After more than two years of work, an English fan translation of Dragon Ball Z: Idainaru Dragon Ball Densetsu, known in the West as Dragon Ball Z: The Legend — has been released for the Sega Saturn. Created by wonder-inc, the patch translates the European French version of the game into English, essentially recreating the cancelled North American release that never made it to shelves.
The patch has been fully tested for the European version of the game and includes two SSP files: one optimized for 60 Hz North American standards and another for 50 Hz European standards. Regardless of which version you use, the patch must be applied to the European disc. All non-English assets have been translated while keeping the original Japanese voice tracks untouched for authenticity.
Team Effort Behind the Patch
While the bulk of the translation work was done by wonder-inc, the project came together with the help of several community members. Pitito was instrumental, providing key documentation and insights from his older Spanish translation. Malenko offered guidance on texture replacement, while Derek provided early technical assistance and tools for handling episode title cards. Contributions also came from Skankindeed for Japanese text proofreading, Recolor for solving early title card issues, Bo for BIOS text translation, and Danthrax, Ms Tea, and Privateye for debugging and reverse engineering.
The patch also benefited from tools like CrystalTile2, Sega Saturn Patcher, and Yaba Sanshiro, as well as support from modern utilities such as Photoshop and Word for documentation and graphical adjustments.
Why This Release Stands Out
Idainaru Dragon Ball Densetsu has always been one of the more unique titles in the Dragon Ball library, known for its fast-paced 3-on-3 arena battles that pushed the hardware of the Sega Saturn and PlayStation. Until now, the language barrier made the game difficult to fully enjoy for non-Japanese speakers. With this fan translation, fans can finally experience the game as it was originally intended, bridging the gap left by the cancelled English localization. Whether you’re revisiting the title through original hardware or emulation, this patch breathes new life into a classic from the golden era of Dragon Ball games.
Download the patch here.
