Game Censorship & Localization General Thread

[Hammr2]

Politics, so please keep politic discussion in appropriate thread.

In recent 2.0 update for Cyberpunk 2077, Ukrainian localization adds few anti-Russia remarks in game.
An Ukrainian dialogue "We're fucking through" is changed into "Go fuck yourself in the same direction as the ship did". Referencing response to Russian missile cruiser Moskva, last year in Snake Island.
Graffiti is added, meaning of Crimea belonged to Ukraine.


References in inventory about current war.

"Є перевага" means "there is an advantage", referencing to Zelensky's tenure. "єПідтримка" - "there is support" (Covid relief), "єРакета" - "there is missile" (mobile app for info about missiles launched in Ukraine territory), "єВідновлення" - "there is renovation" (housing damages relief).

A police dialogue about Scavenger's faction, "Couldn't all these assholes bite it out in the Badlands" to "Couldn't these rusnia bite it out in the Badlands".


A crouching pose in photo mode is "Like a Russian".


For state of reddit, I'm surprised that many people don't agree with attitude of localization.

 

[30+GameOvers]

Politics, so please keep politic discussion in appropriate thread.

In recent 2.0 update for Cyberpunk 2077, Ukrainian localization adds few anti-Russia remarks in game.
An Ukrainian dialogue "We're fucking through" is changed into "Go fuck yourself in the same direction as the ship did". Referencing response to Russian missile cruiser Moskva, last year in Snake Island.
Graffiti is added, meaning of Crimea belonged to Ukraine.
View attachment 5368096

References in inventory about current war.
View attachment 5368098
"Є перевага" means "there is an advantage", referencing to Zelensky's tenure. "єПідтримка" - "there is support" (Covid relief), "єРакета" - "there is missile" (mobile app for info about missiles launched in Ukraine territory), "єВідновлення" - "there is renovation" (housing damages relief).

A police dialogue about Scavenger's faction, "Couldn't all these assholes bite it out in the Badlands" to "Couldn't these rusnia bite it out in the Badlands".
View attachment 5368100

A crouching pose in photo mode is "Like a Russian".
View attachment 5368104

For state of reddit, I'm surprised that many people don't agree with attitude of localization.

It's funny how it's always the Ukies that act like pissbabies(to borrow a leftist term), I haven't seen a single Russian game that needed to take jabs at Ukrainians to show them how big and scary Russian Bear is or something. Some of these changes are below even the most delusional tranny translator working on a Japanese title. You know it's bad when even reddit is seeing the problem here.
All I'm going to say is, if they actually lose this war then this is all going to look mighty silly looking back. Also, I'm surprised a Ukrainian localization is even made, not like the host country has a market or it's men have any time to play the game. Is this aimed at all the women that fled the country?

 

[wtfNeedSignUp]

Politics, so please keep politic discussion in appropriate thread.

In recent 2.0 update for Cyberpunk 2077, Ukrainian localization adds few anti-Russia remarks in game.
An Ukrainian dialogue "We're fucking through" is changed into "Go fuck yourself in the same direction as the ship did". Referencing response to Russian missile cruiser Moskva, last year in Snake Island.
Graffiti is added, meaning of Crimea belonged to Ukraine.
View attachment 5368096

References in inventory about current war.
View attachment 5368098
"Є перевага" means "there is an advantage", referencing to Zelensky's tenure. "єПідтримка" - "there is support" (Covid relief), "єРакета" - "there is missile" (mobile app for info about missiles launched in Ukraine territory), "єВідновлення" - "there is renovation" (housing damages relief).

A police dialogue about Scavenger's faction, "Couldn't all these assholes bite it out in the Badlands" to "Couldn't these rusnia bite it out in the Badlands".
View attachment 5368100

A crouching pose in photo mode is "Like a Russian".
View attachment 5368104

For state of reddit, I'm surprised that many people don't agree with attitude of localization.

Imagine someone in 2077 still caring about a war that happened 50 years ago.

 

[Spud]

Imagine someone in 2077 still caring about a war that happened 50 years ago.

Slavs and Seething, a relationship that will never die

 

[ShitLurker]

The English and Japanese websites of Unicorn Overlord have exactly the same pin-pointed screenshots, pictures and videos which make it easy to check out that the English "translation" is just turning a lot of simple sentences into paragraphs of fluff.

This one doesn't really bother me since I understand they want to have some medieval pomp in there (though it honestly seems to go overboard).

But I can see this being the sort of thing where you have a split on the FFTactics localization where the original it talks normal for the most part and war of the lions dialed up medieval lingo up the ass.

 

[wtfNeedSignUp]

Just don't insert politics to my game or change characters/plot, so it will be at least playable...
Though fuck the ban on gendered language, can't wait to translators to be replaced by AI.

 

[BananaSplit²]

This one doesn't really bother me since I understand they want to have some medieval pomp in there (though it honestly seems to go overboard).

But I can see this being the sort of thing where you have a split on the FFTactics localization where the original it talks normal for the most part and war of the lions dialed up medieval lingo up the ass.

The English localization makes Galerius looks like a much sinister and ruthless 'saturday-cartoon' villain, whereas in the original japanese script, he seems to be more of a dark knight antagonist with probably a personal code of honor he's abiding to. There are still several months left before Unicorn Overlord is out, so we could know further about the story and characters, but it's funny to see the disparity in first impressions with these character introductions through two different languages.

The game also has choice prompts that seem to affect the course of the game, such as taking in war prisoners or executing them right on the spot, so I wonder if there are different story routes & endings (one where the MC may end up allying with Galerius). The Japanese description in the official website specifically states that it's a renaissance of the 1990's RPG games too.

As a trilingual who takes the matter of linguistics rather seriously (with English and Japanese both being my secondary languages), the question of how many unnecessary liberties can you make in translation is complete nonsense to me. The answer is always zero. Don't get me wrong though, a translator can take liberties, as sometimes you have no other choice because of something like an expression or a pun for instance, but they have to be justified by circumstances as such. Paid or not, a translator's job is to take every word and expression, untangle every possible nod, joke, suggestion and meaning then try to reassemble them in another language as closely as you can to the original. Flavoring the text by ramping the medieval lingo up to eleven because it "improves" the script, to the point of even adding fluff, is a bad translation.

Also, those unnecessary and unjustifiable changes do piss me off on the principle it is extremely disrespectful to the authors themselves (not to mention I have a very high respect for the people at Vanillaware). Other people's works are not the place to assert personal opinions. If I think I can do better, I can sit down and write my own shit instead.

Just don't insert politics to my game or change characters/plot, so it will be at least playable...
Though fuck the ban on gendered language, can't wait to translators to be replaced by AI.

Even if it was possible, AI would only replace the job of professional translators themselves. The editors for example (a.k.a. glorified spellcheckers) will be still required in the translation process, especially in a pro-drop language that is Japanese, to normally prevent issues like the pics below.



In those examples, there are no gendered pronouns and ことis just a (neutral) nomalizer so the machine translator automatically decides for male.

 

[ShitLurker]

The English localization makes Galerius looks like a much sinister and ruthless 'saturday-cartoon' villain, whereas in the original japanese script, he seems to be more of a dark knight antagonist with probably a personal code of honor he's abiding to.

Reading it in detail, you are completely right. Again I go back to how the only way to really avoid this shit is learning Japanese...

 

[Waifu Denier]

The answer is always zero. Don't get me wrong though, a translator can take liberties, as sometimes you have no other choice because of something like an expression or a pun for instance, but they have to be justified by circumstances as such. Paid or not, a translator's job is to take every word and expression, untangle every possible nod, joke, suggestion and meaning then try to reassemble them in another language as closely as you can to the original. Flavoring the text by ramping the medieval lingo up to eleven because it "improves" the script, to the point of even adding fluff, is a bad translation.

If only video game translation was as good and rigorous as actual translations of classic works, where liberal just means playing loose with sentence structure to adapt it's flow to the target language, but you were always certain the translator never added in his own shit. Sadly, we don't get acclaimed professors like Fagles and Lattimore translating, instead we just get Treehouse.

 

[KorokiKokoro]

If only video game translation was as good and rigorous as actual translations of classic works, where liberal just means playing loose with sentence structure to adapt it's flow to the target language, but you were always certain the translator never added in his own shit. Sadly, we don't get acclaimed professors like Fagles and Lattimore translating, instead we just get Treehouse.

It is weird how Japanese video games and anime are the only mediums that seem to accept this kind of tripe. Can you imagine someone doing shit like this to the works of someone like Yukio Mishima or Franz Kafka? They'd be booted out of the project almost immediately and their reputation would be tainted.

 

[Alter Ego]

If only video game translation was as good and rigorous as actual translations of classic works, where liberal just means playing loose with sentence structure to adapt it's flow to the target language, but you were always certain the translator never added in his own shit. Sadly, we don't get acclaimed professors like Fagles and Lattimore translating, instead we just get Treehouse.

As it happens, there's actually some tension right now over a new, "modern" translation of the Illiad by "gender-aware feminist" Emily Wilson, along with her previous translation of the Odyssey from 2017.

https://twitter.com/mualphaxi/status/1695481359072964734

https://www.compactmag.com/article/emily-wilson-s-sack-of-homer

https://archive.ph/PRveO (The Atlantic)

 

[Waifu Denier]

As it happens, there's actually some tension right now over a new, "modern" translation of the Illiad by "gender-aware feminist" Emily Wilson, along with her previous translation of the Odyssey from 2017.

https://twitter.com/mualphaxi/status/1695481359072964734

https://www.compactmag.com/article/emily-wilson-s-sack-of-homer

https://archive.ph/PRveO (The Atlantic)

It's a shame how far we've fallen, from eminent writers in their own right like Hobbes, Dryden, and Pope translating the Illiad to increasingly bottom barrel ones.

Sadly, I don't think we will ever get much talent translating our weeb games because what person who spent decades studying the language and writing their own prominent works is going to for the min wage that localizers pay.

 

[X Prime]

It is weird how Japanese video games and anime are the only mediums that seem to accept this kind of tripe. Can you imagine someone doing shit like this to the works of someone like Yukio Mishima or Franz Kafka? They'd be booted out of the project almost immediately and their reputation would be tainted.

Sir, I don't think you're aware that far-leftward politicization and the competence crisis are hitting literally every single field.

 

[KorokiKokoro]

Sir, I don't think you're aware that far-leftward politicization and the competence crisis are hitting literally every single field.

Come to think of it, they've already tried retroactively changing some of Roald Dahl's works to be more "inclusive" to a general audience.

Guess foreign works will have to rely on their fanbases not being cucked but maybe I have too much faith.

 

[Judge Dredd]

It is weird how Japanese video games and anime are the only mediums that seem to accept this kind of tripe. Can you imagine someone doing shit like this to the works of someone like Yukio Mishima or Franz Kafka? They'd be booted out of the project almost immediately and their reputation would be tainted.

I can't speak about translations, but modern versions of classic books like 1984 were censored in recent reprints. They didn't see the irony in what they were doing.

 

[Waifu Denier]

Guess foreign works will have to rely on their fanbases not being cucked but maybe I have too much faith.

It's a good thing then we already have translations for the great works, and with Cormac McCarthy dead nothing new to come. As for our favorite video games, well its taking the dice roll on the localizer or hoping for a fan patch.

 

[wtfNeedSignUp]

I can't speak about translations, but modern versions of classic books like 1984 were censored in recent reprints. They didn't see the irony in what they were doing.

They know very damn well what they are doing, they just deluded themselves that they are doing it for the right reasons that will never be exploited

 

[30+GameOvers]

I can't speak about translations, but modern versions of classic books like 1984 were censored in recent reprints. They didn't see the irony in what they were doing.

I'm curious, what exactly did they censor?

 

[Judge Dredd]

I'm curious, what exactly did they censor?

I don't know. I'm not a book guy. I don't even remember if it was 1984, or if it was Fahrenheit or something else. I just vaguely remember it being a minor controversy outside of the book world.

I can't find anything referencing this, and my searches just bring up some fancy edition that has black bars on the cover where the title and author should be.

 

[UnsufficentBoobage]

It is weird how Japanese video games and anime are the only mediums that seem to accept this kind of tripe. Can you imagine someone doing shit like this to the works of someone like Yukio Mishima or Franz Kafka? They'd be booted out of the project almost immediately and their reputation would be tainted.

Translation of books always relied on translators' good faith. I am reading Pern books, and russian translator notes they had to edit some things around because author's language is weird and logic lapses are abound (God, those books blow, why are they fantasy classics, again?). And how much plain edit stuff and never ever give indication as to why? *russian Wheel Of Time book 3 translators do not interact*