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Post by Woody Alien on Nov 15, 2020 7:11:11 GMT -5
I opened this topic not because I wanted to discuss the game in itself, but because I read the article linked at the bottom and, since I'm curious about the localization processes, I was wondering whether the two writers did a good job or not. When I started reading the comments on that article I began thinking "ah those people who are always complaining about translations and being bitter about them, can't they get a life?"; however, after a while, I started thinking that maybe they weren't so wrong as I had assumed. Basically I'm undecided if XSEED's job was unprofessional or not. On one hand the two authors are obviously qualified and mention that enjoy doing their job and approaching it with a fellow gamer mentality. On the other though it seemed to me that they had on their hands another quirky cute grindy JRPG nobody could give 2 shits about and so decided to "spice things up" by adding a huge quantity of puns, obscure references and random wackiness to the point it seems very forced instead of natural-flowing and, as somebody in those comments said, more similar to a fan translation than a professional work. The author of the HG101 article enjoyed it and I can see how a good script can turn the most banal, grindy game in something fun and memorable, though when the localizators put in their article a table comparing the original Japanese, the translated text and the final adapted text, I was almost convinced of what the commenters said. It's true that this is a comedy game, but who really talks like that, putting a pun in each and every sentence? It becomes annoying quickly and I don't think that, if Japanese humor doesn't translate well, the best option is to find an equivalent example and then crank it up to eleven. Also, I think that both Work x Work and Heroland are both incredibly generic and uninteresting titles for a game and, even after the explanation, I still couldn't get why both Japan and USA would give their game an unappealing title like that. But that's my problem so...
I remember someone who worked at XSEED was a regular on this forum so it would have been interesting to know what he thought about this...
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Post by dsparil on Nov 15, 2020 9:45:57 GMT -5
The author of the HG101 article enjoyed it and I can see how a good script can turn the most banal, grindy game in something fun and memorable, though when the localizators put in their article a table comparing the original Japanese, the translated text and the final adapted text, I was almost convinced of what the commenters said. It's true that this is a comedy game, but who really talks like that, putting a pun in each and every sentence? It becomes annoying quickly and I don't think that, if Japanese humor doesn't translate well, the best option is to find an equivalent example and then crank it up to eleven. I got the same impression when that article came out last year. I think it actually convinced me to not get it because it did come across as so forced. Comedy is a tricky thing to get right in the first place let alone translate, and less is almost always more. |
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Post by Discoalucard on Nov 18, 2020 15:21:30 GMT -5
Real talk: I actually forgot about posting this article for a long time since I'd confused with Evoland, a different game that also had a review from a different writer. So I thought I'd posted it until reviewing something else, and realized, oh, it's actually a totally different game and it'd just gotten lost in the queue.
This article convinced me to give Heroland a shot at least - managed to find the PS4 version for $20 at Best Buy.
I don't mind this sort of attitude towards localization, I've seen plenty of older games that are basically "this game isn't very good but the English writing makes it somewhat worthwhile". This was basically Working Designs' wheelhouse for games that otherwise wouldn't be worth anyone's time nowadays.
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Post by Woody Alien on Nov 19, 2020 6:04:33 GMT -5
I don't mind this sort of attitude towards localization, I've seen plenty of older games that are basically "this game isn't very good but the English writing makes it somewhat worthwhile". This was basically Working Designs' wheelhouse for games that otherwise wouldn't be worth anyone's time nowadays. Sure, I'm not a purist and I'm not saying what they did is "wrong" per se, just that by reading the linked article makes the two localization authors sound a bit like hypocrites. They say how much they enjoy doing their work and working on this game in particular, but by reading it one has the impression that they found it boring, stupid and unfunny and tried to spice things up to pander to the "nerdy" market and adding a load of references that don't belong, in order to make it more appealing. I can get they can't outright say "this game sucks" but at least try to not come across as doing the opposite of what you preach.
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