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Phoenix viewer translate6/4/2023 ![]() ![]() Even though you and your friend are probably of the same background and culture, you might still say things slightly differently, right? But are either phrasing wrong? Do you think the way you phrased it would be the same as how the original artist would have phrased it? Out of everything you came up with, which ones sound like something a criminal would say? Or how about a soccer mom? Now, take the variation that sounds most like how you would say it, and write another version that sounds like how your best friend would say it. ![]() How many different ways can you summarize what is about to happen to Phoenix in this scene? In fact, I encourage you to try it out for yourself with this little thought experiment. I’ll go into more depth about what I mean by “emotional experience” in a bit.įor now, let’s take a step back and start with something that I think should be pretty obvious: No translation can ever be 100% the same as the original – by the very nature of converting one thing into another, all translations are the product of someone’s interpretation. But not only did it make them more relatable, it also made it easier to convey the same emotional experience that a Japanese player has while playing Gyakuten Saiban to a Western player playing Ace Attorney. And while that decision has left me with a teeny-weeny dilemma for every game after that, I still feel that moving the setting to AU Los Angeles was the right choice to make because I think it helped make the characters and their dialogue more relatable to a wider audience. Thus, the localization team of PW:AA had already picked the direction of the localization for me - total localization. Because of the time zone difference trick in the first episode, there was a need to decide on where the game was going to take place. By then, the first Ace Attorney had already been localized. I joined Capcom Japan’s fledgling localization team in mid-November, 2005. For the sake of this discussion, I’m very broadly defining localization as “any tweaks or changes made to the source material and/or the process by which source material is adapted for the purpose of making it more relatable to a target audience”. ![]() I covered some of the technical details in my “ making of Dual Destinies ” blogs, so today, I thought I’d cover some of the more theoretical and academic aspects and concepts of localization. ![]() Given how complex games have become with HD graphics and elaborate voice overs, localization touches every aspect of a game, from its story to its user interface to its audio tracks and its visual design, which is all tied together through its programming. My answer then is still the answer I would give today - it would largely depend on the story and how it plays out - but since then, I have added one more general criteria: it also depends on how much the localization would contribute to the overall enjoyment of the game, because crafting a solid yet nuanced localization is no less important or daunting of a job as a level designer crafting a stage for you to fight your way through. That was just one of the questions I was asked at my interview for this job that I have now held for 9 full years, and one that I have asked myself every time I sit down to localize any game, but especially an Ace Attorney. Question: If you were going to localize a comical game with a lot of Japanese humor where you play as a lawyer and you have to defend some pretty zany characters, how would you do it: 1) direct, literal translation from the Japanese 2) some localization - maybe change some names and some of the material 3) total localization - including making changes to some of the graphics if you have to - to the point where it’s no longer recognizable that this game is from Japan. ![]()
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