How To Deal With Modern JRPG Localization

Western publishers are butchering translations in modern JRPGs more and more. Here's my advice on how to deal with them.
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[Markus.D.K]

I´ve started to learn Japanese several years ago and I´m by no means fluent. Zero/ Azure would still be too difficult to enjoy and Eiyuden Chronicles ( 5 hours in) feels pretty comfortable, while something like Blue Reflection would be quite easy ( watched some hours of lets play before I´ve bought it)
When I see all the controversy with localization nowadays, I´m so glad that I´ve just kept pushing through the difficult ( or rather time consuming) process of learning this beautiful language.
I want to add, that I completely agree with Erick. Dont stop pointing out the issues. I think a good localization should respect the work of the author.

[thenuclearsandwich]

The problem is you now have small organizations who should not have any influence to begin with pushing developers in a certain direction. Dealing with bad translations is one thing but inserting social controversies bring it to a whole new level. Speak with your wallet.

[Cookiedon]

Another thing that can happen is indie developers creating something good enough to compete with these developers AND will not censor their work

[Misconduct]

This discussion over the last couple months has shown me that as much as i despise a lot of localization issues, i actually love the Unicorn Overlord writing.

[MeenaHarker]

I'm not a native English speaker, when I was young games that was in my language was translated lazily, it was clearly visible that the person didn't speak my language and didn't check it anything translated made sense.
I switched all my games in English and learnt English by myself.
My english will never be good but I saw how many english version was always weird/bad (breath of fire on snes i.e) but at least the story was understandable.
Surprisingly, Nintendo Europe (game I mainly play) has started (for quite a long time now) to translate everything directly from Japanese instead of translating from translation of Nintendo of America.
I've learn Japanese too (though I suck) because games I loved took years to be localised in Europe.

Now when I can't play in my native language, I choose Japanese and english if I have no choice left.

[GamingWithSpoons]

The problem is i think most Japanese devs are oblivious to what is going on.

[viniciuslorenzini]

We, as consumers, have much more power than you seem to think, but the source of our power is our wallets. At the end of the day, the entire industry exists for no other reason than to serve US and OUR needs for entertainment. So the correct way to think is "no preorders unless you absolutely trust the entire chain" and "butchered localization = no buy". When you buy and power thru the mess you are sending a clear signal that this is ok. This is simply because game studios are businesses and the only language the higher ups will understand is bottom lines. So, yeah, this means you might need to skip on Eyuden Chronicle and other potential gems for a few years until they either retranslate or they become bargain bin buys. This is what sends messages.

Even the Stellar Blade thing, it is not just a petition, but a campaign to cancel Playstation Plus subscriptions. If you want to change things, you have to hit where it hurts, which is the balance sheets.

[NeoDrao]

Wrong. You have power of the wallet. Just don’t buy the product

[nifftbatuff]

They can make DLCs with different original translations of the game.

[ivanbluecool]

It's easier to translate than to translate then change it up to "what's big" at the time.

Still funny that fe fates is the best example of this mess where they got lazy and we didn't get all the dlc same with cutting content on top of the dot dot dot conversation. Only good thing they added was an extra few lines that honestly fixed some plot holes to the og story

[diegodelaguardia]

Hi Erick! Well I know you speak spanish so I'll write to you in spanish:

Erick ya sabes cómo está la cosa, lo mejor que podemos hacer es no enfadarnos sino denunciar como bien has dicho con educación y objetividad y luego ir buscando alternativas para paliar esto. Afortunadamente tenemos muchos medios en nuestra disposición, pero sabiendo que esto está en todos lados ahora mismo (hasta en los anuncios de comestibles) lo mejor es estar juntos, no ceder y ayudar a los demás compartiendo las soluciones que más nos gustan ante esto. A todos nos encantan los videojuegos, juntos podemos disfrurarlos como siempre si nos ayudamos unos a otros, como en tus vídeos sugieres. ¡Un abrazo y gracias por tus vídeos!

[shaifs]

Don’t let anyone try and tell you that you have no power. The consumer always has power, but it takes a lot of people.

Simply don’t buy it. If you buy it, you support it. Petitions won’t do anything. Complaining won’t do anything. Vote with your wallet. Trash the game in reviews. Convince others to not support the game. Do whatever you can to hurt these companies in their wallet. Thats what can be done.

Don’t worry about having nothing. If there is a market, someone will come for it.

[thomaspayton-tboj]

translation tech is improvong so fast that one can buy the original uncensored game and have it AI translated in real- time

[zore]

Im pretty sure alot of gamers have a large backlog, so stop buying day one. Wait till black friday, prime day or cybermonday.
Hell just wait a year and most games go down in price by alot, i once saw totk go from 70 to 60 in a few months if not one.
And if ya wanna make a stink about it go online and convey politely why you waited to lick up said game. And if you really want to stick it to em mail your greavences to the japanese side of things and i do mean physical mail btw, itbseems the japanese dont look at social media like that in comparison to there American counterpart

[Triattt]

For jrpgs, unless the dialogue is really janky I'm usually unbothered by it (text wise). Ignorance is bliss and all. The real problem is when it's too evident that they've changed something that need not be changed. For example, I've been watching Fallout with someone that needs subs. The translator completely desconstructs metaphors as if the foreign audience does not have the brain to understand them. Character taps bunker wall "look how she sings" translated to "and how robust it is". Character says "I'll be the head and you'll be the sword" translated to "I'll be the leader and you'll be the soldiers". Why?! These are not cultural differences, you can directly translate these metaphors, they'd still make sense! I don't really see agendas going on in general, it's mostly publishers cutting corners and using AI translators or unskilled individuals that don't have their work reviewed by peers. It's appalling that fan translations, overall, are so much better than a paid-for product.

[ivanbluecool]

Hust translate. If the sentence doesn't form a proper English sentence then shift it slightly to work. That's it.

Also Whoever is the guy that does deals between en and jp should do the translations since they already know both languages as someone has to be the middle man between the two. It'd make the locolizers lose their jobs or actually do proper translations in fear of it.

[arnowisp]

Just a Side note. Unicorn Overlord translation makes sense at it aims to replicate Old English in the Games Medieval Fantasy Setting. Same thing for Odin Sphere.

Gamers were complaining about the game translation being longer and not even thinking if the style fits the game. (Which it does)

[cxy]

A heartfelt thank you for making this video Erick.

[phildefreitas]

Amen brother. It might take years, but we'll win eventually.

[nomorenames]

this is an issue in literary translations as well. It's so strange how people claim localizations are "necessary", why exactly would someone want to consume a foreign piece of media thats been rewritten to remove as much foreignness as possible? Here is a quote from Vladimir Nabokov on the subject that the entire industry of "localizing" should take note of.

Nabokov felt a kind of curatorial protectiveness of great works in their original languages. The mortal sin of the translator, he wrote, was to sacrifice what he called “absolute accuracy ” for the sake of readability. “A schoolboy’s boner is less of a mockery in regard to the ancient masterpiece than its commercial interpretation or poeticization, ” he wrote. “The clumsiest literal translation is a thousand times more useful than the prettiest paraphrase.”
“The person who desires to turn a literary masterpiece into another language, ” he concluded, “has only one duty to perform, and this is to reproduce with absolute exactitude the whole text, and nothing but the text. The term ‘literal translation’ is tautological since anything but that is not truly a translation but an imitation, an adaptation or a parody.” In his lights, the labors of Garnett and many like her, measured in years spent sequestered in libraries with foreign usage guides, did not even rise to the level of translation.