* * *Īidan: Bahamut Lagoon eventually received a fan localization from Dejap. But that wasn't enough for Near and their pursuit of the "perfect" localization. Nevertheless, the Dejap fan translation has remained the go-to ever since, offering English-speaking gamers a chance to play one of the Super Nintendo's most elusive games. This made it a particularly challenging target for localization by a relatively inexperienced team. Like many Japanese strategy RPGs, Bahamut Lagoon's combat-heavy experience is wrapped in a politically-charged story about empire and rebellion, Dragon Squads, a Church of Memories, and a lot of proper nouns. "To its credit, its battle system and aesthetics do not merely retread the path pioneered by Tactics Ogre and Fire Emblem, instead providing its own experience. "Playing Bahamut Lagoon can deliver both a nostalgia trip and a breath of fresh air," said Hardcore Gaming 101's Brendon Taylor. On first glance, Bahamut Lagoon bears a passing resemblance to Square Enix's Super Nintendo opus Final Fantasy VI - gorgeous graphics, chibi-fied characters, and cameos from fan favorite summons like Bahamut - but the systems behind the gameplay are closer to another Super Nintendo classic: Ogre Battle: March of the Black Queen - but with with a turn-based grid system instead of real-time. In fact, the scene was still new, period. Members of that team include several high-profile fan translators, including Clyde "Mato" Mandelin, known for his sublime work on the Mother 3 fan translation, Neill Corlett of Seiken Densetsu 3 fame, and Dark Force, who worked on the Tales of Phantasia fan translation, though at the time they were still new to the scene. * * *Ī couple of years after Near's first attempt at a translation, another group of fans working under the team name Dejap completed their own English localization of Bahamut Lagoon. This fifth and final time finally felt right, as though there was nothing more I could do to improve upon it. The same thing goes for my fourth attempt in 2009. My third attempt in 2007 was successfully completed, but I was not happy with the quality of the work: I knew that I could do better. My second attempt in 2001 failed due to a lack of a translator. I taught myself programming, Super Nintendo assembly, and reverse engineering specifically to have another go at the game. My first attempt in 1998 failed due to a lack of experience. In fact, this was my fifth time working on the game. What's it like returning to the game after so long? “I fell in love almost immediately with the graphics, music, and gameplay.”Īidan: You were originally part of a Bahamut Lagoon fan localization project over 20 years ago, but that eventually stalled out. I was inspired by another fan translation group named RPGe that was translating Final Fantasy V, and I knew it was something I wanted to be a part of as well. This led me to Bahamut Lagoon, and I fell in love almost immediately with the graphics, music, and gameplay. I have a particular fondness for tactical RPGs such as Shining Force and Warsong.
Near: As a child, I fell in love with Japanese role-playing games, and I began importing Super Famicom games. To help me tell this story, I caught up with Near to chat about Bahamut Lagoon, their tireless pursuit of perfection, and how fan localization has evolved over the past two decades. This is the story of one fan's pursuit of the ultimate fan localization. Several attempts and 23 years later, they’ve finally finished. Back in 1998, before they were known for their standard-setting work developing game emulators, they took it upon themself to bring Bahamut Lagoon to English-speaking players.
Near creator higan bsnes died software#
One of those fans is a Tokyo-based software reverse engineer named Near.
Near creator higan bsnes died full#
But gaming is a passionate fandom full of skilled people, and around that same time intrepid fans began working on unofficial fan translations for games like Final Fantasy V, Seiken Densetsu 3, and. As the 16-bit era transitioned into the emerging 3D technology of the PlayStation, I got swept up in games like Final Fantasy VII and Grandia, and gave up hope of ever playing those games locked behind a language I didn't speak.
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