If you’ve already played a game that hasn’t been localised, would you play it again once it has been localised?

[hinigarad]

Definitely. If i like it enough to read through text hooker and google translantor i'm fan enough to buy and read the official TL.

 

[Tenya]

I'll be brief. If the localization was done by Aksys and I'd already played the entire game, I would have a tenfold degraded experience.
I absolutely hate them. A 14B local LLM model can do a better job of translation than whatever Aksys is doing, and I've checked them multiple times.

If it was any other company, I might give it a try. But I feel like us otome-lovers have been getting dealt a terrible hand because there simply isn't any competition in the localization space, and so we just have to deal with having terrible translations that often just lose the meaning of the original. It's like playing two different games.

 

[Rosellia]

I think it depends on whether I had a hard time understanding the unlocalized version and needed to keep looking up vocab when playing. I have been casually learning Japanese for a few years, so I think my reading & listening are somewhat passable for playing games. So for games that were difficult to me, I would replay the localized version but otherwise I won't replay it.

 

[marzipan]

Sometimes I do! It's nice to compare one experience from the other, thinking about choices people made during translation and adapting the text. It's a pretty good way to practice translating as a skill, in my opinion! Furthering your own perspective by putting yourself in a professional's shoes.

 

[q22897258]

I probably wouldn't replay it. Since I can play games in their original language, I've gotten used to doing that. I feel like a lot of a character's personality and the nuances of their dialogue can only be fully conveyed in the original text. Even if an official localization is released later, I'd still prefer the original version. Unless I absolutely loved the story, I probably wouldn't replay the whole game.

 

[failedwebsite]

I'll be brief. If the localization was done by Aksys and I'd already played the entire game, I would have a tenfold degraded experience.
I absolutely hate them. A 14B local LLM model can do a better job of translation than whatever Aksys is doing, and I've checked them multiple times.

Can you post the 'cream of the crop' of their translations to WORST official translations of otome & BL ? I'm curious!

That being said, as a translation nerd I LOVE hearing about localization choices so when my friends happen to play a game I'm interested in or have played but the languages differ, I eat that stuff up like it's dessert.

For example, while it's not an otome game at all, I plan on playing the Hundred Line soon in Japanese, and a friend is currently playing it in English and posting out of context lines from it. The localization is frankly a riot, and I'm excited to see what the original lines behind those translations are once I get to the game on my backlog!

Yeah, I love that too! I wish all officially released games had an option to switch between the languages, so that I could compare, but I know it won't ever be the case due to licensing restrictions. Still voiced VNs are a blessing cause at least I can use the spoken lines for comparison.

 

[dzccc]

Basically no. If I understand the plot, I wouldn't want to watch it a second time.

Unless I completely misunderstood the content the first time I played it, and the plot was so captivating that it piqued my curiosity.

 

[nekoky]

If I really like the original version of the game, I feel like I can play it again. After all, the point of playing games is to have fun, so there's no question of whether it's necessary or not. If you like it a lot, just play it over and over.٩(ˊᗜˋ*)و

 

[sophiamolin]

That's a great question, and I definitely would, especially since the translation software for games I played back in the day often had noticeable flaws—localized versions just make it so much easier for me to understand the in-game text.

 

[801_9ma]

I'll be brief. If the localization was done by Aksys and I'd already played the entire game, I would have a tenfold degraded experience.
I absolutely hate them. A 14B local LLM model can do a better job of translation than whatever Aksys is doing, and I've checked them multiple times.

If it was any other company, I might give it a try. But I feel like us otome-lovers have been getting dealt a terrible hand because there simply isn't any competition in the localization space, and so we just have to deal with having terrible translations that often just lose the meaning of the original. It's like playing two different games.

Oh wow, I wasn't aware of Aksys' localizations being THAT bad, but them being so egregious it feels like an entirely different game would be a big no-no in my book for sure. I do feel like in general otome fans are dealt the short hand of the stick, considering the kind of horror stories you hear about companies releasing abysmal localizations or just dropping MTL "translations" and thinking "our job is done here, they'll eat it up anyway!" Talk about disrespecting your international audience LMAO.

Yeah, I love that too! I wish all officially released games had an option to switch between the languages, so that I could compare, but I know it won't ever be the case due to licensing restrictions. Still voiced VNs are a blessing cause at least I can use the spoken lines for comparison.

Same here! Whenever a game has a language setting I get excited like "yay I'll be able to compare languages if I ever get around to it!" even if in practice I don't really have the time for it.

And definitely agreed on voiced VNs being a blessing, when you're in that transitional period where you don't feel 100% comfortable going full OG language but still are getting to know the OG language better it can definitely lead to funny moments where you pause like "... that is NOT what this guy is saying" LMAO

 

[fr4pp3cinn]

If it's a game that I understood well, probably not! Unless I'm very curious about how it would be localized, for games with more fantastical settings and terms ;b

It is however more likely I'll play if it's a historical setting. Sometimes I have a bit of trouble understanding games with an older vocabulary, and I have to go by context clues, so it's harder to fully understand the whole sentence

It can be fun to compare the different versions though! I've tried replaying a game in Japanese (that I'd previously read through in English), and I got a new understanding of some scenes :)

 

[Shelia]

It... depends? If the translation were of good quality, then probably yes. Even if only to support future projects. But if feedback or reviews suggested that the translation was poor or misleading (Fire Emblem Engage is, unfortunately, a good example of this), then probably not.
Unless, of course, I really, really liked the game and was willing to overlook its flaws (like, you know, with Fire Emblem Engage )

 

[Webtx]

I probably would if it were an otome gacha game. The ones I've personally replayed are Tears of Themis and Lovebrush Chronicles. Since I was playing them in Mandarin, they were a good way to practice my hometown language. Then.. when the global versions were released, I finally got to fully understand the story and all the nuances I had missed before. It made me appreciate the games even more !

 

[totallyamanda]

If the game was good with MTL, then absolutely. (⭒•͈ 𓎺 •͈ )

Nuance and tone is sometimes completely ignored by machine translation so human translation with localization will always triumph when it comes to enjoyment and comprehensive cohesiveness.
(￣ω￣)

However, if MTL was a struggle bus to enjoy, it's a tentative maybe. Some stories are just bad, original language or not. ˙˚ଘo(∗ ❛ั ᵕ ❛ั )੭່˙

 

[Maverynthia]

Probably not. Especially if it's Aksys Games. They've had so many bad translations of things going through the game once in the original language is good enough. If it's another company, I might get it to support that company.