How 10 HUGE Trails Titles Were Localized in 12 Years
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- Опубліковано 8 лип 2024
- From Trails in the Sky to Trails into Reverie, the Trails series' localization history is cruel, unforgiving and not for the faint hearted.
Join me as we explore exactly how the series' localizers were able to turn one niche JRPG for the PSP to a flourishing and successful franchise among the JRPG community. This video will explore how the series' localizers achieved the impossible by localizing 10 gigantic Trails games, all of which posed great challenges, in the span of 12 years.
If you enjoyed this video, it would mean the world to me if you subscribed to my channel. I'd also love to know your thoughts on anything Trails (please keep it spoiler-free for others who might stumble across it) and its insane localization history in the comments. Let me know at what point in the history you were introduced to Trails, and if you've been around since the beginning like I have, I'd love to hear your thoughts on the whirlwind that was Second Chapter's localization.
If you want to see more of my content, you can check out my video on how Zero Time Dilemma ruined the Zero Escape series: • Zero Time Dilemma RUIN...
Important Note: In consideration of the sensitivity of the topics in this video, I've purposely avoided referencing SpaceDrake's real name. Although the information I speak to is publicly available, I have referred to him via his online handle.
List of music used in order (all by Falcom Sound Team jdk):
Silver Will (Super Arrange Version)
Seaport City of Ruan
Confession
The Dream Continues
The Truth Behind the Tragedy
The Whereabouts of Hope
Back to Dorm
The Hermit's Garden
Lacrimosa of Dana
Shattered Heart
Beneath the Bright Sky
Afternoon in Crossbell
Heiyue Trade Company
Raindrops with the Wind
Timestamps:
00:00 Introduction
01:13 Trails in the Sky
04:55 Trails in the Sky Second Chapter
12:23 Trails of Cold Steel 1 & 2
15:08 Trails in the Sky the 3rd
17:33 Ys 8 Lacrimosa of Dana
20:12 Trails of Cold Steel 3 & 4
23:02 Trails from Zero & Trails from Azure
25:03 Trails into Reverie
25:59 Conclusion - Ігри
Just need Falcom to make a deal with either Xseed or Nis to re-release Trails in the Sky trilogy for consoles.
Fingers crossed!
And remake them with voice acting in main cut Sean's bonding events and spacial endings. Also get rid of that annoying conga line it's damm annoying
@@robert23456789 I doubt because they will stick with Japanese dub with English script similar to geofront project. Nisa is too cheap to dub English.
@@robert23456789cut sean?
Yeah I agree with this - the EVO versions of Sky, Zero and Azure have most lines of dialogue dubbed in JP. It wouldn't be worth the cost to dub it all in English considering the series is still niche (but growing!).
I'm thankful to have gotten into Trails just as Zero and Azure were wrapping up localization. Went through Sky, then Zero and Azure released, then went through all of CS, then Reverie was released.
One of the lucky ones! No awful year-long waits after cliffhangers for you.
This video makes me appreciate every single text from the games now.
I had no idea the tale of the games localization was *this* wild. I just assumed that they were slow to do it because they felt the sales/interest wasn't there at the time and so it was sort of low priority. I'm very thankful that it got done in the end so the new fans like me can catch up.
It's a very messy history, that's for sure.
Honestly this is also part of the reason. If the games had final fantasy or persona sales I feel like they would probably have had more help
Tbh, it's a miracle in itself that Trails has gone so darn far to a point where I'd say it's one of the last bastions of solid turn based and I'd really hate to see Trails go the Final Fantasy 16 route even though Ys proves Falcom can do some pretty solid action party combat. There's just so much fun and charm in Zemuria that it's kinda hard for me not to want to go back. Heck, I made it a streaming goal to try and beat the series up to daybreak on the banana nightmare difficulty. Boy...SC nightmare NG was something else but I can't deny it was fun romping through the Sky, CS, and Crossbell games all over again. Heck, thanks to all that, I'm kinda sucked up on Reverie recently with C's route being a main highlight along with just trying to break the game.
On the localization history though...man, SC was really a turning point. I remember just sitting in anticipation for the years that it took for it to come out after being enthralled by the first game. If SC's localization didn't go through, I'm not entirely sure if we would have localized trails like we do now. I will say, I'm glad Trails turned out so well and it's been a pleasure witnessing its journey from niche obscurity to being a lot more well known.
Ooph the Sky games on nightmare is a relentless journey, I could never do it (although I've completed Zero and up on nightmare, they're much easier to break).
Agreed, if not for XSEED putting in the hard work to kickstart Trails in the West, I don't think anyone else would've touched it or just would've picked it up from Cold Steel onwards.
The kuro action mode is just an expanded overworld initiative mechanic. Though kuro 2 did show that it could be expanded even more on.
I found out about the Trails games thanks to a sale on STEAM for Cold Steel I and II, i already play all 4 CS games, then Zero and now i'm playing Azure and it didn't ruin my experience at all, after Azure i will play Reverie and some day i will play the 3 Sky games.
This was great stuff, I didn't didn't know about the xseed stuff, nis is really pumping those trails games and I'm loving it.
Glad you enjoyed the video!
Amazing video. So glad I found your channel.
This means so much! Thank you!
Such a blessing to be able to play these games in the right order and officially localized!
Couldn't agree more!
So I am getting into the Trails series now, just about to finish Sky the 3rd and I’m really enjoying the series so far.
I have some interesting insight in the world of translation. My wife worked as a translator for many multinational companies in the automotive and medical sectors. The interesting part is that the more she worked for a company not only did her work get better and faster as she accumulated more knowledge about the work, but the tools she used to translate also helped automate somethings as it could store key terms and phrases. Translators don’t just receive a Word document and type away on a separate Word document. The tech and programs are quite cool actually.
I am aware translation and localization are in fact different beasts however the increased frequency and quality of the work is to be expected, especially since many of the people on these projects have been following the series for so long.
I can’t wait to be caught up with the series and hope this was interesting to at least someone.
Thanks so much for that info. I think that's spot-on too. Once XSEED found their rhythm and a system that worked, they were unstoppable. I'm not sure what localisation looks like now, but back then it was definitely just translating/editing in lots of excel spreadsheets. I'm hoping the tools they use now are much more modern.
22:36 Didn't know that Tio is a practitioner of 8 leaves 1 blade school
That's an incorrect translation from NIS, which was subsequently fixed in a patch update.
I discovered the series with Sky FC on Steam in 2017. Or more accurately, Christmas Day 2016. Gave it to myself. I'd been interested ever since the PSP release, but had never owned that portable. And that thing really was the problem. The first two games, PC games from the mid-00s, got rereleased on PSP because it was still popular in Japan. But outside of Japan, the PSP was dead. All the grueling work they were doing on the Sky trilogy for the West was never going to pay off on a console nobody had and nobody wanted. At least, nobody I ever knew.
I was also aware when the first Cold Steel game released in Japan, just by chance. I had recalled hearing about this "The Legend of Heroes" series before, and from then on, it would crop up on rare occasion, and every time it did, someone had the highest of praise for it. When I was browsing Steam for a gift for myself that Christmas and saw the series had a few games on it, I checked which one was first, and seeing it was available, I had to check it out. I've been a big JRPG fan for a long time, and surely if the few people who knew it were so into it, there had to be something, right?
And it's because of people like you that Trails saw success on PC and handed the series a lifeline! Completely spot-on about the PSP, localising it just for a dying console was always a losing battle!
Not to mention the Trails spinoff title: Legend of Nayuta Boundless Trails. That also got localized this year. Pretty crazy.
Honestly, this is a good time to get into the Trails series. When I heard Trails from Zero and Azure were getting localizations, I bought the Sky trilogy, and proceeded to get the Cold Steel games too. Bought Zero, Azure, Reverie (and Nayuta) at launch. They deserve the support.
Though I do need to actually PLAY the games still. I'm only on Sky 3rd, and I finished Nayuta.
Makes me so happy to hear about new fans supporting the series! Take your time with playing the games, they are best when enjoyed and not rushed through!
Great video! keep up the good work :)
Thank you so much!!
This video deserves more views!
Thank you! Means a lot!
amazing recap of the localization history! I didn't know there were that many issues back then :/
I'm also very grateful about the amount of love the series is getting now with amazing ports. And I think NIS is doing well with the translations now, even though there were some issues with Ys VIII.
Only 2 months left for Kuro/Daybreak :)
I cannot wait for Daybreak! So excited!
Im glad that the journey was able to become a much positive one from its rough beginnings. The only things I hope is that they would take extra time for some of the finer details of the games. For example, Reverie had at least a week long bug on release where every new character, with some olds characters like Renne as well, only having Finishing Blow programmed as their link attack. Things like the True Tammano Gem giving 1600 STR, Laura's Radiant Wings stating it gives Health back, and etc.
But for what it's worth, they seem as if they want to make a push to be up to date with Jp in terms of games, and I'm all for it!
Yeah, I don't seem to get why NISA struggles so much with item descriptions.
Really solid video on the history of the series, great work man.
Thank you for watching and the feedback!!! I appreciate it
Cold Steel 1 was delayed from September to December so there was an issue.
I’ve completely forgotten about this! Had XSEED announced a date for September or was it just a commitment to release in Fall (in the US) that got pushed back?
Wow~ Great job. Best video on desribing the trials and tribulations of the Trails localization history. 👏
Instant sub~
Thank you so much for watching and the super nice comment! Glad you enjoyed!
Played from the start up to Trails of Cold Steel III (where I'm nearing the end of chapter 4) myself, and thankfully I finished up the PC versions of FC-The 3rd with only a few months' wait for the release of Zero, which I finished after Azure came out and moved straight onto through into CS, Steam versions all. I knew most of this but it's nice to have someone research enough to fill in a few of the finer details I wasn't as clear on- the unique localization situation for XSEED games past The 3rd- or rarely get discussed- like the fact that to this day we still don't know why precisely Nihon Falcom decided to not give XSEED the go-ahead on any new releases of theirs. My guess is pretty much yours- money talks.
I'd add some nuance to this conversation as well- NIS America and later Europe were already no strangers to publishing Nihon Falcom titles since the early 2000's, though sparse, so they had worked with them before as early as 2003. I'd also point out that one of the more likely factors is that NIS is not terribly far from Falcom to communicate to, and unlike what is more commonly seen with the American side of other major Japanese publishers, NISA has always *just* been a publishing wing, along with NIS Europe, and their primary function is to keep the lights on while reporting to NIS back in Japan and thus have no actual games directly to their name like say, Square Enix, SEGA of America, or Namco Bandai do while also being publishers. I'd theorize one of the key factors Falcom chose NISA/Europe for Western publishing rights is simply that they reported to people that were far more immediately accessible to push communication to- ones that were already excellent at communicating with their other sides in the West, a benefit XSeed simply did not have. Falcom generally isn't very big on such things to begin with to the best of our knowledge, but when they do- like prohibiting Durante's improvements from being on the PS4 versions of Trails from Zero/Trails to Azure, they're usually pretty specific on providing details to the publisher, so communication of that nature might have simply been far more important to them as time wore on.
Also worth noting- it's not like XSEED was not in contact with Falcom, at least up to mid-2019, for what is either an extreme likelihood or an absurdly unusual negotiation of terms favoring XSEED from the onset concerning what they were already working on when the switch to NIS occurred. See, Japanese IP law (hell, Japanese law in general) is super zany- Falcom would need to contest *any* claims to their IP, or risk having their IP judged as invalid and revoked (this includes claims abroad, I'm no lawyer but there are plenty of videos discussing the matter now to back me up on this so go digging for that one on your own time). So in order to do stuff like the nearly 5000 extra English voice lines added to the PC (and later PS4, which were based on the PC code) versions of Cold Steel 1 & 2, they almost certainly would have been in touch with Falcom to authorize such changes. Also of note is a mid-2019 update to at least the Steam version (not sure whether or not other versions were given it) of Ys: The Oath in Felghana which added voice acting from another version of the game (I believe the PS2 port). This seems to me highly unlikely to at least have required Falcom's blessing to have happened. I can't think of any improvements past that point that were significant enough to require potential communication from Falcom, so at the very least, until 2019, there's a good chance they were still speaking. If XSEED ever has the wherewithal to clear some of this up, boy am I sure I'm not alone in wishing to know the details on that matter. Alas, we simply don't know for sure to what extent they had any communication with Falcom past them working with NIS and their Western subsidiaries to get Western releases done.
Thanks for all this info! Your analysis of the Falcom & NIS Japan relationship is interesting and probably right. I also had no idea about Ys Oath having english voices patched in - it's good to see that XSEED & Falcom were still on speaking terms (for a while). I'd guess though that their relationship was purely business, rather than the personal relationship they would've had before all the NIS drama.
Watching this right before the release of Daybreak!!!!
My only issue right now with the localization is the fact that Reverie came a bit broken on day 1, was fixed five days later but fans discovered that using a fan patch translation file fixed the entire problem, and so far they still haven't fixed the typos in the skills / food items for Reverie. I HOPE Daybreak comes without these issues, I played the fan patch and I own the game that will receive the Oficial translation from NIs, and the port is very well done, no issues whatsoever, so let's hope the oficial localization patch doesn't break it too.
And I think NIS won over Falcom with, well, number of ports?
I believe NIS literally came to Falcom and said they would not only Localize YS and Trails series to PC and PS4, but they would also bring the game to Switch too, and once they got comfortable with it, they would be able to do it all at once. Which is whats happening now.
Both Zero, Azure and Reverie were released Day 1 for all platforms, instead of PC owners having to wait 6 - 8 months to have the game.
At this point, NIS is doing a better job than XSEED did, even if I do think XSEED did a better localization overall. NIS does a better multi-platform release and for the last three ports, the best PC ports in the entire series for Trails, and the last two ports of YS are also the BEST pc ports of YS on PC too. All of these five games feels like good ported PC games, with in-game configurations menu, no more we need to close and open the game lots of times to deal with configurations! XD
But yeah, awesome video.
Thank you! Yeah, NIS never seem to be able to get the item and skill descriptions right (a pretty consistent problem since Cold Steel 3 I believe). You're right though, NIS has been able to bring each Trails game they've touched onto basically every modern platform - which has helped tremendously in growing the series outside Japan.
I know a lot of people are upset with NIS for what they've done to the Kuro en fan translations, but I'm happy that the understood the urgency of the fan base and managed to get Zero, Azure, and Reverie out in one year.... feels like the EN series is pretty much on track now because of that :)
Yep! And I don't blame NIS or any localiser for falling behind the JP releases when Falcom releases a new giant Trails game almost every year.
I've been interested in this series since Cold Steel 3 was being talked about. It was getting so much buzz and there was talk about these previous games it was connecting to. I played the vita translation of Sky fc and put it down after the second chapter. I only just recently picked it up again and hope to finish it soon. It might be a while till I get to SC because I want to play the pc version but also want to play handheld and am just waiting to get an ROG Ally. Out of all the games though, Cold Steel looks the most interesting and can't wait to get to it.
You're in for a treat with both Second Chapter and the Cold Steel games ahead!
I am a huge final fantasy fan and I can say I just started sky and I am hook the writing is amazing the story is grown up game play is fun top 3 of all time only cuz final fantasy 7 was the first rpg I ever played will always have number 1 for bringing me into playing books type story
never heard trails series until they realese kuro no kiseki
Lots to catch up on!
fantasic video. both informative and enjoyable. i subbed.
Thank you so much!!!
The Zemurian dark ages are over.
Praise be to Aidios
If I got into the series before the pandemic, I'd have given up hope on it a long time ago. Shit, I still haven't played kh3 yet. Got strung along for so many years that I eventually stopped caring and KH1 and 2 were among my favorite ps2 games
The Trails Series did dethrone Final Fantasy VII (original) from my personal list and that had no game ever done before.
It's too good, isn't it?! The series as a whole is definitely my top JRPG.
Everyone forgets about Nayuta...
Anyway, good retrospective about the localization.
We need another miracle though, Sky on modern consoles and not just PC :)
Haha I’ve yet to play Nayuta too despite it being localised for a few months! Yes, Sky games on the Switch would be INCREDIBLE
Haven't they stated that Nayuta is it's own thing, unrelated to the rest of Trails though? Many times, if I recall.
@@rainbowsnail4171 Yes, it's unrelated so far, even though there are a few references to it in Cold Steel and Reverie. Not a bad game though. Same goes for Tokyo Xanadu, Gagharv Trilogy and the Iselhasa duology. All of them are very good games and are referenced a lot in the Trails series.
While a quality maybe dropped for a bit of time. Only when NIS took over the localisation Falcom games finally started to have Japanese audio option. Xseed on the other hand always told the fans that wanted the option of original dub that it wasn't possible for some reason.
While this is true, I truthfully believe Falcom were at fault here. XSEED were quite transparent that they tried for JP audio throughout the Cold Steel releases, but Falcom didn't give them the rights. I think Falcom had a change of heart once they signed the contract with NIS, who were eager to get the series to as large as an audience as they could.
It’s not entirely XSEED’s fault regarding the JP audio. My guess that it looks like all Falcom’s games released in Japan up until 2014 were still bound by an old contract that didn’t allow JP audio to be published outside Japan and Asia. Not just XSEED, but also Mastiff (they published Gurumin in English audio only). Tom already explained multiple times on XSEED forum that they wanted to bring JP audio to Falcom games they released in English, they just couldn’t. That’s why in case of CS1 and CS2 PS3 and Vita, they’re still in English dub only although they’re released in 2015 and 2016 respectively in the west.
Starting from 2015, looks like Falcom renewed the contract so that JP audio can be included in Falcom games released outside Japan and Asia. Tokyo Xanadu published by Aksys is the first Falcom game in English to have JP audio. And I assume when Falcom ported CS1 and CS2 to PS4, around the same time XSEED finally got the rights to put JP audio on their Steam version. So it’s not NISA’s decision when it comes to JP audio, it’s Falcom’s.
I thought XSEED did have japanese audio for Cold Steel 1 and 2 (the PC and PS4 ports)?
It was just the Sky games that only had English without the Evo voices.
😂 When XSeed first took on Trails they had no idea the scale they were messing with but soon exceeded(pond intended😜) everyone's wildest dreams while the beast that is Trails were to big to kill, the localizers not so much😢. For long localizers tho still dare to climb the hill that is, a Trails localization.😅
Haha XSEED definitely exceeded, especially when it came to Second Chapter!
Honestly absolutely of topic but when I hear people passionately talk about the series I can´t help but toss in my thoughts about the series.
I am a big fan of the series even though I don´t really have the proof to back that up. Reasons for that is my inability to push through the first sky game. I just do not enjoy the combat in Sky.
To roll back a bit I stumbled across the series rather randomly when I was in the mood of a turn based RPG and found CS1 on steam. Without knowing anything about the game except that the combat looked interesting I bought it on sale and was sucked into it. After playing the first game I did some research and found out about the entire series. About halfway through the second game however I felt burnt out. I think the openness of the game didn´t mesh well with me because the same happened about halfway through CS4 when it also becomes more open. Anyway my absolute highlight of the series must have been CS3. I liked everything about it. I liked the core characters better and also liked the smaller size of the core cast. Luckily after that I could already jump straight into CS4 that launched just shortly before I finished CS3 but as I said before I hit a wall. And this time it wouldn´t just go away. I found CS4s second half very meh. And the conclusion that all previous 8 games up until then lead up to to be very disappointing (I watched very in depth summarys of the story so even without playing I could enjoy and understand the story). Sadly Reverie didn´t really fill me with hope when I heard it is not a singular story but 3 seperate storys that tie together. And I was right. I haven´t finished Reverie yet because I am at the finale of the game but I feel absolutely no need to want to see it to an end. The entire game is just so unnecessary in my opinion. I will finish it at some point but this brings me to the point I truly want to make here. MAN do I hope Daybreak brings it back for me. I want to get back into the world of Zemuria and enjoy it again so badly. I really really hope Calvard lives up to the interest it has build over the span of the games. I will always recommend the series to people even with all the flaws I see in it. But I just can´t help but feel pessimistic and I need a good game to make it right again.
I'm always happy to talk Trails, thanks for sharing your thoughts! I completely agree with the 'burn out' feeling from CS2 and CS4 - those games are about 3x longer than they really need to be. Have some of the series' highest highs, but overall as full games fall a bit short thanks to their awful pacing and bloated cast. I'm also at the final act of Reverie and have mixed feelings about it, but I actually love the way they approach the 3 different interconnected stories that focus on a smaller cast (with C's route being the highlight). It's a shame you couldn't get through the Sky games - They are definitely the strongest from a narrative and character-writing perspective.
I always feel the best way to get into the series without the big hit of the lackluster combat of Sky is to try out Cold Steel 1 or the now released Trails From Zero. Both series are good introductions into their arcs without overwhelming you with references and have better gameplay (Cold Steel basically has an improved combat system based on Zero’s and Azure’s). From there you can try out Sky if you liked the series, since you will be invested enough to overlook the flaws.
@@GoldScope Yeah your take on the third route is pretty much exactly why I don´t like this way of storytelling. The third route is by far the most interesting. But I can´t get invested because they have not enough screentime thanks to shareing it with other groups that simply do not need more screentime.
In regards to the older games: I am playing through zero right now and I feel like I can do it. Combat once again is a slog but I think I can push through. It´s just kinda funny how I feel that the old Trails games have terrible combat while it evolved into my favourite turn based combat system during the CS saga. Who knows maybe I will give the Sky saga another go once I am done with the Crossbell games but it´s still a long time till then since I do not have the same amount of time I had two years ago.
What I found helpful is just blazing through the combat with turbo mode. Nothing wrong with turning the difficulty down and just doing the bare minimum from a gameplay perspective. Definitely needed for the Sky games which have much slower combat.
Also, Falcom doesn't let translators touch the script until it's official Japanese release.
Yes! This is very true. I do remember reading an interview article with Falcom who said because they keep making so many last minute changes to the script, they don't bother letting English localisers look at the script until the very last minute.
Are we ever going to see Cold Steel 1 and 2 on switch or a re release on playstation ? 😫
Unlikely with XSEED owning the rights to their scripts and NIS being the one who helped drive the Switch ports 😫
@@GoldScope that's pretty unfortunate. I thought Xseed would like to get some more cash for their investment; the job is already done, the translation is complete. The only remaining part is the port itself but even that already exists but only in japanese ! I am sure fans would be very happy to see the 4 games on switch in the west
@@YMY9cold steel 1 and 2 are already available on PlayStation 4 and 5
@@dustingonzalez8080 yeah I realised that after doing some reseach a bit unfortunate that the physical version of CS2 is that expensive
@@YMY9 yeah the physical copies were easy to get for the first few month’s when it released. Luckily it’s always on sale digitally.
Xseed was so much better than NIS. They are more faithful to the original Japanese text. Aswell as adding more voice lines than the Japanese version had in English. NIS have had it's ups and downs when it comes to accurate localization and translations. Many times they add or change the context of whats said unnecessarily.
You still have those links of falcom saying cold steel was intended for new fans because you have some zealots of the community that really push that sky trilogy is necessary to start from I started with cold steel and play the other games except crossbell arc even the kuro series and tell my friends cold steel is a good start
Yeah it'll always be a never ending debate. I do agree the best experience is starting from Sky and working your way up, but honestly that's such a big commitment. I'll never blame anyone starting from whichever arc most interests them.
We need the vita rereleases outside JP
I wish! Sadly XSEED own the rights to the script of the Sky trilogy and I don’t think they’d be willing to give it to NIS to work with Falcom to get the Sky games on the Switch (since Vita is now loooong gone)
I would rather prefer the treatment falcom gave to zero/azure than the evolution versions. Same game + voices + some extra cameo rather than the Evo changes of portraits, music and gameplay. Sky deserves its own identity instead of using zero/azure interface/gameplay
But at the same time Japan is still 2 games ahead so but the time Kuro No Kiseki 3 gets released in JAPAN NEXT YEAR ONLY the FIrst Kuro game will gets its English dub.
This is true! But I'd rather always be 2 games behind than 5!
Someone just spent almost a half hour explaining to you how taxing it is to localize these games for the people doing it (properly localize I mean... fan translations are great and everything but don't compare in terms of quality).
Ans your response is: Yeah, but it's not FAST ENOUGH
In this kinda context that just sounds like "mimimimimimi" mind set.
Don't get me wrong I would love to alrd be playing Kuro 1 and 2 as much as you. But as someone who is playing these games talking to all NPCs all the time... trust me I am surprised they're managing as fast as they are.
@@oOPrettywinxOo The fan translations have all knocked the official localizations out of the park.
Have you played Hajimari with the EN patch and then compared it to Reverie? Reverie is still full of text errors in item descriptions, has odd model swapping bugs and just overall unfaithful localizations that NisA loves to do(replacing entire sentences with "haha" etc).
If it were not for PH3 there would be 0 incentive to get their version over just getting clouded leopards and using a fantranslation.
Fans put a lot more time and passion into these translations than a bunch of overworked and dispassionate failed writers turned localizers at their 9 to 5.
@luminous3558 i haven't played the Reverie fan patch myself because I haven't played Reverie at all myself. Well, the other is that I am playing these games on console (cause I lack a powerful enough pc for anything other than sky, crossbell and cs1 and 2), and using the translation patches for those has you going through quite some heaps that just seem to bothersome for me.
So I can't speak to the quality of either the official or the fan translation for Reverie. I heard Reverie's official localization had some issues with wrong Craft descriptions etc, which I agree is an issue because it affects gameplay. However, frankly deluded fans harassing a localizer over the secondary title (not even actual name) of a character like it changes everything about the entire game is giving me the impression I don't wanna mix with the people who actually think that.
But what I HAVE done is played CS3 with the official localization, and then watched some streams of people playing the fan patch so I get an idea and can compare. And honestly, the localization is better, period. It's less literal than the fan patch, but that is a good thing if done in the right places and contexts. Trust me, I have had courses on professional translation in university and there is more to it than just literally translating what is said from one language into the other. That goes for all languages, and doubly so for languages from such different cultural backgrounds like Japanese and English. So no matter what you say, you won't be able to convince me that the fan translations are better. Because I know what I am talking about from a professional standpoint - and on the other side of the argument we have people who complain about "Trails through Daybreak" not being called "Trails through Darkness", while absolutely not understanding the actual meaning of the Kanji that Falcom used in the Japanese title or they would not be saying that. They probably heard the word "kuro" means black in some anime they watched and are now suddenly Japanese language experts. Lol
NISA's localizations aren't perfect by any means. While most of the mistakes can be attributed to being what we call "Flüchtigkeitsfehler" in my language - another word that cannot be literally translated into English by the way. It means the mistakes that happen while being rushed to meet a deadline. Which is very much the case when you're in a business for money and not someone doing this out of the goodness of their hearts for a fandom. Anyways my point being that those mistakes exist, and they shouldn't, and they should be patched asap, but they do not stem from a lack of knowledge or expertise of the Japanese language, but rather from a lack of time and abundance of stress being a factor.
If we are talking nuances and story though, the NISA script is definitely better than the fan translation.
That is not to say I don't appreciate the people who work hard to bring those fan translations to people who either are willing to go through the hoops of using them on the console versions or can just patch them into their pc versions. All power and gratitude to them. But that doesn't mean they are better than the official localizations. They're just not. But they shouldn't be held to the same standards in the first place.
P.S.: Your last paragraph however tells me you're probably one of those people who will never be convinced no matter what I say so move along. Nothing to see here.
The fact the games have English dubs now is one way to tell the localization will have dub titles and not real subtitles so for those wanting a more faithful experience the fan translations are the best way to play the games without having to deal with miss matching subs if you dare play the game with the original JP voice over. NISA script does not get the nuances especially when they actively said they censor things they don't like in the original script.
I'll give this one example when the French localization of FF16 is way closer to the Japanese script than the English one (yes despite that game having the English voice acting done 1st the original script is still JP). Then what makes the English ones so special to be so different? Nothing just a bunch of localizers who want to insert some nonsense in the script it really sucks playing those games with the JP audio knowing you get dub titles. Sometimes a literal translation can work for certain things localization should not be done to change entire character personalities or even themes in a work that is just Culturalization at that point.@@oOPrettywinxOo
Loved the video. Best wishes in the future!
Thank you so much! Means the world!