Bulk Slash English Fan Translation / Twin Sticks Patch Released!

Trailer for the game, by YouTuber Bofner

UPDATE: A small update was made to the translation patch. This will change the header file’s region from every region at once to Japan only, which should prevent Mednafen from getting confused and setting itself to a U.S. BIOS, thus enabling Mednafen users to play the patched game without having to turn off their emulator’s auto region patching.

Finally, after several months of waiting, and many iterations, today we can proudly announce the release of the Bulk Slash English Translation / Twin Sticks Saturn patch!

This patch will:

  • Translate all menu and dialogue text into English.
  • Add English dubbed voices for all the Navigators.
  • Change all endings into English dubbed voice acting.
  • Change the credits to display in English, and add additional credits for the translation team/voice actors.
  • Add support for the Sega Saturn Twin Sticks peripheral.
Layout of the Twin Stick implementation

For those of you unfamiliar with Bulk Slash, you control Chris, an SDF Fighter Pilot, who along with several other inhabitants of the world Blau, get fed up with their mistreatment at the hands of Gardona and his army, and engage in a coup d’état against them. Your mission is to fight your way through several levels of turmoil to fight for your freedom, and eventually end up in a winner takes all battle with your childhood rival and friend, Reezen Ravia.

Chris, with the stare of determination on his face

You are not alone though! Along with your trusty ship, you are aided by several Navigators you can pick up along the way! They are your lifeline, and you will slowly develop relationships with your Navigator of choice along the way:

Leone Rhodes, voiced by Edobean
Lira Hart, voiced by Erin Lefe
Metical Flair, voiced by Dark Mysty
Naira Savage, voiced by Raycher
Rupia Rude, voiced by Diana Allocco
Colón Steiner, voiced by Saskia Amira
Kina Dibiase, voiced by CrouchingMouse

For the longest time, the story and most of what the Navigators were saying was locked behind a metaphorical language barrier, only being able to be enjoyed by those in Japan. Now, thanks to an amazing team of developers and voice actors, the west can now enjoy this game just as if it was localized all those years ago..

All the mission briefings have been translated
Along with the Navigator introduction dialogue

We want to give a major shout out to all those involved in the project, as if it weren’t for them, none of this would be possible!:

Project Lead, Translator, Voice Director – Greg Moore
Script Editors – Dan “Danthrax” Myers, Chanh “Burntends” Nguyen, Chris “Ghaleon Unlimited” Hatala
Code Insertion, Video Editor – Mamdouh “Mampfus” Maduar
Graphics and Font Editor, Tile Setter, Manual Layout – Dan “Danthrax” Myers
Talent Scout, Community Manager – Chanh “Burntends” Nguyen
Reverse Engineer, Developer – Knight0fDragon
Recreated Musical Score – Jiggle85, Jiggle85’s brother, and Shadowmask
Recreated Sound Effects – Shadowmask
Audio Engineers – Mamdouh “Mampfus” Maduar, Greg Moore, Shadowmask
Edited Bulk Slash Logo in the Manual – SaturnDave
Original Japanese Manual Scan – Chris “Ghaleon Unlimited” Hatala

Download the Bulk Slash Fan Translation / Twin Sticks Patch.
Mirror download link.

Developer links:

Read the development history:

https://segaxtreme.net/threads/bulk-slash-english-localization-project.24794/

Join the localization team’s Discord server:

https://discord.gg/NUQTQJPZD9

Watch livestreams debuting each of the game’s navigators’ English voices:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLq6nyAE1kd1uDOiWFxG3U_nZRESHaXCjS

Main contact email:

Bulk_Slash_translation@online.de

Twitter handles of some of the team members:

@lacquerleaks (Laquerware)
@Danbo_4 (Danthrax)
@burntends2 (Burntends)
@JonGeorgievski (Shadowmask)
@Real_Mampfus (Mampfus)

Instructions on how to patch your copy of Bulk Slash:

1. Rip your Bulk Slash disc using Imgburn or your preferred disc ripper:

2. Download the Sega Saturn Patcher by Knight0fDragon (If you don’t have it installed already, make sure to download and install .NET 5.0 (Download .NET 5.0 (Linux, macOS, and Windows):

3. Un-zip and run the SegaSaturnPatcher.exe:

4. When the program is opened, click on, “Select Saturn Game”.

5. Then, another button will appear titled, “CD Image”, click on that as well:

6. A file select window will open. Then select the Bulk Slash.cue file you’d like to patch:

7. Once the .cue loads into the program, select the, “+ Game Patch (SSP)” Button:

8. Another file select screen will appear, now select the Bulk Slash (English).ssp file you just downloaded:

9. Once it loads into the Sega Saturn Patcher, confirm you are using the correct patch, then select, “Build Image” in the bottom right corner:

10. The file explorer should open, prompting you to save the newly patched file. You can select several disc formats, but we recommend .bin/.cue for general compatibility with ODEs or disc burning software. Select a directory to save the patched Bulk Slash files to (We recommend a separate directory from your ripped original copy):

11. It will take a little to patch your original ripped disc image. Once it’s complete, the program will tell you the patching process was successful:

12. Load all the files onto a blank disc image / an ODE (Optical Drive Emulator) / your favourite Saturn emulator, and enjoy!:

About the author

TraynoCo

Patrick, AKA TraynoCo is a co-founder of Sega Saturn Shiro. Patrick has a passion for Saturn projects such as homebrew and fan translations. Putting a spotlight on them in both podcast and video forms, trying to bring more attention to the ever growing Saturn homebrew scene.

Readers Comments (25)

  1. cdromance has the iso patched for download

  2. Holy shit, I was NOT expecting dubbed audio. This looks so fuckin rad, it’s awesome to see so much passion still going into one of the coolest consoles ever released. VERY excited to play once the rom, patch, and patcher are all done downloading, massive thanks and mad respect to everyone involved!

  3. is there a version with just a sub instead of dub?

    • What would be the point then? There was already English text present and no subs were even displayed when they talk Japanese. This is a true localization this way.

    • If you look into the Ream Me file, there i a manual how to diy. Its not hard and take just a few minutes with the right tool (download link included). If you still have issues doing that, please visit our discord 🙂

  4. How to play wihout english voices?

  5. I’ve verified that the patched iso doesn’t work on Mednafen (standalone or Retroarch core, the Beetle Saturn). But it works on Yabause (both versions)

  6. Great Job! I hope you publish a version of the patch with the original japanese dub too. Thank you for your work guys!

  7. Mednafen seems to not be able to detect the correct region. If you edit the config file to force the Japanese bios it should work.

  8. Great work to everyone involved!

  9. Samuel Gonzaga 2021-12-11 @ 19:34

    this is awesome. i can’t wait for the japanese dub to be released.

  10. Weiss' Husbando 2021-12-11 @ 19:54

    Agree. I want japanese dub version too!

  11. Holy smokes, thank you guys so much! You even dubbed the game in english and it’s really good voice work as well. Thanks a million.

  12. I ain’t going to lie, all who created this shit… you all are crazy nuts… Thank you!! and screw the tools that are asking for voices to be removed… they pushed for what I see as authentic production.. a lot of hard work went into getting it to look legit–because it is.

  13. Vince Lupton 2022-07-04 @ 03:02

    Hi, this is very random but i jut needed to let everyone know that the navigators’ last names are all based on 90’s wrestlers.
    Namely: Dusty Rhodes, Bret Hart, Ric Flair, Randy Savage, Rick Rude, The Steiner Brothers and Ted Dibiase.
    Thank you and goodnight

    • Also, the first names are all forms of currency in different countries, I believe.

  14. I am Japanese.
    I want to use twin stick in this game. Is it possible to add only the twin stick patch with the text and voice in Japanese?

    • Actually, IT IS possible, to do so. So If you Look at the readmepacked in our Patch (thats when you get the files from Sega-extreme.net) , you can at least unpatch the english voice over. With a next step, you can also replace a bunch Off files to retain the japanese language. But there light be some single words elsewhere in the Game, that wouldnt be detranslated properly. For example, the Button asigmemt Sheet for twin Stick Support will be mess.

      If you are interested, to go that way, reply to this Message. I wouldnhave to Look IT Up. Best would be, If you Join the shiro disco and Look for my Nickname.

    • I forgot to mention a dedicated discord chanel for this Bulk Slash localisation patch: There you could also ask for help and I would then take my time to guide you trough as much as i can remember the process

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