Translation Misinformation: NISA, Aksys, and More

There's already a working emulator compatible with it attached with Fuwanovel's torrent pack of Danganronpa.

Ah, I was the one who made that bullet point. I wasn't aware of At2 and 3 being messed with so much. I guess they usually don't mess with the Japanese voice track. I read through the At2 re-translation blog too. It sounds like NISA completely butchered the game.

While my examples focused on the Ar tonelico series, if you try hard enough I'm sure you can find dirts on other series as well. I've more than once noticed weird things with the Atelier series and err, this one game NISA did, TriUni I think... anyway point is, if NISA completely butchered a game, what's stopping it from completely killing another? I can't imagine any sensible reason to fuck up a particular series only, so it is my belief that these things are just NISA being themselves. The effects were much more apparent in Ar tonelico because it has a completely new language, intricate storyline that one has to look really deep into to fully grasp etc. It is my opinion that the voices etc of others were also changed one way or another, it's just that no one really bothered to check. Which makes sense, since if you can play a game in its original glory, why bother with crummy NISA?

At least I'm thankful than the translation of hymmnos songs weren't available in game. If they were, NISA would translate them and... I really don't want to imagine what abomination could NISA warp my favorite song into.

Well, I'm just saying the JPN audio is something they usually don't mess with. At least this is true for some of the newer games they've released. They definitely do fuck with other things though. That is indeed the "usual NISA".

Actually, I'm just kind of assuming they don't mess with the JPN audio. I'm sure somebody would've pointed it out already if they removed any JPN voiced lines from say, the Atelier series. Or maybe I'd just like to believe they've gotten slightly better since At2. They're still shit though.

Then again, I've only played the PS3 Atelier games. The older PS2 ones may have been altered more. I don't know. I'm with you on the aspect of "not really trusting them and remaining skeptical" though.

Saw the dude who did the translations for NISA in a panel at AnimeExpo. Responding to a question, he said he did pretty much all of the translations and tried to keep the dialogue as close to the original as possible. If there were terms or jokes they thought that no one would understand they would change them. I just...wonder if they know who their target audience are and realize how much their audience knows...then it hit me.

Their target audience are the majority of those that go to AnimeExpo. People who:
1) haven't discovered torrents/fansubs
2) enjoy English dubs, even the ones purposely translated horribly for humor.
My reasoning is based on the packed room full of kids for the voice actor panel of Kyle Hebert(pretty cool guy).

So, the market here is one that doesn't scrutinize against bad translations because they don't understand a lick of the Japanese language or their cultural humor. With that, they are able to type in whatever the fuck they feel like. Well, that doesn't bother me that much, but the shit in Ni no Kuni was unbelievable.

The goddamn name changes in Ni no Kuni served no purpose. They changed Shizuku to Mr.Drippy, Marc to Phillip, Sherry to Mertle, and Lars to Marccasin...

Another one that bothered me for quite some time was Tales of Eternia/Tales of Destiny 2 (man, they got the titles all fucked up back then too). There was a character called Meredy. She danced and used a whistle as a weapon that made musical notes... was her name suppose to be Melody?

Except NISA didn't localize Ni no Kuni.

No no no, I'm not saying they did. I'm saying that there aren't enough people that care about the translations here. By here, I mean the American market.

It looks like I misunderstood your previous post. I thought "they" was refering to NISA but I see what you're saying now. And yeah, I do wish more people cared about translation quality as well. Most companies will say the do "localization" and not "translation" though. "Localization" is basically just an excuse to do whatever the fuck you want to a game. All that's really necessary is "translation".

To be fair and in defense, the Localization of Tales of Eternia got a huge roadblock in from another company Mattel, to avoid trademark infringement with their Masters of the universe Toyline, that also has the same name "Eternia". Since Eternia was the next one, the easiest way was to rename it to destiny, this is of course without the knowledge that the "real" Destiny 2 was already in development.

And Meredy is Meredy, they didn't change anything significant. (メルディ Merudii), she does not attack with her whistle, it's used to command Quickie to attack.

That's cool, didn't know about Mattel. Whew, makes more sense. Been a while since I played Tales of Eternia. Can't replay it and other games because none of my tvs have A/V inputs.

I downloaded it, but I only have a Vita. Any way I can fenagle it to work on the Vita as a PSP game?



This makes so much sense it hurts. Man do I hope they don't utterly fuck Dangan Ronpa...

It really is absolutely strange since I was there at Comic Con listening to them explain how they translate anime and it was all absolutely coherent and sensible. They did a whole run down of how much thought they put into it and how they only change certain things to make the same joke in Japanese funny in English.
Was that all lies or does NISA have a totally different translation team doing animes? Further question: Why the fuck can't we have THOSE guys translating our games?

Nope. They said the same crap about their games. After they broke their promise in At3, which you can find the details at ARM, I'll just take it that they're that crappy and what they dish out is precisely what they think funny.

Esty Dee. Nuff said.

I still want to murder them for changing her last name to "Dee". The Atelier art book that Udon brought over had the name change as well.

Seriously, NIS America? Esty Dee? S.T.D? OMG U SO FUNNEH XD. 10/10. WOULD FAP TO AGAIN.

Their sense of humor is absolute shit.

@MegaTenLove: Here's a quote from somebody who works for NISA:
http://nisamerica.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=12369

Apparently, anime fans are more into Japanese culture so they aren't as liberal with the subs. I don't think I've ever watched any NISA subbed anime so I can't judge. I do know that they do an awful job with games though.

Well, at least Esty HAD a reason for the name change. What about the others? I'm really interested to know for what purpose they changed, say... Tilia to Tyria when all origins clearly have names ending with lia. Eolia to Eoria I can take, Tilia to Tyria I can take, but then... why don't we get Freria? Sounds weird, that's why. But then why break the consistency at all?

Or, Ieeya changed to Yea. After promising that the translator studied 99% of hymmnos rofl. Or... Arphage changed to Alfage (I feel sinful for typing it eww) and then in the credits it's Arphage again. Fucking shit up is one thing, they don't even bother to QC their works. Again, justify why were these things changed at all, NISA.

I can get even saltier and rant more but yeah, any At fans can get their dose of this ar ARM. NISA is shit, period. At least until we get an official statement that they fucked up and would patch their mistakes, which won't happen until forever. This is also the company that said 'hurr durr u cant beat Raki cos our bugs just go grind or dun play' after all.

Never watched their anime but why should I bother watching when fansubs will certainly be better? Some pro they are when I'd rather trust unpaid amateurs.

Wait, so if this is true, and taking into account what both you and mibuchiha said, then that means that NISA's translators only mistranslate when they "know" their audience won't be as capable of pointing out their bullshit on a big scale. I see...

So the reason why games like At2 got the shafting was because most people who are into RPGs, even JRPGs, likely wouldn't have known practically anything about the original story/script, so they did what they wanted.
The reason they put so much effort into the anime is because the people who would buy said anime would likely have come to know about it via fantranslations and have sought it out themselves, meaning more of that audience would be familiar with the original story and would scream rape the minute NISA ran its grimy fingers up their groin.

...Wow. That's...amazingly shitty. I can't say for sure that's the case, but the evidence against NISA leads me to believe that.

Well, at least there's Danganronpa. Seriously, the reason this game became popular was because of a Let's Play on SA(aka Shit Money Grubby: The Forum) and a fan translation of the game that started long before the Let's Play which is equally or even more loyal to the original script (almost to a fault at a few times). So basically this game, that's popular enough to finally warrant a release out West, has a massive fanbase that's as knowledgeable as an anime fanbase (by NISA's standards).
Why does this matter?
1) NISA translates the game faithfully and all is well with the world, thus showing that it can indeed localize a JRPG without fucking it up. NISA's image is cleaned a bit and it may spark a new age of translating for the company. All those hurt by it can start healing...
Or 2) NISA fucks this up royally the same way it's done with most every other game on that OP list and everyone in their mother realizes it, then starts to bitch about it, then starts to violently e-attack NISA en mass for fucking it up so badly. NISA is shown to be the shit company this evidence has put it forth as, sparking a new age of embarrassment for the company. All those hurt by it can have absolute retribution at last.

Either way, translating from scratch a game as big as Danganronpa at a time like this is going to change something for the company.


Anyway, does anybody know anything about any of the other companies on that list? What other translation felonies do you know about?
Maybe even something a company did right? Do you know anything NISA did right I can add to balance out that section of the list?

Finally something you say about NISA that I can nod to without finding things to say back.



Won't fucking happen. At2 had a bug which freezes the game http://artonelico.wikia.com/wiki/Glitches and you go read how they treated the issue. They're dicks.

Even if in some miraculous alternate universe NISA does translate future game right, then that's just one small blip in an overall dark and smudgy history. There's a lot for them to do before their image gets back to neutral.



What do you mean, 'is shown'? They were proven to be absolute shit ages ago. I have no idea how big you make this Danganronpa thing to be, but get real man. One, they will very probably shit on it as with their other games and two, fans will only shrug it off saying, "Eh, NISA." and then the game is left, marred by their piss job of a localization. Some more people bitch about NISA but in the big scale, nothing changes. Why? Because...



Yes, one thing. They localize games! Most of the games they do, others won't even consider doing. Until a real competition exists and both fans and authors care about how a localized game is treated, shit won't change.

You should start to learn Japanese now. :3

You mentioned Xseed but not trails in the sky? I am disappointed in this thread.

What about Trails in the Sky? I'll add it, but I need info on what they did right. How was the localization? How did the game run? Did XSEED do anything special to it, and if so, what? I know XSEED, as a localization company, seems to be spot-on, and I'll be adding a few games I know of off the bat and have played, but as far as Trails in the Sky I know nothing.
Just give me some more bullet points and I'll gladly add it. This thread is about the wrongs and rights of translation/localization gaming publishing companies.
After all of this NISA and Aksys info, I'm starting to realize that "They bring games over" is pretty much a worthless point.



Yeah, like he said.
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Haha But I like it when others have something to say back. Besides, I'm not at all arguing for NISA. Almost did in the beginning, but hey, I'm not going to say OJ is innocent or Jack the Ripper was just misunderstood.
...Get it? Because they both cut people to death, like NISA cuts apart good games until they're nothing more than fleshy lumps.
Okay, not the best metaphor, but-!


Welp, that's another note to add to the list.
Fuckin' A NISA...


Well, fair enough, but at least they'd...
No, you're right there. Three occurrences signify a pattern, and for anything to be considered a real change there needs to be a pattern of proof.
Okay, so if they localize Danganronpa, Demon Gaze, and [insert title here] then it'd be a turning point. I'm sure NISA is capable of that, right?
...Right?
[size=6]...Right?[/h]
haha


Danganronpa right now is stupidly popular. It's getting a ridiculous amount of exposure since the fan translation and original Let's Play was released. Everyone in their mother with a gaming channel and a PSP is doing an LP of it, and it's one of the highest Google searches after just "dang".
Mind you, this isn't a lot of proof, but trust me, it's enough to show that this game is snowballing in fans to a certain extent.

However, that's now, and considering the internet's vapid attention span and NISA's "Early 2014" release date, by the time Danganronpa "Trigger Happy Havoc" (NISA's second title for it...because it needed it...though it didn't really) is released the fanbase might've fizzled out considerably (I mean, you literally can download and play it right now. Right now! No wait required).
This being the case, then more than likely your scenario of people just shrugging it off instead of getting outraged might be more than likely.

...Damn it. If only Atlus USA had gotten a hold of it, or XSEED, or even if NISA just used the fan translation or Let's Play of it instead of getting their fingers in Danganronpa's ass...


Meh, I'll wait for fan translations. hahaha If this thread has thus far taught us anything positive, it's that no matter how shit a game's localization is, if there's a fanbase for it, the game will get justice.
Isn't that right, Ar Tonelico series?

Oh wow... so this thread was finally made, guess those of you who always have to comment on how localization is handled just had to make it.
While I do agree with why this thread was made and just about everything I've seen has been mentioned, I do have to come in and say I personal don't get as butthurt about this as most of you here do. Sure if a game has bugs and freezes etc. that's another thing, but as far as adding in jokes, changing names and similar things, I am not as upset with, since for starters I only play this games with JPN audio. No JPN audio, then I haven't played it yet and can't comment on it.
As I have said before, probably not here in the video game section, I have interviewed for a position on QA team for NISA. I had a friend who worked there for a brief time and I asked him to get me an interview, I got one, they didn't like something, but that's another subject to discuss. Anyways, my friend did tell me in advance to not go into the interview and expect to be able to say you want the job to help maintain the original script/story. Going in with that kind of mind set may hurt you in the interview I was told. They do things their own way and I guess, thinking you can come in and change that, of course would be bad.

Now for the topic at hand and what I can contribute.

While I can not prove this, since I do not own a JPN copy of Atelier Rorona, this is what I can say.
While talking with certain people at a convention, it was discovered that one of them had worked on the QA team for NISA back at that time of Rorona. What slipped into the conversation? Well, apparently to him, they did joke around about the whole Esty Dee thing, but he didn't exactly say who was responsible for that, only that everyone found it hilarious. What he did say, was that apparently most of the towns people/villagers did not have names in the original, so they just added in names for each villager. Names such as: Magnum and Dog, can be seen if you interact with towns people. Not sure if that's such a big deal though, but its something I thought I'd add in.

Lol true. But then again, the whole thing take years to complete for amateur internet community. With the whole risk and such thing factored in...

In any case, I find it utterly sad that fans have to pick up the slack when those reaping the profits are doing such a shitty job.

On an unrelated note, it seems that Trigger Happy Havoc is for PSP. Which rules it out for me, as I like my Playstation (and their games) the same as I like my Suikoden, numbered.