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Article:

In the latest Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter press release announcing physical pre-order availability, publisher GungHo Online Entertainment America commented on the Western release. Fans can anticipate a new localization that "honors the original Japanese text."

This means that publisher XSEED Games' translation for the original version of Trails in the Sky will not be used for this remake's script, at least undoubtedly not 1:1.

You can view the quoted passage from the publisher's press release below:

Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter features a new localization, ensuring an authentic and engaging experience that honors the original Japanese text.

Fans can look forward to experiencing classic moments with dialogue that captures both the heart and charm of the Trails series in English, German, French, or Spanish.

For those who prefer the Japanese audio, a Japanese voice option will also be available, giving players the freedom to choose how they want to experience the game!

Source: https://noisypixel.net/trails-in-the-sky-1st-chapter-new-localization-details/

 

[mèx]

As long as they keep using the well-established terminology for items, cities, characters, etc. I'm not against it.

A good accurate translation that flows well in English is all I ask, without overly creative localization choices. It will be fun to see the difference between this version and XSEED at least.

 

[StereoVsn]

I thought Xseed translation was quite good. Hopefully they don't make the new one too dry.

 

[Liopleurodon]

I would honestly like this kind of thing for all the remakes, or remasters.

 

[Zacfoldor]

Hyped for this, finally a perfect entry point for new players!!!!

 

[adamsapple]

I'm all for authenticity, but sometimes a literal one to one translation is not the best thing. So whatever solution they have come to, I hope it doesn't rely too much on honorifics or cutesy Japanese terminologies.

 

[Paltheos]

A little concerning. 'Honors the original Japanese text' always reads to me as 'sterile'. XSeed's localizations were known to have added a lot of personality to the dialogue too, so my gut tells me this new translation will be worse.

 

[yazenov]

Good. Hopefully no modern day terms or pronounce bullshit by purple hair, nose ring pronouns mafias .

 

[Kazdane]

I know most of GAF won't care about this, but there's something even more intriguing for me:

Fans can look forward to experiencing classic moments with dialogue that captures both the heart and charm of the Trails series in English, German, French, or Spanish.

This will be the first game in The Legend of Heroes saga that will come with a Spanish translation. Falcom is pretty weird in that sense. For some reason, Ys Origins was also translated to Spanish but everything else in that saga was not (which I don't mind, since I have no trouble reading English).
Now the question is if that Spanish translation will be based on the English text or the original Japanese and as a whole (both English and other languages), I'm curious if this means they're altering things like the personality of characters like Estelle or Olivier.

 

[YeulEmeralda]

I thought Xseed translation was quite good. Hopefully they don't make the new one too dry.

I will always respect Xseed for taking a chance on an obscure weebshit game with a huge script.

 

[Angry_Megalodon]

I know most of GAF won't care about this, but there's something even more intriguing for me:


This will be the first game in The Legend of Heroes saga that will come with a Spanish translation. Falcom is pretty weird in that sense. For some reason, Ys Origins was also translated to Spanish but everything else in that saga was not (which I don't mind, since I have no trouble reading English).
Now the question is if that Spanish translation will be based on the English text or the original Japanese and as a whole (both English and other languages), I'm curious if this means they're altering things like the personality of characters like Estelle or Olivier.

Spanish translators are trash. They straight up make stuff up as if they were Wattpad fanfic authors.

 

[jshackles]

The English translation in the original game was excellent, hope this isn't a downgrade.

 

[Kataploom]

Amazing, I just hope we stop getting "Japanese -> English -> Rest of languages" translations and get one directly from Japanese tho, we've had amazing Japanese to Latinamerican Spanish for ages already and that's one of the reasons anime got so big here and why dubs were a whole league above Spain's ones.

 

[GHound]

Good on them. Hope they don't fuck it up.
There will always be people who prefer Japanese to fanfiction.net translations though.

 

[Kataploom]

Oh... well it looks like it's not gonna be the case for English... Well as long as Spanish is not fucked up...

 

[Kataploom]

I'm all for authenticity, but sometimes a literal one to one translation is not the best thing. So whatever solution they have come to, I hope it doesn't rely too much on honorifics or cutesy Japanese terminologies.

I'm failing to see a single example where a more direct translation is not better...

 

[adamsapple]

I'm failing to see a single example where a more direct translation is not better...

Because games don't usually do that. Dialogue and scripts are often accommodated for western colloquialisms during translation.

Games don't generally get a 1 : 1 translation on script from Japanese to English.

 

[Kataploom]

Because games don't usually do that. Dialogue and scripts are often accommodated for western colloquialisms during translation.

Games don't generally get a 1 : 1 translation on script from Japanese to English.

That's why I pray for the day games stop using english translation for Japanese games as a base and use the OG script instead

 

[_Justinian_]

I thought the current translation (PC steam) was quite entertaining.

 

[Shifty1897]

Will the localization changes make the main character more horny or less horny for her de facto brother?

Asking for a friend.

 

[Danny Dudekisser]

"Honors the original Japanese text?"

I can see some weeb bowing after he wrote that, just before trotting off to continue practicing the samurai code.

 

[Hudo]

Wasn't the XSEED localization superior to the Japanese text, though? Afaik, the Japanse stuff is written like your standard Shonen-Anime.

I know that there are weebshits out there who gonna say that anything other than a literal word-for-word translation of the Japanese is unacceptable. But these retards have no idea what they're talking about.

 

[Kataploom]

Wasn't the XSEED localization superior to the Japanese text, though? Afaik, the Japanse stuff is written like your standard Shonen-Anime.

I know that there are weebshits out there who gonna say that anything other than a literal word-for-word translation of the Japanese is unacceptable. But these retards have no idea what they're talking about.

Superior... OMG...

It never will, the script should be the same thing but in another language, that all it be, anything but that can fuck off...

 

[Xevo]

Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter features a new localization, ensuring an authentic and engaging experience that honors the original Japanese text.

I read that as "We dont want to pay XSEED for their translation, ChatGPT is cheaper anyway"

Hope Im wrong.

 

[Goalus]

Not sure I like this.
As a dumb westerner, I would like to be protected from foreign customs as much as possible and have them dumbed down for me to something that I know and might be able to understand. I also see the danger of getting triggered by things that are new to me and might challenge my view of the world. Instead, I want to feel safe and welcome while playing a game, and I hope this new translation respects my wish.

 

[Paltheos]

Superior... OMG...

It never will, the script should be the same thing but in another language, that all it be, anything but that can fuck off...

'1-for-1 translations don't exist' is an old but true understanding. Localizations are written for the intended audience to enjoy in the target language because perfect translations don't exist.

Beyond that, I'm personally on board with enriching a script past its original text in the hands of a devoted, diligent localizer, and I think that's what most people like about Sky's script. There's a line ofc - in retrospect the Victor Ireland way of throwing in sick memes wasn't really the best way to go about things, but there's a balancing act to producing the best localization possible, and producing 'a straight translation' - whatever that's supposed to even really mean - is not it. Localization is inseparable from translation.

 

[mayham2199]

I'm all for authenticity, but sometimes a literal one to one translation is not the best thing. So whatever solution they have come to, I hope it doesn't rely too much on honorifics or cutesy Japanese terminologies.

I agree some things don't translate well.

Playing Daybreak 2 now and some of the writing is hilarious.

Van: "your a real one, Rene."

 

[Hudo]

Superior... OMG...

It never will, the script should be the same thing but in another language, that all it be, anything but that can fuck off...

To each their own. I do prefer good localizations in languages I can speak to 1-to-1 translations of the original. Part of the reasons why the Lunar games are so revered among the fans is because Working Designs were going the extra mile. And I'd argue part of the reason why the OG Trails in the Sky games achieved a solid (albeit small) fan base in the West was also partly because of XSEED and their localization work.

But I want to stress that my opinion only holds for _good_ localizations. There are also German localizations of media I prefer to the original English ones because the localizers did a very good job there as well.

 

[Kataploom]

'1-for-1 translations don't exist' is an old but true understanding. Localizations are written for the intended audience to enjoy in the target language because perfect translations don't exist.

Beyond that, I'm personally on board with enriching a script past its original text in the hands of a devoted, diligent localizer, and I think that's what most people like about Sky's script. There's a line ofc - in retrospect the Victor Ireland way of throwing in sick memes wasn't really the best way to go about things, but there's a balancing act to producing the best localization possible, and producing 'a straight translation' - whatever that's supposed to even really mean - is not it. Localization is inseparable from translation.

To each their own. I do prefer good localizations in languages I can speak to 1-to-1 translations of the original. Part of the reasons why the Lunar games are so revered among the fans is because Working Designs were going the extra mile. And I'd argue part of the reason why the OG Trails in the Sky games achieved a solid (albeit small) fan base in the West was also partly because of XSEED and their localization work.

But I want to stress that my opinion only holds for _good_ localizations. There are also German localizations of media I prefer to the original English ones because the localizers did a very good job there as well.

I'm talking about the weird hyper aggressive tone they gave to the main cast girl, it's nothing like it should be, stuff like translating "omoshiroi" as "interesting" or "funny" depending on context is absolutely normal and expected, that's what I mean.

Edit: Not sure if "omoshiroi" algo means "funny" but I've heard it used that way in japanese.

 

[Labadal]

I don't trust them to do a good job. Current day localizers are questionable at best.

 

[Hudo]

I'm talking about the weird hyper aggressive tone they gave to the main cast girl, it's nothing like it should be, stuff like translating "omoshiroi" as "interesting" or "funny" depending on context is absolutely normal and expected, that's what I mean.

Edit: Not sure if "omoshiroi" algo means "funny" but I've heard it used that way in japanese.

Never had a problem with this. But I can see why one would dislike it.

 

[mèx]

I agree some things don't translate well.

Playing Daybreak 2 now and some of the writing is hilarious.

Van: "your a real one, Rene."

If you are playing Daybreak, you just have to accept that the characterization of characters can be fairly different from the Japanese version in quite a few cases. Nadia is the worst offender. They always one-up her dialogues without reason.

Actually, one-upping is the perfect description for the Daybreak localization. They keep doing that without fail. I don't get it.

I just learned to accept it and move on. It's a shame though.