My problem with the pro localization argument, is I’m enjoying a Japanese property for the sake of its own metrics. I don’t necessarily want to have my dialogue match what’s “normal” for my region, otherwise I’d just purchase a game that was made in the west.
Japanese storytelling (and any other culture for that matter) is unique. Why change it? In Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth, there are some questionable translation choices that I just can’t jive with (eg: majority of Cait Sith’s catlike banter and the casts reaction to it is glossed over.)
Not to mention people thinking the original story is “problematic” and needs to be “fixed.” If you don’t like a cultures games, don’t play them pretty simple.
I’m still gonna play Unicorn Overlord but I’m not happy with these inaccuracies.
His work on Vagrant Story was phenomenal. Japanese scripts tend to be really boring and samey. Without the work of a good localizer, you’d hear the same twenty anime one-liners interspersed throughout the entire game.
There are exceptionally few puns that can be translated literally. One that comes to mind is from a Lipton Limone advert, where Miranda Kerr says 「おいチイ」, when I first heard it I thought it was just an accent thing, but the second time I realised it’s a pun; Tealicious.
I used to see it all the time when I read unofficial transliterations of manga and the translator tried to make the pun work, they’d include a note explaining the joke. Personally I prefer localisation which keeps the spirit of what was meant but the text/lines flows in a much more natural way to a native English speaker.
It’s a common fan translation technique, and–as far as the criticism sourced in good faith goes–I wonder if it’s the genesis of a lot of the grumbling. Back when fans had to rely on independent, amateur translating to have access to more material.
Maybe some of them would just prefer the “literal with footnotes” approach.
I don't think anyone would've complained if the localization's quality was on-par with AA or Vagrant Story, but it looks to me like that isn't the case.
The complaints are largely, as she says, “sacrificed accuracy for flowery prose.” Japanese games in this setting still often follow in the footsteps of early Dragon Quest and the Final Fantasy games set in Ivalice by not strictly using contemporary English.
I think it’s an interesting conversation when it can be divorced from “removing insensitive language is censorship” crowd.
“I mean, the three people still playing it are reeeealy playing it, you know? They engaged in our game like no other! Record player engagement everybody!”
Damn, that was the game I was most excited for. Respawn FPS games are my favorite (TF1/Apex) and I was really interested to see what they’d do with star wars
Didn’t the latest shitty Call of Duty try basically this exact tactic? They cited some sort of record high in player engagement with the campaign, because if you torture statistics hard enough you can make them say anything.
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