NISA eventually started to out grow that stuff and has been getting better at least.
WD probably could have continued to do the same as well if it weren't for Vic's poor business sense.
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I want to play Lunar, but Working Designs translations keep stopping me.
- Thread starter Valcrist
- Start date
WD probably could have continued to do the same as well if it weren't for Vic's poor business sense.
he also lost whatever pull in japan he used to have given the types of dollar store licenses he had to settle for at gaijinworks
I'm pretty sure the straw that broke NIS memeing was the backlash to their comically bad Ys VIII localization. That one was impossible to ignore.
Yeah, since that public embarrassment, it really has felt like they've stepped up their game (and it also helps that they picked up former XSeed talent)
The last 2 games Gaijinworks released were Summon Night games with Namco-Bandai. Summon Night's a great SRPG series and Namco-Bandai is a respectable partner. Take your hate elsewhere.
Yeah, you can dunk on Class of Heroes for being kind of a throw away franchise (though it's perfectly fine), but Summon Night is legit.
That said, I wouldn't put too much props into Vic being able to land that when it's not like Bandai Namco was probably seeing many other suitors for it (and clearly weren't interested in it themselves)
Really, the bigger headscratcher of WD/GW/Vic going after low key franchises is finding out that he spent years bonking his head trying to be able to localize the 360 Tengai Makyou 2 remake and failing due to technical reasons, and realizing that he probably could have gotten away with doing the GC remake of Tengai Makyou 1 if he hadn't killed GW trying to make Growlanser happen against the compilation thing.
That said, I wouldn't put too much props into Vic being able to land that when it's not like Bandai Namco was probably seeing many other suitors for it (and clearly weren't interested in it themselves)
Really, the bigger headscratcher of WD/GW/Vic going after low key franchises is finding out that he spent years bonking his head trying to be able to localize the 360 Tengai Makyou 2 remake and failing due to technical reasons, and realizing that he probably could have gotten away with doing the GC remake of Tengai Makyou 1 if he hadn't killed GW trying to make Growlanser happen against the compilation thing.
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Unfortunately it does nothing to the text in the game, it only changes the gameplay changes they made.
My understanding from talking to people in the industry is that these days, there's not much you can get period as far more companies are just localizing their own games or are partnering with big companies.
I felt like XSeed Games was the successor to Working Designs, but since creation, they got bought out and started losing their licenses and now they're basically just the NA branch of Marvelous.
I am not sure how I missed this, thank you for pointing it out!
Right. Which is why something that nobody else was picking up (including the big major publisher that already owned it) is maybe not that dramatic of a get.
It actually occurs to me that a slightly healthier GW probably could/would have been able to successfully swing themselves into becoming the American arm of Gung Ho if they had lasted longer.
Eh, I'd been wanting an official localization of any non-spinoff Summon Night game for years so I was thrilled when they announced it. I had Summon Night 3 as an import and it's one of my favorite SRPGs of all-time. Unfortunately, by all accounts, Summon Night 6 bombed and around that time, Vic Ireland had some health problems and that was the end of that.
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I'd been waiting for the series proper to get localized for years too (the GBA games were nice but not the same thing). I'm just saying I'm not particularly impressed he was able to get it given nobody else wanted it.
I've played Ace Attorney in japanese. The translations are a big improvement. WD on the other hand, well I don't hate them. So perhaps my opinion is worthless.
Their release of Growlanser 2 and 3 only had moments of this, for the most part, it was a good localization.
I feel like the reason why I mixed the patches up is because when I was doing fan translation patch work on a different project someone was talking about picking up a project to retranslate these games; don't wait for it, I'm not sure if it was ever announced officially, but I have a memory of seeing a retranslation patch somewhere. My apologies about the mixup.
I remember people being upset Xseed wasn't going to use their "translation" in the PSP version lol
The M&Ms one is funny and the other Lunar ones are harmless and minor. Lunar had more personality than almost all other RPGs in the 90s
How can anyone take a look at these and think, "yeah, great localizations!"?
I remember people being upset Xseed wasn't going to use their "translation" in the PSP version lol
For what reason would a character in that game have the context to make an M&Ms ad reference?
For one, they're comprehendible so objectively way way above average for the 90s even in those screenshots
That's a gross exaggeration. Yes, the '90s had hit-and-miss localizations if not straight awful, but inserting dumb, nonsensical pop culture references regardless of appropriate context doesn't make it good just because it's grammatically correct.
The "not in kansas anymore" one seems somewhat excusable. It's at least a reference that's stood the test of time, it's very brief and inoffensive, and the sentiment might actually fit the context of the scene... even if it doesn't make sense to reference Kansas/Wizard of Oz within the context of the setting.
The others are pretty bad though.
That's not remotely true. What's incomprehensible about Final Fantasy? Shining Force? Lufia? Landstalker? Saying 90s RPGs on the average were poorly translated is a gross exaggeration.
Not to mention it's flat out wrong to pretend even a majority of 90s localizations were so bad they were incomprehensible
why drink royal crown summon night when you have pepsi sakura wars lol
there are just better SRPG/dating sims period, why waste your limited game time on summon night
I actually preferred RC Cola to Pepsi when I drank soda, lol
Though, in retrospect, Sakura Wars sure was a series WD never touched but probably could have if they didnt decide to be petty.
Yeah as someone who is not American and played this version of Lunar some years ago those jokes may as well have been left in Japanese given they are completely meaningless to someone who is not American or familiar with the culture around there around those years.
I actually don't even remember some of these. Did they tone it down in the PS1 versions?Oh it had personality, alright...
my point is that sakura wars feels like the real mccoy of the genre while summon night is certainly ok but the economy of time is the ultimate factor. my more personal view is that i don't know how anyone could seriously recommend summon night to anyone outside of the WD fandom umbrella
Even the poster child for bad SNES localizations, Breath of Fire 2, is actually pretty easy enough to follow 99% of the time.
You don't think FF7 is hard to understand a lot of time because of bad translation?
Oh it had personality, alright...
This is the first time I'm seeing these I think since I know the PS1 version and not the Sega CD version but these did just make me laugh.
I could see the Kansas quote turning into a permanent idiom over time. Isn't it strongly implied that the games take place in an alternate post-apocalyptic future where the Earth has been rendered inhabitable and a goddess saved humanity by making the moon habitable and moving humanity there?
Of course, most of the references in the games are much more dated.
I was referring to the original Final Fantasy on NES, which came out in 1990 and has a perfectly understandable localization. It's interesting you bring up FF7, because that game has translation issues for sure. I was trying to think of other games of the era that have slurs, and Tifa using the R-slur in FF7 is the only example that springs to mind. Look at the top joke you quoted, that shit is sexist. Many WD games of the time have problematic content, and that wasn't a common thing of localizations of the era. I just want people to critically think about their understanding of Working Designs, and not just fall back on mistaken beliefs about what the 90s were like.
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Final Fantasy VII had its share of grammatical mistakes and oddities, but the game was far from incomprehensible.
This. Get over it and just enjoy the game.
As JRPG cringe goes it doesn't even crack the top 100.
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That's a nothing statement of hyperbole, and telling someone to "get over it" isn't exactly helpful, either.
an ike and tina turner domestic violence reference goes beyond cringe into weird and gross in one game, to say nothing of the actual racist stuff that other people have mentioned numerous times regarding the OP content specifically
Not excusing racially problematic aspects, but Lunar isn't the only game that has major issues regarding race.
It is a product of its time. The underlying games are good enough, in my opinion, to warrant playing them.
I think you'd have a stronger point with something like the original translation for FFT, but even that really is kind of an anomaly.
The worst thing you could say about most translations back then is that they were kind of wooden. WD definitely punches that up, but the flip side is that in a lot of these shots, everyone still has kind of the same "voice," and it's not a voice I personally particularly like. They also say some pretty weird stuff. "Where's Dirty Harry when you need him" is just kind of odd, to say nothing of the fact that Dirty Harry is kind of a weird pull for an audience of teens in the 90s.
sorry i forgot casual racism weirdly inserted into the story by a bunch of white nerds can be handwaved away by "it was the 90s!". my bad.
Speaking of overbearing have you read your posts back to yourself in this thread
I grew up playing working designs games they brought over and loved lunar in particular but could stand to lose some things especially.the problematic aspects.
There has to be a happy medium between their translations and the total shit show that is silver star harmony. I'd drown in pop culture references before suffering the literal translation of harmony again.
What are your examples? My response before was pithy but I'm not trying to be confrontational, I'm genuinely curious. I've been thinking about this and I can't think of many examples of the era. FF7 is definitely one, and the whitewashing in Persona, but I would love to know more.
User Banned (2 Months): Whataboutism and Dismissing Concerns of Racism over Multiple Posts; Prior Ban for Whataboutism
But the pedophilia, racism, and sexual assault tropes throughout the rest of the games are ok?
The JRPG genre is problematic, period.
Can you name other games that explicitly made the entire concept of ebonics a joke?
lol yikes, who even actually said or implied that. ease off the discourse accelerator there speed demon