I originally intended to start this process 3 years ago (and there's a post about it titled similarly).
As I originally thought, the RZP file IS an archive, that I was able to extract using the "Lord of Arcana" script for QuickBMS
Most text in the game so far is in some form of an image, and I've been using PPSSPP to find and edit those images.
Current issues:
While I have a good idea where the images are, they of course exist in formats I have no idea how to open yet. The directories and even the majority of files are named in english so figuring out what is what is the easy part. If anyone knows how to open .TEX, .NMP, .MES, .MNU, .TTL, or other weird PSP formats, please tell me as I'm having a very hard time finding useful information via google and these forums.
For a lot of these extensions, if you open them up in notepad++ or a hex editor, it confirms the file type: MNU is UNM2. Others, though, show the extension reversed: .TEX is XET.
This is the same for every file with those extensions.
Edit: Might feel stupid with one of these... looks like it might be LaTeX
Thankfully, if they are LaTeX, they are not normal LaTeX files. (Thankfully as in I don't feel stupid).
Update: 7Dec2019
Just a notice that I am still working on this. Using PPSSPP, I've been able to learn a lot about how the PSP is drawing the text in this game, but I'm still having trouble finding ways to open some files. I have found a little of the text, but no where near enough. I've even gone so far as to downloading other Gundam games for the psp, a couple of which seem to have used a similar archiving type and have been translated, but no docs on the process that was used or any hints on how or what they did.
Update: 11Jul2021
I've gotten all the textures that PPSSPP finds with text in them isolated, and a few of them translated. A lot of the kanji is weird and it didn't help that I was writing kanji the wrong way when double checking the meanings. As far as finding the ingame text, I have tried the eboot.bin (decrypted), and have tried multiple strings across almost every file in the game... either something is still archived or something else is going on. I'm turning up a zilch even on something as simple as looking for GM (ジム) since a lot of things reference that specifically, due to a lot of the EFSF mobilesuits being GM variants (GM cannon, GM sniper, etc). I can translate a lot of this stuff, but I can not edit it into the game because I have no idea where it is. I've tried almost all the .tex files (which I think are texture files, I was able to open them up in something before but I can't remember what it was... if I can figure this out, I can do the texture edits and repack them into the game so it can be played without PPSSPP's texture replacement function - neither photoshop nor GIMP recognize these files), .MNU which appears to be some sort of script, and others. Also, for the few of you who've posted or are watching this, please keep in mind that I'm pretty much working on this myself.
Update: 8 Jan 2022
Somehow, some people found me on discord, and I talked them through everything I've found so far. Some progress has been made in the way of confirming that TEX files are textures, and there is text in a few files I had checked previously, I just did not know how to see that it was there (I'm still very new to all of this).
As I originally thought, the RZP file IS an archive, that I was able to extract using the "Lord of Arcana" script for QuickBMS
Most text in the game so far is in some form of an image, and I've been using PPSSPP to find and edit those images.
Current issues:
While I have a good idea where the images are, they of course exist in formats I have no idea how to open yet. The directories and even the majority of files are named in english so figuring out what is what is the easy part. If anyone knows how to open .TEX, .NMP, .MES, .MNU, .TTL, or other weird PSP formats, please tell me as I'm having a very hard time finding useful information via google and these forums.
For a lot of these extensions, if you open them up in notepad++ or a hex editor, it confirms the file type: MNU is UNM2. Others, though, show the extension reversed: .TEX is XET.
This is the same for every file with those extensions.
Edit: Might feel stupid with one of these... looks like it might be LaTeX
Thankfully, if they are LaTeX, they are not normal LaTeX files. (Thankfully as in I don't feel stupid).
Update: 7Dec2019
Just a notice that I am still working on this. Using PPSSPP, I've been able to learn a lot about how the PSP is drawing the text in this game, but I'm still having trouble finding ways to open some files. I have found a little of the text, but no where near enough. I've even gone so far as to downloading other Gundam games for the psp, a couple of which seem to have used a similar archiving type and have been translated, but no docs on the process that was used or any hints on how or what they did.
Update: 11Jul2021
I've gotten all the textures that PPSSPP finds with text in them isolated, and a few of them translated. A lot of the kanji is weird and it didn't help that I was writing kanji the wrong way when double checking the meanings. As far as finding the ingame text, I have tried the eboot.bin (decrypted), and have tried multiple strings across almost every file in the game... either something is still archived or something else is going on. I'm turning up a zilch even on something as simple as looking for GM (ジム) since a lot of things reference that specifically, due to a lot of the EFSF mobilesuits being GM variants (GM cannon, GM sniper, etc). I can translate a lot of this stuff, but I can not edit it into the game because I have no idea where it is. I've tried almost all the .tex files (which I think are texture files, I was able to open them up in something before but I can't remember what it was... if I can figure this out, I can do the texture edits and repack them into the game so it can be played without PPSSPP's texture replacement function - neither photoshop nor GIMP recognize these files), .MNU which appears to be some sort of script, and others. Also, for the few of you who've posted or are watching this, please keep in mind that I'm pretty much working on this myself.
Update: 8 Jan 2022
Somehow, some people found me on discord, and I talked them through everything I've found so far. Some progress has been made in the way of confirming that TEX files are textures, and there is text in a few files I had checked previously, I just did not know how to see that it was there (I'm still very new to all of this).
Update: 24Jan2022
Progress has been made:
Pics are not mine, but provided by the other people working on the translation. I've helped with a small fraction of the translation, but have mostly been trying to tweak the existing tool they found to make things easier. Note that these pictures are intentionally of translation done to non-textured text to show that it's been injected into the game successfully, and isn't just a PPSSPP texture replacement. The final output will be an xdelta patch so that it works on legit hardware, as evidenced in the 2nd pic.
I will keep this post updated as progress happens.
Last edited by SirGouki,