quote:
Originally posted by Nandemonai:
The inferior quality of their localization as opposed to Peach Princess's probably also factors in.
You know, I hate to ruin this comfortable anonymity of mine, but I feel like this comment might end up getting less attention than it deserves. A few people have responded to this already, more with a dismissive shrug than anything else and that brings up a couple of questions in my mind. First off, this is all my opinion and shouldn't be perceived as antagonistic in any way. Second, I know that there are many fans of bishoujo games who speak English as a second language, but as to how many exactly, I'm a bit uninformed.
That out of the way, I was wondering what everyone really thought of the G-Collections translations. Was everyone here wholly satisfied with the scripts? I mean, that is one of the most important parts of a bishoujo game, right? Well, I'd like to think so, at least. Unfortunately, I thought the scripts were terrible. This is based off of Kana and Tottemo Pheromone alone, but from only two games so far I'm considering not buying anymore games from G-collections.
I admit, It's been a while since I played Kana. Even my memories of it were pretty decent. The script was good enough and I didn't have many problems with it. However, I recently purchased Tottemo Pheromone and everything changed.
I know that any game with this much text to be translated is going to have typos and mistakes. Almost every game I've played there have been moments where I read a line several times and wonder if my brain suddenly stopped working because all of a sudden whatever it is I'm reading makes absolutely no sense. Pronouns and character names might be misplaced, leading to confusion, but these things don't get in the way of the story very much in my experience. Even in Pheromone, I'm able to just keep clicking and, soon enough, that one confusing line which my brain couldn't handle is forgotten...
... because I'm clutching my head and groaning from the pain of every other line of text. I know this is, ultimately, a "porno" game, but I was under the impression that this was a stigma that fans and companies wanted to get rid of (to some extent). One way to do this, would be to have a script that is on par or above the artwork (and nudie pictures). It's too bad that my hopes of getting into the story are constantly being impeded by the horrible narration, cheesy dialogue and repetitive diction. I can only read that he or she "embarrassingly smiled" so many times before my head explodes (the one on my neck and shoulders, pervert).
I don't know... I would imagine that a company could get at least one person to read through the script once to make the writing just a tad better. Maybe add a little variety in the sentence structure. Perhaps even manage to successfully pull off some of the humor. The H-scenes... well, those may be a lost cause, in my mind at least. They may always end up sounding corny and devoid of any romance or erotica (though there are some exceptions). The H-scenes, cheesy as they are, are at least funny in a slightly painful way, so they aren't completely irredeemable.
Okay, by now I think I'm just rambling and ranting (sorry). I just found my latest G-collections purchase to be pretty unenjoyable. Which is too bad, because it had potential to be a pretty fun game. So, with my babbling coming to an end, I am asking the members of this board a couple questions...
1) For a game that is pretty much a(n interactive) graphic novel, are you really enjoying the literary aspect of the game as much as you should be?
2) Are there quite a few bishoujo fans here that speak English as their second language and would prefer a less wordy script, maybe making it easier to understand?
3) What do you think of "loose translation?" And what I mean by that is a localization that doesn't translate a script 100% literally. I don't mean anything like adding bad Clinton jokes or changing the actual characterizations or story, but more like what they do in dubbed anime.
For example, Excel Saga, where a line may be "I love you a hell of a lot" in the Japanese script, but in the English script its "I love you so fucking much." Or (if you know the series by heart) the episode where the Across sewer lair is being infiltrated and Sumiyoshi is stuck to the wall by some weird white sticky fluid, the English script includes the line "stuck to the walls with smegma" where the Japanese script (to my knowledge) doesn't even allude to the curious fluid. Small things, that don't change anything major, but make a punch line a lot funnier.
Sorry for the length of this post, but this topic was something that I was extremely curious about. And, as always, a reminder that this is merely my opinion.
[This message has been edited by Gorky (edited 03-01-2003).]
Edit: I realize that I've spent nearly a page moaning about how companies should make their scripts well-written and more pleasureable to read, but I failed to admit that sometimes attempts like these can go terribly awry. What I really should have said is that they should hire me to edit their scripts! (That, of course, is a joke... maybe.) Anyhow, in an effort to end this post on a lighter note, I offer a link to a satirical H-game review which serves as a cautionary tale of script editing gone wrong (...horribly wrong).
[This message has been edited by Gorky (edited 03-01-2003).]
Edit^2: Gurvon, your cough has been noted. Also, I (hopefully) fixed the link. Now, someone punch me in the throat, please, because I seem to be retarded today.
[This message has been edited by Gorky (edited 03-01-2003).]