Japanese Translation of "Z. A. T. O. // I Love the World and Everything In It"

このページの日本語版はこちら。

This repository contains a Japanese translation of Ferry // Nopanamaman's visual novel game "Z. A. T. O. // I Love the World and Everything In It" (hereinafter referred to as "the (original) work").

Project links: repository, website

Usage

Note: This translation was created unofficially. While efforts were made to preserve the atmosphere and nuances of the original text as much as possible, mistranslations and misinterpretations may be present. Therefore, if possible, it is recommended to play in English first.

The target game version is v1.0 (as of 2026-01-23). It is intended to work with both the Itch.io and Steam versions.

To install, place the files from the ja directory of this repository as follows. The latest version of this repository is fine, but files which can be downloadable from the "source code" at the release page is more stable in the most cases.

/path/to/ZATO/game/tl/ja/
├── common.rpy
├── custom.rpy
├── ep1.rpy
├── [...]
└── script.rpy

After placement, when you launch the game, dialogues and other text will be displayed in Japanese.

To uninstall, simply delete the files added above.

Bonus: Now you can download English-Japanese parallel translation PDF files at the release page. Though it is mostly plain text, please refer to them if you want to compare texts.

For Contributors and Developers

Note: If you are a player, you can skip this section.

Contributions in the form of pull requests to this repository are welcome. However, in doing so, you agree that your contribution will be subject to the license terms described below. Also, due to workflow considerations, it may not be possible to incorporate commits as-is. Please understand this in advance.

Fine-tuning of display and other adjustments were made in ja/custom.rpy. The files containing translations are the other *.rpy files.

The translation scope is limited to the minimum necessary for understanding the story. Thus, the main translation targets are dialogue box content, character names, button displays, some displayed text, and a part of animations. On the other hand, the opening, other in-game animations, text within images, titles, and chapter text are not included in the translation.

You cannot switch languages at the settings screen. To undone Japanese display, the uninstall is required. This is in order to keep changes to the original Ren'Py scripts as minimal as possible, and have it easier to follow the updates of the original work.

Below are, due to localization considerations, listed the points where differences from the original text arose intentionally or unavoidably.

1) Honorific language and titles were introduced in character dialogue. For example, in conversations between 8th graders such as Asya Shubina and 9th grader Marina Kaplan, senpai-kohai (senior-junior) forms of address are used.

2) While Russian names vary subtly depending on diminutive forms and gender, in Japanese these have been unified to a single notation and expressed through honorifics wherever possible.

3) Items and references that do not affect the main plot and are not particularly well-known in Japan have been replaced in some cases with equivalents more accessible to Japanese readers, to the extent that this does not break the world-building.

4) This translation starts from a direct (literal) translation that preserves meaning, while taking into account each character's personality and intentions, and aiming for natural Japanese collocations, however, at the same time, its main focus is also on retaining the tone and wordplay of the original text as much as possible. These aims sometimes conflict, so in a few places the surface meaning has been significantly altered preserving the context and the rest.

License

Copyright (C) 2026 gemmaro gemmaro.dev@gmail.com

This translation is distributed under CC BY 4.0. Additionally, the content of ja/custom.py may be used as public domain equivalent. However, for the font file ja/NotoSansJP-Light.ttf used for Japanese display, please refer to ja/OFL.txt.

Note that the copyright of the original work belongs to Ferry // Nopanamaman. In the event of a request from the copyright holder to cease publication or change usage permissions, I will respond promptly. This license is based on the following content from tumbler's About page:

You don’t need to ask permission to use any of my stuff, just please give me credit!

This patch was not created with the intention of causing unintended behavior for users. Please understand that I cannot accept any responsibility for damages resulting from the use of this patch.

I am aware that numerous translations of this work have already been created and published. This translation was created independently of those, personally for the purpose of deepening my understanding of the work.