Saikano: Saishuu Heiki Kanojo English Translation Project (PS2)

Now, this is just something I’ve been having on the side until I finished translating just the prologue of the game, which wasn’t that long ago. However, I don’t want to TL any further since I may or may not even get help to hack the game and rip the graphics nor be able to implement a translation of what I’ve done or if I translate any further. And now we come to the reason for this post. I just want to put out there that if somebody has the know-how of hacking PS2 games and making changes to their respective font files, then please contact me as soon as possible so that progress can be made. I really want to translate this PS2 game, but I don’t have the technical know-how nor the contacts to make it happen. However, translating is my game and that’s what I do, so obviously somebody else has to help out and do the rest.

Chise, what did they do to you?

Anyway, here’s a little about the game from what I’ve seen. It’s a visual novel, obviously, has path routes, granted, has dialogue choices, granted again, multiple endings, granted again again, and mini game dialogue choices and various other minigames? Okay, that one I didn’t expect. Now, at certain points in the game you have the ability to drag your cursor and pick something that you can see on screen, either that be planes in the sky or Chise’s face or clothing and the like. However, you only get one choice most of the time so choose wisely as it does affect the following scene, a few lines of dialogue, or your relationship meter with Chise. Kinda odd since I’ve never seen that in a VN before. Interesting. (FYI, talking about the cursor minigame.)

Riveting, isn't it?

Furthermore, the cursor pick mini game isn’t the only one I’ve seen as there are also a few others. First up is some weird minigame where dialogue flows around the screen and you have to hit a key to select one of them, I think. Anyway, it affects the following scene since what you choose is what you say, again I think. I haven’t bothered TL’ing the minigame parts or their tutorials, was lazy. Moving on. Second is some character card picker minigame which first appeared at the end of the game's first chapter, and from what I can tell, whoever you choose gives you either a bonus or minus in your relationship with Chise. The characters are Chise, Akemi, Atsushi, Fuyumi, and Tetsu, and their respective increase or decrease are as follows:

• Chise + 1
• Akemi + 0
• Atsushi + 1
• Fuyumi - 2
• Tetsu + 2

Moving on. What I like about this game is that it actually gives you the chance to change events in the story. You can stop the world from ending, save Akemi from dying, end up with her or Fuyumi, and that’s actually a great appeal seeing how everything ends in the anime. Hubba hubba. Also, I don’t know if this always happens or not depending on your choices, but it seems that Take doesn’t die during the bombing of Sapporo, and instead lives. Interesting. I wonder what else this game has in store. Anyhow, the music is actually pretty good and I am liking it. And while the graphics may not be the best thing in the world, it manages to maintain the artstyle of the anime which is a major bonus that I really appreciate. 

What? Don't judge me.

However, it does tend to borrow a lot from the anime itself which in itself is a little worrying. Event pictures and even backgrounds seem to have been lifted for use with the game, and a ton of anime clips, too. But! I think the reason they did that was to first be cheap, and second, to maintain the artstyle of the anime. And guess what, it worked! Unsure, but I wonder if any other anime VN’s did this. Kinda unique if you ask me. Also, 15 minutes of new animation was drawn for the game and that I was able to rip with help from the God of War himself, Kratos. You can find the video on Youtube, but sadly, the quality isn’t that very good since YT likes to crush vids into ugly messes. Still, I have the original video file and I always will. Hee hee. Lastly, as with many VN’s voice acting, it tends to be rather flat and uninteresting at times. However, it’s not the worst I’ve ever heard so it’s mediocre at best.

And now we’ve finally come to the end of this post. Aww, too bad. I was getting kinda excited. Still, I hope you enjoyed reading as this game is rather obscure. It was only uploaded on JP game sites in 2012 which is the time that I downloaded it, but it died not long after and the only reliable, working link that I know of is the one that I myself uploaded, and that’s worrying. Furthermore, there’s isn’t exactly much information about the game itself on the net, so if anyone ever comes to looking for info, I guess right here would be their first stop. Anyway, if anybody knows of PS2 hacking groups or anyone who has the skills to help me out, then please fire them my way or at least let me know. Thank you for reading, and see you next time.

P.S. - I’ve only played as far as the start of the second chapter, so I’m unsure what the rest of the game holds in content. But if you’re interested in seeing for yourself, then I recommend you to download the game off my blog and try it out. Have fun!

Saikano: Saishuu Heiki Kanojo (PS2 Video Game)

I originally got interested in this game after watching the anime way back in 2012 (I think. My memory is kinda fuzzy) and wanted to check it out. So I then hit the net and found a recently uploaded download on one of those Japanese games blog and got it. However, I quickly forgot about it since that was before I got into translating and moved on. Though when I did in 2014, I was contacted by Kratos (or I contacted him, can't remember) sometime early that year on romhacking, but since I was busy I put it off. However, I eventually got around to it again midway into this year, asked him about it and realised that it was NOT on the net anymore, and that I was probably the only guy who had the game. All the links were dead and so was any torrent of it that EVER existed. But Kratos managed to find it off a friends personal storage or something like that, and began seeding it to me since the one I had, had a different MD5 checksum than this, and because of that the file extract script he made would not work with it. Then skip months later when it was eventually finished (Summer and stuff), I got what I could from the game (all the exclusive animation and such) and I uploaded it. Anyway, enough of my little story. This is an adventure game/visual novel in-which you control Shuji through the story of the anime (depending on your choices) and the choices you make affect Chise's stability/love meter and thus you proceed down the different available paths and routes. You can also end up with Chise, Akemi, or Fuyumi depending on what you do, so there is various endings for you to unlock. The download is below. I split it into 8 parts since my upload speed is shit, but it is good enough so check out the game if you're interested. Bye!

Download

Pics

Saikano: Saishuu Heiki Kanojo - Two Music Tracks from the PS2 Game

There were also two song tracks on the games disc that were accessible (the games soundtrack is in a compressed format, sadly) so I decided to upload them, too. The first (the embedded video) is the long play version of the anime's ending theme Sayonara by Yuria Yato which is amazing and the other is an unknown song that I haven't heard before. It could be new or exclusive to the game, but if it isn't and somebody recognises it, then please let me know. That said, they were just music tracks without video so I had to slap some artwork to display for the video’s runtime. I was thinking of using the anime’s DVD cover but that didn't look too good so I went with Chise’s butt. And that’s artwork from the Love Song 2002 artbook, FYI. You can find it on e-hentai or various other places if you're interested or like the artwork. Either or, enjoy the nice music. See ya!

Saikano: Saishuu Heiki Kanojo - All PS2 Exclusive Anime Cutscenes

All PS2 exclusive anime cutscenes from the Saikano PS2 video game ripped from its disc directly. I included the intro and placed it first since there's also new animation in that, and ended it with the happy wedding ending to make things that more sweet knowing the canon ending. Just thinking about it still brings a tear to my eye. To ho ho. Anyway, I talked a bit with the God of War himself Kratos in this thread, and he very kindly wrote a script to extract the games files not long ago, so thank him for allowing me to gain access to these videos in the first place. Also, if you didn't know, AKEMI CAN LIVE in the game if certain conditions are fulfilled, so somewhere in the video you'll see her simply crawl out from under a wardrobe of sorts. Yippee! It was really sad when she died so having an option to save her in the game really means a lot to me. Just wish the same could be said for Rei in ARP but we got fucked there, it seems. I blame Anno. Anyway, you can also hook up with Fuyumi, too, so that's a nice bonus. All said and done, if you've ever watched this anime which I believe to be THE GREATEST ANIME OF ALL TIME, then this video is a MUST WATCH. Check it out.

P.S. - I also uploaded the intro of the game separately, FYI, so check that out, too, if you're interested.