[curiosity] Errors in VNs

[Silvz]

Hey peeps!

I was reading Dal Segno and in a few lines, there is a problem on the text that I believe is related to "%". And a few days ago, someone posted an image of the protagonist saying he didn't have a computer while there was one in the BG:

That made me think: do other VNs have such problems?

So guys, let me ask you: Have you ever find a mistake in a VN? Doesn't matter if it is silly, like the ones from Dal Segno, or screwed up ones, like having the wrong character sprite appearing on a scene, or backgrounds that don't match the description, etc.

Edited July 27, 2017 by Silvz

[Ryechu]

Sometimes the writers of the game never see the CG until after they've wrote the game, and this can lead to inconsistencies when translated directly (and, since I don't want to start that argument, just know that if people want a literal translation, they will get it, even if it doesn't match what's going on). This happens a number of times in Shadows of Pygmalion, especially when it came to describing (spoiler)

Girl A (whose name is literally "Girl A"). They refer to her doll-like face as being cracked and the like, when the sprite/bg shows absolutely none of that. I remember complaining about this quite a bit, though it ultimately didn't affect my enjoyment of the game.

These sorts of inconsistencies do occur when the writers and artists aren't working together, and since creative rewrites are often looked down upon, they just remain there.

[littleshogun]

About the inconsistencies, I did also talk about blue and green eyes in regard of DD's eyes at Chrono Clock here. Although I did say that it might be because Japanese people was called green as blue. Although in the end it didn't matter much though in my opinion, because so far I wasn't met any mistake in regard of that (Or I just chose to ignore that). That's all that I could say here.

[Dreamysyu]

4 hours ago, Ryechu said:

This happens a number of times in Shadows of Pygmalion

Yeah, I remember this. It kind of bothered me, but not much.

Another one I can remember was in the first chapter of Higurashi, at least with the PS2 patch. Keichi clearly says that there's no phone in his room, but there is one in the background.

I think, many VNs have inconsistencies like that, but they are sometimes not so apparent.

[fun2novel]

Most of the time the CGs or the backgrounds don't really reflect what is happening in reality. They are there to give you an idea. In most vns you'll see an image of one thing while the text says something else entirely. Like an image of some people holding hands but the text already moved on to describe how the characters slap each other. It's annoying but every vn does that.

Edited July 27, 2017 by fun2novel

[Dergonu]

It would make the art costs for all VNs skyrocket, if every CG needed to reflect exactly what the text was saying at all times.

[fun2novel]

5 minutes ago, Dergonu said:

It would make the art costs for all VNs skyrocket, if every CG needed to reflect exactly what the text was saying at all times.

Sure, but that wasn't my point. If the text is describing one thing but the CG shows another it is very distracting and makes the reader too conscious. It's best to stop showing the CG as soon as the text changes to something else.

[Dergonu]

9 minutes ago, fun2novel said:

Sure, but that wasn't my point. If the text is describing one thing but the CG shows another it is very distracting and makes the reader too conscious. It's best to stop showing the CG as soon as the text changes to something else.

I disagree. I think a CG helps paint the initial picture of the scene, then you can use that as a base to let your imagination + the writing do the rest. As the text changes, you still have that initial image of what was going on, and you can now more easily picture the rest of the scene unfolding.

In my opinion, that's what a CG is supposed to do.

[Dreamysyu]

6 minutes ago, fun2novel said:

Sure, but that wasn't my point. If the text is describing one thing but the CG shows another it is very distracting and makes the reader too conscious. It's best to stop showing the CG as soon as the text changes to something else.

Even worse when CGs spoil the events that come several lines after they appear. I usually don't care when CGs don't follow the text very closely, but these moments usually irritate me.

[fun2novel]

1 hour ago, Dergonu said:

I disagree. I think a CG helps paint the initial picture of the scene, then you can use that as a base to let your imagination + the writing do the rest. As the text changes, you still have that initial image of what was going on, and you can now more easily picture the rest of the scene unfolding.

In my opinion, that's what a CG is supposed to do.

Well that's fine if you think so but I think it's just distracting. Most people can't look at one thing and read another and form a good image in their minds. Have you ever played Dies irae or Chaos;Head? Come back when you do, lol.

[TexasDice]

 

[Okarin]

Because these are low-key VNs 

[Zakamutt]

I've seen this kind of thing in Little Busters as well, and I wonder if it's because of some ambiguity in the fapanese (maybe 晴れ?). I remember fred saying he'd actually made the same mistake himself, too.

Also low budget stuff where there aren't enough HCGs to show the progression of the actual written scene are the worst. That's usually cost cutting rather than downright errors though, as said earlier in the thread.

[EastCoastDrifter]

The only mistakes I've noticed in VNs are a couple of minor grammar errors and typos. I don't recall ever seeing mistakes related to CG consistency, but then again, I was too immersed in the story to even notice.

[Darklord Rooke]

2 hours ago, Zakamutt said:

It's not cloud, mate. It's smoke  

 

[Silvz]

I must say I agree about Pygmalion, mainly because the dolls cracking were a constant feature in the story, but it was never shown in the CGS nor the sprites.

[Albedo]

Not CG related, but Flowers has plenty of mistakes. They get practically everything about catholicism wrong (which covers from background information to the answer to a question in one of the detective sections) which is kinda funny when the whole VN takes place in a catholic high-school. Still a good VN though.

[MercyZombie]

KiraKira has several of these small mistakes but the most noticeable is that they keep referring to Kirari's hair as being black

(They also don't ever mention her iconic hair ornament but I guess that is more of an omission than an actual error)

[ittaku]

In Clover Day's while I was translating the twins' route, Hekiru and Hikaru are sometimes clearly mistaken by the original author in Japanese. Since we have to go over some of this stuff with a fine tooth comb checking what the hell we're writing as translation reflects what's going on, it was clear that there were 2 or 3 times (IIRC) where they said Hekiru and meant Hikaru or vice versa.