>>47512971>i still feel that translations from Gen 5 onwards have taken a nosedive in quality.The changing quality of translations over the years have been both a good and bad thing.
The thing is, the original Japanese devs want to make sure their story isn't tampered with. This is one reason why Wizards of the Coast was canned and Nintendo took over making the TCG: it's because Nintendo didn't like the kind of influence WotC was having on THEIR game. From Nintendo's POV, WotC was screwing things up too much with the kind of changes WotC wanted to make to the game. And I agree with Nintendo on this.
Consider how long it took Cerebus the Aardvark to be translated into something other than English, or Saint Young Men into English: both David Sim and Hikaru Nakamura were (among other things) concerned about how much the story would be changed BY the translators and/or how well (or shitty) the translators would accurately interpret the story and jokes into other languages. At the same time, look at how much Macross has been changed into Robotech in the US, and how much this fact frustrates Macross' Shoji Kawamori.
Today devs prefer script accuracy over personality, and especially to maintain control over their script in all languages... and they have the kind of budgets and clout to ensure this. I will admit I miss the kind of personality localized games had back in the 90's like Ted Woosley's translation of FF6. Unfortunately, as soul-ful as those older scripts may be, they were NOT what the original devs intended, and artists do have the right to maintain control over their own work. And if the devs want to ensure that their serious story remains serious in other languages and aren't full of Woosleyisms like "You spoony bard!" and "Son of a Submariner!", they're going to do it.
