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Editing Texts

MSBT (Message Binary Text) files are used in all Tomodachi Life games to store text data, such as interface, dialogue, items, and other in-game text.

In this guide you will learn how to install and setup MSBT Editor and how to use it to modify your files. This guide is available for multiple Tomodachi Life games, please select the desired game on each section!

In Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream, these files are stored inside a .sarc.zs file in the romfs/Mals folder and are named as {language}.{type}.{version}.sarc.zs, where:

  • {language} is the Language Code
  • {type} is either Trial (if is the Demo version) or Product (full game)
  • {version} is the game version (3rd line in romfs/System/RegionLangMask.txt)

MSBT Editor is the primary tool used to editing MSBT files. As it is the most feature-complete and user-friendly tool, also supports a ton of games.

  1. Download the latest version of MSBT Editor and your desired game configuration.

    • Tomodachi Life Living the Dream: TomoLife_LtD.gcf
    • Tomodachi Life (3ds): TomoLife.gcf
    • Tomodachi Life (3ds) - Japanese version: TomoLife_JP.gcf

      To save a configuration, you just need to open the link and do Ctrl + S.

  2. Extract the zip file and open MsbtEditor.exe.

  3. Locate and click on the Data drop-down menu (at the very top) and on Change Game Config.

  4. Click on Import Config... and select your .gcf file (step 1).

  5. Select the desired game in the list.

  6. Your editor should be ready to use!

To edit messages is really simple, all you will need to do is localize your language in the romfs/Mals folder and open in the editor, here is a step by step:

  1. Open MSBT Editor

  2. Go to File > Open File... and select the desired language in your rofms/Mals folder

    You can also open the Mals folder directly, if you plan to edit multiples languages at the same time.

  3. Expand the loaded file and find which .MSBT you want to edit

  4. Do your edits and save the file with Ctrl + S

  5. After finishing all yours edits, right click the .sarc file (the root file) and click on Save

  6. You have successfully edited your texts!

LanguageCode
Canadian FrenchUSfr
Latin American SpanishUSes
North American EnglishUSen
Traditional ChineseTWzh
KoreanKRko
JapaneseJPja
DutchEUnl
ItalianEUit
European FrenchEUfr
European SpanishEUes
European EnglishEUen
GermanEUde
Simplified ChineseCNzh