Is Season of Sakura the worst translation you can think of? I know it seems that way to me… I’ve found a few dozen translation goofs, & a few times were things are just plain wrong (like the game saying that Kyoko said Shuji’s line at one point or how only his father was home & it said a person was talking with his ‘parents’).
It’s a great game, but the translation leaves something to be desired…
quote:
Originally posted by Shadow99:
Is Season of Sakura the worst translation you can think of?
Definitely not.
The worst translation I ever read was Gin Iro. But on the other hand, Gin Iro's story is even slightly better than the story of Kana.
quote:
Originally posted by Shadow99:
Is Season of Sakura the worst translation you can think of? I know it seems that way to me... I've found a few dozen translation goofs, & a few times were things are just plain wrong (like the game saying that Kyoko said Shuji's line at one point or how only his father was home & it said a person was talking with his 'parents').It's a great game, but the translation leaves something to be desired....
There are worse. There are far worse. Consider the translaton of Chain, where a character will have some long and complicated line of dialog and it'll be translated as something like "Hi!". Or consider the Final Fantasy Tactics 'translation'.
But aside from that, there are two real components of a translation:
1) How well does the translation read in English--is it grammatically correct? Did the translation remove all the emotion?
2) How true is the English text to the original? That is, does it keep the fine nuances as well as it can, or was it a hack job?
The first is by far the easier one for someone without knowledge of both languages to assess; I would say the second is more important overall; many times works lose TONS of nuances in translation and you really never know the difference if you haven't seen the two versions.
Well in this case I think they suceeded in the 2nd part, but failed often in the first… Though uh I’d put the emotion part in the second category (‘How true is it to the original?’) rather than the first.
I mean some of the dialog is quite good (in fact some of it was actually a real tear jerker like having to break the hearts of some of the girls, or Ruri’s ending). Of course that might just be partly because I’m attuned to that type of emotion in writing (It’s one of the things I can write very well, that type of emotion that is). Whatever the case the meanign or intent comes across quite well at times…
But… On the other hand some things just seem like huge typos… Of course like I said I wasn’t realing complaining about it… I mean I’ve read published books by well known authors (the non-translated type) with things like ‘the the’ or ‘it it it’ or in a few rarer cases words just hordendously mispelled… So it’s not like it happens only in translation or something…
But while I was still reading the bulk of text in the game (the first time or two through before I figured out the ‘lights’ for the fast forward buttons were in reverse of what I thought), it got in my way of some of the enjoyment of the game because they weren’t as hard to find as you tend to hope for…
If that makes any sense that is…
I would have to say the worst translations that I have seen have been from the Hobbibox games. They tend to be very poor English.
Season of the Sakura is an average translation.
persionally if i can make out the sentances with out having to think to much (unlike gin’iro where i had to stop and ponder for a while) im happy with the translation… im just happy to be able to get a new title though… only english title i dont own is sensei 2…
Me thinks the the worst translation comes from Adam: Double Factor. Some of the sentences are so incoherent that I need to re-read a couple of times to understand. Next in line would be Eve Burst Error - Not that they use broken Engrish, but rather the fact that they took too much liberty in inventing dialogues that were never present in the Japanese version. The jokes “invented” were coarse and somewhat vulgar and for those who understand a little Japanese will realise that some of the characters actually speak with an air of grace & elegance, esp. Aqua, (yea, I know it sounds funny) that is unfortunately ruined by the translators’ vulgar interpretation.
Gin-Iro is more or less literally translated from Japanese word for word since it’s done by NekoNeko itself so I dun think we can compare that with US releases.
quote:
Originally posted by Shadow99:
Well in this case I think they suceeded in the 2nd part, but failed often in the first... Though uh I'd put the emotion part in the second category ('How true is it to the original?') rather than the first.
It falls under both. Emotion is conveyed differently in the two languages--that's just a given; English lacks the levels of politeness that Japanese has, so the emotion in a script is worked into it in different ways. So it falls under the second, because you want to stay true to the original intent as closely as possible, but it also falls under the first--a literal translation that included, say, footnotes and formalized legalese when (mild spoiler) Kyoka is (finally) confessing to Minoru in one of the Snow Drop paths might be very close to the original but completely fail as well written English.
Hmm, you’re talking to a pertty biased person when it comes to SOS, personally. I think it’s a great game, my all-time favorite in fact.
Oh Reiko, don’t quit university for me…
Well I won’t argue with that…
Like I stated I just said it just detracted from my first time through… It is my favorite after XC1, which I like because of it’s simple charms (namely it’s nice characters, funny moments, & it’s not hard to guess what to do to get what), from those I’ve maanged to play so far… Tokimeki Check in is the next Bishoujo game on my list (Well other than what seems to be the ill-fated LMM which I’ve had on pre-order since pre-ordered XC2).
XC2 might end up replacing XC as my other top favorite though… Tad to early to tell since my roomate coming home sick interrupted my play time with it today & tomorrow starts my time back at work… Sigh… My only downer so far in XC2 is how I feel I need to constantly try to appease Asuka… But that’s probably due to my XC2 = Ranma 1/2 feelings, with Asuka = Akane & Ranma = Takuya, so just like I want to see Ranma & Akane end up together (because you get glimpses every so often of how much they really mean to each other) I want to see Takuya be with Asuka regardless of what happens…
err but I’m ranting again…
SotSs translation is okay. <P>True Love, now theres a bad translation. Everyone talks like they`re from Australia.
It was okay for Kid in CronoCross but jeez…
As a translator (fortunately of none of the above games) I have to play devil’s advocate here. Unless you can speak and understand Japanese REALLY WELL, how can you tell that the translation is wrong/bad?
Just a thought,
Made in DNA
quote:
Originally posted by Peter Payne:
Oh Reiko, don't quit university for me...
I'll leave Reiko to you, because I am quite more happy with Aki. I can't swim, anyway... [img]http://princess.cybrmall.net/ubb/tongue.gif[/img]
Well if he gets Reiko & you get Aki, I get Mio (though I wish she was a bit older)…
Of course then I have a slight fantasy about finding a nice japanese or chinese woman to marry so she can cook for me anyways…
Err I’ll just shut up now…
[This message has been edited by Shadow99 (edited 06-13-2003).]
quote:
Originally posted by Shadow99:
Of course then I have a slight fantasy about finding a nice japanese or chinese woman to marry so she can cook for me anyways...
Hmm, I don't know. A lot of the Japanese and Chinese women I know, er, lack in the cullinary arts. (Or maybe they've just been "corrupted" by coming to America, who knows...)
quote:Bah, they can't be worse than, say, Akane, Lum or worse, C-ko. [img]http://princess.cybrmall.net/ubb/biggrin.gif[/img]
Originally posted by ekylo:
Hmm, I don't know. A lot of the Japanese and Chinese women I know, er, lack in the cullinary arts. (Or maybe they've just been "corrupted" by coming to America, who knows...)
quote:
Originally posted by olf_le_fol:
Bah, they can't be worse than, say, Akane, Lum or worse, C-ko. [img]http://princess.cybrmall.net/ubb/biggrin.gif[/img]
Being only marginally better than any of them is not a good thing, actually.
Hey no ruining my fantasies!
& from my understanding traditionally both japanese & Chinese women learn to cook so they can be ‘proper’ wives. But of course that’s ‘traditionally’, which doesn’t mean it always happens… Or even that it’s common practice now… & of coruse their are exceptiosn even if the attempt was made to teach them how to cook…
I guess I’ll just go back to admiring the women at the local chinese restaurant now…
Hey Made-in-DNA,
If you don’t mind some constructive feedback, I actually understand Japanese and Latin fairly well. I understand Latin more, so I’ll focus on that.
Basically, I consider Latin to be translated poorly when the meaning of a phrase or idea isn’t accurately represented or is misrepresented.
For example, Augustus’ title can be translated as “Prince”, or “First Citizen”, or “First Consul”. He wasn’t an Emperor. Sure, he had all the power an Emperor has; however, he never gave himself, nor accepted the title of Emperor.
Augustus knew that the Roman populace hated the idea of King or Emperor. As such, the title he gave himself was not King or Emperor. In fact, part of his entire gain of power was to say to the Roman people, "Look, I’ve reinstated the Senate. I’m First Senator, but it is the Senate that runs Rome."
Therefore, his title of “Princeps” should not be translated as “Emperor.” It is misleading, and false. It is correctly translated as “First Consul”, “First Citizen”, or “Prince.”
Anyway, I hope that helps explain where I’m coming from.
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Originally posted by Mike Thomas:
Anyway, I hope that helps explain where I'm coming from.[/B]
Alright, you are from Italy. If he's not the dictator who murdered Res Publica, who did it? Is it his successor?
I don't remember the worst translation sicne I understand all the dialogues.
[This message has been edited by Logicgate (edited 06-14-2003).]