DM4 Translation proto

Tip

Just want the patch for some reason? Get it here.

Warning

This is a long-running project as I’m frequently working on other things. I anticipate finishing it within the month (month of March 2026) but make no promises.

In late 2024 I started translating Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters 4: Battle of Great Duelists into English. This resulted in a cool blog post.

I translated 2/3 of the cards. The text fields were subject to brutal space limits that spoiled a lot of the fun of making the translation. I took a detour to attempt to patch/translate the menus and hit a wall.

I found a charming Japanese → Chinese translation that fixed many of my pain points & resolved to use its plumbing in my translation. I re-translated all the cards, the script, the menus, the in-game field menus & such, the title screen, & the this is only playable on the game-boy color error screen.

I have yet to finish the tooling for actually inserting the script & the dynamic in-battle text. As such this is patch is incomplete. But I’m quite proud of the parts that are done. On request I’m making it available as-is.

Title & credits

GBC screen reading: Lovingly delocalized by nyuu. When a crossed-swords icon appears, more info is available on https://dm4.nyuu.page/. Freely distributed, without exception.
Credit screen
Title screen showing the Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters 4 logo with subtitle Battle of Great Duelist, Yugi Deck. Begin Anew and Continue options at the bottom.
Translated title screen
Error screen reading: This game is designed for use on GAME BOY COLOR only. Shows Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters 4: Battle of Great Duelist beneath character portraits of Yugi, Kaiba, and Jounouchi.
GBC-only error screen
Main menu screen with five options: Campaign, Trade, Versus, Record, and Password, arranged on an ornate blue stone background.
Main menu
Record screen listing duelists with win/loss tallies: Ryota Kajiki, Siamun Muran, Esper Roba, Ryuzaki, and Insector Haga, all showing zero wins and losses.
Record screen
Password entry screen with an eight-digit input field showing all zeroes.
Password entry

Cards

Card detail screen for Wriggle: Insect type, stats 300 attack 350 defense, Forest-Taxon. Description reads: It deals direct damage equal to its attack to the opponent.
Card detail for Wriggle
Card detail screen for Killer Snake: Reptile type, stats 300 attack 250 defense, Water-Taxon. Description reads: This venomous snake has wings and can fly through the sky, but struggles with ground movement.
Card detail for Killer Snake

Patch

https://smooth-files.nyuu.page/dm4y-patch.bps

Coming next

The script and in-battle dialogue are translated but not yet inserted. Here’s what that looks like in dev:

Siamun standing in a stone chamber, saying: Show this old one what you can do. Defeat me 5 times with a deck wherein your heart dwells.
Siamun pre-duel dialogue
Dinosaur Ryuzaki adjusting his hat, saying: I'm Dinosaur Ryuzaki, and just like the name says, I'm a dinosaur duelist!
Dinosaur Ryuzaki pre-duel dialogue