First off, there will be names and minor plot/thematic spoilers for Fire Emblem Fates, so if you wanna go in completely clean, probably best to avoid this.
Second, this is not dealing with the likelihood/necessity of censorship. That's a bigger topic, and not what I want to focus on.
So, Fire Emblem if came out, and Japan and import GAF are tearing away at it, while us 2nd tier citizens have to wait till 2016 for Fates
It's pretty lame that the rest of the world has to wait so long for localization, when other companies have made it a priority to reduce the lag between regions. Square Enix gets their non-Dragon Quest games out within 4 - 5 months, Atlus has been doing games in 6 months or less (RIP Europe), NISA's been getting Disgaea out quicker, XSEED with internal Marvelous stuff, and so on.
Nintendo gets some of the big games out everywhere reasonably (Pokemon and Mario), but still has problems in that regard (Yoshi being a notable recent one).
Yes, Fire Emblem wasn't the biggest series in times past, but Fire Emblem Awakening was a huge hit among Western gamers. Heck, it did better in the US alone than in Japan. It would make sense then to capitalize on this by making sure Fates isn't so far out. But what can you do, it's Nintendo.
Let's not even get into the release schedules/potential timing, cause, just ugh.
Well, having to wait sucks, sure, but hey, they can't just pluck a good translation out of a tree. Ok, that's cool, but interpreting the content itself isn't the only problem.
Another big problem with Fire Emblem localization is that, in 2015, in a T rated game, we still have to deal with name changes.
Now don't get me wrong, I didn't have an issue with the names themselves in previous games, but this causes a but of disconnect with the Japanese players.
When going through the if thread, us US peasants may see characters like Kamui, Marx, Aqua, etc mentioned, getting a general understanding of characters, but when it comes tome for is to finally play it, there won't be a Marx or Aqua and so on. So for people that do want to follow import impressions, but don't want to constantly have to correct themselves later on, this is really annoying. Japanese players will have the same problem if they wanna join in next year.
Now wait just a minute...*Avatar Quote*
Pokemon is a different case, where names are often based around puns (in whatever language), and since it is primarily a childrens' series, must be able to appeal to the widest demographics of the respective regions. This isn't the case with Fire Emblem, where names seem to be changed arbitrarily. Unless you can tell me what special meaning "Xander" or "Azura" have.
Now I mentioned name changes not being a problem for me before, but they are a big deal now.
As you may know, Nohr and Hoshido are based around European and Japanese cultures, respectively. Names carry greater weight than before, and Treehouse kind of sees this as well.
As such they've chosen to keep certain names more similar, but in doing so, have caused a mess. Characters have name changes for no particular reason.
Leon is now Leo, Kazahana is Hana, Tsubaki is Subaki. What is even the point of this? The names are extremely similar, but they just dropped some letters because..?
Going back to the cause of the main character, Kamui in if and Corrin in Fates, the change was also dumb. The character is the child of Queen Mikoto (in if, dunno what she'll be in Fates) of Hoshido, a Japanese themed kingdom. It would make sense for the child to be named Kamui, a Japanese name. But nope, the character is now Corrin, cause why not.
(The following is a spoiler for certain characters. I won't make it immediately clear, but I caution you before revealing the spoiler).
While I doubt name/location changes would affect localization time to a great degree, it certainly doesn't help.
Going back to long localization times, yeah waiting is bad sure, but nothing new. We'll just have to tough it. Ok, this wouldn't be the biggest deal if it weren't for something introduced in Awakening. That something being special post-release DLC.
Awakening came out in Japan quite some time before the rest of the world. During this time, NCL interacted with fans and made some cool stuff in response.
NCL held polls for everyones' favorite characters, and from those results, certain characters got some special fanservice (males and females), and I thought it was fun.
Now again, I don't necessarily have a problem with the results (Owain is the greatest), but it would've been nice if other regions also had input on this. The results might have been different, we might have had different DLC. Those poll results still have an impact even today, so it's definitely a big deal.
If they wanted to do regional polls instead of a worldwide one, I'd be ok with that, but it'd definitely be a lot more work.
I would rather get Japan flavored DLC than none at all, but with the game blowing up elsewhere, we deserve a voice too.
This might be a moot point, cause there haven't been any announcements for if/Fates, but after the success of Awakening, I don't see why they wouldn't do this.
So how does everyone else feel on this?
I doubt anyone's a fan of waiting, but what about name changes and the like?
Are you also angry at the DLC (potentially in this case) situation?
Second, this is not dealing with the likelihood/necessity of censorship. That's a bigger topic, and not what I want to focus on.
Please don't cut content, Nintendo of America.
So, Fire Emblem if came out, and Japan and import GAF are tearing away at it, while us 2nd tier citizens have to wait till 2016 for Fates
It's pretty lame that the rest of the world has to wait so long for localization, when other companies have made it a priority to reduce the lag between regions. Square Enix gets their non-Dragon Quest games out within 4 - 5 months, Atlus has been doing games in 6 months or less (RIP Europe), NISA's been getting Disgaea out quicker, XSEED with internal Marvelous stuff, and so on.
Nintendo gets some of the big games out everywhere reasonably (Pokemon and Mario), but still has problems in that regard (Yoshi being a notable recent one).
Yes, Fire Emblem wasn't the biggest series in times past, but Fire Emblem Awakening was a huge hit among Western gamers. Heck, it did better in the US alone than in Japan. It would make sense then to capitalize on this by making sure Fates isn't so far out. But what can you do, it's Nintendo.
Let's not even get into the release schedules/potential timing, cause, just ugh.
Well, having to wait sucks, sure, but hey, they can't just pluck a good translation out of a tree. Ok, that's cool, but interpreting the content itself isn't the only problem.
Another big problem with Fire Emblem localization is that, in 2015, in a T rated game, we still have to deal with name changes.
Now don't get me wrong, I didn't have an issue with the names themselves in previous games, but this causes a but of disconnect with the Japanese players.
When going through the if thread, us US peasants may see characters like Kamui, Marx, Aqua, etc mentioned, getting a general understanding of characters, but when it comes tome for is to finally play it, there won't be a Marx or Aqua and so on. So for people that do want to follow import impressions, but don't want to constantly have to correct themselves later on, this is really annoying. Japanese players will have the same problem if they wanna join in next year.
Now wait just a minute...*Avatar Quote*
Pokemon is a different case, where names are often based around puns (in whatever language), and since it is primarily a childrens' series, must be able to appeal to the widest demographics of the respective regions. This isn't the case with Fire Emblem, where names seem to be changed arbitrarily. Unless you can tell me what special meaning "Xander" or "Azura" have.
Now I mentioned name changes not being a problem for me before, but they are a big deal now.
As you may know, Nohr and Hoshido are based around European and Japanese cultures, respectively. Names carry greater weight than before, and Treehouse kind of sees this as well.
As such they've chosen to keep certain names more similar, but in doing so, have caused a mess. Characters have name changes for no particular reason.
Leon is now Leo, Kazahana is Hana, Tsubaki is Subaki. What is even the point of this? The names are extremely similar, but they just dropped some letters because..?
Going back to the cause of the main character, Kamui in if and Corrin in Fates, the change was also dumb. The character is the child of Queen Mikoto (in if, dunno what she'll be in Fates) of Hoshido, a Japanese themed kingdom. It would make sense for the child to be named Kamui, a Japanese name. But nope, the character is now Corrin, cause why not.
(The following is a spoiler for certain characters. I won't make it immediately clear, but I caution you before revealing the spoiler).
Certain characters are also very dependent on their names, and honestly, I cannot see how they will work well in English. Maybe Treehouse will surprise is, but I can't help but feel it'll be clunky at best, or completely lose the meaning at worst.
While I doubt name/location changes would affect localization time to a great degree, it certainly doesn't help.
Going back to long localization times, yeah waiting is bad sure, but nothing new. We'll just have to tough it. Ok, this wouldn't be the biggest deal if it weren't for something introduced in Awakening. That something being special post-release DLC.
Awakening came out in Japan quite some time before the rest of the world. During this time, NCL interacted with fans and made some cool stuff in response.
NCL held polls for everyones' favorite characters, and from those results, certain characters got some special fanservice (males and females), and I thought it was fun.
Now again, I don't necessarily have a problem with the results (Owain is the greatest), but it would've been nice if other regions also had input on this. The results might have been different, we might have had different DLC. Those poll results still have an impact even today, so it's definitely a big deal.
If they wanted to do regional polls instead of a worldwide one, I'd be ok with that, but it'd definitely be a lot more work.
I would rather get Japan flavored DLC than none at all, but with the game blowing up elsewhere, we deserve a voice too.
This might be a moot point, cause there haven't been any announcements for if/Fates, but after the success of Awakening, I don't see why they wouldn't do this.
So how does everyone else feel on this?
I doubt anyone's a fan of waiting, but what about name changes and the like?
Are you also angry at the DLC (potentially in this case) situation?