An English fan translation of the card battle RPG, Arcana Strikes, is almost ready for release. This unique Sega Saturn exclusive only released in Japan on Dec. 11, 1997. The game was published by Takara and developed by Red Company, which is perhaps better known for the meteoric hit we know as Sakura Wars. Nearly three decades later, English-reading Saturn fans will be able to experience this unique game, courtesy of Meduza Team. They posted a progress video shortly before the new year.
Meduza Team has released numerous translation patches for Saturn games over the years — most recently, Dracula X: Nocturne in the Moonlight at the beginning of last year. I reached out to Paul Met to ask about how things are going with this project. Long story short, the patch is almost done.
The translation patch is currently in its testing phase. Met said they are correcting text and looking for bugs. Outside of this, their only big roadblock is translating the instruction manual.
“The release was planned for the beginning of this year,” Met wrote in our text interview. “But it may be delayed due to the translation of the game manual.”
Since the publication of this article, Paul Met and the Meduza Team has acquired a high quality scan of the manual.
Met told me he was interested in Arcana Strikes for its unique gameplay. He also wanted to break the language barrier of its plot.
“…The game looks very interesting (unusually implemented animation, allies and enemies in the form of a deck of cards, mysterious locations, etc.),” he wrote. “The combat system is not as simple as it seemed at first glance (it reveals itself gradually).”
Compared to past translation patch projects, Met made it sound like dealing with the code of Arcana Strikes was a pretty straightforward effort — compared to other games he has worked with in the past.
“There were no problems with inserting text,” Met wrote. “But as always, there are limitations on its size. Therefore, it is necessary to make compromises so that the text fits both in RAM and on the screen.”
“I wouldn’t call this project complicated (there were more complicated projects),” he added. “But the use of data compression and caching in the game threw up a lot of problems. It also took some work to add subtitles over the videos.”
Met said creating a translation for Arcana Strikes is something he had on his to-do list for some time.
“I’ve been eyeing this game for a long time, but at that time I didn’t have enough skill and experience to hack it properly,” Met said. “But now I’ve managed to implement my plan, and I’m glad about it.”
While no official release date is being set by the translation team, Met hopes to have it out soon. The YouTube video previewing their patch shows it as being in a “v.1.0” status at its title screen. Glancing at the recorded game footage, the clean font displays nicely across dialogue boxes and menu items. Some text is color coded. Red Company seems to have made good use of the Saturn hardware and its VDP2 chip to pull off eye catching sprite effects.
We will be sure to let you know when this patch comes out. Stay tuned.
This game is a pure gem. So happy that a translation is almost done.
I made a video about it a few years ago. I also managed to get all cards ( almost impossible if you don’t have the official guide book). If someone want a save let me know 😉
Did you beat the final boss? I reached the final boss back in ’98 without understanding what the hell was going on, but the fight was so epic! I exhausted all my card reserves, and that damn boss kept spamming 0 cards! Now that we’re getting an English patch, I can’t wait for my revenge, time for round 2! m*******
The real boss is like a huge card ( if you don’t find the 2 secrets territories you will fight a human boss) .
Hardly ever after a fight you will get a special item like « AT + » or DEF + item, use it carefully with you best monster. I managed to upgrade my red dragon attack with a + 5 !
There’s another boss besides that huge card??? I’m getting pumped! I remember I got two Dragons, one from the beginning and one from ‘RED’ (thanks to the title screen).
Somehow, I accidentally found those two secret territories you mentioned back then.
Not sure if I’ve ever upgraded an attack with + values, since I can’t read Japanese.
If you fought the giant card it means that you succeeded to open the secret routes. For the Attack of your monsters you can improve it with theses rare boosters cards ( AT or DF, quite useful but pretty hard to get more than those hidden across the game. You can find action replay codes to have your monsters with a level 99 or 99 of AT and DF ( don’t use it if you never managed to finish the game 100% first, it will reduce your enjoyment if so. )