marchionessofmustache (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
marchionessofmustache) wrote2019-11-18 11:23 am
marchionessofmustache) wrote2019-11-18 11:23 am
Entry tags:
hoo boy
So I'm a bit furious with the Romancing SaGa 3 fandom hahaha.
Long ago, there was a fan translation of the SNES game. This was translated by someone who didn't know English very well and was translating from a Chinese translation into English. Needless to say, it was full of inaccuracies, awkward choices, and just plain bad translations.
Now, I'm not knocking the guy who did it. I think it's great that someone went through all that effort to make the game playable to a new audience.
But what's bad is that we have an improved version of the game with an original, more faithful, and overall VERY GOOD localization and translation.
But people are treating the fan translation as some kind of like ULTIMATE CANON to the point where they're correcting people using the official terms, confusing new players by refusing to use the official names and terms, and even claiming the more-accurate translations are censorship!
For example, there's a character I referred to in my Play Diaries as "Holy Emperor" because I was having trouble coming up with a title that didn't sound too masculine -- because she's a woman. She's been a woman from the very beginning. She's even on the FUCKING BOX ART of the original game. The fan translation calls her "King." And so people just assume that she is male and are saying the game is "pinkwashing" the "King" into a woman to appeal to the SJWs and we're getting some kind of messed up censored game.
It doesn't help that there's a very comprehensive game guide... based solely on the fan translation. And the dude who made it (who is a great dude and very helpful) is helping everyone and referring them to his site, and only using the fan translation names. Now, this is just because he doesn't have the ability to play the official remaster so this is all he knows. But it's just causing more confusion and giving these people who think the fan translation is the ONE TRUE TRANSLATION more power and I want to die.
I actually love that the fan translation exists and even moreso love all the work this guy put into his fansite/guide. But it's just the surrounding people treating these like some kind of canon works when they're a fan translation based on a fan translation based on a loose knowledge of both the original and target language.
It's one thing if people are going to be purists and go by the original Japanese stuff. I understand that, and I had my weeb days where I would never dare utter "Serena" instead of "Usagi" despite the fact that I was watching the cartoon in English on TV. I understand that mentality, even if I find it a little childish.
But a bad fan translation?????? With glaring and obvious errors????????????
Like I said, I understand if that's what you're familiar with. It's one thing to just use the names you're familiar with. But when you're correcting people and claiming censorship and etc. based on bad fan translation is alskdfjlaksdjflkasjdf
ETA:
Oh yeah, there's also instances of people just being ridiculous douchebags for NO REASON like... this guy asked if he encountered a glitch, because a quest wasn't proceeding. The reality was just that the game's obtuseness led him to not realize what was needed to move on.
Now if anyone's played a SaGa game before, you know they make very little sense and give you very little direction. Things are arbitrary and undecipherable at times. There's no problem at all with not getting what the game wants you to do because, well, it doesn't tell you.
But people are responding like 'It's not a glitch, you're just too stupid to play the game.' Like MULTIPLE people. And then when he tries to defend himself, they claim he's "spreading misinformation" about the game because he SUGGESTED it was glitched. (He literally ASKED IF IT WAS A GLITCH LOL).
And yeah, these people claiming "spreading misinformation" are also using outdated and wrong fan translation terms on the boards for the official localization and I hate everyone in the world.
Long ago, there was a fan translation of the SNES game. This was translated by someone who didn't know English very well and was translating from a Chinese translation into English. Needless to say, it was full of inaccuracies, awkward choices, and just plain bad translations.
Now, I'm not knocking the guy who did it. I think it's great that someone went through all that effort to make the game playable to a new audience.
But what's bad is that we have an improved version of the game with an original, more faithful, and overall VERY GOOD localization and translation.
But people are treating the fan translation as some kind of like ULTIMATE CANON to the point where they're correcting people using the official terms, confusing new players by refusing to use the official names and terms, and even claiming the more-accurate translations are censorship!
For example, there's a character I referred to in my Play Diaries as "Holy Emperor" because I was having trouble coming up with a title that didn't sound too masculine -- because she's a woman. She's been a woman from the very beginning. She's even on the FUCKING BOX ART of the original game. The fan translation calls her "King." And so people just assume that she is male and are saying the game is "pinkwashing" the "King" into a woman to appeal to the SJWs and we're getting some kind of messed up censored game.
It doesn't help that there's a very comprehensive game guide... based solely on the fan translation. And the dude who made it (who is a great dude and very helpful) is helping everyone and referring them to his site, and only using the fan translation names. Now, this is just because he doesn't have the ability to play the official remaster so this is all he knows. But it's just causing more confusion and giving these people who think the fan translation is the ONE TRUE TRANSLATION more power and I want to die.
I actually love that the fan translation exists and even moreso love all the work this guy put into his fansite/guide. But it's just the surrounding people treating these like some kind of canon works when they're a fan translation based on a fan translation based on a loose knowledge of both the original and target language.
It's one thing if people are going to be purists and go by the original Japanese stuff. I understand that, and I had my weeb days where I would never dare utter "Serena" instead of "Usagi" despite the fact that I was watching the cartoon in English on TV. I understand that mentality, even if I find it a little childish.
But a bad fan translation?????? With glaring and obvious errors????????????
Like I said, I understand if that's what you're familiar with. It's one thing to just use the names you're familiar with. But when you're correcting people and claiming censorship and etc. based on bad fan translation is alskdfjlaksdjflkasjdf
ETA:
Oh yeah, there's also instances of people just being ridiculous douchebags for NO REASON like... this guy asked if he encountered a glitch, because a quest wasn't proceeding. The reality was just that the game's obtuseness led him to not realize what was needed to move on.
Now if anyone's played a SaGa game before, you know they make very little sense and give you very little direction. Things are arbitrary and undecipherable at times. There's no problem at all with not getting what the game wants you to do because, well, it doesn't tell you.
But people are responding like 'It's not a glitch, you're just too stupid to play the game.' Like MULTIPLE people. And then when he tries to defend himself, they claim he's "spreading misinformation" about the game because he SUGGESTED it was glitched. (He literally ASKED IF IT WAS A GLITCH LOL).
And yeah, these people claiming "spreading misinformation" are also using outdated and wrong fan translation terms on the boards for the official localization and I hate everyone in the world.