![Ancient Roman - Power of Dark Side](https://cdn.statically.io/img/images.timeextension.com/1f396a62d19fb/ancient-roman-power-of-dark-side.900x.jpg)
Update [Thu 11th Jul, 2024 15:00 BST]: The English translation patch for 'Ancient Roman - Power of the Dark Side' is now available, SnowyAria has revealed.
The patch was released earlier today and is accompanied by an English translation of a drama CD that acts as a prequel to the game's events.
You can download the patch now from Github. The audio drama, meanwhile, can be "enjoyed" at this link.
Original Article [Mon 1st Jul, 2024 14:05 BST]: The Japan-exclusive Ancient Roman - Power of the Dark Side is frequently cited online as the worst role-playing game ever released for the original PlayStation. However, that hasn't stopped a small team of fan translators/hackers from developing an English localization patch for it, which will reportedly be launching soon.
Originally developed by Nihon Systems, Ancient Roman - Power of the Dark Side is a turn-based RPG featuring a mixture of 3D polygonal characters and pre-rendered backgrounds similar to other more successful games like Final Fantasy VII. It hit Japanese store shelves in 1998 and immediately scored a bunch of low reviews from publications like Famitsu, Dengeki PlayStation, and Softbank's The PlayStation magazine because of its poor graphics and sound quality. Then, in the following decades, it later became something of a meme online, thanks to the rise of the internet and coverage by Japanese YouTubers.
With all of this in mind, you may be wondering why someone would want to go to the effort of translating it into English. Well, to answer that, Time Extension reached out to SnowyAria, the lead translator on this project.
In reply, she told us: "Back in around 2015, I was looking for JP-only games to translate for YouTube. I found Ancient Roman on a website, with only a single comment saying something to the effect of "Don't play this awful pile of garbage, you're just wasting your time go play a good game like Final Fantasy VII instead." Needless to say, I grabbed the game immediately to try out.
This leads to musical cacophony ranging from 'passable Fire Alarm Suite in D Minor' to 'the composer was trapped in a claw machine.'
"Love at first sight may be a bit strong, but Ancient Roman is such a mismatched, glued-together husk of a game vaguely in the shape of an RPG that it's endearing. Normally kusoge (awful games) have a couple things they do well, but fail to really bring it all together. Ancient Roman is one of the few where they just did *everything* wrong."
In other words, this is one of those cases of a game so bad, it's good. So SnowyAria's plan is to make it more widely accessible to those outside of Japan, so more people can enjoy its baffling gameplay and story.
In our conversation, she went on to elaborate on some of the game's major problems, "The music doesn't work 80% of the time, since the PS1 MIDI-like music format they used mismatches all the instruments and octaves. This leads to musical cacophony ranging from 'passable Fire Alarm Suite in D Minor' to 'the composer was trapped in a claw machine.' Any time a sound effect plays, the game lags for nearly a second before playing it. We figured out this was due to every sound file being normalized to 10 full seconds long, even for a simple sword swing. This means the poor PS1 has to read 10 seconds of audio off disc, load it into RAM, play it, then (of course) immediately delete it, even if it's a common battle sound.
"As for the story itself, I don't want to spoil too much, but even the game kind of just forgets plot points half the time. The villain barely even shows up, leaving his characterization coming mostly from the external drama CD they somehow released. It's a very goofy story with a hint of good writing in a few sparse places while the rest is full of strange pacing fun times, but overall the sheer nonsense is a lot of fun. I have a lot of love for these goofs of characters, and I hope that comes across in the translation!"
As you might expect, one of the biggest obstacles to translating these kinds of game is usually getting together a team to help out. As she explains, it's typically very easy to get people to give up their time to translate a classic or a game from a series everybody loves, but convincing them to work on "awful games" is a whole different matter entirely.
Luckily, though, she was able to grab the notable hacker EsperKnight (who has previously worked on hacks for Planet Laika, Linda Cubed Again, and more) and convinced them to take a detour into "the awful game mines" to get this one into shape.
Speaking to Time Extension about the difficulties she's had hacking the game so far, EsperKnight tells us, "From a technical perspective it's dealing with the awful programming (laughs). One instance we have a problem with is the text flickering in some spots due to how they (mis)handle the text routine. It's so slow and it keeps updating the text after it displays it which it doesn't need to. Another issue was finding all the lengths for everything thing on screen. Items? Yep. Equipment names? Yep. Equipment types? Yep? Player names? Yep. All of them are individual values for how long they can be. So yeah the programming for this is especially bad and janky. But my philosophy is to work within the confines of it (I don't rewrite it at all). So the jankiness can stay."
We'll keep you updated on any future news about the hack. A trailer for the English translation is expected to arrive soon.
Comments 33
Good. Even bad games deserve translations.
Fascinating.
However, how's the difficulty balance?
Saga Frontier games have infamously borked difficulty balance, which are fascinating to read about, but kinda awful actually to play.
**looks at headline**
Oh I can guess who translated this
**reads article**
yeah checks out. Snowyaria has an arguably unhealthy obsession with translating kusoge (in-between cool stuff like Madou Monogatari to be fair)
I'll never understand the desire to translate knowingly bad games over actual good games that still don't have translations. Like why on earth does something like Princess Crown still not have a translation, but then a dumpster fire like this game does? For me, there is no such thing as "so bad, it's good". If it's bad, it's just bad.
@MARl0 I'm not a translator so I can't comment on their motives. However bad games are a part of gaming history too and this will enable more people to document these games being able to you know, play them.
As for Princess Crown, take that up with the guy who promised it 10 years ago.
I will also point out that the translator who worked on this game is the same person who translated the PC98 version of Madou Monogatari after the original project was in limbo for years. they translate both good games and bad games. They just like bad games more than most people.
@Sketcz Ancient Roman isn't a difficult game, really. If you play normally without rushing encounters, you shouldn't need to grind. Even on my low level playthroughs for testing, I was able to clear the game using good armor and one particularly broken weapon. The patch will come with a walkthrough as well, which should help keep anyone from getting stuck.
Well, uh ...,thanks, I guess.
I do enjoy quirky games so who knows.
I'm one of those loonies that likes Raytracers and felony 11-79.
I might even like this.
@SnowyAria
Thanks for the direct reply. I look forward to it whatever the results - interesting to hear it's not too difficult, given that difficulty is often the first thing to vertically sky rocket when developers go astray.
The concept of "kusoge" has always baffled me. I'm supposed to treat this awful game as art because it's from Japan...?
@MARI0 Humor comes from upending expectations. Things that are so bad they’re bad are just boring because you know what to expect. Things that are so bad they’re good are so utterly bonkers because they constantly upends expectations and is just a wild ride. It also help if it was an earnest attempt to make something good. It’s definitely not for everyone.
@Starless
No it's more like it's so bad its hilarious.
So inept that all you can do is point and laugh at its many faults.
Like MST3K did with many many many terrible ( or dull ) movies.
The worst thing entertainment can do is be boring.
( mostly, crashing every 5 seconds leaking memory or destroying the contents of your hard drive if you uninstall it are pretty high up there as well )
@KitsuneNight But there are plenty of non-Japanese games that are as "so bad it's hilarious" as this game, and they don't get the same treatment. You'd think Felipe Pepe would've done an oral history of The Town With No Name by now? Or does he know something I don't...?
@Starless Because quite frankly it got @SnowyAria 's attention and she wants to tackle it and bring it to the attention of more people, because its an endearingly dorky game made with the best intentions ?
That's my best guess, she can shed more light on the thing.
And most quirky and unusual untranslated games are still for the most part from Japan.
@Starless I mean, I did just beat Superman 64 on console, so I certainly play non-Japanese awful games. People also often talk about non-Japanese games like Ride to Hell: Retribution, the Zelda CD-I games, Shaq Fu, Bubsy 3D, Alone in the Dark (the 360 era one), etc, and I love those trash fires too!
Though I'll admit, the language barrier/inherent inaccessibility of Japanese games plus the general attitude towards Japan of having a "zany" media culture at times leads to Japanese games receiving video essays and cult status of being bizarre experiences, whether deserved or not. At the very least, since I don't make video essays, the most I can do for English games is post about them on Twitter, whereas for Japanese games, I can open them up to larger audiences via translations.
@SnowyAria "Alone in the Dark (the 360 era one), etc, and I love those trash fires too!"
I just bought that on Steam.
Should I worry ?
@KitsuneNight You should worry about how you're gonna handle such an amazing time!
@SnowyAria
It's on the level of Deadly Premonition isnt it ?
Edit: also, your Youtube link returns a 404 error.
@SnowyAria That's fair, thank you for your insight. I'll check your channels out.
@KitsuneNight Feels weird to say, but Deadly Premonition is more competent probably. AinD feels like it got a bit lost during production and wasn't quite sure how to put the puzzle pieces together, resulting in a jumbled glitchy mess at times, whereas DP had all the pieces, but the resulting puzzle was nothing normal haha
And thanks for the head's up! Forgot the @ on the YT link, so that's fixed now
Very interesting even music or story issues. Mechanics maybe too. I mean even if actually bad then just people didn't like it bad. I think it's an interesting piece of history. To show how difficult developing games is and to time things well with the hardware then incorrectly in this case.
I don't find many bad things funny, nor do I completely think they are bad. I mean games with glitchy graphics (not untextured remember many Jaguar games are good just not textured because of hardware limits or intended design).
Even besides unintended design I assume like backwards being faster or unfinished AI in Big Rigs. Games with 1 button isn't incorrect, some can be fine with it even if yes many times in development more are supposed to be added but the general input being the same then changed later is I assume what happens to just have the input code there during prototyping/testing.
But notable awful games in Japan, many I assume. Whether agree or not with experience of them it varies per person.
But yeah bad music timing hmm sounds strange I feel like they had to rush this game or really didn't know what to do to time it correctly or their dev build worked but the finally game didn't turn out as such with the build they shipped.
Pretty unfortunate. Bad or cancelled projects always cool to check out. It's what I'd do is cancel it/not announce it in such a prototype state trying to learn how to code/make assets work around models or other things and feed it to the console and just not say anything it would just stay on a hard drive abandoned.
I own a few shovelware games. I bought Alone in the Dark for PS2 out of curiosity (and because have a few horror games I think are safe enough for me to play, Zombi U, Fatal Frame 2) and to me it seems 'fine' annoying or awkward sure or not scary but otherwise I think yeah it doesn't capture what it's trying to but it's still interesting for what they did try to put together even for how annoying even the beginning is of the game at times.
Another angle:
Sounds like a B team or C team or others just trying for a first game and just didn't make things work out. Even then just adapting to 3D or some game design decisions make sense for the time. Even some PS2 era cameras aren't great but they still make the game more interesting then the boring 'refined' and 'realistic/cinematic tasteless holiday destination boring moveset' current gen we see that's for sure alongside some ambitious AAA/AA or Indies or fair Indies alongside nostalgia or clone this popular Indie game type Indie devs making just as boring games for easy money from audiences.
Even if bad games many are still more compelling to see what misteps they had, why it got rushed, why it had that decision and design not overcome yet then people going only play good and don't understand WHY they did what they did in the design process, GOOD is subjective, how they got to that point to make a GOOD game takes time. Some mechanics of the past are excellent, they were good games just not profitable among other simpler and better marketed games. The simpler get sold the ambitious don't because audiences suck not the games themselves so to me GOOD means nothing sometimes. Can be said more many boring racing games and business models over genuine mechanics that made them better yet got left behind.
Same with many platformers I've researched and more appealing characters or familiar animals or whatever stories. Something simple for kids/parents to understand or looks cool not the actual game design. Because you can't put game design on the box. Just whatever characters and world they are in or just generic characters with a gun on the cover and repeated formats of artwork. Clearly quality games if the box areas are formuliac right? How can you tell a good game apart that way? Word of mouth of the story/gameplay right?
Then the most basic and refined games out there. To me any ambitious and bad are are still more fun to play casual basic games. In terms of journalists sure some don't' play games and have other skills but that's on the staff that assign them to play games when they have a different role entirely.
Even Enter the Dragonfly, to me it was fair for how rushed/bad communication between staff and some staff in interviews were right difficult people so not surprised even if 2002 so years ago compared to the interview period years later thanks to Mr FO1 covering many aspects about the game.
Even Dodge Charger Vs. Charger. To me just tweaks the physics/motion controls as fair button controls, and it's a fine game. Could have better menus sure, a bit more presentation that's worth it of excitement it'd be a fine game. Like Ford Racing 2 or Alfa Romeo Racing Italiano one make advergames that have actually good ideas of content. Heck Alfa Romeo started the rewind mechanic Grid and Forza Motorsport 3 dumbed down/borrowed later. Like Killswitch had cover based shooting GBA or console versions and Uncharted/Gears popularised to every other 7th gen shooter using it.
So yeah some developers make them but do try and push it to their other games (Milestone trying hard back then to innovate with Apex 2003, Alfa Romeo and Evolution GT besides the management systems in MotoGP 09/10 or WRC 2 and WRC 3 was really fun with it's many event types in it for a career mode).
@KitsuneNight @SnowyAria Can confirm Snowy’s take. Deadly Premonition is bizarrely more… “””competent”””.
Congrats Snowy and her team! I just hope Segagaga gets that love one day plus whatever 1.01 it did to change a line (probably will be just one English patch). However, congratulations and can't wait to play that 'kusoge' game!
"every sound file being normalized to 10 full seconds long"
Why, just why?
This is one of the great things about emulation, though. Some games are awful and borderline unplayable because of performance problems, and emu features like overclocking and fast loading can make these issues simply go away.
Spyro: Enter the Dragonfly wouldn't have been so badly received if it had run at a silky 60fps, already great titles like Perfect Dark and Blood Omen would've had nothing to criticize if their performance issues were ironed out, and even the legendarily awful Sonic '06 would have been more palatable if the loading screens weren't constantly getting in the way.
I think another reason why bad games like this disaster gets fan translations is well... It can't get any worse. By that I mean, there's little if any pressure that you might "screw up" the translation as the original text/story is already borked as it is.
Though @SnowyAria will you ever make a version of the game that fixes some of the bugs/audio issues or is that a no go?
@NatiaAdamo Nah, those are the best parts!
I'm definitely someone who can appreciate "so bad it's good". I even trawl the Switch eShop for cheap indie/shovelware stuff which might have redeeming qualities - even when they don't, the sheer audaciousness of releasing something so broken or wrong or even illegal gives me a bit of a kick.
But older console games - PSX or SNES era games - those are something else. Back then, to release a game meant physical distribution, relationships with publishers and even Sony / Nintendo themselves, hell even the craft itself of making games was so much harder (no Unity or Unreal etc) that the games industry mostly gatekept itself to a certain level of quality and respectability. To see something so broken make it through a system like that is really intriguing, and when it's amateur-hour stuff like this, really charming. At least in short bursts! But I can see someone developing an obsession with it.
@SnowyAria @Yousef-
Well I've heard it being called Alone In The Dork 2008.
I might risk it after playing Lake.
@KitsuneNight that is an entirely accurate description, yes.
![Untitled](https://cdn.statically.io/img/i.postimg.cc/VNSYLmDs/IMG-3190.png)
I mean, maybe it's me but I feel Japanese players in particular are fond of certain kusoge such as Atlantis no Nazo and Takeshi no Chosenjou.
I don't know the reason, but Game Center CX may have played a part on it, especially the latter.
People in the comments complaining about why this has been translated need to understand that eventually it all needs to be translated so I say good on this person for translating the game.
An article on the worst PlayStation RPG ever? And it's not about Beyond The Beyond??
Beyond the Beyond isn't good, but it's functional, which this, it sounds like, isn't.
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