In the future there will be no physical media. So I hope Japanese developers can just AI translate their own games and distribute directly to the gamer. No Western middleman needed anymore. I also hope the censorship will stop soon.
There is indeed a problem that many Japanese games are sometimes watered down to appeal or cater to western ideals. Unfortunately, I also think that a localisation editor would still be required and therefore censor when they feel the need to.
I've been researching french and german translations of jrpg's lately, as they have become a lot more common. And they are accurate. The new common excuse that you have to localize and change things doesn't hold since it's only the english localizers that does it. Some french and german translations are ruined because they translate from english, for example Metaphor Refantazio. But Unicorn Overlord have a fantastic french translation that closely aligns with the japanese script. The problem with the english Unicorn Overlord is not that they deliberate tried to insert politics. The problem is that it's all original writing, because they thought that they were better writers. And this did lead to some californian sentiments sneaking in, and some details, probably by accident being omitted, but it's more subtle. For example, there's a consistent trend of de-glorifying the nobility. The main character is supposed to be very selfless and bound by his familial obligations. In the english version he comes across as more self-centered and ambitious. Bad localizations is a fixable problem, but there have to be a true awakening first, and these companies have to be replaced by companies that are committed to upholding professional standards. I don't see any such initiatives, and without them paving a new path, the japanese devs can't really do anything.
Honestly with all of the bad localization and miss translations on purpose to fit a certain agenda, I absolutely welcome AI translation revolution! I just hope they don't use AI translation and then send the AI translation to a western localizer for "changes", just fix gramma mistakes that sentences make sense and that's it, that's all you have to do.
Gotta disagree with a lot of the comments here. AI translations I feel could lead to so many more things being inaccurate, especially in larger scripts. I prefer genuine localizers because they give us the dialogue we need without it feeling robotic. A lot of the time when you just translate things 1:1 it can create sort of a robotic or flat feeling which is the last thing I would want in my game's dialogue. I'm just surprised so many people want AI translations in a genre known for its very strong and powerful dialogue.
Human editors can mitigate those issues. I'm sure, thankfully, that this sort of thing won't give rise to companies simply only using AI software to auto translate and then call it a day. With lack of localisation being an even bigger problem anyway, AI translation would hopefully be another hurdle out the way, especially for Europen players whom often get shafted. Japan has kept so many hidden gems to itself.
I never thought there would come a day where I'd prefer AI translation, but here we are.. I mean, anything besides the locolonizers.
In the future there will be no physical media. So I hope Japanese developers can just AI translate their own games and distribute directly to the gamer. No Western middleman needed anymore. I also hope the censorship will stop soon.
There is indeed a problem that many Japanese games are sometimes watered down to appeal or cater to western ideals. Unfortunately, I also think that a localisation editor would still be required and therefore censor when they feel the need to.
I've been researching french and german translations of jrpg's lately, as they have become a lot more common. And they are accurate.
The new common excuse that you have to localize and change things doesn't hold since it's only the english localizers that does it. Some french and german translations are ruined because they translate from english, for example Metaphor Refantazio. But Unicorn Overlord have a fantastic french translation that closely aligns with the japanese script.
The problem with the english Unicorn Overlord is not that they deliberate tried to insert politics. The problem is that it's all original writing, because they thought that they were better writers. And this did lead to some californian sentiments sneaking in, and some details, probably by accident being omitted, but it's more subtle. For example, there's a consistent trend of de-glorifying the nobility. The main character is supposed to be very selfless and bound by his familial obligations. In the english version he comes across as more self-centered and ambitious.
Bad localizations is a fixable problem, but there have to be a true awakening first, and these companies have to be replaced by companies that are committed to upholding professional standards. I don't see any such initiatives, and without them paving a new path, the japanese devs can't really do anything.
The correct answer is Trails into Azure
Honestly with all of the bad localization and miss translations on purpose to fit a certain agenda, I absolutely welcome AI translation revolution! I just hope they don't use AI translation and then send the AI translation to a western localizer for "changes", just fix gramma mistakes that sentences make sense and that's it, that's all you have to do.
I agree, but shenanigans can still occur, though it's a step in the right direction.
Gotta disagree with a lot of the comments here. AI translations I feel could lead to so many more things being inaccurate, especially in larger scripts.
I prefer genuine localizers because they give us the dialogue we need without it feeling robotic. A lot of the time when you just translate things 1:1 it can create sort of a robotic or flat feeling which is the last thing I would want in my game's dialogue.
I'm just surprised so many people want AI translations in a genre known for its very strong and powerful dialogue.
Human editors can mitigate those issues. I'm sure, thankfully, that this sort of thing won't give rise to companies simply only using AI software to auto translate and then call it a day.
With lack of localisation being an even bigger problem anyway, AI translation would hopefully be another hurdle out the way, especially for Europen players whom often get shafted. Japan has kept so many hidden gems to itself.
AI can't be any worse than localizers so I'm glad to see it, but AI is trained to be politically correct so we're probably still in trouble.
Modern Jrpgs have become lazy enough as it is.
It done.Bother me bro I love your videos but I don't really watch them.I listen to them while playing video games