#NGL (⁄ ⁄•⁄_⁄•⁄ ⁄) I have a big soft spot for Nick.

[maddymoreau]

Game: https://wwwormeow.itch.io/rotten-dinner

Based of this meme:

[stingreag]

more of me and @perfectharmony ‘s hcs for the danforth-evans/evans-mckessie families these are just random but the context for the first one is them adopting kayla *finger guns* and this time kj’s in bold😙✌️

i feel like sharpay would be like ‘taylor come on we would be the best parents’ and taylor would say ‘yeah i know but are we ready’ and then when they adopt kayla taylor is just like in love with being a parent and one night when kayla fell asleep in their bed she looks to sharpay and says ‘you were right’ and sharpay is just like ‘i know’ and in the most loving tone

ngl for some reason that thought never occurred to me about the ages not lining up lol but this makes sense! and now the thought of nick and kayla being both in the foster system before they got adopted won't leave my mind. like when did they first get into the system? like were both of them in it their entire lives or just one or did they both of them have families?? i'm very intrigued. also can you imagine ryan and chad and also sharpay and taylor being SO incredibly happy on adoption day. ALSO all of them would be pretty young when they adopt so i'm intrigued on how all of that went down. like did both couples get married young and wanted to adopt right away?? my is races with all the backstory of this family lol!

RIGHT LIKE TAYLOR WOULD BE SO HESITANT AT FIRST BECAUSE SHE DOESNT WANT TO BE A BAD PARENT AND THEN THEYRE THE BEST

also i LOVE that sharpay is the one that already knows that they'd be great parents and reassures taylor. my heart.

(this is my half assed timeline for them)

sharpay:

at 20 starts dating taylor

22 gets married(somewhere in between she books a job either acting or in a musical)

22 adopt kayla(idk the exact months don’t yell at me)

30 currently

kayla(i didn’t do taylor and chad i only did the twins lmao):

born 2004

16 currently

adopted 7-8 years old

ryan:

starts dating chad 19

22-23 graduates juilliard

gets married 24

adopts nick 25

30 now

nick:

born 2005

15 currently

adopted 10

i feel taylor is always so sure of herself and then when it comes to this she’s not and sharpay is so sure she would be an amazing mom so she has to reassure her

and i feel like chad has a big family so he was always talking about how he can’t wait to have kids or how good of a parent ryan will be and ryan will be like yes i know you’ve said it 80 times sweetheart and then when they finally have a house/apartment they talk about it one night and they’re like ‘we should start the process now’ and chad just LIGHTS UP and then four months(idk why) later they have little nick

and when sharpay first brings up kids taylor says let’s start with a cat or a dog first babe (not including boi) and then the next day taylor comes home and suddenly she sees sharpay trying to ease boi into liking the new member of their family

also idk why it never occurred to me b4 now but the thought of taylor becoming boi's second mom is everything to me lol

also i feel like the gang would have a FIELD day seeing her being all adorable with boi and she would just give them all a death glare

yeah they would all walk in to sharpays apartment and see taylor playing with boi and chad and troy would look at each other like ‘uh she hated my dogs’ kshjshdjxhxbxd

i feel like chad would go to ryan and be like 'did your sister brainwash sharpay into loving her hideous dog?" and ryan scoffs all like "please. taylor tried to refuse those literal puppy dog eyes but it only took her a second before that dog had her around its little finger. even worse than sharpay'

yeah taylor is soft for sharpay and boi

SHE IS

now i'm imaging kayla with boi

does kayla have her doggie??

of course kayla has boi and he’s like an old man dog now and he just chills with the cats

imagine kayla and nick and their parents just all in one of their living rooms and ryan, chad, taylor, and sharpay start talking about their high school days like how cute would that be🥺 and them all playing with the cats and boi omg

also kayla and nick seeing the gang after they learn all the tea from hsm like nick just being like “hello the person who my dad dated to cover his sexuality oh i meant aunt kelsi”

and kayla saying “hi gabriella *cough cough* aka the person who stole moms spot in the play” and taylor being like “kayla” through her teeth aksnsknxnxbb

the idea of nick and tori learning all the stories from hsm is amazing enough BUT THEN bringng it up to the gang in the most hilarious ways is SENDING ME

also tori saying that to gabriella aka taylor best friend IS SENDING ME

yeah she said “love you mom but i’m on moms side y’all may have thought she was the villain but mom had a point”

also troy calling nick and saying that he can't make it to his lacrosse game (he tries to go as much as he can bc he's a supportive uncle) bc of work and nick's all like "i get it. Your head's in the game but hearts in the song." And Troy grumbles like "I'm gonna kill Chad"

YES SUPPORTIVE UNCLE TROY

kayla and nick are the sassiest cousin duo around

YES THEY ARE

i just love them so much and imagining them interact with the hsm gang

yeah faith really popped off with that hc

SHE DID

heres the other two: pt.1 pt.2

[vonlipvig]

Survivor Winners at War Ep 1 Recap

Oh baby, it’s finally time! I finally made it to S40! Kind of a different approach here, as I’m gonna be watching the season with my best friend, so I’m gonna be doing recaps with my random thoughts rather than a liveblog.

So yeah, tags are “juli watches survivor” and “survivor winners at war lb” (and possibly “long post” as well, oops)

Premiere night! It’s the Superbowl of the Survivor world, babey! My friend came home and--together with my parents who have endured my obsession with the show--we watched the first ep as we ate and drank.

And no Survivor liveblog with returnees is complete without the Returnee Recap, soooo here we go!

Parvati: THEEEE girlboss! I love her a lot, I’m so excited to see her again! (And it’s interesting that she says she’s not the old flirty Parv, cause I get her, but I bet she’s gonna kick ass!)

Rob: HIMMM. Honestly, what an ICON. He’s so charismatic and fun to watch, and of course I’m STOKED to see him with Amber again!

Amber: Amber hasn’t played in a loooong time, so I’m interested to see what happens, buuut yeah she’s got a big target on her back (spoilers for this ep: oops)

Sandra: THE QUEEN, BABEY. She’s back, will she be able to get her third crown? Well, if I was there I’d make damn sure she didn’t, but I do love to see her so let’s hope she does!

Ethan: IT’S ETHAN! IT’S ETHAN...sans the awesome hair of his youth, but ETHAN! What a blast from the past as well! It’s sad to hear what he went through, but I’m glad he pulled through, and I’m excited to see how he adapts to new school Survivor.

Danni: Well, there’s always the one you don’t remember lmao. Sorry girlie, the only things I remember about Guatemala are Stephenie and that badass landscape.

Yul: Yul is a KING, I’m so hyped to see him again! He’s also rather old school, but he’s super smart, so I have faith in him!

Sophie: Oooh, I remember really liking Sophie in 23, she was always very cool and def like, the voice of reason that season, so I think she’s gonna do very well.

Kim: SHE, THE MILF WE ALL KNOW AND LOVE. Shut up I really love Kim I want her to do well, KIMMMMM.

Tyson: Honestly, who isn’t excited to see more Tyson? Or just to hear what comes out of his mouth this time? An absolute icon.

Natalie: [CUE ME AND MY BFF BEING TEAM NATALIE AND HER BEING ELIMINATED ON THE FIRST EPISODE, CLOWN EMOJI]

Denise: The underdog queen herself! Will she still play from the bottom here? Will she pull the Intentional Matsing? Is that even feasible? Anyway, we stan Denise in this house.

Tony: TONY TIME, YOU KNOW IT’S GONNA GET WILD.

Jeremy: Jeremy is SO COOL, I’m so happy to see him back! He’s super smart and collected, so like, definitely someone to watch out for.

Michelle: CONTROVERCHELLE HERSELF sdkfjhsdkf ok sorry sorry, my bad. For the record, I don’t think anyone was robbed, every winner deserves it simply because they Did It. Of course I preferred Tai or Aubry, but Michelle did what they couldn’t do, so let’s see what she brings here.

Sarah: Sarah is such a badass and I actually really enjoyed her in Game Changers. Plus, she’s with Tony again, can’t wait to see what happens there...

Adam: Ok, I have such a soft spot for Adam in my heart, ngl. But emotions aside, I’m definitely curious to see how he’s gonna do here.

Ben: Ben is such a wildcard honestly WHAT is he gonna do NOBODY KNOWS just don’t let him find idols!

Wendell: Wendell is so nice and smart, I really wonder how he’s gonna fare here against all the others.

Nick: Newest winner in this batch! Will that be an advantage or a disadvantage for him? Curious to see!

So, who were we rooting for? Well, both my friend and I really loved Natalie (clown moment), but my parents also picked their faves (even if they really haven’t watched any other season and don’t even speak English super well lmao).

My dad likes Jeremy (super good choice, tbh), and my mom is now a Wendell stan (and I found out my friend was a Dominic stan........I mean, KIIIINDA same? I liked both, tbh!).

But yeah, first episode! Tribes get divided, they play a game, and Sele loses. We also get the new mechanic with the tokens, in which everyone gets one, when you get voted out you bequeath it to someone else, then the people on the Edge can “sell” items to players for tokens, which I’m guessing will help them in the challenge tu return? Still unsure, but sounds good!

We get LOTS of lovely bonding moments between everyone (which AWWWW I JUST LOVE ALL THESE FAVES!), and we start seeing some alliances. Parv and Rob are working together, and makes sense, since they’re def some of the biggest targets. Then Adam and Denise kinda fuck up by going on their own, but they end up turning that around against Jeremy and Natalie, saying they have a much tighter bond.

(Meanwhile my friend and I like damn they’re not really going for Parv and Rob, huh?).

In the end it’s Natalie that gets voted out, and we all look like clowns because she’s an icon. But thank god for Edge of Extinction! (Actually, such a good idea to have the Edge in this season, because I wanna see EVERYONE I LOVE THEM ALL, I WANT ALL THE SCREENTIME, I WANT THEM ALL IN PONDEROSA).

Also, kinda odd that we don’t see the votes? I honestly feel a bit confused as to who’s voting what now, I wish they showed them, but oh well.

So, on to the second part of the episode! Jeremy gets Nat’s token (of course), and we keep getting more glimpses of the alliances, and a plan against Rob and Parv seems to be on the way.

The challenge was fun, but ooooh I got so HEATED at this part:

Me: So, they should get someone on the other side to start pulling people. Wait...they’re not doing that. Why aren’t they doing that? GUYS, C’MON. FUCKING START PULLING PEOPLE OVER. OH MY GOD ONLY NOW THEY’RE DOING IT COME ONNNNN FASTER. LET’S FUCKING GO OH MY GOD YOU IDIOTS.

(My heated gamer moment of the night, yes I was screaming at the TV)

So yeah, Dakar loses after Sele kinda pulls it off at the end, and TA-DAH! Natalie gave the idol to SANDRA! That’s honestly such a chaotic move and I appreciate it because we HAVE to keep Sandra around, WE NEED HER FOR THE DRAMA SDKJFHDSKF.

So people wanna go against the Poker Alliance (HEY I DIDN’T KNOW TYSON ROB AND KIM PLAYED POKER TOGETHER THIS IS SO CUTE I LOVE THAT) which according to Kim DOESN’T EXIST, Sandra’s spreading lies and stuff which is Iconic, and of course, Amber is under fire cause OBVIOUSLY.

I was SO NERVOUS it was gonna be Kim, like NO PLEASE NOT MY TWO GODDESSES BACK TO BACK. But yeah, it was pretty close but in the end it was Amber that went to the Edge (and gave the token tooooooooooo Rob of course duh).

And that was episode one! I reaaaaally wish they showed the votes I’m seriousss, but oh well.

[xseedgames]

Question Extravaganza Blog #2

Hi there! Remember, back in December, when we had an “End-of-the-year Question Extravaganza Blog”? And how there was going to be a second part? Well, FINALLY, here it is! Round two of our answers to the questions that you sent to us via Twitter, so long ago.

Who’s playing this time:

Tom – Localization Producer

Brittany – Localization Producer

Junpei – Assistant Product Manager/XSEED’s Garbage Disposal

Ryan – Localization Lead

Nick – Localization Editor

Alyssa – Product Associate

Liz – QA Tester

Danielle – QA Tester

 WARNING: Spoiler alert, just in case! And maybe some language.

 Question: which character from Senran Kagura New Wave would you most like to see become playable in a future game

Liz:

There are so many! Kasumi, Kumi, Fuga, and Bashou     Kasumi - shy girl that can code her way into your heart? aw yuss.     Kumi - ngl I like foxes. I'm also hella curious what her animations would look like...     Fuga - dude it's fireworks coming from a shamisen who doesn't wanna SEE THAT. AND THOSE PLATFORMS. DAMN.     Bashou - paintbrushes: creation, destruction, or the beauty that comes from their combination? tune in next time on quiet girls that can artfully kill you

Brittany:

Fuga. I've loved her design ever since I first saw it and I've actually begged Takaki-san in person to put her in one of the core games.

Alyssa:

Picking just one is hard, so these are the ones are the top of my list:

Meimei – She fights by throwing bombs shaped like steam buns. Just. Yes.

Ukyou – For some reason, I really like the idea of a machine gun shaped like a bass guitar. She’s also a cutie, I like her design.

Seimei – I like the fact that she rocks pajamas. I wish I could wear pajamas all the time…

Question: What is your most favorite game that you have localized And why?

Brittany:

Trails of Cold Steel II. I cried so much while working on it, haha. It was the game that made me feel like I was really growing up as a writer, and I was so proud of the effort I put into that during every step of the process. Everyone knows I love the series, but for now, that game has a particularly strong place in my heart because I feel like I grew as a person together with those in Class VII (is this too cheesy? lol).

Junpei:

Definitely the EDF series. I’ve been a big fan of the series since the first EDF came out in Japan, but also I learned a lot from the producer and the dev team. It was a very exciting to work on, and luckily, EDF2: Invaders from Planet Space was selected as a D.I.C.E  Award nominee.

Also, Touhou: Scarlet Curiosity was a favorite, too. The game is very fun and pretty. I didn’t really know about the Touhou series at first, but this was a good title for Touhou beginners like me to learn what Touhou is. The dev team is very passionate and professional. I was always impressed by them while working on this.

Ryan:

I have a few personal favorites: Estival Versus because I love the character banter, Deep Crimson for the same reason, and Suikoden V because it was my first real localization project and I still have a soft spot for it.

Alyssa:

I have a soft spot for Ys: Memories of Celceta. It was published before I started working here, but was the first XSEED game that I played.

Even though we didn’t really localize it (just published it physically), I’m a big fan of Shantae: Half-Genie Hero. Working with WayForward was an absolute treat and I’m so glad that we have a chance to do something with them.

Tom:

I think anyone who knows me knows my answer to this, but in case you don't: RETURN TO POPOLOCROIS, BABY!! ;) The very first game script I ever translated was part of the script to PopoloCrois Story II on the PS1, which I translated in play-script format and uploaded to GameFAQs as a translation guide. After that, the very next thing I translated was all 51 episodes of the two existing PopoloCrois anime. I am a PopoloCrois super-fan, and when the opportunity came along to work on a PopoloCrois game, to say I was ecstatic would be an understatement. Getting to officially write English dialogue for Prince Pietro Pakapuka, Narcia the forest witch, the White Knight, and the GamiGami Devil was an absolutely amazing experience, and getting to sit in on voiceover sessions and help shape the way they sounded in English was the icing on the cake.

Corpse Party is a close second, though, because I was able to get much more graphic than I'm used to, and it was a bizarre amount of fun describing some of the most horrible acts of mutilation and torture imaginable. It was weird working on Corpse Party and Fishing Resort at the same time, as I had to keep stopping myself from inserting extremely graphic language into the Fishing Resort script.

And Akiba's Trip: Undead & Undressed gets an honorable mention, as the three weeks spent in voice-recording for that game may be the most fun I've had in my seven years at XSEED.

Question: Where do you face the most unexpected challenges during the localization process?

Nick:

The thing about unexpected challenges is that they're...well, unexpected. The things we run into the most frequently are things we know to be watchful for based on past experience (which is why we usually catch the major stuff). A good example of an "unexpected challenge" would be realizing partway in that we don't actually have all the text files for the game, even though the developer said they gave us everything. Working on games that are still in production also has the tendency to turn up a lot of unexpected issues, particularly when the developers change things and neglect to mention that they were changed. If you learn that a localization was being worked on while a game was still in development, know that it was probably a huge headache for the translators and editors compared to working on something that has been finished and more or less finalized.

Sometimes it's because there's an honest mix-up and they thought they'd given us everything. Other times there's a breakdown in communication along the way, as can occur when information has to pass through too many hands. So...ultimately, miscommunication is where we stand to face the most unexpected challenges. It varies from project to project, and we know to be mindful of it, but we can never fully predict when this sort of issue will pop up.

Question: Where do you try to draw the line between remaining loyal to the original and changing to fit the region you are localizing for?

Nick:

Every editor will give you a different answer for this, so I can only speak personally, but here's where I stand on this issue. When I localize a game, I absolutely want the intent of the original to come through. That's what people are coming to the work for - what they want to experience. However, sometimes, truly conveying the spirit of the original work necessitates departing from the exact language of the original.

If one facet of my job is about accurately conveying information and character relationships, another facet is to ensure people who buy our games are entertained and engaged. That happens best with a script that feels fairly natural in its English phrasing. A quick example is how, if you listen to people converse, most people make frequent use of contractions. They’re a natural linguistic shorthand for English, so it feels natural to make broad use of them in character dialogue. But I often see dialogue written without them (like, where it doesn’t strike me as an intentional editorial choice). Without contractions, at the most basic level, you'll get dialogue that sounds wooden and has less flow to it (Tom and I often compare it to the speaking style of Data, from Star Trek: TNG), but in some cases, using or not using contractions can subtly alter the way we perceive a line, especially if there's no voice-over to clue us in. "I cannot believe he said that about me" carries a bit more of a testy tone than "I can't believe he said that about me."

There are also cultural differences that, when translated over on a 1:1 basis, won't elicit the same response from an international audience, so some tweaking is necessary to make sure Western players of a game experience enjoyment similar to what Japanese players would've felt. This is admittedly a touchy issue, since a lot of this involves getting a good feel for the characters' personalities, and so is inevitably colored by an editor's own interpretations of them. In a blog I wrote before the first Trails of Cold Steel was released, I laid out some cases where I basically felt that the characterizations provided in some places by the original script were lacking, so Kris and I embarked on a mission to strengthen characterization not through any sweeping gestures, but just by bringing certain traits more clearly to the fore in scenes specific characters were in. It's something you might notice if you had the Japanese and English scripts side by side, but it never stood out to most players, and from anecdotal accounts I've read many places online, I think this initiative of ours was very successful. Certainly, I think it brought a lot to Rean's character in particular.

Ultimately, I want a localization to keep all the information the original script gave, but sometimes I re-frame how that information is conveyed because I value entertaining/engaging writing and want our games to feel, as much as possible, like the English scripts could just as well have been the original scripts.

“So, where do I draw the line? As someone who always wants to push for better writing, I generally won't make an edit - even if it would sound great - that would result in dropping factual information conveyed by the original. Not necessarily on a line-by-line basis, but definitely on a scene-by-scene basis. Ultimately, I want a localization to keep all the information the original script gave, but sometimes I re-frame how that information is conveyed because I value entertaining/engaging writing and want our games to feel, as much as possible, like the English scripts could just as well have been the original scripts.”

Brittany:

This question is too broad and no one should have one answer for it. It depends on the game itself, the context, the importance of the topic in question in the scope of the story, the emotional impact it's supposed to make. The most generic answer I can give is that we should always remain loyal to the spirit/intent of the original game, and if anything comes under question, we should consult the dev team and get their perspective on it.

I guess an example that's happened a few times throughout Trails is one where Japanese honorifics are dropped as people become closer. A big deal is made out of it, but that sort of thing doesn't exist in English. At the same time, there's no reason to force it in the English version because the name-dropping isn't necessarily the focus--it's the result of characters becoming closer. The intent is the bond, and as long as you write the scene so that English players understand these characters have become closer thanks to what's going on, then I believe we're still loyal to the Japanese while still properly localizing the scene.

 Question: outside of trails in the sky sc what was the hardest game to work on you've released?

Brittany:

It's a toss-up between Unchained Blades and Rune Factory 4. RF4 was a joy to work on because I'm a big fan of the series, but it also contains so many complex algorithms that even the Japanese version of the game occasionally had random bugs that just couldn't be reproduced. Those were everywhere during QA, and then we also had had all that text that needed to be checked for context...

Unchained Blades is far shorter with less text, but it was plagued with bugs during QA to the point where I once ran to the bathroom to cry from losing my save data for the umpteenth time. We had no debug mode for that one, either, so anything I had to test, it had to be done by playing through like a normal player. Hopefully the effort was worth it. I don't think I've ever heard of players experiencing the issues on that game that I had!

Ryan:

Probably Fate/EXTELLA, which had a lengthy, lore-heavy script with a long history behind it, plus a writing style that was both abstractly poetic and strictly technical.

Danielle:

I would say the Story of Seasons series, mostly because of the sheer volume of text and variables to test.

 Question: which sort of cultural references do you try to keep rather than rewriting for localization?

Tom:

Generally, all of them. It's always better to keep a reference, and just maybe insert a brief explanation, than to get rid of it. People who play our games know that they're playing Japanese games, so I figure, why try to disguise the Japaneseness of them? Better to celebrate it.

Ryan:

Depends on the medium and context. Fate, in general, is known in part for drawing lore from all over the world, so we did our best to keep its references to world history and literature intact. Akiba's Trip was chock full of Japanese-language anime references, some of which had only unofficial translations, so we did our best to cobble together appropriate translations from Japanese and English fan sites. SENRAN KAGURA drops references to well-known anime now and again, well-known enough that we can keep them intact, with an English take on their wordplay (such as when Katsuragi's play on "a great era of sexual harassment," referring to the "great era of piracy" from One Piece, became "a great invasion of privacy.") Occasionally, we'll run across Japanese proverbs that don't have direct translations, so we'll do our best to find English proverbs or wordplay that match the general sentiment of the original.

 Question: What was the situation in a game that gave you trouble? Joke? A conversation? Interactions? Items? Names? Tell us the worse!

Tom:

Shiawase no Sachiko, in Corpse Party. To this day, I'm still not 100% satisfied with my translation there.

See, in the Japanese, there's supposed to be a distinction between 幸せのサチコ ("Shiawase no Sachiko"), which roughly translates to "Happy Sachiko," and 死合わせのサチコ (a different way of writing "Shiawase no Sachiko"), which roughly translates to "Sachiko Aligned with Death."

The English I came up with for this is "Sachiko Ever After" vs. "Sachiko in the Everafter." And even that vaguely acceptable solution took far, FAR too long to come up with.

Sometimes, Japanese linguistic references are just really tough to work with!

Ryan:

The first example that comes to mind is a certain "My Room" conversation from Fate/EXTELLA, where Nero and the Master have a back-and-forth conversation about different kinds of bathing. The original Japanese script had an entire conversation tree about misreadings of kanji, which had no direct translation. This is one of those rare times where we were tempted to, as we sometimes call it, "Go full Samurai Pizza Cats," after the old anime dub where the American dub team never received the original script and had to make up a whole new one, but we stuck with it, and eventually came up with some reasonably close wordplay in English.

 Question: Do you have friends in other localization teams/companies? What could you learn from them? Do you reach out to them?

Brittany:

I'd love to hang out with some of the localization people I've interacted with via Twitter, because I'm actually pretty ignorant of what goes on in other companies. I'm pretty much XSEED only, but I'd love to learn the process in other places or just bond with others who do the same work that I do.

Tom:

Absolutely! Other companies are "competition" to an extent, but they're also colleagues, and we've met with people from numerous other nearby companies for lunch, karaoke, etc. many times since I've been working here at XSEED. I don't know that we really learn much from them, nor they from us, but we always "talk shop" when we meet up, discussing localization challenges we've faced, fun stuff we've done recently, etc. It's just good to sometimes talk with other people who fully understand what we do.

Ryan:

We're good friends with the Aksys team down the street, a lot of our staff have Atlus experience, and most of the original senior staff came from Square-Enix. For Fate/EXTELLA, the Aksys guys were kind enough to share their notes and script from Fate/EXTRA as references. One of the best bits of advice I can give people looking for work in the industry is "Make friends wherever you go," and that's as true once you're in as it is when you're getting started.