In transit - June 1, 2000 - Chris Jones
Disclaimer: The opinions expressed within this column are those of
the participants and the moderator, and do not necessarily reflect those of the GIA. There
is coarse language and potentially offensive material afoot. It's either the Allegra or
the congestion, but my reflexes are shot to hell. Don't say we didn't warn you.
Aye chihuahua, long day. Column's gonna be short, I'm just not thinking straight right
now, sorry.
Onward.
| You want info on localization? We got it right
here. |
| Hey there. I noticed all the talk about product localization lately.
I've worked on localizations before and let me tell you, regardless of however it may have
been set up by the developer or whatnot, localizations are TOUGH.
On the surface, they seem easy. Translate the text, throw it into the game, catch and
fix any cultural references you can and walaa (sp?) -- you've got your game localized and
ready to go.
The thing that makes it tough, especially with an RPG is the fact that you have to read
and edit the script, and for the most part, you have to do it in isolated chunks as the
translators get it back to you. Now while this doesn't sound that critical, believe me, it
is. It is difficult to keep track of personalities and character quirks. It is difficult
to keep the script coherent as you edit it in chunks to clean up whatever cultural
references the translator may have left behind.
And the absolute killer in a localization is character constraints. The RPGs I've
worked on kept a solid 44 character per line limit, and three lines per dialog box. In
order to keep in time with the onscreen character (say in a cut-scene for instance) you
have to jam into three lines or 132 characters whatever may have been said in Japanese, or
English for that matter if you are getting into European localization. This is tough.
Speaking of European localizations: German is the hardest language I have ever
localized for. Without a doubt it seems to be the most incredibly *long* language. Long in
the sense that we actually had a word that was 36 characters for the term: Top Speed.
And don't even get me started on audio localization: It's expensive and TERRIBLY
difficult to do right.
Granted, most of these problems can be avoided through smart design and execution. The
problem as I have experienced it however, is that developers are SO rushed to release a
title in their native country that they drop smart localization tools by the wayside in
order to ship the title.
The other thing to bear in mind is that by the time product gets localized for another
market, the authors of the game are already wanting to work on the next project, which
makes it difficult to implement certain changes one might need for their local market.
I rant. I apologize. 2 best localizations ever, in my not so humble opinon: Metal Gear
Solid and Vagrant Story. MGS had the best audio localization ever as far as I am
concerned. And the story in Vagrant Story was so well done from a localization standpoint,
that it didn't seem like the title even came out of Japan. Just a completely tight
localization.
As far as why Japanese developers are so nippon-centric? My guess is that games are
more than entertainment in Japan. Kojima and quite a few others have elevated it into,
dare I say it?, an art form. On the whole they take their cartoons more serious and I feel
that games are an extension of that philosophy. Sometimes I don't think they make games to
make money. It seems quite a few Japanese games get made simply to be made.
And there's nothing wrong with that.
Have a nice day. Edit as you see fit.
-Jinx |
Thanks mucho for the info, Jinx. But I still maintain developers shouldn't be so dumb
with translations. The 44 character/3 line limit you mention is BAD DESIGN, and today
there's simply no excuse for it. (I can see it in an NES or SNES title though.) If a
majority or substantial minority of games are gonna be consumed outside Japan (and Sony's
figures indicate non-Japanese Playstations are in the minority) then a company's just
screwing itself by not planning ahead. Any time pressures they might be under almost
certainly aren't gonna compare with losing 40%+ of their potential sales. I dunno, maybe
these guys need to read a few books on software design philosophy.
| Canadian Rednecks? Isn't that an oxymoron? |
| Heyas Chris, I remember eharing a long time ago that when you bought a
Playstation2, you could trade in your now useless playstation for somewhere around $75 -
$100. Is this true? Because I'm in Canada. Playstation apparantly is $450 here. Thats the
no-controllers, no-games, no-memory cards model too. I'm not gonna spend 450, plus 35 for
a controller plus 80 to 100 for a game plus 25 for a memory card. If I can get $100 off
however, I might get one at a later date when its worht buying (read: MGS2 or FF10 is
out).
btw, RPGs have gone public. Some stupid redneck at my school yesterday was tlaking
about Final Fantasy 10. Except, not knowing roman numerals, he decided the X must be for
eXtreme! It was truly the most moronic thing I have ever seen, people tlaking about
"Final Fantasy eXtreme". Depending on who you talked to, it was either a good FF
game (read: mindless action / Re -style) or a crossover between Final Fantasy and the
Xtreme series of games (Xtreme, 2Xtreme, 3Xtreme). I mean, if we're gonna make RPG news
public, we should at least set them right. All those in favor of beating the general
population with wiffle bats say aye!
Yours Somewhat Respectfully But Too Busy Whapping World Population To Be Fully
Respectful In Any Shape Or Form,
Kawaii_Cabbit[BOFH] |
Once the PS2 comes out there's gonna be a massive glut of people trying to pawn their
PSXs, so the chances of getting any reasonable amount of money for one are non-existent.
It wouldn't surprise me tho if you could trade in your PSX now to Babbages, etc. for a
downpayment on a PS2. The only problem is you'd miss out on all the nifty games that're
gonna be released this summer.
I gotta point this out before I get a deluge of emails on the subject: FFV was once
under consideration for release by Square as "Final Fantasy Extreme", so the
title isn't that bizarre. And from the very short footage of FFX I've seen so far, a Soul
Reaver-style action game isn't impossible.
Look at it this way - yeah, they're philistines, but they've made it possible for
Square to go from publishing butchered versions of FFIV to masterpieces like Vagrant
Story. So roll your eyes and be thankful.
| Hard info. And some of it's even correct! |
| "... the reason we got Vagrant Story instead of FFT2 in the first
place is due to a lack of phenomenal sales on FFT's part, if I remember correctly." Actually
Final Fantasy Tactics sold 1 million copies in Japan, making it one of the best selling
games released by Square ever.
A little background on the "producer" of FFT/Vagrant Story. He's actually the
director/scenario writer/lead designer. Yasumi Matsuno originally worked for Quest where
he created Ogre Battle and Tactics Ogre, then he, Akihiko Yoshida (lead artist), and
Yasuhiro Minagawa (graphics director), were hired off by Square to work on Final Fantasy
Tactics.
Now Matsuno is fairly famous in Japan. If we made an analogy between video games and
movies, Matsuno would be a profilic independent movies director (I'd compare him to Atom
Egoyan, if you know who that is). His games are made with the hardcore gamer in mind (the
only exception is FFT, which appeals to both casual and hardcore), and he has a loyal
following of about half a million gamers in Japan. I would gander to say that the rumor
that he was let go by Square is probably false. Square probably DID fire most of the
programming/graphics/design staff, since they have been doing massive layoffs, but letting
go of Matsuno, Yoshida, and Minagawa? Highly unlikely in my opinion.
Also, Vagrant Story didn't really sell that bad. It sold 159,842 copies in its first
week (I was about to say it could have been more since this number comes from Famitsu, but
then I remembered that Famitsu tracks all of Digicube's sales, and Digicube sells 99% of
of Square's games). Unfortunately I was too lazy to search for sales figures for the game
in the next 2-3 weeks after its release (RPGs tend to stop selling after 3 weeks, that's
when people who've beaten the game sell their copies and others will pick up the used
copies, a cycle in Japan that publishers hate). So I would gander Vagrant Story didn't top
200k. Which actually isn't bad, and is just right for a popular niche game in Japan (btw
average video game in Japan, obscure or not, sells 20,000 copies), and you also have to
consider that Vagrant Story was aimed with the Ogre Battle fans in mind (since fans in
Japan actually tend to follow game creators 1st, game series 2nd, and companies last).
Considering Ogre Battle 64 sold 250k, and Tactics Ogre sold 400k, I think that is
generally determinative of the size of that fanbase.
So yes, maybe it's possible Square was hoping Matsuno's latest game would sell as well
as his previous game, but they failed to realize that FFT sold so well because of it's
Final Fantasy label, not because Matsuno was behind it. |
I've been able to confirm most of the above, but there are a few things that need to be
said. Most important is that Matsuno has been let go from Square, and "poor"
sales do seem to be the reason. In this case, Vagrant Story's sold about 250,000 total
copies overseas.
It's also worth noting that Vagrant Story isn't exactly the same game over here as it
is over there, and for once we may have gotten the better end of the deal. The writing,
one of the great strengths of the game, was merely mediocre in the initial release, and
could have been a factor in Square's decision. Not that that's any excuse. Bad Square!
Bad!
| Hey, major uncool |
| First of all I know you were only joking about us British getting rid of
the German's, but it's comments like that that keep hatred towards them going. Anyways,
I've been lucky enough to import great games like Xenogears and Parasite Eve, but I'm just
so pissed off that this country never seems to receive any decent games, except countless
amounts of crap football games. Everyone keeps talking about Europe, and how much
translating has to be done, but will people please remember that people in the UK do
actually speak the English language (shocking!), so please give a thought for us. Yes, we
do go with PAL, and so it might take a little longer having to convert it into that
format, but in the end, it's pay off. I'm sure Crono Cross would do great here. I nealry
collapsed with shock when I found out that the UK was getting Vagrant Story!
Okie, sorry to moan like this, but I just want you American's to realise how damn lucky
you are, when it comes to games anyway ;)
Truds |
Yep, I admit the WWIII joke was tasteless. Apologies. I'm sure I'll now get tons of
letters telling me not to be such a wuss, but if you want to listen to the rantings of a
rude, thoughtless asshole, go turn on Howard Stern.
Now that I won't apologize for.
The British non-release of CC is probably the worst of all the many errors Square's
made with their European translations. Like I said before, I can accept the lack of
personnel as a reason for not localizing it into German, etc. but as it is a bunch of
quite decent Brits are being left out in the cold for no good reason.
Fortunately, I'd think there's a reasonable solution here: Import from the US. Yeah,
it's probably way expensive, and you'd probably have to import a US PSX and maybe even an
NTSC television. But considering all the great titles we get that you don't (Xenogears and
FFT among them, if I remember correctly) such an investment would be well worthwhile. I've
thought several times about just getting a Japanese console and not even bothering with
the US releases, and I'd probably do it if I could read Japanese fluently. You don't even
have that excuse, but like I said, it probably is cost prohibitive.
| This letters a gift from God! |
| wo, i thought i was the only one who was so stupid as to not figure out
that there were not just battle abilities in Tactics. i got a good feeling! |
Maybe we need to start a support group: "People too stupid to play RPGs
correctly".
Or maybe this could be the next contest to get a GIA shirt - tell me the stupidest
thing you've ever done (not on purpose) in a game. Hmm. Don't push me on this, I've got
too much to do to do it now, but there's some potential there.
| Mmm, bad graphics turn me on, baby! |
| 'lo Chris, For the record, I happened to really enjoy Gran Stream
Saga. Now who's the masochist.
Jeremy Steimel, who still couldn't care less about Dragon Quest VII. |
That would still be the person who enjoys Superman 64, but thanks for playing!
| I knew I'd get one of these |
| Chris, Why do Japanese developers seem to be so Nippon-centric? Well,
they are. In my opinion, it's a cultural thing insofar as Japanese regard themselves as
"The Civilization" and all other people in all other countries as "The
Barbarians". It's a nasty stereotype that has been slowly broken down over the past
few years, but it was insanely strong for such a long time that it's still rearing its
ugly head in things that would otherwise be unconnected.. say, video game translation.
I'm also venturing to say that this is why PR sucks so bad: Japanese companies tend to
view Americans (and Europeans) as stupid and illiterite. That's why FF4 was so mangled and
dumbed down in the translation. I bet that's also the reason we didn't see a lot of good
games localized--economic factors may have been one thing, but I'm sure there was a good
bit of "Americans are stupid" sentiment floating around too that helped the
decisions along. It's also the reason that we get patronizing, condescending press
releases like the one explaining why Chrono Cross wouldn't be released in Europe.
Granted, all companies probably don't think this way all the time--and I imagine it's
hardly a unanimous thing either. I'm sure there are Japanese businessmen who aren't
condescending towards Americans and Europeans, but there IS a general trend that is,
thankfully, slowly being reversed. The reversal shows itself in an increased number of
games being translated and released overseas, as the Japanese warm to the concept of
"Americans may not be so stupid after all."
Well Under the 500 Word Limit,
Matt Blackie |
I knew I'd get at least one of these, and I figured I'd have to print it to point out
the problems with the above argument.
There's certainly a grain of truth in what Mr. Blackie's saying, and I don't blame him
for saying it. But what I do know about Japan, China, and the rest of the East leads me to
believe it's a lot more complex than that. There have definitely been times where the
"foreign barbarian" image was dominant, but there have also been times when East
Asia sucked down Western ideas like the tastiest of green tea, and not always to good
effect.
Bottom line is, I'm for sure no expert on Japan, but I can say that making blanket
statements like the above is double plus ungood. In fact, it occurs to me that the only
people likely to get a solid grasp on Western/Japanese cultural interactions are
half-Japanese sociology PhDs, and since only a few of them read this column I withdraw the
topic.
| Welcome to the future, Sleeper |
| Mind you not to take offense at this letter. Consider me as a child who
was taken from his village at a very young age and returns years later to find it
completely different from how he remembered it and upon seeing the difference begins to
kick, yell, and thrash about wildly until he collapses, finally, in a tear-drenched,
pathetic mess of a man who is then rendered unable to think rationally for several weeks
until he hits the epiphany that things eventually change and that it is not such a bad
thing but that he'll just have to get used to it. (Hmmm...that has to be one of my longer
sentences yet.) Cut what you will, but please, read the entire letter and post at least a
small scrap of it in the column. With that done... What the hell happened to Allan
Milligan?!!! Ok, my computer crashes about 2 years ago, and I find myself
sporadically(read: about 10 times over the past 2 years) checking up on the GIA, my
favorite site on the whole planet and that once I set up as my home page, to finally
stumble upon it one last time(It was actually your first day on the job) to find that
there is no longer any trace of the beloved Allan Milligan, whom I worshiped so diligently
so long ago. I mean, Allan, devoted Communist, replaced by you, who speaks so freely of
Capitalism. WHY, OH GOD WHY?!!! Please tell me the llama didn't get him. Damn you llama!
You'll get yours! One of these days... Forgive me, I'm delirious; I need to gain back my
ground. I know this letter has nothing to do with your current topic, but I need to know!
And so I leave you with the question I placed before Allan...Does Castlevania: Symphony
of the Night's music not kick ass?
-the grief stricken Tic-Tac |
You have been gone a long time. In fact, the disorientation must be killer, so I'll
spare you the obligatory Austin Powers "At last those capitalist pigs will get what's
coming to them, eh comrades?" joke. Oops, never mind.
The great Mr. Milligan left this mortal webpage to go to the afterlife of all good
columnists - college and a real life. His spirit is with us still, however. Fear not, he's
gone to a better place, and fears no llamas.
Honestly can't remember the SotN music, sorry. Maybe the next guy will be able to help
you out. Check back in another two years, ok?
| Welcome to Interesting Game Website! (formerly
the GIA) |
| TIME ADVENTURE!? Thank you Konami, I always thought that incredibly
uninspired names had died with the NES, I'm glad to see my fears can be layed to rest. The
new Clerks series rules. They made fun of Star Wars: Episode 1 without once mentioning Jar
Jar, now that's class. |
I love truly dull names, they're almost as good as interesting names. Perhaps the new
Galerians game will be retitled in honor of those generic 40's music collections:
"Video Game To Become Suicidaly Depressed By"
For some reason Clerks felt to me like ABC's last failed animation sitcom, The Critic.
However, I enjoyed the cracktastic ending sequence and will try to catch it next week.
Closing Comments:
That actually wasn't all that short, surprise surprise. No topic for tomorrow, since I
haven't even had time to read the gaming news tonight. Let's hear your take on whatever it
is that's poinging around in your heads like so many bouncing superballs. It's late, I'm
goin' to bed. Later.
-Chris Jones, listened to Lyle Lovett instead. (Don't ask.) |
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