Localization.

[Vlesh]

To start I want to say that I am having fun with this game. The online modes are a good time, even the throw away mini games. Ranking up and collecting things is a feel good experience in this, and while sometimes it feels like the rewards don't weigh the same in value as the achievement, I still find it fun getting new things...

But let's talk a second about this English localization. The entire script is rewritten, only the very basic portion of personalities of some characters survive the localization (Yuel JP and English are two completely different characters personality wise). I'm finding it extremely hard to finish the story mode campaigns because of how terrible the localization is... I really want to care about the story because it's pretty long and the cutscenes are nice, and I can't because of it's current state in a language I can read. Anyone else feel the same?

[[reaVerNL@Rumble]ᚱᛖᚨᚠᛖᚱ]

Publicado originalmente por Vlesh:

I'm finding it extremely hard to finish the story mode campaigns because of how terrible the localization is...

Well, judging by the subtitles being misaligned in the ending cutscene, so did the tester. If there would be a mod where at least the translations are correct, I'd be highly appreciative.

[[reaVerNL@Rumble]ᚱᛖᚨᚠᛖᚱ]

Publicado originalmente por Vengeful Mosquito:

Publicado originalmente por Master Spark:

Google translate:
"Shi-chan is as white as snow and beautiful as ever!"
Localization:
"Least Ettie called us rich. You lovely ladies could stand to cash in on some vitamin D too, know what I mean?"

Yes, i know what you mean Karen. I am not buying this.

Is this in the game?:aunope:

Yes it is, there's also Anre's 3 sentences worth of dialog translated to "please stop". I can vaguely understand some Japanese and there's some bad writing there, there's however a lot more bad writing in the translations. There's also words used that do not belong in a granblue setting and a competent localizer would know and avoid these words, but not these localizers. With the way they go about this I'm gonna go off on a limb and say that Ladiva isn't trans in the Japanese version either.

[HolyGrail]

Publicado originalmente por Guns:

Publicado originalmente por Vengeful Mosquito:

Is this in the game?:aunope:

You really think the racist localizers are going to allow a compliment toward pale skin in current year? Yes it's in the game.
https://yewtu.be/watch?v=dclBQQqSTWg

said elsewhere that I bet google translate would do a better job than the localisation.. glad I'm right.

[CRISTALESCUITE]

Publicado originalmente por DeathevokatioN:

Publicado originalmente por Guns:

You really think the racist localizers are going to allow a compliment toward pale skin in current year? Yes it's in the game.
https://yewtu.be/watch?v=dclBQQqSTWg

said elsewhere that I bet google translate would do a better job than the localisation.. glad I'm right.

And it did, the game in other languages is translated from japanese in a way that looks like machine translation and it's ways better than having that sort of fanfic in the game.

[William Shakesman]

This sort of thing only happens to Japanese media. Nobody tries to slip this sort of nonsense into Romance of the Three Kingdoms or Beowulf. It's only this stuff where we have to deal with a bunch of spiteful people turning it into a parody of itself.

[HolyGrail]

Publicado originalmente por William Shakesman:

This sort of thing only happens to Japanese media. Nobody tries to slip this sort of nonsense into Romance of the Three Kingdoms or Beowulf. It's only this stuff where we have to deal with a bunch of spiteful people turning it into a parody of itself.

and these people brigade threads and show blind hostility whenever someone brings it up.. it's like they think being rude in itself is an argument. I still can't imagine being anti translation. Must be sad hating seeing other people have fun.

[HolyGrail]

lol now they're just lurking and reporting posts and giving clowns... so pathetic..

[bottlefield393]

Publicado originalmente por DeathevokatioN:

Publicado originalmente por William Shakesman:

This sort of thing only happens to Japanese media. Nobody tries to slip this sort of nonsense into Romance of the Three Kingdoms or Beowulf. It's only this stuff where we have to deal with a bunch of spiteful people turning it into a parody of itself.

and these people brigade threads and show blind hostility whenever someone brings it up.. it's like they think being rude in itself is an argument. I still can't imagine being anti translation. Must be sad hating seeing other people have fun.

Today's game devs make alt accounts to then pretend they are fans and justify their terrible decisions. Too bad only the real fans buy games. Or avoid buying them, in this case.

[HolyGrail]

Publicado originalmente por bottlefield393:

Publicado originalmente por DeathevokatioN:

and these people brigade threads and show blind hostility whenever someone brings it up.. it's like they think being rude in itself is an argument. I still can't imagine being anti translation. Must be sad hating seeing other people have fun.

Today's game devs make alt accounts to then pretend they are fans and justify their terrible decisions. Too bad only the real fans buy games. Or avoid buying them, in this case.

Localisers do this too, like when a wave of hostile responses in a thread often comes before more normal responses start coming in.. especially in companies like NISA.

[bottlefield393]

I found a megathread of mistranslated japanese games and other media.
https://varishangout.com/index.php?threads/poor-localization-compilation-thread.31/
https://varishangout.com/index.php?threads/japanese-games-localization-examples.401/
this game is right on top of it. Take a look if you ever want to buy a piece of japanese media.

[DarkWind]

Will I have the intended meaning in Japanese or it is just a matter of a version of the game? I know that at times some nuances are missing with translation in novels, films, etc but I didn't think it was that much. Can anyone explain better please?

[bottlefield393]

Publicado originalmente por DarkWind:

Will I have the intended meaning in Japanese or it is just a matter of a version of the game? I know that at times some nuances are missing with translation in novels, films, etc but I didn't think it was that much. Can anyone explain better please?

Localization: "You lovely ladies could stand to cash in on some vitamin D too, know what I mean?"
Original:"Your skin is white as snow and pretty as usual, Shi-chan"

[William Shakesman]

Publicado originalmente por Fish:

This is a difficult topic.
Here's the thing, Japanese is a language that relies heavily on implied meaning, and there are a lot of expressions that don't translate into English. Their conversational forms of speech for example, has no English equivalent.

What this means is, if you translate the Japanese script literally, you may end up losing some of the underlying implications.

One example I can think of right off the back of my head is for the achievement you get after winning 10 matches using your SSBA.

The translated achievement on Steam reads: "I won, you lost! hahaha!"
Whereas, the literal translation of the Japanese version is: "Victory! Victory! Major Victory!"
On the surface, these are like 2 completely different statements, but I have asked a Japanese friend of mine, he said this translation is pretty accurate if we take cultural background into consideration. He told me that if you were to say the Japanese phrase like that, it pretty much carries the same kinda tone as the English translation.
Had this line been translated literally based on the Japanese script, it's not really something we can get because the literal translation of the original Japanese text only reads like a statement, and we lost the provocative undertone of the original.

My point is, I don't think there's a perfect solution to this. It is one thing to intentionally twist the message to drive an agenda, but not all changes to the script is due to that reason.

This is an issue but I think part of the problem with it is that the problem you describe gets hammered with the solution of letting the localizer "punch up" the dialogue to the point of parody, so you get utterly ludicrous translations like Miu in Danganronpa 3 or the constant memey language in the later Trails/Kiseki games where it is transparently obvious you're reading the fanfic of someone who spends too much time on twitter rather than the actual text. You don't even have to know a single word of Japanese to identify it any more because these people are so shameless and talentless. At this point I don't trust more than 1 in 20 localizers to make sensible choices given that freedom. I'd rather have dry AI translations than wacky punchup dialogue.

[HolyGrail]

Publicado originalmente por DarkWind:

Will I have the intended meaning in Japanese or it is just a matter of a version of the game? I know that at times some nuances are missing with translation in novels, films, etc but I didn't think it was that much. Can anyone explain better please?

A halftruth is that this was translated by the Japenese company..

...but the full truth is that later on the script had atleast half of it rewritten by localizers.. the characters in this know eachother from past titles so making Lowaine half flirt half insult someone is an atrocious writing.. instead of his usual antics trying to charm someone.. when you rewrite so many throwaway lines that are used to give the viewer an idea of where characters stand with eachother you lose the viewers trust, when you can't trust which line was shoehorned in while reading the subtitles... well... I'd say the localization is as bad as you can get. Also has Merrican slang but then agains so did the last title.

[eaglefan20]

The localization industry is such a joke. We are galaxies away from Alexander O. Smith (the job he did on Vagrant Story is probably the best script ever made from a localizer).