|
This is the first time I'm seeing the English version of this game, and since I obviously have an interest in how text and plot heavy games are translated, I'm playing along and comparing the lines one by one. The first thing I'll say is that at first glance, the game takes the current strategy Fedule and I are employing in DR2 (only, being professionals, they do it much better) - pretty much every line but the most trivial are not literal translations. There's reordering, changes to text, additions and removals (sometimes of entire lines) to make the game flow better in English, but at the same time it tries to be in line which what the original text conveys. Some things here would drive literal-translation lovers nuts - when the mysterious girl says she's "plenty friendly" in English, she's objecting to being called a "brat" in Japanese. The characters throw a gag into lines that are delivered straight in Japanese, and deliver straight lines where there was a gag in the original. That kind of stuff. The most drastic change I can see from this short sequence is the character of Zero III, which gives me very different vibes in Japanese and English. I'll have to see how this develops later in the game, but I'll even go to say they changed its personality quite a bit. Japanese Zero III speaks fast but straight in a kinda psychotic manner, and gives me an off-putting, menacing vibe. English Zero III speaks slowly and deliberately, and amps the theatrics and wackiness way up. "If I told you now, that'd be cheating", "Most. Important. Thing", "Waaaay down". "Yes indeedy" -- these are all translation embellishments. I'm not sure I like it, but again - this is a short sequence and I want to see more before I form a better opinion.
|
#
¿
May 23, 2013 16:03
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ Apr 25, 2024 07:44 |
|
|
Aerdan posted:I probably would have gone for Gratuitous Latin or so to replace the Japanese version's Gratuitous English, personally. (Or Gratuitous <insert item="language"/>.) I think most of the cases on "English" being used is not particularly gratuitous. Japanese, as a language, is heavily reliant on loan words, both from English (and other western language) and from Chinese. The Chinese parts of the language were borrowed so long ago that they're transformed enough to be almost unrecognizable as such by now, but I consider even the English words to be actual words in the Japanese language, that happen to have a western etymology. To pick a really nice example from right over here - the word "geemu" ("game") has no real "pure" Japanese counterpart that means exactly the same thing, and it's used in real life as often as it's used in English. That word kept roughly the same original meaning, but then you also have your "road shows" and "cunning" and "my cars" and hundreds of other examples of common Japanese words that are already transformed to mean something fairly different from their usual English meaning.
|
|
#
¿
May 27, 2013 07:07
|
|
|
Nidoking posted:As for Zero III's nicknames for everyone, I can never catch all of them, but I don't believe they're puns in Japanese. It just refers to Sigma as "Sigma" and Phi as "Phi-kun", for example - rather condescending ways to refer to someone that, as any Japanese translator will tell you, have no equivalent in English and tend to cause problems any time they become relevant to the dialogue. I think the use of nicknames is pretty clever, although it makes Zero III sound a bit meaner than was perhaps intended. Calling Dio "B.O." is just childish, and I don't think it was meant to come across that way. It's more an "I'm superior to you, and I'm in control of everything, so I'll talk to you however I like." The nicknames are completely an invention on the part of the translator. They aren't really necessary here as a cultural-equivalent to honorifics - Zero III uses -kun for everyone but Tenmyouji, who gets just a little more respect with a -san. That's the subordinate use of -kun (as in, what teachers call their students, or bosses their workers), and doesn't really fit the nicknames. That is, this is simply a translation embellishment. The rabbit puns are also much more prevalent than the ~usa tick J-Zero3 has. In Japanese, the tick comes and goes, and there are long stretches of dialogue where he doesn't use it at all. In English, the puns continue nonstop once he starts using them.
|
|
#
¿
May 27, 2013 19:26
|
|
|
Fat Samurai posted:24,009,004,897? It's worth mentioning they changed this number in the translation. In Japanese, it's 24494897.
|
|
#
¿
Jun 5, 2013 17:06
|
|
|
I am still doing a comparative reading line by line with the original Japanese version, though I was a little behind. The Gaulem Bay escape sequence has some interesting tidbits which I thought I'd share before I go on to that last update, which is sure to have many interesting translation decisions. - Unless it's a mistake in the transcription, there's a strangely off translation right at the beginning: Sigma: What?! Any way you look at it, it's a robot! Luna: Then maybe it's a robot...? Sounds a little strange. That's because Sigma's line should actually be more along the line of "Any way you look at it, it's made of metal!" - The "Chevron blocks" were originally "くーshaped blocks". Describing the shapes of things in terms on kana characters is fairly common in Japanese, and I think the solution the translator used is brilliant. - I have no idea why they took away the original reference here, because it makes much more sense. Luna's parade derail is originally about the "Electrical Paradise" at a popular theme park called "Dozuraanindi". That last one is an anagram of "Dizuni Rando". I think you can guess what that means. - Pun translations are always fun. Here we have "Hoshi ga hoshii!" (I want a star) translated into "A starring role". - Luna is slightly less stupid in the original, because she reads the "2" in the upside-down message not as a "Z" but as the kanji "乙", which actually does look a little like what was on the screen. - From time to time the translator just decides to write something on his own, beyond the stuff that's required out of a good translation. In this room, Sigma's empathic description of the robot army marching towards our gang with dead, inhuman eyes is the translator's invention. In the original, it's a simple "Just thinking about them waking up makes my skin crawl."
|
|
#
¿
Jun 22, 2013 18:50
|
|
|
Nidoking posted:In Japanese, at least, China is 中国, where the first character, 中, means middle and the second one, 国, means country or kingdom. (The radical inside the box, minus the little apostrophe-looking bit, is the kanji for "king", 王.) It still makes little to no sense, but like you said, that's Phi. Except that's not what the Japanese line is about at all. Honestly, it's one of the few cases where the Japanese is much better than the translation they came up with. 506's last line in Japanese is "Chuuka, jissai ni...", "Speaking of, to tell you the truth...". Chuuka is a colloquial contraction of "tte iu ka" ("speaking of"). It's also how you say "Chinese food." Phi's line originally goes, "Chuuka -> Chinese food -> Twice-cooked pork!" (yes, with the arrows in the text), which puts a nice cap on the food-talk joke.
|
|
#
¿
Jun 29, 2013 15:36
|
|
|
Instant Grat posted:I understood that line to mean that, with 5 BP, betraying won't help him get out any quicker - 2 rounds of ally/ally and he'll be out, and it's the same for Luna. Betrayal will only serve to cause people to distrust him - ally/ally or betray/ally, he's still one round away from the magic 9. Sigma's lines are unchanged, but Luna's next line, translated as "Oh... I see...", is more like "Oh, so that's the reason you won't betray..." in a disappointed tone of voice, implying more explicitly she wished he would ally for a more altruistic reason than Nonary game strategy. There is one segment of text in this update that's almost a complete rewrite from the original. Anyone care to guess what it is?
|
|
#
¿
Jul 6, 2013 06:43
|
|
|
kvltmanifesto posted:My money's on the weird airplane/discovering a dead body metaphor thing. Bingo. Basically, this is all completely new material: It's not even replacing anything -- the original has a short sentence about Sigma's feet shaking, and nothing more. The other narration from Sigma regarding the body, both when discovering it and when leaving the scene, is also heavily rewritten for increased pathos. I can't help but fear the translator had some unpleasant experience with a dead body in his past.
|
|
#
¿
Jul 7, 2013 11:02
|
|
|
SingerOfW posted:A question I've been dying to ask ever since this LP started: was the graffiti the same in the Japanese version? Or did they edit it to make a bit more sense? It's the same in Japanese, including the discussion on the spelling.
|
|
#
¿
Aug 4, 2013 14:05
|
|
|
Mister Roboto posted:A Japanese player could probably tell us if there was a certain "voice" they were going for with the secret files. I assumed it was Zero as well, though some of them seem more like a game developer's diary, so...? I always thought the files in VLR were modeled after the writing style of Jiro Ishii's games' "tips" feature. Ishii was the producer of 999, but he isn't involved in VLR. The games he's best known for - Machi, 428 and Time Travelers, all have "tips" - certain words in the narrative are links to a screen of text that sometimes gives additional information about story concepts but is often just completely random and written in a tongue-in-cheek, 4th wall breaking style. They also act as a sort of collectible since some are only available in very specific CYOA routes that you might not even see.
|
|
#
¿
Oct 18, 2013 16:34
|
|
|
For those wondering, the Japanese version has a completely different set of easter egg phone numbers (except for 6969, though the reply is a little different - simply a woman calling Sigma a pervert). The list I found has four of them, but suggests there are more. It took me a while to figure out what some of them mean, and one I still have absolutely no clue about, but for reference -- 4649 (can be read よーろーしーく "Yoroshiku", which is kind of a greeting I don't really feel like explaining right now): 夜露死苦さん: よろしくぅー！ シグマ: え？ 誰だ、今の 。 Yoroshiku-san: Yoroshikuu! Sigma: Huh? Who was that, just now...? Yoroshiku-san's name is also a Kanji pun for "yoroshiku". 7974 (なーくーなーよ "Nakuna yo", "Don't cry") 紳士: きみに涙は似合わないよ。 シグマ: うわっ、寒っ ！ Gentleman: Tears don't look good on you. Sigma: Whoa, pathetic...! 5648 (こーろーしーや "Koroshiya", "professional killer") 殺しや: 俺の後ろに立つな！ シグマ: た、立ちません 。 Killer: Don't stand behind me! Sigma: I-I'm not... This is a catch phrase from Golgo 13. 6256: 火田さん: わしゃしゃしゃしゃしゃしゃ！ 火田さん: わぁーしゃしゃしゃしゃしゃしゃ！ シグマ: 。 Hita? Kaden?-san: Washashashasha! Waaashashashashasha! Sigma: ............ That one I don't get. I'm not even sure how to read the name - there's a science fiction author called Hita whose name is spelled that name, but it's also word ("kaden") related to farming. Anyone knows?
|
|
#
¿
Nov 15, 2013 11:29
|
|
|
whitehelm posted:In the Japanese audio she says she's 20 (the Japanese drinking age) so localization isn't responsible for her age being wrong. It's probably Clover lying. I dunno - it's not like it's exactly one year later. If someone's 19th birthday is soon, they can be called 18 and a year and change later be 20. In any case - the translation is indeed spot on except for the actual age mentioned.
|
|
#
¿
Nov 28, 2013 08:54
|
|
|
Added Space posted:The other end is labeled with the katakana "ra", indicating whatever it is begins with an R if that helps. That's not a ラ. It just sort of looks like one because of the lighting.
|
|
#
¿
Nov 28, 2013 10:32
|
|
|
SingerOfW posted:Huh, so this is what the B in B.Garden probably stands for. The room is straight out called Biotope in the Japanese version. I have no idea why they decided to change it.
|
|
#
¿
Jan 6, 2014 01:00
|
|
|
W.T. Fits posted:Perhaps whoever was in charge of localization figured that the majority of the English speaking audience wouldn't know what a Biotope was, but would know what a Botanical Garden is. Hell, until it was brought up in this thread, I'd never even heard the word "Biotope" before in my life. Well, it's not like Japanese people are experts and know what a Biotope is. In fact, IIRC, the lines that got translated to the group wondering what the B means were originally them having no idea what a Biotope is.
|
|
#
¿
Jan 6, 2014 04:04
|
|
|
flatluigi posted:Dangan Ronpa is a very good game and if you like 999/VLR and/or the Ace Attorney series it's worth picking up. Repeating what several people just said - the official DR localization seems to be really good. Sure, there are things I would do differently, but it's mostly little quibbles. In almost every regard it reads much better than the unedited mess that is the DR1 LP.
|
|
#
¿
Feb 17, 2014 06:43
|
|
|
Hobgoblin2099 posted:I wonder if the panty joke makes Clover seem less dumb in Japanese. Well, it doesn't exactly make her seem smart, but it makes more sense - if Clover is Japanese (and I assume all the 999 characters are), then "panty" is an English word she probably knows while "pantry" she most likely doesn't recognize. It's really easy to make these kind of mistakes in a language you aren't fluent in. Which once again makes me wonder what language they're all "really" speaking. It's probably English, but if so - how can Clover communicate so well? And if we brush it up by saying she took intensive language training for her job or lived abroad for a while, then the panty joke is pretty sloppy writing.
|
|
#
¿
Jul 2, 2014 18:06
|
|
|
Shear Modulus posted:IIRC he said he was a grad student that went to school in California during a flashback. These are all left unchanged. The VLR and 999 translations don't try to change anything in the Japanese script the way games like Phoenix Wright do. Sigma is almost certainly American, as is Alice. The 999 characters, Clover included, are unambiguously Japanese, though, even in the translation. Whenever we learn anyone's real name it's Japanese ("Junpei", "Akane Kurashiki", "Gentarou Hongou" etc.), and whenever we see something from the outside world there are enough hints that set it in Japan.
|
|
#
¿
Jul 2, 2014 23:16
|
|
|
Hyper Crab Tank posted:Just that if I remember right, Cradle Pharmaceutical is supposed to be an American company and presumably has services in the United States - yet the higher-ups are all Japanese and all the kids they kidnapped for the first Nonary Project were from Japan? I mean, I get why the authors would do that, it just seems like a weird coincidence in-game. Uchikoshi seems to have a thing for pharmaceutical companies with joint Japanese/foreign management. The Infinity series games he wrote also had one.
|
|
#
¿
Jul 3, 2014 09:45
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ Apr 25, 2024 07:44 |
|
|
Fedule posted:So actually Aksys and I are both correct, and the error comes from Spike Chunsoft! (Unless someone can explain how it makes any goddamn sense for Tenmyouji to be explaining stuff that Sigma only just now learned from Alice) Maybe Aksys noticed but left it in? Or maybe they just didn't do enough context-checking to spot this tiny error (funfact: game translation, IRL, is often done in spreadsheets and almost entirely divorced of context). Another clue is that the first phrase in the translated version -- "Dio and I stared at one another" -- is completely absent in the original, and is a localization embellishment. Dio and Sigma aren't mentioned at all in the Japanese version, which means the translator had enough context to know Dio was even in this scene, and that it's probably just an oversight that went unnoticed and nothing to do with context-unaware translations.
|
|
#
¿
Nov 19, 2014 05:59
|
|