Seryuu: Have any of you that are complaining about translations ever actually played a JAST game? Putting every localizer in the same shoes without actually trying any of the games isnt really cool.
Lucumo: Sure, JAST made some decent games in the 80s and 90s. A shame they went bankrupt.
Marcus-Havoc: True that I won't get a direct answer if ask such a question in that wording, but it is the most honest way of asking.
I'm not the PR spinning type, so I give what question blunt and to the point.
I'm glad you actually get it, Most people have become NPC puppets even praising translators that make up shit and then taking their word as gold when they defend their butchering of for instance titles beloved by its fans.
I take it you mean the machine translations that were done by the Japanese publisher Lilith last time? Not to mention how they censored the crap out of the western version, and brain-dead fans still praised it. It was so butchered it made the Japanese version seem more uncensored, regardless of the mosaic.
It would be best in general to go back to fan translations. Bandai namco now does dubtitles for their games out of laziness, and Square enix let their Localizing team make up shit on the spot. Nier replicant Steam released translation was utter garbage compared to a fan translated version for the old PS3 version. Done by a girl that barely knew Japanese, and it was still more accurate than professionally only paid losers that call themselves translators/localizers could manage.
Like you said at the end, it's better to buy from the original source. Or buy merchandise.
If only they could do the translation right for once, I would buy all the anime games day1. But it has deteriorated beyond repair, with entitled translators and localizer running the show. Like one user once said, The people never could write something worthwhile for themselves, so they're now trying to rewrite somebody else his work.
No, I meant that it's a rhetoric question criticizing them for hiring that translator in a rather rude manner (doesn't matter if it's justified). Of course you wouldn't ever get a reply that way.
I've been in the VN space for 15+ years now, so except for the early commercial translations of the late 90s and maybe some early 00s stuff, I generally took notice of stuff happening. As such, I'm rather aware of how the Western industry has progressed.
No clue if Lilith has also been dabbling in machine translations now. The scene has become so messy and splintered that I keep mostly away from it. But well, it wouldn't surprise me, considering Lilith was one of the companies stealing a fan translator's work.
I also think fan translations are the best way since they are usually done out of love for a certain work. Due to that, more effort gets put into it, as there is no commercial thinking behind it. Also, nowadays, more people than ever understand Japanese, so more fan translation could theoretically come out. And with all the Japanese stores, it's not difficult to buy a copy and then patch it, thus supporting the developers.
I have been following it all since the 2000s and have seen many fan subs come and go, and the whole development where Funimation even stole fan subs, I do miss those days when you just got more direct translations. No political injections and even some explanations when it was about something pure Japanese with no western equivalent.
I have been turning to fan subs for the bigger part of this so-called Anime for normies agenda, seeing as it became more degenerating over the years. I mostly just buy merchandise.
Have you read how Kadokawa CEO made a statement about maybe even censoring the Japanese version for western audiences? He had to walk back on his words because of outrage.
