Bad translations

[Monterossa]

- Japanese people with reversed family names & given names.
- Removed -san honorific.
- Messed up menu in restaurants... like calling tonkatsu "pork cutlets".

And why can't I change the language to Japanese? The store page says that it has JP menu and subs.

[F'tangg]

the translation isn't "bad", it's westernised rather than a literal translation.

[Kal Jenko]

If you go on to your Steam Library, right click on Yakuza 0 to go to Propeties and go to the tab Language on there, you can change between English and Japanese

[Hirate Yurina]

it's called localization. how many people do you know in real life that know that family name comes first in asian countries? how many people do you know that know what honorifics are? you can always play the original japanese version if it bothers you.

[Monterossa]

It makes no sense FFS. Yakuza calling their bosses without honorifics, it ruined my gaming experiences, just because they need to make sure that the western gamers can play the game. It's awkward to Asian gamers, and it feels like eating ramen with a fork and spoon.

[smh8890]

Originally posted by F'tangg:

the translation isn't "bad", it's westernised rather than a literal translation.

Yep and I actually like it, English and Japanese are two very different languages and in order to keep the "voice" of the dialogue you need to use some liberty when translating. If you listen to the dialogue you can hear point 1 and 2 anyway. My Japanese isn't amazing but I plan to play my second playthrough with Japanese subtitles because it's a bit hard to listen to one language while reading in another and it should be fun to see the differences.

[tadzio]

"it ruined my gaming experiences" dude what the actual hell lmao

[Hirate Yurina]

Originally posted by Monterossa:

It makes no sense FFS. Yakuza calling their bosses without honorifics, it ruined my gaming experiences, just because they need to make sure that the western gamers can play the game. It's awkward to Asian gamers, and it feels like eating ramen with a spoon.

they still call them by the honorifics, the subtitles just don't show it. like, what do you want? kyoudai? oyabun? 99% of the people that play the game won't understand what it means. it's an english translation, how are you going to have non-english words just thrown in there? that's like if someone made english subs for a korean film and kept in stuff like -si at the end of names, calling people noona/oppa/hyung/ajeossi/whatever. nobody would know what its supposed mean and it would just needlessly confuse people. imagine having 5 different characters referred to just as "hyungmin". people would think they're all named that.

[Kuda White]

" Asian gamers " LOL why you generalize this ?

Im asian myself but it didnt bother me a bit
There is even honorific -san if you follow the dialogue and cutscenes

[Noma]

Removing the honorifics in translated cultural products is probably the most basic knowledge a professional translator can have. It makes no sense in other languages anyway.
All the points you quoted are the signs of a good adaptation. There's still room for improvement, as a lot of one or two word expressions are over-translated in my opinion.

[tadzio]

also: "just because they need to make sure that the western gamers can play the game"
yes, they do need to make sure because this Steam release is literally a western-aimed release. "YAKUZA" is the western name of the series. It's called Ryu Ga Gotoku in Japan. but as it was said, if it bothers you so much you can just change language to japanese on game properties.

[󠀡hatty]

>ruined your gaming experience
lmfao

[Zantagor]

Heck, if I remember, in Y3, when Mishima called Kiryu "Kiryu-chan" they wrote Kazzie, it's called localization. If you're not happy, play in Japanese and learn the language. Otherwise, you're just a weeb at this point.

[Hirate Yurina]

Originally posted by Zantagor:

Heck, if I remember, in Y3, when Mishima called Kiryu "Kiryu-chan" they wrote Kazzie, it's called localization. If you're not happy, play in Japanese and learn the language. Otherwise, you're just a weeb at this point.

in 1 he called him "Kiryu-chan" in english. like, voiced english. THAT is bad translation.

[Monterossa]

But Persona 5 has good translations. Why can't more companies learn from them?

[Maverynthia]

Ugh, gross localization to sterilize the Japanese culture out of a VERY Japanese game. It's honestly racist.