Here's the first Alice partial patch. It's mainly setup/exposition, plus some early scenes involving humans. The next patch will cover the monster scenes and the Bakgodek ending.
I have to do a kind of mini-release notes section here, to go over a couple of points. First off, I'm experimenting with taking this in slightly more of a localization direction than previous games. It's obviously trying to be hard Western fantasy, and aside from some telltale Japanese customs like bowing, it comes across almost like a game that was translated from English in the first place. This doesn't mean I'm rewriting it, but I'm being less pedantic about conveying Japanese nuance, because this is a game where atmosphere matters. No -sans and -samas, or transliterated terms. Ideally no TL notes, even if there's a minor detail that will get lost. And I'm deliberately writing in a slightly more fantasy-appropriate way—often using "seed" instead of "cum", for instance, whereas I normally wouldn't do that without a clear reason in the script. I haven't gone the "doth thou" route, but I thought I should mention it, because I usually take things the other way, to the point of pedantry.
That said, I'm still transliterating the sound effects. That's partially due to wanting to preserve nuance rather than approximate them, but it's mostly because it's just faster and easier, and it doesn't particularly matter. There are very few situations where the meaning of a string of sound effects is not clearly conveyed through the prose or context. However, to make this matter even less, I've had an idea so obvious that I should have thought of it years ago. I've inserted a variety of audio files into the game to supplement the sound effect lines, including ones from TA0. It's not perfect, in large part because it's surprisingly difficult to find audio clips of a tentacle prizing somebody's cervix open, but it should now convey what kind of sound is being made without need for explanation.
As someone who is not invested that much in Japanese culture and never watches anime (I am only here for the perverted things I can't get anywhere else lol), the fact that you're going in a more localization direction, even if it's only for one game, is great news.
ReplyDeleteI can deal with titles like san, sama etc. although I often have to use google lol But I find that when someone translates literally Japanese ways of saying things, it bugs me a lot. Things like "I like you and the others" when they are obviously talking about only 2 persons. Or "You're with that Tatsuro again?" as if he was an object. Sure, we can say it that way in some particular situations, but not the ones I frequently see it. Or things that may make sense in Japanese but not in English like "she makes her body quiver". While not really false, it implies that it is voluntary, which in these contexts, it is very much involuntary, especially when it is not consensual. And there are a LOT more of them, things that we would never say that way in English. That takes me out of the story.
I much prefer things to be translated in proper English and not be an approximation of English by way of Japanese speech patterns.
Same thing goes with TLs. If you have to explain what they mean in an out-of-story moment, it's weird. Just use a western equivalent in the text proper or make-up something if there is not. I do not mind when translators have to re-write some things for them to make sense, as long as it doesn't change the story, the atmosphere or the general feeling of the work.
So, Rattan Man, do not take this as a complaint, and people reading this, please do not take this as a personal attack against your tastes in translation. I am fully aware I am in the minority and would never push for things to become my way. Especially when it comes to translators who do this kind of things in their spare time and not getting money out of it! I appreciate all the hard work and it is MUCH better than machine translation, which I sometimes use when I REALLY want to read something. It's better than nothing, but man, is it a mess! Just the pronoun problems make me want to throw my computer out the window (until I come into a sexy scene, then I can let go lol) lol
I was just voicing my opinions on things and kind of asking for things to be said in proper English instead of literal Japanese translations that makes little sense.
Also, English isn't my first language, so please refrain to point out mistakes I made in this post just to "prove" that I shouldn't ask for translations that make more sense to me. :P
All that being said, thanks a LOT for all your hard work! I absolutely don't know why you are doing this. You obviously don't have a lot of free time and you are getting no money from this and a lot of the times you translate things that don't interest you. If it was me, I would just spend my time reading and doing things I like instead of working for strangers that don't pay me just so they can jerk-off! I am really glad you are not me! :P It's really appreciated.
I’m not planning to take it as far as you might like. I’ve cultivated this style of “Japanglish” because I’m strongly influenced by the philosophy of mid-2000s fan translations, where you try to stick to the script as much as possible. I really hate when I read a subtitle and can hear how much it deviates from the original line. (It’s occasionally necessary to rewrite lines, but I think it should be avoided.)
DeleteI wrote this to warn people, because even dropping honourifics is a little bit of a problem from a purist perspective. For instance, there’s a character later on who refers to Jester as Jester-sama, and just saying “Master Jester” doesn’t convey the reverence she has for him in the same way. Nor does losing the distinction between -san and -dono. But apart from that, all this equates to is trying to write characters in a slightly more old timey manner. It works with this particular game because it’s explicitly trying to be Western, but if this were based on Japanese mythology or folklore, I would go back to saying shouki and whatever.
Localization done right. As long as you're not suddenly making Alice a black trans lesbian, its perfectly fine with me lol. The Capcom Localization Team's statement about how localization also means changing the game's characters and plot for a "modern western audience" almost made me throw up.
DeleteWe might be required to learn japanese if we want to play any Japanese games in the future and understand the original creators intent because western localizers seems to focus increasingly more on imposing western sensibilities than autenticity.