How Good is the English Translation?

[Chenni]

Is it machine translated English? Just passable (with some grammar and spelling errors)? Or is the English Translation Great?

[Rock]

I've only played through the first few battles, but I haven't really noticed anything jarring yet. I wouldn't be surprised if there are some minor issues, but from what I have seen it doesn't detract from the game at all for me.

[Forester]

Originally posted by Rock:

I've only played through the first few battles, but I haven't really noticed anything jarring yet. I wouldn't be surprised if there are some minor issues, but from what I have seen it doesn't detract from the game at for me.

Agree with this mostly. At times, it's DEFINITELY apparent that the game was translated from another language; however, the stiffness of the translation in no way makes the game unplayable or unenjoyable. Certain phrasings are a little awkward, but there was NEVER a case when I didn't understand what a character was saying. The absolute worst thing about the translation is something very minor: if you look at the sidequest missions, some of the names are hilariously rendered, such as "Mirabeau" being changed to "Milabo" or "Nivernais" being changed to "Nevinel" lol.

I don't think the plot is overall well executed, but I believe it's more due to ill-conceived ideas about the storyboarding and direction of the plot... not the translation itself.

[Rickken]

I'll put it this way: there are constant errors in the usage of common English words, assorted issues with tense and pluralization, and dozens of minor mistakes. Can you understand how to play? Sure. Can you understand what most characters mean most of the time? Sure.

But the persistent problems ruin most of the game's attempts at providing pseudo-historical drama.

It's quite bad.

[Rock]

I'm only on chapter VI, but I haven't really seen anything glaring as of yet. Maybe I'm just not reading carefully enough...

[Forester]

Originally posted by Rock:

I'm only on chapter VI, but I haven't really seen anything glaring as of yet. Maybe I'm just not reading carefully enough...

Nah I think you're fine man. I doubt that you're "not reading carefully enough." Most people don't have any major gripes with the translation.

As usual, it's just an annoying vocal minority who disparages minor things and seeks pleasure in tearing others down. Oh well.

[Rock]

I'm up to chapter XI now. I did find a few small typos. A couple in some of the newer character descriptions (like "make her guards headache" instead of "make her guards' head ache." But really very minor. Certainly nothing that takes away from the experience for me personally.

[Rock]

For me, the most annoying this is having females with names like Oscar. But I've played enough Asian developed games to know that the gender mix-up on names is pretty common. In fact I believe Oscar is commonly "known" as an English female name in Asia . I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of American made games about Asia have the same issue.

For kicks, I did a quick check on a names website. According to the site. Since 1880 there have been 187,271 boys given the name Oscar, and there have been 0 girls given the name Oscar. They obviously aren't counting names given to Asian video game characters

[SpiegelGeist]

Originally posted by Rock:

For me, the most annoying this is having females with names like Oscar. But I've played enough Asian developed games to know that the gender mix-up on names is pretty common. In fact I believe Oscar is commonly "known" as an English female name in Asia :lunar2019laughingpig:. I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of American made games about Asia have the same issue.

For kicks, I did a quick check on a names website. According to the site. Since 1880 there have been 187,271 boys given the name Oscar, and there have been 0 girls given the name Oscar. They obviously aren't counting names given to Asian video game characters :lunar2019grinningpig:

Having a female character named Oscar is clearly either a homage/reference to the 70s manga and anime "The Rose Of Versailles" and the title character, Lady Oscar, Oscar François de Jarjayes. Hell, it might even be Lady Oscar herself.

[Tyr]

I'd rather have a great game with a less than stellar localisation than a mediocre game with flawless translation.

[RE:Deemer]

Originally posted by SpiegelGeist:

Originally posted by Rock:

For me, the most annoying this is having females with names like Oscar. But I've played enough Asian developed games to know that the gender mix-up on names is pretty common. In fact I believe Oscar is commonly "known" as an English female name in Asia . I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of American made games about Asia have the same issue.

For kicks, I did a quick check on a names website. According to the site. Since 1880 there have been 187,271 boys given the name Oscar, and there have been 0 girls given the name Oscar. They obviously aren't counting names given to Asian video game characters

Having a female character named Oscar is clearly either a homage/reference to the 70s manga and anime "The Rose Of Versailles" and the title character, Lady Oscar, Oscar François de Jarjayes. Hell, it might even be Lady Oscar herself.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oscar_Fran%C3%A7ois_de_Jarjayes

Huh... that actually makes a lot of sense. The more you know...

[Rock]

Yeah, that is actually how a lot of the gender swapping happens in english->japanese or japanese->english game names. The translators are sometimes unaware of the gender of a name, and they just pick something that sounds similar. In this case Osukaru becomes Oscar. Although the wiki says Ikeda intentionally named her after a man (Oscar Wilde). Spawned a whole generation of Asian made games where Oscar is a girls name, LOL.

[Tomoko Kuroki]

I have following issue with English translation - despite steam language set to English and game language set to English (set in properties of game in steam) it always launch chinese version.
I even tried to uninstall and install game with simplified chinese and change language to english but it does not help. Any pointers how to fix this?

[Shylaar]

I just started playing it and it's still pretty bad; Rickken's assessment is accurate. Spelling errors aren't a problem, but using the wrong forms of words is, and all around it's full of awkward wording that you generally wouldn't see from a native English writer. It's basically in the same state as Vigil, another Chinese game translated into English.
If this is the state of the script after a bunch of patches to address it then I shudder to think of how bad it was before.

[cANe]

Originally posted by Shylaar:

I just started playing it and it's still pretty bad; Rickken's assessment is accurate. Spelling errors aren't a problem, but using the wrong forms of words is, and all around it's full of awkward wording that you generally wouldn't see from a native English writer. It's basically in the same state as Vigil, another Chinese game translated into English.
If this is the state of the script after a bunch of patches to address it then I shudder to think of how bad it was before.

That was also my experience. Dropped the game because when every single text box more or less use the wrong words it takes away from the immersion. Shame that the devs still haven't bothered to fix it despite all this time

[Savoyard]

Originally posted by cANe:

Originally posted by Shylaar:

I just started playing it and it's still pretty bad; Rickken's assessment is accurate. Spelling errors aren't a problem, but using the wrong forms of words is, and all around it's full of awkward wording that you generally wouldn't see from a native English writer. It's basically in the same state as Vigil, another Chinese game translated into English.
If this is the state of the script after a bunch of patches to address it then I shudder to think of how bad it was before.

That was also my experience. Dropped the game because when every single text box more or less use the wrong words it takes away from the immersion. Shame that the devs still haven't bothered to fix it despite all this time

The problem is that small studios lack the funds to hire a professional and the contacts to hire someone with a professional demeanor and work ethic for the translation or even a QC pass. I've seen it in a number of otherwise fantastic games.

Having translated (not video games, not from/into Chinese) professionally myself, the first thing I would do after finishing a published product is retain the assistance of a native speaker to iron out the kinks.

In the case of this game, they've done the heavy lifting fairly well. Someone who is fluent in English can almost always understand the message they're trying to send - but it requires effort to do so.

Leaving the game in this state means that every single player has to do the work of finishing the translation while they're trying to enjoy the game. Polishing it once and releasing a proper translation means that everyone who plays gets to just enjoy the mechanics, the story, and the art (which is no doubt what the devs want).

I don't think they really understand how the game feels to this audience.