• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

XSeed giving LUNAR PSP a fresh translation

E

ethelred

Member
Macstorm said:
That's exactly my point. The element most people cared for was the charm of the localization. I agree with that exactly, but those upset that Vic isn't involved seem to automatically assume that XSEED couldn't do the same quality of work. That's where I have a problem; people assuming that only Victor Ireland can do Lunar. I'd like to give XSEED the benefit of the doubt and at least see what they have to offer before I write it off or get disinterested.
Click to expand...

I'm not assuming that XSEED can't do a quality job; I don't hate XSEED. In fact, I just took a look at my collection spreadsheet, and I see that I have seven games that they've localized. I think that's a pretty good portion of their body of work. I passed on Avalon Code and Populous due to poor reviews, and I have no interest in the shitty Valhalla Knights games so I'm definitely not getting those... but I've purchased Shadow Hearts 3, all three of the XSEED Wild ARMs games (4, 5, XF), Retro Game Challenge, Brave Story, and Little King's Story (which they translated internally, and I think they did a great job on). And looking at their upcoming portfolio, I'm also planning on getting Arc Rise Fantasia and Fragile. So clearly I don't hate them, nor am I boycotting them or anything like that.

But I don't think they deserve some sort of benefit of the doubt here, and an increased amount of disinterest is natural and expected. As I said previously: if this remake offered the upgraded graphics that it is offering combined with a touched-up translation based on the original or a new translation by the guy who did the original and made it a classic, it'd be a day-one-no-hesitation buy from me because I wouldn't have any doubts -- it'd retain all that I liked about the original plus some improvements. Now, though, what we're getting is an RPG with okay gameplay (not a huge selling point) and upgraded graphics (not a huge selling point) and a new translation that may be as good as the first. But I don't know if it will be (it's a fairly high bar), so it might as well be any other random new game rather than anything I'm purchasing based on affection for the original... so now XSEED has to sell me on a game that they otherwise wouldn't have had to sell me on. And unless they do deliver a translation easily the equal of (if not surpassing) the original, that'll be a tough sell. Not saying they can't do it, but I'm going to wait and see.
 
M

Macstorm

Member
I understand exactly what you mean, Aethel. Don't think my blind fanboy worship comment was directed toward you, as you've explained your reasoning quite well and are not writing the game off completely. Not every post here is as rational, but hey, it's GAF.
 
C

CO_Andy

Member
I've never played an XSeed title until Little King's Story, and that title alone was enough to convince me their writers are more than competent enough to handle localization on Lunar.
 
M

Macstorm

Member
CO_Andy said:
I've never played an XSeed title until Little King's Story, and that title alone was enough to convince me their writers are more than competent enough to handle localization on Lunar.
Click to expand...
And I'm 99% sure an XSEED editor did the translation for both the NA and European version.
 
hikarutilmitt

hikarutilmitt

Member
I'm fine with having goofy humor and pop culture jokes into games that warrant them due to their nature (God Hand comes to mind). It enhances the experience and gives a feel for what it's about instead of doing a literal translation for jokes that 90% of will go over the audience's heads. Language barriers.

I've never, personally, considered Lunar to be one of those series. I'm not saying the translation was bad, I'm saying it wasn't what the game really needed. It doesn't have to be super-duper serious but adding poop jokes and pop culture references that are even outdated for the time are a bit much.

And yes, I'm still reeling from the Rayearth localization for Saturn.
 
S

Segata Sanshiro

Member
Macstorm said:
I understand exactly what you mean, Aethel. Don't think my blind fanboy worship comment was directed toward you, as you've explained your reasoning quite well and are not writing the game off completely. Not every post here is as rational, but hey, it's GAF.
Click to expand...
What's wrong with writing the game off completely if one of the necessary conditions of my purchase was the original script? If I want a kick-ass parfait with a maraschino cherry on top and you tell me sorry sir no maraschino cherries but we have other fruit toppings you may enjoy equally well, I don't see why it's so wrong for me to say "no buy".

I'll certainly cop to being a major fan of Vic's work, but I'm no blind fanboy. It's just that for me a Lunar isn't a Lunar without a WD script, and I will accept no substitutes.
 
F

FoxSpirit

Junior Member
hikarutilmitt said:
I'm fine with having goofy humor and pop culture jokes into games that warrant them due to their nature (God Hand comes to mind). It enhances the experience and gives a feel for what it's about instead of doing a literal translation for jokes that 90% of will go over the audience's heads. Language barriers.

I've never, personally, considered Lunar to be one of those series. I'm not saying the translation was bad, I'm saying it wasn't what the game really needed. It doesn't have to be super-duper serious but adding poop jokes and pop culture references that are even outdated for the time are a bit much.

And yes, I'm still reeling from the Rayearth localization for Saturn.
Click to expand...

I'm curious, where's jGAF?
People would be shocked that the originals often have weird humour and stuff but often get "averaged" in translation.

I never thought WD was adding but merely they'd translate stuff that other publisher treat... less lovingly if they think it's out of place.
 
S

Segata Sanshiro

Member
Calints Neos said:
Nostalgia ruining good things once again:lol
Click to expand...
oh noes, how dare fond feelings for happy memories of the past interfere with this attempt to exploit people's fond feelings for a happy memory of their past! This is impossible?
 
D

dablemont

Banned
Well, I'm not going to judge it before it comes out, so I'll wait until I get the game and see...
Lunar.... I miss that game!
 
C

charlequin

Banned
RomanticHeroX said:
All the love for the WD translation of Lunar exists entirely in a rose-tinted bubble of nostalgia.
Click to expand...

Nostalgia is such a bullshit argument. I was playing Eternal Blue Complete last fucking month and the textual translation was as good as ever.

I'll agree that some of the voice acting is underwhelming today, but Ghaleon is really pitch-perfect and Leo's not far behind. The game really actively benefits from an over-the-top, overdramatic reading because it's ultimately a goofy, excessive adventure cartoon, and John Truitt's Ghaleon epitomizes this.

Calints Neos said:
Was it this bad when chrono trigger DS came out?
Click to expand...

People had already seen FF6a respect Woolsey's original translation at the time so there wasn't as much well-placed anxiety. Before FF6a came out there was quite a bit of concern about how that game's new translation would play out which was largely satisfied when people who got to play it were able to report that it was fairly faithful to the good aspects of Woolsey's original.

As another distinction here, it's worth noting that with both FF6 and CT, Square-Enix held the rights to reuse as much of Woolsey's original script as they liked, and Woolsey himself would have been unavailable to tackle the games now anyway, what with him being in charge of XBLA and all. With Lunar, Vic Ireland made himself available to make the original script and his own hand at a new translation available, and XSeed turned him down. That suggests to me that they're not actually that interested in maintaining the style and spirit of the previous iterations because if they were, a pretty straightforward approach to doing so was right at hand.

Dr. Light said:
Sorry, but I miss Working Designs and Vic should be getting more work than he is now. Why did Working Designs have to die?
Click to expand...

In fairness, WD had to die because the company's leadership made bad decisions about how to run their business, which Vic has actively acknowledged in discussion of the company's closure.

Macstorm said:
True. Lots of this sounds like blind Vic fan worship.
Click to expand...

I've almost never had a conversation with Vic on GAF that didn't turn into a huge argument and I've been known to say some pretty negative things about him in my day (and neither one is even 1/3 as true for me as it is for Segata), so I don't think that's it. :lol I just respect the man's work and it really is a vital and integral part of my enjoyment of Lunar:SSC and Lunar:EBC. Without that element present, this Lunar remake goes from being an appealing way to get a new perspective on an old favorite to looking unappealing in comparison to just breaking out L:SSC again.

I think a lot of what you're seeing, more than anything, is people who got excited when Vic said he was reaching out to XSeed about this and now are disappointed that it didn't work out.

Segata Sanshiro said:
oh noes, how dare fond feelings for happy memories of the past interfere with this attempt to exploit people's fond feelings for a happy memory of their past! This is impossible?
Click to expand...

:lol
 
M

Macstorm

Member
XSEED VK Wii interview with two Lunar questions

The question we hear most often is about Lunar's translation. We know that you're doing your own, so how are you handling it? Is it more of a direct Japanese translation or did you get to add some Working Design's style tongue-in-cheek humor to it? and Why did you decide to do your own instead of taking the Working Design's translation? Victor Ireland stated online that he had been in talks with XSEED about it.
Click to expand...
 
G

"God's Beard!"

Member
ASSeed said:
areas that we retranslated to be more consistent with the Japanese source material
Click to expand...

Sorry babe, but it's over between us.

2ihp6x4.gif
 
G

"God's Beard!"

Member
SolidSnakex said:
http://game.watch.impress.co.jp/img/gmw/docs/321/279/luna04.jpg[/ig]
[img]http://game.watch.impress.co.jp/img/gmw/docs/321/279/luna07.jpg[/im]
[img]http://game.watch.impress.co.jp/img/gmw/docs/321/279/luna08.jpg[/ig]
[img]http://game.watch.impress.co.jp/img/gmw/docs/321/279/luna09.jpg[/ig]
[img]http://game.watch.impress.co.jp/img/gmw/docs/321/279/luna11.jpg[/ig]
[img]http://game.watch.impress.co.jp/img/gmw/docs/321/279/luna15.jpg[/im]
[img]http://game.watch.impress.co.jp/img/gmw/docs/321/279/luna17.jpg[/mg]
[img]http://game.watch.impress.co.jp/img/gmw/docs/321/279/luna22.jpg[/ig]
[img]http://game.watch.impress.co.jp/img/gmw/docs/321/279/luna23.jpg[/ig]
[img]http://game.watch.impress.co.jp/img/gmw/docs/321/279/luna24.jpg[/ig]
[img]http://game.watch.impress.co.jp/img/gmw/docs/321/279/luna28.jpg[/ig]
[img]http://game.watch.impress.co.jp/img/gmw/docs/321/279/luna29.jpg[/i
[img]http://game.watch.impress.co.jp/img/gmw/docs/321/279/luna31.jpg[/ig]

[url]http://game.watch.impress.co.jp/docs/news/20091013_321279.html[/url][/QUOTE]

Nice damage control, hiding the new translation behind some sort of system of moon runes. It won't work, xseed. Not today.
Click to expand...
 
L

Lost Fragment

Obsessed with 4chan
Dammit, if you're gonna spam links to your work, at least provide the quote in question and not be a complete traffic whore.

:)

RPGamer said:
The question we hear most often is about Lunar's translation. We know that you're doing your own, so how are you handling it? Is it more of a direct Japanese translation or did you get to add some Working Design's style tongue-in-cheek humor to it?

Ken Berry, Director of Publishing at XSEED Games: That was definitely a difficult decision for us since we knew there was a fanbase that was passionate about Working Design's great localization work, while others wanted to see something that didn't take as many liberties from the original Japanese text. In the end I think we found the right compromise in having the English text be a combination of Working Design's text and some areas that we retranslated to be more consistent with the Japanese source material.

Why did you decide to do your own instead of taking the Working Design's translation? Victor Ireland stated online that he had been in talks with XSEED about it.

K. Berry: We did initiate contact with Vic being big fans of his previous work and knowing how passionate he was about the Lunar series. We had some discussions about possibly working together on this project, but unfortunately those talks didn't come to fruition so we decided to go it alone with our internal team on this one. Hopefully the fans will have an open mind as I think our team did a great job of keeping the essence of the original while mixing in new elements to keep this version feeling fresh. Our in-house localization team has really been stepping up their game recently with fantastic localizations on such titles as Retro Game Challenge, Little King's Story, and Half-Minute Hero, so rest assured the job is in good hands.
Click to expand...
 
M

Mejilan

Running off of Custom Firmware
I AM keeping an open mind, but they're making it difficult.
:/

Oh well. No matter how it turns out, I can live with it being somewhat worse than the PSOne game, but WAY better than the GBA one.
 
B

B.K.

Member
I'm looking forward to the new translation. People that cling to the Working Designs translation like it's a gift from God are almost as bad as the people that worship Woolsey's translations of Chrono Trigger and Final Fantasy VI.
 
S

SAB CA

Sketchbook Picasso
It's gorgeous how good those screens look. The backgrounds look more like scenes from the animation that was with the PS2 games, than in-game artwork. Such strong color and lighting work!

It's so great seeing high quality work like this, that DOESN'T look like flash animation. Wish I could see more work like this on consoles... blast you, HD!

-ahem- Anywho, XSEED sounds like they're using WD's translation as a basis for their own. If they had said "We live in a different time now, and we believe our translation should reflect that.", or anything that talked down on WD's work, then I'd see reason to worry. What we've heard so far doesn't sound bad at all.

Definitely looking forward to seeing screens of the English translations!
 
L

Lateraleye

Member
B.K. said:
I'm looking forward to the new translation. People that cling to the Working Designs translation like it's a gift from God are almost as bad as the people that worship Woolsey's translations of Chrono Trigger and Final Fantasy VI.
Click to expand...
I'm hoping their attempt, if they do have to change it, will be like Chrono Trigger's. I'm playing through the DS version right now with an old PS1 version strategy guide and there are differences in the text but the DS's is much more readable while being faithful to the original (Ozzie, Slash, Flea as an example). That being said, I can't think of much that would make it faithful to the Japanese unless they nix Myght's gas problem or Meryod's population of inbreeding hicks... both of which got a chuckle out of me back then and still.
 
E

Eric C

Member
Vic also said he offered up the Alex punching puppet as a pre-order bonus, but XSeed didn't want it.

vireland said:
I was pushing for the Alex puppet to rise again as a premium with the PSP remake, but it wasn't to happen.
Click to expand...

vireland said:
It was never mass produced because it was intended for the PC version that didn't make release. Only 7 completed prototypes exist, and all of them are different. ...so I just kept all seven. I also have the original molded heads (and the unproduced Borgan and Lucia puppet wax masters) to do a mass production, which is why I thought a PSP premium would be so boss, but...
Click to expand...


edited to add vireland quotes
 
V

vireland

Member
°°ToMmY°° said:
wasn't vic that turned off the offer?
Click to expand...

How did I miss this thread? I offered to work with them on all levels with all the original voice cast available. It wasn't me putting the kabosh on this.
 
G

"God's Beard!"

Member
vireland said:
How did I miss this thread? I offered to work with them on all levels with all the original voice cast available. It wasn't me putting the kabosh on this.
Click to expand...

I had faith in you man, I knew it wasn't your fault. These guys, they aren't human. They turned down the punching puppet?
 
T

TheDuce22

Banned
Looking forward to this. Kinda curious, was the old voice of Ghaleon gay. Not that theres anything wrong with that, it was just hard for me to buy him as a badass with that voice/lisp.
 
V

vireland

Member
God's Beard said:
I had faith in you man, I knew it wasn't your fault. These guys, they aren't human. They turned down the punching puppet?
Click to expand...

Come on now, I wouldn't go that far. It'll be interesting to see what comes out. I'm most interested to see how it *sounds*.

BTW, what anime was that gif from? The clip is hilariously wrong.
 
S

Segata Sanshiro

Member
vireland said:
How did I miss this thread? I offered to work with them on all levels with all the original voice cast available. It wasn't me putting the kabosh on this.
Click to expand...
Ugh.

XSEED, you coulda been a somebody, you coulda been a contender, instead of no good bums, which is what you are.
 
B

B.K.

Member
Everyone needs to cut XSEED some slack. Other than that little issue with Wild ARMs 4, when have they let us down?
 
Angelcurio

Angelcurio

Member
vireland said:
Come on now, I wouldn't go that far. It'll be interesting to see what comes out. I'm most interested to see how it *sounds*.

BTW, what anime was that gif from? The clip is hilariously wrong.
Click to expand...
A little bit offtopicquestion, any news regarding the release of Alundra on PSN?
 
S

Segata Sanshiro

Member
B.K. said:
Everyone needs to cut XSEED some slack. Other than that little issue with Wild ARMs 4, when have they let us down?
Click to expand...
Well, let's see... they got their hands on a new remake of Lunar and opted to turn down:

Vic Ireland on the translation
the Working Designs script
the original voice cast
an Alex punching puppet

This is already a monumental let-down. I'm very interested to see what these arses thought was better than all of that.
 
D

duckroll

Member
B.K. said:
Everyone needs to cut XSEED some slack. Other than that little issue with Wild ARMs 4, when have they let us down?
Click to expand...

Until they release Retro Games Center 2, they'll never see a dime of my money ever!
 
M

MotherFan

Member
B.K. said:
Everyone needs to cut XSEED some slack. Other than that little issue with Wild ARMs 4, when have they let us down?
Click to expand...

Now. The WD translation is what made an average game into a great game. Funny quips, interesting characters, good VA. Going "closer ot the original" in this case is a bad idea. When I heard about it earlier, that is was prolly going to use a new translation, I knew a letdown was coming. Now that is is 100% confirmed, it is time to bail out.

As my friend (who bought Lunar:SSSC and EB day 1) said: "Fuck that".


And to add insult to injury, no alex doll? Ugh. That was another WD strongpoint, very good bonus stuff.
 
H

Hours Left

Member
It's kind of depressing to see so many people bailing out without even seeing any of XSEED's translation. Give them a freaking chance here.

I know there are tons of Working Designs fans here (I have many of their releases myself), but XSEED is not Working Designs and I don't think it's fair to write them off for not emulating another company.

Besides the one Wild ARMs 4 incident and some wacky sales expectations for Retro Game Challenge, I think XSEED has been pretty solid.

Can we let them try to put there own spin on the game without so much vitriol? Let's save some judgment until after the product is actually released.
 
G

Grimmy

Banned
Why are people being so precious about the VO? Sorry, but some of the VO work in SSSC were good for its time, but now it's barely tolerable (especially Nall and Ghaleon). That said, the new cast could be *worse*.... But we won't know until XSEED shows us the new version.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

Theoretical Master System (with Game Gear games) Mini
26
3K
Starlight Lotice replied
Indiana Jones: let's take a look at some of the most important games in the series (1982 - 2013)
Analysis Retro
21
5K
ArgleBargleFooferah replied
VICE: It's only a matter of time before Sony kills access to PS3 and Vita games entirely.
2 3
125
17K
D.Final replied
Why gamers complain about their games being taken away |OT| Censorship Controversy Central
|OT| NSFW 26 27 28 29 30
1K
180K
Pantz replied
Lunar: The Silver Star remakes - the good, bad, an the ???
2
92
20K
Some Nobody replied
Top Bottom