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The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles Is Actually a Perfect Game In Translation




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John Thacker



Joined: 28 Oct 2013
Posts: 1009
PostPosted: Mon Nov 01, 2021 8:28 am Reply with quote
I appreciated the game and the translation a lot. There's always room for minor points about things I would have done differently, but I think it served its purpose well. One aspect that was tricky, and where I personally would have taken a different approach, was in the translation of how to translate certain expressions of bigotry. As previously reported, they chose to translate with more neutral terms than the Japanese, though expressed in a bigoted manner. This is in keeping with our particularly Victorian age, which sees sin everywhere and is hesitant to depict it even when contextualized as negative. It's been such q sea change in American popular culture, bringing us back to the essential mores of the 1950s or Victorian era.
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wolf10



Joined: 23 Jan 2016
Posts: 931
PostPosted: Mon Nov 01, 2021 10:28 am Reply with quote
The quality of this localization is insane. Outside of the main cast, the other Japanese characters have their names reworked in classic Ace Attorney style (mostly using ateji), but they took it so far that there's even a moment in the first case where a certain character makes a crack about the kanji used in the localized pun in another character's name. You'll only catch it if you're nerd enough to know that "kyuri" means "cucumber," but it's hard not to appreciate a localization that doesn't underestimate its audience.

I'm playing with the Japanese voices mostly for Hiro Shimono and Kana Hanazawa, but I am glad to know that the thick Japanese accent I imagine for Susato's English text dialogue is actually present in the dub. That may be a reason to give it another run through.
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whiskeyii



Joined: 29 May 2013
Posts: 2273
PostPosted: Mon Nov 01, 2021 12:01 pm Reply with quote
I actually really enjoyed the clever use of -san versus Mr/Miss once I realized what the localization was doing, though it took me a while to cotton on. Having played through at least the first game via fan patch, I’m also aware of the toned-down nature of the more racist language language in the Japanese version (for the unaware spoiler[you are more often referred to by your black clothing than your actual person as a dehumanizing tactic], though as far as I know, no actual slurs are tossed around (but I’m not fluent, so don’t quote me on that).

That said, without knowing how it specifically resolves itself linguistically in the second game (I have finished the English version of the game), I don’t think it was an unwise move to lessen the intensity of that for the English version; it takes so long for something to come if it, it feels like it would have very different connotations for a Japanese player who probably doesn’t have much first hand experience with racism to play a game with an almost constant undertone of racism to it versus the much wider demographic of the English speaking fan base, particularly in the US.
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