V2 Patching guide:

Notes:

This guide is brought to you by another guy tired of the previous guides being gatekept behind Discord links.

Moving on, if this Guide ever fails you, as in;

Instructions were unclear;
Error somewhere along the guide;
Hard to follow due to ADHD or similar note and need a guiding hand;
Simply put not working;

If this happens, make sure to DM:
DM actualluccasuper on Reddit (moderator of Reddit community, so easy to find)

If you are completely unable to contact me in any way shape or form, or someone else is unable to help you out, this is your hail mary:

https://www.reddit.com/r/customrobo/comments/ytkwgc/a_bunch_of_notes_on_the_custom_robo_v2_beta_patch/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button

This reddit post above (even if slightly confusing) contains all necessary information for the V2 patching process.

However, it is difficult to find under normal circumstances, that is why this guide is being created.

Additional notes:

Almost all of the game has been translated except for the part descriptions. Virtually 100% of the main story is translated, there are about 1-2 places that aren't translated in the Grand Battle, and I'd say like 70% of the game's translation is properly formatted (100% of the main story is properly formatted, and then about half-ish way through the Grand Battle the dialogue starts cutting off the text boxes which can occasionally make it hard to understand what they're saying if it cuts off too much, and it also causes other issues which I'll get to further on).

Main story:

There are very few major issues with the main story while using the beta patch.

When starting a save for the first time, there should already be a save file that has a white bar as its name. Delete this save file and just make a new save like normal. The white bar save is busted, causing the game to get stuck on a black screen after if you load it. For whatever reason, this glitched save only pops up at all when using the translated patch with certain emulators (for me, it appeared with Project64 3.0.1 but not Project64 1.6). Everything saves fine after deleting the glitched save and making a new save file, so it's not really anything to worry about.

Don't skip dialogue where the text box shakes or it'll crash the game (this also applies to most dialogue that shakes outside of the main story of course). Notably, there's a lot of "shaking" dialogue in Takuma Academy.

Near the end of the main story, there is a single generic lackey in a room with a bunch of beds whose dialogue will get stuck and cause the game to lock up if you talk to him. If this happens to you, just reload and simply don't talk to him again.

The Grand Battles:

The Grand Battles are fine at first, but a bunch of issues start popping up after a certain point.

At or around Dr. Robo's first challenge room, almost everything after this point seems to be where the translation hasn't been formatted properly and is clearly the "beta" portion of the patch, so lines will cut off the dialogue panel. More importantly, after completing any of these "beta patched" battle rooms with wonky formatting, the game will get stuck after the set of matches are done even if you reload, but it will save successfully otherwise. However, it loads fine if you use your save file in the Japanese version since save files are interchangeable between the patched and unpatched versions of V2 (so you'll need to manually copy-paste your "English" save to wherever the Japanese save is normally). So to summarize:

Now, on to the actual patching process:

Patching Process:

First, Download a working N64 emulator.

Most common ones are:

Project64: https://www.pj64-emu.com/download/project64-3-0-1-installer

Mupen: https://mupen64plus.org

Access this link to download the Patched game:

https://mega.nz/folder/i15hWSbK#xCoaA6FLFuaC2DupAsveEQ

Next, find a Rom of Custom Robo V2. (We cannot divulge ISO’s or ROM’s sadly)

Preferably the ROM should already be Byte Swapped such that it's Big Endian.

ROMs that you find that are in Big Endian mode usually end up as the .z64 file format. Changing the file extension from .n64 to .z64 in the file name doesn't immediately solve this, BTW.

If the ROM is not byte swapped (usually easy to tell by it ending with .n64 when you download it), you will need to byte swap it. This is a good tutorial on how to get a file byte swapped: https://forum.no-intro.org/viewtopic.php?p=20416&sid=34bbbed7347d7267bb59565cf4067814#p20416

If you don't want to deal with swapping the bytes of the file, then you can just find the .z64 file instead of the .n64 file. Both files are SUPER easy to find.

Step above ^ only applies if the ROM you found isn't in the correct file format, which is unlikely. However, it can still happen.

Download the XDelta Patcher:

https://www.romhacking.net/utilities/598/

Run the XDelta Patcher

For “Patch” select the File from the Gofile Link

For “Source File” select the ROM

For “Output File” just select the destination of the file.

If all goes well it will say: “File Patched Successfully”

Do note that there is a bug (or feature as my workplace calls it) that was added into the game by Star Trinket Translation.

Where the game starts with save files for the game that have:

Filled, white rectangles as the names.

If you try to start any of these files, you will be soft locked and you will need to reset the game. As such, to circumvent this issue when playing the game for your first time, delete the save files that exist within the game by pressing "A" on the file and then choosing "Delete File".

This brings up another bug that was introduced into the game by the patch. Apparently the first save file gets triplicated onto all three saves. It's either that the first file is loaded onto all three slots or that any saves save onto all three slots simultaneously (not sure of which as I don't have the source code).

I am unsure of how much of the game is translated, but I do know that there are aspects of this game that haven't been translated (i.e., most of the parts, some graphics, etc.).

The "A New Journey" campaign should be fully translated as the entire run was translated on that Alpha patch that I wasn't allowed to share.

As the Beta is theoretically after the Alpha (Betas are after Alphas, and the version number of the Beta is v1.0 while the Alpha was v0.62), the campaign should also be completed up to that point.

If the entirety of Grand Battles (or any portion after Marv's/Fukashi's Grand Battles) is done, then it is safe to say that the Beta is indeed not the Alpha but redressed.

If everyone starts talking in Japanese in the patch after that point, then the patch is indeed what was used to create the Alpha (or that patch but with the watermarks removed and check-sum altered).

Either way, don't hesitate to ask me question (though I can't provide direct links to ROMs due to legal reasons [Nintendo for generic V2 ROMs, remnants of the translation team for the Alpha or a pre-patched Beta]).

^ This has been addressed at the start of this document if you missed it.

Controller Inputs:

A : Gun

B : Bomb

Z Trigger : Pod

Right Trigger : Jump

Left C button : Charge

Well, that’s it!

Now you know exactly how to Patch Custom Robo V2 so that it can be played in English.