Interesting! Thank you for making me aware of this tool! The output is way better than anything ChatGPT and some others I've tried will produce - even after numerous attempts to make corrections, to get a natural-sounding result, which is a tedious process...

In general or simply this particular game?

It totally depends on the game how translations has been handled. I know a good example of a game, FFX, which has been translated to german directly from the Japanese source. Ultimately, the text was not fitting, not even a little bit, with the english audio made by the "english team", although the translation was way more close to the source and the genuine Japanese mentality. Most Japanese games has been "americanized" pretty harsh, for long time already, but not every game has been translated from the "english team" as its source. It helps less that Japan as a whole has been dragged to the "West" as well, so their unique mentality is slowly becoming "watered down". The golden age of Japan is simply gone... but that does not mean there is not still many great stuff coming from this country.

Actually, that's usually not how translations of Japanese games into English happen.

Rather, the original script writers mostly take a hands-off approach, and let the (mis)translators do whatever they want (which obviously is what happened with this total botch job of Hundred Heroes).

They are not "guided" in how to translate the game.

Most likely this botch job was "rubber stamped" more so than "approved," albeit technically a rubber stamp does still count as an "approval." But it's still not the same thing as a well-informed approval would be. And that still doesn't make the botched translations have any merit or legitimacy; rather, it just means that the original writers who rubber stamped the botch jobs are also at fault for having done that.

And if the original scriptwriters are approving of botched (mis)translations of their game, then they are not very wise business people, to "approve" of mistranslations that are needlessly going to alienate & repel at least 50% of their potential customers, and cause those customers not to buy the game, when they otherwise would have done so were the translations to have been done accurately.

<citation needed>

I was referring to this game only.

To be fair this mistranslation is even worse than typical as it is also VERY Working Designs styled in how much it has been TAMPERED with. Gamearts ended up blacklisting Working Designs in regards to publishing. The problem is some REALLY don't notice some of these companies have gotten as BAD as Working Designs.

I have not played this yet myself. But my sense from what I've seen is that yes, unnecessary changes were made to some dialogue. And that is not good.

But it doesn't seem extreme, or politically motivated. The dialogue seems to still be pretty true to the spirit of the character delivering it even if it is Americanized in some fairly obnoxious ways.

There are some localizations that seem evil to me. Like someone was trying to impose their agenda on others by pillaging someone else's work. But that doesn't seem to be the the case here.

I would not avoid this Suikoden sequel due to what seems to be pretty typical localization shenanigans (but not malicious) that have been going on since the beginning of localizations. I just think people are a little over sensitive to it at this moment in time rather than this being some extreme case.

I am going to disagree with you here in the sense there use to be a time long ago when it was made clear Working Design types were NOT welcome to return. I don't want them back and I am generally embarrassed looking back that I gave them a pass. I want them given a blanket ban from localization.

After watching an hour of uncommented gameplay of someone playing JP/EN, there were instances I found awkward, and many more I would translate differently to add flavor. For the most part, everything I have seen and heard is at least close in meaning and spirit to the original. Further study of the script also revealed complete deviations from the original, and not always for the worst, but just also not really fitting in terms of mood and style for my taste.

It certainly doesn't cry for a complete rewrite of everything; the English translation/localization doesn't appear to be that level of bad. Some people on St. Elsewhere are attempting this right now, using DeepL and other AI. One person already offers a fully retranslated first chapter. This may improve the text in some ways, but someone would still have to read over the whole thing to add formatting, make improvements, and making it work with the game. Also, for lack of structure, there will also be a lack of context, so this is something I would not think is better in any way.

There is certainly lots of room for improvement, concerning characters, working out errors and mistakes, and I would think that this would make many more people happy - or inclined to purchase the game, as is now the case.

I was buying it now because i am just to much of a JRPG fan not to support it when on GoG:

This game got all its translation from the "english team", this was clear to me after playing it in german, so i switched back to english because kinda useless do play a "double translated" game.

However, i can live with the translation, because it was never something "high grade" anyway. just a casual-common language from the very beginning. I play this game because it is a game, and i surely found the quality in gaming-terms... as a spiritual successor of Suikoden 2 (it seems...) pretty appealing. I can not say how "deep" the game will be able to touch me after a while... way to soon to tell. What is sure is, it is clearly above average... because a game average or lower would already be "done" for me... i got this sense of quality pretty quick.

The game could have gotten some more "love" for the environment, it is a bit skimpy, although the battlemode is pretty nice i feel, so far enjoying it. Some decisions are rubbish, for example some characters are unable to equip a shield so it is grayed out. Why? Simply give them a "bracelet-slot" instead... so there is no useless slot.
I can not say if such weird decisions has been done on Suikoden 2 as well, i would have to play it once again. I hope they gonna fix it because it is a minor detail showing not enough love. I will surely find many more details... for example the locked camera in dungeons... dunno why, but anyway, the game surely is worth to be played.

Sure, the price asked is high and i generally pay around 15% higher price compared to US anyway (so a discount is kinda a joke to me) but i guess i would pay any price for those increasingly rare "JRPG" stuff to become a revival; and as i said, if on GoG... i simply can not resist in such a case.

Clearly unfair, just because of the translation, to give it a 1 star rating. Somewhat disrespectful for the high work that has surely been done (for the good or bad...) and with many other spots actually pretty solid; but this is simply how many gamers behave... as i think we simply live in a age of "low respect for each others", not in a age i consider golden and friendly. Lets at least have a good time with a hopefully "above average" game and this is, so far... totally possible, i feel. This game surely is a good "step up" from the previous title and i feel; much closer to the game the devs really had in mind.

I hope they work hard polishing this game with future updates as there is even a season pass available, most likely there could be a lot of new content showing up at some point. Currently it is probably a rather weak Suikoden "successor", a bit like Suikoden 4 (which was rather weak) but the last word is not spoken and i hope they will be able to honor Yoshitaka Murayama with some hard work on many future improvements: For this to happen, support is critical... so i hope fans wont let them down for whatever reason.

Of course the whole translation thing remains a complicated matter due to the reasons which are somewhat explained here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D_YKeO4ULL0
The past games has been shaped by the typical "perfectionist nature" of this age, which has slowly become watered down or lost in the new age... due to politics and some grade of lack of heart. I still want to remember always so see the whole picture, including the whole game and many things has been done pretty good.

And yes... if was recently checking out Sukoden 2 and how it did age. It still got the same powerful aura, no matter how many more visible pixels i am able to detect; it was a masterwork without doubt. Elyuden Chronicles still need to get there but there are many pleasant things, definitely, especially the nice battlemode.

When it's all settle and done, double translations like this are the main culprit of such debacle.

What is a questionable localization becomes unbearable when used as base for yet another translation. What is bad in English becomes really bad in Portuguese, for instance. Characters end up changing personality, it's a mess.

And there is no way to easily correct this now. This will take a lot of effort to correct in every language - if the will to do it is there.

I have little sympathy for the Japanese team because of it. You couldn't find a single team of translators that could translate directly from Japanese to Portuguese (or to Japanese to [insert language here])? Even I know of a few that could do it (from Japanese to Portuguese and from Japanese to Spanish at least)!

If you REALLY need to have it all translated from English, then you should double check no changes impact characterizations and story. Because now it's bad in English, it's worse in a lot of languages.

The more I know how bad things became in other languages, the more I hate what they've done here.

Nothing to do with finding proper JP translators, it's just that indirect translations from english are much, much cheaper
Personally I'd still blame the english locaziation team, it is their responsibility to make sure the text can be adapted to other languages

Also the "japanese team" are just the original devs and writers, is the publisher who's in charge of hiring translators

Regarding the quality of the translation: Its OK, just OK... no less and no more.
Sure, there are some unnecessary "politics" involved and we are living in a pretty disturbing and difficult time. So, people want to experience "another world", and a "clean translation" inside a game. I am pretty sure the original intention from the devs was without unnecessarily involving politics or anything having such a scent. I do not consider it "heavy" on unnecessary content, it is OK for me, but there are some hints, yeah.

In general, i have joy with this game but indeed, i think, if the translations is rather cheap, it can reduce the joy a little. I think, it is important not to be cheap on this matter... lets honor Yoshitaka Murayama.

Some fans surely was enraged, which seems to look bad but it could be worse. The worst that can happen in general is "sheer ignorance"; if someone does not care at all. This is definitely not the case for this game; there are lot of waves... a lot of emotions. Love is always pretty close to hate, just never close to indifference and lack of emotions.

As i can see, a lot of guessing now: The dev team originaly said "they are looking for a publisher" and for a long time this was not clear as there was many "offers". Why i bring this up is because the localization was basically their duty. How this process was done i can not say but most likely the main spot they had to take into consideration was of course... the cost... (or simply the cut they had to take) and i am pretty sure they was looking to support a rather small publisher, not the big ones, it simply does fit the companies philosophy. I think the publisher surely gave "their best", yet it seems they had to look at the cost, so, they had to cut some corners... with the major one not to offer a "direct translation" directly from the source for every language. At least the japanese original language was included, so this one was done properly.

Still, i mean... it is one of the rather rare publishers even showing GoG on their site, actively supporting not just major but even minor platforms. Some other publishers was pretty arrogant on that matter. Still, no one is enjoying to many "critical comments", i guess this stuff should be balanced and fair. So far the "critical stuff" is kinda overwhelming... this is not necessary and may just hurt the fans in long term. Remember always to see "the good stuff" in everyone and everything... trying to act balanced and fair.

Sometimes even me is becoming enraged... absolutely... but rather if i see a very bad policy which is just straight either selfish or out of sheer arrogance/ignorance. With this game it is not sufficient giving me a "hard time", but indeed... it will require some polishing and i am almost certain we will see a lot of it... sooner or later.

In general, it is a great game... definitely; so i will continue playing it.

That depends on if they were informed and contracted to do that. (Which could also lead to a worse English localization end result if it has to be "generic" so other languages are pulling from it.)

You'd assume it's a pretty standard practice, to reduce the lenguaje quirks to a minimum unless the game is only getting an english localization

But yeah, they need to be informed