Almost 4 years ago I uploaded a very old collection of files that had been archived and passed around throughout the years to create Xenosaga alternative language packs. Since then, I have gotten many questions about how I extracted images out of the discs and how to use the pack for a variety of alternative uses. Today, I finally took the time to remember how to do all of this and to create a thread. So without further ado, let’s get cracking.
What you’ll need
Crack Kit: https://lifehold.godsibb.net/f/1c1cc164194d418f9365/
Xenosaga 3 ISOs: <placeholder they’re uploading>
7Zip: https://www.7-zip.org/
Getting Started and Understanding Files
- Ensure you have installed 7 zip. Use “extract to” on .iso file to get the files
- Xenosaga III’s data is divided into three bundles of multiple files for different categories of data. These represented data tables in the Playstation 2’s file system and told the console where the different assets were stored. In order to convert them to a readable format, we will need to identify the files and combine them.
- The first bundle is X3.00, X3.01 and X3.02 it is on both discs. It contains all base assets that are not the cutscenes or message sound events. For example, static images and text content of message boxes. We’ll call this Bundle 0.
- The next two are for cutscenes and sounds. The first is on disc 1 and consists of files X3.10 X3.11 X3.12 and X3.13. Let’s call this Bundle 1.
- Finally on disk 2, you’ll find the remaining files - X3.20 X3.21 X3.22 X3.23. Bundle 2 will represent this set.
- To get started, copy the contents of both disc 1 and 2 into a single folder so you can work in a clean space. Combined, it should look like the below
Combine the bundles
To get started with the extraction process, we’ll first need to combine the files in each respective bundle. File 0 in each bundle, e.g; those labeled ‘X3._0’ contain the tablelisting of every file in the bundle so the disc knows where to find the content at runtime. Do not combine ‘File 0’ into the .big file, it needs to remain separate.
To get started, first let’s combine the disc1 cutscene bundle, Bundle 1.
- In Windows, open a Command Prompt session As Administrator and navigate to the folder where you’re keeping the files. For example, on my local machine:
-
Now run:
copy /b X3.11 + X3.12 + X3.13 X31.big -
This will produce a file called
X31.big -
Repeat the process for Bundle 2:
copy /b X3.21 + X3.22 + X3.23 X32.big -
You’ll now have X32.big
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Repeat the process for Bundle 0, only two files this time.
copy /b X3.01 + X3.02 X30.big -
This creates X30.big
Staging
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Create a new folder e.g;
extractand copy the three .big files you generated into the folder. -
Copy their File 0. E.g -
X3.10, etc. -
Copy over the Xenosaga II and III Extraction Kit:
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Xeno23Lbae.exe extracts the munge file table from the .x0 file. Works with both Xenosaga 2 and 3.
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Xenounpack.exe unpacks the munge file to a UNPACKED rep. You need an extracted table to make it work. It works with all three Xenosaga games.
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xenorepack.exe repack the munge file and build a new table file (that you will need to repack with the last program). You still need the old extracted table for this program.
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XenoLbar.exe repacks the table file given by xenoreapack.exe to a standard .x0 file. Needed if you’d like to rebuild the disc.
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Create two folders bundle0, bundle1 and bundle2
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Move the files from Bundle 1 to the bundle1 folder and Bundle 2 to the bundle2 folder
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Copy the Extraction Kit files both folders - do not delete or move the files
Staging will look like the below:
Now we’re ready to decrypt each bundle.
Decryption and Extraction
The process for decryption is the same for Bundle 1 and 2 and very similar for Bundle 0. You’ll first use Xeno23lbae to decrypt the table of files, then you will use Xenounpack to view the contents. There will be quite a bit of noise to wade through in each bundle, but the above staging will help us keep it all sorted.
For example, for Bundle 1, navigate to its folder on Command Prompt and run:
Xeno23lbae X3.10 Lba1.txtThis decrypts the table into a usable format so we can extract the .big file.
Xenounpack Lba1.txt X31.bigThis takes a little while. It will extract the bundle to a folder called UNPACKED using the decrypted table we created above
UNPACKED is where The Goodies are housed so to speak. We’ll talk more about the contents of these folders in a bit.
Do the same with Bundle 2 and Bundle 0
E.g;
- Navigate to bundle0 and run:
Xeno23lbae X3.00 Lba0.txtandXenounpack Lba0.txt X30.big
Congratulations! We’re done extracting, now let’s see what we have.
File Contents
I’ll start in Bundle 0 since this has the greatest variety of stuff and is the least documented online, here we can find a lot of clearly labeled assets such as menu items and images, as well as some more mysterious items.
Clicking into some of these will reveal a lot of cool stuff off the bat, and I definitely encourage everyone to see what they can find and mine out of the data.
If you don’t know the right tool for a file format, try notepad, it works for a lot. I’ve found character lines, menu texts, supporting graphics, etc. Lots of modding potential in here!
But, you will also run into files that look like random characters when you open them. Don’t be alarmed. This just means we don’t have access to the right software to open that file format yet.
Finally, let’s wrap up this session by looking into one of those formats you can fix. In Bundle 1 and 2, you will find a folder called mov. This is where the cutscenes for the game live.
.sfd is a rather mysterious file type… Lybac’s previous instructions never told us how to convert these into something workable. Thankfully, if you google it, it is not a completely unknown file type. It was commonly used on the Sega Dreamcast and members of that modding community have given us tools intended to be used with games like SEGA Dreamcast Movie Creator and an old version of FIFA. If you google around, there seems to be some interesting overlap between Xenosaga and the RE2 port for as being standouts for having used this format for cutscenes in a PS2 game.
Previously I had used a script called SFD2MPG, which is hosted here. However, since I last took on this project, a better tool has come out.
https://github.com/alex-free/video2dreamcastdisc
This one looks like it’ll let us convert to better formats for upscaling. I’ll update the thread when I have a chance to use it.
In the meantime, please feel free to experiment and see what you find. Please post here if you have questions.
Thanks!