It seems that you're using an outdated browser. Some things may not work as they should (or don't work at all).
We suggest you upgrade newer and better browser like: Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer or Opera

×
The JRPG Days are not over yet!
You've been playing Zwei: The Arges Adventure and Legrand Legacy: Tale of the Fatebounds while snagging genre classics on the cheap from our jRPG Days sale. Now it's time to take a look behind the scenes: team leader Ken Berry and localization producer Thomas Lipschultz have taken some time to chat with us about how XSEED handles the release and localization of their beloved JRPG series.
The interview is broken down into two parts, for convenience. Stay tuned for Part 2 tomorrow, January 30.

So, let's start with a quick year in review – from your professional point of view, has 2017 been good to Japanese games in the West?

Ken: Yes, I would say that 2017 has been a very good year for Japanese games in the West. The obvious big winner is Nintendo with their extremely successful launch of the Switch, as I remember some Japanese executives being concerned whether the idea of one machine being both a home console and a portable machine could succeed in North America where public transportation is not nearly as prevalent as Japan.
The PC platform also continues to get more support from the Japanese gaming industry. Not only are you seeing more instances of simultaneous PC launches with the console release, but they seem to be gradually accepting the idea of DRM-free on PC as well, which had always been a huge challenge in the past because they would often mistakenly equate “DRM-free” to “free.”

A lot can be said about different sensibilities in Japan vs. the West. In the past year, maybe more than ever, sexuality, sexualization, and consent, are talked about in mainstream Western culture – taboos are being broken and lines being drawn. Has this had an impact on your approach and your work?

Tom: As a company, I think it’s definitely made us stop and take stock of a game’s content a lot earlier in the process than ever before, so we know well in advance whether there will be any potentially problematic content, and can prepare ourselves to deal with that content as production ramps up.
For me specifically, it’s been kind of an inner struggle, as I think a lot of people are aware that I have a personal zero-tolerance policy for censorship in video games, along with a fairly broad definition of what constitutes censorship (for me, it consists of any content changes made not out of legal or contractual necessity, but solely in an attempt to avoid offending or upsetting members of the target audience). Despite this, I do fully understand that from a business standpoint – and even from a moral standpoint – it’s always best to avoid upsetting your fans, because obviously, an upset fan is not going to remain a fan for very long, and signing off on upsetting or troublesome language or imagery is never something anyone wants to do!
The problem I have, though, is that I truly do consider video games – ALL video games – to be art, and just as it wouldn’t feel right to me if someone painted over offensive material in a painting, edited out offensive material in a book, or cut offensive material from a film, I don’t want to see anyone (least of all us) editing out offensive material in games. My thought is, if it’s that offensive, then we probably shouldn’t be releasing the game at all – though that’s obviously not always a realistic option.
Recently, however, with all the news that’s come out about systemic sexual harassment and abuse in Hollywood and elsewhere, as well as the issues being faced by the LGBTQ community in this modern political climate, it’s become much harder to justify maintaining a zero-tolerance approach – and with a lot of Japanese games starting to really push the boundaries of “good taste” more and more, the looming threat of censorship has become much larger and more imposing than ever, and certainly more of a beast to fight on multiple levels. And it’s really not a battle I WANT to fight – I’d rather just localize games that everybody can enjoy!
I still hold firm in my belief, however, that if we want video games to be classified as an art form on par with books, films, and paintings, we need to maintain zero tolerance for censorship in localization, no matter how offensive the content we’re localizing may be. And if there’s any positive to be gained by doing so, it’s that the presence of offensive content in localized titles will spark much-needed discussion about those topics, and hopefully lead to a dialogue on the state of the industry in Japan, possibly even resulting in creators being a little more cognizant of people outside their tight-knit circle of acquaintances when designing new titles from here on out.
But for the immediate future, I believe content alteration will occur a little more often in the West than it has before (hopefully not by us, but regrettably, that isn’t outside the realm of possibility!), while little else will change for the industry overseas. My solace lies in the thought that we’ll just keep getting more games like the Zwei titles to work on: superb examples of classic action JRPG design with content that’s often snarky and a little mischievous, but never crosses the line into offensive territory, and thus isn’t at any risk of being toned down in localization. Those remain a joy to work on, and the more games of that sort I’m given, the less worried I’ll be about censorship moving forward.

The titles. We need to talk about the game titles...
What is it that makes Japanese naming conventions so different? How do you approach localizing a game's title, and what does it take to make it work in the West?


Tom: I don’t think most Japanese naming conventions are all that different, honestly, save for the fact that they’re usually much longer than the names we tend to see here (with subtitles on top of subtitles, e.g. “Corpse Party: BloodCovered: …Repeated Fear”). Which, I believe, is mostly attributable to some general differences in the way games are advertised in Japan, with more text meaning a bigger poster on the wall and more space allotted to discuss the game in print… not to mention the ability to strike a pose and rattle off a long name, looking and sounding kind of dorkily awesome in the process!
In the Western world, though, we’re definitely all about succinct naming: something short and to the point, that rolls off the tongue, with one or two words being the ideal. Especially if it’s unique enough to be Googlable! We want the name to be easy to remember so that prospective fans can always find information on it at a moment’s notice, even if they haven’t heard anyone talking about the game for quite some time.
I assume you’re speaking more in terms of translations, though (“Sen no Kiseki” → “Trails of Cold Steel”), as well as the rare addition of subtitles (“Zwei!!” → “Zwei: The Arges Adventure”). In the former case, the goal is to come up with something that remains relatively true to the original Japanese but still sounds snappy and natural in English, with bonus points for picking a name that perfectly fits the tone and content of the game (as “Trails of Cold Steel” most definitely does).
And in the latter case, we were really just trying to avoid drawing attention to the fact that we were releasing “Zwei II” before “Zwei” – a luxury afforded us by the fact that the two games tell standalone stories, and necessitated by the fact that Zwei II was finished and ready for release quite a bit sooner. We considered numerous possible subtitles for both games, but ultimately chose “The Ilvard Insurrection” for Zwei II because… well, it preserved the acronym, “Zwei:II”!
We attempted something similar with the first game, but despite our best attempts, we couldn’t come up with any viable names that would form the acronyms ONE, EINS, or even WAN, nor any single-word subtitles beginning with the letter I. We settled on AA to preserve the double lettering of Ilvard Insurrection, and because A is the first letter of the alphabet… and also because the first Zwei is a pretty tough game, so we anticipated a lot of people would be saying “AAAAAA” when playing it!
Post edited January 29, 2018 by maladr0Id
avatar
WBGhiro: I'm a big fan of Xseed so far I own some games here and all of the senran kagura and trails games on steam. There's one thing I want to bring up when you talk about japanese devs being insensitive.

Alicesoft and their Rance series: It is morally completely corrupt, and offends most sane people. Yet it's also one of the absolute best RPGs ever made.

Japanese, or any other, devs should absolutely have all the right to be as insensitive as they like. Just as anyone has the right to not buy games they don't like.
avatar
kohlrak: もう日本語読めるで。ねたんでるん?
avatar
WBGhiro: 日本語で語る友達を捜して。コ-ルラクさん俺の友達になるいいですか?
いいです。ちょっとさびましたけど。どうつなぎ合わせたいんですか?

avatar
kohlrak: Direct translation isn't even possible. The difference between 分からない and 分かれへん cannot be translated. You have to give it your own flair, or stuff is straight up lost.

That said, we are getting localizers who just love it so much they can't stick to the task at hand. Frankly for those, as well as the ones who can't even add their own flair for when it's appropriate, i try to play the original language version where viable. Voice acting is similar, but even worse. This is why I got a patch to play S.T.A.L.K.E.R. with english writing with original voice acting. In the future, i'll play it again when i can also read russian.
avatar
takezodunmer2005: It's still infuriating that Jrpgs overwhelmingly hire americans to do the voice-work for the english language versions, why don't they hire UK actors as they are MUCH better at the English language instead, americans are notoriously crap at doing the voicework in 80% of video games/movies and great to exemplary for domestic US-only games/movies; whereas UK actors treat the same as a professional project to be taken seriously, unless otherwise directed by the voice directors.
I haven't heard any good british productions, either. To be fair, with that accent that sticks out, they do sound better. I have a game with Australian voice acting, and it was kinda bad, too, but the accent made up for it. That is, until the accent novelty wore off. The Last Story or something like that. Wii game that clearly took after Final Fantasy and advertised that they even used the same composer.
I suspect/guess that american publishers; being the cheap pricks that they are, will ALWAYS hire the crappiest subcontractors available because if they don't they'll have to pay out the ass due to americans being filthily greedy bastards...I'll still grab it when it gets here, as soon as I can find a suitable mod with the original voices...

I'd rather have decent UK actors than the original Japanese though, as americans suck at non-domestic voice work!
If that's the case, what's the excuse for skyrim and the like? Frankly, we have totally different character archtypes and we don't know how to act like their archtypes. The same exists when localizing to Japanese from America, except they compensate a bit better. Ever hear Halo's japanese voices? Cortana's voice has changed quite a bit and one of her voices sound like 女天狗 from Dead or Alive. I was highly amused, for sure, and she's clearly the best example. It wasn't necessarily the voice itself, but the feel and the word choices. The only reason I knew about it was because i was talking about the issues with american voice acting in Japanese games, so i picked something she would be familiar with, and Cortana about had me in tears. Then again, i was half asleep.
avatar
TarathielTorosir: Honorifics are necessary by their very nature in works that are inherently Japanese in their setting. Their presence or lack of presence establishes the relationship between characters.
Who the hell leaves Japanese adverbs in unless they are shitposting?
Jokes/Memes are something a bit different. Jokes are inherently a product of their culture and are generally unable to be translated easily.
There's bazillion Japanese games out there and I can only name very few ones (and they're all results of Atlus USA no less) that keep honorifics. If it's so essential, then why is it pretty much never left in? How do people make do in English with any story at all when Japanese honorifics are missing?

Also, when you're just calling for a translation you're pretty much asking for leaving anything that only Japanese understand untouched.

avatar
TarathielTorosir: Censorship for the sake of not offending another countries palate is part of localization. Not all localized content is censored, but all censored foreign content is localized.
That doesn't even begin to make any sense. Just because censorship can happen in the process does not mean that it's inherently part of it. Then you have examples where a product gets censored in its country of origin anyway, like Resident Evil in Japan.

avatar
TarathielTorosir: Re-naming is never fine. It won't kill you to learn how to pronounce a Japanese name.
Going from something like Oriba to Oliver for example is 100% fine. Going from Esty Erhard to Esty Dee (GET IT!?!?!?) isn't fine.
(((This))) is the future you all chose
avatar
lunaticox: And who gets to have the final say on what art is capable of causing harm?
A governmental body?
An angry mob?
Cultural nannies?
Tech journalists?
Twitter?
avatar
dtgreene: The people who are actually harmed by the art in question, of course.
Have you read Fahrenheit 451 by any chance?
avatar
Yrtti: There's bazillion Japanese games out there and I can only name very few ones (and they're all results of Atlus USA no less) that keep honorifics. If it's so essential, then why is it pretty much never left in? How do people make do in English with any story at all when Japanese honorifics are missing?
Ya know I thought Finland had lots of snow, so you tended to build men out of it, but I guess you grew up on a farm in the warmer regions because you are exceedingly adept at constructing strawmen of such colossal size that they can be seen in Sweden.
Post edited January 31, 2018 by TarathielTorosir
avatar
IronKnuckle22: (((This))) is the future you all chose
By "(((This)))", do you mean this thread? Because this thread has degenerated into a sad weeb slapfight.
Attachments:
samurai.png (299 Kb)
avatar
kohlrak: I haven't heard any good british productions, either. To be fair, with that accent that sticks out, they do sound better. I have a game with Australian voice acting, and it was kinda bad, too, but the accent made up for it. That is, until the accent novelty wore off. The Last Story or something like that. Wii game that clearly took after Final Fantasy and advertised that they even used the same composer.

If that's the case, what's the excuse for skyrim and the like? Frankly, we have totally different character archtypes and we don't know how to act like their archtypes. The same exists when localizing to Japanese from America, except they compensate a bit better. Ever hear Halo's japanese voices? Cortana's voice has changed quite a bit and one of her voices sound like 女天狗 from Dead or Alive. I was highly amused, for sure, and she's clearly the best example. It wasn't necessarily the voice itself, but the feel and the word choices. The only reason I knew about it was because i was talking about the issues with american voice acting in Japanese games, so i picked something she would be familiar with, and Cortana about had me in tears. Then again, i was half asleep.
That is why I use the term "most," and 80% because there's no such thing as absolutes; that said, I never heard of the games you mentioned as I don't play console games after the PS2 first gen, but yeah, it's a matter of opinion...Divinity OS 2, Witcher 2-3, Dragon's dogma, the entire Souls series while not Jrpgs per se they are non-domestic titles with UK VAs

Bethesda are domestic productions that are done in-house, not a cheap non-domestic localization publisher for a console port...Bethesda is swimming in resources...Re-read my last bit...
This is why I do not buy translated games anymore. Too much arrogance from the unitedstatians. I do not trust anyone of them. They are subtle dishonests who want to shove their puritan and hypocritical so called values on us europeans who do not need anything teached by them. I want to play a game from another country the way it is conceived. This is why I read japanese books in japanese for example. Also trying to not offend everyone is fucking stupid. If I want to make a game to offend someone because I think they are shit and they deserve that treatment I should be able to do that because of free speech. The limit is not translating words into action that damages someone. That is the only limit. This is the real absolute 100% anti censorship stance. Other than this is hypocrisy.
Post edited January 31, 2018 by bluewave256
avatar
kohlrak: I haven't heard any good british productions, either. To be fair, with that accent that sticks out, they do sound better. I have a game with Australian voice acting, and it was kinda bad, too, but the accent made up for it. That is, until the accent novelty wore off. The Last Story or something like that. Wii game that clearly took after Final Fantasy and advertised that they even used the same composer.

If that's the case, what's the excuse for skyrim and the like? Frankly, we have totally different character archtypes and we don't know how to act like their archtypes. The same exists when localizing to Japanese from America, except they compensate a bit better. Ever hear Halo's japanese voices? Cortana's voice has changed quite a bit and one of her voices sound like 女天狗 from Dead or Alive. I was highly amused, for sure, and she's clearly the best example. It wasn't necessarily the voice itself, but the feel and the word choices. The only reason I knew about it was because i was talking about the issues with american voice acting in Japanese games, so i picked something she would be familiar with, and Cortana about had me in tears. Then again, i was half asleep.
avatar
takezodunmer2005: That is why I use the term "most," and 80% because there's no such thing as absolutes; that said, I never heard of the games you mentioned as I don't play console games after the PS2 first gen, but yeah, it's a matter of opinion...Divinity OS 2, Witcher 2-3, Dragon's dogma, the entire Souls series while not Jrpgs per se they are non-domestic titles with UK VAs
Do you know absolutely that there are no such things as absolutes? That's most certainly an absolute statement. But, yeah, if you're not willing to familiarize yourself with my examples, and stick to your limited samples, you may continue to live in the dark, but that's your own choice and i'll call you out on it every time i see it. Japanese characters have very unique flairs to them that cannot just simply be transferred to english. They have archtypes that we simply don't have in the west. And we them. Get out in the world instead of whining that you can't have what you want when you're not willing to work for it. If the VAs aren't good enough for you, show them how it's done. Learn Japanese. Do something.

Bethesda are domestic productions that are done in-house, not a cheap non-domestic localization publisher for a console port...Bethesda is swimming in resources...Re-read my last bit...
As with most games from Japan, anymore.
avatar
bluewave256: This is why I do not buy translated games anymore. Too much arrogance from the unitedstatians. I do not trust anyone of them. They are subtle dishonests who want to shove their puritan and hypocritical so called values on us europeans who do not need anything teached by them. I want to play a game from another country the way it is conceived. This is why I read japanese books in japanese for example. Also trying to not offend everyone is fucking stupid. If I want to make a game to offend someone because I think they are shit and they deserve that treatment I should be able to do that because of free speech. The limit is not translating words into action that damages someone. That is the only limit. This is the real absolute 100% anti censorship stance. Other than this is hypocrisy.
I'm willing to bet you share quite a bit with the people you say you don't trust. If you cared so much about free speech you'd certainly know about the whole free speech debate in this country you hold so much contempt for.

To be frank, i think you're a liar.
Post edited January 31, 2018 by kohlrak
avatar
kohlrak: -Snip-
Ok, I'm done here, if you can't have a discussion without simply looking for a pissing contest then do it without me I'm too old for that...Continue on as you will.
avatar
kohlrak: -Snip-
avatar
takezodunmer2005: Ok, I'm done here, if you can't have a discussion without simply looking for a pissing contest then do it without me I'm too old for that...Continue on as you will.
You're blaming people for some sort of shortcomings, when you clearly don't even understand the problem they're trying to solve. Seriously, what do you expect?
I do not care at all about your country. You do not have anything to teach me. No, I do not share a bit with you. Also the west is not the United States of a part of north america. The west is Europe. You are a derivative. A colonial byproduct of english imperialism and colonialism. You are the real life representation of extreme consumerism. This is not the "west". The west is a vague concept that ignores the intercultural mixture that is present in Europe where Europe, Africa, Asia and other continents cultures join in a peculiar way after many centuries. The west is not buying shit made by chinese people or sweaters by slave bangladeshi minors. The west is me half sardinian/half corsican going to Venezia with my half sicilian/half piedmontese fianceé to admire the doge palace that was built using asian architectural styles, buying a venezian mask made by an egyptian artisan and other things. This culture exchange is the west. I am not offended by anything for reason sake because I am an european, I am used to earing heated exchange of words. We are not a product of english hypocrisy and politicaly correctness.
And I do not care if I did not wrote in correct english. I should not talk your basic language. You should talk ours. At least I know other languages beside italian, two varieties of sardinian, corsican, etc.
avatar
bluewave256: I do not care at all about your country. You do not have anything to teach me. No, I do not share a bit with you. Also the west is not the United States of a part of north america. The west is Europe. You are a derivative. A colonial byproduct of english imperialism and colonialism. You are the real life representation of extreme consumerism. This is not the "west". The west is a vague concept that ignores the intercultural mixture that is present in Europe where Europe, Africa, Asia and other continents cultures join in a peculiar way after many centuries. The west is not buying shit made by chinese people or sweaters by slave bangladeshi minors. The west is me half sardinian/half corsican going to Venezia with my half sicilian/half piedmontese fianceé to admire the doge palace that was built using asian architectural styles, buying a venezian mask made by an egyptian artisan and other things. This culture exchange is the west. I am not offended by anything for reason sake because I am an european, I am used to earing heated exchange of words. We are not a product of english hypocrisy and politicaly correctness.
And I do not care if I did not wrote in correct english. I should not talk your basic language. You should talk ours. At least I know other languages beside italian, two varieties of sardinian, corsican, etc.
あほや。
avatar
bluewave256: I do not care at all about your country. You do not have anything to teach me. No, I do not share a bit with you. Also the west is not the United States of a part of north america. The west is Europe. You are a derivative. A colonial byproduct of english imperialism and colonialism. You are the real life representation of extreme consumerism. This is not the "west". The west is a vague concept that ignores the intercultural mixture that is present in Europe where Europe, Africa, Asia and other continents cultures join in a peculiar way after many centuries. The west is not buying shit made by chinese people or sweaters by slave bangladeshi minors. The west is me half sardinian/half corsican going to Venezia with my half sicilian/half piedmontese fianceé to admire the doge palace that was built using asian architectural styles, buying a venezian mask made by an egyptian artisan and other things. This culture exchange is the west. I am not offended by anything for reason sake because I am an european, I am used to earing heated exchange of words. We are not a product of english hypocrisy and politicaly correctness.
And I do not care if I did not wrote in correct english. I should not talk your basic language. You should talk ours. At least I know other languages beside italian, two varieties of sardinian, corsican, etc.
avatar
kohlrak: あほや。
Yes, you are free to think I am an idiot. I do not care. You are still ugly.
avatar
kohlrak: あほや。
avatar
bluewave256: Yes, you are free to think I am an idiot. I do not care. You are still ugly.
Crushed argument, now to this. Oh well, you can't win them all. =p