Wednesday, October 15, 2014

Would somebody please translate these Solitiba (3DS) screens for me?

While the rest of the 3DS-owning world obsesses over the latest Super Smash Bros. title (or the just-released Pokémon Alpha Sapphire/Omega Ruby demo), I am obsessing about a quirky little title that hit the Japanese eShop over a year ago: Game Freak's Solitiba (aka Soliti Horse).

In case this is the first you've heard of it, Solitiba ably--and shockingly--combines everybody's favorite single-player card game, solitaire, with a rather adorable horse-racing sim.

If that makes it sound like a snoozefest, well, I can't really blame you for feeling that way, but I can assure you the resulting effort is anything but a bore.

Anyway, I bring up all of the above because a few things are keeping me from enjoying Solitiba to the fullest: namely, the screens that can be found below. As such, if any of you kind souls could translate--or even just share the gist of--the Japanese text showcased in the following photos, I would greatly appreciate it.



The message above pops up whenever I try to play my existing save file. Clicking on the purple button returns me to Solitiba's main menu.



Speaking of the game's main menu, it can be seen in the shot above. I know the button in the upper-left corner (red jockey) takes me to Solitiba's "training" (practice) mode, while the ones in the middle (black jockey) and lower-left (orange jockey) take me to the main campaign and the options screen, but do any of you know what the one in the upper-right is supposed to represent?



Also, if I click on the "options" button shown in the last photo, I come to the screen above. Here, I know the button in front of the white horse takes me back to the previous screen, but what do the other buttons say or do?



Finally, the message above keeps popping up whenever I try to launch Solitiba. Is it telling me an update for the game's available on the eShop, or is it telling me about something else?

I ask because I pressed "Y" the first time I encountered it, but the only noteworthy thing I could make out on the resulting eShop page was that a demo (I think) of the game was available for download.

A hearty thank you in advance to anyone who is able to help me with this admittedly silly request!

17 comments:

@nyaraka said...

The old horse stalls are full!

Choose the old horse challenge and either release one old horse, or continue until retirement.

-----

Main Menu:

yellow - Old Horse Mode

---

Options Menu:

blue - Pass Communication

pink - Delete Data

Yellow - How to Play

---

Message:

There is an update for the software.

Please download from the Nintendo eShop.

---

:)

TheGameroomBlitz said...

The last screen is definitely something about downloading a file from the Nintendo eShop. It's something like "Nintendo eShop [kara] download [shite] [kudasai]. Kudasai is a directive, something like "please do this." The Y button would take you to the Nintendo eShop. The A button is Soft [o hajimeru].


There's a lot of kanji in the other screens, making it indecipherable to me. Sorry...

thegaygamer.com said...

Thank you so much, nyaraka--I *really* appreciate it! My husband may not be so appreciative, though, as this means I can get back to my SolitiBa obsession :)

thegaygamer.com said...

Thanks anyway, Jess! That's more than I got out of it :)

Monster_Hunter2882 said...

I find it odd this game hasn't been announced for the west yet since Game Freak made it I think.

Anon said...

Pic1: The stable is full of old horses! (furuba, +4yo racing horses)

Pick a challenge with an old horse, and choose to let it go, or to continue it until retirement. (Close)

Pic2: Red: Training, Yellow: Old horse (古馬) mode (maybe it means veteran?), Black: Young horse (若駒) mode (maybe it means novice?, Orange: Options

Pic3: Blue: passing each other communication (street pass thing), Pink: delete data, Yellow: how to play, Black: go back

Pic4: There is a new software update available. Please download it from Nintendo eshop (Y: Go to nintendo eshop, A: Start software)

thegaygamer.com said...

Me, too, Sam. That said, I have a feeling it's because of one or both of the following: 1) this game has a LOT of text. More than you probably can imagine, in fact. 2) the powers that be at Game Freak may be worried that a Solitaire game that's mixed with a horse-racing sim won't be of much interest to your average Westerner. Anyway, I hope they eventually take a chance on it and release it here, because I am head over heels in love with the Japanese version even without understanding everything about it.

TheGameroomBlitz said...

Hey Nyaraka, could I have a little translation help too? I'm writing an article about Terra Cresta and am getting the impression that they made merchandise based on it; specifically candy and toys.

http://ja.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/テラクレスタ

Could you confirm this? If so, specific information would be really helpful. Thanks!

thegaygamer.com said...

Nyaraka: The Official Translator of Gaming Bloggers Everywhere™ :)

thegaygamer.com said...

Thank you, Anon! As far as I can tell, the first/main part of the game could be called "colt" mode, and features horses from 1 to 4 years of age. After that, they're full/old horses, I guess! I had read about all of this before now, by the way, but I wasn't sure how it actually played out (pun intended) in the game until now.

Justin Difazzio said...

This thread is the reason I love the internet.

thegaygamer.com said...

Me, too, Justin! Why can't all of us support each other rather than hate each other? :(

@nyaraka said...

Actually translating this would take more time than I have this morning because they keep referring to things I assume as part of the game (and I'm therefore not familiar with them).

The gist is:

There's a transformation/union toy called "W Henkei Gattai Terra Cresta" that's a set of 5 "Wing Gyaribaa" units. It's produced by Long(?) Company, and they're "cheap toys" (displayed on hooks and sold at non-toy-store places like home centers, drugstores, family restaurants). Despite them being "cheap toys," you can unite them according to the options -- and even into the original "Robot Form", even though that's not technically in the options?

When they're in Robot Form you can see that the original series' logo is on the shield they're holding.

They also released small plastic models (Wing Gyaribaa and enemy fortifications) that were sold with food: Terra Cresta Peanut Chocolate.

(I learned a lot about Japanese toy terminology reading this, wow.)

@nyaraka said...

As long as it's short. :)

thegaygamer.com said...

I can't blame you for that, nyaraka!

thegaygamer.com said...

That's really nice of you, nyaraka! Thank you :)

TheGameroomBlitz said...

Much obliged, Nyaraka! I found the Terra Cresta toy after some research, but the chocolate peanut thing was still driving me, uh, nuts. There's also a Wing Galiber toy that'll be released by Takara-Tomy in a couple of months, and that looks much better than the first one.