999 has an amazing script overall, it's one of the few localized stories that don't actually feel like they originated from a different culture altogether. Great analysis!
It also realy helps that the author behind the games love english concepts and so on. Also his games feels like they are easier to translate. THe charcters are usually varied, and the games uses a lot of international concepts. I acutally think the main differences between him and danganronpa maker is excatly that. Think Ai vs Danganronpa it a funny thought to have, especially since they work in the same studio now
As an avid Zero Escape fan, I need to disagree that the profanity in 999 "doesn't stand out" Junpei's "What the Hell?!?" is ICONIC. There's literally a compilation of just every time he says it in the game. It's even my reset noise on LiveSplit lmao
I think another game that uses swearing well is Danganronpa, the first game specifically. I think it's used basically the exact same way you praised it for in 999. My favorite is definitely how each character approaches swearing. Most just swear during heightened emotional moments, but some like the biker gang leader Mondo swear frequently. Then there's characters like the stuffy rich Byakuya who just says "No, I'm not effing with you" instead of repeating the swear. Although my favorite is Taka, the Ultimate Moral Compass, who always tries to act as the model student, never swearing and always focusing on his studies. At one point in the game he decides to emulate Mondo, but deep within him he still can't bring himself to swear, so while he's acting all tough and rude like Mondo, he's still saying non-swears like fudge and crap. Really funny and just really great character work.
In Dangan Ronpa, my favourite instance in the English localization is an instance with Makoto near the end of the game. Hearing Makoto so angry, but still have a brief moment of hesitation when he says "You're so full of... shit!" is a great little bit of characterization.
@@AquasonEven the way Makoto and Hajime say "No, that's wrong!" reflects their personalities. Makoto is just correcting a mistake whereas Hajime is calling someone out.
@@michaelcarlton1484 Hinata's call outs are so good. I love Hinata's character, especially when in direct comparison to Naegi. The decision to make the next protagonist a bit more aggressive was such a good idea. Hinata is my favourite character in the series.
apparently in the original game taka actually did cuss when he emulated mondo, so the non-swears were a localisation decision. it's received mixed reviews from fans (some think it infantilises him too much) but i think it fits
One of the best uses of profanity I've ever seen in a game was actually a mistranslation. The silent protagonist of Golden Sun Dark Dawn usually only replies with a ! or a ?, maybe an emoticon if you're lucky. Except at the very end of the game, when after a major plot twist his reaction is "#*@%!"
This is a great video and the main subject is very interesting, enough for me to leave an entire comment on, but I would REALLY like to bring attention to how you subtly changed the footage in specific spots (like at 9:36) to not spoil the game. You went the extra mile to make sure any potential new players won't leave this video feeling like they got the game ruined for them, and I really appreciate it
As someone who loved 999 back on DS and felt the remaster with vocals did a fantastic job, I completely agree the swearing felt natural. i didn't even realize that Japanese as a language had a lack of swears like english does. i guess that explains why there are so many Sh*t's F*cks and MotherF*cker in alot of the manga i like to read, being Kaiji and JoJo. although its perfectly understandable for both it felt weird to go from watching the anime, where the word almost never shows up in most dubs/subtitling, to seeing it everywhere in the manga.
Love this video as a Japanese to English/Dutch translator! Just starting out, but my first job was at a video game company. The most challenging part for me was translating made up lore words, and cultural references. For instance, there was a case where a character was foreshadowing by leaving hints of being in a cult, by using common phrases and identifiers that Japanese people would be familiar with. But English speaking audiences would be completely ignorant to these references. We were faced with the dilemma of either leaving the character as is to stay true to the writers' vision, or to alter it to make more sense in a foreign context. These kinds of things are what make localizing so different from translating. Cultural knowledge and the skill to adapt such things to another culture are what make localizing so fun, and that aspect is probably also what will keep my job safe from AI for the foreseeable future.
I never really thought about 999 and VLR being translated works. Aside from there being names that are Japanese in origin, the games just conveyed themselves to me in a clear and enjoyable way. And with a lot of subtlety to the stories and writing, it never occurred to me that so much work went into transitioning those things from one language to another.
The part at the end where the translation team was screwed... I know exactly what it was right away. Don't worry, it was super clever, it still impresses me to think about that save.
Probably my favourite swear is in the Submarine Ending, where Junpei finally cracks upon approaching the sliding doors. The psychotic laughter combined with the exasperated "Shit!" just is a perfect encapsulation of how mentally checked out Junpei has become with how far south the situation has gone.
Absolutely fantastic little video - extraordinarily educational without going 'dry', well-helped by your confident and continuous cadence and usage of alternative host materials. Really admired the focus on accreditation here in both live-state (the footage is showing) and post-state (video's over, go home, no more popcorn). Hell, I'll always like literally any video about Zero Escape, the series is an alltime greatest of all time; and this video does stellar work presenting a whole new layer to most people portraying just Why it's an alltimer. Thank you very much for the video, you fuckin' rule.
This was far more interesting and better than I was expecting! Really interesting stuff and you did a great job at being efficient with the subject matter!
So I saw this video's thumbnail. I knew what 999 was, and I was interested in the topic but I did not want to spoil the game for myself. I saw the Nonary Games on sale on steam due to the summer sale, so I bought it and played through 999. Only when I revisited this video, finally able to watch it, I found out that the video had no spoilers and I could have watched it beforehand. Anyway, I thank this video for getting me into 999. Both the game's localization and dubbing were amazing, and I was extremely immersed the whole time.
Wonderfully explained, it's a lot of work getting the right tone when translating, and it definitively takes a very skilled and informed person to properly convey the authors original meaning. It's why I love reading and learning new languages, it teaches us about humans more than we'd imagine. Turns out that despite being very different languages, both English speakers and Japanese speakers can comprehend social cues and swears used in each society when given enough time and good reading material.
This was a fascinating video, diving into the etymology of swearing in both contexts linguistically while still being true to 999. Plus, without game breaking spoilers! Great video, keep up the good work!
Because of how much English I've been exposed to (and learned from), it basically became a second language to me without ever learning the depth of how it works exactly (English isn't my native language). Every time I watch a video talking about linguistic, to my surprise I always find myself finding it very intresting and very helpful to speak this language even better. Learning stuff like this about something my dumb ego self convinced themselve they mastered (even tho I'm still far from having a native level) it feels honestly great. Learning is cool. It was also intresting to learn a few stuff about Japanese as even if this is a language I won't ever learn, these particularity of it and the immense difference between other language that exist is always mind blowing. + As the description said, it does help understand why profanity in fan translation or subtitles often sounds very wrong. I always thought it was just because Japanese was a language where profanities were used weirdly compared to a language like English, but in reality they use profanity weirdly compared to English because they _don't_ use profanities ! I live for these kind of small useful ""fun fact"". Ps: As someone who consider the job of translator, this is even more useful than just for everyday use of languages. Pss: Might even check that "999" game one day because of the video xd
I love how concise this video was! You explained exactly what need to explained, said exactly what needed to be said, and didn’t pad out the video after making your point. Bravo!
I think I actually noticed this but couldn't put it into words. You did it perfectly and explained why too! Added to the fav videos list, this is quality.
I'm a video game translator and loved how well put and educational this video is! You've done an incredible job at organising and presenting the pertinent information together with varied examples and giving the necessary context for those who may not know how different languages or translation work. It's also well-edited and entertaining to watch. Thanks for putting your good work out there!
Great video, I hope you come out with more stuff about localization, it's a subject that I haven't seen a lot of discussion of. I would love to see a breakdown of some of the localization decisions that had to be made for Shonen Jump's Cipher Academy, it seems like a series that absolutely defies translation.
Oh man, Cipher Academy. Yeah, I started looking into the series when I read the news story about the translator quitting the series. So far any planned videos I have in this series are mostly about video game translations/localizations because the copyright situation and finding footage is easier, but Cipher Academy would be a great work to use to talk about translating constrained writing, lipograms and "untranslatability" (and bringing it up in the context of things like "La Disparition").
I never even considered the translation work that went into localizing this game into English. But I appreciate it now! It's amazing how naturally curse words were introduced - I never even noticed how uncommon this was.
Honestly, never noticed the emphasis on social context on the cussing in Japanese, and the niche but critical part in translating. Keep the good work up!
Clyde Mandelin has done amazing work both professionally and for fan translation. Great reference for this video. I tend to like the more literal approach by the atelier games, with contextual gaps filled in by the voice acting, but that's only because localisations are rarely afforded the time to have this level of quality. There is no English without profanity, but it's tough to dial in, as an Australian speaker I tend to interpret to Japanese text with more profanity than many other speakers might.
As someone who's both infatuated with linguistic nuances in japanese AND very enthusiastic about 999, thank you for this! The translation stands out due to how different it is from other known instances of localized media in terms of actually adapting the tone of writing adequately, which can be really difficult depending on your level of experience with translation AND the media itself. Some games/books are notoriously hard to translate into english because of how much they rely on things exclusive to japanese in terms of plot and/or puzzles and gimmicks, in a way that's hard to change without losing a lot of meaning. I'd love to see more games talked about through this lens!
i really like types of videos like these that are probably things that people dont realise but someone has the need to make a video on! it feels like its loved and cared for and i just love listening to these so much
This is an amazing video!!! I'm sending it to my other linguistics fans, you do such a good job of explaining things in a way that is still engaging for people whether they have no context or plenty
Another thing to consider is that the original release of the game didn't have voice acting, so the text really had to be memorable and "pop". I'll never forget how weird it was seeing "fuck" on my Nintendo DS 😂
Super curious about the spoiler-heavy noteworthy things about the translation. Is there an interview or something similar that covers it? Wonderful video
Some day I'd like to make a video about the ending-based spoilers just because there are multiple really interesting translation ending-twist problems and solutions they had to work around. The one that Bateman and Nakayama bring up repeatedly in interviews (like this one: web.archive.org/web/20170412015548/www.technologytell.com/gaming/110470/999-and-zero-escape-virtues-last-reward-interview-aksys-gets-things-done/ ) goes as follows: 999 ENDING SPOILER EXPLANATION >For 999, I played a good chunk of it before I started to localize and the process was very smooth. But I remember the moment I finished the game I was more than half way through translating, and I saw the big ending about door 9. The plot was a Japanese pun! I remember the minute I saw that I thought FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF and I got up, looked at Ben, and said, “Uh oh…” In Japanese, the word for "9" is pronounced "kyu" - which is the same pronunciation as the Latin Alphabet letter "Q". In order for the whole "seek a door with a q/9" twist to work, they came up with the solution where instead of having Zero announce the rules of the game over the intercom, they inserted a new graphic and rewrote the story to where the instructions are given over paper, and the characters read that they have to "seek a door with a [q]/[9]".
Hmmm. web.archive.org/web/20170412015548/www.technologytell.com/gaming/110470/999-and-zero-escape-virtues-last-reward-interview-aksys-gets-things-done/ The link works when I paste it, but for some reason youtube is adding a "%29" to the end of the link when I click it. Try pasting it if this doesn't work for you.
@@Aquason Could you explain this a little further? How would saying "seek a door with a 9" convey that it also should be q? Im I forgetting a plotline or something? Is it hexidecimals?
@Tahsin Choudhury In the original Japanese, "Zero" tells the players over the intercom "Seek a door with a "kyu". - this could be either the Japanese word for "9" or the Latin alphabet letter "q". This is a big plot twist at the end, because they realize that the final door they're at isn't a "9" door at all, it's a "q" door. The characters realize he meant "q" ("kyu") not "9" ("kyu)". In order for this twist and reveal to work, the translators came up with the idea to rewrite the story and have that instruction appear in writing, so a lowercase 'q' can look like a '9'.
I’m slowly working my way through the Detective Conan anime (Case Closed), which has so many episodes you end up watching a lot of different fansubs from different people. The ones that flub the appropriate register and have the protagonist in a family cartoon say ‘shit!’ because he says ‘kuso’ in Japanese are hilarious for all the wrong reasons
Very nice video! I really enjoyed 999 and a big reason for that was the way the characters are written. I've never really put much thought into it, but the precise use of swearing does do a lot for the characterization!
Really interesting video. Good job. The swearing is so natural and seamless that you'll quickly buy into it even if you might be caught off-guard at the beginning. It's never out of place. The characters all have their personalities and the way they talk reflects that.
Fantastic video!!!! Would you mind doing a video covering the more spoilery aspects of 999's translation? I'd love to see it!!! Edit: Another example of how hires aren't indicative of video quality. I have no idea how this only has 3.2k views. _Seriously_ looking forward to your growth, keep at it man!!
Never in my life would I have thought there is such linguistic depth in swear words. From the first 3 minutes alone i am so enthralled by this video! You have done a fantastic work in your analysis, this is a joy to watch
I always enjoyed how the swearing felt "natural" but never understood that the reasons for that fact being related to register and genre norms. Great video!
to anyone who is now interested in playing 999 after watching this video: play the ds version. in order of preference- ds/3ds, emulated on handheld device, emulated on pc (really get to know your emulators settings though). the nonary games/"remastered" version (where most of the footage in this video comes from) obviously looks terrible compared to the ds game, but it also has to change the very essence of the game to make up for the jump from dual screen to single screen, and that change involved MAJOR sacrifices to the impact of the story and mechanics. the nonary games version exists as a way for old fans to experience the game with voice acting, thats IT. just 🏴☠️ the ds version, you'll probably be buying the nonary games anyway since that also includes the sequel though i will say, if youre impatient an emulator with a fast forward option may be your best bet. the text speed is agonizing 😩
I got asked what fuck means in a room of Slavic immigrants once. That might be one of the hardest words we have to defign. I mean it means to have sex with something but that's rarely the actual implication.
FANTASTIC VIDEO! I love how you brought up swearing as characterization, as it's a really underrated tool of writing. speech patterns in general are really fun to play around with! i appreciate the time and care that went into this. i hope to see more work like this from you going forward!
I'd love to see a video with spoilers about what else is fantastic in the 999 localization. I'm not a native speaker, so I haven't really noticed any of this, but it is incredibly interesting.
Really interesting linguistic analysis! (Thanks for providing those sources too!) I love visual novels AND thriller-mysteries, but haven’t played 999 yet - I appreciate you taking the pains to not spoil the story! It sounds like a great game, and I’d love to give it a try! :D
Yeah, translating can be rough. Very random example, but in the Henry Stickmin game, there's a character that says "tight", but like the "yeah bro, that's tight" kind of "tight", and in the Japanese subtitles, they translate it to きつい, which literally means "tight", as in "this lid is screwed on tight". きつい could also mean "difficult" or "intense", but that's not what the original "tight" means anyway. Then again, the subtitles are a mod. It could hardly be called professional work.
Fascinating video, I always wonder how much I miss out on due to not being able to understand the source material. Thank you for bridging that gap a little bit.
When I see a 999/ZE video in my recommended I have to click instantly. This was a super interesting analysis. I never really thought about the swearing in this game because it feels so natural, especially given the situation they’re in. It’s also funny seeing the swear counts (I think Dio beats out Santa slightly?).
Wonderful video! I'd LOVE to know the spoiler-heavy parts though. >:D As someone who "localizes" songs (English covers), it's nice to see other examples of swearing being great when used in the right contexts!
Thank you. A lot of people have said they wanted to learn more about the more spoiler-heavy translation challenges and solutions, so I'm planning to eventually get to that. Also, wow, I just checked out your channel. Your translated covers are great and I'm watching your "Writing English lyrics to God-ish" video, and it's really interesting to see your thought process/interpretation. (Incidentally, a video on translations of lyrics/verse/poetry was on my shortlist)
Really appreciate this, especially since there's no way that this is monetized. And there's not enough localization appreciation, even among linguistics related channels I follow.
I love 999, really interesting video. Don't usually think too much about the quality of translations unless it's obviously bad so cool to see it looked at closely. Ngl I was disappointed when the video ended wanted to see more about the translation, just shows you made a good video lol.
Thank you for making this video and taking a fat shit on the people who have tried to take a fat shit on the localization team who did fantastic work with 999.
Never even heard of 999, but this video seemed so interesting i had to click on it. This sort of way that culture is influenced by language and vice versa is something i absolutely love thinking about, keep up the great work!
I think it also depeneds on the target language itself. In English, Ryuji Sakamoto isn't really vulgar like the students and staff portray him as. He sticks to "shit," "damn," "goddammit," and "crap," which while it certainly marks him as informal and carefree, it doesn't really make him sound menacing. He has one instance of "fuck," at least in vanilla P5 (still need to play Royal), and that's in a text message so it's not even voiced. However, in Spanish (it's a European translation but judging by how Impmon says "maldición" and "mierda" at one point in the Mexican dub of Digimon Tamers, I'd expect the same following thing if it were localized somewhere in LatAm) he swears CONSTANTLY and with some harsher words compared to English. We don't have "fuck" in Spanish the same way we have it in English, but let me tell you that most words he uses-coño, cojones, mierda, puto, joder-would absolutely be translated as such. I was actually laughing my ass off when I tried P5R out a bit ago because he was just a stream of vulgarity. I couldn't tell you why swearing is seemingly more permissable in Spanish-speaking countries since I was born in the U.S, but I figured I should share that. This doesn't mean you curse around your parents, for anyone wondering.
As a student of Japanese and song translator, I absolutely love this video. Haven't even reached the end yet but felt compelled to write this comment. I wish there was more content on TH-cam about Japanese translation.
this video is absolutely stellar, i'm excited to see more localization content from this channel!! i'd love to see a video about the more spoiler-y aspects of 999's localization :-)
This video made me play 999, and I came back to find it after I finished (just now). I now am absolutely ravenous for more analysis of this script and would love to hear the spoilery bits discussed!
My favorite translation of kuso is in the opening of One Punch Man, where Saitama exclaims, "Kusotareeeee!" which I saw translated as, "God Fucking Dammit!" Considering context, extreme frustration after once again one-shotting a terrifying monster, tone, screaming, and camera movement, slam cutting to a raised and zoomed out framing, it fits perfectly.
This was a suprisingly educational video on some DS game I never heard of. Learning the difference between Japanese linguistics and English phonetics was really fascinating.
This was such a great video! I'm always so interested in linguistic comparisons between Japanese & English & their social connotations, so to see the original japanese dialogue contrasted and explained thoroughly with the chosen translation was so great. I would love to see your localization lens for the 999 ending someday, but I understand the hesitation to accidentally spoil someone. As it is now, this video actually answered a lot of questions ive had for a long time about "swearing" in Japanese, and i really appreciate the graphics you included too! Super informative stuff, and so much more fun to learn about with 999 as the focusing lense. Cheers!
Very nice explanation and use of references. I've never heard of 999 before, but I appreciate the lack of spoilers you gave for the game. Given your praise for it, I'll be sure to check it out
This is a very well put together video! I never paid attention to 999's language, but in hindsight, it really was a great script and localisation. Thanks for putting it into words for me.
Amazing video! Please keep this up. I would be really interested in the localisation lense on "Ace Attorney". As far as I know, it was adapted to the western audiences very radically, but I cant really check for myself with my barely-N5 skill issue.
Ace Attorney is a fantastic series with a ton of really interesting localization and translation decisions. I'd love to write/make a video about some of the things that really stand out about the translation to me, and I have a pretty substantial list of ideas (The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles using UK natives to translate the game to match the Sherlock Holmes-period setting, name translation in Ace Attorney, legal jargon). If I ever make any videos on it, it will probably take me quite a while for me to make it through my shortlist, so in the meantime, I can recommend these articles: news.capcomusa.com/zeroobjections/blog/2014/11/21/%0blocalization-and-ace-attorney blog.playstation.com/2021/06/30/inside-capcoms-localization-of-the-great-ace-attorney-chronicles/ localireview.blogspot.com/2015/03/episode-1-first-turnabout-defendant.html
I want to sincerely thank you for making this video. Because of it, I gave the first game a try and really enjoyed it, and am looking forward to playing the rest of the series.
I was excited to see a video with Santa and a big FUCK on the thumbnail, but now I'm ELATED to see you have a YTTD video too, definitely gonna watch it after this one, hehehe...
As someone with no linguistics background, this was really accessible and surprisingly interesting! Hope your channel blows up soon, keep up the good work
currently writing a fangame (not for 999, tho I've been a fan for a long time) and the characters swear a lot, so this analysis was a great breakdown of how to do it properly! thanks!
Excellent video, very in dept and educational and with a very simple and easy way to explain. Not to mention you avoided spoilers for such a gem of a series that is best experienced without them, so double points for that.
oh damn, i just finished a replay of 999! i’ve heard about japanese not having swears before (from clyde mandelin’s blog and from other places) so i was curious the translators’ mindsets in using it when and how they did. glad this showed up in my recommended! i’m gonna have to check out that ben bateman interview for sure-every time i learn more about this game’s localization, i’m blown away
As a translator working for a fan group and trying to become more professional rn, this vid was such eye opener. I recently came across a line that could translate to "Your making a big mistake", "I'll fuck you up", or "I'll rape you". I was struggling for a while to think which line to pick when looking at the situation the characters are in but after watching this vid, I was able to finally make a decision. Also when I saw that fan translated DBZ manga u showed, I died a little inside seeing such a rookie mistake lol
Loved playing 999 back in the day, and I wonder if the sequels have any interesting localization stories to them. Also, would love to see more videos on other games with famous/infamous localizations. Perhaps the Trails series might be worth a look? Their scripts are incredibly long, had its localization company change (between Trails of Cold Steel 2 and 3), and also had a fan translation that was so good that the official company decided to work with them to make an actual release (Trails from Zero and Trails to Azure). I remember there were some "liberties" taken with some of the localization that wasn't in the original in all of these. Off the top of my head, "try a salad sometime" in Trails from Zero.
Ah, Trails - I've watched an incomplete lets play of Trails in the Sky, and read a bit about some of its translation history (I can recall some tidbits like how every NPCs dialogue changes over the course of the game, or how the English version added unique chest opening text). I'll add that to my list of things to check out, but since I haven't gone through any of the Trails games in full myself (and ideally, if/when I make any future videos, I want them to have a good focus on a language or translation concept), I can't promise anything because I'd want to make sure I've done a lot of research and have a good, strong, idea to talk about.
That is really interesting stuff! Helps me to appreciate how much work goes into a good translation. It's not just a good understanding of both languages but also both cultures and varying contexts.
Its very rare then when swears and slures are added to media especially translated ones that feel natural and 999 does it so well even tho their is alot of swearing who does it and how often and when they do it feels very in character
Absolutely phenomenal video, two niche things I enjoy combined into one video, looking forward to future content! Not necessarily localization as I believe it was written (at least mostly) in English but Disco Elysium is a fantastic game which imo is able to use language and descriptions in a very unique way. There’s so much charm in how they are able to describe almost mundane things in such creative ways. And the way the skills work is that they are all different voices in your head that talk to you, each of them has a lot of character and personality through their dialogue, register and vocabulary. The game right now is in a bit of a legal limbo with lawsuits and drama but imo it doesn’t detract from the immense artistic value the game holds. Would absolutely recommend!
This is the second video I've stumbled upon about 999's translation, and I'm now convinced the people who localized this game are genius'. So much thought and card was put into every piece of the script, it's incredible
Localizing Japanese VN is so fucking hard especially when you take into account Japanese jokes, rhymes, concepts, word puns and ofcourse the politeness level you mentioned. That's why I'm glad the localization teams change the story around a small bit so it can be understood by people that aren't native to Japan, Ace Attourney's localization is also quite hilarious.
Wow, awesome video! I feel like I really learned a lot about the translation process for these games in addition to basic linguistic concepts. It's amazing being a fan of this game after so many years and still seeing new and interesting things to say about it :}
What a great video to randomly appear in my recommended, two topics I'm extremely interested in: 999 and localisation. I even wrote my uni dissertation on localisation in games and focused on VLR! I found the cockney robot a fascinating choice
Really interesting video! Your explanations are well-thought out and easily understandable! I'm a huge fan of the Nonary Games and never thought about the use of profanity in its dialogue until now. Good stuff!
I think this video put into succinct words why the Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood English dub worked so well for me. Everything and everyone _tonally_ fit right.
What a wonderful video! Also, if there's enough material for a spoiler-ful follow-up, I'd be fascinated to get a look at some of the other translation decisions that went into this game!
Swearing is such a fun thing to talk about. In Danish, a common one you'll hear is "for satan", which would directly translate to "by satan". It is roughly conveing that this thing that is happening is so inconvenient, annoying or damaging that it has to be the work of satan himself, but the closest english equivalent both in terms of subject and impoliteness would be "dam". So a direct translation of the meaning would be "by the work of satan", while one trying to convey the mood would be "satans doing".
This makes sense of a lot. I can't recall any examples, but I remember a bunch of talk about characters being highly regarded as well written, but conversations about them were full of "yeah, but they're totally not supposed to be this angry. They weren't in the original." This explains a large part of why even high quality translations don't feel right, even when they're literally correct.
999 has an amazing script overall, it's one of the few localized stories that don't actually feel like they originated from a different culture altogether. Great analysis!
My feelings exactly
and the great localized script is def what made it so popular in the west
It also realy helps that the author behind the games love english concepts and so on. Also his games feels like they are easier to translate. THe charcters are usually varied, and the games uses a lot of international concepts. I acutally think the main differences between him and danganronpa maker is excatly that. Think Ai vs Danganronpa it a funny thought to have, especially since they work in the same studio now
it doesn't feel japanese but it *definitely* originated from a different culture. like, maybe mars
@@violet_broregarde "The man on the moon rules the infinite time"
As an avid Zero Escape fan, I need to disagree that the profanity in 999 "doesn't stand out" Junpei's "What the Hell?!?" is ICONIC. There's literally a compilation of just every time he says it in the game. It's even my reset noise on LiveSplit lmao
I think another game that uses swearing well is Danganronpa, the first game specifically. I think it's used basically the exact same way you praised it for in 999. My favorite is definitely how each character approaches swearing. Most just swear during heightened emotional moments, but some like the biker gang leader Mondo swear frequently. Then there's characters like the stuffy rich Byakuya who just says "No, I'm not effing with you" instead of repeating the swear. Although my favorite is Taka, the Ultimate Moral Compass, who always tries to act as the model student, never swearing and always focusing on his studies. At one point in the game he decides to emulate Mondo, but deep within him he still can't bring himself to swear, so while he's acting all tough and rude like Mondo, he's still saying non-swears like fudge and crap. Really funny and just really great character work.
In Dangan Ronpa, my favourite instance in the English localization is an instance with Makoto near the end of the game. Hearing Makoto so angry, but still have a brief moment of hesitation when he says "You're so full of... shit!" is a great little bit of characterization.
@@AquasonEven the way Makoto and Hajime say "No, that's wrong!" reflects their personalities. Makoto is just correcting a mistake whereas Hajime is calling someone out.
@@michaelcarlton1484
Hinata's call outs are so good. I love Hinata's character, especially when in direct comparison to Naegi. The decision to make the next protagonist a bit more aggressive was such a good idea. Hinata is my favourite character in the series.
I remember that one scene during trial 6 where it seemed Makoto hesitated before cursing.
"You're so full of...shit!"
apparently in the original game taka actually did cuss when he emulated mondo, so the non-swears were a localisation decision. it's received mixed reviews from fans (some think it infantilises him too much) but i think it fits
One of the best uses of profanity I've ever seen in a game was actually a mistranslation.
The silent protagonist of Golden Sun Dark Dawn usually only replies with a ! or a ?, maybe an emoticon if you're lucky. Except at the very end of the game, when after a major plot twist his reaction is "#*@%!"
That's hilarious I don't know why
This is a great video and the main subject is very interesting, enough for me to leave an entire comment on, but I would REALLY like to bring attention to how you subtly changed the footage in specific spots (like at 9:36) to not spoil the game. You went the extra mile to make sure any potential new players won't leave this video feeling like they got the game ruined for them, and I really appreciate it
...I literally can't even tell how it was edited
@@philiphunt-bull5817 Let's just say that line of dialogue doesn't play in the hall. It plays at a much more... Spoilery place
@@HyLion oh my God you're right. That was so seamless, I knew something was off about it but had _no_ idea what because it was edited so well
As someone who now wants to play this game, I agree. I appreciate the non-spoilers.
@@coolbrotherf127 enjoy the ride!
As someone who loved 999 back on DS and felt the remaster with vocals did a fantastic job, I completely agree the swearing felt natural. i didn't even realize that Japanese as a language had a lack of swears like english does. i guess that explains why there are so many Sh*t's F*cks and MotherF*cker in alot of the manga i like to read, being Kaiji and JoJo. although its perfectly understandable for both it felt weird to go from watching the anime, where the word almost never shows up in most dubs/subtitling, to seeing it everywhere in the manga.
Not only focusing 999's amazing story, but also having a Death Mark cameo at 7:52? Exquisite taste.
Love this video as a Japanese to English/Dutch translator! Just starting out, but my first job was at a video game company. The most challenging part for me was translating made up lore words, and cultural references. For instance, there was a case where a character was foreshadowing by leaving hints of being in a cult, by using common phrases and identifiers that Japanese people would be familiar with. But English speaking audiences would be completely ignorant to these references. We were faced with the dilemma of either leaving the character as is to stay true to the writers' vision, or to alter it to make more sense in a foreign context.
These kinds of things are what make localizing so different from translating. Cultural knowledge and the skill to adapt such things to another culture are what make localizing so fun, and that aspect is probably also what will keep my job safe from AI for the foreseeable future.
What were you translating? I'm curious now, it seems like an interesting story
@@m.l.7558 i signed an NDA so i cant say unfortunately 🤫
I never really thought about 999 and VLR being translated works. Aside from there being names that are Japanese in origin, the games just conveyed themselves to me in a clear and enjoyable way. And with a lot of subtlety to the stories and writing, it never occurred to me that so much work went into transitioning those things from one language to another.
I appreciate the restraint it must've taken to not talk about specific spoiler sensitive examples from the game.
The part at the end where the translation team was screwed... I know exactly what it was right away. Don't worry, it was super clever, it still impresses me to think about that save.
Same, I got a good laugh out of that
It was a while since I played the game, is it the all ice thing?
@@creeperwithstyle there was that, but the main thing I was thinking of was what was written on the final door xD
@@BrettLane256 ohhhhhhhhhhhhhh right, that's funny
@@BrettLane256 Oh I had to remind myself of that, now :D Yeah pretty cool stuff.
Probably my favourite swear is in the Submarine Ending, where Junpei finally cracks upon approaching the sliding doors. The psychotic laughter combined with the exasperated "Shit!" just is a perfect encapsulation of how mentally checked out Junpei has become with how far south the situation has gone.
Absolutely fantastic little video - extraordinarily educational without going 'dry', well-helped by your confident and continuous cadence and usage of alternative host materials. Really admired the focus on accreditation here in both live-state (the footage is showing) and post-state (video's over, go home, no more popcorn).
Hell, I'll always like literally any video about Zero Escape, the series is an alltime greatest of all time; and this video does stellar work presenting a whole new layer to most people portraying just Why it's an alltimer.
Thank you very much for the video, you fuckin' rule.
This was far more interesting and better than I was expecting! Really interesting stuff and you did a great job at being efficient with the subject matter!
So I saw this video's thumbnail. I knew what 999 was, and I was interested in the topic but I did not want to spoil the game for myself. I saw the Nonary Games on sale on steam due to the summer sale, so I bought it and played through 999. Only when I revisited this video, finally able to watch it, I found out that the video had no spoilers and I could have watched it beforehand. Anyway, I thank this video for getting me into 999. Both the game's localization and dubbing were amazing, and I was extremely immersed the whole time.
Wonderfully explained, it's a lot of work getting the right tone when translating, and it definitively takes a very skilled and informed person to properly convey the authors original meaning.
It's why I love reading and learning new languages, it teaches us about humans more than we'd imagine.
Turns out that despite being very different languages, both English speakers and Japanese speakers can comprehend social cues and swears used in each society when given enough time and good reading material.
This was a fascinating video, diving into the etymology of swearing in both contexts linguistically while still being true to 999. Plus, without game breaking spoilers! Great video, keep up the good work!
This was worth the click. Very informative. I especially appreciate that you cited your sources. Very rare these days.
Because of how much English I've been exposed to (and learned from), it basically became a second language to me without ever learning the depth of how it works exactly (English isn't my native language). Every time I watch a video talking about linguistic, to my surprise I always find myself finding it very intresting and very helpful to speak this language even better. Learning stuff like this about something my dumb ego self convinced themselve they mastered (even tho I'm still far from having a native level) it feels honestly great. Learning is cool.
It was also intresting to learn a few stuff about Japanese as even if this is a language I won't ever learn, these particularity of it and the immense difference between other language that exist is always mind blowing.
+ As the description said, it does help understand why profanity in fan translation or subtitles often sounds very wrong. I always thought it was just because Japanese was a language where profanities were used weirdly compared to a language like English, but in reality they use profanity weirdly compared to English because they _don't_ use profanities !
I live for these kind of small useful ""fun fact"".
Ps: As someone who consider the job of translator, this is even more useful than just for everyday use of languages.
Pss: Might even check that "999" game one day because of the video xd
I love how concise this video was! You explained exactly what need to explained, said exactly what needed to be said, and didn’t pad out the video after making your point. Bravo!
I think I actually noticed this but couldn't put it into words. You did it perfectly and explained why too! Added to the fav videos list, this is quality.
You know it's impressive when you get ME to watch a video about language. Good job
I'm a video game translator and loved how well put and educational this video is! You've done an incredible job at organising and presenting the pertinent information together with varied examples and giving the necessary context for those who may not know how different languages or translation work. It's also well-edited and entertaining to watch.
Thanks for putting your good work out there!
Great video, I hope you come out with more stuff about localization, it's a subject that I haven't seen a lot of discussion of.
I would love to see a breakdown of some of the localization decisions that had to be made for Shonen Jump's Cipher Academy, it seems like a series that absolutely defies translation.
Oh man, Cipher Academy. Yeah, I started looking into the series when I read the news story about the translator quitting the series. So far any planned videos I have in this series are mostly about video game translations/localizations because the copyright situation and finding footage is easier, but Cipher Academy would be a great work to use to talk about translating constrained writing, lipograms and "untranslatability" (and bringing it up in the context of things like "La Disparition").
I never even considered the translation work that went into localizing this game into English. But I appreciate it now! It's amazing how naturally curse words were introduced - I never even noticed how uncommon this was.
Honestly, never noticed the emphasis on social context on the cussing in Japanese, and the niche but critical part in translating. Keep the good work up!
Clyde Mandelin has done amazing work both professionally and for fan translation. Great reference for this video. I tend to like the more literal approach by the atelier games, with contextual gaps filled in by the voice acting, but that's only because localisations are rarely afforded the time to have this level of quality. There is no English without profanity, but it's tough to dial in, as an Australian speaker I tend to interpret to Japanese text with more profanity than many other speakers might.
As someone who's both infatuated with linguistic nuances in japanese AND very enthusiastic about 999, thank you for this! The translation stands out due to how different it is from other known instances of localized media in terms of actually adapting the tone of writing adequately, which can be really difficult depending on your level of experience with translation AND the media itself. Some games/books are notoriously hard to translate into english because of how much they rely on things exclusive to japanese in terms of plot and/or puzzles and gimmicks, in a way that's hard to change without losing a lot of meaning. I'd love to see more games talked about through this lens!
i really like types of videos like these that are probably things that people dont realise but someone has the need to make a video on! it feels like its loved and cared for and i just love listening to these so much
This is an amazing video!!! I'm sending it to my other linguistics fans, you do such a good job of explaining things in a way that is still engaging for people whether they have no context or plenty
Another thing to consider is that the original release of the game didn't have voice acting, so the text really had to be memorable and "pop". I'll never forget how weird it was seeing "fuck" on my Nintendo DS 😂
This video was very interesting. I played the original 999 on my DSi back in 2012. I had no clue it had a remaster with voice over!
This is a REALLY good video and is by far the simplest and most digestible way i've seen japanese "swearing" described
Super curious about the spoiler-heavy noteworthy things about the translation. Is there an interview or something similar that covers it?
Wonderful video
Some day I'd like to make a video about the ending-based spoilers just because there are multiple really interesting translation ending-twist problems and solutions they had to work around. The one that Bateman and Nakayama bring up repeatedly in interviews (like this one: web.archive.org/web/20170412015548/www.technologytell.com/gaming/110470/999-and-zero-escape-virtues-last-reward-interview-aksys-gets-things-done/ ) goes as follows:
999 ENDING SPOILER EXPLANATION
>For 999, I played a good chunk of it before I started to localize and the process was very smooth. But I remember the moment I finished the game I was more than half way through translating, and I saw the big ending about door 9. The plot was a Japanese pun! I remember the minute I saw that I thought FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF and I got up, looked at Ben, and said, “Uh oh…”
In Japanese, the word for "9" is pronounced "kyu" - which is the same pronunciation as the Latin Alphabet letter "Q". In order for the whole "seek a door with a q/9" twist to work, they came up with the solution where instead of having Zero announce the rules of the game over the intercom, they inserted a new graphic and rewrote the story to where the instructions are given over paper, and the characters read that they have to "seek a door with a [q]/[9]".
@@Aquason The link is dead :(
Hmmm.
web.archive.org/web/20170412015548/www.technologytell.com/gaming/110470/999-and-zero-escape-virtues-last-reward-interview-aksys-gets-things-done/
The link works when I paste it, but for some reason youtube is adding a "%29" to the end of the link when I click it. Try pasting it if this doesn't work for you.
@@Aquason Could you explain this a little further? How would saying "seek a door with a 9" convey that it also should be q? Im I forgetting a plotline or something? Is it hexidecimals?
@Tahsin Choudhury In the original Japanese, "Zero" tells the players over the intercom "Seek a door with a "kyu". - this could be either the Japanese word for "9" or the Latin alphabet letter "q". This is a big plot twist at the end, because they realize that the final door they're at isn't a "9" door at all, it's a "q" door. The characters realize he meant "q" ("kyu") not "9" ("kyu)". In order for this twist and reveal to work, the translators came up with the idea to rewrite the story and have that instruction appear in writing, so a lowercase 'q' can look like a '9'.
I’m slowly working my way through the Detective Conan anime (Case Closed), which has so many episodes you end up watching a lot of different fansubs from different people. The ones that flub the appropriate register and have the protagonist in a family cartoon say ‘shit!’ because he says ‘kuso’ in Japanese are hilarious for all the wrong reasons
Very nice video! I really enjoyed 999 and a big reason for that was the way the characters are written. I've never really put much thought into it, but the precise use of swearing does do a lot for the characterization!
Really interesting video. Good job. The swearing is so natural and seamless that you'll quickly buy into it even if you might be caught off-guard at the beginning. It's never out of place. The characters all have their personalities and the way they talk reflects that.
Fantastic video!!!! Would you mind doing a video covering the more spoilery aspects of 999's translation? I'd love to see it!!!
Edit: Another example of how hires aren't indicative of video quality. I have no idea how this only has 3.2k views. _Seriously_ looking forward to your growth, keep at it man!!
Never in my life would I have thought there is such linguistic depth in swear words. From the first 3 minutes alone i am so enthralled by this video! You have done a fantastic work in your analysis, this is a joy to watch
I always enjoyed how the swearing felt "natural" but never understood that the reasons for that fact being related to register and genre norms. Great video!
Awesome video-essay. Loved the presentation and your consideration on discussing this without spoiling the game. Keep it up! :D
to anyone who is now interested in playing 999 after watching this video: play the ds version. in order of preference- ds/3ds, emulated on handheld device, emulated on pc (really get to know your emulators settings though). the nonary games/"remastered" version (where most of the footage in this video comes from) obviously looks terrible compared to the ds game, but it also has to change the very essence of the game to make up for the jump from dual screen to single screen, and that change involved MAJOR sacrifices to the impact of the story and mechanics. the nonary games version exists as a way for old fans to experience the game with voice acting, thats IT. just 🏴☠️ the ds version, you'll probably be buying the nonary games anyway since that also includes the sequel
though i will say, if youre impatient an emulator with a fast forward option may be your best bet. the text speed is agonizing 😩
I got asked what fuck means in a room of Slavic immigrants once. That might be one of the hardest words we have to defign. I mean it means to have sex with something but that's rarely the actual implication.
Thank you for making this video because it's the one that finally pushed me to check this series off my backlog!!!
FANTASTIC VIDEO! I love how you brought up swearing as characterization, as it's a really underrated tool of writing. speech patterns in general are really fun to play around with!
i appreciate the time and care that went into this. i hope to see more work like this from you going forward!
I'd love to see a video with spoilers about what else is fantastic in the 999 localization. I'm not a native speaker, so I haven't really noticed any of this, but it is incredibly interesting.
Really interesting linguistic analysis! (Thanks for providing those sources too!)
I love visual novels AND thriller-mysteries, but haven’t played 999 yet - I appreciate you taking the pains to not spoil the story!
It sounds like a great game, and I’d love to give it a try! :D
Yeah, translating can be rough.
Very random example, but in the Henry Stickmin game, there's a character that says "tight", but like the "yeah bro, that's tight" kind of "tight", and in the Japanese subtitles, they translate it to きつい, which literally means "tight", as in "this lid is screwed on tight".
きつい could also mean "difficult" or "intense", but that's not what the original "tight" means anyway.
Then again, the subtitles are a mod. It could hardly be called professional work.
Fascinating video, I always wonder how much I miss out on due to not being able to understand the source material. Thank you for bridging that gap a little bit.
When I see a 999/ZE video in my recommended I have to click instantly. This was a super interesting analysis. I never really thought about the swearing in this game because it feels so natural, especially given the situation they’re in. It’s also funny seeing the swear counts (I think Dio beats out Santa slightly?).
Wonderful video! I'd LOVE to know the spoiler-heavy parts though. >:D As someone who "localizes" songs (English covers), it's nice to see other examples of swearing being great when used in the right contexts!
Thank you. A lot of people have said they wanted to learn more about the more spoiler-heavy translation challenges and solutions, so I'm planning to eventually get to that. Also, wow, I just checked out your channel. Your translated covers are great and I'm watching your "Writing English lyrics to God-ish" video, and it's really interesting to see your thought process/interpretation. (Incidentally, a video on translations of lyrics/verse/poetry was on my shortlist)
Really appreciate this, especially since there's no way that this is monetized. And there's not enough localization appreciation, even among linguistics related channels I follow.
I love 999, really interesting video. Don't usually think too much about the quality of translations unless it's obviously bad so cool to see it looked at closely. Ngl I was disappointed when the video ended wanted to see more about the translation, just shows you made a good video lol.
Thank you for making this video and taking a fat shit on the people who have tried to take a fat shit on the localization team who did fantastic work with 999.
Never even heard of 999, but this video seemed so interesting i had to click on it. This sort of way that culture is influenced by language and vice versa is something i absolutely love thinking about, keep up the great work!
I think it also depeneds on the target language itself. In English, Ryuji Sakamoto isn't really vulgar like the students and staff portray him as. He sticks to "shit," "damn," "goddammit," and "crap," which while it certainly marks him as informal and carefree, it doesn't really make him sound menacing. He has one instance of "fuck," at least in vanilla P5 (still need to play Royal), and that's in a text message so it's not even voiced. However, in Spanish (it's a European translation but judging by how Impmon says "maldición" and "mierda" at one point in the Mexican dub of Digimon Tamers, I'd expect the same following thing if it were localized somewhere in LatAm) he swears CONSTANTLY and with some harsher words compared to English. We don't have "fuck" in Spanish the same way we have it in English, but let me tell you that most words he uses-coño, cojones, mierda, puto, joder-would absolutely be translated as such. I was actually laughing my ass off when I tried P5R out a bit ago because he was just a stream of vulgarity. I couldn't tell you why swearing is seemingly more permissable in Spanish-speaking countries since I was born in the U.S, but I figured I should share that. This doesn't mean you curse around your parents, for anyone wondering.
As a student of Japanese and song translator, I absolutely love this video. Haven't even reached the end yet but felt compelled to write this comment. I wish there was more content on TH-cam about Japanese translation.
this video is absolutely stellar, i'm excited to see more localization content from this channel!! i'd love to see a video about the more spoiler-y aspects of 999's localization :-)
The little nuances of localization are always so fascinating, especially with a game as good as 999. Fantastic video!
This video made me play 999, and I came back to find it after I finished (just now). I now am absolutely ravenous for more analysis of this script and would love to hear the spoilery bits discussed!
My favorite translation of kuso is in the opening of One Punch Man, where Saitama exclaims, "Kusotareeeee!" which I saw translated as, "God Fucking Dammit!" Considering context, extreme frustration after once again one-shotting a terrifying monster, tone, screaming, and camera movement, slam cutting to a raised and zoomed out framing, it fits perfectly.
Hey, good job avoiding showing spoilers during that scene where Lotus says "fuck". Almost didn't catch that!
This was a suprisingly educational video on some DS game I never heard of. Learning the difference between Japanese linguistics and English phonetics was really fascinating.
This was such a great video! I'm always so interested in linguistic comparisons between Japanese & English & their social connotations, so to see the original japanese dialogue contrasted and explained thoroughly with the chosen translation was so great. I would love to see your localization lens for the 999 ending someday, but I understand the hesitation to accidentally spoil someone. As it is now, this video actually answered a lot of questions ive had for a long time about "swearing" in Japanese, and i really appreciate the graphics you included too! Super informative stuff, and so much more fun to learn about with 999 as the focusing lense. Cheers!
Very nice explanation and use of references. I've never heard of 999 before, but I appreciate the lack of spoilers you gave for the game. Given your praise for it, I'll be sure to check it out
I came into this video thinking it could be some kind of joke, and it turned out to be soper good wtf????
Great video man
what an absurdly underrated channel you are. wonderful video essay
This is a very well put together video! I never paid attention to 999's language, but in hindsight, it really was a great script and localisation. Thanks for putting it into words for me.
Amazing video! Please keep this up.
I would be really interested in the localisation lense on "Ace Attorney". As far as I know, it was adapted to the western audiences very radically, but I cant really check for myself with my barely-N5 skill issue.
Ace Attorney is a fantastic series with a ton of really interesting localization and translation decisions. I'd love to write/make a video about some of the things that really stand out about the translation to me, and I have a pretty substantial list of ideas (The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles using UK natives to translate the game to match the Sherlock Holmes-period setting, name translation in Ace Attorney, legal jargon). If I ever make any videos on it, it will probably take me quite a while for me to make it through my shortlist, so in the meantime, I can recommend these articles:
news.capcomusa.com/zeroobjections/blog/2014/11/21/%0blocalization-and-ace-attorney
blog.playstation.com/2021/06/30/inside-capcoms-localization-of-the-great-ace-attorney-chronicles/
localireview.blogspot.com/2015/03/episode-1-first-turnabout-defendant.html
I want to sincerely thank you for making this video. Because of it, I gave the first game a try and really enjoyed it, and am looking forward to playing the rest of the series.
I was excited to see a video with Santa and a big FUCK on the thumbnail, but now I'm ELATED to see you have a YTTD video too, definitely gonna watch it after this one, hehehe...
As someone with no linguistics background, this was really accessible and surprisingly interesting! Hope your channel blows up soon, keep up the good work
This channel is a gem
today YT has shown me something I never thought I wanted, great vid
currently writing a fangame (not for 999, tho I've been a fan for a long time) and the characters swear a lot, so this analysis was a great breakdown of how to do it properly! thanks!
Not what I was expecting to stumble on today but I'm glad I did.
This game deserves these types of case studies, great work!
Excellent video, very in dept and educational and with a very simple and easy way to explain. Not to mention you avoided spoilers for such a gem of a series that is best experienced without them, so double points for that.
oh damn, i just finished a replay of 999! i’ve heard about japanese not having swears before (from clyde mandelin’s blog and from other places) so i was curious the translators’ mindsets in using it when and how they did. glad this showed up in my recommended!
i’m gonna have to check out that ben bateman interview for sure-every time i learn more about this game’s localization, i’m blown away
As a translator working for a fan group and trying to become more professional rn, this vid was such eye opener. I recently came across a line that could translate to "Your making a big mistake", "I'll fuck you up", or "I'll rape you". I was struggling for a while to think which line to pick when looking at the situation the characters are in but after watching this vid, I was able to finally make a decision. Also when I saw that fan translated DBZ manga u showed, I died a little inside seeing such a rookie mistake lol
The fact that I IMMEDIATELY stopped what I was doing and watched all of it. In less than a day. Thank you!!!!
999 was one of my first vis novels and I've been hooked on vis novels ever since
Loved playing 999 back in the day, and I wonder if the sequels have any interesting localization stories to them.
Also, would love to see more videos on other games with famous/infamous localizations. Perhaps the Trails series might be worth a look? Their scripts are incredibly long, had its localization company change (between Trails of Cold Steel 2 and 3), and also had a fan translation that was so good that the official company decided to work with them to make an actual release (Trails from Zero and Trails to Azure).
I remember there were some "liberties" taken with some of the localization that wasn't in the original in all of these. Off the top of my head, "try a salad sometime" in Trails from Zero.
Ah, Trails - I've watched an incomplete lets play of Trails in the Sky, and read a bit about some of its translation history (I can recall some tidbits like how every NPCs dialogue changes over the course of the game, or how the English version added unique chest opening text). I'll add that to my list of things to check out, but since I haven't gone through any of the Trails games in full myself (and ideally, if/when I make any future videos, I want them to have a good focus on a language or translation concept), I can't promise anything because I'd want to make sure I've done a lot of research and have a good, strong, idea to talk about.
That is really interesting stuff! Helps me to appreciate how much work goes into a good translation. It's not just a good understanding of both languages but also both cultures and varying contexts.
Leaving a comment for the algorithm since its criminal that a video so high effort doesn't get the success it deserves.
Its very rare then when swears and slures are added to media especially translated ones that feel natural and 999 does it so well even tho their is alot of swearing who does it and how often and when they do it feels very in character
Absolutely phenomenal video, two niche things I enjoy combined into one video, looking forward to future content!
Not necessarily localization as I believe it was written (at least mostly) in English but Disco Elysium is a fantastic game which imo is able to use language and descriptions in a very unique way. There’s so much charm in how they are able to describe almost mundane things in such creative ways. And the way the skills work is that they are all different voices in your head that talk to you, each of them has a lot of character and personality through their dialogue, register and vocabulary. The game right now is in a bit of a legal limbo with lawsuits and drama but imo it doesn’t detract from the immense artistic value the game holds. Would absolutely recommend!
This is the second video I've stumbled upon about 999's translation, and I'm now convinced the people who localized this game are genius'. So much thought and card was put into every piece of the script, it's incredible
Localizing Japanese VN is so fucking hard especially when you take into account Japanese jokes, rhymes, concepts, word puns and ofcourse the politeness level you mentioned.
That's why I'm glad the localization teams change the story around a small bit so it can be understood by people that aren't native to Japan, Ace Attourney's localization is also quite hilarious.
Wow, awesome video! I feel like I really learned a lot about the translation process for these games in addition to basic linguistic concepts. It's amazing being a fan of this game after so many years and still seeing new and interesting things to say about it :}
What a great video to randomly appear in my recommended, two topics I'm extremely interested in: 999 and localisation. I even wrote my uni dissertation on localisation in games and focused on VLR! I found the cockney robot a fascinating choice
this fucking rules, i second the people who’d love a localization deep dive into the spoilery aspects too
Really interesting video! Your explanations are well-thought out and easily understandable! I'm a huge fan of the Nonary Games and never thought about the use of profanity in its dialogue until now. Good stuff!
I think this video put into succinct words why the Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood English dub worked so well for me. Everything and everyone _tonally_ fit right.
What a wonderful video! Also, if there's enough material for a spoiler-ful follow-up, I'd be fascinated to get a look at some of the other translation decisions that went into this game!
This is incredibly helpful as a wannabe writer - thank you!
In Germany, Swearing also worked differently when i grew up. A lot of USK-6 movies casually use 'Scheiße'.
Swearing is such a fun thing to talk about. In Danish, a common one you'll hear is "for satan", which would directly translate to "by satan". It is roughly conveing that this thing that is happening is so inconvenient, annoying or damaging that it has to be the work of satan himself, but the closest english equivalent both in terms of subject and impoliteness would be "dam". So a direct translation of the meaning would be "by the work of satan", while one trying to convey the mood would be "satans doing".
Thank you for this amazing video!! The linguistics student in me was smiling the whole time :]
This makes sense of a lot. I can't recall any examples, but I remember a bunch of talk about characters being highly regarded as well written, but conversations about them were full of "yeah, but they're totally not supposed to be this angry. They weren't in the original."
This explains a large part of why even high quality translations don't feel right, even when they're literally correct.
9:35 The Funyarinpa!