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dubs in Japan too, as well as bad examples like Painkiller: Hell & Damnation and Fear 3. A quick search shows there are very strong opinions on subs vs. I don’t play a whole lot of English games translated into Japanese these days, so I’m not too familiar with the English to Japanese dub situation. I assume the poor voice acting was a combination of poor translation with awkward wording, inexperienced directors, inexperienced or no-experience voice actors, and a general “it’s good enough” attitude. How do you explain poor voice acting in blockbuster Japanese titles? Are there any titles coming out of English-speaking countries with similar issues in Japanese?Ĭlyde: This was a bigger problem in the past as you mention, but probably mostly because everyone in the industry was still learning and figuring out everything for the first time. I admit the reverse might also be true, with poor Japanese readings in games coming from English-speaking developers. Quin: Perhaps this was more an issue in the past, but sometimes English voice acting in Japanese-developed games is strangely acted.
#Lingvanex english to japanese plus#
The combination of the lack of understanding of how translation works, plus the lack of a native target language speaker, plus the lack of understanding of the target language will naturally lead to poor results. So, for example, if an American game developer wants to release their game in Japanese, it’s very likely that that developer doesn’t understand Japanese to begin with. On top of everything else, having someone who speaks the target language natively needs to be in the equation somewhere, and it’s difficult and scary for the average person to find and communicate with such people. This stuff is very basic for people in the know, but it’s not common knowledge for most of the world. Most people also aren’t aware that there’s a big difference between translating into your native language and translating into a non-native language. It’s generally seen as a simple 1:1 process that anyone can do as long as they know both languages involved. Why do you think it is so common that issues get into games or other media that a single person who natively speaks the language being translated into easily recognizes?Ĭlyde: I think the big reason is that most people haven’t had formal experience with what translation is and how it actually works.
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You also mention on your site that this same issue can happen with English to Japanese translations, especially in terms of which honorifics and tone is chosen for a given piece of text. Quin: Some Japanese to English translations seem so poorly translated that it can make English speakers wonder how such a translation passed any sort of QA. Perhaps best known for his work on the fan translation of Mother 3, he also runs Legends of Localization, a website dedicated to “a detailed look at video game translation and how games change during the translation process.” Here, he’s interviewed by Quin Callahan in anticipation of our upcoming issue on game localization. Interview with Clyde Mandelin The Legends of Localization website features the “best and worst” game translations.Ĭlyde Mandelin (who often goes by Mato on the web) is an author, blogger, video game localizer and more.