EN
← Docs

Name, portrait and map icon mods

Rename the original protagonists, partners and unit, rename any pilot, unit or weapon, replace pilot portraits and the units' map icons. Only what is shown changes; nothing is written to saves.

Updated 2026-10-28

These mods change only the names and portraits the game shows: dialogue, speakers, status screens, the battle confirmation, the library and map labels follow. Saves keep the original names, so disabling the package brings everything back, and a save still loads anywhere, including in the original game.

To skip writing it by hand, the web tools export a .srw64mod: the Name and portrait mod maker takes names and portraits, cropping and scaling the pictures for you; the Map icon mod maker shows the original and HD icons beside yours, previewed as the player’s, an enemy’s and acted.

Installing and managing packages: MOD packages. Needs 0.5.2 or later.

What goes in the package

yourname.heroes/
  mod.json
  dialogue/names.json          names
  art/portraits/133.png        portraits, named by pilot number
  art/icons/184.png            map icons, named by unit number
  art/icons.json               optional: the way pictures look, when not the original’s

Any of them alone is fine.

Names (dialogue/names.json)

{
  "schema": "srw64.mod-names.v1",
  "heroes": {
    "super-male": {
      "hero":    { "en": { "name": "Takuma", "surname": "Amano", "nickname": "Takuma" } },
      "partner": { "en": { "name": "Minato", "surname": "Hojo" } }
    }
  },
  "unit": { "en": "Daybreak" },
  "pilots":  { "133": { "en": { "name": "Shingo", "full": "Shingo Hojo" } } },
  "units":   { "184": { "en": "GoShogun Kai" } },
  "weapons": { "731": { "en": "Super Bazooka" } }
}

Every entry is written per language: zh-Hans (Simplified Chinese), zh-Hant (Traditional Chinese; the Simplified one when missing), en, ja, and the languages of installed language packages. A language you leave out shows the usual name. When several packages rename the same thing, the one higher in the MOD list wins.

Original protagonists, partners and unit (heroes, unit)

  • heroes goes by the four routes: super-male, super-female, real-male, real-female, each with hero and partner.
  • Each language takes name (required), surname and nickname (the name when missing). The full name is joined per language: a space in English, 「·」 in Chinese, 「・」 in Japanese.
  • The original fills the protagonists’ names into the dialogue, so the dialogue follows.
  • With a unit name, the naming scene takes the “I don’t like it” branch: the protagonist turns March Wind down and proposes the package’s name. A scene already played does not replay.

Other pilots, units, weapons (pilots, units, weapons)

  • By number, from the ID table. A pilot takes name (short name, required) and full (the short name when missing); units and weapons just take the name.
  • The weapon menu’s melee/ranged mark and P, B, MAP markers are added for you.
  • The name itself changes, so speakers, status screens and the map follow; the dialogue text that mentions the name does not.

Length

Names are not written to saves, so the original’s cells do not bind them, but some places are tight: map labels and the battle name bars have fixed widths.

  • A protagonist’s name, surname or nickname past the original’s cells (7 for name and surname, 5 for the nickname) or wider than our widest translated one, and a unit name past 10 cells, get a SRW64_MOD_NAMES_WARNING line in the log; the name is still used. The nickname is shown most; keep it near 5 cells.
  • Hard limits: 16 characters for a protagonist’s name, surname and nickname, 24 for the unit and every other name. Past them, or with an unknown field or language, the whole file is left out and the log has SRW64_MOD_NAMES_PROBLEM.
  • No line breaks, ideographic spaces or < > { } in a name, and no spaces at either end.

In Japanese with the original images, the original screens draw with the game’s own glyphs, which cannot draw a package’s names; those names are drawn in this port’s own font there, the text around them in the original glyphs.

Portraits (art/portraits)

  • The file is named by pilot number plus .png, e.g. art/portraits/133.png.
  • Square, 96 to 2048 pixels, a multiple of 96 (96, 192, 384, 768…). It may have transparency; the picture behind shows through.
  • Dialogue, battles, status screens, the battle confirmation, the library and the save slots all use it, with the images set to original or HD.
  • Pilots that use the same original portrait (other numbers of one character, say) all change together.
  • A file not named by a pilot number with a portrait, or of the wrong size, is skipped with SRW64_MOD_PORTRAITS_PROBLEM in the log.

Map icons (art/icons)

  • The file is named by unit number plus .png, e.g. art/icons/184.png.

  • Square, 16, 32, 64 or 128 pixels, drawn as pixel art: the game scales it up to 128 pixel by pixel, without blurring. It may have transparency.

  • Draw it once, in the unit’s own colours. The enemy and third parties get a ring of their side’s colour (red, yellow) and units that have acted turn grey by themselves.

  • Facing: the game turns icons for each side, the player’s looking left and enemies right; one facing front is never turned. Your picture is taken to face the way the original icon does (the originals are in the ID table). When it does not, say so in art/icons.json, for example:

    { "schema": "srw64.icons.v1", "facing": { "55": "left", "184": "front" } }

    The values are left, right and front. An original that faces front, drawn from the side and marked, is turned for each side too.

  • Units that share an original icon (other numbers of one unit, say) all change together; give them only one picture in a package.

  • It shows with the images set to original or HD. A file not named by a unit number, or of the wrong size, is skipped with SRW64_MOD_ICONS_PROBLEM in the log.

Example

The example package “Renaming Example” is in config/recomp/mods/hero-names: it renames the Super Robot route’s male protagonist, his partner and the unit.

Numbers: Number mods.