エストポリス伝記ＩＩ
Chronicles of Estpolis II

...copyright Taito 1996. The NA version of this game is called "Lufia II: Rise of the Sinistrals". The images used are also from the game. Don't go claiming them as your own or anything silly like that. This document is not intended for any commercial purpose, real or imaginary. It exists primarily out of curiosity about both the Japanese language and the changes between the Japanese and English versions of the game. If you're interested in the game, go out and buy it if you haven't already... a summary of what happens can't compare to actually playing it. One of the most underappreciated games on the SNES, in my opinion... ...though also rather glitchy especially in the NA version...

伝記 (denki) most often means a biography, but can also refer to a historical narrative. "Estpolis", I'm told, is the name of the world the series takes place in. Rumor also claims this game was originally meant to be the first in the series, but was delayed for technical reasons while what became the first was completed.

Recent Updates

2020-02-08: Did some more revision, and added another chapter or so of storyline. I've also cleaned up and coordinated my script dumps, which should help with future updates. This has led to the correction of some transcription errors, as well. I'm also working on something approaching a proper script dumper, which, well, we'll see...

2018-11-24: Name revisions for two alcohols and extra notes for those and two monsters.

2017-10-28: A reader requested monster name translations, and I'm not sure why I hadn't already done that, so here they are, along with drop rates for good measure. While I was at it, I also added a place name list, fleshed out the information on exactly what some of the spells and skills do, pulled in some data on equipment special effects, and cleaned up the story text pages a bit.

2016-11-06: A few minor corrections.

29 Apr 2012: Very minor revisions (mostly capitalization of item names).

21 Aug 2010: Split up the item list into less cumbersome pieces. Put line breaks in the translated story text to improve readability.

16 Jan 2009: Changed Iai cut to Fast draw, new information on the Suhr Custom 11, and the Nawaroa is now "fabled" rather than "legendary". Then it was pointed out that I had the name wrong on the Iris treasures, so I redid the item, spell, and IP lists too. Finally, I've finally standardized my spelling of the name "Lexus".

07 June 2008: Another revision, and a little more text too.

30 Dec 2007: Full (?) revision of translation for currently included text, and some improvements to the capsule monster page. Little 'new' content.

16 Sep 2006: Several more 'chapters' of story added, plus a very preliminary capsule monster page.

26 Jun 2006: I've divided the storyline into more digestible chunks, and proofread as I went along, hopefully improving the overall quality.

Storyline

I've found the dialog and other text in the ROM (both versions), but dumping it directly isn't as simple. In addition to normal encoding and compression, this game uses sort of a sophisticated "ditto mark" that allows blocks of text from the recent lines to be repeated concisely. The system works well enough, but normal script dumpers aren't equipped to handle it, so I've had to write my own little program to reverse the ditto codes so that standard utilities can handle the result as usual. It's not perfect, but it sure beats copying text from the screen by hand, which is what I had to do before.

Non-Story Information and Translations

Various Notes

• Except in the opening, characters talk with speech bubbles. As the text appears, the game plays a sound, at a different pitch for each character. Since text doesn't give these visible and audible indications of who's speaking, I'm adding annotations to indicate who the speaker is.
• Lines that are colored like these are my comments. Anything in this color is background information the dialog doesn't explain. There are also thought bubbles now and then. Game narration (e.g. "Found a key") and characters' unspoken thoughts are in this color.
• Previously, I had left the Japanese name suffixes intact, but I've been increasingly finding that to be awkward and ugly in English text. Better to make an effort to convey the effect by tone, and leave notes if anything of particular significange comes up.
• Since I feel like it, and it sort of contributes to the mood, significant music changes are indicated by the OST track number (first time only) and track name. For example, the load screen's music is 1-3 "Start of Journey", meaning track 3 of disk 1, entitled "Start of Journey". This may occasionally look strange, since the translations of the track names may not match my translations. Sound effects are also noted when appropriate.
• The characters are more animated while interacting than I can realistically describe. They walk around, lean into each other, jump with energy, wave their arms, occasionally make facial expressions, shake each other, and so on... They just seem more lively than characters in most similar games.
• Original (JP version) text, my translation, and the official English (NA version) text are displayed side-by-side in columns for easier viewing, and to allow comparisons.
• The game text often inserts brief pauses into spoken lines, something this format is ill equipped to reflect. Particularly noteworthy cases will be noted, and you can also assume that any series of ellipses that hasn't been trimmed down likely contains pauses.

E-mail comments, corrections, etc.

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