>anime: "translator notes are OK! Use them if necessary! Viewers like them!">manga: "translator notes are OK! Use them if necessary! Readers like them!">film: "translator notes are OK! Use them if necessary! Viewers like them!">novel: "translator notes are OK! Use them if necessary! Readers like them!">video game: "UHHHH NOOOOOOOO??? YOU CAN'T PUT TRANSLATOR NOTES IN THERE, IT BREAKS THE IMMERSION AND THE FLOW, BECAUSE... UH, B-BECAUSE I JUST SAY IT DOES, OK!?"Why is it that video games as a medium have not ever caught up to other forms of translated media by allowing the translation staff to insert footnotes into the script to clarify parts that needed to be changed or altered, or to explain things that don't translate well?People often try to argue that games cannot be art in the same way as anime, manga, film, novels, and other such forms of media, but I feel that this right here is one of the more tangible and measurable ways in which it finds itself distinctively separated from any of those art forms.
Because video games are for children and retards.
>>727769369>Yo, welcome to Crystal Meth, an ass freezing suburb.>Snort up all the powders and get your ass shanked will ya?This is what happens when you do localization.
>>727769542Working Designs was peak localization
>>727769369city names shouldn't be translated
>>727769369>People often try to argue that games cannot be art iliterally nobody says that, quite the opposite actually, it's the vocal minority of pathetic losers that cope by saying that games are supposedly a form of artit's not art, it's a product designed to be consumed by the masses at the time of release, there's no artistic intent behind putting a battle pass in a live service game
>>727769369Maybe read your own fucking image and realize a clarification of a concept or translation is different than inserting jokes into it for no reason?
>>727770554All right, so what is the excuse?
>>727769369>translator notes are OK!nobody ever said this
>>727769369>when the trannielator thinks they is a standup comedian and nobody asked
>>727769369>There isn't any other word for snow in my language nor adjectives that I can use to replace itIts so easy to translate this without needing to lampshade that the translator is illiterate, but I'd guess there was an untranslateable joke and they changed it to a translation joke.
>>727770665I don't know what point you are trying to make.
>>727769369American localizers are retards. No one translates proper nouns like Little Rock, Arkansas to their country's language. Fucking idiots failed english class on top of non-english lmao
>>727770818My point is that there is no legitimate argument against translator notes in vidya, but for some reason vidya players seem to think they have one anyway for reasons that aren't relevant to the discussion.This whole thing was inspired by something I saw on /vr/ where someone said that the reason someone censored a dick joke in a game was because if they didn't, that no one would believe that's what it actually said, and would just think it was an amateur translator adding in a dick joke. Which of course, could be clarified just by putting in a simple TL memo after the line played out.
>>727769369>translator notes >written by salty trannylators who think they're maligned victims because nobody likes their "superior localization">NOOOOO YOU HYPOCRITES YOU SAID TRANSLATOR NOTES ARE OKAYYYY!!!!!Why do you have to be such a cocksucking faggot, OP?
>>727771092It simply comes down to someone acting like a professional or like a fan. That's it.
>>727770818Instead of replacing it with something else they translated the text as-is and then included a note at the end that explains why the misunderstanding works in English.
What are some cool jp only games to play to learn?
>>727771359the shitty harem VNs
>>727771359according to thishttps://learnjapanese.moe/guide/you just uhhh dig in and try and understand it, or somethingcan anyone confirm if this works? let's say I get down the kana basics and grind anki, do I like just put up final fantasy 7 on japanese and try to play to it? how would that look like?I have so many questionsaccording to this memeguide you are supposed to immerse yourself into whatever you enjoy but I only care about games, not anime, not hentai VNs, not japanese TV or culture, only games free from localization retards butchering everything and injecting modern-day idpolitics and sensibilities into a game made for a foreign audiencethe only thing that games get right in that regard is that they are made for the native-speaking audience so it kinda fits I guessany suggestions?
>>727769369Reminder that this was a deliberate mistranslation by a fag who just wanted to dunk on proper translations and made the work worse to do it.
>>727771721it works, the more time you put in the faster it is, but it will still take a year minimum to get to n1+, if you only want to do games theres a texthooker called agent that will hook to a bunch of games the VN texthooker wont, even the emulators, you can even request games on the git and someone will get a hook to you fast
>>727769369I mean, and general "commentary" toggle would be kind of an interesting option but having that kind of shit just pop up in dialog constantly is really tacky.
>>727771812>deliberate mistranslation by a fag who just wanted to dunk on proper translationsI will never understand these arrogant, petty fuckwads. They could just translate the language faithfully like their customers want but no, they have to do it in their snarky spiteful way show the people rejecting their "localized to match modern sensibilities" bullshit that they are dumdums. And then it turns out to be a bad faith mistranslation anyway, completely invalidating their point
>>727770665This is a great post, because that TL note is completely superfluous and the localisation attempt is clearly borne from a poor comprehension of English, ascribing greater value to "picture" than the exchange actually requires or alludes to. I forget what retard did this hackjob, I think it might've been the same guy who fucked up PS:T for the Japs too.
>>727772091Not him but I have been "studying" Japanese for years. In the last year I've been taking it more seriously and while I do feel like I'm making progress I still struggle a ton. There's two main problems I have when it comes to leaninrg.Number one is that I think I have a dogshit memory, I've been using Anki for a long time, and there's words that I have seen over and over again for years and years, and somehow I still forget their meaning, even when adding 5 cards a day my memory is so bad that the number of reviews gets overwhelming in a matter of weeks and I have to stop adding any new cards to bring the number of reviews down.My second problem is that I just cannot wrap my head around Japanese grammar, I've read guides, I've watched videos, I've even asked AI for help, and while all of those things have helped, there's still some things that if I encounter them in a sentence they completely stop me from actually grasping the meaning of the sentence.
>>727771721Ideally you'd want something with furigana because looking up kanji is a pain in the ass. But most Japanese games don't have it and most that do are games for kids. Just google a list and see if anything appeals to you.
>>727769369>>727769661>>727771285I fucking hate this example because the town is LITERALLY called "white snow" in katakana, that's exactly how you pronounce it.It's not a "stiff translation" or being too literal with kanji. ITS LITERALLY WHITE SNOW, THATS THE INTENDED NAME.ホワイトスノー
>>727769369Translator notes would be as shit as the localization itself because the localizer will be the one doing the notes. Only instead of a line like>Fuck men fuck the patriarchy women powerYou would get >Fuck men fuck the patriarchy women power (TL NOTE: Here she was talking about how a womens happiness is being married and that's heckin mysoginistic so I changed it)The problem is the localizer. No solution that isn't replacing the localizer would help.
>>727772986
>>727772986But the issue is that the name is likely supposed to sound exotic and foreign to the player, with the meaning behind it being "white snow", so if you wanted to translate it you could probably call it Shiroyuki and get across the same idea without repeating snow to the point of absurdity (or use another language if Japanese isn't a fit for the in-game culture like "Nix Alba" if it's meant to be a western inspired culture)
>>727773780Man he'd be fucking fuming over all the black hobbits and elves
>>727774398> so if you wanted to translate it you could probably call it Shiroyuki This would honestly be an even more faithful translation than whatever the fuck else they decided to do for the rest of the game if they felt like being such snarkasses over this one specific town to the point of having to put a translator's note.
>>727774398>without repeating snow to the point of absurdityYou don't need to do that to begin with because 雪の世界 and 銀世界 aren't the same thing like the localisation pretends they are.
they could have just replaced snow with something else.> This is the land of "X".
>>727772568You might be retarded, the translator is just explaining a pun that wouldn't make sense in Japanese, there's no "ascribing greater value to 'picture'" (whatever that means)
>>727769369>anime: "translator notes are OK! Use them if necessary! Viewers like them!"You clearly haven't watched anime in the past decade.Also the translations themselves are more amateur than ever, how could you expect translation notes when they can't even translate basic sentences correctly?
>>727775913That looks fine to me, what's wrong about it?
>japanese is dry as fuckSo what? Literally so what? That's what's written, they're stiff and formal people and they talk like that and then when they don't it creates gapmoe even if it's only to a small degree. I'm consooming japanese media because that's what I fucking want.
>>727770665Surely Japanese people understand the metaphorical idea of a picture as a representation of reality. You wouldn't need to explain>I love you with all my heart!>Translator's Note: This is not referring to the organ which is composed of atria and ventricles. Heart here refers to a collection of feelings and beliefs.
>>727775828It's not a pun. It's not even a turn of phrase. >>727776269I think the issue is that the Jap took "picture" to means "photograph" and so thought he was being cleverer than he actually was, he thinks Joyce misunderstands the protagonist here.
>>727775986See filename. 誰も知らない here applies to 世界の真実, not 世界 by itself. The words were translated correctly, but the context was completely misunderstood.
>>727771812The joke is that "White Snow" is written as the English word phonetically in katakana, and then explained in Japanese. Imagine a weeaboo writing>This is Shiro Yuki Village, the land of white snow. which then reads to a Japanese person as>This is White Snow Village, the land of white snow.The extra explanation is pointless because both of them are now in the same language.
>>727775913Why would anyone watch troonlated anime after the CR takeover? It was bad enough when it was just incompetent fans.
>>727776227"Japanese is dry" is a myth pushed by localisers to justify rewrites.
Y'all weeb niggas are insufferable with your autistic obsession with "translation accuracy'. If yall hate the translation so much just learn the japanese, stop whining, and let normal people enjoy the translated version, that's the same if not better than the original 99% of the time.
>>727769481because they are MADE BY children and retards
>>727769369Personally I fucking hate translation notes, learn to do your job correctly
>>727769627Yeah people who seethe over working designs localizations have a stick up their ass
>>727777289A big fart would push it out
>>727771359Any Dragon Quest. >>727769369>when you translate directly you get a translation that translates the original text into a different languagewas this supposed to be an own?
>>727774398>Translate white snow as shiroyukiSquareEnix, hire this man!
>>727774398>is likely supposedLocalization redflag #1
>>727771273And a professional treats the audience with the intelligence and respect they deserve instead of making shit up because they're scared they'll be too dumb to understand or accept it.
>>727777040Beats me. Here's another wonderful example from the same anime.>encounter weird ching chong proverb>"oh shit, I can't read handwriting and google lens doesn't recognize these characters">"... fuck it, I'll put some random English proverbs there instead, idgaf"For context, this is what the proverb actually reads:>悪、小なるを以ってこれを為すこと勿れ。 (Do not commit an evil deed just because it is small.)>善、小なるを以ってこれ為さざること勿れ。 (Do not neglect a good deed just because it is small.)
>>727774398>But the issue is that the name is likely supposed to sound exotic and foreign to the player,What makes you say that? It was originally a japanese game aimed at japanese audiences, those japanese players would literally be hearing the name "whitesnow" themselves. Maybe that's just what it was meant to be called?
>fatal frame 2>Minakami Village gets localized as All God's Village
>>727772986It's funny how much of this stuff gets lost in translation just because EOPs are monolingual.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s6CEKphkOoQhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KNqY8zQ1RYI
>>727778006Imagine a scenario in which an american game aimed at american audiences has a line that goes>will you study under the teacher or the sensei while offering you a choice between a western and eastern teachersIf you had to translate that into japanese, translating it as >will you study under the sensei or the sensei would be stupid and miss the regional delineation intended by using a loan word that's a literal translation but has a different connotation as the loan word, so to get around it you'd have to come up with something your self like using a different synonym instead of the same word twice or writing teacher in katakana etc
>>727779658Japanese would just use its words and be clear about which one was meant by both.>教師>先生Wow, that was so hard.
Localization as a general practice is inherently xenophobic, bigoted, and partially rooted in colonialism. It is an erasure of foreign culture and language to make content more palatable for general western audiences. Especially in games made for adults, the localization of cultural concepts that could be easily explained in a few sentences is unforgivable. We live in a global age with access to information on every culture in existence, to think that adults need to be protected from learning about foreign cultural norms is delusional.The fact that anti-localization has somehow become a right-wing position baffles me and I can only think it is due to most localization/dubbing companies existing within a social bubble in California.
>>727779829Yes I brought up a synonym as an option of getting around it, but does 教師 properly convey the idea of it being a western teacher the way western audiences will immediately understand sensei implies an eastern teacher?
>>727779971The difference would be understood, I think. The main thing is that 教師 is one specific type of teacher, a classroom instructor, while a 先生 is a wholly more Eastern concept that refers to anybody who has come before you and shares their knowledge/wisdom with you, including classroom instructors. No specific motion to Eastern or Western is made, but I think Japanese are perceptive enough to know the intent if this was done in an EN-JP translated work.
>>727769369What are you talking about?No one likes translator notes. I'm not sure if you're aware, but they're considered jokes and mocked for good reason.
>>727776756You don't even see the problem, after the first line the localisation then renders 美しい銀世界を楽しんでね as "Enjoy the world of snow" in order to make it sound more redundant specifically so they can then bitch about it in the added TL note.
>>727780575He did make it more redundant. It was already redundant. Two things can be true at once.
>>727779961>The fact that anti-localization has somehow become a right-wing position baffles me and I can only think it is due to most localization/dubbing companies existing within a social bubble in California.Pretty much, there's some massive cognitive dissonance required to think that "respecting other cultures in translation is good actually" is somehow the position of racist chuds.
>>727769481Trvth Nvke...
>>727780816That's because it was never about respecting other cultures, it was always about exerting their own wishes and power and forcing their own social order (domestically then globally) using a taboo like racism as a tool
>>727769369I love the "immersion" argument when a game looks like...that. Bitch, WHAT immersion??
Localizers be like>hmm "dia de los muertos"? An english audience wont understand that at all! Ill just put that down as "halloween". God I'm so woke!!!!!
>>727769369>anime and mangathats... not true? you literally wont get hired by a company if you advocate for TL Notes. they are considered amateurish
>>727769369I don't get it, it sounds fine to me
>>727781274no... dia de los muertos would be localized as Day of the Dead. retard
>>727769369were you in a coma, nobody uses translator notes anymore except fan manga translations>>727772986>>727774398why not just call it >WiteSunowit's unlikely that most people know what Shiroyuki is but maybe japs might be familiar with what the Katakana means.
>>727781348Because companies want to dumb things down for wider audiences (of Americans who can't read), not make faithful translations.
TOTALTRANSLATORDEATH
>>727781443Not everyone is going to recognize some old ass George Romero film you faggot
>>727769369put the translation notes to the side while they are shown as an overlay. it's clearly not the same the way your image shows it.
>>727782098What difference does it make where they're put? You can just skip the last message if it bothers you.
>>727771359I was reccomended to play the Pokemon games.
>>727781443As a localizer, my job is to make everyone speak like a gay New York University trust fund baby. We need to get those icky foreign concepts out and replace them with memes.
>>727779658How is that relevant to the original case? Unless I'm being misled here the original japanese text doesn't borrow any text from another language like in your scenario. The town is given a japanese name that literally means "whitesnow", so for the original japanese audience they are literally just being told the town is called "white snow". If that's not weird for them then why are we making it out to be weird for the english audience when there is a literal translation?
>>727769369Who says TN Notes are okay in Film?
>>727783930I haven't played the game but I'm referring to the scenario where japanese writers would want the town to have a literal name, that is in another language and sounds exotic, otherwise why name it "Whitesnow" instead of "ShiroyukI"If their intention was for the name to sound exotic, then translating it as "Whitesnow" into english where it's no longer exotic defeats the purpose
>>727784019Me.
>>727784105So you're saying that the original japanese text is borrowing from english then?
