Eien Ni Hen wrote:
Hey guys,
I'm happy to announce that I'm nearly 2/3 of the way finished with the script. I'm also 3/4 finished with the misc. text (items, menus, etc.).
Wow, you're really moving on this one. Thank you very much for moving so quickly on this and getting so far so fast.
Eien Ni Hen wrote:
One thing I noticed is that this project will require a LOT of localization. So far, the main characters have quoted the TV shows "Kamen Rider," ""Momotaro Zamurai," and "Oedo Sosamo". Not exactly references that a non-Japanese audience will get.
You'll think I'm crazy, but some/many of those could find their way into the final release. Maybe with cultural notes about the references. Could put these in game or in the readme. I guess it'll just depend on how it flows. If it doesn't work, Westernization will be necessary, but I'll definitely try to keep what we can, where we can. I'm chuck full of ideas on this and it is one of my favorite parts of production. A great solution I've found are double references. The Japanese reference along with an equally appropriate American reference. Might sound silly but it really does work with just a bit of effort. And the fun part is, I don't think we've ever used this technique but I'm really keen on it. I've seen it done in one or two professional anime and it can be far more interesting than just translation notes for conveying an idea.
I think Bandai might not have almost lost their shirt on Lucky Star had they just thought of a way to use this idea (though using it in the dub might prove to be difficult)
Wildbill can relay a story he'd rather forget about how I insisted we keep a decidedly Japanese anecdote in Slayers because with some elbow grease it would work in English
And this is a game which I would never even personally want to play as I REALLY dislike slayers
Eien Ni Hen wrote:
There's also a few difficult Japanese/Chinese history questions during the quiz with the Sphinx in the second chapter of the game. These should probably be exchanged with US or UK history questions. I can post examples if needed.
Wow, OK now this is the place I'm really torn. If these questions prevent continuation of the game then I'm all for replacing them with questions just as equally challenging from our Culture. I guess it'll depend on scene is all I can say.
Eien Ni Hen wrote:
One thing that intrigues me about the game, as I've told filler already, is that a lot of the words in the script are part kanji and part hiragana. So, for example, instead of the standard 洞窟 (cave), you get 洞くつ. This can make it a pain to look up words I don't know, but I've only ever seen one game do this before ("Light Fantasy", I *think*), so it's certainly unique. I can't imagine it being a space-saving technique, but maybe it is?
Well Bongo` would be best equipped to handle the question of did this save space, but I have a feeling that it might have saved space by saving font tiles. Assuming those other kanji weren't in the tileset. I can't see it as a seriously good way to save space but considering how they used other techniques such as compression to save space, if the rom was full it was probably better to lose a few kanji than to go up 512kb or 1MB in storage space as that memory was expensive back in the day. Just my 2 cents that is worth far less than 2 cents
Eien Ni Hen wrote:
To Wildbill (who I assume is doing the localization/editing): Do you prefer the attack moves to be translated into English, or just romanized? So far, I've translated them where possible and romanized the ones that just sound awful in English. So for example, 百歩神拳 becomes Hyappo Shinken instead of "Hundred Walk God Fist". What do you think?
Ah, this is a good question. How much trouble would it be to have both? I'm not trying to be difficult, I'd rather decide how to handle those when we decide how Americanized the game will become during the production process. And what I mean is both for all entries. Although, If you just want to give the Americanized version, we could pull the other version from the Japanese text later if needed. So If you really would rather save yourself a bit of typing, this would also work and still be an option.
My thought process is this. We try to mostly focus our efforts one way or the other with this. As Wildbill states, we on occasion find ways to actually incorporate both though. When we do so, we usually try to pick a prominent style and then work from there to work the other in. Now, those names that do sound awful in English can always be improved. I'm not sure what kind of space we'll have for those names, but I'm sure "Hundred Walk God Fist" could be fixed into something similar that sounds more appealing. Using the Japanese names might also work if it is manageable for people to do so. This would only apply to attack names and such. Items would definitely not work this way, which I'm sure you'd agree about.
You never know, I might just be a gluten for punishment and do an anime/manga edition again (although, those names wouldn't apply here, the idea would)
/me watches as Wildbill's eyes roll back into his head.Just depends on how zealous we get around here. One being far more localized than the other. This probably won't be necessary but the game will speak volumes about what we do and how to do it. And I'll be sure to ask you for your opinions and input too, as Wildbill said above, we like to brainstorm.
One final question. Mind if we make an announcement that you've made quite significant progress on the front page of the site?