Sqorgar said:
It's okay to have cultural flavor that may be lost on the player, yet doesn't greatly impact things. If the ramen were a major plot point (like it is in AA4), then explain it. Otherwise, players will happily ignore it. I'm willing to believe that the change to hamburger was more an attempt to place the series in its strange America than an attempt to hide cultural differences or adapt them to other tastes.
It depends on if her being a "Fast Food Girl" is a running joke or not... or if it's an integral part of her personality, really. If it's an idea that's important to the character then it should be made clear to the audience. When you say "Ramen" to someone, does it mean "Fast Food"? If not, and the point is important, it should be changed.
As for the place setting of the title, I guess the point is here, how much stock do the creators put into "this is a game set in Japan"? For Sega's Yakuza, changing all of the Japanese shops to Hamburgers would ruin the sense of place that the game has. Since the game mostly takes place in a courtroom, it might matter less. I really don't know, as I haven't played the PW series that much.
My biggest pet peeve when it comes to translations. It's not just that it doesn't make sense, it's that apparently these translators have never been to the South and think we all talk like characters from Hee-Haw.
Yep. Kansai dialect has tons of different versions too, which is lost in translation.
But it doesn't matter whether it is a dumpling or a candy bar. Do you have any idea how much cultural identity a six year old child lacks already? A dumpling is one more thing they can ask their parents about, just like why electricity kicks water's ass.
In this case, it's more of a realization that "this is an edible item for my pokemon that causes them to get angry". If it's a dumpling, they may not know it's edible at first glance, because it's not as ubiquitous as Japan. In a game, you need an understanding of what items do what, so the name being understandable trumps the need "dumpling", in my mind. I liked the "Tantrum Brownie" example though, a perfect fit! :lol ... too bad it's too long
Is it the intent of the creator for the kid to go ask their parents about "dumpling"? Probably not.
So, you are suggesting a game in which you deal with people who commit cold blooded, grisly murder, with EXTENSIVE reading requirements is something that could serve a younger audience?
I just looked up and saw that it's a Teen game. So 13 and up. I guess that's young enough. I guess it's a question of where you draw the line. I think that there's no sweeping rule, and it should be a case by case basis, but games shouldn't be documentaries and have asides explaining the cultural relevance of takoyaki in Osaka if the point of the scene is that they are having a quick bite to eat.
Tellaerin said:
Or you can trust in your audience's ability to draw simple inferences from context. 'Wow, I guess in Japan, people go out and eat ramen like we go out for pizza!' Achievement Unlocked: Learned something about a foreign culture!
In the Ramen case, this
could be true, but in many many cases it can be difficult to infer context without cultural notes, which ruins the flow.
Edit:
About ramen, "Sushi" is pretty well known in the US, but going to ramen shops is not common. I'm from California and obviously we have tons of this stuff, but there are a bunch of states in the middle of the US that don't have that kind of exposure. And don't they call it "cup noodle" in the states? I actually think that translating it as "let's go have some noodles", ala Ghostbusters, could work, but I don't know if it will solve either problem satisfactorily.