Persona 5 has a lot of text, and obviously, all of it had to be translated from Japanese by a localisation team -- not the kind of job that we envy. The role-playing title was incredibly well received when it launched in 2017, but there were some criticisms made over its localisation, which is a little shaky in places.
Again, localising such a huge game can't be easy, and going by a new Game Informer article, it certainly sounds like the localisation team had a particularly difficult job on their hands. SEGA localisation director Sam Mullen outlines the experience in the aforementioned article: "In order to even attempt to get [Persona 5] done on time, so we didn't have to release the game two years after the Japanese release, we had to start translating mid-development."
"But text is being churned through, they're making changes so stuff that they we were already done with was getting ripped out and thrown away. And then like, oh s***, if you change that then this reference I wrote in doesn't make sense now and now I gotta go back and [frustrated groan]." Yeah, the process doesn't sound especially smooth does it?
Mullen continues: "Keeping up with it is a big mess and keeping character consistency is one of the biggest challenges, so our localisation team spends a lot of time doing what we call pre-production, which is where they map all the characters, they say this is a sample of their speech, this is what they sound like, the kind of stuff they say, they don't say things like this, they don't have this kind of attitude, but they do these things, and they say things like this."
"With that understanding, the editing team tries to walk toward a single goal, but just by virtue of two different people writing for the same character, they're going to sound different at different parts of the game. Ideally, someone comes through and does a whole pass over the text and says it's all fitting in, but sometimes that's just like not possible," Mullen explains.
It's an explanation that perhaps sheds some light on why Persona 5 is, at points, a bit hit and miss with its English translation. Interesting stuff.
[source gameinformer.com]
Comments 20
Even when the translations are apparently a mixed bag, I've always had great respect for localization teams. I've never been bothered by P5's though. I love the game too much to really notice beyond the occasional grammar mistake or odd sentence structure.
I respect the gargantuan task and effort, and I don't want to start moaning about Persona 5 again because I respect that people love it, but I just found that compared to other localisations like Yakuza 0 this one was really bland.
Obviously Yakuza is a bit more wacky and out-there so there's more license to get creative with it, but I found the script in Persona 5 to be so vanilla and uninteresting. Even when there was opportunity to jazz it up, they didn't really go the extra mile for me.
That said, I can't even begin to imagine how difficult it is to even put something like this out in English, so again, I really respect the effort and the challenges that they must have encountered.
Having worked on localization projects... yeah these are hard.
I bet the James Joyce's Ulysses is a bit more difficult to translate than this... BTW, if you wanna sell a videogame worldwide in 2018 you must realize localization is gonna be part of the budget. A reason I haven't bought this nor Yakuza is the lack of localization in my language...
Didn't notice any problems with the localization, they did an amazing job
The localization was fine. I prefer my Japanese games without the scripts overly "jazzed up" by Westerners, thank you very much.
The dub was pretty good, too, aside from Atlus' weird tendency to have English actors pronounce the Japanese names incorrectly. Not a problem for a game like P5 that has dual audio, but I thought I was going to go nuts when I played SMT IV: Apocalypse and people couldn't stop pronouncing Asahi's name incorrectly.
What would some examples of bad localization in Persona 5?
@get2sammyb Agree that few localizations have been as impressive as Yakuza 0’s.
It’s crazy how good some of these localizations can be when you think about trying to translate culture difference, reguonal humor and language innuendo. You don’t realize how subtle communication can be beyond just the straight translation of words, especially from Asia to the West.
@Clemerek There's a few moments in conversations that feel like non-sequiturs - lines that are probably accurate independently but don't really make sense within the back-and-forth between characters. I can't remember any specifically, but there were a few important conversations that were hard to follow as a result.
Other than that, a lot of lines like "it can't be helped" and "I hope we get along", which are accurate literal translations of the Japanese but aren't really said by native English speakers.
Overall I don't think the localization was bad at all. It did a good job of establishing the characters' personality for the most part doesn't stop you from following the plot. It just distracts from a few big story moments, which is unfortunate.
@turntSNACO I see, so nothing too bad. Thanks for the reply!
This sounds like the same thing that Falcom gos through with their games still waiting on that cold steel 3 localization by the way lol
@get2sammyb I didn’t even think about any of this as I played it, but I sorta (also don’t care much) see it if I really think about it.
But to the main point, I have to say that it might be a bit easier to localize somethings with only subs as opposed to a dub. I’m not sure how much lip syncing that would have to do or if they can make characters lips move longer, but they also have to record all of the lines (or most I guess). I feel like even though it might be a little valid in that Yakuza has more time for localization, it’s also unfair since Yazua doesn’t have a dub.
Must have been rough for sure, my thanks goes how to the team who worked on it.
Dragon Quest localisation > everything else.
so much of the dialogue in p5 was meandering and drawn out. atlus really should have trimmed a lot of the fat with the dialogue scenario to make the conversations flow better. all the persona games have this problem... they need a better editor on staff. i don't think i have ever seen another jrpg flooded by so much text that serves so little purpose other than to pad out the playtime.
I vaguely remember some odd stuff but nothing specific, problem is you never know if it's translation issues or just bizarre quirks of Japanese culture.
I happend to play Persona 5 the last few days for more than 20 hours and I think it is WAY too much talking. The characters talk so so much that I can't stand it anymore.
This is not an JRPG. It is a visual novel with JRPG elements. For 1 hour of gameplay you have 2-3 hours of clicking through dialog.
@Sanctanox I mean, that's how a lot of JRPGs are and have been for the most part. You play an hour and get an hour of story. Also, it's only the first part of the game that feels like it's a chore to get through but than the pacing gets better.
If P5R is like P3 F.E.S. (an upgrade) I hope they fix the beginning to make it more of a game (have some more minni games) than a Visual Novel.
This was likely child's play compared to the 1-2 guys at XSEED who had to translate Legend of Heroes Trails in the Sky SC. I feel sorry for those guys.
I work in localization and the game must have been a nightmare - sometimes it shows in the final product but I think they did an OK job.
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