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Showing content with the highest reputation on 06/22/17 in all areas

  1. Dergonu
    EDIT: Right now there is a new pass being made to the translation, so there is hope after all. For more details, check out the game's kickstarter page. I know there are already several posts talking about the translation of this game on the forum, but some people might have missed them, as the bulk of the posts were made some time ago, so I figured a new thread might be in order, now that the game is out for everyone. I have been reading the game for about 2 hours now, comparing the JP lines to the English translations as I read. This translation is very literal, to the point where the English sentences often make little to no sense. The biggest issue seems to be that the translator transliterated everything. It seems like he/she just looked at the Japanese line, and word by word, translated everything directly into an English sentence as is, without any re-wording, giving no thought to how the line would flow in English. And the result is... terrible. From what I can tell, the translator has not made any rookie JP mistakes, like mistaking particles etc, (though keep in mind I could only go by the voiced lines and not the narrated ones, as I do not have the Japanese script in front of me.) That being said, an "accurate" translation doesn't really mean much when the English is barely comprehensible as a result. A few examples of what you will see in the translation: (Decay also posted some examples last month, which you can see here.) Screenshots: You also have things like this: This is an official localization, and yet it reads like a bad fan TL. We should not be okay with this. Many of us paid money for this. From what I can tell, the translation's accuracy is not the issue, but the translator's lack of English knowledge is. A proper editing pass and some QCing could fix 90% of the issues in this translation. We should all, (in a calm manner, of course,) ask Mikandi to do something about this. Whether they will actually listen to us or not is hard to say, but I'd like to think they will. Their PR has been on point through the entire campaign, (they were logged into this forum just last night, showing that they are checking the threads about their game frequently) and if enough people voice their complaints about the translation, I hope they will look into doing something about it. Tweet them, comment on their kickstarter page if you are a backer or post on their website. Make your stance on the TL known. If one person complains, nothing will happen, but if everyone does, it's going to be hard for Mikandi to ignore us. With their prevoiusly open attitude towards the community, I'd like to think they will listen. So, for the moment, my recommendation is that you do not buy this game. Wait and see if they will do something about our concerns first. Hopefully they will listen and do something about the TL. If you buy the game now in its current state, just be warned: it's not very good, and you might come to regret your decision.
    5 points
  2. Decay
    Well, like I said, this is uncharacteristic even for a VN with "only" one pass. This should not be blamed on the lack of additional passes, because that would imply that it would be okay with those passes. This is a fundamentally bad translation, and not something you'd want to build off of. It showcases a lack of ability on the part of the translators. And the whole reason Mikandi couldn't afford additional passes in the first place is because the translators grossly overcharged them. The way a professional VN translation usually works is: Step 1: Translation. Simple enough. They translate the text and that's it. There is usually only one translator but occasionally there are multiple, working on different parts of the script. Most professional VN companies trust the translators they hire and do not extensively check their work the way many fan translation projects do. Step 2: Editing. The role of editor varies company to company, script to script. In some places, they are primarily proofreaders, and in other places they work the prose more extensively. And some scripts absolutely require extensive reworking (though ideally, VN companies avoid hiring translators who would write translations that require that). Editors tend to get paid a good deal less than translators. Step 3: Testing. Again, this varies company to company. Some use testers as proofreaders, others just want them to make sure the program runs bug-free. Testers tend to get paid peanuts. Almost literally. That's about it. You don't have translators making multiple passes, improving the translation with every step, that just doesn't happen in most cases. In most professional VN translations, the finished script will look very similar to the raw translation, unless something went horribly wrong in the translation phase. If the raw translation reads horribly, then you have a bad translator. I'd say that the only cases where there are multiple real translation passes are cases like Flowers, where the company realizes the translation is fucked and scrambles to fix it. The translation budget laid out by MIkandi Japan suggests a 9.5 yen per Japanese character total cost for the translation (before it was cut down to one pass). This is maybe two to three times what some of the highest-paying VN companies might pay for translation/editing/etc. That itself isn't all that bad, since VN translation pays a pittance compared to the rest of professional game translation, but when you offer quality that is dramatically lower than the competition while charging multiple times more for your work, there's a big fucking problem. (also, for the record, around 10 yen per Japanese character translated is what a company like Square Enix or Nintendo might pay a translator for their raw translation.) (also also, for the record, what 7 Happy Creations was charging for their third pass just might be more than what MangaGamer pays a translator for their raw translation, to give you an idea of how outside the norm these guys were charging.) tl;dr: This translation blows. Raw translation is not supposed to look like this. 7 Happy Creations are scammers. Mikandi Japan are saps for falling for it.
    5 points
  3. Yuuko
    not wrong but not quite right
    5 points
  4. Flutterz

    Reading Ginharu Very Slowly #8

    Zakamutt and 2 others reacted to Flutterz for a blog entry

    After much deliberation, we get Bethly's answer! Later that day Yukito talks to his dad and step-mom Skip to the end of the year This seems like a pretty good stopping point for now :^)
    3 points
  5. Decay
    They need to define "translation passes," because most professional VN translations have only one translation pass. Did that mean no editing, either? It doesn't matter, though, because here's the deal: No good translation has ever looked like how this translation looks like at ANY stage. This isn't a case of it being unfinished, this is a case of the people involved having no idea what they're doing. They should never have been allowed to translate this to begin with. If the extra passes were to be performed by these guys, then I highly doubt it would turn out much better anyway. Either way, it seems like 7 Happy Creations, the translation firm they hired for this project, borderline scammed Mikandi Japan. They charged an excessive premium for their services (WAY more than any other VN TL company), while having little to no experience and absolutely no talent for this. edit: I'd also like to point out that "Yakkety yak yak" is an acceptable alternative to "bla bla bla" and such.
    3 points
  6. Dergonu

    New to VN's

    DarkZedge and one other reacted to Dergonu for a topic

    OP, note that this is sarcasm. See this thread for info on why. Hmm, have you checked out the 50 translated VNs you should read before you die thread? Lots of great VN recommendations for beginners there. My personal recommendations would be Grisaia no Kajitsu and Eden*.
    2 points
  7. Serimorph
    I made it about 2 hours before I had to stop. It's like they forgot to edit the translation and released it as is or something. I thought I was losing my mind with weird phrases such as "A stomach bam" but it just keeps getting weirder until I found myself actually angry at how confused this was making me. With a fixed script this game could be great but as it is, yeah don't buy it for sure.
    2 points
  8. Saggz
    I am about four hours into this game, reading at a regular pace. I can't believe the awful quality of the translation. It reminds me of the game Flyable Heart, which had a machine translation patch released that was so bad, they completely removed it from VNDB. I checked out Flyable Heart years ago but when playing Libra of the Vampire Princess, it reminded me of that game for the first time in years. I feel like I was cheated $40. With translation quality like this, the price should only be $20 at most. It would be fair if that was the case but the price is twice as much. The translation isn't nearly as bad as Flyable Heart but it's still all over the place and really difficult to understand. It gives me a headache on some parts because there are sentences that are translated correctly one minute and the next minute there are strange pronunciation and grammar and to be honest, it doesn't even feel like I'm reading English. I am by no means an expert of the English language and I guarantee some of my posts have weird grammar or something similar but I am left completely and utterly baffled by the quality of this translation, which I have been looking forward to since they released the Kickstarter. I understand it was a huge project but if you didn't plan on doing a quality translation then you should have cut the price in half at least. I know I'm not the only one who notices this, but it seems like it was translated to English by a Japanese person who was born and grew up in Japan and only has a basic understanding of English. You can tell by reading it that there was a language barrier there and it shows in the translation. Honestly, if it wasn't for this, I would rate the game 10/10 but since the translation is so poor, the most I can give it is an 8. While the game is still very much enjoyable and it is possible to understand. The parts that have bad translation do make sense after you read a certain portion of it but the fact that I have to put effort into understanding it is just something that shouldn't happen when I pay $40 for an ENGLISH visual novel. @MiKandi Japan - If you are planning on doing another English visual novel translation, I HIGHLY recommend hiring someone with better English skills. I always got average marks in English, nothing special but I had an average of about 70% and even with that average skill, I could have easily put the sentences together much better. The way some parts are put together, it's like one of those word problems that you only understand after a majority of the pieces are revealed to you. I guarantee many people will agree with this but let me make this clear, I still am enjoying this game but I just think it's only worth half of what I paid. I bet a ton of work and hours went into translation and of course it is worth paying for but only $20 at most because of the poor translation quality. It's possible it's just because it's MiKandi's first English visual novel, but I hope they learn their lesson from this screw up. PS - If you don't agree with me, that's fine. This review is just my point of view and my opinion, although I guarantee it is shared by many people. I am just giving people a heads up. I will still read the entire thing since I paid for it but the most I can give it is 8/10 on VNDB.
    2 points
  9. Adorabear
    2 points
  10. Darklord Rooke
    Steam - most people who value translation quality know to stay away, which is why you're left with a mere 7ish reviews on the Steam page. Kickstarter - I loaded up the page and was confronted with complaints about technical issues. My guess would be 'one thing at a time' [sarcasm] I love the practice of keeping romanised Japanese words in the script and putting the translation in brackets, that's just genius. They should have done it all like that [/sarcasm]
    1 point
  11. Riku

    Reading Ginharu Very Slowly #8

    Flutterz reacted to Riku for a blog entry

    I started monday (so the day after your post). Made a post in the untranslated topic. (though I'm bad with giving my opinion, so nothing much) I have so many other VNs to read, but I'm influenced so easily. And the onomatopoeia thing got me, I guess.
    1 point
  12. Jun Inoue
    1 point
  13. Riku

    Reading Ginharu Very Slowly #8

    Flutterz reacted to Riku for a blog entry

    Just finished Bethly's route. Thanks for giving me the push I needed to start reading it! (was scared by the length of the VN, but reading your posts made me want to read it)
    1 point
  14. FruitsPunchSamurai
    1 point
  15. Narcosis
    I lol'd.
    1 point
  16. Asonn

    New to VN's

    HMN reacted to Asonn for a topic

    Libra of the Vampire Princess just released. an amazing experience everyone should try.
    1 point
  17. Crusher
    I believe I know why this game has a poor translation and the reason being that they lowered their initial base goal due to the feedback that they got. When they first announced they were going to crowdfund Libra they said it would be 170K but they got a lot of people saying that it was too high for new game released an unknown company and it might not make the goal. Mikandi Japan actually listened to this and lowered the goal to 125K but they said that because of that they were going to reduce the number of translation passes to one. Anyone who doesn't believe me can look at their prefundia page and see all the comments two years asking them to lower the goal and their announcement of their changed base goal. http://prefundia.com/projects/view/libra-of-the-vampire-princess-bishoujo-game-english-version/6962/
    1 point
  18. Infernoplex
    Been reading it a little bit, yeah, the translation is too much literal and sometimes makes no sense at all ... Also, bad grammar at times, wrong tense usage, etc. ... I mean, I can enjoy this but I don't think many will find it fun the way it is translated currently xD ... This is exactly how I imagine a Japanese person who isn't fluent in English to translate from Japanese to English ... It has all the signs of it, this VN could have used some heavy editing by a native English editor and it would look much better then.
    1 point
  19. Okarin
    If the TL is improved I will consider getting the game, even if it will cost me a fortune because of the extra 18+ patch sold separately. The game definitely seems worth it. For the moment I'll leave sleeping dogs lie. There are lots of other games that deserve more to be supported.
    1 point
  20. skrewball717
    I'm glad I was able to meet the challenge
    1 point
  21. DarkZedge

    HMN reacted to DarkZedge for a status update

    1 point
  22. seventhfonist425

    Fate/Grand Order

    Valmore reacted to seventhfonist425 for a topic

    I caved and used up all my saved up quartz. I now have a Tamamo.
    1 point
  23. Tamaki Sakura
    Please buy your visual novels. If you don't want to pay a lot (and who does?), buy them during sales. More piracy means less titles licensed.
    1 point
  24. Kenshin_sama
    Yay, Bakuman! Oh man, I love that show so much, and it gets progressively better the more you watch it. I also have a bit of a theory as to what motivated its creation, but I'll hold off on that until after you finish.
    1 point
  25. ittaku
    Started watching bakuman and after only a few episodes I love it! This is great stuff.
    1 point
  26. Kenshin_sama
    1 point
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