********************************************************************************
*            Madou Monogatari III: Kyuukyoku Joou-sama (Game Gear)             *
*                          English Translation Patch                           *
*                              v1.0 (30 Dec 2019)                              *
*                                                                              *
*                        TheMajinZenki -- Translation                          *
*                               Supper -- Hacking                              *
*                               cccmar -- Editing and Testing                  *
*                             Xanathis -- Testing                              *
*                               Filler -- Special Thanks                       *
*                        Kingofcrusher -- Special Thanks                       *
********************************************************************************

Having vanquished Satan in the events of Sorcery Saga II, magician-in-training 
Arle Nadja and her new companion Carbuncle continue their journey to the Ancient 
Magic School. But trouble once more finds them on the road when they are 
mysteriously ambushed by Rulue, who declares her undying love for Satan and 
traps them in a labyrinth. Aided by the citizens of the Frog Empire, can Arle 
escape the Minotauros's labyrinth and exact vengeance on Rulue?

Sorcery Saga III: The Ultimate Queen (Madou Monogatari III: Kyuukyoku Joou-sama) 
is a dungeon crawler by Compile that's probably best known as the basis for the 
Puyo Puyo series. The game was originally released on various Japanese home 
computers, but this patch targets the later port/remake for the Sega Game Gear.

This patch fully translates the game into English.

                    ****************************************
                    *          Table of Contents           *
                    ****************************************

  I.   Patching Instructions
  II.  Basic Gameplay
  III. Authors' Comments
  IV.  Version History

                    ****************************************
                    *       I. Patching Instructions       *
                    ****************************************

You'll first need a ROM image of Madou Monogatari III: Kyuukyoku Joou-sama for 
the Game Gear.

There are two known revisions of the game. Due to the two versions being nearly 
identical, this patch will work with either one. Make sure your ROM matches one 
of the following specifications:

  Original release:
    No-Intro filename: Madou Monogatari III - Kyuukyoku Joou-sama (Japan).gg
    CRC32:             0A634D79
    MD5:               B8B5305EC2F68D7BB3C9F622A13EBA7C
    SHA-1:             DD590C9086161B1F97573C48720C32CC5506DABC

  Revision 1:
    No-Intro filename: Madou Monogatari III - Kyuukyoku Joou-sama (Japan) (Rev 
1).gg
    CRC32:             568F4825
    MD5:               1294C965ABDD845F554B30B311DEE272
    SHA-1:             673670F954176FFAB28A0280AA49856A457F36B1

The patch itself is a standard IPS patch. Use a tool such as Lunar IPS to apply 
the IPS file to the ROM. The patch will expand the ROM to 1 MB, so don't use 
ancient patching utilities that don't support that.

                    ****************************************
                    *          II. Basic Gameplay          *
                    ****************************************

Sorcery Saga III is a dungeon crawler, but has a few unusual features compared
to other games in the genre. Here's a quick overview of the gameplay.
  
  ***********************
  * Dungeon Exploration *
  ***********************
  
  The main part of the game is, naturally, exploring dungeons. In this mode, 
Arle can walk around and search for items, stairways, and so on.

  Controls:
  
    D-Pad Up/Button 1    Move forward one square.
    D-Pad Left           Turn to the left.
    D-Pad Right          Turn to the right.
    D-Pad Down           Turn to face the opposite direction.
    Button 2             Open the Main Menu.
    Start                When a menu is open, pressing Start will show a help 
                         message explaining the currently selected item.
  
  While exploring, the screen consists of five parts:
  
    Top-left        Dungeon view.
                    Shows what Arle is currently looking at.
                    
    Top-right       Arle and Carbuncle's faces.
                    Indicates Arle's current health, and Carbuncle's current
                    hunger (see below).
                    
    Bottom-left     Compass.
                    The four icons indicate Arle's current orientation. The 
                    direction at the top of the compass is the one Arle is
                    currently facing.
                    
    Bottom-right    Message window.
                    If Arle finds something in the dungeon, text may appear 
                    here.
                    
    Screen border   Experience meter.
                    Arle earns experience for defeating enemies. As she does, 
                    the gems around the edge of the screen will light up.
                    Once all the gems are lit, Arle will gain a level and
                    become more powerful.
  
  Unlike traditional RPGs, this game doesn't use concepts like "hit points" or 
"magic points"! Instead of numbers, Arle's current state is shown by her 
expression. If she's in good health, she'll be happy and smiling, but if she's 
hurt, she'll frown or looked pained.
  
  Another clue to Arle's status is the music. If the normal background track is 
replaced by "unhappy" music, Arle is very low on HP or suffering from a status 
problem.

  Additionally, Sorcery Saga III contains a feature known as as the "Carbuncle
Hunger System". After Arle walks a certain number of steps, Carbuncle will get
hungry and want to eat. Carbuncle will eat Veggies if Arle has any, but if she
doesn't, he'll eat any edible item she's carrying. Always keep stocked up on
Veggies!
  
  *************
  * Main Menu *
  *************
  
  While exploring the dungeon, the Main Menu can be accessed by pressing Button 
2. It contains the following options:
  
    Map             Opens the dungeon map, showing Arle's current position and 
                    orientation.
                    As Arle explores, the map will automatically be filled in 
                    with the locations of walls and doors. Note that some
                    features aren't recorded on the map.
                    When the map is open, press Up and Down on the D-Pad to 
                    switch between previously-explored floors.
                    
    Magic           Allows Arle to cast spells.
                    Note that spells used in this way may have different 
                    effects from when they're used in battle.
                    
    Items           Opens the Item Menu.
                    From here, Arle can use the items she finds while 
                    exploring the dungeon. Press the Start button after
                    selecting an item to receive an explanation of its effect.
                    
    Save            Allows Arle to update her journal, saving current progress.
                    Up to four save files may exist at once.
  
  Additionally, while the Main Menu is open, the amount of gold Arle is 
currently holding will be shown in the Message Window.
  
  **********
  * Battle *
  **********
  
  While exploring the dungeon, Arle will encounter many enemies that she must 
defeat in order to progress. When an enemy appears, the game switches to Battle 
mode.
  
  In Battle mode, Arle and the enemy will take turns attacking each other. 
During her turn, Arle can do one of four things:
  
    Magic           Allows Arle to cast spells.
                    Arle is a magician, so she can't attack enemies physically!
                    Instead, she can cast spells to do damage, heal herself,
                    or cause other effects.
                    
    Items           Opens the Item Menu.
    
    Run             Attempts to run from the battle.
                    Note that there's a chance Arle won't be able to escape, 
                    and certain battles may be impossible to run from.
                    
    ?               Uses the special "LIPEMCO" ability.
                    "LIPEMCO" may be used only once per battle, and can have 
                    many different effects.
  
  During battle, the current health of both Arle and the enemy is indicated by 
the messages shown when they're hit by an attack.
  
  Arle has a limited supply of magic power. While basic attack spells don't 
require any magic power to cast, most other spells will deplete Arle's magic 
power when used. If Arle runs out of magic, she won't be able to cast most 
spells. Whenever Arle gains or loses magic power, a message indicating the 
amount remaining will be displayed, so make sure to use magic-restoring items 
if it gets low.
  
  Defeating enemies causes Arle to earn experience. As she does, the experience 
meter around the edge of the screen will fill (see "Dungeon Exploration"). Once 
it's full, Arle will gain a level, increasing her power and restoring her 
health.
  
  ********
  * Tips *
  ********
  
  * If Arle tries to walk into a wall, she'll bump into it. This technique can 
sometimes be used to uncover secrets. If you come across a suspicious dead end, 
try bumping into it and seeing if anything happens.

  * Pay attention to the dungeon map! Make sure you explore every area 
possible, or you might miss important events. Sometimes, you may have to get
additional skills before you can visit every space on a level, so make sure to 
occasionally check levels you've already visited (Up/Down Buttons on the map
screen) for blank areas.
  
                    ****************************************
                    *        III. Authors' Comments        *
                    ****************************************
  
  -------------------
  -- TheMajinZenki --
  -------------------
  
  Having already translated Madou Monogatari II (GG), working on Madou 
Monogatari III was a no-brainer. I was already invested in the series, and 
besides Arle's shenanigans are always fun to see (and translate). From what I 
could gather, the plot is similar to other versions of Madou Monogatari III, but 
it is told in a very different manner (the PC98 version has a whole plot about 
Arle needing medicinal herbs for her frostbitten hands, this doesn't exist at 
all here). I personally think this version is funnier, but I'll let you be the 
judge of that.
  
  At any rate, I hope you enjoy this game as much as I did translating it. Have 
fun!

  ------------
  -- Supper --
  ------------
  
  Well, here we are again. This is my first release in a while, despite having 
been working on projects constantly in the meantime. It's been so long it feels 
kind of weird to actually be putting something out...
  
  This project has actually been a pretty long time coming. Immediately after we 
finished with Madou Monogatari II back in... wow, May? Really? Anyway, right 
after that, I went ahead and ported all of the core code for the translation 
over to this game, which uses almost the same engine. But it was a while before 
TheMajinZenki could get around to translating it, so it sat on the shelf for 
several months before I was finally able to finish things off. Then it ended up 
being another month and a half before we released it, so I had to go back and 
play the game again today to remember enough about it to put together the 
release package. That's my excuse, anyway.
  
  This wasn't too hard a project as far as the technical end goes... with the 
exception of the cutscenes. If you play this, please try to take a moment to 
appreciate that the characters' lips move in sync with their dialogue, because I 
had to manually redo all of the mouth movements and the cutscene timing to line 
up with the new text. It's like dubbing anime in reverse. Seriously, I'm pretty 
sure I spent longer tweaking the cutscenes one line at a time than I did on 
anything to do with the gameplay.
  
  Anyway, hope you enjoy the game. The balance is very different from II, but 
it's still got that zany Madou Monogatari feel to it. Oh, and watch out for 
Carbuncle -- he gets hungry sometimes. By which I mean all the time.
  
  ------------
  -- cccmar --
  ------------

  Sorcery Saga 3 is the final mainline story entry of the series for the GG. We 
released the patch for the second game in the series a while ago, and so it was 
only natural to pick up the third game. Interestingly, this and "A" are the 
entries which were changed the most compared with the PC originals. There are 
completely new plot points, dungeons, enemies and friendly characters involved, 
but the main story remains more or less the same. It’s still quite fun and 
unique due to the changes, so we definitely enjoyed working on it. When it comes 
to the script, there were a couple of puns here and there which needed to be 
localized, but nothing too major overall. So, we hope you enjoy this game… and 
stay tuned for SS: A in the future!

                    ****************************************
                    *         IV. Version History          *
                    ****************************************

v1.0 (30 Dec 2019): Initial release.

