Aretha II English Language Patch V0.91 Introduction: Japanese Developer: Japan Art Media Co., Ltd. Japanese Publisher: Yanoman Corporation Japanese Release: December 02, 1994 English Patch Production: Dynamic-Designs Dynamic-Designs Patch History: V0.90: Initial Dynamic-Designs Release: February 24, 2020 v0.91: Release to fix a bug stopping you February 26, 2020 from pregressing past a certain point. Also a handful of text fixes. Dynamic-Designs Production Credits: Project Coordination: Wildbill Hacking/Tools/Bug Fixing: Bongo` Assembly: Bongo` Translation: Filler Translation Support: Eien ni Hen English Graphics: Taskforce Story Writing: Wildbill Final Script adjustments Taskforce Alpha Testing: Taskforce Beta Testing: Draken, MariusB, and Bwah117 NOT FOR SALE INFO This game in English or patch to make it English is NOT for sale under any circumstances! If you paid for this game in any way, including in a cartridge, demand your money back immediately! File a complaint with your credit card company and/or paypal as well! Especially if you obtained this game in cart form! Overview (adapted from https://www.mobygames.com/game/snes/aretha-ii-ariel-no-fushigi-na-tabi): The game continues the story of the young princess Ariel. After she rightfully regained her throne, people enjoyed a peaceful life under her benevolent reign. But this peaceful existence did not last long... Two adventurers who were wandering through mountains met a mysterious evil being, who threatened to ruin Ariel's kingdom. After that, the two men disappeared without a trace. Ariel's servants reported to her about the matter. After consulting her wise grandmother, Ariel decided to go out herself, to meet up with her old trusty companions and to find out the origin of the new threat. The game is a console-style RPG - you fight random enemies in turn-based combat viewed from first-person perspective. Enemies may attack you from the sides, and you should pay attention which enemy you face. A unique feature the game uses is the ability to get special items called "souls" after battles, and then to use them to forge your own armor. Bugs that are still in the released translation that may or may not ever be fixed. The save/load screens and several menu screens have graphical glitches on real hardware and all emulators except ZSNES. It is HIGHLY recommended that you play this game on ZSNES only. Character naming screen is messy but the English alphabet works fine. Changing to the English option on the naming screen first makes it look proper. Reflect spell name appears off screen during battles but can be selected and used normally. You will notice the curser moves off screen. The reflect spell can be used when this happens. The element crystals appear on the wrong line on the menu screen when you use the item Soul Crucible. May also happen elsewhere. Sometimes a pointer ghost image might get left behind in the battle spell menu while moving around. During battle sometimes the text display at the top left can become messed up only displaying 1 letter. When you use the Aretha II Music CD item, the song list is garbled. It was actually in English in the Japanese rom but Bongo` accidentally used that space for assembly code. Consult screen sometimes exits and sometimes doesn't. You can manually close it just fine however. This is an original Japanese cartridge bug. The Black Onyx item does not work. This is an original Japanese cartridge bug. All items will not appear for sale if you have too many items in your inventory. This is an original Japanese cartridge bug. Caveat and Invitation: In a MAJOR departure from our previous policy, we are releasing an unfinished patch. This is due to both time factors and downsizing in the diversification of our production team. In no way are we suggesting anything but positive support for all of our highly dedicated and hardworking teammates in the past. It's simply that changing life circumstances for some of us have dictated the realities of where we find ourselves today. At this time, we active members of D-D cannot guarantee that we'll ever revise this patch in any way. This means we may never release a Version 1.00. At the same time, we're not saying we won't. As per usual, D-D will establish a feedback topic within the Aretha-II forum on our WWWBoard. After receiving the patch "as-is" and playing the game, if someone comes along who really loves this work and possesses the know-how to rectify certain technical issues, we will be standing by, ready and willing to discuss the matter." Production, Testing, and Thought Processes: I (Wildbill) have really enjoyed my part in creating this English patch. The quality of everyone's efforts leads me to the realization that everything we've achieved is due to a strong team effort. It's the dedicated contributions of each member who recodes, translates, designs fonts, redraws graphics, writes story scenes, and tests the developing product that ensures a successful conclusion. Let us add that anyone in the world is free to pursue this "not for profit" hobby. This means that any human who inhabits this planet has free rein to start in the same places we did and create stories and finished products that suit their own personal interests, motivations, and tastes. -Wildbill and Taskforce Patching: Contained within this archive is an IPS (international patching system) file or a patch file in another format for the end user's convenience that when used in conjunction with a ROM file will make the game playable in English. Do note, as I touched on above, that this patch is a result of countless hours of love and labor. Hence, they are not meant to be sold at any price under any circumstance, be it in digital form or burnt into a donor cart's ROM chip. To patch the ROM file, one needs to procure a patcher for their preferred format, a widely available class of programs, many of which can be found at http://www.romhacking.net/ for one source. A few can even be found on our download page for your convenience at http://www.dynamic-designs.us/downloads.shtml. Search at the bottom under utilities. We did not write these utilities. We merely provide them as a convenience. At some point, ROM sites may upload pre-patched ROMs of our Aretha II translation. Obviously, Dynamic Designs cannot endorse playing these versions. Neither will we support resolution of any associated problems. Moreover, pre-patched ROMs may float around the web for years. Only by downloading patches containing just our original work from D-D's web site may gamers obtain revisions to these patches - if any - and take advantage of possible bug-fixes and corrections. Information pertaining to the Aretha II ROM: Country Japan Internal CRC 6129 CRC32 FF63EC26 MD5 0EE181FD933BE14CFA6D323FAE03AAE3 SHA-1 1EB540648749F760EA23E6FB6C3AE3AD0B7CA1A5 SHA-256 D31EA0A6F9B3EE78A724AD500F09E5F534CACF57166FF55198FD703CA1ED6F48 ROM Speed 200ns (SlowROM) ROM Size 16 Mb ROM Bank LoROM ROM Type Normal + Battery SRAM Size 64 Kb Internal Title ARETHA2 Company Yanoman Size before patching: 2.00 MB (2,097,152 bytes) Size after patching: 3.00 MB (3,145,728 bytes) Notes: 1. Not all ROMs will necessarily be patch-able with our file. 2. If the ROM you attempt to patch has a header, you may need to remove it. 3. A number of tools are available to remove headers: SNESTool, Smile, Toolbox, etc. Alternatively, most emulators support a feature called soft patching, which keeps the ROM file intact, merging the patch data only during run time. To make use of it, make sure both the ROM file and the IPS are in the same directory as your emulator of choice and have the same name, but not the same extension. Do note that this is case-sensitive. (Also, do note this soft patching is only available using the IPS patch file, and may NOT work with the other patch file formats.) i. e.: ArethaII(E).smc and ArethaII(E).ips will trigger soft patching at the emulator's run time. Emulator Compatibility: This patched game works best in ZSNES. We only recommand ZSNES for your playthrough. All other emulators and even real hardware will present graphical glitches that don't show up on ZSNES, however the game is still playable on those other emulators or real SNES hardware. If you choose to ignore our recommendation, please do not report those glitches noted in the bug section to us. Special Thanks: The "usual suspects"! I am shocked, SHOCKED AGAIN, that we have finally released Aretha II - English! In the order of performing critical tasks, thanks Bongo`, Filler, Taskforce, Bwah117, Draken and MariusB! Dedicated to Bongo`. Readme 2020 Dynamic-Designs