Comments on: Interview: Spike Chunsoft plans to keep catering to the niche its known for, with localization full of love towards the source material

By: Jack Aubrey

Jack Aubrey — Sat, 24 Aug 2024 11:52:44 +0000

In reply to Chad R. Fully agree with that. ロリコン (Lolita-Complex) is a Wasei Eigo, but the meaning is nowhere close to that of “pedophile”, which is 小児性愛者, and obviously a crime

By: Chad R

Chad R — Mon, 19 Aug 2024 22:49:14 +0000

Spike Chunsoft should go for AI Translations. As much as I love Danganronpa there is the Le Quirky Translations going on at some moments, and Lollicon being translated as Pedophile when that is not accurate and should just be called Lollicon, a person who likes short ladies. Also that in the Another Episode there is mention of “child porn is illegaaaal” when the dialogue never mentioned this at all. Spike Chunsoft needs to not pay lip service to these issues and to take them head on and to rewrite any lines that are not accurately translated as a whole and ensure that the accuracy is high than creating more misconceptions with AI. Begin heading in that direction, it’s obvious people support it and are just being indirect about it. Zanki Zero was also the same way. They need to do a better job on the translation end and for once to stop making the players feel like they are bad for being Otaku or being a Lollicon.

By: John C

John C — Mon, 19 Aug 2024 21:44:54 +0000

Very glad to hear they are happy with the audience they have, are putting Japan first in the West, and are prioritizing games with Narrative especially Visual Novels which I feel has never had much chances to come West to show that there is Visual Novels that have excellent narrative and writing without it being a franchise itself much like Memories Off, My Merry May With Be, The Infinity series. Or even games that have always went under the radar like Natsumon, Bakeru recently come to mind. Spike Chunsoft has done a wonderful job in understanding this over the last decade. As for Action games it might be a good idea to look into Action-Strategy like FF7R, Kunitsu-Gami or even an overlooked JRPG series Xenoblade Chronicles. Those are in demand.

As for localization, I do feel like it is a sensitive topic only because there is obvious examples that in most are not made with love and that most do it for the paycheck or ask for things to be censored like Fanservice before it comes West, even worse it’s not Faithful translations, but instead it is slang, meme-speak and political insertions, omissions, which annoys a lot of people here and turns them off from the content, causing sales to decline over time, including audiences. This is very common in a lot of Japan to West situations which makes me sad. Spike Chunsoft is lucky because they have Otaku that genuinely care about these things coming West and about the end product which is not very common to have. Although I do worry that things might change due to bad actors getting in the industry. In which case I would rather have AI Translations than to deal with headaches like this.

I can not wait for more Spike Chunsoft surprises in these next few years only because I know people like Iuzuka do a great job and show this sense of love and care that ensures the end quality is as good as it is in Japan. Which should always be the goal.