A more literal translation for Corpse Party

[Adrian-kun]

Xseed's translations are awesome as always, but I was wondering if you could maintain certain Japanese elements for this game. I'm referring about maintaining honorifics. And maybe certain words as well.
Some may say that it's stupid and confusing to leave out untranslated words or to maintain honorifics.
I say it's important to set the mood as it helps to immerse yourself in another culture.
Other companies have been doing it for years.
Corpse Party isn't a fantasy medieval RPG. It's based on Japanese culture and folklore and a more literal translation could really work.

[Wyrdwad]

Translation is already done, and I'm sorry to say, I left no honorifics or Japanese words untranslated.

I don't believe you'll have any problem with the resulting script, however, as I did put a lot of effort into maintaining an authentic Japanese feel through dialogue alone. Believe it or not, it can be done -- and I offer this game as proof of that! (:

(Plus, since the game is fully voiced in Japanese, you'll be able to hear the honorifics being spoken -- so if you absolutely MUST have your sans, chans and kuns, you'll at least know they're there.)

...I'd also like to take this moment to allay the fears that I know many fans likely have, given my prior track record, and state that no, I did not insert a single pop culture reference or joke into the script this time around (save for using "shloop" as the onomatopoeia for dragging a body across the ground, as an homage to Shadow Hearts -- that's literally the farthest I went!). Given the nature of the story, it just didn't seem appropriate. I played it straight when the game played it straight, and went silly when the game went silly... but everything should be 100% accurate to the Japanese, every time. No fooling around -- just genuine scares and authentic characterization.

-Tom

[Seiko]

What's you reason for translating the name of the old school, Tenjin, into Heavenly Host? Is Kisaragi also translated?

[Wyrdwad]

No, Kisaragi is still Kisaragi. For Tenjin, it's more the irony value of the name than anything else that spurred us to translate it as Heavenly Host. As some of you may know, names in Japanese have a lot more inherent and obvious meaning than names in English do, since virtually every name is written in kanji, and every kanji represents a very specific idea or concept. In the case of Tenjin, the name is comprised of the kanji for "heaven" and the kanji for "god" -- yet the elementary school in town has become a very literal, almost unimaginably horrific hell. And that's... clearly not coincidence, I'd say!

So since "Tenjin" means nothing to English speakers, but "Heavenly Host" (an almost direct translation of the name) does, it seemed best-suited to the game's atmosphere and writing to translate the name of the school, to ensure that the full irony of the naming choice could be conveyed just as it would to a Japanese-speaker.

The same was also done with a couple other school names, but literally only a couple -- most were kept in Japanese.

-Tom

[Seiko]

Yeah, I figured it was a reason like that, but it's nice to know for sure. Thanks

[Adrian-kun]

I don't believe you'll have any problem with the resulting script, however, as I did put a lot of effort into maintaining an authentic Japanese feel through dialogue alone. Believe it or not, it can be done -- and I offer this game as proof of that! (:

-Tom

I'm intrigued so I'll give you the benefit of the doubt.

(Plus, since the game is fully voiced in Japanese, you'll be able to hear the honorifics being spoken -- so if you absolutely MUST have your sans, chans and kuns, you'll at least know they're there.)

-Tom

I'm glad that you've preserved the Japanese voice track. I sure do love my seiyū. And, of course, my honorifics

[Wyrdwad]

I sure do love my seiyū.

And they are *AMAZING* in this game, let me tell you. The voice-acting is absolutely flawless.

-Tom

[Shizuka]

Translation is already done??? *screams*

[Chaosblade]

Stupid or confusing brigade, reporting in!

But seriously, I prefer games to be "localized" rather than "translated." Leaving honorifics or untranslated words means absolutely nothing to me. There aren't many things that couldn't be better expressed by using a similar English term, just like Tom described above. I realize the languages are extremely different and sometimes that is difficult or impossible to do (or sometimes just doesn't matter), but coming close in English just makes more sense.

And I don't know how picky you are about this, so it's not really referring to you, but sometimes I wonder why people fuss about this rather than just playing the game in Japanese. It's kind of annoying to see people who obviously know the language pretty well, but complain about tons of little details and how "X should have been translated to Y because of [whatever]" even though Y makes significantly less sense to an English speaker without any knowledge of Japanese. It seems especially common in the realm of fan translations. You have people who have already played the game going on and on about the translators doing it wrong because it's not literal or 100% accurate to the original Japanese text even though the translation still conveys the point as well or better.

[Shizuka]

I agree with Chaosblade. Aksys games are often "translated" instead of "localized", and I must say that even when they try to "localize" the games, it comes off as something not credible.