Recent reviews by BeavisOfArabia

Another Atelier game with terrible localization. TECMO, I really hope for future releases you manage to find a good localization team for once - or replace them with AI if they can't be bothered to do their job. I'm in no mood to list examples after seeing the sheer amount of omitted/badly translated/mischaracterizing dialogue presented to me in not only this entry, but every single one of them. For shame.

The game is great, the port sucks, and the localization... It's just terrible. Could they have bothered to put in any effort to make the characters say what they're saying instead of something they made up off the top of their head? I can't count the amount of times I've read 1 word responses for someone that just gave me a whole spiel, or a character clearly saying something they didn't say in the Japanese script. Pathetic.

The one's responsible for the English localization of the game - NekoNyan Ltd. - has disappointed me. If you intend to translate or localize something, do it properly. Stop altering, omitting, or adding extra unnecessary dialogue that was not present in the source material.

From the get go, you encounter criminals, ones that spew vulgarities practically every single line, despite the fact that none of them actually do so. Then, there's the extra pieces of dialogue the localizers sprinkled in not in the original script, such as: "Like stealing candy from a baby!", "I know for a damn fact these things could sell for way more!", and possibly many more throughout the rest of the game. It doesn't help that these so called "criminals" speak like they're Californians. "Um, like, uh, GOD, I'D LOVE TO HAVE ASTRAL ABILITIES!". ...What? Are these really the same grunts committing theft? They sound so feminine, it makes me wonder how they'd end up in a situation where they're committing crimes in the first place.

After the thugs, you're now in a room with a girl, and this is where you can see - or hear rather - the localizers deliberately omit information from dialogue. There is a line where she says "Yes. So get up." in response to the protagonist realizing that he has remedial classes. In the original Japanese script, what she more or less actually says is "If you understand that, then get up. Just how long are you planning on sleeping in?".

I can bring up many more examples of these issues, but I think this is enough. If you're intending to buy this, just be sure to take what each character is saying with a grain of salt.

退屈なクソゲー

I can't recommend this to English speakers who prefer a faithful translation over localization. Be wary of the Americanization of the dialogue. None of the character's speak the way they do in the original Japanese script. One example I will bring up is the expression used by Lent when he speaks to Claudia's father, "Ojamashimasu" - which I will point out is a polite phrase used when you're a guest in/entering someone's home. The English version translates this as "Hey, what's up?".

This type of butchering is completely unacceptable, and I will go far as to say is character assassination. If you have a good enough understanding of the Japanese language to pick apart where the localization team have failed, you'll probably have a much more enjoyable(or frustrating) time with this game. That is, unless if you're an American/Californian, then you'd probably prefer it this way.

Edit: Earlier today while playing the game, I have noticed an obvious mistranslation where Ryza says "is she okay?" as opposed to "will she be okay?" or "I wonder if she'll be alright?" in Jonna's quest completion dialogue. Later on, "Ointment" is translated as "Pain killers". Some materials are even named incorrectly. A piece of log is called a "tree"(Fragrant Honey Tree - as opposed to Fragrant Honey Log). Ryza isn't carrying an entire tree in her backpack - hilarious imagining it though lol. Shame on the English translation team for not being able to even translate something so simple.

One final point I have to bring up once again is to be wary, there's way too many drastic changes in the dialogue. None of the things they say are 1:1, sometimes even completely different. The translation is on par with the 4Kids Pokemon translation - if you remember the infamous scene where Onigiri is translated as Jelly donuts(lol).

eh

Beyond the cute aesthetic, it's an absolutely frustrating Puzzle game. Not because it's difficult, but because once you figure out the general idea of the solution and put it into motion, you need to make sure the objects you've placed on the level are practically pixel perfect or you'll fail. This wouldn't have been that much of an issue if there was some sort of rewind mechanic, faster play speed, or even something as simple as decreasing the margin of error so this doesn't even happen in the first place. Seeing my character walk up to a ball, throw it at such a slow speed off the level, and then resetting the puzzle to move each object a literal centimetre for the thousandth time is not fun. I can guarantee that you'll burst a blood vessel at some point from how ridiculously accurate the game wants you to be with the solutions.

Worth it, especially for Castlevania 3, the best NES Castlevania I've ever played. Really unfortunate Grant never made a reappearance as a side character.

Would not recommend this without a hefty discount, especially with its sub-par translation that aims to kill the mood, alongside achievement and other pop-ups that aren't disabled by default nor prompted to be upon first launch(?).

There is substantial amount of unnecessary swearing, which is further ruined by not including an option to censor them. Many other issues include: Dialogue that is spoken in English is written in Spanish(e.g when a character's voice actor says "Thank you!", it'll be written as "Gracias amigo!" - whoever thought that was a good idea should be slapped, as there are several moments where English words are spoken by characters. Another example is when "Love and Spanner" is translated to "Emour et Cle". This is extremely unnecessary. This issue has 1 or 2 exceptions), the Dangopedia feature is usually alright, however, has some issues(see how "Kachikachi Yama" is explained, it'll give you a migraine once you reach towards the end), and of course you have many mistranslations("Is that okay with you?" translated to "Are you alright?", "Seriously?" translated to "What have I done...", "Ousama game"(King Game) translated to "Truth or Dare", etc.) additionally, there are some errors where dialogue doesn't make any sense e.g "Nagisa-chan can very clumsy at things", and finally, you have dialogue attributed to the wrong person in some cases.

I'll close this off by saying I don't think I'll be supporting any other translations by the people who have worked on this visual novel, very disappointed to see the sheer amount of laziness and failure to strive for accuracy in translation.

P.S. There are some cases where the translator uses all caps to add emphasis. This is a terrible way of emphasizing text. Worst of all, it is used very liberally. Just terrible. What a way to spoil the mood of someone who's absorbed into what they are reading.

Good stuff.