                              Pretty Soldier Sailor Moon: Another Story
                                             Liner Notes

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Please bear in mind that the Liner Notes contain spoilers for both the Sailor Moon series and the
Sailor Moon: Another Story game. If you wish to experience either entirely blind, please stop
reading after the preface.


   Table of Contents

To reach a given section, Ctrl+F the text fragments in brackets.


Preface ......................... [LN01]
Name Explanations ............... [LN02]
   Character Names and Terms .............. [LCH2]
   One Patch, and That's It ............... [LON2]
   Then Why "Soldier" and Not "Guardian"? . [LSO2]
   Enemy Names ............................ [LMN2]
   Terms Exclusive to Another Story ....... [LAS2]
   Who is Ryo? ............................ [LRY2]
The Two Title Screens ........... [LN03]
Removal of BST's Credits? ....... [LN04]
The Continuity of Another Story . [LN05]
   The Four Kings of Heaven ............... [LFK5]
   Professor Tomoe ........................ [LPT5]
   The Holy Grail ......................... [LHG5]
   The Second Holy Grail .................. [LSH5]
   Timeline ............................... [LTI5]
True Stones and the Four Kings .. [LN06]
"Europe's Tallest Mountain" ..... [LN07]
The Sacred Token ................ [LN08]
Brash Medis, Prim Mishy ......... [LN09]
Grandpa Hino's Hint ............. [LN10]
The "Evil Forest" ............... [LN11]
Uranus' Déjà vu ................. [LN12]

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   [LN01] Preface

Bishoujo Senshi Translations made their first release on September 10th, 1999. (Yup, right on Ami's
birthday!) At the time, Toonami had finished airing The Lost Episodes of Sailor Moon, or episodes 73
through 89 of the R season, a year prior. Pioneer, in collaboration with DiC's writing and recording
studio Optimum, were in the final stages of readying the R, S, and SuperS films for English release.
Meanwhile, DiC themselves had let their license to the series lapse--and they wouldn't be renewing
it. Future dubbing would be shifted to Cloverway, who stuck with Optimum Studios for the sake of
consistency.

S and SuperS made their North American debut in the summer of 2000. The series stayed on the air
until 2002, when the license ran out and Naoko Takeuchi denied any foreign firm that sought to renew
it. However, 2011 rolled around and saw an apparent change of heart; the series began airing again
in Italy. And in America, Kodansha USA released an all-new English translation of the first manga
volume.

But let's take it back to 1999. Sailor Moon, by that point, had grown into such a huge phenomenon
that many fans rejected the off-season, taking viewership into their own hands. Some didn't even
wait on The Lost Episodes, and ran straight to episode synopses--or even bootleg subtitled video
tapes--of episodes that, at the time, were unavailable in English.

During all of this, a group of young adults were very much into anime, as well as the Japanese
language and culture. They also happened to be passionate Sailor Moon fans. In those early days of
the internet, they banded together to release an English fan translation for Bishoujo Senshi Sailor
Moon: Another Story, the only role-playing Sailor Moon video game in existence.

The translation was, in a word... bad. Honorifics were retained, the grammar was off, lines were
very wooden, and easily-translated Japanese was simply romanized, not just for lore terms such as
"Ginzuishou" (Silver Crystal), but normally-spoken words, seemingly at random. (e.g., "Daisoujou"--
High Priest, "Sonna"--Oh no, "Baka"--Stupid.)

You would assume that Bishoujo Senshi Translations were taking the "fansub" approach by leaving the
grammar stilted and unnatural, making for a literally translated yet pure experience... and you'd be
wrong. Many times, the object and subject of a sentence were confused, the meaning of a sentence was
inverted, or they outright made something up if they didn't understand. (No, Chibi-Usa did not
receive a vision from the future about aliens.)

But they were young and enthusiastic. Twinkling eyes and a talented young programmer came together
to provide the best work they could. It may not hold up today, but thanks to BST, so many Sailor
Moon fans these past 20 years were able to experience an untold Another Story, a fairly solid and
fun RPG.

However, as someone in the game modding scene--especially as one who primarily deals with text and
script--it's just very difficult to return to this fan translation today. Thus, I was led to reach
out to mziab, the creator of the original Polish translation, after he assisted Hiei- and the French
localization team.

I hope we can convince you to switch to our patch, which we used all of the modern resources at our
disposal to make.

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   [LN02] Name Explanations

At this point, I'm sure everyone playing this patch is familiar with Usagi Tsukino and Mamoru Chiba,
as opposed to Serena Tsukino and Darien Shields. I'll skip the comparisons from original names to
DiC/Cloverway's. Instead, I'll explore what terms are used in our patch.


 1. [LCH2] Character Names and Terms

We followed the same standard VIZ Media did when the anime was freshly dubbed, starting in 2014.
This means original Japanese names only, names are ordered by FirstName-Surname, character technique
names are retained, no honorifics, localize any terms originally in Japanese as necessary, and
reference Kodansha USA's initial manga release and VIZ's anime dubs for translations of iconic
terminology and phrases. This brings me to my next point...


 2. [LON2] One Patch, and That's It

You read that right: there will be no alternate patch for whatever set of names and terms you
personally like best. DiC and Cloverway's dub has not aired nor been sold for almost 15 years as of
this writing. Similarly, while many fan efforts use valid and well-researched translations for
Sailor Moon's lore terms, we've decided to go the official route and translate it as if it was a
currently-released product. For better or for worse.


 3.  [LSO2] Then Why "Soldier" and Not "Guardian"?

Simple: graphic editing. Neither mziab nor I are terribly proficient in professional-level graphic
edits, and we ended up using BST's title logo as a base for our tweak of M0nsieurL's. In addition,
menus require we work within a specific character limit, and "Soldier" simply takes up less space
than "Guardian".


 4. [LMN2] Enemy Names

The other major deviation from VIZ's translation is in the names of enemies, who are directly based
on "Monsters of the Day" from the anime series. Instead, we chose to use Ian Miller's etymology
research, as he put in real effort to ensure accuracy. I won't be going over each and every enemy
name, since we'd be here all day, but rest assured that Ian did his homework. You can check out his
PDFs on the subject here: http://sailormoon.ws/diesgaudii/


 5. [LAS2] Terms Exclusive to Another Story

Oftentimes, we gave these a fresh translation. The changes and reasoning are below.

- Her Destiny > Hell Destiny: Yeah. I'm not sure how this mistranslation happened, but the enemy
   group does indeed have a name, and it's Hell Destiny. The names of its members have been
   retained from the initial BST release...

- Kishal > Kishar: ...except for Anshar's pet. In Mesopotamian myth, Kishar is the wife of Anshar,
   and is seen to represent the earth as Anshar's counterpart, as he represents the sky.

              For etymology on the names of the rest of Hell Destiny, read the following, an adapted
                  excerpt from Moose M.'s original Liner Notes. Kudos to BST for doing the research.

       The villains are all named after mythological figures in Mesopotamian and Babylonian culture.

         Sin - Sailor Moon's counterpart. Named for the God of the Moon, enemy of all evil spirits.

        Nabu - Sailor Mercury's counterpart. Named for the God of Scribes, Literacy, and Wisdom.

      Nergal - Sailor Mars' counterpart. Named for the God of the Underworld, Death, and Disease.

      Marduk - Sailor Jupiter's counterpart. Named for the God of Vegetation, Judgment, and Magic.

      Ishtar - Sailor Venus' counterpart. Named for the Goddess of the Moon, Desire, and War.

      Anshar - No direct counterpart, but could be seen as analogus to Shingo. He's Sin's younger
                brother. He and a mythological figure share a name meaning "whole heaven".

        Apsu - The leader of Hell Destiny. Named after the water (sea) upon which the world floated.

- Halyomoss > Hailspring Moss: Called "Haruyobigoke" in Japanese, meaning "Moss Which Beckons
   Spring". BST didn't seem to understand "Haruyo" and transliterated it as "Halyo". We gave it a
   new English name that reflects its original.

- Fareg/Faregg > Phaleg: Phaleg is a spirit from the Arbatel grimoire. He's said to rule over things
   attributed to Mars.

- Kainess > Keines: The name is still pronounced "ky-ness", but spelled in a bit more of a Germanic
   fashion. Apt for a Swiss town.

- Medias > Medis: This town was actually known as "Medisu" in Japanese. The "a" was introduced by
   BST somehow, so we removed it.

- Mishii > Mishy: The Japanese-y "ii" was localized to a "y". It suits a Canadian area more.

- Zagsen/Zaksen Castle > Zaksen Keep: While Japanese often substitutes "g" for "k" in foreign words,
   it didn't seem to be the case here. It's a keep rather than a castle now for flair and variety.

- Time-Space Gateway/Time-Space Doorway/Tower of Time > Tower of Space-Time: The fact that three
   names were used in BST's version should tell you all you need to know, really... Note that this
   is a separate place from "The Door of Space and Time", which is the gate Sailor Pluto guards.

- Dark Castle > Fortress of Shadows: "Ankoku Jou" in Japanese, literally "Darkness Castle". I felt
   that was a lame name for the main enemy headquarters, so it was revised to sound more menacing.


 6. [LRY2] Who is Ryo?

This is Ami's psychic friend Urawa, known as Greg in DiC's dub of season 1. He's an anime-exclusive
character created for the Rainbow Crystal arc. In a past life, he was Bunbo, a fearsome mechanical
monster with Swiss army knives for arms. He had a Rainbow Crystal sealed within him so that he could
be reborn as a human.

The Japanese original has Ami and Ryo refer to one another by surname, as per custom among Japanese
students. However, VIZ decided to eschew this convention and simply have the two refer to one
another by first name. We adopted this for localization purposes.

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   [LN03] The Two Title Screens

If you watch the prologue, you'll be greeted by a simple title logo with a rainbow gradient. When
the theme song finishes, the rest of the prologue will play out, and you'll be taken back to the
title screen... where there will instead be a much more elaborate logo in pink.

Why did we leave two separate logos? As a matter of fact, the Japanese retail release is the origin
of the English rainbow logo. BST chose to copy this into the elaborate pink logo's space, rather
than create their own in English; work smarter, not harder, right?

The new pink logo was adapted by M0nsieurL from the official French release of the SNES beat-'em-up,
and was first used in the French fan translation of Another Story.

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   [LN04] Removal of BST's Credits?

One may notice that BST originally had their group credited in three places in-game. The rainbow
title screen displayed "PRESENTED BY BISHOUJO SENSHI TRANSLATIONS" below it; the data management
menu showed "Bishoujo Senshi Translations Version 1.00"; and the names of the team members are
listed in the ending credits.

While I understand the desire to leave your mark on the game you've invested countless hours into,
the amount of credits was rather gratuitous. Therefore, I elected to have mziab restore the original
copyright to the rainbow logo screen, and changed the data management notice to "T-Eng v2.##".

However, the original team still receive their rightful due in the ending credits.

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   [LN05] The Continuity of Another Story

Sailor Moon: Another Story appears to take place after the ascent of the Death Busters, but before
the invasion of the Dead Moon. Some may wonder if the game is a hidden tale taking place between
these chapters, but it actually does something rather unique.

Taking elements from the two available continuities at the time--the manga and the anime--Another
Story creates an entirely separate take on canon. Therefore, you'll see Yuichiro working at
Hikawa Shrine, but Sailor Venus can perform Venus Wink Chain Sword.

The following has been adapted from the original Liner Notes by Moose M. Key event differences
between the two canons that have relevance to Another Story are highlighted, intending to update
players who have only experienced the 90's anime.


 1. [LFK5] The Four Kings of Heaven

Those of you who have watched Sailor Moon Crystal may know this already: Queen Beryl's Four Kings
were originally the knights of the Prince of Earth, Endymion. They were also in love with the
Princesses of the four planets, Princess Serenity's Guardian Soldiers. This is something that Naoko
Takeuchi wanted to explore in the original manga, but wasn't able.

Their ultimate fate in the source material was to return to the stone forms from which their names
originate. They rest on Mamoru's bedroom desk in a container called the Four Kings' Case.


 2. [LPT5] Professor Tomoe

This is another difference that Crystal watchers might know. In Sailor Moon S, Professor Tomoe was
purified and made a normal man again, and raised baby Hotaru (Until the Sailor Stars season).
However, in the Infinity arc, he was killed in combat by Super Sailor Moon. The reborn baby Hotaru
was raised by Haruka, Michiru, and Setsuna. Another Story assumes the manga's plotline.


 3. [LHG5] The Holy Grail

While in the anime, the Holy Grail was lost forever, the manga's events were different. Instead,
Sailor Moon unleashes the power of the Moon Chalice--an upgraded form of the Grail--in tandem with
the Silver Crystal in an effort to destroy Pharaoh 90. However, the Moon Chalice remains in her
possession, and later transforms into the Holy Moon Chalice so Super Sailor Moon can become Eternal
Sailor Moon. The upgrade from Holy Grail to Moon Chalice is ignored in Another Story, but it seems
the item was retained nonetheless.


 4. [LSH5] The Second Holy Grail

In the manga, during the conflict with Mistress 9, Sailor Chibi Moon receives a secondary, smaller
Moon Chalice to transform into Super Sailor Chibi Moon. This is also retained at the end of the
manga's Infinity arc. According to the game, it remains in Chibi Moon's possession, and similar to
Sailor Moon's Chalice, the upgrade from Holy Grail is ignored.


 5. [LTI5] Timeline

Aside from the above amendments, Another Story seems to mostly follow the 90's anime's timeline.
This is why the Sailor Soldiers don't naturally transform into their Super forms, as shown at the
end of the Infinity arc, and why the core five Soldiers aren't yet high school students.

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   [LN06] True Stones and the Four Kings

In the original patch, the Four Kings of Heaven informed the Sailor Soldiers that before Beryl lured
them into joining the Dark Kingdom, they were once the knights of Prince Endymion. Further, they
explain the creation of the True Stones--how they'll form when their Light and Dark Stones come
together. None of this is in the Japanese script; however, to fill potential plot holes and provide
players clarity, BST added some new lines. This concept was retained in the relocalization.

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   [LN07] "Europe's Tallest Mountain"

In Sailor Mercury's section of Chapter 2, she will encounter two villages that rest at the foot of a
glacier. This glacier is based off of a real-life location in the Alps, the Great Aletsch. BST wrote
this out, but the relocalization restored it.

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   [LN08] The Sacred Token

During her portion of Chapter 2, Sailor Mars is gifted a Sacred Token by Lhasa's High Priest. In the
Japanese version, this was simply an ofuda--the same kind of paper seal Rei uses in her duties as a
Shinto priestess. BST actually localized this to a Hindu Sacred Token, which we found clever and
kept.

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   [LN09] Brash Medis, Prim Mishy

Upon reaching Sailor Jupiter's part of Chapter 2, one will quickly find that the people of Medis
Village speak in a simple, hick-like manner. Conversely, the people of Mishy are more proper, almost
speaking British English. There was no such "accent" in the original at all; this was invented for
localization in order to differentiate text where multiple Canadian NPCs are speaking one after
another.

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   [LN10] Grandpa Hino's Hint

In Chapter 3, if Rei's grandpa is spoken to, he will provide a hint on how to repeatedly obtain a
free 300 yen. This was most definitely not in the original; there, he simply said "Hello". Since the
line as it was seemed almost pointless, and most players would never discover this trick without
outside help, this was added.

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   [LN11] The "Evil Forest"

The forest dungeon that Chibi-Usa is transported to in Chapter 3 is none other than Aokigahara,
Japan's Suicide Forest. This is something BST either didn't get or found tasteless to reference in
a children's Sailor Moon game. I personally found it inappropriate, and given the very sensitive
nature of this place, the reference has been toned down. No effort has been made to directly hide
the fact that this is Aokigahara, but characters speak about it--and the game events that surround
it--a bit more cautiously.

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   [LN12] Uranus' Déjà vu

The final notable dialogue change is also centered around the Aokigahara portion of the game. After
finding Chibi-Usa, the Sailor Soldiers enter an icy cave. Near the entrance, Uranus remarks that she
feels a familiar aura within. Originally, she's stating that they've fought the enemies there
before, and Sailor Moon adds that they're Queen Beryl's Monsters. There are multiple problems here.

A. The only enemies in the cave are fixed encounters with the DD Girls, and this conversation
   takes place long before you fight one of them;
B. Uranus never fought Beryl's Monsters; and
C. The enemies in the forest portion of this area are all Daimons.

Therefore, this was altered to fill a potential plot hole.