English subtitles don't match Japanese dub at all (sometimes)

[TheRaienryuu]

This isn't anything major for the story in my opinion, but it sure has become a pet peeve for me. In a lot of situations the subtitles don't even come close to what is being said by the characters.

Now I get that translating from Japanese also comes with some artistic freedom regarding interpretation. But when a character is screaming in Japanese 'No, this can't be true. You have to be lying.' and similar lines the subtitles just show 'No' multiple times... I mean come on man... There is a big difference when someone is screaming in anguish, not being able to accept the situation and everything just getting translated to a 'No'.

Im at the end of Act 2, and to be fair it's not like it majorly impacts the story if you're just following along. Everything is still clear. But yea, pet peeve.

[Darth Revan]

interesting.

i read somewhere that in the japanese voiceover they dont call your sword a katana. Is that true?

i mean it would fit the time period more anyways since at the time the game takes place samurai woruld have used a tachi. :)

[13xforever]

The game was produced with English voice over as primary; they didn't even implement lip sync for Japanese lines until the director's cut.

[ToxicDutch]

They gave you more lines for Japanese than English, consider it a blessing since this game was made in English. So the 'No, no, no'' subtitle is what was originally written in the script, but when they did Japanese voice translation they decided to take it up a notch.

[Mildly Nuclear]

When do they ever?

[Akkarin]

Yea i noticed the bad subs too, was assuming they were actually subs for the english voiceover.
Seen it in a few other games too.

[Erylaria]

yep, i noticed the same thing. my japanese isn't good enough to pick up every little difference but pretty often, people will say wildly different things in japanese. for example, english: "this is the best day of my life!" while in in japanese, the npc says "thank you, my lord. i owe you my life".

and like. the japanese - from what i can tell/understand - is amazing. it uses regional slang and historically accurate-ish old japanese. it's a shame that the english sub misses the mark so hard. if they made the english before the japanese, that kind of explains it, but it's still not great. rips me out of the vibe pretty often :/

[平教經]

Originally posted by Darth Revan:

interesting.

i read somewhere that in the japanese voiceover they dont call your sword a katana. Is that true?

i mean it would fit the time period more anyways since at the time the game takes place samurai woruld have used a tachi. :)

Tachi IS a katana.
What most non-Japanese refer to as THE katana (shorter than tachi, worn edge up tackled into belt, prominent in Sengoku era and Edo period) in Japanese is actually called uchigatana and word katana by itself is not a separate sword type, but just means any single edged sword.

But that said, the way Jin fights fits the techniques more used with tachi, but the way he carries his sword (tuckled into belt, edge up) is the way uchigatana is carried.

[MuneGeek]

Everyone says that English is the original language - this is such a joke. Japanese says "please avenge me". English subs say "They fought it was fun" WTF?????? Are you joking about English being original language? It doesn't even have sense in any situation in the game. A lot of frases like machinary translation.

[Jarrod]

Yeah, it's like this with every game with both an english and japanese dub. The subs are always for the english dub, nothing else, for obvious reasons.

I remember this being a huge issue in BOTW, the Journal entries in english are done in a third person perspective, and the japanese entries are done in first person and have much more weight to them. It's just how it is, there isn't much you can do about it. Just one of the multiple reasons to play games in EN dub most of the time.

[DanaramaPyjama]

Originally posted by MuneGeek:

Everyone says that English is the original language - this is such a joke. Japanese says "please avange me". English subs say "They fought it was fun" WTF?????? Are you joking about English being original language? It doesn't even have sense in any situation in the game. A lot of frases like machinary translation.

It's an American game.

[MuneGeek]

Originally posted by DanaramaPyjama:

Originally posted by MuneGeek:

Everyone says that English is the original language - this is such a joke. Japanese says "please avange me". English subs say "They fought it was fun" WTF?????? Are you joking about English being original language? It doesn't even have sense in any situation in the game. A lot of frases like machinary translation.

It's an American game.

So? explain how person who has just been raided says "They fought it was fun" ? It doesn't have any sense

UPD. Ok I found the quest in internet. ANd the NPC said "Find those bastards. They thought it was funny". But in japanese it was " Avenge me for what they did" or smth like this. Still English doesn't make sense. What is funny? They killed his horse, robbed him and almost crippled. They were just doing their usual thing as bandits. They laughed while robbing him? so what. Why did he say this thing. Or is revenge prohibited in America? So they had to censor it? it is stupid. Sounds more like some out of context translation, when the translators were given the text and no visuals or contex. Not the first time, not the last time.

[Jarrod]

Originally posted by MuneGeek:

Originally posted by DanaramaPyjama:

It's an American game.

So? explain how person who has just been raided says "They fought it was fun" ? It doesn't have any sense

UPD. Ok I found the quest in internet. ANd the NPC said "Find those bastards. They thought it was funny". But in japanese it was " Avenge me for what they did" or smth like this. Still English doesn't make sense. What is funny? They killed his horse, robbed him and almost crippled. They were just doing their usual thing as bandits. They laughed while robbing him? so what. Why did he say this thing. Or is revenge prohibited in America?

You are making up stuff that doesn't exist. The reality is that Sucker Punch is an american studio. It was made for English. The mouth flaps are literally synced to the English voice, no matter what language you play in (even despite the sub par "Japanese lip sync update"). It was made for English, and that's just how it is. It's not that big of a deal.

[MuneGeek]

Originally posted by Jarrod:

Originally posted by MuneGeek:

So? explain how person who has just been raided says "They fought it was fun" ? It doesn't have any sense

UPD. Ok I found the quest in internet. ANd the NPC said "Find those bastards. They thought it was funny". But in japanese it was " Avenge me for what they did" or smth like this. Still English doesn't make sense. What is funny? They killed his horse, robbed him and almost crippled. They were just doing their usual thing as bandits. They laughed while robbing him? so what. Why did he say this thing. Or is revenge prohibited in America?

You are making up stuff that doesn't exist. The reality is that Sucker Punch is an american studio. It was made for English. The mouth flaps are literally synced to the English voice, no matter what language you play in (even despite the sub par "Japanese lip sync update"). It was made for English, and that's just how it is. It's not that big of a deal.

So? You say it is made in English but English text is stupid af. Why? how could it be? I could understand if it was translated. But original to be that stupid? when NPC speak like they were bullied in school and not almost killed by bandits. When NPC speech is full of clancky robotic phrases out of the place...

My deduction whispers me, that the dialogues were written in Japanese by Japanese to make the game more authentic. And then the English translation was made. This sounds pretty logical. More logical than English subs in many situations

I pity people who can play only with English dub. They lose so much.

[Darth Revan]

Originally posted by MuneGeek:

Originally posted by Jarrod:

You are making up stuff that doesn't exist. The reality is that Sucker Punch is an american studio. It was made for English. The mouth flaps are literally synced to the English voice, no matter what language you play in (even despite the sub par "Japanese lip sync update"). It was made for English, and that's just how it is. It's not that big of a deal.

So? You say it is made in English but English text is stupid af. Why? how could it be? I could understand if it was translated. But original to be that stupid? when NPC speak like they were bullied in school and not almost killed by bandits. When NPC speech is full of clancky robotic phrases out of the place...

My deduction whispers me, that the dialogues were written in Japanese by Japanese to make the game more authentic. And then the English translation was made. This sounds pretty logical. More logical than English subs in many situations

I pity people who can play only with English dub. They lose so much.

These are the writers of this game:

Ian Ryan(lead writer of the game)
Liz Albl
Patrick Downs
Jordan Lemos

[MuneGeek]

Originally posted by Darth Revan:

Originally posted by MuneGeek:

So? You say it is made in English but English text is stupid af. Why? how could it be? I could understand if it was translated. But original to be that stupid? when NPC speak like they were bullied in school and not almost killed by bandits. When NPC speech is full of clancky robotic phrases out of the place...

My deduction whispers me, that the dialogues were written in Japanese by Japanese to make the game more authentic. And then the English translation was made. This sounds pretty logical. More logical than English subs in many situations

I pity people who can play only with English dub. They lose so much.

These are the writers of this game:

Ian Ryan(lead writer of the game)
Liz Albl
Patrick Downs
Jordan Lemos

Doesn't explain bad dialogues in English. While good dialogues in Japanese