Japanese Voice + English subs = confusing

[Pheace]

I don't have a full grasp of Japanese but at least in the beginning of the game the English translation does not seem to be a direct translation of what they're saying in Japanese.

[a.j]

I've been fansubbing since 2004, I could easily translate the bits that are "different" and replace them with a more "literal" translation with the help of a native english speaker (since English is my 3rd language).. but I guess there's no way to do that yet.

[Thorkell the Tall]

引用自 AJ~CR：

I've been fansubbing since 2004, I could easily translate the bits that are "different" and replace them with a more "literal" translation with the help of a native english speaker (since English is my 3rd language).. but I guess there's no way to do that yet.

if they ever allow this to be mod on steam workshop, i hope u will make a better translation for us...

引用自 Backflashs：

Good training, puts your Japanese audible to the test, right?

indeed, but i still think someone or a group of people need to get run over then revesered then re-ran over by Edelweiss.

[Kiln]

引用自 Pheace MCT：

I don't have a full grasp of Japanese but at least in the beginning of the game the English translation does not seem to be a direct translation of what they're saying in Japanese.

This is COMPLETELY normal, a 100% literal translation is going to sound really really dumb to everyone except weeaboo's and japanophiles. (See Fansubs)
This goes double for sentences where LENGTH MATCHING is more important than MEANING MATCHING for animation purposes.

[Uroth]

引用自 Kiln：

引用自 Pheace MCT：

I don't have a full grasp of Japanese but at least in the beginning of the game the English translation does not seem to be a direct translation of what they're saying in Japanese.

This is COMPLETELY normal, a 100% literal translation is going to sound really really dumb to everyone except weeaboo's and japanophiles. (See Fansubs)
This goes double for sentences where LENGTH MATCHING is more important than MEANING MATCHING for animation purposes.

It is usualy the other way around. A small phrase in Japanese often gets a 2 page essay English translated line.

[Kitty Fields]

Yeah, I noticed it too. It's not necessarily that the translation is "wrong" so much that it's "liberal." Honestly, I'd much rather have a liberal translation over some stiff, extremely literal translation. Or, you know, a translation disaster (see: Sword Art Online: Hollow Fragment's terrible Engrish and Muramasa Wii where they cut like half the original Japanese text in their localization to English). Personally, I find it really interesting to compare the Japanese dub to the English subs.

[Megaman.png]

引用自 Kitty Fields：

Yeah, I noticed it too. It's not necessarily that the translation is "wrong" so much that it's "liberal." Honestly, I'd much rather have a liberal translation over some stiff, extremely literal translation. Or, you know, a translation disaster (see: Sword Art Online: Hollow Fragment's terrible Engrish and Muramasa Wii where they cut like half the original Japanese text in their localization to English). Personally, I find it really interesting to compare the Japanese dub to the English subs.

Of course but there is a good middle ground that I think should be reached with translations, heck I think the dub of VC is rather good but the dubtitles really break immersion for the sub.

[amz]

Because there's a lot of people saying this, let me make this clear - the translation is not innacurate because "otherwise it would sound off". It's not just adapting things to sound more natural in English. The reason why the dub gets away with this is that it's necessary in order to match the mouth movement of the animation. The subtitles say exactly what the English dub says, so it's accurate in that sense, but dub translations from Japanese to English are always less accurate than subtitle translation, due to the differences in the spoken language.

In other words: If there was no English dub audio, the subtitles would be far more accurate and just as "natural" to read. The subtitles were never translated from Japanese, but rather they were transliterated from the audio dub, whose script was adapted from Japanese to fit specific timing constraints that subtitles don't have to deal with.

p.s. It's bad enough that sometimes there are subtitles in parts where the Japanese audio has NOBODY saying anything, but the English dub decided to add something.

[amz]

p.p.s You'll notice that good quality DVDs/Blu-Rays of Japanese film or animation will have two English subtitle tracks, one for Japanese audio and the other for English audio.

[Doomfist]

引用自 Varsh：

I have comopleted the game on the PS3 with English subs and Japanese dubs so I already know what's in store.

引用自 Tofuko Senpai：

...or fan modded?

...or the fact it's already accurate?

Lol, no. There are some instances of completely made up stuff. Like near the beginning, Alicia saying something about being Welkins hero and then the few follow ups on that one.... Yeah, didn't happen.

And, for example, Welkin saying "Faldio" later on, with the subs being something along the lines of " I don't know what to say." So yeah... "accurate."

[Sam]

Unfortunately the subs are very much off in quite a bit of scenes, though I can grasp the basic meaning of certain phrases and words while comparing with the subs. Like how "Captain Alicia" is mistranslated as "Miss Melchiott".

[puddingat4am]

引用自 Pheace MCT：

I don't have a full grasp of Japanese but at least in the beginning of the game the English translation does not seem to be a direct translation of what they're saying in Japanese.

If it was translated literally the cutscenes would be a lot longer, not mention all the lip syncing work. The subs are close enough.

[Zorlond]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pEFz30_YTmM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AcJz9y7AcZQ

[お前の国には売らぬ]

Professional translator here. It looks like they didn't even bother checking the original Japanese script at all. It's like someone at Sega's localization provider decided to make a completely new script from scratch using some general plot points as a guide, ran it through a proofreader, then called it a day. :/

[DDRMANIAC007]

What I'm getting from this thread is:
Play in english dub until this is fixed/modded.

[Necroscourge]

The funny parts are the character bios. One character apperently went to school for Animal Sociology. We got a regular Jane Goodall fightin nazi's