Tales of the Tempest
English Localization (v1.0)
Absolute Zero Translations
a0t.co
Started: July 2nd, 2010
Released: April 1st, 2013

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This fan translation is provided for free by Absolute Zero Translations.
 - Please do not attempt to sell this patch in any way, shape, or form.
 - Please do not post pre-patched roms using this patch.
 - Please do not attempt to modify this patch in any way.
 - Please do not use this patch as the basis for a derivative translation.

Any questions pertaining to the usage of this patch can be directed to the
 Absolute Zero forums at http://a0t.co/forum/

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Message from throughhim413

This game is terrible. The graphics are terrible, the story is terrible, and the
 programming is terrible. The characters and music are okay. Sometimes. As ridiculous as
 the game appears on the surface, let me assure you that it is many times worse under
 the hood. The way this game was cobbled together, particularly the menu, still baffles
 me. It's difficult to find a game with plot twists that are either so blindingly
 obvious or so blindingly stupid that you can't help but laugh at every turn. Truly, 
 Tempest runs the gamut of cliches, even for a series as cliche-ridden as the Tales
 series. If I had to say what the best part about Tempest is, it would be that it's
 short. It mercifully took me less than 20 hours to do everything the game had to offer.

For the sake of our sanity, Kingcom and I established a rule very on. The rule was
 simple - do not try to fix the game. If I've somehow been unclear up to this point,
 Tempest is a deeply flawed game. There are countless things that we could have fixed,
 given enough time and energy. But our time and energy is limited and we had to draw a
 line to prevent this joke project from taking more time than was necessary away from
 more worthy projects. Short of recreating the game from scratch, we could not make
 Tales of the Tempest a better game. We'll leave the remakes (or reimaginings) to
 Namdai. Our goal, rather, was to present Tales of the Tempest as it is.

We did our due diligence as a team, of course. I went to the same lengths to localize
 Tempest as I do any game I work on. From the outset, Tempest lacks the depth and
 breadth of its better-planned brethren, so the translation was much easier by
 comparison. No great amount of research was necessary, nor were multiple editing
 playthroughs. To spare Yuli and Sarah, I made the decision not to go through the same
 exhaustive editing and proofreading phases that I did for Innocence. My hope is that
 the beta testing ironed out any errors that still remained, but should any slip through
 the cracks, I deserve the blame for that decision.

Thanks to Kingcom and StorMyu for taking on the daunting task of understanding this game 
 and taming it. I hope you didn't learn anything from this game's developers. This
 project was never supposed to take as long as it did, but thanks for sticking with it.
 Thanks to the beta testers who suffered through this game for the sake of improving it. 
 Finally, thanks to the community who put up with radio silence for the better part of
 the last two years. I hope this release proves that silence isn't always a sign of
 inactivity.

I know that I am not alone when I say that it is with great satisfaction that I put this
 project behind me. Enjoy the game as best you can, if nothing else, as an example of
 how spreading your resources too thin can result in a game with a lot of breadth but
 no depth. And failing that, then I hope you'll look forward to our future projects.

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Message from Kingcom

Tales of the Tempest is a wonderful example of how poorly game programming can be
 executed. The way the code is structured, the way it processes data, everything is done
 in an amateurish fashion that would make most hobby programmers shake their heads in
 disbelief. It is very apparent that were was almost no planning or coordination, half
 of the code consists of duplicates that handle the very same task again and again. This
 game is deeply flawed in every possible respect. I praised Tales of Innocence for its
 code and well structured code, but Tales of the Tempest is the exact opposite. Even
 Konami could learn something from these guys.

It wasn't a particularly difficult project, though. Like the game itself, it was nothing
 more than tedious. My sympathies to throughhim for translating it and thanks to StorMyu
 for doing the better part of the tedious hacks, it wouldn't have been out so soon
 without him.

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Message from StorMyu

What to say about this project that hasn't already been said... At first, it was more a
 joke, but it became a challenge. As a fan of Tales games, I wanted to give some credit
 to the most terrible Tales out there, but despite my motivation, as throughhim said,
 we can't make the game better than it is, even with our best efforts to make it look
 nice (which is generous). I'm just hoping you'll enjoy this as much as I enjoyed
 working on it. During this "learning project," I've seen a lot of stuff, a lot of
 horrible stuff. Programming-wise this game is a total mess and I hope one day I could
 slap all DIMPS employees.

With all that said, I want to thank Kingcom for taking so much time to teach me so much
 about the subtle world of Assembly and TH for being so great at translating. It was a
 very nice experience overall. And everyone better have read this far - READMEs are
 important!

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Message from Deets

Yeah, okay, uh, can we not do something like this again, guys? Thanks.

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Message from Kajitani-Eizan

Against everyone else's better judgment, I volunteered to do the karaoke timing for
 Tempest's opening movie. Kingcom and throughhim repeatedly implored me to abandon my
 foolish quest, insisting that I was wasting my time. But let me tell you, while
 listening to the cheesy yet upbeat song and watching the pre-rendered footage using the
 in-game assets over and over in the course of testing... I felt something strange and
 abominable. I felt... excited. I felt excited to play Tempest, a game which I have
 heard is flawed in many ways but surely would still be charming all the same. I mean,
 look, you have flower girl, her furry boyfriend, that hot ninja chick with the sword,
 some decent music here and there... It looks promising. How bad could it possibly be?

After trying to play the actual game and dealing with the doot-doot-doot, gimped
 in-battle options, and absolutely preposterous menus... yeahhh...

Perhaps I should thank the heavens that I haven't gotten farther than the cabin outside
 Caius' village.

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Message from Carnivol

When Kingcom and throughhim413 asked me if I wanted to briefly include myself in their
 translation project, being reminded of Tempest's existence was like someone reminding
 you that your high-school sweetheart cheated on you. That's how bad the game was to me.
 That's how much it still sucks.

It feels strange now, to remember the excitement from the innitial announcement. "A
 portable mainline Tales! How rad isn't that!?" -- Not very, I'll tell ya. At least if
 you're speaking of the demoted bastard known as Tempest. I guess the reports of the
 first of several delays quickly hinted towards the game's true qualities (or lack of)
 and now it feels like it'd probably been best if they just canned it.

Regardless, I'd like to point out that fans have bluntly and blindly wished for any and
 ALL Tales games to be available in English. The word "all", despite its length, is
 quite a big word... and, to the best of my knowledge, the definition of ALL (in the
 context of requesting Tales games in English) never did include a clause that read
 "except Tempest".

So... "Enjoy!"

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Message from I.S.T.

I have not played a game this terrible in my life, and I have played Superman 64. This
 game is infuriatingly stupid in almost all manners of design. The music is often non-
 sensical (not to mention lacking a boss battle theme). The graphics are technically as
 bad as first year PS1 games (like the almost non-existent draw distance). It's a
 Nintendo 64 style fogfest here! The battle system and art style are very poor, and the
 writing is so bad I literally rage quit it for the night once. When I finished it, I
 was quaking with rage over how terrible this game was. DO NOT PLAY THIS GAME!

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Patching Instructions

To make use of this patch, you will need the included tott.dat file and an unpatched rom
 of Tales of the Tempest. We are providing only the patch and will not provide links or
 other means by which to acquire an illegal copy of the game. Please only use this patch 
 in conjunction with a backup made from your legally purchased copy of Tales of the
 Tempest.

The patch is in an xdelta format, so it's fairly simple to use.

If you are familiar with xdelta patching, feel free to use the command line. Otherwise,
 you may want to use one of these interfaces:
 PC:  KaioShin's xdelta UI (http://www.romhacking.net/utils/598/)
 Mac: Sappharad's MultiPatch (http://www.romhacking.net/utilities/746/)

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Additional Features

Several features have been added to the game.

 Opening and Ending Song Subtitles
  - Subtitles are enabled by default.
  - They can be enabled and disabled by pressing the SELECT button.
  - Romanized karaoke subtitles are displayed at the top of the screen.
  - Translated lyrics are displayed at the bottom of the screen.

 Battle Subtitles
  - Battle subtitles are enabled by default and cannot be disabled.

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Localization Staff

 Programming         Kingcom
                     StorMyu
 Translation         throughhim413
 Graphic Editing     Deets
 Karaoke Timing      Kajitani-Eizan
 Beta Testing        Carnivol
                     Deets
                     I.S.T.
                     Kajitani-Eizan
                     throughhim413