Thanks NISA & How I learned to Love Localization

[baccano13]

First off thank you NISA for doing a rather decent translation

Thank you NISA for getting the game out in a reasonable manner instead of having us have to wait years for a release.

Thank you for translating such a huge game that also has a sense of poetry and artistry to the writing that can make it very difficult to translate.

Thank you NISA for that eventual patch where you go through and update spelling errors and other script edits. You may not have announced anything yet but I have full confidence you will.

Thank you NISA for not removing or maliciously altering content from the game.

Thank you NISA for being informative on the issue and taking your time to try and educate about the localization process.

Thank you NISA for managing to get the DLC (and making it free in the Switch, PC, and early PS4 buyers) version of the game.

Thank you NISA for getting nearly the entire english voice dub cast back in addition to supplying the original japanese language.

Thank you NISA for releasing the game not only on PS4 but also PC and Switch so more people can enjoy the series.

Thank you NISA for taking the time to make the series fit with other entries in the series thus far and hiring on additional help to make the transition as smooth as possible.

Thank you NISA for picking up the series and releasing it so that we can continue our adventures in the Legend of Heroes Trails of Series.

With that out of the way some quick clarification because the rest of this is primarily going to be about localization. Censorship is the omission or malicious alteration of content. The game did remove any anything. The game also did not maliciously alter content because that would imply that NISA as a company would actually want to harm themselves which they definitely do not wish to do. Content was not altered to omit anything nor was is it altered for a particular goal or agenda (as you will see as we continue). If anyone actually were to bother to watch the entire video of the panel in question that started the outcry they would realize immediately that they did not do that at all because if they had they would be far better off not mentioning it in a panel about localization and all of you would be none the wiser.

No what NISA did is adaptation of a Japanese script to make it make more sense with a western audience. Something you need to understand about Japanese is that they do not say the same things in the same way that a westerner would. Most of their sentences have implications without actually saying what. You can often take an english translated line to someone who speaks predominately Japanese and they probably would find it difficult to tell you how to translate things. Some words in Japanese also do not mean the same thing as they do in english...it's essentially trying to pick the right meaning from a homonym (which is a word that means multiple things depending on context). This means as the script is being translated that it is very easy to misconstrue a word due to the complexity of potentially having multiple meanings both in Japan and when translated in English. This does not showcase any sort of malicious alteration for a particular sentence but may simply be choosing which of the meanings best fits the rest of the sentence even when that might or might not be the best usage. It's not easy to translate from one language to another which is why there are professionals that do it but even they might not get everything correct all of the time.

I would also like to bring to point a further thing people don't seem to be caring too much about which showcases just a tad of hypocrisy. Just as NISA did not maliciously alter content neither did XSeed when they also translated things incorrectly or added content into the game that didn't exist before but thought it would help a scene work better. As mentioned above a lot of things in Japan are implied which means if we had a direct literal translation we'd probably be missing a good deal of the context. This is not a thing that is stuck solely on NISA titles but rather any game that is translated from one language to another is very probable to have some mistranslations or adaptions to help it make sense from one region of the world to another. I highly doubt there is any game in existence from Japan that has originated with a Japanese script that has not had some adaptations to it.

Humor is itself sometimes not properly translatable to begin with. What one person might see as offensive the original language might recognize it as a joke rather than an attack. Don't forget not everything is in black and white or even gray...every so often we get a shade of sunny olive with a hint of gingerbread.

Some things to also note:

Ys VIII: Had a rough launch but currently now has a patch over a year after release to fix the game on PC and has released multiple updates to better fix the translation from the original. What's funny is that no one seems to be getting upset about the fact Nier Automata released on PC and hasn't gotten any significant updates or patches since release. NISA is trying with the falcom games to do what they can far more than many of the people in the industry.

First Game: One other thing people definitely have to pay attention to is that XSeed was working on the trails series for years and even Trails in the Sky FC has its fair share of rough patches in the translation. The point I'm trying to make is that NISA entered into work on the series in the 3rd part of a 3 (currently) arc series in a world that is constantly evolving with each game. Considering how big the game is script wise and the general lack of initial knowledge of working with the series yeah they will make some mistakes. They'll just need to continue to improve going forward but this is their first game in the series...as was Ys VIII for that one. Give NISA some time with the game and we'll be fine.

Honestly I fully expect them to lock this thread due to the inability of a few people to have a rational discussion about any of these but hey if you read this far and want to thank NISA for trying to help the series grow feel free.

[Sargeist]

Not sure if...

https://i.imgur.com/B7uH2EI.jpg

[BlackMagicNight]

How much did they pay you to write that lol

[DLON]

BlackMagicNight a écrit :

How much did they pay you to write that lol

Hahaha

[Furry Wrecking Crew]

Close this thread if you are going to close all the other ones criticizing. This crap is just as hard to read.

[MarcusBWFC]

i had the magicial alisa outfits on 1/2, weird

[*Yuki*]

at first I thought its a bait. But then I've reached to "thanks for not removing or altering content" and laughed so badly. Nice sarcarm, bro - made my day

[Arthor]

I mean the translators are not always in the Companies best interest... Many of them like to brag on social media about censoring content they deemed too offensive. Happens all the time now on anime/games.

[Kompa]

Which Nisa employee are you?

[*Yuki*]

Arthor a écrit :

I mean the translators are not always in the Companies best interest... Many of them like to brag on social media about censoring content they deemed too offensive. Happens all the time now on anime/games.

bruh, this thread cant become cringier anymore, its time to stop

[Red Ranger Wien]

I did not know NISA had their own 50 cent army.

[DAVOS CENSORSHIP 2030 FTW!!!]

There are 3 main reasons why people don't like NISA localizing stuff:

1.- Censorship
2.- Script/Dialogue Butcher
3.- Pc Port Butchering

Just wanted to point it out even if this is an obvious bait/troll thread.

XSEED is a million times better when handling localizations and pc porting.

[Dragon]

Vigi React a écrit :

Close this thread if you are going to close all the other ones criticizing. This crap is just as hard to read.

+1.

If threads which are critical of NISA's translation and/or porting are forbidden by NISA, and if that's a fair standard, then threads which fawn over NISA's translation should also be forbidden.

Except I don't think criticizing NISA's translations and/or ports are hard to read or crap. On the contrary: they are 100% necessary so that consumers remain informed of what they are being asked to part with their money in exchange for.

baccano13 a écrit :

. The game did remove any anything. The game also did not maliciously alter content

There isn't any possible basis by which you can prove those assertion to be true, unless you've done a 1:1 simultaneous comparison with every single moment, scene & word in the game, between the original Japanese version vs. the NISA English version.

If that has not been done, then those quoted assertions are unproven and thus have no merit.