For three years, the team posted progress updates. Screenshots showed Tamaki’s lines in perfect, snarky English. The image editing (for menus, signs, the titular "host ranking" display) was 90% done.
The fan translation effort began in earnest years ago. One of the earliest and most significant threads dedicated to translating the DS version emerged on the popular hacking and translation forum, . The project, initially started by a user named Minako around 2010, was an attempt to revive an earlier effort that had unfortunately died. On this thread, Minako shared the challenge faced by many solo translators: "The only issue is the hacking aspect. After diving into hacking tutorials, I've come to the conclusion that I'm just not cut out for it. I can get as far as dumping the scripts as .bin files, but no further." ouran koukou hostbu ds english patch work
"Ouran Koukou Host Club" is a popular Japanese visual novel developed by Idea Factory, which was later adapted into an anime series. The story revolves around Haruhi Fujioka, a student at Ouran Academy, who stumbles upon the Host Club, a group of charming boys who entertain their female classmates. The visual novel was initially released in Japan, and later, a fan-made English patch was created to make the game more accessible to international players. For three years, the team posted progress updates
The translation scripts that Minako revived, and which were based on earlier work, also remain a valuable resource. This means that a significant portion of the language conversion has been done, even if the files have not been integrated into a final patch. The fan translation effort began in earnest years ago
Thus, the only hope for English speakers was the underground world of fan translation.