[WIP - Full] Virgin's Protection Magic Translation (v 0.82 released 23/07/2017)

[habisain]

Re: Virgin's Protection Magic Translation

nnescio: I, uh, actually didn't consider the derogatory use of Blackie. I just thought it didn't sound right for reasons I couldn't put my finger on. I'd hope it was an inner part of me against casual racism, but regardless it's a good catch.

The other comment I would make is that the Cthulu RPG settings are quite a bit more popular in Japan than they are in Europe, or at least as far as I can tell (D&D / Pathfinder tend to dominate, at least in every gaming group I've been in). As I'm British, and I'm therefore unaware of American culture, I will stick to a localisation that makes sense for the British while not being too British as to alienate American's or other English speakers.

In any case, let's wrap it up please.

Summary of the arguments: people have different opinions, on what localisation means, and on names for cats. That people have different opinions is not a surprise, really.

As far as I am concerned, both matters are closed, and this is the last I'll say on things. If you disagree with my decisions on either matter, tough. Editorial judgement is needed to produce a good translation, because without it you will end up with a bland and mechanical translation.

Normally I don't consult on editorial decisions I make, and no-one has really complained so far - there is a lot more editing in the script than the people in this discussion realise (excluding myself, for obvious reasons). Both times that I have given an insight into editorial decisions (the previous time about me removing Japanese specific terms as well as Felengel's pet name Mk 1, and the current help for translating a line plus Felengel's pet name Mk 2) have resulted in various degrees of argument. Now, there are always some positives from discussions like this, but on balance I can't say that I've enjoyed either. So I think in future I'll be keeping editorial decisions to myself, and I'll let people judge the end result rather than individual decisions.

Anyway, rant over. I'll probably be taking a back seat should this discussion continue, and unless there are other matters which require my attention, my next major contribution will likely be the next version of the patch (or a more detailed progress report).

 

[djweish]

Re: Virgin's Protection Magic Translation

Aw, that's a bit of a shame - I actually caught the SAN reference playing through with ATLAS + AGTH and it made me chuckle a bit. I've only played a Lovecraftian game once at a single board gaming night, but I think the reference is pretty common? I guess maybe only amongst a certain subset of people.

 

[Stiltzkinator]

Re: Virgin's Protection Magic Translation

Aw, that's a bit of a shame - I actually caught the SAN reference playing through with ATLAS + AGTH and it made me chuckle a bit. I've only played a Lovecraftian game once at a single board gaming night, but I think the reference is pretty common? I guess maybe only amongst a certain subset of people.

That's the thing about this, it goes two ways. The more obscure the reference, the better the payoff for people who get it. But it also means there's more people who don't.

References to something like previous games in a series, such as a Final Fantasy game doing a throwback, are generally a safer bet, because enough fans will get it that the ones who don't will be directed to go back and play the older games, which also sells more copies (nostalgia is a wonderful tool for sales). References within a subset, such as a specific genre or theme can prove effective as well, as long as they pull in the right direction. Pretty much any mecha franchise out there could probably get away with a Gundam reference (for being recognized, not saying they have free reign to infringe on copyright), but if a new Gundam series were to have a reference to a very obscure mecha franchise, it's a waste.

In other words, if your games is all about Eldritch horrors and the like, you could probably make this reference work just fine, even if the game doesn't have a sanity mechanic. While I'm generally loathe to accept unnecessary changes during the localization process, I do agree with habisain that in this case, it will likely confuse more people than it will entertain, and since he general meaning hasn't actually changed, nothing of value is lost.

To recap my original point, though, I do agree that it's a bit of a shame, since the payoff for getting a reference like this is a very good feeling. But in the end, it's better to make sure that more people understand somewhat more generic references than to try and impress a very small group at the expense of everyone else.

tl;dr: Translating is interesting, but requires hard decisions sometimes.

 

[PineapplePizza]

Re: Virgin's Protection Magic Translation

How can you possibly think one of the most famous RPG mechanics is "too obscure" when you're translating a hentai RPG game?

 

[Crispin]

Re: Virgin's Protection Magic Translation

How can you possibly think one of the most famous RPG mechanics is "too obscure" when you're translating a hentai RPG game?

In his defense, it's pretty old school. While you'd be hard-pressed to find someone in the pen & paper crowd who doesn't know the reference, the same can't necessarily be said for people who only play JRPGs for instance.

 

[habisain]

Re: Virgin's Protection Magic Translation

As I said, I've not familiar with Call of Cthulu RPG, and I've been in multiple gaming groups. Whatever.

For those interested, the final translation is now in, which means that this really is the last word on the matter. It's spoilered in case people want to see it in game, but the full dialogue upon interacting with the book in the church goes as follows:

Spoiler

Brigit: Umm... Let's see... "Nikogo Chronicle! Volume 1"
What's it say... "It awakens! The Carnal Slime
girl who'll drain all men of every last drop!
Eldritch Abominations Erotically Killing All!"
Brigit: Uwaa... That's... Just... I mean how...
Something like this... Why... Wouldn't it...
I mean... With the... And the... Are those...
Going into his... I don't... My brain can't...
Brigit: And it... it say it's Volume 1 as well!
There's more of this stuff!
And why on earth is a book like this here, of
all places!?

I feel that's a much more appropriate response to seeing unknown erotic/eldritch horrors in print form.

 

[Deleted member 39802]

Re: Virgin's Protection Magic Translation

so the whole game is translated now?

 

[Keep]

Re: Virgin's Protection Magic Translation

so the whole game is translated now?

you gotta try to see things in their respective context.




He just decided on the thing they were discussing the last pages ...
the thing with the SAN loss.

 

[habisain]

Re: Virgin's Protection Magic Translation

Indeed, I'm just trying to draw a final line under this one contentious translation. For clarification: the game is currently sitting around 61% translated. I will be releasing a new patch when I have translated enough to get it to 70%.

 

[Keep]

Re: Virgin's Protection Magic Translation

Indeed, I'm just trying to draw a final line under this one contentious translation. For clarification: the game is currently sitting around 61% translated. I will be releasing a new patch when I have translated enough to get it to 70%.

... dont wanna go back to your stupid teenage years and release it at 69 % ?

 

[habisain]

Re: Virgin's Protection Magic Translation

Realistically, if I start adjusting the goalposts like that, I'll end up releasing the thing with no H-scenes translated. My one major criticism of this game is that the majority of H-scenes are far, far too long. There's a couple that work OK, but for most the pacing is just completely shot from a writing perspective. And as such, they are really motivationally testing to translate.

I'm sorry if that sounds like it's whining, but it's how I feel about it. For example, it is farcical that in some of the GoR scenes you have monsters which seem to do a whole bunch of foreplay before slowly inserting a tentacle or whatever, whereas in battle the same monsters will just ram it in no questions asked. If I were editing the original game, I'd probably cut back the H-scenes to about half of the text that they are presently, and even that might not be enough to fix the pacing of them.

 

[Ryuukun]

Re: Virgin's Protection Magic Translation

Realistically, if I start adjusting the goalposts like that, I'll end up releasing the thing with no H-scenes translated. My one major criticism of this game is that the majority of H-scenes are far, far too long. There's a couple that work OK, but for most the pacing is just completely shot from a writing perspective. And as such, they are really motivationally testing to translate.

I'm sorry if that sounds like it's whining, but it's how I feel about it. For example, it is farcical that in some of the GoR scenes you have monsters which seem to do a whole bunch of foreplay before slowly inserting a tentacle or whatever, whereas in battle the same monsters will just ram it in no questions asked. If I were editing the original game, I'd probably cut back the H-scenes to about half of the text that they are presently, and even that might not be enough to fix the pacing of them.

Oh but please, feel free to. I hate it too when the text is too long. I just end up skipping text when that's the case x)

 

[habisain]

Re: Virgin's Protection Magic Translation

Oh but please, feel free to. I hate it too when the text is too long. I just end up skipping text when that's the case x)

Unfortunately I won't be. There are three problems; First off, a whole bunch of H-scenes have already been translated. I don't want to retranslate them.

Next: this would be wholesale rewriting of H-scenes, which I don't think I should do with a translation - it changes the intent and character of the material. If I were editing the original Japanese this wouldn't be a problem, because it would be done before release, but for a post-release translation I'm a little bit uncomfortable with making such massive changes to the game. I've also never written H-scenes in the kind of style this game uses, so I'm not sure if I could do it well from scratch.

Finally: RPGMaker Trans would not be capable of doing this without a lot more work. I don't want to go down that rabbit hole.

 

[Sayathing11]

Re: Virgin's Protection Magic Translation

Unfortunately I won't be. There are three problems; First off, a whole bunch of H-scenes have already been translated. I don't want to retranslate them.

Next: this would be wholesale rewriting of H-scenes, which I don't think I should do with a translation - it changes the intent and character of the material. If I were editing the original Japanese this wouldn't be a problem, because it would be done before release, but for a post-release translation I'm a little bit uncomfortable with making such massive changes to the game. I've also never written H-scenes in the kind of style this game uses, so I'm not sure if I could do it well from scratch.

Finally: RPGMaker Trans would not be capable of doing this without a lot more work. I don't want to go down that rabbit hole.

Am I the only one here who doesn't care at the H scene translation?
I like the story more though.

I don't know, you can never please everyone.
Don't get me wrong, I WANT the H scene to be translated but I like story more.

Nevertheless, I'm grateful for whatever the outcome may be.
Kudos to you Habisain-san

 

[habisain]

Re: Virgin's Protection Magic Translation

Meh. Most of the H-scenes in this game I could take them or leave them. There's a fair few good ones though - most of the story ones, and a fair number in both Mozuik in Alchester. The most problematic ones are definitely the GoR stuff. And I'd say that barring a handful of H-scenes (Story + Brigit as a waitress in either Alchester or Mozuik), they all suffer from very poor pacing and are far too long. One of the best features about the other game I'm translating presently, Crystal Story Gaiden, is that the H-scenes are very short, and frankly I think they're much, much better for it.

Regardless, the reason I'm focusing on H-scenes now is because if I don't get at least some of them done now, before I start on the final chapter, I'm never going to do them. My main goal is for this to be a complete translation, and that means I need to pace myself on the bits which are actually fun to translate. If I save up all of the bits I find hard to motivate myself for until the end, well, I'm never going to finish this completely.

 

[rizo]

Re: Virgin's Protection Magic Translation

By the sounds of things you're a good bit through with the translation which is nice to hear. I loved the small part I played which was translated, as for H-scenes I like them being in English when I'm playing a translated game as it tends to take me out of the game a bit when i randomly get hit with a wall of unreadable text. Also I wasn't aware that you are translating another game. I'll have to look into that as you tend to choose great games to work on.
Keep up the great work though

 

[rizo]

Re: Virgin's Protection Magic Translation

Sorry for the double post/bump, wondering how this is coming along. This was so good when I played it a while ago. Is everything coming along okay?

 

[habisain]

Re: Virgin's Protection Magic Translation

It's coming along. Progress is odd and erratic - I have a lot of things pulling at my time at the moment. Currently at 65%, with the release goal still at 70%.

As always,

You must be registered to see the links

is a good way to get the latest up-to-date progress. I should be updating it pretty regularly this month.

 

[rizo]

Re: Virgin's Protection Magic Translation

It's coming along. Progress is odd and erratic - I have a lot of things pulling at my time at the moment. Currently at 65%, with the release goal still at 70%.

As always,

You must be registered to see the links

is a good way to get the latest up-to-date progress. I should be updating it pretty regularly this month.

Oh that's nice to hear that you still working on it, even if it's slow. Better than nothing Looking forward to the next release at 70%
Keep up the great work.

 

[noobloop]

Re: Virgin's Protection Magic Translation

I'm glad this is getting translated! I played up until the end of the story translation and it's definitely one of my favorite RPG maker games.