Two English activation patches were posted to SegaXtreme earlier this week that make it even easier for non-Japanese-speaking Saturn fans to enjoy the Saturn games Battle Garegga and Bubble Symphony (aka Bubble Bobble 2). No longer does one need to enter a button combination or navigate Japanese-language menus to swap languages. Just boot up the console and go!
Click here for the “Battle Garegga (Japan) (Force English Menus) v1.0” patch and click here “Bubble Symphony (Japan) – Secret Menu Activation + English Localization v1.2” patch.
The SegaXtreme regular KoolFiller is the romhacker behind the patch. They note in the readme accompanying the Battle Garegga patch that the code was altered to simply force the game to load on startup into the “Easy Menu Mode” — which swaps the game into English in the retail release — as opposed to having to select it from a menu every time.
The Bubble Symphony patch works somewhat similarly, allowing the game to boot right into English, foregoing the need for the “More Options” cheat code and subsequent “Secret” menu selections. KoolFiller said that this “patch unlocks the Secret Menu, the hidden English Localization,” adding that they also “localized the [Secret] Menu.” Bubble Symphony was known to contain “bilingual” scripts for some years, as noted in this SegaXtreme forum discussion from 2023:
The SegaXtreme pages for the English activation patches note that both were designed for their respective Redump-compatible images, those titled “Battle Garegga (Japan)” and “Bubble Symphony (Japan).”
KoolFiller included instructions for applying the patches:
1. Place the disc image into the “redump_original” folder
2. Run “apply_patch.bat”
3. Your patched game will be in the “patched” folder
KoolFiller added that:
“The hack should work great with my alternate soundtrack patches. The ‘Force English Menus’ patch doesn’t touch CD audio tracks, and the alternate soundtrack patches don’t touch the data track. (Just remember if you do, you *MUST* select the “ARRANGE” BGM option in the sound config menu, for the alternate soundtracks.)”
The SegaXtreme pages for the patches credit KoolFiller, with thanks given to Derek Pascarella (ateam) for the original Patching scripts.
First hitting arcades on Toaplan Version 2 hardware in the 1996, the Raizing-developed Battle Garegga saw a Japanese-exclusion Saturn home conversion courtesy of Electronic Arts — their final release for Sega’s fifth-generation system — in early 1998. It’s possible that Raizing had anticipated global releases for their shmups, given both Battle Garegga, and 1996’s Shippuu Mahou Daisakusen had English localizations present in their retail releases. An English activation patch was released for the latter, known as Kingdom Grandprix in the West, by Malenko and Bo Bayles in 2024 — read SHIRO!’s coverage here.
Much like Battle Garegga, Bubble Symphony started life in the arcades, releasing on Taito F3 System hardware in 1994. Ving would handle the Japanese-only Saturn port in 1997. While it was a Saturn home exclusive for nearly a decade following its release, Bubble Symphony would see ports to numerous consoles as part of the Taito Legends and Memories collections. More recently, the game featured as part of 2025’s Bubble Bobble: Sugar Dungeons. SHIRO! covered this contemporary port of Bubble Symphony last year, check it out here.
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