How accurate is the translation?

[Devious]

I watched a little bit of the stream and I noticed some small differences between the Japanese voice acting and the English text. I only watched it briefly, to avoid spoiling too much, but there was one line that had "hidoi na," which means "that's terrible" (in a joking way), but the english said something like "Ha ha [blah blah]." Another one ended with Japanese "let's go," while the english said "I don't care as long as we can escape" or something like that.

Some of the lines seem like an accurate translation while others seem slightly off. It probably doesn't matter to most people but the possibility of unfaithful translations sort of dampers my enthusiasm, considering it's made by Japanese developers. I want to see the product that they envisioned.

[Melodia]

Every single word is changed to something it doesn't mean, and they censored every other line as well.

[Devious]

That's disappointing. I still want to support the developers since it's the closest game to the Suikoden series but I might hold off on purchasing it.

Thanks for confirming it.

[Duradan]

Originally posted by Melodia:

Every single word is changed to something it doesn't mean, and they censored every other line as well.

goofy haha

Originally posted by Devious:

I watched a little bit of the stream and I noticed some small differences between the Japanese voice acting and the English text. I only watched it briefly, to avoid spoiling too much, but there was one line that had "hidoi na," which means "that's terrible" (in a joking way), but the english said something like "Ha ha [blah blah]." Another one ended with Japanese "let's go," while the english said "I don't care as long as we can escape" or something like that.

Some of the lines seem like an accurate translation while others seem slightly off. It probably doesn't matter to most people but the possibility of unfaithful translations sort of dampers my enthusiasm, considering it's made by Japanese developers. I want to see the product that they envisioned.

If I heard right, I think they are pretty much working very closely with translators on this, from my understanding. But not 100% sure

[Neonivek]

With news of activist localizers FINALLY reaching Japan... They probably aren't going to let the english translation go too weird.

[EasyOut]

Originally posted by Neonivek:

With news of activist localizers FINALLY reaching Japan... They probably aren't going to let the english translation go too weird.

God I hope not

[HolyGrail]

As someone that isn't American; I'm tired of playing an inferior product to Japanese people just because America exists.. and then witnessing the spectacle of seeing haughty localizers attacking and berating anyone who doesn't like their non translations on their burner accounts.

Given that there's vos by Americans I'm gonna guess it's a different script and the subtitles will probably reflect what the English script.. would have rather there was just translated work and not "localized" "work".

[Duradan]

Originally posted by DeathevokatioN:

As someone that isn't American; I'm tired of playing an inferior product to Japanese people just because America exists.. and then witnessing the spectacle of seeing haughty localizers attacking and berating anyone who doesn't like their non translations on their burner accounts.

Given that there's vos by Americans I'm gonna guess it's a different script and the subtitles will probably reflect what the English script.. would have rather there was just translated work and not "localized" "work".

Just to ease your mind, this is the official statement from the man himself

Yoshitaka Murayama — 02/04/2023 6:42 AM
Translation has already been done. The person in charge of this project is a fan of mine from Suikoden, and is very knowledgeable about the worldview.

So I believe translations were handled properly and the extreme trans*insert view here*lator will not be a issue

Also as an American, the Majority of us don't like it either. Remember this is the 5% over here doing this crap, they are just loud about it. If they continue to do what they do, they deserve AI to take over the translations.

I just wish peeps didn't think this is what we majority of America thinks lol. Like I don't think all. Most of us want peeps to use common sense that all

[MonCapitan2002]

Originally posted by DeathevokatioN:

As someone that isn't American; I'm tired of playing an inferior product to Japanese people just because America exists.. and then witnessing the spectacle of seeing haughty localizers attacking and berating anyone who doesn't like their non translations on their burner accounts.

Given that there's vos by Americans I'm gonna guess it's a different script and the subtitles will probably reflect what the English script.. would have rather there was just translated work and not "localized" "work".

You do realize that localization and censorship do NOT go hand in hand right? Doing a one for one direct translation will usually lead to subpar results, particularly when it comes to comedy. There are Japanese jokes specific to the culture that when directly translated will make no sense to a Western audience and vice versa. That is when the localization team comes in and works on translating the joke in a way that it makes sense to the new audience while still conveying the general intent of the original joke.

Yes, I feel that it is best that translation teams don their best to preserve the meaning of the original work, but if changes need to be made to improve readability and to ensure that the dialogue and narrative feels natural in the translation, then so be it. On the other hand, they definitely should not pull a Working Designs and put in era specific pop culture jokes and other nonsense that will make audiences in 2034 cringe (and some of us today). Like I liked the jokes Working Designs put in at the time, but with the advantage of hindsight, I realize now how disrespectful of the original work Ireland was.

Apologies for the rant. Also, if localizers are creating burner accounts to harass people for criticizing their work (regardless of whether or not that criticism is fair or unfair), they should be dismissed from their positions. They have every right to defend themselves and their work, but that doesn't give them leave to ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ or harass their detractors. I won't go further because I don't know the full context, I'll limit my commentary to my current statement.

[Duradan]

Originally posted by MonCapitan2002:

Originally posted by DeathevokatioN:

As someone that isn't American; I'm tired of playing an inferior product to Japanese people just because America exists.. and then witnessing the spectacle of seeing haughty localizers attacking and berating anyone who doesn't like their non translations on their burner accounts.

Given that there's vos by Americans I'm gonna guess it's a different script and the subtitles will probably reflect what the English script.. would have rather there was just translated work and not "localized" "work".

You do realize that localization and censorship do NOT go hand in hand right? Doing a one for one direct translation will usually lead to subpar results, particularly when it comes to comedy. There are Japanese jokes specific to the culture that when directly translated will make no sense to a Western audience and vice versa. That is when the localization team comes in and works on translating the joke in a way that it makes sense to the new audience while still conveying the general intent of the original joke.

Yes, I feel that it is best that translation teams don their best to preserve the meaning of the original work, but if changes need to be made to improve readability and to ensure that the dialogue and narrative feels natural in the translation, then so be it. On the other hand, they definitely should not pull a Working Designs and put in era specific pop culture jokes and other nonsense that will make audiences in 2034 cringe (and some of us today). Like I liked the jokes Working Designs put in at the time, but with the advantage of hindsight, I realize now how disrespectful of the original work Ireland was.

Apologies for the rant. Also, if localizers are creating burner accounts to harass people for criticizing their work (regardless of whether or not that criticism is fair or unfair), they should be dismissed from their positions. They have every right to defend themselves and their work, but that doesn't give them leave to ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ or harass their detractors. I won't go further because I don't know the full context, I'll limit my commentary to my current statement.

I understand if things need to be changed to make it work or understandable. ie a dry or in-country joke or statement needs to be switched to a more local audience, I think the issue here peeps are worried about "insert my belief or issues" translations. and peeps want to know if it is being handled correctly. I don't want them to lose jobs, I don't want AI to take over on translations, I know if they did the above statement would be an issue. But if they continue to do what they are doing then it will happen and it will be their fault not fans, but them. Even Japan is noticing this too now. Lastly any unfair criticizing I agree they should defend themselves and peeps should let them be. But when you have them going around now admitting they don't care and poking the fans, calling them names (I won't repeat them here), even asking legit questions at conventions and they just berate the fan for asking. I would get worried too. In the end that's my opinion and my own stance I wish we all used common sense. But enough on this issue.

I'm just settling this here with a direct quote from the director/writer himself Yoshitaka Murayama, that they was and why he went the route he did with translations. Not to worry about issues popping up.

[Doson・ザ・ロリ好き紳士]

Originally posted by MonCapitan2002:

Originally posted by DeathevokatioN:

As someone that isn't American; I'm tired of playing an inferior product to Japanese people just because America exists.. and then witnessing the spectacle of seeing haughty localizers attacking and berating anyone who doesn't like their non translations on their burner accounts.

Given that there's vos by Americans I'm gonna guess it's a different script and the subtitles will probably reflect what the English script.. would have rather there was just translated work and not "localized" "work".

You do realize that localization and censorship do NOT go hand in hand right? Doing a one for one direct translation will usually lead to subpar results, particularly when it comes to comedy. There are Japanese jokes specific to the culture that when directly translated will make no sense to a Western audience and vice versa. That is when the localization team comes in and works on translating the joke in a way that it makes sense to the new audience while still conveying the general intent of the original joke.

Yes, I feel that it is best that translation teams don their best to preserve the meaning of the original work, but if changes need to be made to improve readability and to ensure that the dialogue and narrative feels natural in the translation, then so be it. On the other hand, they definitely should not pull a Working Designs and put in era specific pop culture jokes and other nonsense that will make audiences in 2034 cringe (and some of us today). Like I liked the jokes Working Designs put in at the time, but with the advantage of hindsight, I realize now how disrespectful of the original work Ireland was.

Apologies for the rant. Also, if localizers are creating burner accounts to harass people for criticizing their work (regardless of whether or not that criticism is fair or unfair), they should be dismissed from their positions. They have every right to defend themselves and their work, but that doesn't give them leave to ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ or harass their detractors. I won't go further because I don't know the full context, I'll limit my commentary to my current statement.

Except in practice it actually means replacing the Japanese joke with a cringe American millennial humor or internet memes that will age horribly, like doge memes in Zelda, or gamergate references in prison school. Nice try, but the gaslighting won't work anymore. People are finally learning about your lies. Fire all localizers. We'd be better off with the Japanese jokes translated straight.

[RobOda]

Originally posted by MonCapitan2002:

Originally posted by DeathevokatioN:

As someone that isn't American; I'm tired of playing an inferior product to Japanese people just because America exists.. and then witnessing the spectacle of seeing haughty localizers attacking and berating anyone who doesn't like their non translations on their burner accounts.

Given that there's vos by Americans I'm gonna guess it's a different script and the subtitles will probably reflect what the English script.. would have rather there was just translated work and not "localized" "work".

You do realize that localization and censorship do NOT go hand in hand right? Doing a one for one direct translation will usually lead to subpar results, particularly when it comes to comedy. There are Japanese jokes specific to the culture that when directly translated will make no sense to a Western audience and vice versa. That is when the localization team comes in and works on translating the joke in a way that it makes sense to the new audience while still conveying the general intent of the original joke.

Pretty much.

Localisation = makes things easier to understand, but there's still pitfalls;

I'll give two examples;

1. Raging Loop - didn't bother localising the translation for 'kanji' tricks, which meant if you weren't knowledgable about Kanji and how the 'tricks' worked, you would just basically read a wikipedia page and come away with no useful information, nor was it intuitive. Whereas, if you read the original text, it was an 'a-ha' eureka moment, made by figuring out how to switch certain words/letters around. That's lazy translation.

2. 999 - Localised it for US audiences only, thereby confusing the rest of the English speaking world, when the characters started using Farenheit and talking about the boiling point of water at 32 degrees etc, which throws any non-US player for a loop as everyone else uses Celsisus.

Localisation is important, but it has to be done correctly for the regions, or you end up with farces like 999's temperature nonsense, or you fail to translate correctly like in Raging Loop.

Censorship seldom goes hand in hand with localisation, however, censorship of US centric views (i.e. female top nudity etc) unfortunately spills over into other English speaking nations (and sometimes just the EU in full) because of course it does (exceptions; The Witcher, etc.)

[Alamar]

Originally posted by Cypher:

Yoshitaka Murayama — 02/04/2023 6:42 AM
Translation has already been done. The person in charge of this project is a fan of mine from Suikoden, and is very knowledgeable about the worldview.

I hope the same can be said for the non-English translations. Since 505 has been using incorrect but ideologically motivated German lately, I'm slightly worried.

Oh and yeah, you have to change a few things, if you translate a game. It's a "localization", after all. Not a mere translation. A few small changes to spice things up are okay.

[sWX]

I get that not everything can be translated word for word, but yeah it's just weird when you hear about these egotistical translators messing with the script or characterization to add jokes or politics or just random nonsense if it messes with our understanding of the characters or story.

[Melodia]

Originally posted by sWX:

, but yeah it's just weird when you hear about these egotistical translators messing with the script or characterization to add jokes or politics or just random nonsense if it messes with our understanding of the characters or story.

I mean you 'hear' about them, but the majority of the time such claims are extremely exaggerated, usually by people who don't actually know much Japanese.

[Doson・ザ・ロリ好き紳士]

Originally posted by Melodia:

Originally posted by sWX:

, but yeah it's just weird when you hear about these egotistical translators messing with the script or characterization to add jokes or politics or just random nonsense if it messes with our understanding of the characters or story.

I mean you 'hear' about them, but the majority of the time such claims are extremely exaggerated, usually by people who don't actually know much Japanese.

You hear about them, and it's far more widespread that most people would believe. There are tons of examples, which I have archived, and these claims are usually made by people who know quite a bit of Japanese, such as myself or people like エニ on twitter. Nice gas-lighting though. If anyone would like to add me on discord, I could show them plenty of examples, from various games, like trails, finally fantasy, Zelda, pokemon, etc.