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The Kiseki / Trails (of the Sky/Zero/Ao/Sen/Etc) Community Thread: SPOILERTAGS OR DIE

Gu4n

Member
I can't help but feel this will ultimately hurt their chances of localization rather than help them. With their Steam versions being via Joyoland, XSEED will have to play ball with THEM as well as Falcom now, putting it in the same Licensing Hell as the Evo versions of the games.

And then there's the matter that the most diehard fans of the series now are going to just buy Joyoland's version and plug fan-translations in instead of waiting for XSEED even if they can get anywhere with the license, making such an effort even more futile
The games by Joyoland have been out for years. Having them accessible through Steam now changes nothing. It also definitely doesn't put XSEED in the same licensing hell as the Evolution games posed.
 

chaosblade

Unconfirmed Member
The releases will only be problematic if Joyoland decides to try their hand at English versions. If they have the license for an English PC release, that's where things get messy.

If they just release Chinese Steam versions without the nasty DRM that is a net positive because they should be suitable and potentially easily available for use with the fan translation. And it shouldn't make any difference regarding English releases, XSEED could still work with Joyoland or someone else to release English versions.

Assuming XSEED doesn't make an announcement before the fan translation hits, I'd imagine the people willing to play the fan translation are people who would be willing to double dip to support an official English release.
 
Question: I'm playing Sky FC and
Tita
left my party for the third time. While still wearing my Information Quartz. Will I get that back before the end of the chapter, or is it gone? Same goes for the stuff I put on
Agate
, though I don't care as much. I'm about to go to
Leiston Fortress.
 

preta

Member
Question: I'm playing Sky FC and
Tita
left my party for the third time. While still wearing my Information Quartz. Will I get that back before the end of the chapter, or is it gone? Same goes for the stuff I put on
Agate
, though I don't care as much. I'm about to go to
Leiston Fortress.

Generally, what happens is that you get it back instantly if the character would have new equipment the next time they rejoin, but they'll keep it until they return otherwise. Either way, you'll get it back.
 
Assuming XSEED doesn't make an announcement before the fan translation hits, I'd imagine the people willing to play the fan translation are people who would be willing to double dip to support an official English release.

Man, Trails fans are real optimists, huh?

Every other game I've wanted an official localization for in the past decade that's had a fan-translation released, everyone puts their boot down that the ship sailed the moment the fan translation came out, if not when it was announced.
 

chaosblade

Unconfirmed Member
Man, Trails fans are real optimists, huh?

Every other game I've wanted an official localization for in the past decade that's had a fan-translation released, everyone puts their boot down that the ship sailed the moment the fan translation came out, if not when it was announced.

I guess that might happen? I'd hope the fans aren't dumb enough to refuse to support the series, because you know they would go on to complain about XSEED dropping the series afterwards. It already feels like it's on life support and we're lucky to be getting 3rd at all.
 

JudgeRAW00

Neo Member
I will be more than happy to Google Translate the Chinese Ports if need be, I just need easier access to the games. Very exciting :) but with The 3rd coming soon I imagine we will get an update on Crossbell and Cold Steel 3 for the West when it is released.
 

apd_ng

Member
Good squad / strat for final Sky FC final dungeon?

Got up to it on psp, gave up because my squad was ass and blue chests just owned me

close to it on a replay, wondering what's a nice strat
 

Nyoro SF

Member
Good squad / strat for final Sky FC final dungeon?

Got up to it on psp, gave up because my squad was ass and blue chests just owned me

close to it on a replay, wondering what's a nice strat

Try to fire off arts instead of relying on physical attacks. Build your team around art casting power (ATS) and speed (SPD). Try to use low-tier and middle-tier arts instead of the huge ones to get better damage over time and to have less delay/recovery.
 

Paches

Member
Just beat CS2:

Lol at the literal twist after twist, then twisting the twist. Full on Empire Strikes back.

E:
Apparently there is more - Crossbell stuff. Pulled the trigger a bit too quick there!
 
I will be more than happy to Google Translate the Chinese Ports if need be, I just need easier access to the games. Very exciting :) but with The 3rd coming soon I imagine we will get an update on Crossbell and Cold Steel 3 for the West when it is released.
Personally I am the same. At this point as long as I can and understand it, I am okay with it.
 

Gu4n

Member
Yes it's Barkhorn. It looks like the pink girl's family name is Ford?
Since most people will be thinking it's Reinford, I assume Falcom is actually going with Ford here.
Catherine_Ford_%28Akatsuki%29.jpg
Another Ford, Katarina Ford, was recently re-introduced in Akatsuki no Kiseki. She's a bracer, medic and Bracer Guild receptionist in Remiferia. She was first mentioned in the Back Alley Doctor Glen book series in Zero no Kiseki.
 

duckroll

Member
Since most people will be thinking it's Reinford, I assume Falcom is actually going with Ford here.

Another Ford, Katarina Ford, was recently re-introduced in Akatsuki no Kiseki. She's a bracer, medic and Bracer Guild receptionist in Remiferia. She was first mentioned in the Back Alley Doctor Glen book series in Zero no Kiseki.

Yes it's Ford. Unrelated to Reinford. In Japanese Reinford ends with ~foruto. The Ford here is Foodo. Which fits this other character's name.
 
Since most people will be thinking it's Reinford, I assume Falcom is actually going with Ford here.

Another Ford, Katarina Ford, was recently re-introduced in Akatsuki no Kiseki. She's a bracer, medic and Bracer Guild receptionist in Remiferia. She was first mentioned in the Back Alley Doctor Glen book series in Zero no Kiseki.

So a major character in CSIII might be related to a character who was mentioned in a book series in Zero, and then showed up in a browser game? This series, I tell you what...
 

Gu4n

Member
So a major character in CSIII might be related to a character who was mentioned in a book series in Zero, and then showed up in a browser game? This series, I tell you what...
It's how Toval came about. First as a character in a book series, then one of the main characters of a manga, and in Cold Steel he shows up in-game.
 

Asd202

Member
So I just finished the black records quest from CSII and holy shit
there are 2 Sept-Terrion in Erebonia and 7 Divine knights?!
The setup for CSIII is amazing...
 

Paches

Member
CS2 Ending question:

Does the Epilogue Old Schoolhouse dungeon end? Or is it hours and hours long? I want to move on to Berseria at some point!
 

Nyoro SF

Member
CS2 Ending question:

Does the Epilogue Old Schoolhouse dungeon end? Or is it hours and hours long? I want to move on to Berseria at some point!

I think it is 16 floors total. You can run through the whole thing in less than an hour, provided that you nuke everything in sight.
 

PK Gaming

Member
They dropped a tournament arc in the final chapter of TiTS and it's the greatest fucking thing ever

and we get to compete yessssssssss
 

SolVanderlyn

Thanos acquires the fully powered Infinity Gauntlet in The Avengers: Infinity War, but loses when all the superheroes team up together to stop him.
Dear Falcom,

Please make Kurt Nardin a large part of Cold Steel III.

If this isn't possible, Anelace please.

Sincerely,

Nardinfan20XX
 

Hatsuu

XSEED
I said I’d maybe turn the Q&A into a blog, but I think we won’t be shifting towards 3rd-related stuff for a while, so I figured it wouldn’t hurt to clear up some of the stuff piling up here. Thank you for the feedback! And it’s real sweet to read some of the kind comments along the way.

Also, sorry ahead of time for any typos since I’m not doing a second pass on these answers. I’m just kinda vomiting out on the keyboard the first thing that comes to mind and not really checking for perfection. I’m also sorry if anything comes across as harsh… I have the utmost respect for anyone and everyone involved with the series because this series is an absolute monster to deal with, even for losers like me who enjoy going back to each game and reading the script for fun and obsessively keep records for every little thing.
I’ll answer a few questions at a time.


I'm playing TiTS for the first time and I was wondering if there were any differences in the characterization for some of the characters between the NA and JP version? You mentioned how characters like Rean and Laura were tweaked in CS, and I was wondering if that applied to TiTS as well.
The first Sky game I’ve done from beginning to end is 3rd—my contribution to FC was brushing up the PC version, and, well…let’s just say SC’s whole story is long and torturous. The short version of that is a lot of characters didn’t quite line up with FC’s and lots of adjustments were made throughout to be both loyal to the Japanese interpretations while not causing other characters to do a complete 180. Basically two different lead editors = sometimes wildly different interpretations and it took a lot of work to marry the two in the main story.

Knowing the series as it is now, I think it’s quite fine, but I’d like to still go back and tweak FC/SC since the games have grown so much. I feel bad altering the works of others before me, though…so maybe I should keep to just the 3rd and Cold Steel 2, lol.
I believe no one is THAT different from the Japanese, but one thing is that Estelle comes across as a bit more…fierce? In English. This is more due to the lead editor of FC, Jess, who naturally inserted a bit of herself in Estelle to very positive reception. I won’t say she’s different, and not even necessarily more spacy in the Japanese, but er… I guess I’m not good at explaining it. It’s not 1:1 the same person, but it’s not a drastic alteration, either. What’s in English works.

I think in cases of Rean and Laura, the lead editor for the first game, Nick, and I are in agreement—it’s not the words that make the character. It’s the air, the body language, the flow. Had we been more literal with Laura and gone more formal or old-school with her, it straight up would’ve sounded stupid as all hell in English. It’s distinguishable in the Japanese, but it’s not impossibly awkward, either. That’s not the case for English, but I don’t think we ignored what made Laura “Laura,” either. Everyone understands Laura’s character just fine in the English even with a more natural delivery (I was also incredibly happy with having Marisha for the character…).

Same thing with Rean. We didn’t change Rean at his core—for every line, we consider who his character is and how he would think or react. It’s not 1:1 with the Japanese, but it’s not like he was lost or drastically altered, either.

I wonder if this makes any sense… I just want to express that we don’t have any interest in losing what the Japanese wants to share and we consider a lot with each character we edit, but we also want to interpret in such a way that it doesn’t sound stilted in the language it’s being localized in.


What about the censored content in the 3rd (The stuff Falcom removed from the Psp version)? I'm assuming that would raise the ESRB rating to M. What kind of challenges would that pose?
An ESRB rating is not necessary for PC-only titles, and none of our PC-only titles have one for that exact reason. Either way, we don’t have any intention of removing any content and would have been fine even adding it back into the PSP version if that version were possible (it’s not). I’m not sure people who’ve played the FC/SC games would suddenly see the “M” rating on the 3rd and go, “Whoa! That’s too much for me. Not gonna play that.”, so it doesn’t change anything.


I noticed XSEED uses "Calvardian", "Erebonian", and "Liberlian" for describing the citizens of these countries, so may I ask why "Crossbellan" was used in CS2 instead of "Crossbellian"?
I didn’t choose any of those terms, but it doesn’t work that way in real life, so I don’t think all those have to necessarily match, haha. You can be an American citizen, an Irish citizen, Canadian, Japanese, and the list goes on. I’d have to read more on why those are written the way they are, but I think whoever made those terms just chose what they chose for flow.

Like, I guess if we had to choose something for a citizen from Leman, I’d probably go with Lemanese because it flows nicely.


No questions, but thank you for the consistently good localisations. No random accents like FFXV's British Ignis, no grating voices, some extra effort compared to the Japanese script, even (someone link that Rean voice actor article). I can't say how much it's appreciated.
Haha, I thought Ignis was from an area where those accents were commonplace? I don’t have any experience with FFXV’s Japanese (I love Noctis’ English voice a lot, who also happens to be our Duke Cayenne).

I don’t have any interest in accents in the Trails games because nothing seems to indicate any one region has a super special accent. Becky’s accent was chosen because she has a very obvious one in Japanese and the translator happens to be Glaswegian, so instead of awkwardly learning an accent and risking uses some terms unnaturally, Becky was about as authentic as you could get. But her and her family’s accent (at least on her dad’s side) doesn’t seem to indicate she’s from any particular country, which is kinda interesting.
 
An ESRB rating is not necessary for PC-only titles, and none of our PC-only titles have one for that exact reason. Either way, we don’t have any intention of removing any content and would have been fine even adding it back into the PSP version if that version were possible (it’s not). I’m not sure people who’ve played the FC/SC games would suddenly see the “M” rating on the 3rd and go, “Whoa! That’s too much for me. Not gonna play that.”, so it doesn’t change anything.
with the rumored costs involved with ESRB ratings. The decision to just skip them when they arent necessary makes a lot of sense
 

Hatsuu

XSEED
First of all, thanks for your and your team hard work bringing this excellent series to the west. A few things I would find it interesting seeing in future blog updates:
- Bugs. Because these are hilarious.
- A little bit about the dictionary of terms you guys use during localization. If or what has changed ? Anything particularly difficult for translation ? Little details that the team likes or find it amusing or intriguing, those kind of things.
- It would also be great to use the dictionary talk to remind a little about all organizations in play, especially because of the 3rd.
- Who comes with the talking treasure chests in TitS and the jokes in Cold Steel ? Personally, it's one of the little things that I miss from playing the japanese releases.
-Any chances we will see a bundle of the games on Steam and/or PSN someday ? Trails games are the kind of that you cannot play just the first game so the bundle makes sense.
-Who's the favorite character for everyone on the team ?

RE Bugs: I love posting bugs because we’re all human and laugh at stupid shit. Sure.

RE Terms: Some terms have changed over localization. The thing with Trails is that some random term mentioned by that nameless NPC that one time is brought up four games later, except no one really remembers that and so some other interpretation gets thrown out that’s equally valid and suddenly we’re in localization hell. This kind of thing inspired me to create a terminology bible as I read over every line in the script. No matter how small or seemingly unimportant information was, I wrote it down in an easy-to-search bible. This HAS given rise to a couple of “oh, shit” moments where I found discrepancies for minor terms, but it also makes me grateful for the PC version where such things can be patched.

For the Cold Steel arc, our translator for 1 and 2 came up with the majority of terms himself. He’s just as passionate about the series and more knowledgeable about it as a whole, and he’s the one I trust the most with these sorts of things. I wouldn’t trust anyone else at this point with such decisions. We also communicate on a daily basis and he fully outlines his reasons for settling on the terms he’s settled upon while also being completely transparent on what the original was. So things like
Awakener
are him.

I think probably my biggest term contribution was
”Divergent Laws.” I think fans originally called this the “Outside Reason,” or something. The original text in SC had this word as “Laws of the Beyond,” but to be blunt, we don’t know what the hell this is. Is it a world? A concept? How do things like Ouroboros’ weapons come from this? For what we’ve been told, this thing still doesn’t make sense, and I didn’t want us to choose a term that couldn’t easily be melded into something else. I think the shorter term works for something so mysterious, and no matter what it turns out to be, we can kind of work with it to suit us.

I remember revamping military titles for FC/SC and continuing to use those terms in the Cold Steel arc after reading up on various military positions and asking a friend who was retired military about the various duties involved with each position. That was a loooooooooot of work.

As far as organizations in play goes, as lore-heavy as the series is by 3rd, it’s not quite as “big” a story as FC/SC are. I actually love editing it because it’s a bit more focused. This is a story that strongly emphasizes personal character development even compared to other games in the series, so while there are bigger organizations at play and you should absolutely play FC/SC first to have a solid foundation on the world and characters, you won’t necessarily need an A-to-Z brushing up on everything that’s going on in Liberl or Zemuria.

For treasure chests—Jess was FC, SC was between several members in the office. Cold Steel 2 was between me and Nick.

A bundle for the Sky games on Steam is certainly possible, but it’s a ways off. Some legal issues are preventing it at this time, I believe (don’t know the extent of it), so please don’t let that stop you from supporting 3rd, as it’s not coming any time soon. For PSN, no.

Favorite Character:
Jess – Can’t ask right now but pretty sure she’s always been #TeamAgate.
Kris – He did the Thors NPCs and grew quite close to them as a whole. Maybe Vincent?
Nick – Sara and Thomas. He also loved writing Victor and Osborne.
Me – Crow. Crow. Crow. Crow. Also Crow. As far as protagonists go, I’m falling for Kevin pretty hard. I also had a lot of fun writing Duvalie and McBurn.
Dan – Renne.


1. Was the pronunciation of the countries a guesswork at the OG Japanese, based off of different accents, or what? I ask this cuz I flat-out bricked a ton of pronunciations in my head before hearing them in CS1 (Cal-VARD, CROSS-b'll, etc). lol
2. Keep being awesome! I await 3rd with barely contained enthusiasm.

Thanks for the second bit! :D For the first, Some were just how I personally read them if there was no obvious origin, while others I looked up. Crossbell’s was easy because of the state’s emblem, at least!

One I know we messed up with Sharon’s last name. Rather, we’re pronouncing it the same as the Japanese, but we should’ve switched the u and e for the spelling. Oops. I know French folks also don’t like how we pronounce Bleublanc, but I don’t really worry too much about it because Falcom generally writes his name as something weird (“Blbranc”).

I think it’s good we had a bunch of people discussing how to say names. I chose some, Nick chose others. I initially thought to say Rean’s last name a bit more with a German sound to it, but he was like, no, that’s dumb. He’s right. Trying to force people to go out of their natural accents for random words isn’t the smart way to go when there’s an easier solution that the majority will be A-OK with, really. We do it in real life all the time.
 

Nyoro SF

Member
Thanks for the post Hatsuu.

I think Rean's last name sounding more German-accented might've been cool at first, but would probably sound overextended on someone who doesn't have a natural German accent. Same situation with Laura potentially sounding like a knight straight from the Middle Ages, lol.

It's kind of a shame that there currently isn't a chance for a bundle of the games on Steam. Hope that can get ironed out.
 

duckroll

Member
I think probably my biggest term contribution was
”Divergent Laws.” I think fans originally called this the “Outside Reason,” or something. The original text in SC had this word as “Laws of the Beyond,” but to be blunt, we don’t know what the hell this is. Is it a world? A concept? How do things like Ouroboros’ weapons come from this? For what we’ve been told, this thing still doesn’t make sense, and I didn’t want us to choose a term that couldn’t easily be melded into something else. I think the shorter term works for something so mysterious, and no matter what it turns out to be, we can kind of work with it to suit us.

This is a very interesting discussion point so I think I'll join in. :)

In Japanese it's "外の理" right? It seems pretty obvious to me as to what the intent is. Divergent Laws is a really elegant solution to the problem without knowing exactly what it refers to, but I would say the context provided in the games suggest that it's simply their way of saying "beyond human understanding" or more literally "not obeying the laws of physics". The main theme that surrounds the Sept-Terrions is that each one represents an element in the Kiseki world. Which means that no matter how powerful or insane their purpose is, they are bound by our understanding of the elements and the laws of the physical world, even if the source of their powers defy existing technology.

The weapons crafted created by the Grandmaster simply defy all understanding of the actual laws of physics, and are possibly not even of this dimension. That's how I've understood it. In fact, my belief is that whatever McBurn and Rean are "mixed" with, is very much the biological representation of these "Divergent Laws".
 

flohen95

Member
One I know we messed up with Sharon’s last name. Rather, we’re pronouncing it the same as the Japanese, but we should’ve switched the u and e for the spelling. Oops. I know French folks also don’t like how we pronounce Bleublanc, but I don’t really worry too much about it because Falcom generally writes his name as something weird (“Blbranc”).

I think it’s good we had a bunch of people discussing how to say names. I chose some, Nick chose others. I initially thought to say Rean’s last name a bit more with a German sound to it, but he was like, no, that’s dumb. He’s right. Trying to force people to go out of their natural accents for random words isn’t the smart way to go when there’s an easier solution that the majority will be A-OK with, really. We do it in real life all the time.

So it is supposed to be Krüger. I thought I was going mad when I first saw that it was written as Kreuger sometime during CS2 since my (german) brain autocorrected the eu to ue the entire time before. Though I guess it's not far off from how foreign names were corrupted during the US immigration process in the 19th century.

As for the last paragraph, were similar discussions had for Worzel and Regnitz (both germanic-looking names, with Worzel similar to Wurzel (root) and Regnitz being the name of a river in Bavaria)? Either way, I think the right choices were made there.
I often ponder how I would actually introduce myself when speaking English - should I just pronounce it the way I'd pronounce it in German or try to make it fit to the tone of the language I'm currently using, and I'm fairly certain I'd naturally (as in, if I weren't thinking about it) pronounce it with an English sound to it when speaking English. Even though I'm not actually sure how an English speaking person would pronounce my name. :p
 
So it is supposed to be Krüger. I thought I was going mad when I first saw that it was written as Kreuger sometime during CS2 since my (german) brain autocorrected the eu to ue the entire time before. Though I guess it's not far off from how foreign names were corrupted during the US immigration process in the 19th century.

As for the last paragraph, were similar discussions had for Worzel and Regnitz (both germanic-looking names, with Worzel similar to Wurzel (root) and Regnitz being the name of a river in Bavaria)? Either way, I think the right choices were made there.
I often ponder how I would actually introduce myself when speaking English - should I just pronounce it the way I'd pronounce it in German or try to make it fit to the tone of the language I'm currently using, and I'm fairly certain I'd naturally (as in, if I weren't thinking about it) pronounce it with an English sound to it when speaking English. Even though I'm not actually sure how an English speaking person would pronounce my name. :p
I've been working on learning Japanese for a little while now and have wondered the same thing. Converting my name to Katakana just sounds....eugh
 

Menthuss

Member

I can appreciate you guys being a bit loose with translations. I greatly prefer localisations where the translators focus on transferring the meaning behind the words to a different language instead of doing a direct translation (which often leads to rather stiff dialogue I've found).

Keep it up! Looking forward to 3rd :)
 
I can appreciate you guys being a bit loose with translations. I greatly prefer localisations where the translators focus on transferring the meaning behind the words to a different language instead of doing a direct translation (which often leads to rather stiff dialogue I've found).

Keep it up! Looking forward to 3rd :)
I wouldnt trust most companies to handle Laura as well as XSEED did
 

Hatsuu

XSEED
FWas there any character or situation that wound up being uniquely challenging to localize? Either through some nuance of language or something more abstract in the writing.

Also on a sorta related note, Becky is one of the greats in Cold Steel, and I was wondering how you guys came up with giving her such a thick Scottish accent. I mean, I presume she had a pretty thick regional accent in the original text but most times I see localizations handle accents it's giving the character in question sort of a southern twang. Was there any special association with the choice or was it just some thinking that a southern drawl wouldn't really fit into Erebonia?

Uniquely challenging is…a lot of the game. It’s hard to notice as much while playing the game, but when you’re staring each and every line in the face, it’s hard not to become paranoid you’re using a certain word or phrase too much. It’s more spaced out in context, but it becomes especially difficult while looking at text.

A personal thing I do a lot is cut information. Not censor, but just take out information that’s already been relayed for a more natural read. A lot of Japanese text tends to repeat information even when it’s totally not necessary, but for me, I feel like that completely dumbs down things. Players are smarter than that and they’ll notice when it sounds totally not natural.

However, a big challenge that comes with that is that we also have to use the same exact number of text boxes as the Japanese. I don’t know if all localization houses care about this, but I also tend to play the games pretty obsessively and tweak lines faced on facial expression and body language as well. So those are limits I have to work with that are quite challenging.

One example I have to work with is a side scene early on in Cold Steel II between Rean and Laura near one of the shrines.
Rean has a vision of some kind, and he tells Laura it included the Eisenritter. In the English, Laura responds as if it’s peculiar and wonders why he saw them. If we kept the Japanese, the English wouldn’t sounded something like, “The Eisenritter? As in the group led by the Lance Maiden?”

Laura, of ALL people, doesn’t need that sort of clarification. Maybe it was written out for the sake of the player, but this fact has thoroughly been beaten into the brains of the player by now, and there’s no reason to have Laura say some very unnatural line for someone in her position to relay that information to the player again.
Anyway, I know you’re probably thinking what’s difficult as in translation. There’s plenty like that because the series is still vague on a lot of details, but we’ve been doing our absolute best up till this point to track down foreshadowing and keep things vague the same way they are in the Japanese if something hasn’t been clarified because, well…it’s Trails. We never know what’s gonna come up next.

Answered the Becky question in a previous post. Hooray!


- Were there any gameplay elements that were changed or tweaked for a western release of any of the games? Could be anything from making orbment configurations clearer in TitS, to difficulty settings, etc.

- Also, could you name any instances where you had to compromise on a name for something or dialogue because of game restrictions (text box size, voiced lines, etc.).
- Any chance that Falcom could be persuaded to sell some licensed merch in the west (I have no idea how that stuff works)? I'd love to buy CDs, mugs, artbooks, keychains, etc. to help complete my circle of addiction and dedication.

I freaked out when I saw that tweet last year about the nun and the priest walking into a bar because my body knew what it meant, and all this time later, i'm most excited for 3rd out of anything else coming out next year because I absolutely adore the series with all my heart!

Lastly, thanks for all the fun and supporting the Trails series! Without you guys bringing these games over I would've never discovered the franchise, and I feel like my life is better because I got to have these experiences (and it's totally on my brain daily) :D
I can't wait for 3rd this year, and look forward to the future of the series in the west! (P.S. among the good VA-work/direction for CS2, Duvalie was a total treat)

For the PC versions of the Sky games, we’ve implemented little quality of life changes, but we haven’t tweaked difficultly or drastically altered gameplay or anything. Our programmer, Sara, would be the best person to ask for such details on what was added along with stuff that was on the PSP ports but not in the PC version (we added these so the PC version would be the best of both worlds).

In Cold Steel, there’s a quest involving a certain Phantom Thief and riddles, as per series tradition. The Japanese, however, had quest markers over the locations for the riddles, so even though it was meant to be a riddle, all you had to do was open the map and see where to go next. I asked if those quest markers could be removed for that particular quest in English because, like…they’re riddles. They’re not difficult, but the player should try solving them on their own. Falcom was totally cool with it and did so.
We also completely altered the
first credits
after the finale in Cold Steel II. There should be comparison videos online, probably, and all of this was done while working closely with Falcom’s dev team, who was all for it.

As for restrictions on text…one good thing about Trails is that boxes really aren’t fixed width. When something was especially long in the English in battle menus or windows, rather than cut something, I usually asked Falcom if they could expand the window for us and they were happy to do so. Also, although we traditionally used three lines for dialogue in the first Cold Steel, I had this sneaking suspicion that we weren’t actually limited in such a way and tested it out with four-line boxes in Cold Steel II. I was right.
Falcom also let us add as many pages as necessary for book stuff rather than stick to the Japanese limits. For all this, we aren’t normally so fortunate, but the Trails series isn’t as strict about this as most other games.

For merch, you’d have to reach out to Falcom yourselves. At the end of the day, we’re a partner of theirs, but we aren’t Falcom, so we wouldn’t be selling their merch as if we were.

Thanks for the kind words about the series in general. And I’m glad you love Duvalie! I got the exact VA I wanted for her and was absolutely thrilled with how she turned out. My rule for her was if I wasn’t laughing like I was when I played with her Japanese voice, then it wasn’t going to work. Fortunately, I laughed until I cried during her recording session. And her last line in the game was…beautiful.


Probaly a Producer issue, but why was Cold Steel 2 Only Released Physically on Vita in Australia?
You’d have to ask NIS America. We did loc+publishing in NA, they did publishing everywhere else.

Damn right. Also the VAs can't say "adieu" for shit. :p
It’s…pretty much how Americans pronounce it. I think it’d sounded weirder for our particular audience if we said it any other way. This is sort of what I mean by it sounding really awkward if we forced it (kinda like how the average American is gonna look at you like you’re a moron if you tried to pronounce “karaoke” correctly). It’s just how we’ve come to say it over time.

Plus, thankfully, nothing seems to hardcore indicate that we’re trying to imitate French words or culture in the series as a whole, so we can be a bit more liberal with such things.


This is a very interesting discussion point so I think I'll join in. :)
In Japanese it's "外の理" right? It seems pretty obvious to me as to what the intent is. Divergent Laws is a really elegant solution to the problem without knowing exactly what it refers to, but I would say the context provided in the games suggest that it's simply their way of saying "beyond human understanding" or more literally "not obeying the laws of physics". The main theme that surrounds the Sept-Terrions is that each one represents an element in the Kiseki world. Which means that no matter how powerful or insane their purpose is, they are bound by our understanding of the elements and the laws of the physical world, even if the source of their powers defy existing technology.
The weapons crafted created by the Grandmaster simply defy all understanding of the actual laws of physics, and are possibly not even of this dimension. That's how I've understood it. In fact, my belief is that whatever McBurn and Rean are "mixed" with, is very much the biological representation of these "Divergent Laws".
You’re correct on all counts. That’s pretty much what I meant by based on all the info given so far, but at best, that’s still our interpretation. We don’t have 100% answers, so we needed a catch-all term that could be massaged into whatever the truth turns out to be, basically. I’m glad you like the term, though—I like it a lot, too, and I think it works pretty well with what we’ve got.

So it is supposed to be Krüger. I thought I was going mad when I first saw that it was written as Kreuger sometime during CS2 since my (german) brain autocorrected the eu to ue the entire time before. Though I guess it's not far off from how foreign names were corrupted during the US immigration process in the 19th century.

As for the last paragraph, were similar discussions had for Worzel and Regnitz (both germanic-looking names, with Worzel similar to Wurzel (root) and Regnitz being the name of a river in Bavaria)? Either way, I think the right choices were made there.
I often ponder how I would actually introduce myself when speaking English - should I just pronounce it the way I'd pronounce it in German or try to make it fit to the tone of the language I'm currently using, and I'm fairly certain I'd naturally (as in, if I weren't thinking about it) pronounce it with an English sound to it when speaking English. Even though I'm not actually sure how an English speaking person would pronounce my name. :p
Yep, your German brain is correct and we are not. Worzel I did end up looking up, so that’s a legit pronunciation in some respects, haha. Regnitz is basically how 99% of people who look at it in the U.S. would pronounce it, so I think I’m happy with it.

And while it’s not my place to say, maybe, I think if you happen to know German, you pronouncing your name with an accent would be jarring because you naturally understand the flow and feel of German. An example of this is actually in Cold Steel II as well during the Divertissement.
Since Cao only has a few lines, we used a voice actor we already had (The Japanese did the same, since his JP voice is very obviously Rufus’ VA). Kaiji, our voice actor for Gaius, was the one I chose for Cao. By pure chance, Kaiji knew Mandarin and actually recognize the character being used in the Japanese for “Yin.” So his pronunciation, however subtle, is pretty authentic. It was pretty.

I didn’t realize at the time—I just thought his voice would be the best for Cao among our current male actors—but we got an added benefit from working with him for Cao. Had it been anyone else, I don’t think I would’ve forced them to try and sound out as authentic a pronunciation.

I guess another example is that people I speak to in Japan have a really hard time saying my name--Brittany--and I wouldn't force them to try and say it in its natural pronunciation. Saying the whole thing in Japanese is a pain, too. A person I was speaking to just called me "Buri-chan" to make it easier, my boss took it and started using it as well, and somehow that's now what every Japanese person uses. Accents and using words that are unusual for your native language is fun, heh.
 
Not censor, but just take out information that’s already been relayed for a more natural read. A lot of Japanese text tends to repeat information even when it’s totally not necessary, but for me, I feel like that completely dumbs down things. Players are smarter than that and they’ll notice when it sounds totally not natural.
I find this to be a hugely prominent issue in anime, and Michael Bay films.

I REALLY REALLY REALLY appreciate finding different ways for these conversations to happen
 

Holundrian

Unconfirmed Member
Wow impressed, was not aware at some of the changes like the thing with the riddles. Respect. Can only say that I will continue to support whatever localized games for the series make it over even if I'm beginning to switch over to the JP versions.
 
Got into this series with Cold Steel, just finished CS2 the other night. Will definitely go back and do the Sky games as well. Great games, great localization!

One question regarding Cold Steel 1&2- did you wind up changing (or were you tempted to change) anything in the localization to account for the fact that they would sometimes assume the player had knowledge of games that hadn't been localized? Such as cutting out non-essential information that could be considered a spoiler (or would just confuse someone who hadn't played them,) throwing in more detail on things you're supposed to know about from those games, etc etc.


PS:

8t65a3s1i.gif
 

Morrigan Stark

Arrogant Smirk
A personal thing I do a lot is cut information. Not censor, but just take out information that’s already been relayed for a more natural read. A lot of Japanese text tends to repeat information even when it’s totally not necessary, but for me, I feel like that completely dumbs down things. Players are smarter than that and they’ll notice when it sounds totally not natural.
Holy crap, so the Japanese versions are even worse with this? lol

It’s…pretty much how Americans pronounce it. I think it’d sounded weirder for our particular audience if we said it any other way. This is sort of what I mean by it sounding really awkward if we forced it (kinda like how the average American is gonna look at you like you’re a moron if you tried to pronounce “karaoke” correctly). It’s just how we’ve come to say it over time.
Yeah, I know, I'm just teasing. It's really hard on my French ears at times though, I'll admit.

Plus, thankfully, nothing seems to hardcore indicate that we’re trying to imitate French words or culture in the series as a whole, so we can be a bit more liberal with such things.
Bleublanc himself kind of reeks of flamboyant Frenchman to me, especially with the name, but yeah I guess not.
 

Psxphile

Member
A personal thing I do a lot is cut information. Not censor, but just take out information that’s already been relayed for a more natural read. A lot of Japanese text tends to repeat information even when it’s totally not necessary, but for me, I feel like that completely dumbs down things. Players are smarter than that and they’ll notice when it sounds totally not natural.

One example I have to work with is a side scene early on in Cold Steel II between Rean and Laura near one of the shrines.
Rean has a vision of some kind, and he tells Laura it included the Eisenritter. In the English, Laura responds as if it’s peculiar and wonders why he saw them. If we kept the Japanese, the English wouldn’t sounded something like, “The Eisenritter? As in the group led by the Lance Maiden?”

Laura, of ALL people, doesn’t need that sort of clarification. Maybe it was written out for the sake of the player, but this fact has thoroughly been beaten into the brains of the player by now, and there’s no reason to have Laura say some very unnatural line for someone in her position to relay that information to the player again.

There's a discussion currently in the Ys community thread about this very Japanese writing style and how it seems to infuriate westerners, lol. Hopefully Xseed has someone with your principles working on the localization of Ys VIII.
 

Nyoro SF

Member
There's a discussion currently in the Ys community thread about this very Japanese writing style and how it seems to infuriate westerners, lol. Hopefully Xseed has someone with your principles working on the localization of Ys VIII.

I'm in line with your hopes. While I know it's polite in Japanese to sometimes repeat back some information to show that you are listening to someone, these games seem to ratchet up this polite philosophy into maximum overkill territory.
 

PK Gaming

Member
I wonder if this makes any sense... I just want to express that we don't have any interest in losing what the Japanese wants to share and we consider a lot with each character we edit, but we also want to interpret in such a way that it doesn't sound stilted in the language it's being localized in.

It totally makes sense. Keeping the spirit and original intent was the main goal when making localizing these games, and it's something I'm really, really, really grateful for (and it's so much more preferable than just doing a straight translation).

Thanks for giving such a detailed and thoughtful answer.
 
The whole "repeating information" thing has been a running joke re: the Metal Gear Solid games for years. Those games, with the slight exception of the first MGS, tend to have something closer to translations rather than localizations, and the call/response style is retained.

"Do you know about Metal Gear?"
"Metal Gearrr?!"

Yeah. It's very japanese.

I'm glad to hear you guys work on reducing that, because it definitely sounds awkward to my American ears.
 
Please help GAF. I'm trying to play the first trails game on PC since it came in the humble bundle and it won't even start. It just keeps crashing! I followed the only guide I saw on steam and deleted the save file and still nothing. I was so hyped to play this and now I feel crushed.

What do?
 

creid

Member
Please help GAF. I'm trying to play the first trails game on PC since it came in the humble bundle and it won't even start. It just keeps crashing! I followed the only guide I saw on steam and deleted the save file and still nothing. I was so hyped to play this and now I feel crushed.

What do?
If the intro movie isn't starting, try going into config and disabling the opening movie?
 
If the intro movie isn't starting, try going into config and disabling the opening movie?

Sorry, I was taking the groceries in.

Just tried it. Only change was that it literally does nothing now. It doesn't even give the message that this program has stopped working like it usually does. When I go to press play again it lets me and doesn't act like anything is trying to start up. It just gives me the option to choose between starting the game and configuring it like normal.
 

Nyoro SF

Member
Please help GAF. I'm trying to play the first trails game on PC since it came in the humble bundle and it won't even start. It just keeps crashing! I followed the only guide I saw on steam and deleted the save file and still nothing. I was so hyped to play this and now I feel crushed.

What do?

When you say crash, where does it crash exactly? Also are you playing on a laptop or desktop and on what version of Windows?

Make sure you have all the latest codecs installed for video playing.
 
When you say crash, where does it crash exactly? Also are you playing on a laptop or desktop and on what version of Windows?

Make sure you have all the latest codecs installed for video playing.

Immediately. The screen flickers like it's about to load the game up and then I get the message that the program has stopped working. Sometimes the game window is still in the background but it's just black. It stays there until I click on ok on the error message.

I have a pretty beefy system. Windows 10, gtx 1080, 6600k, I play on a 21:9 3440x1440p screen if any of that helps. I don't think the widescreen would be the issue as I've seen it has the support for that.

I haven't had any issues at all playing videos but if you can point me towards where I need to download the latest codecs then that would be appreciated. How do I know if I have the latest btw?
 

desmax

Member
Immediately.

I have a pretty beefy system. gtx 1080, 6600k, I play on a 21:9 3440x1440p screen if any of that helps. I don't think the widescreen would be the issue as I've seen it has the support for that.

I haven't had any issues at all playing videos but if you can point me towards where I need to download the latest codecs then that would be appreciated. How do I know if I have the latest btw?

You can just use K-Lite Codec Pack

The game uses pre-rendered videos for the developer logo, so that might be your problem. These older games might use a format your computer doesn't have the codecs for it
 
You can just use K-Lite Codec Pack

The game uses pre-rendered videos for the developer logo, so that might be your problem. These older games might use a format your computer doesn't have the codecs for it

You got a link for that? I'm paranoid about legit download links lol.
 
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