dtgreene: Sometimes, a direct translation isn't what's called for.
There are however ways to convey the essence of a sentence, in a natural way, instead of disregarding the contents of an original sentence and adding things which haven't been said. Take another look at the dialogue I've quoted. You will notice that 故郷 home town was used. That's where I believe Lian first meets this stranger, appearing out of nowhere, walking around like he owns it. It isn't possible to understand Lian's reaction, leading her to remark that this [behaviour] can't be permitted, from reading the translation. In this case, even a direct translation would have been better.
dtgreene: I'll cite a couple examples from Final Fantasy Legend 2, both in the Edo world (which is distinctly Japanese themed, unlike the rest of the game).
* In SaGa 2 (the Japanese version), there's an opium trade going on, and the plot in that world revolves around stopping it. This, of course, was not accepted by Nintendo of America (and, in modern times, would have affected its ESRB rating (probably would be E10+ or T from what I can tell rather than E).
This is exactly what it is I'm opposed to being done to by adapting and translating games originating from Japan! With your examples, you could not have made a better case, against the ills of foreign subsidiaries, butchering content for US/UK audiences. I don't think your conclusion that replacing opium with bananas has anything to do with ratings. It would be bonkers to do this, because its not about promoting drug consumption and supporting trade, but fighting it and preventing smugglers from importing harmful narcotics.
If they kept both information about the period, late Edo- and Meiji-, and the theme intact, could have lead players interested to learn more to find out dark parts of US, UK, Dutch history, profiting from Chinese citizens, and the weakening of Qing China, due to their addiction and devastating effects of the consumption of opium. Japan tried to prevent importation and smuggling of opium, while at later times, also starting to profit from growing plants on home soil, and Chinas addiction, where consumption wasn't prohibited. All of this gets lost on Western audiences, unless they are capable of understanding Japanese, and to learn about that part of history, which the original is referring to.
I'm conceding that some things are impossible to retain or convey in a translation. For instance a local dialect, or references to alcohol, which was the second item removed from the games you've mentioned. I confess that I don't remember much even though I played and loved them, and I had some difficulty finding what the reference was. In my attempt to search for possible references, the only one I was able to identify was a boss, dwelling inside 黒の迷宮, called 酒天. Its name contains the symbol for alcohol (sake).
I don't know what his name was changed to in the localized version, which isn't really the point, since the translation would get rid of the Kanji and these particular reference
s to alcohol, anyway. There would be no way to get them for a western audience, and there would have been only a very small chance, if they decided to translate it to Shuten. A player could then find out the myth of 酒天童子 (Shuten-dōji). He was a demon or leader of bandits/thieves, dwelling on Ōeyama, Kyoto. He was so called by his followers, because he liked to drink alcohol. His image has been used on scrolls, where his picture was overlaid with government officials, to candidly refer to them to say officials are thieves.
If the goal of faithful localization is to make [Japanese] culture and history accessible to western audiences, while at the same time deleting any references to actual history and culture, both in an attempt to escape unfavourable ratings and not to offend an audience, which is highly subjective and only based on the individual working on a project, proofs this to be an utter lie.
dtgreene: * There's also a bilingual joke.
You are mentioning jokes, which I agree can't be translated, because they may not make sense. On the other hand, jokes, likely funny to an US audience, might not be in England, NZ or Australia. Then there are local dialects which Lian uses, ウチら, さぁ and な, for instance, and there could be mild interest to learn in which region they are used, provided that such information could be conveyed in some way.
Back when SaGa and other games were released in the West, there were technical constraints, and even if localizers had wanted to, they could not include such information. Today, they could implement an encyclopedia or codex, to allow interested players to gain knowledge and deepen their understanding of culture, references, tropes, world and setting, as it was indented for a native Japanese audience.
In the case of Eyuden and many others, even a direct translation would be better, than the abominations and falsehoods, translators decide to serve to their Western audience™. If they were serious in their task to largely keep original content intact, yet also making it fun for a western audience to play, they would go out of their way to avoid censorship and trying to teach them their values or politics they believe must be transported. People doing this and accepting money for it, should hang their heads in shame!
Lastly, young players (maybe many or a majority of players) might be less discriminating, and willing to accept the localised version as it is. Others will find it cringe worthy, knowing that this is the way a translator thinks a 16-year old would talk. (keyword: representation of demographics in games). I, as should have become very clear by now, am opposed to any form of censorship, and changes made, to games from any country, whose native language is not English, to get altered, censored and butchered, by a handful of individuals, and based on their own ideologies, political affiliation or religious believes, which are their own. This type of activity must not be permitted or tolerated and allowed to continue.