Bad translations in Code Vein rant

[Quite Gone Jinn]

Just let me clarify first, I'm not very fluent in Japanese but I do know some basic words. I'm not trying to say the translation needs to be literal but I feel there are some cases that the translator just changes the dialogue needlessly.

One of the most jarring example is Kevin's final memory. The translator decided to change it from him saying "thank you" to "goodbye", which given the theme and context of his memory, takes away a lot of the implication of his final words to Louis.


While what I mentioned is just me nitpicking, there are also translations for skills that are inaccurate. This affects gameplay and I feel that the translator didn't even bother to play the game a little or consult the dev team.

One example is the description for gift proficiency. When I first read "Defeat the enemy" I thought I need to find and kill a specific enemy to unlock it but it really meant "Defeat enemies".

Another one is the Revenant Dagger's description. It says "Throws a dagger that restores ichor" it sounded like an active gift but what it really meant is "Throwing a dagger restores ichor". It's a passive gift. I almost thought my game is bugged since I keep searching for it among my active gifts.

I've always liked Bandai Namco's English localization from the Tales series to the Souls series, but this time I feel that it's the weakest localization from them. I'm not saying it's awful, but it's not good neither, and it's also not something I would expect from an experienced company.

[FauxFurry]

No mention of them translating English loan words into other English words in the dub for no particular reason (such as 'Boy' to 'Kid' or 'Okay' to' H3ll Yeah')?

[Clockmaker]

Originally posted by FauxFurry:

No mention of them translating English loan words into other English words in the dub for no particular reason (such as 'Boy' to 'Kid' or 'Okay' to' H3ll Yeah')?

This actually seems kind of common in anime and I don't know why. Like in My Hero Academia you can hear the characters say "pinch" in reference to a difficult situation but it's always translated as "tight spot."

[Quite Gone Jinn]

Originally posted by Clockmaker:

Originally posted by FauxFurry:

No mention of them translating English loan words into other English words in the dub for no particular reason (such as 'Boy' to 'Kid' or 'Okay' to' H3ll Yeah')?

This actually seems kind of common in anime and I don't know why. Like in My Hero Academia you can hear the characters say "pinch" in reference to a difficult situation but it's always translated as "tight spot."

Yeah, it's kinda weird. The translator used a word with the same meaning, there's that I guess. lol

[Genometric Dizzy]

Originally posted by Quite Gone Jinn:

I've always liked Bandai Namco's English localization from the Tales series to the Souls series, but this time I feel that it's the weakest localization from them. I'm not saying it's awful, but it's not good neither, and it's also not something I would expect from an experienced company.

The Tales of localisations are actually pretty awful which they keep outsourcing to a company called 8-4 for some reason who are well known for their terrible localisations.
Tales of Zestiria is full of typos, mistranslations and memes.
And don't even get me started about Tales of Hearts R where they just flat out renamed a character for whatever reason which is confusing as hell when people are talking since the game only has Japanese audio.

To give some examples

Should have obviously been Final Prayer:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=742373327

Cringe:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=742373357

No:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=742373295

I really hope they sort this crap out for Tales of Arise...

[Αη Ιnτellecτual Tsiραr]

That;s awful. I know the guy who translated Zestiria is one of those guys who hates Japanese culture. This is what you get. The final solution is to learn Japanese or wait for some kind of universal translator so we will be freed from out chains

[RiceMan]

idk, i thought it was good enough info.
"Defeat Enemy", no specific enemy so it has to be any
"Throw Dagger to Restore Ichor", isn't that a passive? So it can't be an active gift
I think it just depends on how you see it, though the japanese translation to english may be off indeed and throws the meaning of the japanese version away completely in the english version.

[39]

Game translations in general are very poor, especially compared to other media. The standards are just so low that it doesn't matter, even the worst of the worst companies like NISA still get tons of games because people buy them anyway. Learning Japanese is the best way to avoid this, you really can't count on "professional" translations a lot of the time.

[New Breakfast]

i'd prefer a more direct translation too, but "defeat the enemy" is a bit much

[Quite Gone Jinn]

Originally posted by Genometric Dizzy:

Originally posted by Quite Gone Jinn:

I've always liked Bandai Namco's English localization from the Tales series to the Souls series, but this time I feel that it's the weakest localization from them. I'm not saying it's awful, but it's not good neither, and it's also not something I would expect from an experienced company.

The Tales of localisations are actually pretty awful which they keep outsourcing to a company called 8-4 for some reason who are well known for their terrible localisations.
Tales of Zestiria is full of typos, mistranslations and memes.
And don't even get me started about Tales of Hearts R where they just flat out renamed a character for whatever reason which is confusing as hell when people are talking since the game only has Japanese audio.

To give some examples

Should have obviously been Final Prayer:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=742373327

Cringe:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=742373357

No:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=742373295

I really hope they sort this crap out for Tales of Arise...

Wow, yeah. That's pretty ♥♥♥♥. I take back what I said about Code Vein being the worst localization from Bamco.
Guess that's another reason to not buy this game even if it's on sale. lol

[D-Black Catto]

compared to how they butchered god eater translation adding whole sentences that don't exist pretty much everywhere, i'd say they did a really good job in code vein

like for example how they translated kanon's "otsukaresame deshita yokatta" into "yes yes yes we kicked ASS!!!" XDdddd