Just bought Persona 5 on sale. It has no Spanish subs. Fuck Atlus, seriously.

[sirap]

Finally, you feel the pain us Monster Hunter fans have felt for so long.

It's definitely bs that subs aren't available for your language. That should be the basic fo any AAA game launched right now tbh.

 

[Senator Toadstool]

Is this a US copy or a copy sold in Latin America/Spain? If its the former though shitty practices its on you to do research (though maybe they could put a little think on the back that says "only in english and japanese" like nintendo does with "this game requires basic reading ability"). The later Altus are major jerks

 

[HK-47]

Yeah, it's kinda pathetic. Even lots of indie games have Spanish translation nowadays.


If you ignore Chinese which is the most spoken language in the world, then yes.

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I mean, that's why he said second

 

[texhnolyze]

I mean, that's why he said second

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Oh, I thought English is second, just below Chinese.

 

[ResetGreyWolf]

I'm Swedish. Only about 0.01% of games have subtitles in Swedish.

To me, video games became a learning opportunity to get familiar with the English language. As a little kid, me and my friends who played Pokemon would be way ahead of the class in English.

So my best advice is to turn this experience into a positive! Use this as a learning opportunity to become more familiar with English :)

 

[ResetGreyWolf]

I mean, that's why he said second

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Oh, I thought English is second, just below Chinese.

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English is the most spoken language in the world, given its status as world language, however Mandarin Chinese and Spanish are indeed the number one and two in terms of number of native speakers. Interestingly, if you look at total numbers of speakers (non-native), then Spanish isn't third, but fourth, as Hindi climbs into third place.

 

[Komii]

So my best advice is to turn this experience into a positive! Use this as a learning opportunity to become more familiar with English :)

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I second this, you improve so much more when you've got some media that helps you get engaged on the language, if it wasn't for games ans tv shows I'd barely write/talk anything in english nowadays

 

[Glio]

Yes, learning languages with your hobby is cool, but sometimes you just want to relax and not make the extra effort

 

[Mr.Deadshot]

Aren't the languages in the description when you buy it? I don't want to be an ass but there are still - even in 2019 - lots of Japanese games that only come with English dubs and I am still glad for this because it's way better than never getting those games. Japanese companies are so behind when it comes down to translating their shit.

 

[Kain]

Portubros, just play the game (not P5 though lol) in Spanish because your market/language doesn't matter and poor little corporations can't risk or investigate shit /s

 

[ReplacementPelican]

P5 is also not available in German.
And we are the world's second biggest PS4 game market (IIRC).
Atlus is fucking dumb in that regard.

That said, native EN speakers always forget that there's a massive difference between having decent English language skills and playing a 100h "text dialogue game" in English.

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Aye but this is the gaming side so: corporations you like > consumers. Can imagine playing a massive rpg in a second language is fucking exhausting.

 

[yoonshik]

In 2020, efigs subtitles should be the minimum acceptable for a company like Atlus.

 

[Sabretooth]

Chinese and Indian is spoken by a billion and half people each

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Lmao I literally can't

 

[Infcabbage]

Atlus really needs to get their shit together regarding their jrpgs. Had no idea there was no translation.

 

[regenhuber]

Aye but this is the gaming side so: corporations you like > consumers. Can imagine playing a massive rpg in a second language is fucking exhausting.

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"I was able to play P5 just fine" is kinda like saying
"I didn't have to pee all night, so it was OK for the bar to have no restroom".

When you watch a movie/cutscene in English you can extract a ton of info from the character expression and tone.
If you don't know the words in a text box, you are sol.
Offering native language options is a big deal, otherwise publishers wouldn't put "Komplett in Deutsch" (German text + voice overs) or "Deutsche Untertitel" (subtitles) on the front of every box.

Funny that there isn't even a financial counterargument against translation in this case.
Spanish, German and French are massive languages spoken in massive markets. We're not talking icelandic or croatian here.
Atlus did a EN translation anyways. Translating a text from EN to DE is not expensive.

I doubt any niche JRPG fan in Germany demands a high quality voiceover for a game like Judgement or P5, but cheaping out on text is just shitty.
No matter how great these Atlus games are.

 

[Komii]

Portubros, just play the game (not P5 though lol) in Spanish because your market/language doesn't matter and poor little corporations can't risk or investigate shit /s

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8th most spoken language in the world but less translated games than the 9th(french)

 

[Jakisthe]

It's an RPG made in Japan so it is a JRPG.

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Now this I take umbrage with. Categorizing things on the basis of origin and not content is the height of foolishness.

EDIT: Oh also right, well, that sucks for Atlus. I mean, I dunno if it's say "fuck 'em", per se, but for a game like P5, missing even subs is kinda....comeon. I don't doubt the market is smaller than, say, english (see: prevalence of english is gaming, as determined by dozens and dozens of FP&A departments) but it's still a big ol' language.

 

[ResetGreyWolf]

It's an RPG made in Japan so it is a JRPG.

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This is like saying a french fry manufactured in America isn't a french fry.

A JRPG is not a game made in Japan, but a genre that was invented in Japan. The country that the game is made in is irrelevant.

 

[regenhuber]

Aren't the languages in the description when you buy it? I don't want to be an ass but there are still - even in 2019 - lots of Japanese games that only come with English dubs and I am still glad for this because it's way better than never getting those games. Japanese companies are so behind when it comes down to translating their shit.

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I just looked up P5 on the Amazon.de website and yes down there with the ISBN numbers and shit it says that the game is in Japanese/English but the manual is in German.
By contrast, a big game like CoD MW will have "it's in German" somewhere on the box.

Just from my experience it's very reasonable for FR/ESP/GER consumers to assume that games at the very least have native language subtitles. Doubt that a ton of people actively check the language options.

Might be a good idea for next gen to put a "no German/Spanish subtitles" warning sticker on the box.

 

[Deleted member 49535]

I'm with OP here like I said in previous posts, but I keep saying all these "well X language is the Y most spoken language in the world, so it should get a translation".

No. Companies decide if a translation is worth it based on how much it's going to sell if they do it, the number of people who speak that language is completely irrelevant if they don't go out and buy their games.

 

[Mr.Deadshot]

I just looked up P5 on the Amazon.de website and yes down there with the ISBN numbers and shit it says that the game is in Japanese/English but the manual is in German.
By contrast, a big game like CoD MW will have "it's in German" somewhere on the box.

Just from my experience it's very reasonable for FR/ESP/GER consumers to assume that games at the very least have native language subtitles. Doubt that a ton of people actively check the language options.

Might be a good idea for next gen to put a "no German/Spanish subtitles" warning sticker on the box.

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I am from Germany and I always check which languages are supported before getting a game for someone who doesn't speak English. Games that only have english subtitles aren't that rare tbh, especially in the JRPG genre.

 

[Komii]

I feel like people in this thread should at least understand the process of localization and the costs:

https://medium.com/@nikolaybondaren...ks-and-how-much-it-costs-in-2018-664e2748a121

Translating an AAA game from english to japanese costs about 75k(300000 words), while translating it to spanish goes on about 60k for the same amount of words. Once you choose spanish you must select the target audience, if you go for europe you'll have to add french, german and maybe italian, so you'll end up spending 4 times that amount, and if you go for LATAM you'll maybe need to translate it to portuguese, since the brazilian market is pretty huge, double costs...

Also for a proper translation you'd need a professional that(ideally) has spanish as their native language and japanese as their second, for an indie game, for an AAA game you need a full team, and a goddamn good editor, so they can even out each of the translators texts. This is goddamn hard to find, so i'd bet translating from spanish to japanese it'd be a bit more pricey... the game's fonts have to allow for characters like ñ and ¡ and honestly a lot of fonts can't handle it, and some game codes won't allow that kind of characters in a friendly manner at all...

Indie games need the translations for a bigger reach, but they also have community members handling it, or are made with localization in mind, if you look at Paper's Please log for localization, Pope literally bent the whole code of the game for that to work, that's much harder to do on an AAA game if you didn't plan to localizing it. Not to mention Persona 5 is pretty art heavy, so you'll have that cost added too.

Atlus can't spend that much money in a localization, bamco and square are much bigger than Atlus so they can afford spending over 100k for localizations, but for P5 that would probably be way over 10% of the game budget xO

Honestly, bamco couldn't even afford english translations sometime ago, seeing how Vesperia was an xbox 360 exclusive because Microsoft dealt with localization costs>_>

*iirc these values are for subs

 

[Dphex]

it also didn´t have german subs. all Yakuza games sans Judgment also have english only subs.

my opinion: english subs are better than playing in japanese. but moving forward all companies should opt for european subs, they surely can afford it.

 

[Deleted member 46948]

Funny that there isn't even a financial counterargument against translation in this case.
Spanish, German and French are massive languages spoken in massive markets. We're not talking icelandic or croatian here.

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It's often a simple equation for the publishers. Will the game sell well enough in that market to justify localization costs? Will the localization make it sell substantially better? If yes, it gets localized. If not, well...
And yes, Spanish-speaking market is huge, so I don't know why they decided to not localize.

Atlus did a EN translation anyways. Translating a text from EN to DE is not expensive.

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You're mistaken. It's a fairly costly affair, the localization industry in Germany is well lobbied for, and it's not cheap. Obviously, it would still be a fraction of total publishing costs, but it's not peanuts, especially if the game has like half a million words in it.

 

[ArkhamFantasy]

I feel like people in this thread should at least understand the process of localization and the costs:

https://medium.com/@nikolaybondaren...ks-and-how-much-it-costs-in-2018-664e2748a121

Translating an AAA game from english to japanese costs about 75k(300000 words), while translating it to spanish goes on about 60k for the same amount of words. Once you choose spanish you must select the target audience, if you go for europe you'll have to add french, german and maybe italian, so you'll end up spending 4 times that amount, and if you go for LATAM you'll maybe need to translate it to portuguese, since the brazilian market is pretty huge, double costs...


Honestly, bamco couldn't even afford english translations sometime ago, seeing how Vesperia was an xbox 360 exclusive because Microsoft dealt with localization costs>_>

*iirc these values are for subs

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There are japanese games that sell a fraction of what P5 did that have English, Japanese, and multiple european subtitle options. The "Atlus is niche" excuse doesn't work anymore, they're a big time company now and they're owned by a multi billion dollar publisher.

If people want to hold Persona and Atlus up on a pedestal and declare them GOTY contenders and superior to Square Enix and other major publishers then you can't turn around and say "oh subtitles are tough for a tiny little niche company like Atlus!", Atlus isn't above criticism, they can be better.

 

[Manu]

As a Latin American kid I had to force myself to learn English and play with a dictionary next to me, that's to that my English skills developed way faster and better than my peers.

And you guys in Spain had your games in Spanish since the 90s, we had to wait until the end of the 00s to finally get "most" games in Spanish. And most of the times is sadly the European Spanish.

Also, if you were familiar with ATLUS games you know that they never come in any other language than English.

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Read the thread.

I'm Swedish. Only about 0.01% of games have subtitles in Swedish.

To me, video games became a learning opportunity to get familiar with the English language. As a little kid, me and my friends who played Pokemon would be way ahead of the class in English.

So my best advice is to turn this experience into a positive! Use this as a learning opportunity to become more familiar with English :)

Click to shrink...

Read the goddamn thread.

 

[regenhuber]

It's often a simple equation for the publishers. Will the game sell well enough in that market to justify localization costs? Will the localization make it sell substantially better? If yes, it gets localized. If not, well...
And yes, Spanish-speaking market is huge, so I don't know why they decided to not localize.



You're mistaken. It's a fairly costly affair, the localization industry in Germany is well lobbied for, and it's not cheap. Obviously, it would still be a fraction of total publishing costs, but it's not peanuts, especially if the game has like half a million words in it.

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Ah, interesting insight. I stand corrected.

I do know that the localization industry in Germany is pretty lucrative.
A girl I went to school/hung out with lended her voice for various TV shows. She was the cheerleader in Heroes and has been on OC californa and gilmore girls.
I was always surprised at how much money she made. It was like 40€ per hour and they sent a Taxi to pick her up after school.

Didn't think that applied to "just text" but OK, at these rates it's a lot.

 

[Deleted member 8196]

Also for a proper translation you'd need a professional that(ideally) has spanish as their native language and japanese as their second, for an indie game, for an AAA game you need a full team, and a goddamn good editor, so they can even out each of the translators texts. This is goddamn hard to find, so i'd bet translating from spanish to japanese it'd be a bit more pricey... the game's fonts have to allow for characters like ñ and ¡ and honestly a lot of fonts can't handle it, and some game codes won't allow that kind of characters in a friendly manner at all...

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Hard to find?

In case you don't know there's a big agency called Keywords that provides localizations in various languages for a ton of publishers out there.
https://www.keywordsstudios.com/services/localization/

40+ languages as well https://www.binarisonori.com/localization.php

This is just Atlus being cheap, if Warhorse and Larian can have a budget to translate their RPGs in 10 languages, Atlus can do the same.

 

[Komii]

There are japanese games that sell a fraction of what P5 did that have English, Japanese, and multiple european subtitle options. The "Atlus is niche" excuse doesn't work anymore, they're a big time company now and they're owned by a multi billion dollar publisher.

If people want to hold Persona and Atlus up on a pedestal and declare them GOTY contenders and superior to Square Enix and other major publishers then you can't turn around and say "oh subtitles are tough for a tiny little niche company like Atlus!", Atlus isn't above criticism, they can be better.

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How many words and artwork were involved and could these games be translated by freelancers rather than a company? All these factors are in that text which i don't know why i bother linking tbh

 

[wrowa]

I am from Germany and I always check which languages are supported before getting a game for someone who doesn't speak English. Games that only have english subtitles aren't that rare tbh, especially in the JRPG genre.

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Yeah, if you're into JRPGs/Japanese games in particular, you'll know that usually only the larger titles receive a localization into languages other than English. Games by NISA, XSEED/Marvelous, Atlus, Pqube, Aksys and all the other minor publishers of Japanese games are rarely if ever available in languages other than English.

Of course, Persona 5 is a pretty huge game with sales approaching 3 million worldwide, so I can definitely understand the frustration when what is a by all metrics a pretty popular games doesn't receive a translation. At that point it becomes difficult to argue with "A localization likely wouldn't have been profitable", because you can assume that it likely actually would have been. However, it's worth keeping in mind that Persona while enjoying ever growing popularity since Persona 3 wasn't really a major franchise prior to Persona 5, so committing to localize it might have been considered to be a bit of a gamble. Also, there's Atlus being Atlus and their historically different relationship with the European market. By the time they settled a publishing deal with Deep Silver it might simply have been too late for DS to make a localization happen.

It's worth noting that at least Persona 3/5 Dancing and Catherine Full Body have received translations into EFIGS since then, so I guess it's possible Persona 5 Royal might as well.

 

[Deleted member 46948]

Ah, interesting insight. I stand corrected.

I do know that the localization industry in Germany is pretty lucrative.
A girl I went to school/hung out with lended her voice for various TV shows. She was the cheerleader in Heroes and has been on OC californa and gilmore girls.
I was always surprised at how much money she made. It was like 40€ per hour and they sent a Taxi to pick her up after school.

Didn't think that applied to "just text" but OK, at these rates it's a lot.

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Yeah, it's not a bad line of work, as rates go. Decent rates are of course offset by weaker months when you don't get enough work, and often brutal deadlines - you might only work around 100 hours per month, but you can bet your ass you're gonna work 60 of them in one week.

 

[Mbolibombo]

That's unfortunate. Not something I can really relate to as my languange is never ever translated but I can understand where the frustration comes from if it's never an issue outside of this time.

If your girlfriend really wants to play this, cant you translate for her if you intended to play it together anyway?

 

[Komii]

Hard to find?

In case you don't know there's a big agency called Keywords that provides localizations in various languages for a ton of publishers out there.
https://www.keywordsstudios.com/services/localization/

40+ languages as well https://www.binarisonori.com/localization.php

This is just Atlus being cheap, if Warhorse and Larian can have a budget to translate their RPGs in 10 languages, Atlus can do the same.

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Im not saying atlus is niche. I'm saying translating a 10k word indie game from english to any language is cheaper than localizing an 300k word game from japanese to any language. It's 30 times the cost and there's much more factors involved.

I only posted these data so people can actually know what they're talking about before jumping to conclusions that translation is a cakewalk like most of the thread does

 

[Fer]

You don't get success in a country if you can't even be bothered to sub your game to their language.

People is not asking for dubs (btw, even fucking Sekiro got DUBBED, I know Acti but still).

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Sorry, but this is wrong.
In LATAM se never got games in Spanish until probably halo 2. That was not an impediment to people buying consoles or playing at arcades. This includes FFVII which was also popular here at the time.

As for the topic, I don't remember any atlus game in Spanish to be honest, so OP should have looked it up and now should ask for a refund maybe.

Finally, I'd rather have a game in English and fast than having to wait longer for the rest of the languages which could probably be added later anyway.

I learned English to play videogames, so I'm used to this.

 

[Kromeo]

Wait.


Atlus takes FOREVER to do western releases and they cant even do full EFIGS's translations?

Christ.

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Atlus only discovered Europe even existed this gen, give them time

 

[Another]

I'm gonna get a ton of hate for this one I'm sure, but... I feel as if we'd be better off if everything just had english subtitles and nothing else, always (unless the game was originally in another language before that in which case that one language should obviously remain in the game... and of course, all of this wouldn't apply for children's games, of course)! People need to be competent with english in this day and age, that's exactly why it's compulsory learning almost everywhere! I also find it funny that it's always Spanish, French, German and Italian speakers who always complain about this kind of stuff (in other words, the countries which dub everything for some godawful reason, no idea how you can stand it).
The smaller download sizes would be awesome as well!

For reference, english is my 4th language (Portuguese/Italian are my main languages and I'm fluent in Spanish and then English as well).

 

[Velezcora]

I don't think it's fair to blame ATLUS here when it was ATLUS USA who localised it and they work specifically for the North American market. It was then published in Europe by Deep Silver.

Now who you SHOULD blame is Sega, they own ATLUS and could step up but for some reason don't. They're a big company with huge success in Europe they really have no excuse to not take an active role in distributing their games.

 

[Deleted member 23381]

Lmao at the Anglo privilege itt

 

[Datajoy]

You shoulda checked!

 

[Another]

You don't get success in a country if you can't even be bothered to sub your game to their language.

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This is completely false. Tons of countries get no subs in almost any games and are avid gaming consumers... this is mostly only a problem for countries which dub everything (france, spain, germany and italy are the main "offenders"), you'll find that loads of countries around Europe are avid game consumers despite rarely or even never getting any subs... the netherlands, scandinavia in general, portugal, a boatload of other countries such as the czech republic, hungary, Greece, Israel, Croatia etc etc etc.

 

[Manu]

I swear if I have to read one more post assuming i'm from Spain

There are many Spanish speaking countries in the world, people

 

[Glio]

I'm gonna get a ton of hate for this one I'm sure, but... I feel as if we'd be better off if everything just had english subtitles and nothing else, always (unless the game was originally in another language before that in which case that one language should obviously remain in the game... and of course, all of this wouldn't apply for children's games, of course)! People need to be competent with english in this day and age, that's exactly why it's compulsory learning almost everywhere! I also find it funny that it's always Spanish, French, German and Italian speakers who always complain about this kind of stuff (in other words, the countries which dub everything for some godawful reason, no idea how you can stand it).
The smaller download sizes would be awesome as well!

For reference, english is my 4th language (Portuguese/Italian are my main languages and I'm fluent in Spanish and then English as well).

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Why, if I pay the same for a product that an English speaker I have to receive a product in which I have to make an extra effort to enjoy it in my leisure time when I just want to relax.

 

[Lant_War]

I don't think it's fair to blame ATLUS here when it was ATLUS USA who localised it and they work specifically for the North American market. It was then published in Europe by Deep Silver.

Now who you SHOULD blame is Sega, they own ATLUS and could step up but for some reason don't. They're a big company with huge success in Europe they really have no excuse to not take an active role in distributing their games.

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They have been stepping up. The dancing games came subbed, for example.

 

[Kain]

I swear if I have to read one more post assuming i'm from Spain

There are many Spanish speaking countries in the world, people

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El imperio yatusabe

 

[Another]

Why, if I pay the same for a product that an English speaker I have to receive a product in which I have to make an extra effort to enjoy it in my leisure time when I just want to relax.

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There's no excuse for not being fluent in english in the 21st century if you have an actual interest in media. It's the de fact international language and not knowing it well will limit your ability to enjoy a ton of stuff beyond just videogames. Literature, cinema, music, tv... you name it and the result is always the same, there's access to more stuff than in any other language. Learn proper english (as in... to the point where it's effortless) and your problem is solved forever and you also get a ton of professional and personal growth out of it.

Also, your point is flawed, if you pay the same price you should logically get the same product, no? You want a more complete product...

 

[Mendrox]

Eh, I am from Germany and back then I would have rather get the games quicker than having to wait for them to localise the games into German. Made me step up my game when I was young and I learned English way quicker. It sucks for people that can't read English without having to concentrate and if they are not willing to learn it by playing or watching it than it sucks even more. I would still see it finally as a chance. There is a ton of great media which is just better left unlocalised and things which aren't even localised at all so in a way you can consume more and it's also a great asset for life. I don't even know anybody that can't watch or play English games and not understand the big gist at least, but I guess that is also how we get teached things over here which is not the priority for some other countries.

I mean it's the international language so I would make that one of my priorities, but if for some people that would never be a thing for them in their life than buying and playing unlocalised games sucks yeah.

 

[Another]

I swear if I have to read one more post assuming i'm from Spain

There are many Spanish speaking countries in the world, people

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Probably has more countries where it is the official language than any other language, no?

 

[L176]

I second this, you improve so much more when you've got some media that helps you get engaged on the language, if it wasn't for games ans tv shows I'd barely write/talk anything in english nowadays

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Same here. From age 9 to 11 I lived in Thailand were only possibility to watch tv was either Thai or English. That together with video games made me (a Finn) a fluent speaker and user at a young age.

 

[TimeFire]

Lmao at the Anglo privilege itt

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Really something isn't it? You better learn a second language if you wanna enjoy a dumb anime rpg after work! Do you really deserve to play it if you can't do that?

 

[Mendrox]

Really something isn't it? You better learn a second language if you wanna enjoy a dumb anime rpg after work! Do you really deserve to play it if you can't do that?

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That's not the point for many people in here. If you only know one language you should consider learning a second one (does not have to be English, but if you can't read/speak English that opens up a lot of more opportunities) for the following like:

having a lot more job opportunities
giving your self a brain boost or rather improving your memory, reducing cognitive decline in the future, giving yourself a longer attention span
being able to mostly speak in any country in the world, everyone is able to understand a few words of English in most countries
improving decision making, because people make more logical decision in a second language

and lots of more. I would recommend doing that in your free time, but if you are content with life and have no problems and needs for certain media or anything like that then it's fine.