#video game translation

[dkniade]

“就如天鹅绒包裹的白银利刃一般”

“Like a silver blade concealed by velvet” (actual meaning)

“He is a wolf in sheep's clothing” (official English localization)

Childe Character Details

“不仅总能实现诺言，而且如手术刀一般漂亮精湛。”

“He not only always keeps his promises, but is also wonderfully adept like a surgical knife.” (Very direct translation just for the sake of imagery)

“He not only keeps his promises, but does so with finesse and surgical precision.” (Official English translation)

Character Story 1

Number of times he’s been explicitly described as a blade (up until this point). Chinese: 2. English: 0

I’ve always found that first simile quite beautiful

[liquidsevens]

Solidus: "... (he mutters something. Mouth movement only. Leave the dying words up to the users' imagination)"

probably the most famous trivia for MGS2 revolves around all the content cut due to the aftermath of 9/11.

a lot of people think that extends to Solidus Snake's final words before he dies. many folks believe that before censorship, the script, and by extension, the game, contained some final words that may have even been fully voice acted.

in reality, there was nothing. it was always meant to be a moment where we, the players, try to imagine what he might have said. the storyboard above (and the text excerpt) is from "The Document of MGS2", an interactive disc that includes the WIP translation, character models, etc. for the game. if you're a fan of MGS2, especially its aesthetic, i highly recommend you explore it. its got a ton of content to just watch, read, listen, or generally mess around with.

Sources:

The Document of MGS2 (NTSC-U)

Agness Kaku (Translation)

[natarice]

A3 - Event Story - Nomadic Bartender (3/11)

Hisoka: "Ah... I think it's finally time to call it quits. Might as well just drink the rest of this myself and close up shop for good."

Guy: "Good evening."

Hisoka: "!! Welcome!"

Guy: "..."

Hisoka: "Um, can I help you?"

Guy: "I would like to work here."

Hisoka: "Aw, what... Sorry, but I'm not hiring right now."

Izumi: (The winter troupe is wrapping up the tenth round of performances with a magical bartender fantasy.)

Izumi: (It's an unusual setting for this group, because the characters, their professions, and the worldview are all inspired by the fantasy genre.)

Izumi: (At the same time, there's a certain sense of sadness from the fact that wizards are shunned in this world that makes it feel like a winter troupe performance.)

Banri: Anything dealing with magic is tricky because the way you handle it completely changes what you end up with.

Tsuzuru: That's true. I think if another troupe did this play, it would feel completely different.

Izumi: This definitely has a distinct winter troupe flavor to it.

Izumi: (Guy plays Wis, a wizard working as a bartender, drifting from bar to bar in search of a certain person.)

Izumi: (And Hisoka is Gin, the owner of the bar where Wis is now asking for a job.)

Banri: No issues with these two at all, thanks to them working together at the bar in real life.

Tsuzuru: The roles suit them well.

Izumi: Well, there is one thing I'm worried about...

---

Izumi: Well, I think we're just about ready for a readthrough.

Izumi: Does anyone have anything they'd like to discuss before we start?

Tsumugi: I'd like to say something.

Tsumugi: In the final scene, Wis uses magic to erase all of Gin's memories about him and wizards in general.

Tsumugi: Even though it's come up before, I'm a little concerned about Hisoka having to play a character who loses his memories.

Homare: Yes, I've been thinking about this too.

Azuma: Right. If that scene is too much for Hisoka, maybe we could come up with a different approach.

Tsuzuru: Let me know if you have any suggestions for script changes!

Izumi: Hisoka, what do you think?

Hisoka: I'll be fine. Because I know that forgetting isn't scary.

---

Izumi: (That's what Hisoka said, but...)

Guy: "This is a token of my gratitude."

Hisoka: "What kind of drink is this?"

Guy: "It's called a Whiz Bang."

Hisoka: "..."

Hisoka: "... Hm? So you can make drinks like this? But wait, the flavor... it's like a terribly nostalgic memory of someone..."

Izumi: You can see how incredibly sad Gin is here. And Guy's portrayal of Wis shows how hesitant he is to take away Gin's memories.

Banri: At first I thought the last scene was an positive way of ending things, but I really felt the pain there.

Tsumugi: Everyone has their way of interpreting and performing the scene, so i don't think either approach is wrong.

Tasuku: I think it's fine to let Guy and Mikage tie things up how they want to.

Guy: No, I think I'm getting tripped up by my own feelings. I'll work on it a little more.

Hisoka: Me too... I'm not really satisfied by my performance.

Izumi: Well, we only just started rehearsing. There's still time to figure things out.

---

Izumi: Well, let's wrap things up for today.

Citron: Good job, everyone!

Citron: An espresso luggage has arrived from Zafra!

Izumi: Coffee?

Tasuku: Someone sent us coffee beans in luggage?

Guy: Beans in luggage? Maybe he means beanbags.

Homare: Did they deliver beans or bags?

Banri: Pretty sure he means express package.

Citron: That's correct! Guy is always the Guy who gets it Wrong!

Guy: Isn't this "the pot calling the kettle black"?

Citron: And here is a fan letter for the Wrong Guy!

Guy: A fan letter? From Zafra?

Guy: ... It's from Mika. That's unusual. He doesn't usually write letters.

Izumi: What did he write?

Mika: "I sincerely apologize for not being to attend your performance."

Mika: "Preparations for the theatre festival in Zafra are currently underway."

Mika: "I pray, from the bottom of my heart, that your performance succeeds."

Mika: 'I have known from the start that your charisma as an actor--"

Guy: I'll spare you the rest.

Homare: But we were getting to the best part!

Tasuku: Judging by the number of pages, that letter will take a while to read.

Guy: I'll read it carefully.

Azuma: It's unfortunate that Mika missed Guy's performance back when we did Phantom.

Hisoka: Even though we performed it in Zafra, Mika still couldn't see it.

Guy: Right, we were with the Spring Troupe a lot of the time, and then the performance was interrupted.

Tsumugi: Maybe that's why Mika's letter is so long.

Azuma: Why don't you give him a call later?

Guy: Yes, I think I will.

Izumi: By the way, there's a theatre festival going on in Zafra?

Citron! Yes! It is a fun event where Zafra's theatre troupes get together and perform for many days!

Tasuku: Sounds pretty interesting.

Tsumugi: If the timing is ever right, I'd like to go.

---

Guy: ...

Mika: Yes?

Guy: It's me, Guy.

Mika: Sir! I hope you've been well. What can I do for you?

Guy: I received your letter. Thanks for sending it.

Mika: Oh, it was nothing! There was a lot I wanted to write, and so the letter ended up being so long... my apologies! But I wanted to show my support from Zafra!

Mika: I wanted to be there for opening night and the final performance at the very least, but it seems like that will be quite difficult to--

Guy: The first and last night? At the very least? I see...

Mika: Of course, if the festival wasn't going on, I would want to see the "full run"... !

Guy: So you're familiar with that term, "full run." It's not Zafran, though.

Mika: I learned it from Citronia-sama. Since you're performing as the lead actor, I want to see every single performance.

Guy: Oh, did Citronia tell you I was playing the lead this time?

Mika: Prince Tangerine did, though he mentioned that he'd heard about it from Citronia-sama.

Mika: He also passed on some advice about writing you a letter, because it would be difficult for me to go to Japan in person with the festival preparations here.

Mika: According to Citronia-sama, I would be able to encourage and support you by putting my thoughts and feelings about your upcoming performance on paper.

Guy: I see. It was Citronia's idea...

Mika: I believe that Citronia-sama is also looking forward to your performance very much.

Guy: I'll need to work even harder, then.

Mika: Please accept our best wishes and support from everyone here in Zafra, including Prince Tangerine and myself, of course!

Guy: Thanks.

---

Notes

Technically, Guy's character should be called Wiz (ウイズ) but I just really don't like that spelling for a name. So Wis it is!

As Guy's subordinate Mika speaks in keigo which still really trips me up, so that phone conversation is a little murky in places... sorry about that. I hope I've at least conveyed that Mika is the one true Guy stan.

[liquidsevens]

i love how this translation came out of nowhere

“bad guy” -

Dr. Slump (Bandai - PSX - 1999) 

[beyondwordzlocalization]

[hermitcrabstar]

Who taught Kirbs to say that?

[tinylittlelilac]

Welcome to the journey of me finishing my rarepair week drafts. Mayhaps a long one

This was for day 5 I believe?!!?

For the prompt of ‘family,’ hiitomo ft. Rinne :]

[liquidsevens]

i was about to watch this, but one thing led to another and i found out theres a spanish fan translation for this??? i LOVE marias videos but i have to play this for myself lolol

I made a lil video on The Tairyou Jigoku (The Overwhelming Hell)! it's a PS2 survival horror title that never left Japan...

[mendelpalace]

GERMS: Nerawareta Machi is a first-person open world, survival-horror adventure game developed by KAJ for the PlayStation in 1999. It's a surreal and strange-looking game, sometimes evoking LSD: Dream Emulator with its uncanny environments and the low poly characters, some of whom have face textures, while others are just blank. The game just recently got an "unfinished, but mostly playable" English translation, and while it apparently isn't 100% finished (the site lists it as version 0.5), it at least seems beatable in this state. There's also a complete Spanish translation.

[madame-helen]

[dkniade]

Translating Kaeya’s Conversation with Adelinde at Dawn Winery in Hidden Strife

I’ve had this in my drafts for a while. Exactly what it says on the tin, it’s the hidden dialogue in Hidden… Strife… Wait a minute--

Official Chinese, my translation, official translation, and translation notes.

.

Official Chinese 

爱德琳：凯亚少…凯亚队长，你好啊。

爱德琳：今日突然来访，是有什么急事吗？

凯亚：艾德琳小姐，你的口气未免有些见外啊。

凯亚：骑士团又收到了「暗夜英雄」的目击报告了。虽说目击者并未看清疑似暗夜英雄的人往哪里去…

凯亚：但我总觉得，嫌疑人应该就在晨曦酒庄一带吧。

爱德琳：是吗？凯亚队长和暗夜英雄没有同时出现过，凯亚队长经常出现在晨曦酒庄，暗夜英雄也一样。

爱德琳：所以，凯亚队长就是暗夜英雄，我可以这么认为吗？

凯亚：哈哈哈，好有道理，没想到我就是大名鼎鼎的暗夜英雄啊！

爱德琳：不好意思，凯亚队长，今天晨曦酒庄要进行安全检查，防范火灾。

爱德琳：你还是改日再来吧。

凯亚：不是吧，至少礼节性留我吃个晚饭啊？

凯亚：唉，不过我今天确实还有别的书案工作…

凯亚：这样吧，请你转告迪卢克————警戒区已经划好，民众们应该无从察觉，对方也不至于马上看穿。

爱德琳：凯亚队长的话还是那么高深难懂呢，我一个小小的女仆，可听不懂这些。老爷跟商业伙伴外出谈生意去了，我也不知道他们具体在哪里。

爱德琳：等他回来，我会把你的话如实转告。不过，话中深意是否能传达到位，就不好说了。

凯亚：是吗？从小用到大的暗语，他要是听不懂，可真是白活了。 

凯亚：话说回来，酒庄最近有什么新品吗？来都来了，我也想买点好酒回去。

爱德林：凯亚队长真会说笑，我们这里不零售，你应该知道的吧。

阿德琳：不过不管怎么说，感谢你的来访。 .

My English Translation 

Adelinde: Good to see you, Master Kae— Captain Kaeya. 

Adelinde: Has something urgent come up for you to suddenly visit today?

Kaeya: How formal of you to say that, Miss Adelinde. 

Kaeya: The Knights have received another eyewitness account of the “Darknight Hero”. Although the witness didn't quite see where the suspected Darknight Hero was heading towards… 

Kaeya: Well, I’ve always had the feeling that the suspect should be in the Dawn Winery area.

Adelinde: Is that so? Captain Kaeya and the Darknight Hero never appear at the same time. And while Captain Kaeya often appears at the Dawn Winery, so does the Darknight Hero. 

Adelinde: So, can I assume that Captain Kaeya is the Darknight Hero in question?

Kaeya: Hahaha, such logic! So the famed Darknight Hero is me after all!

Adelinde: Apologies, Captain Kaeya, but the Dawn Winery is having a fire safety inspection today. 

Adelinde: Please come back another time.

Kaeya: Come now, at least lemme stay for dinner out of courtesy? 

Kaeya: Man, but it’s true I have other desk work to do today… 

Kaeya: Tell you what, please pass the message to Diluc—security zones have already been drawn. Citizens shouldn’t be able to detect them, and the other party wouldn’t immediately notice them either.

Adelinde: Captain Kaeya’s words are complicated as always… A humble maid such as I certainly wouldn’t be able to understand them. 

Adelinde: Master has gone with his business partners to discuss business, so I don’t know exactly where they are either. 

Adelinde: When he returns, I’ll relay your message to him as-is. As for whether the hidden meaning will get across properly, that I can’t guarantee. 

Kaeya: Is that so? It’s a secret code we’ve been using ever since we were young. If he can’t understand, then that’s truly a life wasted. 

Kaeya: Anyway, does the Winery have any new products lately? I might as well buy some fine wine since I’m already here.

Adelinde: Captain Kaeya sure knows how to tell jokes. I’m sure you know we don’t sell products here? 

Adelinde: But in any case, thank you for your visit. .

Official English Translation

Adelinde: Hello, Master Kae— Ahem, I mean Captain Kaeya.

Adelinde: I don't believe we were expecting you. Has something urgent come up?

Kaeya: Oh, Adelinde, don't be such a stranger, hehe.

Kaeya: The Knights of Favonius have received word of another sighting of the Darknight Hero. Now, the witness wasn't able to see where the suspect was headed, however...

Kaeya: I just have a gut feeling that he's in the Dawn Winery area.

Adelinde: Really? What can I say, Captain Kaeya... You and the Darknight Hero have never been seen in the same place at the same time, and you often show up at the Dawn Winery — just like the Darknight Hero.

Adelinde: So is it safe to say that... you are the Darknight Hero?

Kaeya: Hahaha, now that you mention it, it makes sense. I almost can't believe it — I am the legendary Darknight Hero!

Adelinde: I'm sorry, Captain Kaeya, but the Dawn Winery is having a fire safety inspection today.

Adelinde: You'll have to come back another day.

Kaeya: Seriously? Shouldn't you at least ask me to stay for dinner, as a courtesy?

Kaeya: *sigh* Then again, I do have a pile of admin work waiting for me today...

Kaeya: In that case, please pass a message on to Diluc for me. Tell him that the hazard zone has been established, the public shouldn't notice anything, and the enemy is unlikely to detect it right away.

Adelinde: Captain Kaeya, your words are as profound and enigmatic as ever. I'm just a maid, none of that means anything to me.

Adelinde: Master is currently out at a business meeting with his commercial partners. I don't know where they are exactly.

Adelinde: I will pass your message on to him word for word when he gets back, but I can't guarantee that the meaning behind the words will be fully conveyed.

Kaeya: Oh? But these are code words he grew up using. If he doesn't understand them... then perhaps it was a wasted childhood.

Kaeya: Oh, by the way, is there anything new at the Winery? While I'm here, I'd like to pick up some choice wine to take home.

Adelinde: Captain Kaeya, you are too funny. You know we don't do retail.

Adelinde: Still, thank you so much for visiting.

.

Translation Notes

Adelinde repeating “Captain Kaeya” and “Darknight Hero” multiple times 

“凯亚队长和暗夜英雄没有同时出现过，凯亚队长经常出现在晨曦酒庄，暗夜英雄也一样。所以，凯亚队长就是暗夜英雄，我可以这么认为吗？”

“Captain Kaeya and the Darknight Hero don’t appear at the same time. Captain Kaeya often appears at the Dawn Winery, and so does the Darknight Hero. So, Captain Kaeya is the Darknight Hero. Can I interpret it like this?”

(Unless Adelinde is trying to fix her mistake of accidentally calling him “Master Kaeya” by referring to him as “Captain Kaeya” excessively?)

不是吧 (búshìba / bu2shi4ba5)

Literally speaking it’s closer to an exasperated “No!” but it means something more like “Come on!” or “Come now!” the latter of which sounds a lot like something Kaeya would say.

警戒区 (jǐngjièqū / jing3jie4qu1)

警戒 is a verb that means to be on one’s guard or to prepare for emergencies but 区 means zone or area, so the word together means security zone.

高深难懂 (gāoshēn nándǒng / gao1shen1 nan2dong3)

Two words that both mean difficult to understand. People don’t usually say this and instead say 高深莫测, a proverb.

暗语 (ànyǔ / an4yu3)

Literally dark language. It means secret code.

那可真是白活了 (nà kě zhēn shì baí huó le / na4 ke3 zhen1 shi4 bai2 huo2 le5)

Literally Then that’s truly a life wasted. 白活 is used to mean someone has lived a life without meaning or happiness.

Alternatively it could also mean to work without getting paid, but that doesn’t seem to be the context here.

[otomehonyaku]

Diabolik Lovers More,Blood ☽ Possessive Ruki and voyeuristic Yui (Heaven 02)

this is genuinely one of my favourite scenes in Ruki's route in MB... the cooing! the possessiveness! the horniness! once again props to @karleksmumskladdkaka because now I have a (long) list of scenes that I post videos of ദ്ദി(˵ •̀ ᴗ - ˵ ) ✧

[beingharsh]

1000xRESIST (2024), dev. sunset visitor 斜陽過客

[aquaseekerofdarkness]

Im back at it but this time with the collectibles in this game (as of right now at least)

These are some that I’ve encountered so far. Ed sometimes reacts to what Al says to the cats so i tried to keep them together. Another is that I think the cats can be used in battle because Al has an ability called “cats”...

Anyway, ill update this post (ir make a new post) with more Al and his cats!

[sockjamsstuff]

Howdy folks! I got bored, and wanted a way to improve my Irish skills, so I decided to start TRANSlating the game Celeste into Irish!

I started the project yesterday (2nd of August as of writing) after discovering just how easy the game is to translate.

Right now, I've only got the opening text, main menu and base settings page complete. I'm gonna keep working on this whenever I can, and I'll provide updates along the way!

Additionally, I want to make it clear that I am not fluent in Irish (Pretty far from it tbh) and I started this project to help improve my skills while engaging with something I love. With that in mind, I can't guarantee that all the translations will be perfect and there'll probably be a good few mistakes around, I'm just doin' my best out here.

Finally, I might release a demo every now and again for anyone who's interested, if you wanna follow my progress, actually check out the translation if you know any Irish, or just go "hehe" at the funny words you can't pronounce or know the meaning of, I hope you'll enjoy it. I'm planning to release something when all the menus are translated and chapter one is complete.

Stay safe and have a good one!

[autumnslance]

"And the most important considerations when they're designing the lore is how to make these influences fit into the world of Fourteen. Like Oda-San wanted to emphasize that it's really important that what we're trying to do is we're not trying to recreate reality. We are trying to imagine a world with perhaps similar locations, but still fitting the history of FF14. But you know at the same time, when we do draw on real life cultures and languages, we want to develop an understanding and a respect for those cultures and we want to try to demonstrate that the best we can. Yeah. And this is a real point of focus for 7.0. I can't say much about it, but I will say that is something the team is very aware of. They're aware that we have not always made our goal of being, demonstrating the proper respect for cultures in the past as a game and as a franchise, and we are really working on it."

-English Localization Lead Kate Cwynar on developing lore for Final Fantasy XIV, Las Vegas FanFest, July 29 2023