Localization quality? Anything censored?

[LemonRush7777]

How is it this time? In Ys VIII NISA screwed up so badly they got chewed out by Falcon and had to redo it.

Is this release up to standards? Also, is there any instance of censorship or meme-y dialogue? Sadly those questions have to be asked.

[Kanaev]

Didn't hear any censorship during the voiced parts.
As for non-voiced - I've seen one line that might be alluring to Scooby-Doo and that's it so far.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2540194516

[LemonRush7777]

Originally posted by Kanaev:

Didn't hear any censorship during the voiced parts.
As for non-voiced - I've seen one line that might be alluring to Scooby-Doo and that's it so far.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2540194516

That's honestly pretty terrible, wow.

[Kanaev]

Suit yourself. I've chuckled, since it was appropriate to the situation.
Obviously have no idea what was in the original, since it was text only dialogue in a side-quest.

[rustySpeculum]

ZOINKS

[Lariria]

Originally posted by Kanaev:

Suit yourself. I've chuckled, since it was appropriate to the situation.
Obviously have no idea what was in the original, since it was text only dialogue in a side-quest.

yeah I giggled too. It's silly.

[Minneyar]

Originally posted by Fenrir007:

In Ys VIII NISA screwed up so badly they got chewed out by Falcon and had to redo it.

*Falcom

Actually, Falcom didn't have much to do with it; NISA's upper management had been relatively hands-off with Ys VIII and didn't realize the state it was in until the furor after release, and after finding out about it, they had a different internal team redo it, and they've kept a much closer eye on Falcom's games since then.

Ys IX's translation is good, although you'll probably be disappointed if you're the kind of person who is hoping for a script that was just fed through Google Translate.

[Dragon]

Originally posted by Minneyar:

Actually, Falcom didn't have much to do with it

Kondo has made public statements wherein he said he reprimanded NISA over that issue and told them they must do a good job if they are going to publish Falcom games.

Originally posted by Fenrir007:

, is there any instance of censorship or meme-y dialogue?

That's a tough question to answer. In order to answer it, you'd need a person who has all of the following traits:

1. Is fluent in both Japanese and English.
2. Is willing to do a word-by-word, 1:1 comparison between every single word in the game.
3. Is an honest person who wouldn't shill for NISA or ignore/downplay/disregard acts of censorship because they have a favorable view of NISA.

I don't think any word-by-word analysis has ever been done, though. And without one, and an honest one done by a neutral (or even a NISA-disliking) analyst, then it's impossible to declare that there has been "no censorship."

At best, we can say the question is indeterminate.

As for your meme-y question, I don't know about Ys IX, but I do know NISA did put meme-y mistranslations in CS3. For example, in one scene in that game, a nobleman says something like: "I like big boats and I cannot lie." I don't speak Japanese, but I'm 99.9%+ sure that that is not what the original Japanese text says.

[Minneyar]

Originally posted by Dragon:

Kondo has made public statements wherein he said he reprimanded NISA over that issue and told them they must do a good job if they are going to publish Falcom games.

I have a source for what I said, do you?
From https://www.vice.com/en/article/7xwzmb/how-a-major-jrpg-wound-up-getting-totally-re-written-months-after-release :

Though some fans have conjectured Falcom pushed NIS America into the change, Costa called such theories “patently false.”

Originally posted by Dragon:

2. Is willing to do a word-by-word, 1:1 comparison between every single word in the game.

I know we've gone over this before, but what you're saying here is not just literally impossible, it misleads other people into thinking it's possible. That's not how languages or translations work. Read a book on translation theory.

[LemonRush7777]

Originally posted by Minneyar:

Originally posted by Fenrir007:

In Ys VIII NISA screwed up so badly they got chewed out by Falcon and had to redo it.

Ys IX's translation is good, although you'll probably be disappointed if you're the kind of person who is hoping for a script that was just fed through Google Translate.

I don't expect a machine translation, but I also don't enjoy when localizers write their own fanfiction or insert contemporary memes or references that will be quickly outdated that have no place in the setting of the game. I also don't like when localizers alter the meaning of the dialogue purely because of their intimate (sometimes political) convictions.

[IgnatiusC]

Only played chapter 1 and haven't noticed any obvious memes or censorship yet. There has been a good amount of rewriting for the sake of rewriting though.

A few examples (going off memory, sorry for any mistakes):

Voice (Eng approximation) -> Translation

V: "kore wa" (this is) -> T: "Okay, now that doesn't look like a warm welcome to me."

V: "hahaha naruhodo ne" (Hahaha I see) -> T: "Haha! A veritable criminal is amongst us!"

V: "koko no joumae o kantan akeru to wa, nakanaka ii ude da" (Opening these locks so easily, you're pretty skilled.) -> T: "That was a pretty neat trick with the fork." (From a character who couldn't even see what Adol did with said fork)

V: "hyotto ♥♥♥♥♥ atarashi hito?" (Perhaps a new person?) -> T: "I guess we needed the extra help." (Really Steam? Censoring して?)

V: "shiniri no sono akai kakkou ga medatsu n janai ka?" (Isn't it because the newbie's red outfit stands out?) -> T: "The new kid's outfit sticks out like a clown at a funeral."

V: "oi oi majikaiyo" (Seriously?) -> T: "Whoa, that's a lot to take in."

And smaller stuff, like Dogi calling Adol a "goofball". Not terrible but different enough that I can't trust the unvoiced lines.

[toughnails]

I really don't get people who play with the sub and then complain about the translation not matching the voices. This is a localization, not a dry literal translation. Just stop fetishizing Japanese voices and embrace the dub, or if you know enough Japanese then why not play in full Japanese (as in both text and audio) without the sub crutch? It's like you're doing this on purpose just to complain.

Like, imagine if Chrono Trigger was released today. You people would lose your minds over Frog speaking in ye olde English (while he's just a boring generic knight in JP). Hell, Trails in the Sky is another example of a great localization as English Estelle is a lot more expressive and her energetic personality is arguably what made the series explode in popularity.

[Ikagura]

As long as it's not Saban-level of adaption I'm fine if it's not 1:1 to the original japanese scripts.

[Lywelyn]

the part where hawk call white cat a wet ♥♥♥♥♥ cat got me gigling and instantly like hawk for that sass(yet steam does censor that haha), and yet it didn't suffered a censor so i guess it went alright, but yeah, some sentence in Lacrimosa got me sighting since i do translation work on a benevolant level ... make you wonder sometime if they just use a google sheet or an actual localisation software lol

[LemonRush7777]

Originally posted by IgnatiusC:

Only played chapter 1 and haven't noticed any obvious memes or censorship yet. There has been a good amount of rewriting for the sake of rewriting though.

A few examples (going off memory, sorry for any mistakes):

Voice (Eng approximation) -> Translation

V: "kore wa" (this is) -> T: "Okay, now that doesn't look like a warm welcome to me."

V: "hahaha naruhodo ne" (Hahaha I see) -> T: "Haha! A veritable criminal is amongst us!"

V: "koko no joumae o kantan akeru to wa, nakanaka ii ude da" (Opening these locks so easily, you're pretty skilled.) -> T: "That was a pretty neat trick with the fork." (From a character who couldn't even see what Adol did with said fork)

V: "hyotto ♥♥♥♥♥ atarashi hito?" (Perhaps a new person?) -> T: "I guess we needed the extra help." (Really Steam? Censoring して?)

V: "shiniri no sono akai kakkou ga medatsu n janai ka?" (Isn't it because the newbie's red outfit stands out?) -> T: "The new kid's outfit sticks out like a clown at a funeral."

V: "oi oi majikaiyo" (Seriously?) -> T: "Whoa, that's a lot to take in."

And smaller stuff, like Dogi calling Adol a "goofball". Not terrible but different enough that I can't trust the unvoiced lines.

Thanks for the examples! Some of these are okay, some are apparently very bad (analyzing it out of context, at least).

[awanderingswordsman]

I feel like the kore wa example doesn't localize to english well. You wouldn't use "this is..." in the same way a japanese speaking person would to describe that situation.

The clown in the funeral one sounds pretty needless but I just hate clowns and their mentioning so maybe thats just me.