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XSeed giving LUNAR PSP a fresh translation
- Thread starter May16
- Start date
So they use the old translation as a base.
I don't know if I should be happy or not.
I've never played a Lunar game, so a new translation was totally fine with me.
Anyways, as long as the end result is good, I don't care.
I wish more people would wait for the game to be out and localized before deciding the localization is gonna suck just because, it would be less childish.
I don't know if I should be happy or not.
I've never played a Lunar game, so a new translation was totally fine with me.
Anyways, as long as the end result is good, I don't care.
I wish more people would wait for the game to be out and localized before deciding the localization is gonna suck just because, it would be less childish.
Gokurakumaru
Banned
duckroll said:
This logic falls down the moment you realise you aren't the (only) audience they're pitching the game at. So while you, Segata, and co. post your opinions -- though some of the "opinions" in this thread are coming off more like psychotic rants -- I'm just piping in to say "hey, developers, don't bow to the pressure because I want a more faithful translation." I have money too, y'know. I don't miss the 90s and the loose localizations where the translators seemed more concerned with amusing themselves than telling the story they were tasked with. Alundra also springs to mind here.
Gokurakumaru
Banned
Hey if calling you guys selfish -- "publish the game my way or I won't buy regardless of how good your translation is" -- counts as whining then I guess I'm whining. I'm curious why you chose to call me out on that point though, because there's a whole thread full of whiners to pick from in here.
I never told you not to express your opinion. I just think it's a really silly and close-minded opinion to have.
I never told you not to express your opinion. I just think it's a really silly and close-minded opinion to have.
dark_preacher
Member
i'd pay 50-60 bucks for this if it had vic behind the helm with a working designs style packaging + puppet.
drools - man that would be so awesome.
drools - man that would be so awesome.
Gokurakumaru said:
I'm only being as selfish as XSEED is being regarding RGC2. What's this crap about "more people has to buy RGC or we won't publish the sequel regardless of how much you liked the first one"?
There's nothing silly or close-minded about the fact that I don't really give a crap about a Lunar remake as a game, but I would collect it if it involved the English cast and writer of the original that I played. Is that so hard to understand?
It was stated all the way back in post #172 that they'd use the WD script as a base... I was wondering why everyone seemed to gloss over that.
So silly, most of the time fans complain about translations not following the source, here, we have a promise to follow the source closer, and it's a problem... :lol
Sorry things didn't turn out in your negotiations Vic, but know that the fact you tried is appreciated by one more Working Designs Fan! (I still want another Vanguard Bandits!)
Hope to see a strong mark of WD's character work make an impression in this newer translation. I would'a loved to have heard news of cast reunions and the return of much of the original team work worked on the PS1 US games and such, and I really think it woulda been a great thing to experience.
But it's hard to fault a company for following their own vision... until we see how good it is! I really hope they know how much they have to live up to.
Anyone know how close this remake is staying to the original Japanese games? Are they getting back any of their classic Seiyuu, for example?
So silly, most of the time fans complain about translations not following the source, here, we have a promise to follow the source closer, and it's a problem... :lol
Sorry things didn't turn out in your negotiations Vic, but know that the fact you tried is appreciated by one more Working Designs Fan! (I still want another Vanguard Bandits!)
Hope to see a strong mark of WD's character work make an impression in this newer translation. I would'a loved to have heard news of cast reunions and the return of much of the original team work worked on the PS1 US games and such, and I really think it woulda been a great thing to experience.
But it's hard to fault a company for following their own vision... until we see how good it is! I really hope they know how much they have to live up to.
Anyone know how close this remake is staying to the original Japanese games? Are they getting back any of their classic Seiyuu, for example?
Gokurakumaru
Banned
duckroll said:
Having a soft spot for the original translation I get. But not giving a crap about it as a game I don't. I don't see the point of buying if you're only in it to re-read old lines. But it's your call so whatever.
SAB CA said:
QFT.
charlequin said:
I've played the GBA version. That's why I specified a decent script. It's not like the only two possibilities for localizing the game are 'listless translation into elementary school english' and 'go beyond the source material and kick fidelity to the curb'. (Well, unless the Japanese script reads like My Weekly Reader to a Japanese audience too, in which case the GBA script is an accurate reflection of the original text.)
In any event, I hope XSEED at least breaks even on this, though I suspect I'm in the minority there.
xs_mini_neo
Banned
Isn't XSeed too poor to afford all the WD fanservice demands?
It's not a factor of people liking the game or not. If they took a loss on the first one, it's gonna be hard to justify the second one.duckroll said:I'm only being as selfish as XSEED is being regarding RGC2. What's this crap about "more people has to buy RGC or we won't publish the sequel regardless of how much you liked the first one"?
"God's Beard!"
Member
I guess ultimately, this game will be remade every generation, so we just have to wait until Vic and friends get a solid shot to prove they've still got it. I don't mind waiting until the next one. I did skip legend and dragon song. Who knows? Maybe someone will pick up the old team and get working on Lunar 3!
Please?
Please?
New translation or not, I'm still buying this game.
If I want to play the WD version (which I have converted onto my PSP), I just picked up a copy off of Amazon for $44 with everything (even the map), in excellent condition.
Lunar is one of my favorite RPG franchises. At some point, I've owned every game in the franchise from the PS remakes on (yes, even the crappy GBA and DS games, which I got rid of, thank god).
If I want to play the WD version (which I have converted onto my PSP), I just picked up a copy off of Amazon for $44 with everything (even the map), in excellent condition.
Lunar is one of my favorite RPG franchises. At some point, I've owned every game in the franchise from the PS remakes on (yes, even the crappy GBA and DS games, which I got rid of, thank god).
Segata Sanshiro
Member
I don't think Lunar 3 is ever going to happen. If the fantastic sales of Lunar: SSSC and Lunar 2: EBC in North America didn't spur anything into action, nothing ever will.God's Beard said:
charlequin
Banned
Gokurakumaru said:
"Faithfulness" (in this sense, anyway) is quite often not actually a positive thing when it comes to translation and localization.
Many of the most beloved jRPGs in English are infamous for having particularly dry and heavy scripts in the original Japanese -- partially as a result of linguistic differences between Japanese and English, partially because they may simply not be excellently scripted originally. An English script that brightens up the dialogue, fleshes out the individual characters, and engages the player in the world is, IMO, "faithful" in the important way (doing its best to bring the player into the game) even if the literal line-to-line translation is often taking liberties or injecting its own elements into the script.
Lunar is really probably the most prominent case of this (although Chrono Trigger comes close behind) -- WD's script is pitch-perfect, makes the characters extremely engaging, and really captures the full emotional range the game intends to evoke. (The voice acting for Ghaleon especially is also really just vital to his character working.) I think this -- producing a translation that helps the player feel engaged in the adventure the characters are undertaking and excited to read or hear everything they have to say -- is far more valuable than something that maintains a greater literal similarity to the original Japanese text.
Gokurakumaru said:
Who exactly is the audience that is only going to become interested in this game because they refuse to work with the original translator and voice cast? How large are they going to be in comparison to the number of people whose only potential interest in the game was seeing that group reunited?
I think it's worth noting the two separate reactions in this thread, as well. The initial reaction was one of concern but, I think, generally willing to grant some benefit of the doubt -- people knew XSEED was localizing this, we didn't know how they'd approach it, that left many of us skeptical that it would turn out well but at least theoretically willing to see how it turned out. Hearing that the original voice cast was lined up and Vic was willing to assist on the project and they got turned down makes it much harder to believe that the result is going to be worthwhile, and that's the reaction you're seeing now.
Tellaerin said:
I don't see how "kick fidelity to the curb" is an accurate description of WD's Lunar scripts, and I feel absolutely confident that a script that translated the literal meanings of the Japanese script without crafting almost every line to be humorous would not be nearly as engaging. Lunar's one of the only games where I make sure to go around and talk to every random NPC three times until they've repeated all their dialogue.
Macstorm said:
RGC is a game with fairly minimal text, about ten voice clips, and low production values. There's no way the actual localization of the game could have cost much at all (relative to other niche titles that see release in the US.) The idea that the game would have to sell 100k (a ludicrously huge sum for anything that qualifies as a "niche" title in the US) to recoup its costs is frankly insane, and whether it's a serious number or a tossed-off "don't bother me, kid" it doesn't particularly endear me to XSEED either way.
mattiewheels
And then the LORD David Bowie saith to his Son, Jonny Depp: 'Go, and spread my image amongst the cosmos. For every living thing is in anguish and only the LIGHT shall give them reprieve.'
This is good for people like me who never played the original but was always intrigued by everybody's lve for it. Without nostolgia goggles, that old script might need a lot of work. So yeah, I'll finally be playing it.
TheChillyAcademic
Member
Having never played the originals, I am looking forward to playing the games finally, remake, re-release or whatever.
NichM said:
I personally suspect the biggest hurdle might have been a change in branding in Japan. GCCX was released in Japan under Namco's branding, but GCCX2 changed to Bandai's branding, which might either have escalated the licensing costs or made it entirely impossible to attain.
Still mad at XSEED for not doing the impossible though!
"God's Beard!"
Member
charlequin said:
Exactly. To a lot of us, no working designs is the same as Lunar Legend 2.0. I'm sure XSEED could prove us wrong, but we've been burned before. At this point, I'm pretty pessimistic.
Tellaerin said:
I never said it was worthless. I just said I was disappointed with potential changes. I'm still interested in this, but I'll have to wait and see it for myself before I can judge it.
Even though now it seems XSEED is using WD's old script as a base. And that makes me hopeful it will be much better than Ubisoft's version. It's still unclear exactly how much, and what is changed. Are they reusing the old voice actors recordings? will those old recordings fit with this new game? Or are they recasting the voices?
God's Beard said:
Exactly Ubisoft's version has tainted my expectations of a Lunar without Vic and WD.
Segata Sanshiro
Member
That "old" script is from mid-99. It's not like we're clawing back into the NES era here.mattiewheels said:
charlequin
Banned
NichM said:
Yeah, but that just raises the question of why the first RGC was a worthwhile project, then! If the licensing fee so massively dwarfed the localization cost that 100k was the target, XSEED must have taken a huge bath on the game, and an entirely predictable one since there was no way on Earth that game was going to sell over 100k.
And even then, if the interviews were like "it sucks but it really doesn't look like RGC2 is a feasible project for us" instead of "go buy our game! If you hit a ludicrously infeasible target we'll bring out the sequel!" I feel like it would come off a lot better....
Segata Sanshiro said:
And far ahead of the pack in terms of ca.-1999 localizations, too.
mattiewheels
And then the LORD David Bowie saith to his Son, Jonny Depp: 'Go, and spread my image amongst the cosmos. For every living thing is in anguish and only the LIGHT shall give them reprieve.'
:lol Huh. Why do think segacd when I think of lunar? I guess I'm thinking of a different version.Segata Sanshiro said:
duckroll said:
Who published it, since I hear the original development studio is dead. I hear some of them created Nude Maker?
One of the things I really loved about VB/ES (DG?) was the parody opening. I knew WD's obviously put a lot of personality into the games themselves, even then, but when the games actually had things like this, and the "Ruin" story path, it made me really wish to see such personality in more games. Just like in Lunar, with Kyle's failed attempt at crossdressing, games that had fun personalities to begin with, really agreed with WD translation methods.
I'd love to see XSEED do some fun things, like opening song outtakes, liner notes, etc. You'd think they'd do SOMETHING to appeal to some of the WD fans, other than just script and cast involved things. It would be really stupid to not work with some of the WD groundwork that has been set into Western Lunar fan's minds.
grandjedi6
Master of the Google Search
Hero of Legend actually managed to elude an answer to that ridiculous figure with one of his endless barrages of emails to that poor poor man at Xseed:charlequin said:
charlequin
Banned
grandjedi6 said:
Oh, now I feel a little bad for hating on them over that. But not bad enough that I'm going to start reading that terrible thread. :lol
Christopher
Member
Can we see what the damn Alex puppet looks like all this talk of it and I wanted to see what it looks like.
Christopher said:
This is the only image I could find on Google.
http://www.lunar-net.com/merchandise/puppets/alex4.jpg
rainking187
Member
Hobbun said:
Dragon Song was terrible, but I quite liked Legends. I'm not sure why it gets so much hate.
Ericsc said:
The puppet went through a bunch of revisions. The one on the box was Rev 1 because we needed a pic at that moment so the box could go to print. I have a number of prototypes, all are different in some way. The Dragomaster helmet as all plastic made the head too heavy and it tended to lean, so later versions had a cloth helmet over a hollow frame, etc, etc, etc. The tweaks were seemingly endless. But the picture one here is about 75% of what the last proto looked like.
I'm not worried, Xseed does good locolization work even if some of the games they choose to bring over are....wierd at best.
As for not having the punching puppet I hope you guys are joking about that being a deal breaker. It probally simply isn't practical to make them at a cost Xseed could afford.
Well all those xtras WD did where nice you have to admit that was also a large reason why they went out of buisness in the long run.
Have you ever considered they didn't want Vic becuse of how legendary slow he is? WD games where almost always late and maybe they didn't want to delay the remake any more then nessisary :lol
As for not having the punching puppet I hope you guys are joking about that being a deal breaker. It probally simply isn't practical to make them at a cost Xseed could afford.
Well all those xtras WD did where nice you have to admit that was also a large reason why they went out of buisness in the long run.
Have you ever considered they didn't want Vic becuse of how legendary slow he is? WD games where almost always late and maybe they didn't want to delay the remake any more then nessisary :lol
SAB CA said:
http://www.jp.playstation.com/software/title/jp0571npjj00291_000000000000000001.html
Hamster has the publishing rights for the game now it seems. The original game was by Human, and while the founder of Nude Maker did come from Human, I don't think he worked on Epica Stella itself. He mostly worked on their quirkier titles like Clocktower and Neko Samurai. The people who worked on those games with him are also at Nude Maker.