A lot of people spend their time bitching about video game localizations these days. There's nothing wrong with that, if they make their feelings known to the localizers and anyone else that matters, it's great. What I never see anyone talk about though are the good localization studios.
What are some of the best game localization studios out there? I really don't know anymore. I thought 8-4 was good based on their work on the Tales series and from comments from a pro translator, but looking at some of their other work, they seem pretty shit too. Maybe they're only good when they're on a tight leash. People seem to have some level of respect for Xseed, I know that they're pretty against censorship, though I'm not sure what their localization practices are like since I've never played an Xseed game. Well, I played a couple hours of the first Trails in the Sky to compare the localization to the original text, but I haven't played more than that yet. It seems pretty good.
>>340901053
BEST LOCALIZATION STUDIOS
1. Xseed
2. Xseed
3. ...Working Designs?
4. Xseed
5. Atlus
Nintendo and NISA get a C-. Atlus gets a B, maybe, everyone else gets an A.
none are good. there might be one are two that are sub par but that's about it.
>>340906270
>3. ...Working Designs?
Have you ever played any single Working Designs game or are you just regurgitating opinions you heard on the internet?
Their localizations are terrible
>>340906270
>Working Designs
Are you kidding me? Working Designs is total garbage. Poor knowledge of japanese, liberal "localizations" with out-of-place pop culture references, awful english dubs, some changes make no sense whatsoever, etc.
>>340906270
>Atlus
Not with the way they handle honorifics. But I guess that's still better than most others.
>>340908427
They only do that in Persona 3, 4, and their spinoffs.
>>340906270
>Working Designs?
What? Fuck off.
>>340907841
>>340907920
He has to include an awful opinion most people disagree with to get replies.
Basic psychology.
>>340907920
I don't think I've even heard of Working Designs.
>>340901053
What game?
>>340913183
Trails in the Sky
>>340913183
Trails in the Sky. Picked it because a lot of people say it has an excellent localization, and it seemed pretty good from what I played.
Fantranslation is the best. If only the leader isn't some autist.
>>340914089
Fan translations are usually so stiff and samey though.
>>340901053
There are some problems with the first TiTS game, but most of the problems got patched. Still I hate some fo the name choices they made like Bladelord, but overall it's good.
>>340916305
As expected of fantranslators! Even if you say that, i-it's not like I like them or anything.
>>340914089
As long as they're good, sure. You even see some very liberal translations in fan translations at times (though most people don't notice it). Others are too literal. But yeah, there are great, skilled people who do fan translations, most people who translate entertainment start out in fan translation anyway.
>>340916305
That's because it's full of amatures and only has little to no quality checking and brainstorming over how to make things sound better. I do fan and official translations, just of manga, nothing like video games which are a whole different beast. I usually get one or two people to take a look at what I translate to see if they can catch any mistakes or weird wording, and I always read through everything I do and end up changing stuff to make it sound better anyway. In most official projects I've been involved in I just type up a script, send it in, and I'm done, but I know that it's all put through some quality checking. One official project I was part of I was also a quality checker, and that one had an insane amount of checking. We were at it awhile and it went through a huge amount of changes, big and small.
>>340917484
>As expected off
Ugh. I try my hardest to avoid that phrase, "it can't be helped", and some others.
>>340917975
Oh neat, someone with actual experience on the subject. How'd you get into the scene? I'm sharping my meager skills on fan stuff but would love to do the real deal.
Do you get a chance to hash it out with your checkers/editors? Say, if you put in something that seems odd at first glance but needs to be odd for stylistic reasons or just because the original happens to be weird as well.
>>340919013
I kinda lucked into it. Did fan translations for awhile (still do) and a company emailed me, saying they liked what they saw and asked if I'd do stuff for them. I'm not an employee though, just freelance. I'll leave notes or speak with someone when I want to make sure something isn't changed. That's a problem in the translation industry, often times once the translator finishes their work, their involvement is over, and changes are made to the script to try to improve it, but sometimes they unknowingly fuck something up since it seems it's usually done by people who can't even read Japanese.
I try not to let things sound too odd though. Of course, I'm not perfect. I try to maintain accuracy, but if something needs to be changed a bit to sound better in English, I'll do it. Really, you should concern yourself with the intent behind the words, not the words themselves, as long as you can still convey what the author meant to convey, it's fine. Though even then sometimes you still lose something in translation.
>Xseed
There is trying, and then there is Nintendo of Europa.
The latter is good at its job.
>>340908427
Only with games based in Japan, senpai. I'd rather have that than a hamburger eating Apollo scenario.
>>340921421
So what do you do if something is completely untranslatable? Like it's a pun based on how the kanji of something can also be written as a reference to some obscure piece of Japanese pop culture no one but the Japanese would get?
Do you toss out the entire thing and substitute something else? Do you add translator's notes?
Speaking of which, you ever get cases where you feel like there's a joke or reference in the original Japanese that you just aren't getting? Like you can't even tell what the punchline is.
>>340921421
Thanks for the response, that's pretty much what I've been aiming for. Hurts just a little bit knowing that the best you can do still won't carry everything across but it's fun trying to get as close as you can. The biggest pain in the ass for me at my level is trying to keep the writing style while still putting out proper English grammar. Often the way they present information in a sentence has to be reversed in order to english properly, but if you do that you mess up the intended order of who does what before what.
It's really hard to get constructive opinions around here on translations, so it's good to hear from someone like you. Cheers, keep doing what you're doing.
Video game localizations literally exist so you don't have to learn a different language to play the game. Ironically, with how shitty localizations are these days, that's what people are being forced to do.
>localizing cold killing machine personality to Doomguy
This kind of edge is too crude for a refined lady such as Renne
Square enix in general I have no complaints towards
>>340922750
>Only with games based in Japan, senpai.
I don't think SMT does it. I wasn't even talking about them using Japanese honorifics anyway, but their implementation. For Persona, they say that they keep them to retain relationship nuances, but they put everyone on a first name basis which fucks that all up. They also mix in English honorifics. Sometimes teachers are Mr/Mrs something, other times you'll see students say "sensei", and other terrible things. If they'd pick one or the other, it'd be better.
>>340922924
>So what do you do if something is completely untranslatable?
Cry a little. Times like that are a case by case basis, you just have to do what seems best at the time. Like one time a character name was based on the Japanese pronunciation of an English word and made no sense in English. I considered leaving it alone, I don't like pointless name changes, but it would have been lazy, and the author wanted the name to be obviously based on that word. Leaving it alone would have lost that, so I altered it to be based off the English pronunciation of the word. It's the one and only time I've changed a name up to this point. As for
>some obscure piece of Japanese pop culture no one but the Japanese would get?
I haven't head to deal with that yet, so I'm not sure. I don't like using translator notes more than I can help it, but that'd certainly be a situation in which to leave one. It would also depend on the client if it was an official job, and how they want it done.
Out of space, continued next post.
>>340922924
Transistor glamour being a commonly used Japanese phrase to describe thicc and curvy girls. I still dont get wtf it means. Repurposing English words to mean something completely different always annoys me, like マスコミ meaning media when its the shortened form of mass communication
>hiring classically trained actors for your voices
>impressive
>choosing your actors so that characters from the same nation have the same accent (American-ish for Rabanastre, British for Arcadia, Welsh for the sky city )
>very fucking impressive
Nothing tops this game's localization.
>>340907841
>>340907920
>>340911528
>>340911998
> I just hate Lunar!
>>340924369
>Repurposing English words to mean something completely different
On the other hand if I see one more doujin where they just straight transliterate ビッチ to 'bitch' I'm gonna shit blood.
>>340917484
Its more like you dont have other choice
>>340906270
>>340925448
>>340925448
>> I just hate Lunar!
Vic go away.
>>340901053
trails in the sky is shi and boring
>>340924340
>Speaking of which, you ever get cases where you feel like there's a joke or reference in the original Japanese that you just aren't getting? Like you can't even tell what the punchline is.
Yeah that's happened before. Have to really think about those. Usually they can be figured out with enough pondering, most Japanese jokes seem to be wordplay. Like the classic "dare mo denwa ni denwa!" It's just "No one answered the phone!" but the joke is that denwa is phone and it's also a way that "denai yo" is said in certain dialects, and it means "didn't answer" in this case. I know it doesn't sound funny, it's one of those things that you have to experience for yourself. Puns are pretty much untranslatable.
>>340923048
Just keep experimenting. People improve through failing and learning from their failures. Everyone tries some new idea that sounds good in their head but doesn't end up so good in practice. 頑張れ、名無しさん。
>>340923236
Ha, never really thought about it that way.
>>340923707
I haven't really played many Square-Enix games in the last several years, but it seems like they're getting better. Replaying old Final Fantasy games from the 80s and 90s in Japanese, it's pretty easy to see how badly some of them were handled. Let us not even speak of the jokes that are most Dragon Quest localizations. It sounds like Final Fantasy at least has some pretty solid localizations these days, though I haven't played any FF past VII in Japanese yet, and I don't know if I care enough about X and above to play them in Japanese.
>WORDS WORDS WORDS WORDS: the game
I don't get why people unironically like this.
>>340925458
Is ビッチ suppose to me something completely different, like slut?
>>340925853
>Puns are pretty much untranslatable
>萌える/燃える
augh everytime
>>340925812
I disagree
>>340924369
>Transistor glamour being a commonly used Japanese phrase to describe thicc and curvy girls.
I didn't know about that one. Not sure why that is... but the Japanese are weird. "Style" often means "body". Usually if you see a fan-translated porn that talks about a girl's style it should have been saying that she has a bangin' bod. Not always though, I think it should be pretty obvious to tell when style is and isn't natural. There's also Viking, it means "all-you-can-eat". Apparently there was a fairly well known restaurant that was trying to think of a name to give to an all-you-can-eat thing. Smorgasbord was too hard for them to pronounce, so one guy suggested using the name of a movie that was playing, that movie being "Viking", so they went with that and it stuck.
> マスコミ meaning media
The Japanese love contracting words. They contract fucking everything.
>>340924785
I'm not a huge FF XII fan, but the localization is really top notch.
>>340926204
Depends how interesting the words are. I haven't played them yet, so I can't give an opinion on them, but I ended up liking Planescape: Torment for the words.
>>340926691
Yeah, "bitch" is just a word for "slut" in Japanese.
>>340926691
It's slut. It's what you call a girl who takes more dicks than you'd like. Over here we use bitch as 'girl who won't take my dick' which is the exact fucking opposite meaning.
>>340926834
FC is boring as fuck.
SC picks up around Chapter 4.
So yeah, he's right.
>>340927071
It's not boring if you like the characters, so yeah I still disagree.
>>340925458
It literally means bitch
And Im using literally right here
>>340926834
i played trails in the sky on steam, i reallly tryed to get into it, but its just boring and bad, it felt like those games you could make yourselv with a rpg maker
>>340927239
>liking the characters
Only Estelle and Olivier are funny enough to be likable. The rest are shitty cliches.
Anyone want to name some specific games they thought were well done in terms of localization/translation?
It's often hard to tell without seeing the original, especially since the jp VAs rarely make it over intact.
requesting the pic of all of the tokyo mirage sessions censorship changes so we can all see how shit nintendo is
>>340927375
If you could make a game that's well paced, with great world building, down to earth lovable characters and an incredibly memorable soundtrack then I would like your rpg maker game too.
Everyone is OK so long as they're not tainted with Nintendo cancer. XSEED is the best.
>>340924369
https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transistor_Glamour
pop culture word accepted by Japanese based off an old band where the girl was curvy/busty+short
>>340927529
What's wrong with cliche's? There all fleshed out enough (except for Zane) for that not to matter anyway. Whether you find them likeable or not is up to you. I personally liked them all and greatly enjoyed the development of Joshua and Estelle's characters and their relationship enough to forgive the slow pace of the first game.
>>340927728
>well paced
>literally a 40 hours prologue
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
>>340928003
Is that the case of pop culture as a meme being incorporated to internet language? Even if I know it's origin, I still don't get why it's so. Transistor glamour literally does not describe body types in the English language
>>340928362
>Estelle
>"HURR DURR I'M SUCH A TOMBOY RETARD HERP DERP"
>"I'm still a tomboy, but not a complete retard this time! Look how everyone points out how I shine like the sun and how much I've grown!"
>Joshua
>"I have a 1000 IQ and am super nice and obviously in love with Estelle"
>"Ups, guess I'm an edgelord now!"
>"After your confesion of love, I guess I'm not an edgelord anymore!"
10/10 writing.
>>340927728
the most important aspect for me is gameplay, for you its different, different people, different taste, i play games for the gameplay, you apparently dont, thats okay dude
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SIVqRox3v4s
>>340929205
Eh, I went into the game knowing that it was very story heavy. I would have prioritized the gameplay if I didn't know that fact.
>>340901053
Makai Kingdom.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5w7YTW_lNdw
>>340929651
>Eh, I went into the game knowing that it was very story heavy
If is so story heavy, why is it still so unmemorable and generic?
>>340927703
It's a really small example, but I really like Luigi's "Grass, bro! Grass!" From The Thousand Year Door. In the Japanese version it was "I was grass! Grass on the side of the road!" or something like that. Not as funny in English, but the localizers made it both accurate and memorable (something I'm not sure modern NoA can do).
Oh, an even better one, from the SNES version of Chrono Trigger. I remember people saying that "Mystics" is actually "Demons" in the Japanese version. That's not exactly true. In the Japanese version they're called Mazoku (魔族). Zoku is easy, it's clan/tribe. Ma (魔) is the tricky one. A generic translation is demon or evil or something, but it can be translated numerous ways. There are certain connotations attached to the kanji that are really hard to describe, but you learn them after enough experience. One connotation it draws up is magic or something inherently magical. The Mazoku cold use magic long after humans lost their ability to. Maybe not all of them, but I think they're all inherently magical to some degree. Some aren't even antagonistic. So I think Woolsey's "Mystics" is perfect for them, much better than "demons" or the DS verision's "Fiends".
To add to that, Magus is called Maou (魔王) in Japanese. It's a generic bad guy term, like "Dark Lord". It's often translated as Demon/Devil Lord/King. Again though, it can be translated other ways too, and since he was a master of magic, something like sorcerer supreme or something would fit, but that's too long, so he picked Magus, which is a good fit.
>>340929952
I just realized you asked for specific games, not examples. Apparently I can't read.
The early Paper Mario games seem really well done, but I haven't played them in Japanese yet. FF XII is really well done, as is the DS version of IV I think (I haven't played it since years before I could read Japanese, but I know for sure that it's the best English localization of any version of IV yet, even if it is overly flowery). Probably a lot of other good examples, but I can't think of them at the moment; sorry.
>>340928594
It's kinda like how people here know that Burgers means Americans and Mustards means PC gamers.
>>340929651
I went in blind. I got the game years ago on a steam sale, so i dont really care too hard. I played 5 hours, i really gave it a chance and didnt just stop after a minute. The story felt rather cliche in the first 5 hours. Im just glad i got it very cheap on a sale, i wont be spending money on the series anymore.
>>340929852
I didn't find it unmemorable or generic though to be fair I've only played a small handful of JRPGs. What JPRGs on steam are worth getting then?
>>340929952
>>340930410
Still a real neat example, thanks. Sometimes you just gotta tweak things to get the intent across.
Is there any reason why voice acting isn't glamorized as heavily as it is in Japan?
I feel like localizations could do so much better with a proper cast. Tales games are pretty good even when they have clearly American jokes somewhere. But I'm tired of hearing JYB, Yuri Lowenthal, and Laura Bailey in almost every game somewhere.
>>340923670
I'm convinced that it's just one person in every thread calling her localization Doomguy, and posting that same image. No one really got that impression from her.
>>340932151
I've heard that Laura Bailey doesn't do anime stuff anymore. Her and Troy Baker. A shame really, tired as I am of hearing Toy Baker, they're both pretty good.
>>340932886
That's a surprise. About Bailey. I knew Troy left the anime stuff awhile ago. A real shame since he made Yuri (Vesperia) so likable despite his appearance and I only associate Snow (FFXIII) with his voice alone.
>>340917975
>Ugh. I try my hardest to avoid that phrase, "it can't be helped", and some others.
My pet peeves:
>Bastard!
>You're really pissin' me off!
>Shit!
everywhere.
>>340929952
In general I really like Woolsey translations.
>>340901053
They're all really bad.
Tactics Ogre has a fantastic one. Same people did Vagrant Story, which is just as good.
For the translators here, mind giving us an example of the worst thing you had to translate? Like, something so incomprehensible when it's not in Japanese you just want to throw your hands in the air and go "FUCK IT, JUST TOSS IN A MEME"
>>340901053
Frognation, the team that localizes Dark Souls and Bloodborne
In English, they are called the Lords of Cinder.
Now, to me, "cinder" implies hot fragments in a burnt out fire. So Lords that have already burnt up and had their fire go out, or begin to go out, at least.
In Japanese, they are called 薪の王(たきぎのおう = Takigi no Oh). The word takigi and the Kanji being used for it straight up mean firewood.
Boreal Valley was originally translated as Frigid Valley in the network test.
Are hentai sex scenes really that bizarrely written in the original Japanese? Because I swear there's a secret cabal of scanlators who are just fucking with us and making up half of this shit.
>>340936169
They most certainly are fucking with you. They rewrite almost everything. Japanese porn writing is pretty bland.
What do you moonrune speaking think of the Mother 3 translation? I've seen a few people shit on it.
>>340936059
Crown of the Iron King (item)
English:
The King sunk below the scorching iron, met the one whose name must never be repeated, and became Ichorous Earth.
Japanese:
王は鉄に沈んだ後、名を禁じられた者と出会い、溶けた土となった
After he sank into the iron, the king met one whose name is forbidden, and became molten earth.
Velstadt, the Royal Aegis 王盾ヴェルスタッド King's Shield Velstadt
http://pastebin.com/gy6v34YE
>>340936169
Look at our porn writing, what makes you think they do any better?
>>340923707
This comparison between the Final Fantasy 4 translations is really interesting.
legendsoflocalization.com/final-fantasy-iv/
>>340935907
>"FUCK IT, JUST TOSS IN A MEME"
I put a meme in a translation once, but that's because it was in there to begin with, the kimoi girls meme. Not really sure what the worst thing I translated was though. It's a pun, I know that for sure.
>>340936059
The Dark Souls localizations seem pretty good for the most part. I've seen some weird ones (like Nimble Shadows, and the Pyromancy and Hex names which are really odd), but in general, they seem really good. Haven't played much of Dark Souls yet, but it's the first Japanese game I've played in English in a long time. It's one of those games that are so western they'd feel weird in Japanese.
>薪の王
>Firewood Kings
Yeah, I'm liking the sound of Lords of Cinder quite a bit more as well.
>>340936059
As there is no Japanese dub at all, I'm fairly certain the English dialogue is the proper translation. The Japanese text certainly did not match the English dub at all. The English dub had a lot more flavor.
>>340936169
Usually, yeah. Sometimes they're so weird I ask another translator where I went wrong only for them to confirm that I got it right.
>>340936456
Not really. I've said it elsewhere in the thread but I maintain accuracy as much as possible but am not afraid to change what needs to be changed to sound more natural in English. The best translators I know all do the same thing. I do know some that get pretty liberal though, and a there's a lot that are rigidly literal too. There is indeed a lot of bland writing in Japanese porn, but there are always exceptions. Karma Tatsurou is always pretty crazy.
>>340936609
I STILL haven't played the Mother series. The translator seems pretty good given what I've read on his website, but he made that translation a long time ago, so I imagine he'd improved a lot since then.
>>340937801
What have you worked on, anon?
>Play Japanese version
>Shiki speaks English
>Play English version
>Shiki "speaks French" even when you can clearly hear her voice actor speaking English
Thanks Xseed.
Dragon's Dogma is an example of good localization, though from what I remember Dark Arisen's BBI had some misses.
English Daimon's voice is definitely shit in comparison to the Japanese Daimon.
>>340938072
Lots of things, I stopped keeping track after 100. Probably 130+ things now.
>>340917484
EVEN AT A TIME LIKE THIS!
I don't know who handles The Witcher game localizations, but they're damn good.
>>340938092
That's pretty commonly done, but if you can hear the original VA speaking English... That's a tricky situation.
>>340938404
Tell me a well known one.
>>340938395
WOLVES
>>340938547
>tricky
They can just put it in Japanese there instead.
>>340936853
Because Nip writing sounds like they're looking up a sex ed textbook while they write it? Half the time they use the technical names for body parts and it just sounds weird.
>>340938895
But then we can't read it, and sometimes the English is so Engrishy you genuinely don' realise they're speaking English. That or you're not really paying attention to the voices as you're expecting to not being able to understand it anyway.
What confuses me is when Shiki says something in English like "LETSU ENJOY LIFE" and it's changed to "Let's par-tay!"
Why though? Let's Enjoy Life is perfectly fine.
>>340938689
Well if you must know
http://exhentai.org/g/942351/bb280c1049/
Nothing particularly special about the translation of this one, I just liked it.
>>340938895
Doesn't really work so well since it'd break the illusion. I mean, when we play translated games we're already accepting the fact that all these Japanese people are speaking in English, but if they suddenly start speaking in Japanese it's really weird. Plus, most English natives wouldn't understand "こんちは!あたしは綺麗な日本の忍者!」or whatever. Guess you could argue that they wouldn't need to if they were speaking in English, but it depends on how well they can actually speak English.
>>340939420
>what is romaji
>>340939590
It breaks illusion? And French doesn't? They won't be able to understand it? There are over 130 million Japanese speakers and less than 10 million French speakers.
>>340937336
Frognation is responsible for the voice acting and localization. They're pretty fucking good.
>>340901053
Only EOPs bitch about localisations and let's be honest, their opinions have no worth.
>>340901053
Not a localization studio
But this guy
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_O._Smith
His work on Vagrant Story is still the best localization I have ever seen/played
>>340939834
Even if it's written in English letters, that's not going to magically allow you to understand Japanese. It's really only work for the average person if it was romanji but Engrish, but at that point you're just writing Engrish in English.
>>340922598
What the fuck is this
>>340940249
It being in French doesn't magically allow me to understand French. Are you being intentionally dense?
What I want to know is why in Lyrical Nanoha they hired western voice actors to do the voices of the devices but the VAs didn't point out their scripts weren't exactly good written right.
>>340939834
>It breaks illusion? And French doesn't?
I don't know, it would bug me less if it was any language but Japanese. It really depends on if it's even meant to be understood. Just small English words thrown out here and there? Yeah, Japanese are expected to know what "Hello" is, but sometimes they're not meant to, like when you meet a character speaking full English sentences. Take this English speaking little girl from Persona 4 for example, it was supposed to be a surprise and the writers knew that not everyone would understand it, that's why it was changed to Spanish in the English version. It's a case by case basis though.
What kills me these days is after picking up a decent amount of nipponese and fucking around with some translating on the side, whenever I read something there's inevitably lines where you know exactly what the the original was because of the stilted translation.
It hurts, man. Get an editor or something. I know there's pressure to put things out as fast as possible but christ.
>>340940337
http://legendsoflocalization.com/whats-with-these-pooper-and-retard-lines-in-corpse-party/
Also, thread related
http://legendsoflocalization.com/the-exciting-ups-and-painful-downs-of-game-localization/
>>340940624
Different anon here, as someone who has the misfortune to live in a country with a bunch of filthy fucking french-speaking wannabe-traitor/deserters, I absolutely despise when translators make engrish into french. Rips me right out of the game and usually permanently ruins any immersion of suspense of disbelief. Why not use some Scandinavian language or something?
>>340940360
French and English are far more related than English and Japanese, you autistic faggot.
Just learn Japanese already and stop being a pathetic fucking manchild wanting a company to carter to the interests of an extreme minority group. Localisation is about brining something into a cultural context which doesn't have an awareness of the language of the original context.
There is nothing worse than those insufferable faggots who do things like complain about honorific and the like. Yeah, we get it: you know one tiny thing about the language and want to have it included so you can feel better about yourself than those who want to play the game but don't know anything about the language. It's fucking pathetic. Either grow up and learn the language or accept that localisations are designed for people who are entirely foreign to the language.
>>340940917
Yeah I know what you mean. Like "My head's turning weird!" or something.
>>340941108
Then the Scandinavians would be writing your post suggesting French.
>>340940928
>I do not have a degree in Japanese. While I can use the hell out of dictionary tools and have fairly good reading abilities, I cannot speak Japanese on a conversational level.
Is this kind of thing common?
>>340927703
I really like the Tactics Ogre psp remake and Vagrant Story translations.
>>340941341
>Then the Scandinavians would be writing your post suggesting French.
Then use Icelandic. I'm pretty sure Iceland does not have anywhere near the same number of negative connotations that french does. I mean, all they ever did was sign a treaty for independence from Denmark. Whereas hating the french is a national sport in many countries.
>>340941501
Probably. I do some official translations but I don't have a degree or a JLTP certificate. Some companies at least want a JLPT certificate, but not all of them. I'm not a bad translator. In fact, I think I generally make things sound pretty good. If I make mistakes, I generally don't have to worry about people who can't read Japanese noticing (of course, I try my hardest not to and fix mistakes that do turn up if I can).
I can read and translate Japanese a lot better than I can write or speak it, that's for sure. That's because I use my reading skills constantly, but I don't have much use for writing or speaking it. Before I got into translating I assumed most official translators were absolute masters of Nihongo. The more I learn though, the more I realize that many are just people who know a thing or two about Japanese, some better or worse than others. Even pros make some really dumb mistakes too.
Also, degrees and certificates don't really mean much (that applies to most degrees and certificates). Sometimes people who are good at taking and passing tests aren't good in practice. There are JLPT N1 people who suck as translators, and great translators who can't pass JLPT N1.
I guess the problem with localisation is that Japanese is too nuanced. Like, there's really no way to differentiate between "Watashi" and Boku" unless you want to do something like
" I(masculine pronoun) went to the shops"
And it can be a problem when the usage of masculine pronouns might be important to the character, like a tomgirl or something
>>340940928
>http://legendsoflocalization.com/the-exciting-ups-and-painful-downs-of-game-localization/
What is Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth?
some things dont translate well but i think japanese itself is just a really boring language. they dont have a melting pot of words like we do in english, with many things borrowed over a thousand years. which is why ytou see the phrase it cant be helped and daijobu over and over and over
>>340943435
That's something I'm noticing more and more. Japanese can be pretty interesting at times, but it's pretty stale for the most part. Wonder why that is? Might have something to do with them being historically isolationist, but that's just an uneducated guess.
>>340943981
Japanese people are pretty dull to be honest too, at least the males.
The worst part is that every time I've been to Japan, I get this really strange feeling that everything being wacky is just a way these people hide their levels of wanting to suicide.
>>340944291
>I get this really strange feeling that everything being wacky is just a way these people hide their levels of wanting to suicide.
I've never been to Japan unfortunately, but I've thought for years that it's just how the express themselves, they're such a repressed society.
>>340934038
What's wrong with that? The translation is pretty much what she said in Japanese.
