Spriggan Mark 2's new English patch fixes a British space invasion

ROM hacker Luke Gagnon has released version 1.1 of the English translation patch for Spriggan Mark 2: Re-Terraform Project, correcting a script error that accidentally inserted Britain into a Martian space war. The update follows the initial July 30 release and fixes a faction name mix-up without altering the core gameplay.

A cinematic shooter on CD

Developed by Compile and published by Naxat Soft in 1992, Spriggan Mark 2 is a horizontally scrolling mecha shooter for the PC Engine Super CD-ROM². Compile was already famous for fast-paced shooters like MUSHA, but this project took a different direction. Unlike its fantasy-themed vertical predecessor, Seirei Senshi Spriggan, this sequel leans heavily into a sci-fi narrative. Programmer and writer Yuichi Toyama spent ten months building a game that uses the optical disc format to deliver fully voiced cutscenes and mid-stage dialogue.

The Super CD-ROM² system upgraded the base console's memory to 256KB, giving developers the room they needed for elaborate anime-style storytelling. It is a technical showcase for the hardware, but all that voice acting made it completely impenetrable for non-Japanese speakers. The game eventually saw a global release on the TurboGrafx-16 Mini in 2020, but the story remained untranslated.

Subtitles and quality of life

The patch from Gagnon provides full English subtitles for the voiced cutscenes and translates all in-level dialogue, title cards, and menus. It also adds a modern quality-of-life feature: an auto-save that lets you continue from the last finished level. You can grab the patch files from the project's GitHub repository or its page on ROMhacking.net. English text that was already present in the original code was left alone, with adjustments made only for obvious typos.

Britain is not on Mars

The version 1.1 update, available on the GitHub releases page, exists purely to fix a faction naming error. In the original Japanese audio, the spoken term "A-koku" (A-Nation) was misheard as "Eikoku" (Britain). This led to the version 1.0 script treating A-Nation and Britain as two separate military factions. Gagnon corrected all affected references across the script and manual.

The idea of the British armed forces showing up in a 1992 anime mecha conflict is pretty funny, but accuracy comes first. The fix ensures the political conflict over the terraforming of Mars actually makes sense.

Source: en.wikipedia.org