Localization: Confessions By Industry Legends

[Discoalucard]

www.hardcoregaming101.net/localization/localization.htm

This is a bit of a change from the norm - an article specifically about localization, rather than any specific game. I believe it was initially published somewhere else awhile back, but this is a full unedited version because we don't have any advertisers to answer to. Hooray!

Also make sure to check out the interviews, especially the MP3s with Jeremy Blaustein. Lots of interesting stuff in there!

And if I may put in request - my graphic design skills are non-existent, so this article doesn't have a real logo. Would anyone with more talent than I be willing to contribute?

[susanismyalias]

Cool beans!

[Haz]

Good article-- I can't believe I used to think Ted Woolsey was a bad guy. =/

[Ryu the Grappler]

I used to be one of those types of "purists" who always felt that a translation wasn't perfect unless it was a word to word translation. But then I realize that something that may sound cool to Japanese ears can be downright stupid when its translated directly into English.

That doesn't mean that there aren't quite a few shoddy translations out there, but most of the bad translations/localizations that I've seen are usually from action games where the plot is secondary to the gameplay or weren't that well written to begin with.

[kimimi]

It depends a lot on the translator - Alexander O Smith (Vagrant Story, Phoenix Wright, FF12) is to me a good example of somebody who writes an "inaccurate" translation that enhances the text for English readers whilst still remaining true to the original meaning. My personal pet peeve are those fan and pro translators who think they're bigger than the game itself and alter or add stuff just because they're trying to be funny or prove how clever they think they are.

[Atma]

Aug 31, 2009 2:05:13 GMT -5 kimimi said:

My personal pet peeve are those fan and pro translators who think they're bigger than the game itself and alter or add stuff just because they're trying to be funny or prove how clever they think they are.

You mean like DeJap? I cannot stand any of their translations whatsoever. There's a difference between making a script read well for an English speaking audience and pointless sex jokes. I don't think I ever got through the first quarter of any game they translated.

Translating Japanese is more art than science and I salute those that work with it and spin it back into a lovely web in English. Literalism kills. Don't do it kids.

[kobushi]

Aug 31, 2009 2:05:13 GMT -5 kimimi said:

My personal pet peeve are those fan and pro translators who think they're bigger than the game itself and alter or add stuff just because they're trying to be funny or prove how clever they think they are.

But that's pretty much what A.O. Smith has done, isn't it? I think you're right in that the translator's creative freedom depends on his or her skill and intent, but the translator's liberty with the text often makes the difference between a good translation and a great one.

Vagrant Story is still probably the best example of video game translation to date, because Smith actually elevated the source material with his use of period language, quality prose, and consistency.

Going in the other direction, the Japanese version of Destroy All Humans! was much better than it had any right to be, thanks to the work of the translators who reworked the original English to make it sing in Japanese.

[wyrdwad]

I think it's only good when the translator's attempts turn out well - as is usually the case with Smith's translations. Some translators just think they're better at it than they actually are, though, and those are the ones Kimimi is referring to, I believe.

-Tom

[Ryu the Grappler]

Aug 31, 2009 2:05:13 GMT -5 kimimi said:

My personal pet peeve are those fan and pro translators who think they're bigger than the game itself and alter or add stuff just because they're trying to be funny or prove how clever they think they are.

You mean like Working Designs and its Bill Clinton jokes in Lunar 2?

[kimimi]

Working Designs and DeJap are both along those lines IMO, yes.

[wyrdwad]

I still maintain that Working Designs had some pretty good translators. They took a few TOO many liberties sometimes, but usually only to garner the same reaction from Americans that the original Japanese line would get from the Japanese. I don't fully support the way they went about this... but I do believe that natural-sounding, flowing dialogue is more important than anything else in translation, and that's something that was consistently true of any and all Working Designs games.

-Tom

[Deleted]

[ReyVGM]

Wow, I've never heard so many Schwarzenegger innuendos in less than 1 minute before. And by someone talking like a funny version of him even!

[kobushi]

Well, I've only played two Working Designs games in English (Vanguard Bandits and Lunar 1), and I've never played a DeJap game, but I shudder at the thought of Bill Clinton jokes and that awful bit from Popful Mail. I hate immersion-breaking.

Like wyrdwad, I understand and respect that Working Designs was trying to recreate the humor from the Japanese source text in English, but maybe the pacing and style of the humor itself (rather than just the content) should have been rewritten. That's the kind of creative freedom I'm referring to.

Take a look at Mario and Luigi RPG 2x2 (Partners in Time in English) on the DS, for example. The translator(s) just nailed the humor in English, neither slavishly following the original text nor going overboard with ill-placed jokes.

[cj iwakura]

Working Designs are very easy to take for granted now, with Atlus and NIS and many other developers bringing oodles of games to the states, but back then, they were pretty much our only hope, and they delivered where everyone else turned a blind eye.

And Popful Mail is a fine example. If WD hadn't brought us that game, who would have?
(Also, that scene is hilarious, and check your pulse if you think otherwise. I miss WD, and that's a key example of why.)

Both Lunar games have held up very well, especially their translations. When every NPC is worth talking to, the localizers did something right.


Also, great article. I've always been interested in one aspect of localization: what decides whether it's better to adapt a game(Phoenix Wright), or translate it directly(Persona 3)?

Both have great localizations, but they each took completely different paths. Would PW be as popular if his name was Japanese, and vice-versa with P3 having an all-American cast(see: Persona 1's infamous localization)?