Fans are currently hard at work translating the 1990 MSX2 version of the classic Riverhill Soft title Burai into English, according to the MSX enthusiast and programmer Max Iwamoto.
Burai (or Burai Joukan, as it is also called) is an RPG title that was originally released for the PC-88 in 1989, and was later ported to other platforms such as PC-98, FM-Town and MSX2 computers. It focuses on the story of eight warriors spread across the world who are suddenly entrusted with the task of saving the land from the followers of an evil god named Daar, and features a top-down perspective and turn-based battles typical of RPGs of the day.
Following its release, a second volume, entitled Burai: Gekan, was released in 1990, which continued the story. This was then followed by a pair of enhanced ports for the PC Engine Super CD-ROM² (one of which also launched on the Super Famicom and Sega CD). Earlier this year, the PC-88 version of the game was launched on Nintendo Switch as part of D4 Enterprise's EGGCONSOLE series of emulation-based reissues, while another publisher Mebius has just released the MSX2 version on the Nintendo Switch eShop in Japan as of today.
None of these releases, however, have received an English localization, leaving the door open for fans to step in and finally provide players with the translation that they've long dreamed of.
The new project is being developed by the team behind Project Melancholia (a retranslation of SD Snatcher that was released in 2019). This includes Rieks Warendorp Torringa (Texts translation, research, beta testing) and Iwamoto (Reverse engineering, code, GFX, tools, beta testing). It will get a demo later this year covering the intro to the game, which will be part of FutureDisk 50, the final entry in a long-running MSX disk magazine.
This will be available to buy at the MSX2GOTO40 event, taking place in Amsterdam on September 13th. In addition to this, the demo will later be added as download to the translation's website, allowing more people to give it a try. According to the information on the website, currently 7 of the game's 12 chapters are completed as of the last update, and the main game engine is also complete.
Here's the game's intro in Japanese, just to give you an idea of what to expect: