English "Localization" issues

[Dexter]

I enjoyed the Demo overall, but I couldn't help but notice that Lolcowlizers have seemingly been involved with translating this game, why do they keep hiring them?
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3442528858

The Japanese voice line for this one was just "Hai":
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3442528952

She was yelling about him being dead here:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3442577897

For many others, they didn't have voice lines, but I somehow heavily doubt the English translation is even close to what's being said in the Japanese version:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3442577943
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3442529003

There were a lot more Cringe ones especially for Darumi throughout, I didn't Screencap them all. Also still plenty of simple typos left.

This kind of stuff downgrades an interesting game from "get it early" to at least "wait for a Deep Sale", or if it's bad enough even "Ignore", just like I wouldn't buy a book I'm interested in if I find out that parts of it have been purposefully mistranslated.

[LoafEye]

Originally posted by lilac:

Originally posted by Draaloff:

Imagine going through someone's profile, and then bringing their race and nationality into a forum discussion because you can't think up any valid counterarguments. Pathetic.

agreed. its a shame some people here have to resort to e stalking..

What
His PFP is a VRChat white guy and if you click View Profile it says UK right above his kanji bio. Hardly stalking.

Originally posted by lilac:

anyway i think you guys just dont know how languages work on a fundamental level, and you dont even know what your mad about because you dont even know what the japanese text said

But then also this can be a good point, because most people will be mad just to be mad.

[lilac]

Originally posted by LoafEye:

Originally posted by lilac:

agreed. its a shame some people here have to resort to e stalking..

What
His PFP is a VRChat white guy and if you click View Profile it says UK right above his kanji bio. Hardly stalking.

dont worry i wasnt talking about you

[LoafEye]

Originally posted by lilac:

Originally posted by LoafEye:

What
His PFP is a VRChat white guy and if you click View Profile it says UK right above his kanji bio. Hardly stalking.

dont worry i wasnt talking about you

Ah, mb then. I assumed since he quoted me and you quoted him lol

[Noma]

Originally posted by Yana_playzz:

Like have y'all ever thought that maybe the game devs wanted their TRANSLATORS to do this style? Localization makes edits to make sure what the initial translators made make sense for people. So stop just blaming localization.

I think the Japanese devs don't give a single crap about the murican translation, or more like, they don't even think about it because it's irrelevant to them.

I still remember the presentation before FFXVI's release, the producer, Yoshida, seemingly reading the English adaptation for the first time : "ah, it's different haha". Yeah, more like, totally out of touch. It felt like "well, if foreigners like it, why not ?". A bit condescending, but probably deserved.

Never forget that playing a translated version isn't playing the same game, especially in text heavy games. Even worse if you use the distasteful parodies called "dubs".

To be able to play the game without relying on hysterical weebs out of touch with reality, you either have to learn Japanese or be able to speak another language and pray that other languages base their own translation on the Japanese original and not the English parody...pretty insane what you have to do to dodge the scummy practices.

[MILF & Cookies]

I sold you a book that you were interested in reading, a book written by another, but I whited out all of the pages and rewrote an abridged version. No refunds!

[Vethala]

Originally posted by Noma:

Originally posted by Yana_playzz:

Like have y'all ever thought that maybe the game devs wanted their TRANSLATORS to do this style? Localization makes edits to make sure what the initial translators made make sense for people. So stop just blaming localization.

I think the Japanese devs don't give a single crap about the murican translation, or more like, they don't even think about it because it's irrelevant to them.

I still remember the presentation before FFXVI's release, the producer, Yoshida, seemingly reading the English adaptation for the first time : "ah, it's different haha". Yeah, more like, totally out of touch. It felt like "well, if foreigners like it, why not ?". A bit condescending, but probably deserved.

Never forget that playing a translated version isn't playing the same game, especially in text heavy games. Even worse if you use the distasteful parodies called "dubs".

To be able to play the game without relying on hysterical weebs out of touch with reality, you either have to learn Japanese or be able to speak another language and pray that other languages base their own translation on the Japanese original and not the English parody...pretty insane what you have to do to dodge the scummy practices.

Playing in any language that's not Japanese is not playing the same game, this is always going to be the case. If you wanna get the pure original experience then your only option is playing it in Japanese.

The problem with the translator of these games is that it seems to like they have an ego with how they translate sentences, they decide to add little things that weren't there in the original, because, idk, reasons?

[Noma]

Originally posted by Vethala:

Originally posted by Noma:

I think the Japanese devs don't give a single crap about the murican translation, or more like, they don't even think about it because it's irrelevant to them.

I still remember the presentation before FFXVI's release, the producer, Yoshida, seemingly reading the English adaptation for the first time : "ah, it's different haha". Yeah, more like, totally out of touch. It felt like "well, if foreigners like it, why not ?". A bit condescending, but probably deserved.

Never forget that playing a translated version isn't playing the same game, especially in text heavy games. Even worse if you use the distasteful parodies called "dubs".

To be able to play the game without relying on hysterical weebs out of touch with reality, you either have to learn Japanese or be able to speak another language and pray that other languages base their own translation on the Japanese original and not the English parody...pretty insane what you have to do to dodge the scummy practices.

Playing in any language that's not Japanese is not playing the same game, this is always going to be the case. If you wanna get the pure original experience then your only option is playing it in Japanese.

The problem with the translator of these games is that it seems to like they have an ego with how they translate sentences, they decide to add little things that weren't there in the original, because, idk, reasons?

Sure, but having a faithful translation is the best and more accurate way to share the story with the whole world. Not perfect, but that's still fine, and there's still is the original voice acting to be able to grasp things more precisely, for people curous enough (and curiosity leads to knowledge).

Basing every other translations on the most amateurish one, which trades accuracy for ethnocentrism/communitarianism fueled parody, is still a problem in 2025 while it shouldn't be.

[Terran]

Thanks. I can't purchase a game that butchers the source material. Huge shame, I was going to try the demo.
Had to check here just in case, shame to see another potentially interesting game ruined.

[Air Raider]

There was a Clarissa Explains It All reference in the first hour. I don't think 90% of the people playing this game were even born yet when that show ended.

[Jinzo]

Originally posted by Vethala:

Originally posted by Noma:

I think the Japanese devs don't give a single crap about the murican translation, or more like, they don't even think about it because it's irrelevant to them.

I still remember the presentation before FFXVI's release, the producer, Yoshida, seemingly reading the English adaptation for the first time : "ah, it's different haha". Yeah, more like, totally out of touch. It felt like "well, if foreigners like it, why not ?". A bit condescending, but probably deserved.

Never forget that playing a translated version isn't playing the same game, especially in text heavy games. Even worse if you use the distasteful parodies called "dubs".

To be able to play the game without relying on hysterical weebs out of touch with reality, you either have to learn Japanese or be able to speak another language and pray that other languages base their own translation on the Japanese original and not the English parody...pretty insane what you have to do to dodge the scummy practices.

Playing in any language that's not Japanese is not playing the same game, this is always going to be the case. If you wanna get the pure original experience then your only option is playing it in Japanese.

The problem with the translator of these games is that it seems to like they have an ego with how they translate sentences, they decide to add little things that weren't there in the original, because, idk, reasons?

Often the case, especially recently is that they are social activists masquerading as translators that's the problem, generally you will find they despise gamers, nerd culture and especially Japan as well its weird as hell they think they are on some kind of moral crusade.

Been learning 2 and half years myself, definitely good enough to enjoy the demo at this point but people really shouldn't have to do this, that's where we are as JRPG and VN fans though either learn a time consuming language and do the job yourself or suffer with a sanitized censored product.

[Draaloff]

Originally posted by LoafEye:

Originally posted by lilac:

agreed. its a shame some people here have to resort to e stalking..

What
His PFP is a VRChat white guy and if you click View Profile it says UK right above his kanji bio. Hardly stalking.

Why were you going through my profile at all? You did enough stalking to know which game my avatar model is used in. On top of that, what did bringing my race and nationality into the discussion add? It's obvious what you were doing.

Originally posted by Jinzo:

Often the case, especially recently is that they are social activists masquerading as translators that's the problem, generally you will find they despise gamers, nerd culture and especially Japan as well its weird as hell they think they are on some kind of moral crusade.
Been learning 2 and half years myself, definitely good enough to enjoy the demo at this point but people really shouldn't have to do this, that's where we are as JRPG and VN fans though either learn a time consuming language and do the job yourself or suffer with a sanitized censored product.

Exactly. It's sad that this is the state of the industry. The only way to push back is to keep pointing out these things and voting with our wallets.

Originally posted by Noma:

I think the Japanese devs don't give a single crap about the murican translation, or more like, they don't even think about it because it's irrelevant to them.

Correct. They just assume a proper job is being done abroad and don't look into it.

[Valinov]

I'm tired, boss.
I was just about to buy this too. Take some points for saving me the money, I guess...

[honka]

and just like that - they lost a buyer. cant wait for AI to take over translations. thanks, OP, for looking out.

[Skyswimsky]

Is it that bad? Translation can't always be a 1:1 thing, and if that psycho girl speaking in some gen Z slang fits her character and overall narration is coherent then that is good?

There goes a lot more into translation than just translating things word by word. Like, I don't remember the exact details, but there was an example of someone speaking a certain Japanese dialect and the translation went for the valley girl thing. Not that, but just as an example. But it still sold the idea of them speaking 'strangely' (I think I read something along those lines for Metaphor's translation). Same for references, no point in a character referencing some Japanese Show, better to change it to a western one etc.

That said, after what I wrote above I skimmed some of the thread/screenshot and it seems like a bunch of the translation really changes how a character is being perceived, so yeah I guess it is a bad translation.

I don't know why more people can't just have reasonable takes. Like even if you dislike gen Z slang or whatever it is called, if it fits the character to sell their vibe then I think it's fine. At the same time if a translation changes a characters identity and vibe then that's bad.

[Shylaar]

Originally posted by Skyswimsky:

Translation can't always be a 1:1 thing

This argument is always terrible but it goes out the window completely the moment they start inventing dialogue wholesale like with the "I hope you get cancelled" line.