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General discussion (archive)Extremely well translated games(32 posts)(32 posts)
(32 posts)
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This is my favourite topic
Posted January 24, 2012
I was playing Final Fantasy 7: Crisis Core on my PSP recently (in German) and it struck me that the quality of the translation was absolutely absurdly good. It was head and shoulders above that of the original FF7. I'm not sure if Crisis Core was translated from Japanese directly into German or - as is sadly very common in the industry to save money - translated from English, but there was no way to tell what the original dialogue might have been.

I know people always talk about how bad translations are and was curious to know instead if anyone had encountered any games that had been excellently translated into your native languages.

(German Skyrim, by the way, deserves an honourable mention, as superb work was done on that as well).
Post edited January 24, 2012 by jamyskis
Posted January 24, 2012
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jamyskis: I was playing Final Fantasy 7: Crisis Core on my PSP recently (in German) and it struck me that the quality of the translation was absolutely absurdly good. It was head and shoulders above that of the original FF7. I'm not sure if Crisis Core was translated from Japanese directly into German or - as is sadly very common in the industry to save money - translated from English, but there was no way to tell what the original dialogue might have been.

I know people always talk about how bad translations are and was curious to know instead if anyone had encountered any games that had been excellently translated into your native languages.

(German Skyrim, by the way, deserves an honourable mention, as superb work was done on that as well).
Vagrant Story of the PS1's English translation is actually considered to be significantly better than the original Japanese screenplay.
Posted January 24, 2012
I can't judge the quality of translations in my native language because the second I hear any voice in Spanish I change the setting. I simply can't stand the Spanish accent but most if not all videogames use that because they target their translations to the European market. I like the voices in English anyway so it's not a big loss for me.
Luckily, TV series and movies come here with a neutral dialect and no weird accent.
Post edited January 24, 2012 by OmegaX
Posted January 24, 2012
Both Dungeon Keeper & Theme Hospital had surprisingly good Swedish voice actors, and the translations were also well done. Some jokes that did not work in Swedish were changed, and they were usually changed in such a way that they did not seem out of place.
Posted January 24, 2012
This is the best Finnish one I know. The original English dub (as in not the bad "improved" one from the remakes) of that game is one of my favorites, too.

They don't really dub games around here. I think they even stopped translating the back covers :|

/edit: added a clarification thing
Post edited January 24, 2012 by Adzeth
Posted January 24, 2012
Recettear and Chantelise, so much so that the company that does the translation, Carpe Fulgur, has garnered quite a decent cult following.
Posted January 24, 2012
I haven't played either game myself, but I'm told that both the Pharaoh expansion (that's the Impression game) and The Longest Journey have superb voice acting in Swedish - presumably this also means a good translation. I was actually a bit miffed that there was no way to get the Swedish voices into the GOG version of TLJ, although apparently the English version is more complete anyhow.

While not my native language, there are a number of games which I know have superb translations - the ones that come to mind are the Ivalice Alliance games. Aside from using a consistent style, the translations are genuinely well-written - I consider War of the Lions to be second only to Planescape: Torment storywise (although it's tied with Mask of the Betrayer).
Post edited October 06, 2012 by Whitecroc
Posted January 24, 2012
Baldur's Gate PL
Few samples:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NmM55K97lK8&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O3982_40vyU&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2RPCSPMX3Jc


Bonus sample:
(You must gather your party before venturing forth)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ph0yhtZDWIQ
Posted January 24, 2012
Usually I prefer to play games in their original language whenever possible but "Sam & Max Hit The Road" and "Sam & Max Season 1" were fun to play in German and I probably enjoyed the German voiceovers more than I would have enjoyed the English ones. And whenever I think of "Sam & Max Hit The Road", I think of the weird but creative translation for "Wak-A-Rat" and I have to grin.

Sadly, Atari decided to completely exchange the recording studio and voice-actors for "Sam & Max: Season 2" with less professional and talented ones and thereby ruined the German version. :(
Post edited January 24, 2012 by Leroux
Posted January 24, 2012
i couldn't name a well-translated German edition if i tried. and i stopped playing localized versions years ago.

i do remember German translations that absolutely ruined the game: Baldur's Gate, Age of Empires 2, Rise of Nations, etc. i ended up re-buying all of them in multilingual or English editions.

Recettear is a well-translated game, though. i'm kinda surprised they managed to translate a Japanese game this well into English. also the Metal Gear Solid series is astonishingly well translated into English, especially considering the relative complexity of its story-lines and extensive dialogues.

Edit: oh, and i have to agree with Leroux. the original Sam & Max was well translated. they used the German voice of Bart Simpson for Sam, which fit hilariously well.
Post edited January 24, 2012 by Fred_DM
Posted January 24, 2012
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Fred_DM: i couldn't name a well-translated German edition if i tried. and i stopped playing localized versions years ago.

i do remember German translations that absolutely ruined the game: Baldur's Gate, Age of Empires 2, Rise of Nations, etc. i ended up re-buying all of them in multilingual or English editions.

Recettear is a well-translated game, though. i'm kinda surprised they managed to translate a Japanese game this well into English. also the Metal Gear Solid series is astonishingly well translated into English, especially considering the relative complexity of its story-lines and extensive dialogues.

Edit: oh, and i have to agree with Leroux. the original Sam & Max was well translated. they used the German voice of Bart Simpson for Max, which fit hilariously well.
Fixed. BTW, HER name is Sandra Schwittau. Great voice actress.
Posted January 24, 2012
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Adzeth: They don't really dub games around here. I think they even stopped translating the back covers :|
I think this has to do with Finnish as a language more than anything else. I mean, it's not a proto-indo-european language, and beyond that, it's WEIRD. Being something of a linguistics fan I think it's a fascinating language, but it's pretty difficult to learn for English speakers, and even other Europeans. So it doesn't really surprise me that they don't even bother, though it is unfortunate.
Posted January 24, 2012
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mrmarioanonym: Fixed.
right, i'll keep confusing the names in all eternity, i'm afraid.
Posted January 24, 2012
The English versions of Final Fantasy XII and XIII are fantastic. I could add Shin Megami Tensei Persona 3 and 4 to that. In fact, most of the recent J-RPGs (after 2005) have great English translations, but these stands out.

What comes to my mind when it comes to great translations is the French version of the Legacy of Kain (minus the first Blood Omen, it was passable). Well translated (in a theatrical fashion like the original) and VERY well dubbed (despite no lip-synching in the later titles). A very good break from the poorly translated games.
Posted January 24, 2012
I play almost everything in English language. For the simple reason that English voice acting is way better in 99% of the cases and German voice acting sucks hard in like 80% of the cases. The only exceptions are games with little or no voice output, like sports games or puzzle games, and games with loads of foreign words, text or voice output in complex, ancient, scientific or fictional style of language, such as RPGs or games with sci-fi settings.

By far the best German voice acted game I know of is Psychonauts. Because unlike most other dubbed games, the budget for the German version was high enough to hire professional voice actors like the German voice of Bart Simpson and I think also the German voice of Spongebob. Sadly the GOG version is not multilingual.
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General discussion (archive)Extremely well translated games(32 posts)(32 posts)
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