Why I had to particularly bring this up today is a long story. After playing Unlimited Blade Works, I was struck with this sudden idea to experiment with comics based on key events in it. The problem was drawing. This was going to be far complex than the four-panel comics I casually draw (from time to time). Then the solution? I figured the only way was to make use of sprites like the Velox comics. Of course, I do not have the time to draw my own sprites. That’s where my sudden impulse to use the sprites from Battle Moon Wars came in. Why not attempt to rip it?

In the mean time, you say, “Who cares about how you came upon this? So just how to I rip the sprites?” To be exact first, it’s not only the sprites. There are other loots once you unpack the game files―music, background images, game script, and etc. However, my instruction will only discuss about getting the sprites. First, you need a few tools. Those took me forever to find. Well, that’s what this post is about: What you need to do the ripping. It’s all actually simple once you have them.

What You Need
1. HCGConv
2. Susie
3. ifyga.spi

Yes, those are actually tools intended for use when ripping CGs from ero-games. They work fine though, so that’s what I used. Here’s what I did to rip for the first time.

First step is to first install HCGConv and run it. It’s all in Japanese, but simple. The left-hand side is where you can browse and locate the game file you want to unpack. In our case, go to the Battle Moon Wars folder and select one of the .dat files. To make your life easier, I’ll let you know that the sprites are contain in data4.dat, data6.dat, data8.dat, and data8_2.dat. Before you hit confirm for the unpacking, look at the right-hand side. Browse around with that too and set where you want your produced files to end up. Once it’s done extracting, close HCGConv as you have no further use for it.

Note: I can’t seem to get data4.dat to open on my computer. I get an error with it even though I run on Japanese region setting. You would probably need to run your PC on full Japanese. Luckily, there isn’t much to miss out though. They’re the old sprites from Act I so the only important ones you will probably miss are the face shots of Fate/Stay Night version Caster.

Second step is to extract Susie to a folder. Make sure ifyga.spi goes in the same folder. It’s the plugin you need to read the *.yga format files with Susie. Here comes the fun part. Well, getting to here was a nightmare for me. Finding the right plug-in without reading a dirt of moonspeak was a miracle. Anyway, run Susie. Everything is easy from here. Just choose any *.yga file and open it. You should get an image, which you can save as a *.bmp format file. If you run into any images with the percentage shrunk, make sure you click on the full-size option (above the Zoom-In option) before saving it.

Using it: A slight problem though. The background comes in black. The best solution I found until now is to save them as *.png files through Photoshop. On the Save for Web screen, click on black from the color palette and change it to transparent. When using individual sprites, use Blending Options to give 1 pixel black strokes.

That’s it. \(o_O)/