Zane.
Project Exile represents a grand collaboration between many people from across the world, none of whom have ever met in person. Our translation team consisted of people from throughout the United States, France, and Austria, who all pooled their expertise and talents to make this patch a reality. We hope you enjoy this patch as much as we enjoyed making it!
Yet another Triple-A Nintendo Super Famicom exclusive video game that many believed impossible to experience outside of having a Japanese language degree is now completely translated to English and another major effort successfully completed to the decades-old legacy of fan translation projects. A fine way to celebrate the series while eagerly waiting for the upcoming Switch entry, Fire Emblem: Three Houses.
Were you familiar with Thracia 776 back in the day? Do you own a Super Famicom cartridge or even a Nintendo Power cartridge with the game written in it? Tells us all about it in the comment section below.
[source serenesforest.net, via siliconera.com]
Comments 19
I want an official collection of Fire Emblem games unreleased in this side of the planet for Switch ( now translated of course)! I really do!
It has been translated before but the translation was pretty goshdarn terrible, a lot of the menu text was a jumbled mess and there was a completely out of place "In America!" joke smack middle of a story sequence for no apparent reason. I believe there was another translation too which had better menus but it didn't translate the story dialogue.
I couldn't make it very far in the old translation but been making pretty good progress today with the new one (Made it to chapter 6 currently), this game is brutal! Definitely not one for series beginners. I'm having tons of fun personally though, the translation has so far been very well done and feels quite authentic to me.
Hackers do what Nintendon't want to do
I wish Nintendo would release stuff like this, AM2R, a translation of Super Famicom Wars, etc
The old English patch was a mess and made the game difficult to play. I downloaded the new patch last night and it works on my SNES mini.
@FX29 How do you get it to work? I’ve little to no experience with how to add a fan translation patch to a game rom. I have a modded SNES Mini and the game installed but how do I then apply the patch?
Very cool. The dedication of hardcore fans never ceases to astound me.
I tried playing Thracia 776 a long time ago, and I realised at the time that this game must have been designed for people who are actually insane, because the maps are just brutally absurd in their ridiculous difficulty. This game is great, but it doesn't hold back.
It's time Nintendo realizes Fire Emblem has an audience in the West and re-releases the games with official translations. I'd like HD remasters of Radiant Dawn and Path of Radiance (they're so expensive!) on the Switch.
As for this project, I'm impressed.
Ah, back in the days when Fire Enblem still had s very mature and complicated storyline - something, imo, not really seen since the gamecube entry. I really hope they get back to that with the next game. The silly childlike humor and intensely predictable plots that pervade the latest entries have really diminished the quality of the series. Don't get me wrong, I still like Fire Emblem, and have enjoyed the newer games. But I still somewhat disappointed with the direction that the series has been going in.
Anyway, it's really cool that this game has finally gotten a proper full translation!
About time! Never played it because I heard the only decent translation was mediocre and unfinished.
@Lroy It's pretty easy, here's a video on how to patch it from the creators of the patch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dRfWIuuE2dY
Once you have the game patched you will need to run the game through retroarch since the game won't work if you try to play it on the Native emulator.
Great. But now do I play Thracia, or the copy of radiant dawn, the Wii Fe, I scored for $28 yesterday?
@FX29 Thank you for your help 👍
Awesome, one to add to my SD2SNES to play in my retirement along with the other Jap exclusive FE games when I finally get time again to play games like this!
It's complete I played a beta a while ago and it rocked. Now Project Naga for FE4 isn't finished yet but you can play the whole game with Beta Version 7.
link: https://bookofholsety.dreamwidth.org/59527.html
Yes! I've been checking progress nearly daily after finishing FE4 a couple weeks ago. So excited!
I played a bit of this with the previous translation patch but could never get into it because of how rough that translation was. I'm really excited about this complete translation, I'll be playing Thracia again really soon!
This is so awesome!🙌🏼
Show Comments
Leave A Comment
Hold on there, you need to login to post a comment...