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A new AI-assisted fan translation for Deep Space and Sony Computer Entertainment's Japan-exclusive horror action-adventure game, Hungry Ghosts, has just been released, allowing players to experience the "hell simulator" in English.
But it appears that a more 'definitive' AI-free patch could also be on the way, from another team.
Originally developed by a team (led by the Capcom legend Tokuro Fujiwara) around 2003, Hungry Ghosts is a little-known title that has often been compared in the past to games like FromSoftware's King's Field and Shadow Tower Abyss, on account of its first-person perspective, and notably brings together Eastern and Western ideas of the afterlife.
In it, players take control of a recently deceased warrior trapped in the underworld who must seek out the Gates of Judgement, lest they be trapped in hell for all eternity. Armed with a bunch of crude weapons like a spear and crossbow, players will need to overcome a series of terrifying obstacles, like the Grim Reaper-esque Shinigami, while also being given the option to assist lost souls in need of help. Depending on the path they choose, there are multiple endings to discover, with the ultimate goal being to escape their torment and achieve reincarnation.
Given the game was only ever released in Japan, there's been no official way to play it in English in the many years since its release, but there has been talk of various proper fan translation projects for well over a decade.
Earlier this year, hopes were raised when the announcement of a translation patch was published on r/emulation, but it was quickly revealed to be "Google-translated" and subsequently came under criticism for being "rough af". Because of this, when we received a news tip at the end of October that yet another fan translation had been released, we weren't exactly holding out much hope for it to be any good. After looking into the patch, though, the translation seems to have something of an interesting history, with its creator Mord of Swoonlight having been one of the individuals to create a fan translation for FromSoftware's Shadow Tower Abyss.
"I originally heard about Hungry Ghosts on the Sword of Moonlight forum right around the time that I helped share some of the load of translating Shadow Tower Abyss," says Mord of Swoonlight. "Which was spearheaded by Hwitvlf/Weisswulf. That was released around 2011, and I'm pretty sure my first time hearing about HG was shortly after that, in the forum, described as being similar in spirit to the King's Fields and Shadow Towers.
"It was fascinating; I'd never seen anything like it before - there is apparently a mini genre of "hell simulators", but this one combined some combat with actions and goals to change your fate, with an interesting mix of Buddhist and Western afterlife thematic elements."
Mord of Swoonlight worked on this for a number of years, but after a pair of hard drive failures in 2017, they decided to put the project aside, only to pick it up again a couple of years later. And it's here that we inevitably come once again to the controversial topic of AI. While Mord of Swoonlight's translation is human-made, the patch was created with AI tools for "clerical things": namely, "to organise spreadsheets, rearrange the remaining portions to be much more efficiently worked on, identify duplicate blocks that didn't need extra effort."
As Skycat, the social media handler for Sword of Moonlight (the website hosting the patch), states, "no AI [code]" should be present in the version hosted on the Sword of Moonlight site, with the team asking Mord of Swoonlight to remove some extra PCXS2 patches for things like widescreen support, to adhere to its GenAI policy. If interested, players can download that patch here, but it should be said there could also be a more "definitive" AI-free patch potentially on the way from Everdred, which even Mord of Swoonlight admits will be a step up from what they've released.
"In my view, I've released a 'simpler' translation patch," says Mord of Swoonlight, "Which allows players to try a unique Japanese game that happens to have the Japanese text converted to English - hopefully striking the right balance of underlying meaning vs the literal translation (often tricky to balance), while still maintaining the tone and ambience of the game and characters, all while staying within the existing text field limits.
"There are severe space limitations for some lines and descriptions (especially the place and character names, for example), and the spacing is sometimes different from natural English speech, so it can often seem like odd, stilted English. But that also kind of fits in with the 'other world/time' feel of the game in a sense, and I didn't want to do the extra bookkeeping of referencing longer offset data blocks that would allow the more natural-sounding text. The parallel HG translation effort by Everdred's group is using that other option, with less restrictive field lengths and therefore more natural-sounding English. Theirs will feel more like a true localisation should feel, and less like a 'patched' game like mine probably does."
Work on this separate patch was started in December 2022 and came about due to Everdred's fondness for the "unique" and "rough-around-the-edges" adventure game:
"The game just seemed super interesting," says Everdred. "It’s a pretty cool mix of action RPG and old-school adventure games (lots of reading, expected to go through multiple playthroughs, etc).
"It also does a surprisingly good job tying Buddhist concepts of karma and rebirth to its game systems. Virtually EVERYTHING you do in the game affects various stats that influence your path to the ending, and ultimately your own rebirth. It's an incredibly unique and interesting one, which is exactly the type of game that I love spending time with."
In 2024, a translator named shinrin_yoku joined the project, but sadly, despite a considerable amount of work already being done, over the last couple of weeks, they appear to have left for a mix of personal and work reasons.
This has left the future of the translation slightly up in the air as of the time of writing, though Everdred suggests they "might reach out to another translator to try and find someone to polish up the draft." At Time Extension, we'll obviously keep you posted if we hear any further updates.