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[Zomba13]

Shouldn't the QA not matter in this case? They said they didn't know of the line, don't localisation/translators get scripts of the game with all the dialouge? Like, they don't have to go through the game and get all the items and weapons to write a description for them.

I just assumed that in a big ass document it'd have stuff like "chapter 1 cutscene 001 Jimmy: _____" And then stuff like "Item list" with all the items and the jp text and then the location in the files of it or something. Wouldn't the same be true for boss dialouge?

I just never thought that only stuff the QA testers find actually got translated. "Hey John! I found a secret glowy spot in a dungeon here, it's a new item! Tell me what it says!"

 

[Aeana]

If they're going to charge Atlus Tax, they'll get no sympathy from me for too good (bad) QA.

Also, what is this about the possibility of them not fixing it ever, or soon? If your game has a bug and you are a AAA publisher, you fix it. Don't tell me that Atlus can't afford to issue a patch to resolve this.

Where did you get the idea that Atlus is a AAA publisher?

 

[Peltz]

I like Atlus and I think they're one of the best Japanese publishers in the industry.

That said, this type of error in 2016 is inexcusable. Yes, these things happen, but they should be going all out to patch the mistake.

 

[Neoweee]

I think people are overreacting to this. This is literally one of the most insignificant (but above the threshold of being discernible) bugs/errors I've seen in years.

If they are charging a $10 premium on this game, it's fucking inexcusable if they don't patch it

A patch to fix two lines of rare, hidden text is liable to cause more harm than good. If another patch comes, great, this will get included, but a patch just for this isn't justifiable.

 

[Sho Nuff]

The way game translation works:

You go through the strings in the file
You translate the strings

You don't have QA play the game and see where the Japanese is and then go translate it

 

[Affeinvasion]

Why would i take their word that it's only two lines? They're clearly not very good at finding them in the first place.

 

[th4tguy]

Well they say they're looking over the Persona 5 script, so I wonder why there wouldn't be one for SMTIVA...
You don't just discover text by letting QA play, but you discover mistakes like that.

It's more than likely a sentence that was accidentally skipped over in the long list of things to localize or was localized and accidentally skipped over when inserting into the game. It's a dumb mistake but understandable that it could happen. The fact that it went unnoticed is what is truest humerus. A mistake on qa part for sure as they should be playing the game in ways that Aren't normal to try and break it. Though perhaps for a localization project that process is different.

 

[Eusis]

Well... can they at least translate the lines and let you read them online in the off chance you hit that bit? It's a crude solution, but at least you'll know what it'd say (and from the original localization crew at that!) without no recourse.

 

[Neoweee]

It's more than likely a sentence that was accidentally skipped over in the long list of things to localize or was localized and accidentally skipped over when inserting into the game. It's a dumb mistake but understandable that it could happen. The fact that it went unnoticed is what is truest humerus. A mistake on qa part for sure as they should be playing the game in ways that Aren't normal to try and break it. Though perhaps for a localization project that process is different.

This is particularly hard to intentionally get, due to how much RNG is involved and how small the window of possibly seeing it is. The NPC needs to get killed, and the NPC will automatically revives. So there's a very narrow window for this to even be seen.

 

[semiconscious]

I think people are overreacting to this. This is literally one of the most insignificant (but above the threshold of being discernible) bugs/errors I've seen in years.

A patch to fix two lines of rare, hidden text is liable to cause more harm than good. If another patch comes, great, this will get included, but a patch just for this isn't justifiable.

agreed. much more a 'quirk' than anything else ...

 

[th4tguy]

This is particularly hard to intentionally get, due to how much RNG is involved and how small the window of possibly seeing it is. The NPC needs to get killed, and the NPC will automatically revives. So there's a very narrow window for this to even be seen.

Yes but generally those conditions are detailed by the team in Japan for the team localizing the project.

 

[ActStriker]

The way game translation works:

You go through the strings in the file
You translate the strings

You don't have QA play the game and see where the Japanese is and then go translate it

You do have QA play the game to see if the string is displayed properly tho

 

[ShockingAlberto]

I am sympathetic, but I feel like just a "We bad" and am explanation of the circumstances would have sufficed. The weirdly casual tone and strawmanning of people up in arsms about it as raving lunatics is unnecessary.

It almost feels like they're trying to provoke a fight about it to go on the offense.

 

[Quixzlizx]

This is honestly not a pretty big problem.

Hardly worth making a fuss over this.
It's an unfortunate mistake that is very minor in the grand scheme of things.

Why motivation could you possibly have to carry Atlus' water for this? Do you own Sega stock or something?

It's not like it's a PS2 game where they'd have to issue a recall and send out corrected discs.

 

[Man God]

It happened...frequently in a certain vintage of Natsume released Harvest Moon games as well.

 

[striferser]

I translated games using excel. No context (some times I did not even know the gender of the characters). I haven't touched or known anything about the majority of those games before. No testing. In a professional environment.

If you are interested in localization, take a look at the Game Localization Handbook.

This is probably what's happening.
Did my time as a loc qa, there's way too many unused text not marked no longer in use or something.

 

[E_Darkness]

How long does this add to the European release?

Also judging by how you get these lines, if you do see them then you're playing the game badly :')
So not really worth crying about, still funny they missed them. Especially when they found them in the game's files not too long after they found out.

 

[NolbertoS]

Meh, doesn't bother me, as long as the entire boss fight isn't in Japanese, I can live that. QA testers aren't perfect or else try getting paid $10/he to be a EA QA tester and see how fun it is. We're all human.

 

[_illmatic_]

Meh, doesn't bother me, as long as the entire boss fight isn't in Japanese, I can live that. QA testers aren't perfect or else try getting paid $10/he to be a EA QA tester and see how fun it is. We're all human.

I used to work QA for EA at $7.25 an hour lol. QA is no fun at all.

 

[Opa-Pa]

It reads like a fairly reasonable and sincere explanation until they say they're not sure if they're going to fix it lol. Like if this was their first time then sure, but Soul Hackers had these everywhere in regular demon negotiations so I don't know.

But eh, if they're really limited to rare circumstances then it's fine, I guess. Thanks Atlus?

 

[Ehm]

It's not that big of a deal. Stuff like this happens all the time because of how much text these games have. Ace Attorney games tend to be riddled with typos, for example. Anyhow, here are some instances from Persona 3 Portable. There are a few more not on the TCRF page. One of them was linked to earlier in this thread.

 

[marmoka]

I think people are overreacting to this. This is literally one of the most insignificant (but above the threshold of being discernible) bugs/errors I've seen in years.



A patch to fix two lines of rare, hidden text is liable to cause more harm than good. If another patch comes, great, this will get included, but a patch just for this isn't justifiable.

Well, considering the huge amount of text RPGs have, how much text SMT IV had, and this probably has the same amount, with just 3 lines untranslated, from probably 10000 lines to translate....

Yes, people are overreacting.

A patch would be nice, but we can always check the Internet to find a good translation of the same text in English.

 

[timberger]

Quality work as always I see.

 

[Taruranto]

Well, considering the huge amount of text RPGs have, how much text SMT IV had, and this probably has the same amount, with just 3 lines untranslated, from probably 10000 lines to translate....

Yes, people are overreacting.

A patch would be nice, but we can always check the Internet to find a good translation of the same text in English.

I don't think it's a big deal, but given that they charge extra 10$ compared to everyone I suppose it is right to expect perfection.

 

[marmoka]

I don't think it's a big deal, but given that they charge extra 10$ compared to everyone I suppose it is right to expect perfection.

What do you mean with the extra 10$ charge? I'm lost here. Could it be that the game is a little expensive to be a 3DS game? If so, then I agree with people being angry. I also ordered this game, and I should be.

 

[Xenoflare]

I think this is a consistent problem for Atlus.

P3P, Soul Hackers DeSu2 3DS from the top of my head all had similar problems

 

[NinjaCoachZ]

I am sympathetic, but I feel like just a "We bad" and am explanation of the circumstances would have sufficed. The weirdly casual tone and strawmanning of people up in arsms about it as raving lunatics is unnecessary.

It almost feels like they're trying to provoke a fight about it to go on the offense.

Yeah, Atlus's PR/social media stuff feels like it's coated in this. It's oddly smarmy and very off-putting.

 

[Taruranto]

What do you mean with the extra 10$ charge? I'm lost here. Could it be that the game is a little expensive to be a 3DS game? If so, then I agree with people being angry. I also ordered this game, and I should be.

3DS games cost 40$. All Atlus 3DS games are sold for 50$ for no reason, it's the so called "Atlus Tax".

DQVII has, like, a bazillion of lines compared to SMTIVA and it's sold for 40$.

 

[NinjaCoachZ]

3DS games cost 40$. All Atlus 3DS games are sold for 50$ for no reason, it's the so called "Atlus Tax".

DQVII has, like, a bazillion of lines compared to SMTIVA and it's sold for 40$.

It's even worse in Canada. SMT4A is $65, which is absolutely inexcusable.

 

[Producer]

Man. I really love smt but hate how atlus handles their games. It sucks.

 

[exmachina64]

we’re now poring through the Persona 5 script

That typo doesn't instill hope within me.

 

[Augemitbutter]

it's cool. at least the pay to win dlc works.

 

[ShockingAlberto]

That typo doesn't instill hope within me.

Poring is correct. Pouring is incorrect.

 

[KarmaCow]

3DS games cost 40$. All Atlus 3DS games are sold for 50$ for no reason, it's the so called "Atlus Tax".

DQVII has, like, a bazillion of lines compared to SMTIVA and it's sold for 40$.

At least with SMTIV there was some bonuses like an artbook. For Apocalypse, we get a some pins.

It's even worse in Canada. SMT4A is $65, which is absolutely inexcusable.

Yea if it wasn't for the E3 discounts I would probably waited on it like Devil Survivor 2.

 

[marmoka]

3DS games cost 40$. All Atlus 3DS games are sold for 50$ for no reason, it's the so called "Atlus Tax".

DQVII has, like, a bazillion of lines compared to SMTIVA and it's sold for 40$.

Understood. Then yes, there are many reasons to be angry. I'm importing the game to Europe, and had to pay 70 euros because of the importation. Now thinking that I could have just paid about 60 euros, makes me think a lot.

Now honestly, they'd better release a patch to fix this.

 

[Tiktaalik]

If you're at the point where you have a handful of strings that you can't find in the game I don't understand why you wouldn't just localize them any way just to be safe.

 

[Necromanti]

It surprises me that the process of localizing a game is still so primitive in this day and age, and that localizers aren't given better tools and support so things like this wouldn't happen. But I guess that would require a bigger investment than publishers would be interested in.

 

[ShockingAlberto]

The original cause for the Atlus tax was because SMTIV had a very quick turnaround time for localization. They also included a good day one edition and had the cross-promotion eshop credit deal with Fire Emblem. People thought this was absolutely reasonable.

Then they just sort of...kept doing it.

I don't think it's greed or anything. I bet the numbers work out that $40 is unprofitable and $50 is profitable. But they have absolutely stopped trying to justify it to people and that kind of sucks.

 

[flohen95]

It's even worse in Canada. SMT4A is $65, which is absolutely inexcusable.

It's not. It's 65 Canadian Dollars, which, right now, is pretty much exactly 50 US Dollars, and thus the same price.

Spoiler

I know that it is, relatively speaking, more expensive for Canadians, but still.

 

[Durante]

Atlus can't do dual audio like everyone else, but at least their localization and QA are peerless!

/discussion thread 2 months ago.

It surprises me that the process of localizing a game is still so primitive in this day and age, and that localizers aren't given better tools and support so things like this wouldn't happen.

From the impression I've gathered about Atlus Japan, the people working on the translation can be happy if they didn't encrypt the text and throw away the key.

 

[NinjaCoachZ]

It's not. It's 65 Canadian Dollars, which, right now, is pretty much exactly 50 US Dollars, and thus the same price.

Spoiler

I know that it is, relatively speaking, more expensive for Canadians, but still.

The first point is true and likely why the US-based companies do it, but moot to us consumers because of your second point. Our wages don't go up to compensate. The result is everything just ends up being more expensive.

The original cause for the Atlus tax was because SMTIV had a very quick turnaround time for localization. They also included a good day one edition and had the cross-promotion eshop credit deal with Fire Emblem. People thought this was absolutely reasonable.

Then they just sort of...kept doing it.

I don't think it's greed or anything. I bet the numbers work out that $40 is unprofitable and $50 is profitable. But they have absolutely stopped trying to justify it to people and that kind of sucks.

One hundred percent. SMTIV's handling was excellent and I had no reservations buying that day 1. PQ with the cards was a bit of a stretch, but okay, whatever.

Nothing since then has justified the price hike and it's weak as hell. Especially since their games go on sale in the eShop alll the time anyway.

 

[Soriku]

Then I'm not buying it until it's fixed or $20.

It's only a few lines of text man. That said, I'm surprised they don't have some kind of search feature for Japanese lines of text...or do they? I don't know anything about QA.

The original cause for the Atlus tax was because SMTIV had a very quick turnaround time for localization. They also included a good day one edition and had the cross-promotion eshop credit deal with Fire Emblem. People thought this was absolutely reasonable.

Then they just sort of...kept doing it.

I don't think it's greed or anything. I bet the numbers work out that $40 is unprofitable and $50 is profitable. But they have absolutely stopped trying to justify it to people and that kind of sucks.

$40 is profitable. $50 is super profitable.

 

[Dunkley]

Their QA should hire me because I am ass at SMT.

 

[Zolo]

The original cause for the Atlus tax was because SMTIV had a very quick turnaround time for localization. They also included a good day one edition and had the cross-promotion eshop credit deal with Fire Emblem. People thought this was absolutely reasonable.

Then they just sort of...kept doing it.

I don't think it's greed or anything. I bet the numbers work out that $40 is unprofitable and $50 is profitable. But they have absolutely stopped trying to justify it to people and that kind of sucks.

It's probably more '$40 is profitable and $50 is more profitable with people willing to play it'.

 

[UnemployedVillain]

This is really surprising to me. Shouldn't there be some kind of tool or at the very least a spreadsheet with the lines and the corresponding translation? Did they think it was just unused text because they didn't know the triggers?

Yeah, I would've thought all the text was in it's own separate file/local DB/entity where they could go through it, cross reference, and change it all, with playing the game only really be required to gain some context. The fact that it's hidden in code is a bit odd

 

[Megawarrior]

Wait SMTV:A is 50$ too? Huh. Guess they stopped coming up with an excuse after Stella Glow

 

[cj_iwakura]

This stuff usually gets flat out ignored. Acknowledging it is definitely a rare exception.

 

[PK Gaming]

Yeah, this definitely isn't a big deal.

It was cool of them to apologize but it isn't even necessary. In fact, i'm surprised this blew up the way it did when you see this happening all of the time in many of their handheld RPGs.

 

[AcademicSaucer]

FIFTY US DOLLARS

 

[Neoweee]

This stuff usually gets flat out ignored. Acknowledging it is definitely a rare exception.

Acknowledging it early and openly is what's weird. Most players won't see it, even of those that put ~40+ hours into the game. They could have punted on it, and then commented on it a few weeks from now.