Why did Koei ignore it? The answer is likely commercial. 1996 was the twilight of the 16-bit and early 32-bit era, and Koei’s Western branch was cautious. Eiketsuden was more expensive to localize than a pure strategy game (due to its novel-like script) but less guaranteed to sell than a Dynasty Warriors title. So it languished—a cult title mentioned in hushed tones on forums like GameFAQs and Something Awful. The effort to translate Sangokushi Eiketsuden is a story of patience and obsession. Unlike the high-profile fan translations of Final Fantasy V or Seiken Densetsu 3 in the early 2000s, Eiketsuden lacked a massive Western fanbase. The tools were also nightmarish. The game’s script is compressed and interleaved with battle data and event flags. Early attempts in the 2010s stalled because no one could extract the text without breaking the game’s event triggers.
You can follow the project at rtkfantranslation.github.io/eiketsuden. Sangokushi Eiketsuden English Patch
That is, until a dedicated team of fan translators decided to crack the code. Released in 1996 for the Sega Saturn, PlayStation, and PC, Sangokushi Eiketsuden (which translates roughly to “Chronicle of the Heroes”) was Koei’s ambitious attempt to fuse the macro-strategy of Romance of the Three Kingdoms IV with the linear, character-focused narrative of a Fire Emblem or Shining Force . Players don’t take control of a famous warlord like Cao Cao or Liu Bei. Instead, they create a custom protagonist—a wandering, amnesiac strategist (male or female) who becomes entangled in the lives of the era’s legends. Why did Koei ignore it
