Here it is! The final 1.0.0 Patch for the Saturn Grandia English Translation. With this release I am declaring the project done. Save for any severe bugs that prevent the game from being playable, I do not intend to do any more development towards this project. It requires version 1.95 of the Sega Saturn Patcher. The version I used to make the patch is included.
The changes in this release are focused entirely on Disc 1. And I have just recently had confirmation from Jullemasa, the World Record holder for Grandia Speedruns, that he was able to get through Disc 1 without issues. The main changes are as follows:
v1.0.0 (6/18/2022)
- Minor typos were corrected.
- Splash Screen Added
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About the Splash Screen
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This is something a bit controversial that I'm honestly not a fan of seeing in patches. I personally feel credit for these kinds of projects should be left to a simple line or two in the game's credit sequence and that's it. However some groups of people have forced my hand on this.
Unfortunately there have been people trying to claim they were involved in this project who had nothing to do with it. Others have tried to claim they were the sole people releasing it or even trying to sell it and make money off of it. Some have even gone so far as to tell people not to go and get the official new releases of the patch and instead only use their pre-patched images that are years behind in updates.
The impact this has had on the beta test of this patch can't be understated. It made it so I was effectively not getting any valuable feedback on bugs and issues because people weren't coming to the official thread on SegaXtreme for updates. As a result new versions weren't getting tested well and bugs weren't making their way back to me. I'd also get bug reports from archaic versions that were being distributed that I'd already fixed. This just cluttered the backlog as I had to verify the issue wasn't reintroduced. This slowed down progress significantly and is why the patch as been stuck in a Release Candidate phase for so long.
So in short, the Splash Screen is there to make it clear who made the patch and where it's officially hosted. The goal is to make it very difficult for these people to try and claim involvement or ownership of these projects going forward. And hopefully it should make it harder for these people to discourage people from coming to SegaXtreme for updates on future projects.
If there comes a point where these measures are no longer necessary I have no problem removing the Splash Screen and even have a version ready to go without it. But unfortunately that's not what the current situation is.
And to be clear, I am not talking about CDRomance. While I may not like that things are hosted there pre-patched, the owner has been more than polite and accommodating with these projects. He keeps them up to date, makes it clear it's a beta test, points back to the original source and gives proper credit. I have no problems with him.
