
          ____
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        | /  \/ _ \/ __/ _ \ '_ \ / _`\
        | \__/\(_) |(_| (_) || | | (_| |
         \____/___/\___\___/_| |_|\__,_|   -     -
                         __ __ __ ___  _ __ | __| |
                        |  |  |  | _ \| /  /|/ _` |
                         \  \  \/ (_) |  /| | (_| |
                          \_/\_/ \___/|_| |_|\__,_|

      Cocona World (1987, SOFEL, FDS)
      English Translation Patch by InvisibleUp
      Revision 2 (2026-04-30)

      InvisibleUp   -- Translation, modification
      FutureFractal -- Lowercase font, disasm support

============================================================
============================================================

 SYNOPSIS
 --------
 Meet Cocona Tea! She's a magical princess who left her
 home on Pineapple Star to study magic. Now she stays in
 SOFEL's Forest along with her animal pals. She's new to
 living all by her lonesome, so you'll have to be her new
 caretaker. Help her practice her magic to protect herself
 from baddies, go shopping for food at the farmer's market,
 visit the hot springs and the seaside, play Bingo and tell
 your fortune, and finally go to bed after a long day of
 work and play.

 Developed and published by Japanese software development
 firm SOFEL in 1987, Cocona World is a unique potion, a mix
 of 1970s magical witch shows such as Mahoutsukai Chappy
 and Majokko Megu-chan, a dash of influence from The Legend
 of Zelda and the Hydlide series, and infused with the
 freeform nature of playing make-believe with a doll set.

 The resulting concoction is a pioneering achivement.
 It paved the way for virtual pets and raising sims, both
 practically non-existent genres at the time of release. It
 also experiments with asynchronous multiplayer concepts
 later popularized by Animal Crossing through its various
 minigames. Although Cocona World didn't quite stick the
 landing and faded into obscurity even in its home country,
 its innovations certainly deserve it another look from a
 modern perspective.

 This patch fully translates the game into English.
 The instruction manual has also been scanlated. It
 contains information that may be helpful for playing
 the game. Download a copy (and any future updates) at
 https://invisibleup.com/projects/CoconaWorld

 PATCHING INSTRUCTIONS
 ---------------------
 Due to several reports about difficulties finding a
 matching ROM and applying the patch, I've decided that
 it's best just to release the game pre-patched.

 CHANGELOG
 ---------
 Revision 2 (2026-04-30):
   - Fixed some translation errors and typos
   - Translation now distributed pre-patched

 Revision 1 (2025-06-15):
   - Initial release

 TRANSLATOR'S NOTES
 ------------------
 I'll admit up front - I'm still pretty new to learning
 Japanese. Don't let that disuade you; the child-friendly
 language in this game and its supplimentary material was
 a good fit for my skill level, and imo a good way to get
 some practice in. If anyone more experienced notices any
 glaring issues, feel free to send an email to:

                 invisibleup@outlook.com

 All that said, this game struck me as *fascinating* from
 the moment I first laid eyes on it when digging through
 the FDS library. Well, really, my first reaction was "Oh,
 it's the witch from the alps!" At first glance, it seems
 like a dime-a-dozen Zelda clone, but what the heck kind
 of Zelda clone maps 'B' to "talk" of all actions? After
 looking at the manual and scouring old magazine scans for
 any scrap of information on this game, I couldn't believe
 that *nobody* had heard of this game. So, naturally, I pop
 the thing open in a hex editor and start hacking.

 On a technical level this wasn't terribly challenging. The
 Disk System format gives me plenty of space to add text,
 as well as a tiny bit of polish the original was lacking.
 The game itself seems competently programmed, and isn't
 exactly pushing the boundaries of the system. The use of
 the FDS's BIOS calls for drawing to the screen makes
 modifications quite easy for me. Text input screens in
 particular were astonishingly easy, as the game reads
 the tilemap to determine what character to place and where
 the cursor is allowed to move, making it trivial to create
 custom keyboard layouts.

 Really, the hardest part was the horoscope screen, with
 its 240 lines of dialogue and its dense screen layout.
 Interestingly enough, it seems to be moral advice towards
 its target audience of pre-teen girls. While translating,
 I scuffed out some gender-specific pronouns so that
 players of all genders and orientations can enjoy advice
 regarding their crushes or their partners, instead of
 explicitly assuming that you're attracted to men. I feel
 that the end result is the same, but it makes the game
 more accessible to the sorts of people who would actually
 be playing this nearly 40 years later. I also altered some
 references to overeating, gaining weight, etc. to a more
 generalized "be mindful of what you eat". In the fortune
 telling segment this isn't a huge deal, but Cocona
 protesting eating more than once a day by complaining that
 she'll get fat just seemed inappropriate to me. (She
 now just complains that she's stuffed.) Again, all in the
 service of accessiblity for modern audiences. (Also, I'd
 just feel uncomfortable NOT making those changes and
 then letting a kid play this...) Those are the only
 major translation deviations I'm aware of that weren't
 due to technical concerns.

 Speaking of Cocona's overworld text, because English
 doesn't use dakuten, I was able to expand her speech
 bubbles from one line to three. The size of the dialogue
 box led to some rather strained phrasing in a few places,
 but otherwise I'm fairly satisfied with the results there.

 I also chose to translate the instruction manual, as I
 feel it provides vital context and worldbuilding that
 makes the game a lot more enjoyable. (More translation
 projects should do this, imo.) That was quite the fun
 little detour in and of itself. Scans for the manual
 were provided by Gaming Alexandria. Raws are found at:
 https://www.gamingalexandria.com/wp/2018/10/cocona-world

 Note that I did Woolsey-ize a bit heavily here, either
 for technical reasons, to make it flow better, or to
 attempt to translate the meaning of the many, many
 pun-laden names present in the manual. For example,
 "Catty" was originally "Wagahai", an arrogant way of
 referring to yourself, and "Rockadile" was originally
 "Sonnwani", or "Harmful Gator" if that were one word.
 And then there's things like "Koraru Karu", which might
 be "Coral Call", or maybe "Choral Call". It's also the
 name of a cave. (I'm sure there's a pun here I'm not
 getting...) So now it's the "Coral Call Caverns".

 Either way, this project was pretty darn fun. I'd be up
 for tackling some other game in the future, ideally after
 studying Japanese a bit more. Perhaps another SOFEL title?
 Or something else entirely? Lots of possiblities...

 GLITCHES AND ERRATA
 -------------------
 - Don't save while Cocona is fishing. Cocona will attempt
   to continue fishing, and then warp to the top-left
   corner of the screen. This effectively bricks your save.
   (Glitch present in original Japanese version.)

 - The controller may seem to be unresponsive on text input
   screens and the Bingo minigame. This is a side effect of
   how the game is programmed. Just hold the button for a
   bit longer than you might normally.

 - You may encounter graphical glitches in the horoscope
   minigame during screen transitions. This is normal; SOFEL
   did not properly program this part to turn off the PPU.

 - Cocona will still be satisfied visiting the mermaid even
   if she's not present. (The original line was "Let's go
   visit the springs!", as in Maamu Springs, not the hot
   springs. Horribly confusing; had to go.)

 - Every copy of Cocona World is personalized. ...no,
   really, the Bingo sheets that came with my physical
   copy don't match the Gaming Alexandria scan at all.
   Different color, different numbers. It's neat?

 TIPS AND TRICKS
 ---------------

 - Don't micromanage. Let Cocona live her life. Just keep
   her out of trouble! This is more like a virtual pet
   game than an RPG.

 - In the Bingo minigame, SOFEL expects you to give one
   card to Cocona, and give yourself (and anyone else in
   the room who wants to play) a card. Think of it like
   you're competing against Cocona.

 - Reaching the true ending is cryptic and unexplained.
   But there is, in fact, an ending!

 OTHER CHANGES MADE
 ------------------
 - Increased speed of number call in Bingo minigame
 - Added additional box-drawing characters to notebook
 - Added extra visual appeal to horoscope date entry screen

 IF YOU LIKED THIS, CHECK OUT...
 -------------------------------
 - Milano's Odd Job Collection (1999/2025, x-plat)
 - Bonogurashi (1995, Amuse Prods., 3DO/PS1/Mac)
 - Wonder Project J2 (1996, Enix, N64)
 - Little Computer People (1985, Activision, x-plat)
 - Magician's Quest: Mysterious Times (2008, Konami, NDS)
 - Azure Dreams (1997, Konami, PS1)
 - Lonesome Village (2022, Ogre Pixel, x-plat)
 - Neo Malta (2025, daiko, PC)
 - Drawn to Life (2007, THQ, NDS)
 - Napple Tale: Arsia in Daydream (2000, Sega, DC)

 SPECIAL THANKS
 --------------
 My partner FutureFractal for writing some useful Ghidra
 scripts for me, drawing the lowercase font used just about
 everywhere in this translation, and being awesome.

 Yamada-kun for making an extremely helpful and polished
 gameplay video for Cocona World on YouTube, complete with
 trivia about glitches, cameos in other SOFEL titles, etc.
 Check it out: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-X3dVan3CCw

 ...and you, for giving this a whirl! Thank you!
