{"id":13500,"date":"2022-06-21T17:00:12","date_gmt":"2022-06-21T08:00:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/?p=13500"},"modified":"2022-06-21T17:00:13","modified_gmt":"2022-06-21T08:00:13","slug":"20220621-13500","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/20220621-13500\/","title":{"rendered":"Translators in Japan discuss the importance of LQA in video games"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Written by. Nick Mosier based on the original Japanese article<\/a> (original article’s publication date: 2022-06-20 18:30 JST)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n



Japanese game translator Yosei Muto recently took to Twitter to discuss the importance of LQA in the game development process.<\/strong> The series of tweets drew responses from game developers, translators, and others who are informed about the industry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Muto<\/strong> is an English to Japanese translator who has worked on localizing numerous games such as Gone Home<\/em> and Va-11 Hall-A<\/em> into Japanese. On June 17 (JST), Muto shared some thoughts about a part of the localization process called LQA or Linguistic Quality Assurance on their personal Twitter account and stated just how important the process is from the perspective of translators.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\nhttps:\/\/twitter.com\/Minstrel_Bird\/status\/1537613493335367680\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

According to Muto, the tweets were prompted by a discussion with Kakehashi Games<\/strong> that was recently uploaded to Muto\u2019s YouTube channel. The discussion was divided into two parts (Part 1<\/a>\/Part 2<\/a>) and features Yoriko Kuwahara from Kakehashi Games, a business that supports western developers and publishers trying to release games in Japan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the video the two discuss the Japanese localization of Trek to Yomi<\/em>, which Kuwahara was in charge of editing, and touch on topics like quality of localization and the strict budgets some indie developers have to work with when it comes to localization. It\u2019s with this discussion in mind that Muto appears to have made their tweets.


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What is LQA?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Image Credit: Dhafin Kumarajati<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n


First let\u2019s look at what kind of process LQA is. For example, to localize a game with English text for a release in Japan, a translator will translate the original text into Japanese. LQA is the process of checking that translation within the game itself, which means implementing the translated text into the game and having native speakers play it. In the case of Japanese, it means making sure the game is playable in Japanese without issues or giving feedback to the developers if there happen to be problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Muto even goes as far as to say, \u201cI don\u2019t really want to put my name out there for titles I didn\u2019t perform LQA on.\u201d Muto goes on to explain, \u201cIf you don\u2019t do LQA on a title then you have no idea how it turns out.\u201d \u00a0When putting the finishing touches on a localization, there are likely errors and points of improvement that can only be found through LQA. By not doing this yourself, you ultimately don\u2019t have control over the quality of the end product. This is likely the reason why Muto is hesitant about putting their name out there as the translator responsible for a game without performing LQA themselves.


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What happens when you cut LQA?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Image Credit: Jacqueline Brandwayn<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n


One reason LQA is considered so important is because just by implementing the text a number of potential problems can occur. With English and Japanese, even for text that carry the same meaning, things like the number of characters, the size of characters and letters across different languages, and suitable fonts can change. This can lead to narrow spacing in a text window causing text to overlap, text to appear outside of text windows, or text to not be displayed at all because of unsuitable fonts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On top of that, there can be mismatches between a character and their tone or text strings embedded in the game\u2019s code that get overlooked during translation. These sorts of issues can be hard to detect unless you actually play the game itself. Cutting LQA can potentially lead to a game shipping to players with these issues intact. There are also cases where text is adjusted to better match the gameplay during the LQA process. In other words, LQA isn\u2019t just about fixing errors, but improving the overall user experience around text in a game.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Other English to Japanese translators chimed in as well supporting the importance of LQA. Yuta Kurosawa<\/strong> who was involved in projects like Katana ZERO<\/em>, Nobody Saves the World<\/em>, and \u00a0Blasphemous<\/em> tweeted<\/a>, \u201cI often drastically change translated text during the LQA process.\u201d According to Kurosawa, the impression from English and Japanese text side by side compared to actually seeing the translation implemented in a game is different. Without being able to check it in the game, the text can\u2019t be adjusted to match the scene and the intended tone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ryu Ito<\/strong> who worked on titles such as Salt and Sanctuary<\/em> and Hollow Knight<\/em> added<\/a>, \u201cI\u2019m the type to make tons of changes during the LQA process,\u201d further backing up Muta\u2019s claim. Ito also gave their thoughts on the difficulties developers have securing LQA budgets and why the practice hasn\u2019t permeated through the industry.
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