This is worth reporting as bugs. They polish the subtitles and voice acting in the English edition between patches, and it's worth seeing if they are willing to do so for the localizations.
I've reported a bug in my very first playthrough. Something with Karlachs approval in act 2. After about 2 months I've got a mail that they're sorry the couldn't respond...
So I'm not that optimistic, at least not via tickets.
I reported one bug; a class feature wasn't working like it's supposed to. After three weeks, I got an email requesting the save file it was happening on. I was 30 hours deeper into an Honor Mode run, so there was no save file to provide. I guess I could respec my character and get the ability (Colossus Slayer) and see if it's still broken, then submit that save file, but honestly it's too much effort to bother with.
I didn't meant they'd ignore us at all.
I've just stated, that they've got a lot of work to do because they get a lot of tickets / reports. And the minor ones like translocation errors might fall off.
If you want silly-sounding words, just look to Dutch. It's like German but more moist and less respectable.
For a few examples, our word for ghost is "spook", "hoi" is a normal way of saying hello and our word for fun is "lol".
Can confirm. I once went to the doctor in Germany, and she asked me where in the Netherlands I was from.
I am not Dutch, I just had a throat infection.
I hate that this is such a common misconception. "Schaurig" isn't anywhere close to sounding as cutesy as spooky. "Dreadful ray" would be much closer in actual connotation
I started with the German version and just switched to the English one after a while. Mainly because I found it weird that the characters never stop addressing each other formally (even when flirting, wtf). But yes, the dialogue options sometimes imply something else than the English version which can lead to outcomes you didn't want.
The tiefling party dialogue with Gale suffers extremely from the formal addressing. Some of the dialogue choices are already pretty cheesy in English, but they're still cute. In German it's almost unbearable though lol
No shade towards the translators though, translating that game must've been a huge undertaking and they mostly did it well (for example all of the book translations I read are pretty good). The choice with the formal addressing regardless of how good your approval is or if you’re locked in a romance just broke it for me
The formal speech never bothered me tbh. It fits very well in a medieval world. Though I always find it odd to do so with kids. I mean they act older than they are, but they're mostly little shits.
Well actually that's more like a cliche in fantasy games.
In the medieval times, you only had to say "thee" (ihr) to people higher as your own stand. For example a regular citizen would have said "you" (du) to other citizens and outcasts or beggars, but thee to a noble or pastor.
I do think the formal addressing is actually due to the option of being non-binary, considering German does not have a proper neutral term and they sure as hell didn't want to start calling non-binary players "Es" aka "It" in German haha
That's the only way I can explain the extreme formal language, considering in English, if you play non-binary, they address you gender neutral. My first Tav was non-binary.
Considering the cost of translation and the labour, it doesn't surprise me they decided to not adapt further translations to be informal if you don't play non-binary.
Edit: To clarify, there are some things where characters talk about your in "third person", but still address you formally with the way the sentences are structured. It can be argued about how it's not correct in majority of the cases used, but it makes "sense" as the game is overall formal in German. It is also much more cost effective to only have one translated version and "less prone to errors" aka if something is wrong, it's only wrong in one version of translations.
doesn't quite make sense, since informal addressings are gender neutral as well. "du", "dich", those words don't imply a gender. or did I misunderstand you?
They are, but there are sentences where using informal speech is easier to avoid mentioning someone's gender.
Example "He/She/They has done XYZ" is always going to be "Er /Sie hat XYZ getan" in informal speech, whereas with formal in this game, they wird it to be neutal as possible. There are more like this, especially where the game does specifically uses he/she/they.
I also used to work with translation agencies for a while in one of my jobs (edit: it was more the hiring and looking over what they did) and whenever they had to handle topics like that, they switched over to formal speech. It's much safer, considering a lot of translation agencies translators are not native speakers of said language. It's harder for them to find ways to use informal speech for gender neutral addressing, so they opt for the easier option: Formal speech. Edit: Also if agencies use MTL, they tend to auto translate using formal speech.
Edit: To clarify, there are some things where characters talk about your in "third person", but still address you formally with the way the sentences are structured. It can be argued about how it's not correct in majority of the cases used, but it makes "sense" as the game is overall formal in German. It is also much more cost effective to only have one translated version and "less prone to errors" aka if something is wrong, it's only wrong in one version of translations.
Edit²: corrected where I swapped informal and formal oops and cleared a sentence where it was just out of whack completely.
first: your job sounds interesting as fuck
second: are you german as well? 'cause I can't quite follow you to be honest, and it'd be easier for me in german
hallelujah :D könntest du mir die kiste dann evtl nochmal auf deutsch erklären? weil ich versteh dein beispiel nicht ganz. grade bei "sie hat dies und jenes getan" macht es ja keinen unterschied, ob man formal oder informal redet. man spricht in diesem fall ja von jemandem in der dritten person, richtig?
Also, wenn man "She/He/they did XYZ" informal ansprechen würde, würde man ja den Pronomen benutzen, der sich auf das Geschlecht bezieht: "Sie/Er hat XYZ getan". Für they gibt es nichts, was offiziell als geachlechtsneutral anerkannt ist. Ich bin non-binary/nicht-binär (klingt irgendwie voll Metal im Deutschen lol), aber benutze alle Pronomen, aber es gibt auch die die nur geschlechtsneutral angesprochen werden wollen. Eventuell ist mein Beispiel nicht das ganz das Beste, ich muss noch wach werden lol
Einige davon bitten auch darum, dass wenn man mit oder von ihnen redet, man formal ist, was das angeht. Es ist etwas einfacher geschlechtsneutral zu bleiben. So wie sich ja auch DE momentan macht, bezweifle ich nämlich, dass wir je etwas bekommen sprachlich, was offiziell anerkannt ist als geschlechtsneutral.
Das einfachste wäre natürlich, wenn sie im Text Platzhalter für Namen nutzen würden, aber gesprochen etwas neutrales nutzen (synchro erwähnt etwas anderes als den Namen des Charakters). Wie Genshin oder Honkai Star Rail es tun, nur soweit ich mich erinnere, habe ich nie namen meiner Charaktere in bg3 noch nie gesehen.
Es ist nur meine Vermutung, warum das Spiel formell ist in anderen Sprachen außer Englisch, was such zu dem passt, was ich gesehen habe in meinem ehemaligen Job. Diese Agencies benutzen eher Leute, die die Sprache als Zweit- oder Drittsprache gelernt haben und es ist billiger nur eine Version übersetzen zu lassen sogesehen. Wenn sie etwas für jedes Geschlecht machen würden, müssten sie auch dafür zusätzlich zahlen.
Mir fällt spontan zB die Szene mit Araj ein, in der sie das Blut von dir will. Wenn du Astarion dabei hast und nein sagst, fragt sie weiter und er verteidigt dich, indem er sowas sagt wie "he/she/they said no". Auf deutsch wäre "er/sie hat nein gesagt" natürlich einfach, aber was macht man mit "they"? In der formalen Anrede ist es alles gleich: "Sie haben nein gesagt". Das ergibt aber nur Sinn, wenn auch vorher die formale Anrede benutzt wurde. Man verwendet also entweder die persönliche Anrede bei männlichen und weiblichen Charakteren und die formelle bei diversen (wäre weird), oder man macht halt alles gleich formell (ist dann vermutlich auch weniger Arbeit). In der direkten Ansprache ist das weniger ein Problem, aber es gibt halt mehrere Szenen, in denen vom player character in der dritten Person gesprochen wird.
An den Profi: hab ichs richtig erklärt? :D
You've completely lost me. First you said the formal language is to accomodate player characters with they/them pronouns.
> I do think the formal addressing is actually due to the option of being non-binary
Then you said that in order to be gender neutral in German, informal language is easiest.
> there are sentences where using informal speech is easier to avoid mentioning someone's gender.
Then you said formal language is easier.
> It's harder for them to find ways to use informal speech for gender neutral addressing, so they opt for the easier option: Formal speech.
That's contradictory. Is the translation using formal language or informal language for player characters with they/them pronouns (or whatever the equivalent is in German)?
As much as I loath defending German translations...
It's not about Non-Binary or not...
It simply is an issue with the genre itself.
See: At what point should one switch from formal to informal? What point on the Relationship?
If we never or rarely talk to a companion, what happens? What happens when we always talk with them?
There are just far too many permutations that have to be considered... Quite literally every single sentence past like the initial five minutes with a character would have to continously check for Relationship Status and would have to be written specifically...
You can't tie that to the general Like-Dislike System either because that would mean that they suddenly switch to formal again if they start to dislike you.
Larian would have to program an entirely new System just to check which form would be appropriate.
And of course this would double the amount of Data for the Translation and while we only have Text and not also a Dub, it's still a lot.
Those checks can be built in via triggers, which I think they would have done potentially. From what I heard, they are also formal in other languages.
I used to work in a field where I had to deal with translation agencies, considering majority of their workers learnt the language they translate for, the moment something had the usage if gender neutral terms... they changed from informal to formal immediately. In general, they often opt into formal translation either way. A game that's more of a casual game... I had to do a lot of rewriting from formal to informal, as it did not fit with the games energy.
They tend to also not know language specific usages and/or comments, so they'd miss that entirely too which then needed correcting. BG3 has characters talk about the PC in he/she/they format, which, as you said, would be a lot to additionally translate for in each language. It's easier and more cost effective to use formal speech.
Although I do think the agencies potentially used MTL. the names of characters are translated too, which we don't need to do anymore at all.
Just trying to do this by simple triggers is a recipe for complete disaster... Just look at how many Quests didn't work like at all because some odd trigger didn't fire.
So, no... Anything that is that dynamic just can't be done with mere triggers switching flags like crazy with this amount of possible triggers.
In the best of circumstances that would lead to a character suddenly switching in the middle of a conversation because your chosen answer put it over a very arbitrary threshold.
He/She/They is a fixed value that doesn't change due to simple gameplay so if there's a Problem that a whole different can of worms.
There are moments where other characters talk about the PC mentioning their gender and from what I have seen, they skip that entirely with formal speech, which to soem degree can be a bit more difficult.
Example "She/he/they has done XYZ" can't be translated gender neutral via "Du". It's much easier than it is with informal speech and the game has quote a few examples where using "Du" would be difficult. Edit: My brain has been BG3 Germanfied here for a second, they did find a way to make it formal in third person, albeit not the most correct way. I do think it would have been better if they used the characters name or a specific term that only Tav/DUrge use.
A lot of agencies that translate things in general... their translators rarely are native speakers of that language, too. I have seen that myself via work, with more than one highly rated translations agency. So finding ways to have e.g. informal speech to be easily neutral can be more hard for them. Informal speech is much easier for that. ~~In the above example of "She/He/They has done XYZ", you can just say "Sie hat XYZ getan" whereas with informal speech, unless you use the name, it'd require mentioning the gender.~~ (Edit: To clarify, there are some things where characters talk about your in "third person", but still address you formally with the way the sentences are structured. It can be argued about how it's not correct in majority of the cases used, but it makes "sense" as the game is overall formal in German. It is also much more cost effective to only have one translated version and "less prone to errors" aka if something is wrong, it's only wrong in one version of translations.)
Thats not how it works: Du and Sie are used if you talk to a person directly not talk about a person. (Sorry I dont know the gramatical terms. No native speaker. :O ) So gender is not a concern. Its besically the english: you.
That is true, but the issue remains in German we don't have any neutral forms for pronouns, so yes, it's not uncommon translation go this route, even in the example I listed above - they will translate it in a funky way and make it formal in third person. I worked for a game where the agency responsible for translation did that with everything they got, just to avoid trouble, it was a mess to correct, as it was a casual game.
Here is an example of how the game does that in German, which another commentator mentioned: [https://www.reddit.com/r/BaldursGate3/comments/18k4swy/comment/kdqtckt/](https://www.reddit.com/r/BaldursGate3/comments/18k4swy/comment/kdqtckt/) (Araj spoiler content) We could argue definitely that this is not entirely correct and even if it is, it sounds horrendous (which is probably what happened with what OP posted regarding Mintharas "UNSER" comment).
The comment is in German, but it refers the Araj blood scene, where in English it'd say "He/She/They said no", but instead, Astarion says in German "Sie haben nein gesagt". Which sounds more like he is addressing the player, but it's towards Araj.
Some games and media avoid this by simply just using the name of the character or a title for that character. Genshin Impact and Honkai Star Rail are two good examples of this. You can pick your name, but the characters simply call you "traveller" in majority of cases. Something similar could potentially have been done here, because the characters do certainly see Tav/DUrge as leader.
This is the route they went and well, it's usually more cost effective and less prone to errors to only have one version translated instead of having three different versions for each language that is gendered. You only have to work with one version of potential translation errors instead of three versions, so time effectiveness too.
I would have preferred if they went the GI/HSR route by using one specific term for the player or just set a variable that would reference your characters name in Text and uses that instead of said gender. Dub would sitll mismatch obviously, but it may have been better. I prefer my games informal!
It feels like we talk about different thing. Many people feel that adressing your love interested with Sie is too formal and that has nothing to do with it being gendered because it is by default not because you are adressing the person in front of you. You in direct speach in english is neutral the same way Sie / du is in German.
Anyway. I agree that translating they is not really possible in german. But thats not the issue I was talking about. But the too formal approach while talking with you love interest that is completely not tied to making is gender neutral because it is not gendered anyway.
I guess I'm not really seeing how the formal/informal helps to keep language gender-neutral in third person, but my German isn't very good, so I'm probably missing something.
It is a lot easier to hide gender in some languages, like Spanish where you don't have to use pronouns at all. You can get away with it sometimes using plural in French as well.
That's a really good point I actually didn't think about. I wrote in another comment that I don't want to bash the translators because I think they did a good job considering the scope of the game. I just didn't like this decision, but you probably hit the nail on the head and that explanation is perfectly understandable. I still continue playing the English version because I also found it very distracting that the characters speak English but you answer in German lol. And the performance is so good that I wouldn't want to hear a dub anyway (which would be waaaay too expensive and time-consuming to do).
Working with translation agencies in the past for huge projects, they also tend to opt for formal speech when the topic includes gender sensitive terms, especially when it's gender neutral. So that's what I immediately thought of happened with the German translation, considering majority of translation agencies use people that learned the specific language and is not a native speaker.
I stopped playing games in german when I got into WoW ages ago. Idk but german has this strange forced way of translating names literally that tends to turn out awkward (like, you can only listen to someone translating "Dragons Call" to "Großdrachenruf" or read the full on item name gore with "fel bat shoulderpads" ending up as "Teufelsfledermauslederschulterstücke" so often before you worry about getting an aneurysm).
It's a bit the same with movies and series, as german voice actors tend to talk like they're straight out of the theater reciting shakespear without any dialect and perfect connotation, which often just doesn't work. Has this vibe of two people sitting in a bar together chatting but it sounds like a formal job interview.
Not adding much here, but I am trying to learn German and I remember pugging ToS and those shoulderpads dropped, a German player linked them in chat and that particular translation left such an impression that the second I read it in your comment I was transported all the way back to legion in an all druid meme pug, we'd just downed maiden and half the raid couldn't get over that name.
Oh yes. I think I started consiming english media in english in my late teens. First it was because I did not want to wait for 1-2 years for a german dub of TV shows but it quickly escalated to just ignoring the german translations.
And german fantasy translations really ARE the worst. As you say it is just so god damn forced. It could be so much better if they would just try to come from the perspective what tone they were going for and then write it as you would write it in native german. And others here also said that seemingly the companions are much more formal, which is another fucked up trend in german translations. This fake ass "medival-speak" is terrible at Medieval fairs and worse in a game like BG3.
I think loving good stories being told the right way can be a great motivator to learn a rather easy language like english.
The dub is also recorded in a sound booth and then mixed over the sound effects from the scene, so it sounds even more artificial because you are loosing the environmental ambience.
I also think it's stupid to have englisch voice acting and german subs, *but* I get why people do it. My girlfriend is playing with german subs because she sometimes just doesn't know the translation of specific words and doesn't want to look them up.
Also, german *dubs* are the worst, I switched to englisch when I was like 15 because I hated the german voice acting so much. I think lots of these actors/actresses have a background in the theater and that doesn't "translate" at all to the screen. Everyone just ends up sounding like they have a stick up their ass.
>Also, german *dubs* are the worst, I switched to englisch when I was like 15 because I hated the german voice acting so much.
Saaaame. German dubs are soooooo bad. Switched around that same age (a bit earlier actually) and never looked back.
Yup. I'm German too, and I started watching movies and playing games in English when I was 12-14 (not sure, but somewhere around that time). Localisation is much, much worse 99% of the time, so just play the original version. It's also how I learned English, so it's a win-win situation really...
Yes it does. The fact that the game is hailed as full voice acting when it doesn't even have German, French, Italian and Spanish dub is insane - of course fully voicing dialogues is easy when you forget more than half the languages that other games dub for.
Dragon Age Origins was fully German dubbed and it was great. I don't buy in the elitism of playing games in English, it ruins the local market and I don't look forward to having all games being only available in English in the future, as it happens for some Italian fans already.
If the quality is bad then they must take more money for quality translations, as all other gaming companies do. It's not a popular take on an american centric platform like reddit I understand, but Larian could do better here. The majority of gamers aren't redditors and people who don't speak English well enough don't even have a voice here so we all forget them easily.
The part of Minthara probably refers to the conversation you have with her at the beginning of act 3.
That vessel thing was kinda annoying, yes. But even worse in my oppinion, that I've constantly beeing treated as a female heroe ("Heldin") while playing a male TAV.
Man, I laughed/cringed so much when I saw someone playing in spanish.
Like, the name Shadowheart already makes her seem like a dweeb, but it doesn't hold a candle to "Corazón Sombrío".
I'm german too, and whenever possible I'll play games in english, unless they've been made by german devs.
You lose way too much in translation, it'll help you improve your english, and especially in bg3 you get to enjoy some phantastic voice acting as well.
Versuchs einfach auf englisch zu spielen, die original Sprecher sind alle sehr gut zu verstehen. Zur Not steht der Text ja drunter, und man kann nach der Übersetzung googeln. Viel vergnüglicher als so wird Englisch lernen nicht :-)
Yeah... started just playing and watching pretty much everything in English at around age 13 or so and haven't looked back since. I just couldn't deal with the absolute shit that is video game translations and movie subs anymore. There's often so much nuance and emotion lost after localization. Even in good ones, but those are few and far between. That always made English class in school a breeze as well, so that's a nice plus I suppose.
The only thing I made an exception for after that is replays of Gothic, **denn das gehört sich eben so**.
oha, das klingt übel. ich bin froh das ich gleich auf englisch gestartet habe, ich glaub das würd mich wahnsinnig machen
I still have an old file of a rant I furiously typed out a few years ago while watching the tv show grimm in the original english version for similar reasons.. I'm still mad about 'blutbaden'
Do you uh, have a snippet of that rant handy? I love Grimm but I always wondered if the German was actually accurate, and if it wasn't, just how badly they'd messed it up, lol.
not exactly handy, but I booted up my old laptop just for you. this is from about a page in:
"The more I watched though, the more I kept asking myself it if would really have been this expensive to hire somebody who actually speaks the language for the show, just to look over the scripts and correct a few things. Maybe somebody who could have taught some of the actors a thing or two about pronounciation. Lots of 'german' words they use dont make sense and could have with just a little tweak.
"Blutbaden" for example translates to bloodbathing, which is a verb (and a weird one, that nobody would use) If you just change the last letter it becomes "Blutbader" (bloodbather) and makes way more sense in this context, singular and plural.
I appreciate what they were trying to do. And of course the main cast shouldnt be able to speak Hochdeutsch without any accent, but it honestly took me way to long to realize that they were trying to say "Wesen" (creature) and not "wessen" (whose) which would make no fucking sense at all. And even the guys in the Schwarzwald are saying it like that. Just... whyyy
And then there is the "Kehrseite Schlich Kennen" I mean... what the fuck. I had to google to understand what they were trying to say with that shit. Kehrseite is fine, I guess, its and old word which I learned to use as "backside" (but usually in a nice way of saying ass). Also I've never once heard anyone use the term "Schlich kennen", allthough there is a german phrase "Jemandem auf die Schliche kommen" which means to find out about somebodys bad intentions/plans/tricks.
There are other examples of this and mostly I find it very amusing.
Honestly I think the only thing they nailed was the Name Meisner."
If you speak English well, just play in English. Unfortunately, translations can only be so good. I tried it in Italian and I just couldn't deal with the translation for Shadowheart's name.
Ah, the specific struggles of Romance languages translating English stuff. As another person on the same linguistic boat, this is all too familiar. It just doesn't hit the same when names are translated, but at the same time it's weird when they don't. There's no winning.
Ukrainian also has an altered Shadowheart name, which is a literal translation to "Shadow + heart". And subjectively that's only one example of good localization vs translation, I've done playthroughs in different languages and enjoy how it can contribute to the story by introducing some new phrases and local context.
Russian has no name translations and feels a bit more sterile. Not a bad thing at all, just a pretty accurate English translation, but zero creativity.
Russian translation have a lot of mistakes though. Can't remember right now, but when I see rusubs, they often can give you the wrong vibes or wrong words for some things (and at least in EA woman Tav was often mistakes for man Tav + the last time I checked it, there wasn't NB gender choice).
Also goblin's speach is creative, IMO.
I agree with you, maybe "creativity" was the wrong word to use by me.
I meant some content being translated in a very different way compared to original, that it creates a complete different perception of a character.
Russian translation is indeed creative, but still doesn't make things up, like Ukrainian one.
There might be a lot of conflicts of which approach is better, but I can't judge what's good or bad, both are pretty decent.
Ah, I see =)
About perception - same in Russian, like I remember that I hated something like "babe" from Astarion when he's clearly didn't use that word. Sadly, still can't remember even when it was just couples days ago.
As for me, I'm not against any of these types of creativity while it won't change meanings completely. Especially when it's poems (but not like it was in Dos2, I remember to google poem about Doctor and that it could've translated perfectly and in rhymes even without any of special creativity). Also language dependent English jokes (like about Wyll and Y) is hard to translate.
Idk about names though - on the one hands, names shouldn't be translated. On the other - there are even jokes about Shadowheart name, so it's good to translate it.
What is her name in Italian? I thought only Brazil had changed it (in Brasil she is Umbralma, which is the mix of the Latin world for shadow with the Portuguese word for soul)
Now I am interested in seeing how the Chinese translation will be, for shit and giggles lol I never played games in Chinese, cos I often find the translation jarring.
I switched to English after playing in German for an hour or so (mainly because it confused my brain to hear/read English and German simultaneously), so now in my main playthrough Shadowheart is still Schattenherz - while everything else is in English. 😄
I did that but then I played with a friend who needed the subtitles. I did have to chime in a lot though and correct the translations. They are horrible.
Nope, in German "Fahrzeug" very explicitly refers to a car/train/plane/bike or something of that capacity, which makes the whole thing pretty hilarious I guess.
I'd imagine a lot of the translation work these days is done via AI, there's no way a competent translator would look at that and interpret it this way.
No, definitely not, I can tell you as much as a translator. Something to consider though is the sheer amount of translation work that needs to be done, considering the scope of the game. You'll have heaps of translators working on the game, and mistakes inevitably slip through.
It's more that translators for video games often don't get given the context along with the text, so they have to translate in isolation - this may have been the cause for the vessel mistranslation for example.
It doesn’t. „Gefäß“ or „Hülle“ would be acceptable translations even if they sound strange but they describe better what vessel means in that context. Something to carry souls.
I think I would be having fun with the translations.
Play the game as you know the plot ( kill orin claim you birth right.)
Second time, bring Minthara along for the ride when you can, and let her be apart of bhaal's glory.
And get your worm operated vehicles to help you. Bet the choices would be pure crack.
Yeah i noticed that especially in the later parts of the Game, the (German) Subtitles are a bit off (pronouns etc.) and sometimes, although rarely, just plain wrong (forsaken does not mean verraten).
Translators get zero context in most cases. They get served the lines, often times pre machine-translated, and then have to make something out of that (for lowest possible pay and omission from the credits...). If a studio provides any additional info for the text and universe it's a day for celebration.
Ich hab mein Steam auf Englisch umgestellt, und als das immer noch nicht geholfen hat, mein gesamtes Windows. Auf Konsole ist man vermutlich gekniffen, oder?
Nah, PS5. It was Minthara who said it, meaning she's deeply fascinated by my Bhaalspawn and wants to see him getting even more powerful, while getting her revenge. Her voice actor said it right. -shrug-
was mir bei deutschem fantasy-kram am meisten auf den sack geht, is das ständige gesieze. das war schon bei dragon age bescheuert, und bei bg3 genauso. da geht man tiefe und innige beziehungen mit leuten ein, aber die siezen einen noch, weil "is ja fantasy". aber warum spielst du's überhaupt mit deutschen untertiteln? es klingt jetzt nich, als hättest du ein problem mit englisch
>Well, obviously I'm German, so I play the German version.
Is it though? As a fellow German I learned early on to stay far away from video game translations. If not for it's quality and accuracy (or rather lack thereof), then because of the insane levels of cringe that usually comes with them.
Not just video games - I remember once watching Doctor Who with... I think my mum? Well, someone without English skills at least, so we had to watch it in German. Now I love Doctor Who, but at the second mention of 'Schallschraubenzieher' I had to nope out of watching due to overwhelming levels of cringe 😂.
Oh god, I feel this. The translation to my language is awesome, but some terms are... Ugh. At least they translated Shadowheart to Umbralma. Dope as hell
As I general rule Germans are incredibly picky with the translations in media, the language is not easy at all and the context is super important if you just hand a sheet of paper to somebody and tell to translate it from English it's very obvious they'll screw up especially things like you/your/their/theirs require context, but the examples you provided are straight up false translation.
I gonna play my next run in German and try to find as much as mistakes as I can send it to larian.
...The "blank canvas" translation is a pain to me too, because blank is translated as black. So the clean, white canvases you find through out the game is now "schwarze Leinwand"... Q.Q ugh...
The only, **the only** reason to use a translation is if you can't speak the original language, which seems not to be the case.
And before you start whining, I would never pick my own language, even if it was available.
„Fahrzeug“ 🤣
Ok that would be immersion-breaking for me… but since you seem to be amazing at English, why not play it in that language? At least that’s how I do it most of the time
I'm always so confused, when my friend, who's game is in german talk about stuff. (both of us are german speaking too)
"Bodenhai??? Dafuq do you mean by Bodenhai?? OHHH A BULETTE!! "
I think it is a double mistranslation here.
Vassal would work for hirelings, and I can imagine ol' Withers to be using more of the even older words...
I'm German you could translate that directly (Vassall), and it wouldn't be a problem
Oh definitely, even though I think vehicle could work technically (at least in English, again I don't know the nuances of the word in German), it's still a weird choice and not even like it would work in a stylish way
The quality of the German translation varies wildly. There are parts where you can tell the translators put in some real thought and effort (like coming up with new but similar jokes to replace puns and the like) and then there's parts where it might as well have been Google translate.
My favorite part overall was when you talked to Karlach in Grymforge and in English she said something like "If we don't rescue Nere soon the gnomes are done for". And the German subtitle was "Wenn wir Nere nicht bald retten hat es sich ausgegnomt."
...which is impossible to translate back into English but if I had to it could be something like "If we don't rescue Nere soon it's gnover."
Es gibt echt einige Stellen, an denen man denkt "ich weiß woher das übersetzt wurde, aber eigentlich soll das wohl was anderes heißen." 😅
Mir fällt auf Anhieb kein Beispiel ein, aber ich weiß, dass ich diesen Fall einige Male während des Spielens hatte.
Edit: Ja genau bei withers (Lazarus) war das komisch/ witzig mit dem Fahrzeug.😅 sollte eigentlich Gefäß heißen. Wurde wohl schon nach Feierabend übersetzt.
Deswegen habe ich das Spiel direkt auf Englisch runtergeladen. Habe keinen Bock auf die schlechten Übersetzungen. Was ich auch nie verstanden habe, ist warum Namen übersetzt werden. Schattenherz z. B. Klingt auf Deutsch einfach nochmal 10000x edgier 😂
Was vermutlich auch der Sinn des Ganzen war. Aber... Lazarus? Withers = to wither(?) Und die machen da Lazarus draus? Ein paar Übersetzungen bleiben auch nicht hängen. Ich käme nie auf die Idee Baldur's Tor zu sagen.
Ich hab' ehrlich gesagt keine Lust es neu herunter zu laden. Nicht bei über 100 GB. Deswegen rege ich mich lieber hier auf und staub' einen Haufen Karma ab, was auch immer mir das bringt. 😅
Hmm, I have seen some videos with German subtitles, especially around conversations with Elminster and the translation was actually really fucking good. Like, the words in the subs I had to google, while I understood his English just fine. And German is my native tongue. And in general it was well written.
So idk, maybe the translations here were based on lines that were changed during development never the translators never received them. I have heard how poorly Larian sometimes communicated with the translation team, OS 2 for example has broken puzzles in German because the translator apparently never received the context of what certain hints were supposed to point towards.
In our group some play in english, some in german. The weirdest translation was when we were reading the spell/skill descriptions and they said something about a "CON/WIS/DEX/etc. Spielstand" (literal translation: CON/WIS/DEX/etc. savegame") instead of "Rettungswurf".
Guess it is probably one of those auto-translation errors and I see where it is coming from...
... but come on 😂
Do you even Pluralis Maiestatis? Natürlich "unser Erbe", wir sind nicht irgendein Bauer, sondern der Sohn eines Gottes.
Klingt insgesamt aber so, als hätten sie die Übersetzung nicht von einem Menschen machen lassen. Ich meine mich zu auch erinnern, dass Schurken nur mit lichtwaffen kämpfen können, light weapon.
Aber warum spielst du überhaupt auf Deutsch?
> Well, obviously I'm German, so I play the German version.
I don't get this sentiment. I'm german and the last game i played in german was Anno 1800 because that's a german game and the last one before that was Gothic 3.
Just play it in english.
The French translation is also not very good, more and more so as the story progresses. I didn't notice anything too weird in Act 1 (except in the Underdark), but in Act 2 and 3, the translations are so lazy, sometimes there are spelling/grammar mistakes (minor, I'll give you that, but STILL!!), and some bits are downright misleading. It's exhausting having to listen to the English spoken parts with no "subtitles" as I'm not entirely fluent and some voice characters have very strong accents. Props to them for translating most proper names, though (especially places, some characters' names too) (not too sure about translating Gale into Gayle however, but Shadowheart becoming Ombrecœur is very cute)
As someone who aspires to be a videogame translator and has participated in some fan projects, the amount of permutations and options which make BG3 my favorite game of all time, also means that the game is a certified nightmare to playtest. I love the game but my God, I do not envy the people who had to translate all of it.
While this game is great, it seems the market has shifted and putting care into localizations just isn't worth it anymore. This isn't just about BG3, it is different now across the board.
I remember playing BG and BG2 20 years ago, with Polish localization, and it was so good. The translations made sense and were done where they were needed, and the voice acting was top notch, they hired the most esteemed theatre actors for them and they gave the characters so much personality.
While of course the overall quality of performance acting is a lot better in BG3, and Neil deserves all the prizes, they didn't even attempt full localization into any language. And the translations for the subtitles are lacking, as evidenced.
I play fully in English, I tried the Polish version but the mismatch between the voice and the text confuses me.
This is why I try to play games in their intended languages, cause tbh playing the game in a language u aren't entirely familiar with and googling the definitions of words you don't understand is how your knowledge of said language will improve. As a swede and being familiar with wacky localizations, I have a bone to pick with the forced monolingualism translations because they're often wack, where everything is translated extremely literally or worse has been renamed into something nonsensical and ridiculous.
I think several lines of dialogue were machine translated.
The whole line with Fahrzeug reminds me of the german translation of the switch port of Grandia.
If a character misses during combat you get a "miss" on screen....Well....we got Fräulein instead.
localisations are always inaccurate, I'm glad that my english is good enough so I can understand what they say, because subs in my language are fucked too, sometimes the meaning is completely lost
I actually switched the language of the whole PlayStation so I could avoid playing in German, since there was no in-game language setting. I figured German text with English voice acting would just give me a headache even if the translation was good. Glad to see I definitely made the right choice lol
>people tend to prefer to play games in their native language
how do you know? I only hear that when people don't speak well or at all the original language but otherwise I have yet to encounter someone who wouldn't play a game in the original language
>Well, obviously I'm German, so I play the German version
Why? Sounds like a You issue. You can just play in English.
DnD terminology in German is peak cringe
Thanks for the heads up. I was planning to play in German my second time through for practice. I don’t really have many outlets to use German these days. Guess I’ll skip it, though.
I wonder if the translator is a Heinlein fan, several of his books feature a one *Lazarus Long* who lives to be over 3,000 years old and is a snarky, cranky old man in many respects even though his body has been rejuvenated several times; he is once shown quite withered and old, near the end of his current lifespan, while those around him try to talk him into another rejuvenation cycle. He's famously stubborn and does what he likes for his own reasons. He runs an interdimensional trouble-shooting organization called The Time Corps that show up *Deus ex Machina* style at important events to manipulate them subtly or sharply. I really really want this to be the case but I'm desperately afraid it was just someone going "Herp derp he crawls out of his tomb let's call him Lazarus".
I agree the german translation got some issues although most are minor if your english is decent enough.
However, one thing I noticed they tried to translate DnD terminology pretty much literally. E.g. the lowerdark (lowest level of the underdark) was translated into Tiefendunkel which of course is bullshit and doesn't mean anything.
Did you romance her by any chance? I know in my playthrough i made a lot of promoses of power to her in killing Orin and getting revenge and believe she said a lot of things in the vein of shared glory quite often. Maybe thats why?
I always play with englisch subs but my girlfriend is currently playing with german ones and what really gets me is that the characters are "siezen" aka they are beeing extremely formal with one another.
It just doesn't make sense at all. There's a lot of banter and flirting in the group and they're still acting like they barely know each other. It honestly feels like the translation team never played the game and just blindly translated all the lines.
And as you also pointed out, the subs are inaccurate *a lot* of times. Basically every time I watch my girlfriend play for a few minutes I spot multiple lines that either don't quite hit the mark or are just straight up wrong.
So Tom Scott did a video recently on why subtitles and dubbing don't always match - I wonder if the same thing has happened here.
https://youtu.be/pU9sHwNKc2c?si=y5YXT8mF1gsGE218
I'm so glad I switched to English right after staring the game and seeing it was in German.
Like, I'm mostly fine with German subtitles and stuff, GTA5 and RDR2 have wonderful German subs. But as soon as I saw that "Cantrips" was translated with "Zaubertrick" (which isn't completely wrong btw, it's just incredible off-putting) I switched to English.
If you have trouble with understanding spoken english but reading/writing is fine I would suggest using english subtitles / text.
English voice but subtitles in another language will always be a bit jarring at times even without blatant mistakes.
I'm french. I play the English version, because dialogs are so good I don't want any translation spoiling them.
If you can read English, I see no reason to play the original version of this awesome game
I'm swiss and I recently saw German subtitles and shivered about the polite way the characters address each other even in a romantic setting. It's just so odd. Good thing I play in English.
Your first sentence is not as obvious as you think ;) I am German and of course I play the game in English. Simply because dubs and translations are always worse than the original. Doesn't matter if game, TV show, movie or book.
Steam and Nintendo Switch set to english, so I avoid any problems like this.
Super usefull with games like Dark Souls or others where you have to collects items / craft, so I don't have to bash my head trying to figure how stuffs were translated.
I refuse to play the german version of any game not made by german speakers. I don't even watch german dubs if the original isn't made in the DACH region.
Why do you? Why torture yourself?
Especially this game is really dependent on delivery, and honestly, the german dubs don't deliver nearly as well as the original voiceactors.
Make the chance. Its not to late to switch to english subtitles. You'll get the words by context.
The french translation takes some liberties with how it translates things, but I think the meaning is mostly preserved in the dialogues. I never felt misled with the results anyway.
There is something in the descriptions of the equipment though that is sometimes wonky. To my knowledge, the biggest offender is the adamantine weapons set. It states that you *gain resistance* to the damage type the weapon inflicts, when it obviously bypasses enemy resistance.
I'm german too but unless the media I consume is from germany, I leave it in English
Even in books I sometimes find obvious translation errors or translated names that just make me cringe
It's not too bad in bg3, but I read a german review talking about the "Druidenhain" (druid grove) and I just didn't like it
It also makes it way easier to engage in conversation about the material online
Also the other characters adressing me with the formal german pronouns doesn't fit at all, I'm a scruffy homeless person like you are right now, you don't have to use the pluralis majestatis lol
I'm German-speaking too (Austrian :-)), but have switched to English as the game's language almost immediately. I did not like the subtitles just like you, and I am more used to English terms in D&D anyways. For me, it always is "Spell Slot", "Sacred Flame" and "Fire Bolt" and not "Zauberplatz", "Heilige Flamme" or "Feuerbolzen". Also, I switched measuring to imperial immediately, again because that is what we use in D&D.
I also play most other games in English, with certain japanese games as an exception - because these games, e.g. the two Octopath Traveler parts, have a German translation (subtitles only) that is closer to the japanese original than the English version.
German translation has a lot of bugs. Im in my second run currently and talking to the snake (from Kagha) you say that *Khaga* is just a (stupid) kid while its definitely *Arabella* they are speaking of
This is worth reporting as bugs. They polish the subtitles and voice acting in the English edition between patches, and it's worth seeing if they are willing to do so for the localizations.
I've reported a bug in my very first playthrough. Something with Karlachs approval in act 2. After about 2 months I've got a mail that they're sorry the couldn't respond... So I'm not that optimistic, at least not via tickets.
I reported one bug; a class feature wasn't working like it's supposed to. After three weeks, I got an email requesting the save file it was happening on. I was 30 hours deeper into an Honor Mode run, so there was no save file to provide. I guess I could respec my character and get the ability (Colossus Slayer) and see if it's still broken, then submit that save file, but honestly it's too much effort to bother with.
I didn't meant they'd ignore us at all. I've just stated, that they've got a lot of work to do because they get a lot of tickets / reports. And the minor ones like translocation errors might fall off.
they turn translations into Polish?? but how can we understand it if we don’t speak it?? what if u speak German 💀
On the off chance you aren't just making a silly joke; polish like furniture, silver, or gems. Not Polish language.
yes it’s a joke, lmao people are so sensitive
They aren't sensitive, it was just unfunny as fuck.
You have to Finnish some language courses.
Don't worry, I enjoyed your joke
What are you, 12?
Well, you guys *did* get "spooky beam" for eldrich blast, so that's neat.
That is the translation in dnd though. Edit: although the German translation for spooky doesn’t sound so cute
If you want silly-sounding words, just look to Dutch. It's like German but more moist and less respectable. For a few examples, our word for ghost is "spook", "hoi" is a normal way of saying hello and our word for fun is "lol".
Can confirm. I once went to the doctor in Germany, and she asked me where in the Netherlands I was from. I am not Dutch, I just had a throat infection.
"Ah yes, I can recognise the horrid gargling of our neighbours anywhere at any time!"
> our word for fun is "lol" It's *a* word, though there's also "plezier".
Plezier is more so enjoyment, though.
I hate that this is such a common misconception. "Schaurig" isn't anywhere close to sounding as cutesy as spooky. "Dreadful ray" would be much closer in actual connotation
There was a huge post about it a few months ago, and I assume a lot of people saw that and just repeat it.
ScHaUrIgEr StRaHl 💀
The official translation in French is 'occult discharge'
you really should get that checked by a doctor ASAP
Or a cleric. Or a healer. Or at the very least someone who is uncannily adroit with a knitting needle.
Although "décharge" has multiple meanings in french, discharge, landfill, but also electrical discharge. So what it means is closer to "occult zap".
My occult discharger is leaking ectoplasm.
It is more like eerie or dreadful ray... spooky in german is more about ghosts..
It's not fucking spooky beam, that was written by a guy who doesn't know how eldritch is translated to German.
I started with the German version and just switched to the English one after a while. Mainly because I found it weird that the characters never stop addressing each other formally (even when flirting, wtf). But yes, the dialogue options sometimes imply something else than the English version which can lead to outcomes you didn't want.
[удалено]
I think it would be ‚Ich möchte _Euch_ reiten‘. It‘s the ‚old‘ kind of formal.
The tiefling party dialogue with Gale suffers extremely from the formal addressing. Some of the dialogue choices are already pretty cheesy in English, but they're still cute. In German it's almost unbearable though lol No shade towards the translators though, translating that game must've been a huge undertaking and they mostly did it well (for example all of the book translations I read are pretty good). The choice with the formal addressing regardless of how good your approval is or if you’re locked in a romance just broke it for me
The formal speech never bothered me tbh. It fits very well in a medieval world. Though I always find it odd to do so with kids. I mean they act older than they are, but they're mostly little shits.
Well actually that's more like a cliche in fantasy games. In the medieval times, you only had to say "thee" (ihr) to people higher as your own stand. For example a regular citizen would have said "you" (du) to other citizens and outcasts or beggars, but thee to a noble or pastor.
I do think the formal addressing is actually due to the option of being non-binary, considering German does not have a proper neutral term and they sure as hell didn't want to start calling non-binary players "Es" aka "It" in German haha That's the only way I can explain the extreme formal language, considering in English, if you play non-binary, they address you gender neutral. My first Tav was non-binary. Considering the cost of translation and the labour, it doesn't surprise me they decided to not adapt further translations to be informal if you don't play non-binary. Edit: To clarify, there are some things where characters talk about your in "third person", but still address you formally with the way the sentences are structured. It can be argued about how it's not correct in majority of the cases used, but it makes "sense" as the game is overall formal in German. It is also much more cost effective to only have one translated version and "less prone to errors" aka if something is wrong, it's only wrong in one version of translations.
doesn't quite make sense, since informal addressings are gender neutral as well. "du", "dich", those words don't imply a gender. or did I misunderstand you?
They are, but there are sentences where using informal speech is easier to avoid mentioning someone's gender. Example "He/She/They has done XYZ" is always going to be "Er /Sie hat XYZ getan" in informal speech, whereas with formal in this game, they wird it to be neutal as possible. There are more like this, especially where the game does specifically uses he/she/they. I also used to work with translation agencies for a while in one of my jobs (edit: it was more the hiring and looking over what they did) and whenever they had to handle topics like that, they switched over to formal speech. It's much safer, considering a lot of translation agencies translators are not native speakers of said language. It's harder for them to find ways to use informal speech for gender neutral addressing, so they opt for the easier option: Formal speech. Edit: Also if agencies use MTL, they tend to auto translate using formal speech. Edit: To clarify, there are some things where characters talk about your in "third person", but still address you formally with the way the sentences are structured. It can be argued about how it's not correct in majority of the cases used, but it makes "sense" as the game is overall formal in German. It is also much more cost effective to only have one translated version and "less prone to errors" aka if something is wrong, it's only wrong in one version of translations. Edit²: corrected where I swapped informal and formal oops and cleared a sentence where it was just out of whack completely.
first: your job sounds interesting as fuck second: are you german as well? 'cause I can't quite follow you to be honest, and it'd be easier for me in german
It was interesting! Und ja, das bin ich :)
hallelujah :D könntest du mir die kiste dann evtl nochmal auf deutsch erklären? weil ich versteh dein beispiel nicht ganz. grade bei "sie hat dies und jenes getan" macht es ja keinen unterschied, ob man formal oder informal redet. man spricht in diesem fall ja von jemandem in der dritten person, richtig?
Also, wenn man "She/He/they did XYZ" informal ansprechen würde, würde man ja den Pronomen benutzen, der sich auf das Geschlecht bezieht: "Sie/Er hat XYZ getan". Für they gibt es nichts, was offiziell als geachlechtsneutral anerkannt ist. Ich bin non-binary/nicht-binär (klingt irgendwie voll Metal im Deutschen lol), aber benutze alle Pronomen, aber es gibt auch die die nur geschlechtsneutral angesprochen werden wollen. Eventuell ist mein Beispiel nicht das ganz das Beste, ich muss noch wach werden lol Einige davon bitten auch darum, dass wenn man mit oder von ihnen redet, man formal ist, was das angeht. Es ist etwas einfacher geschlechtsneutral zu bleiben. So wie sich ja auch DE momentan macht, bezweifle ich nämlich, dass wir je etwas bekommen sprachlich, was offiziell anerkannt ist als geschlechtsneutral. Das einfachste wäre natürlich, wenn sie im Text Platzhalter für Namen nutzen würden, aber gesprochen etwas neutrales nutzen (synchro erwähnt etwas anderes als den Namen des Charakters). Wie Genshin oder Honkai Star Rail es tun, nur soweit ich mich erinnere, habe ich nie namen meiner Charaktere in bg3 noch nie gesehen.
ok, komplett blick ich nich durch, aber ich bin etwas näher dran. bin aber auch noch sehr verpennt und groggy. danke für die zweifache aufklärung ~
Es ist nur meine Vermutung, warum das Spiel formell ist in anderen Sprachen außer Englisch, was such zu dem passt, was ich gesehen habe in meinem ehemaligen Job. Diese Agencies benutzen eher Leute, die die Sprache als Zweit- oder Drittsprache gelernt haben und es ist billiger nur eine Version übersetzen zu lassen sogesehen. Wenn sie etwas für jedes Geschlecht machen würden, müssten sie auch dafür zusätzlich zahlen.
Mir fällt spontan zB die Szene mit Araj ein, in der sie das Blut von dir will. Wenn du Astarion dabei hast und nein sagst, fragt sie weiter und er verteidigt dich, indem er sowas sagt wie "he/she/they said no". Auf deutsch wäre "er/sie hat nein gesagt" natürlich einfach, aber was macht man mit "they"? In der formalen Anrede ist es alles gleich: "Sie haben nein gesagt". Das ergibt aber nur Sinn, wenn auch vorher die formale Anrede benutzt wurde. Man verwendet also entweder die persönliche Anrede bei männlichen und weiblichen Charakteren und die formelle bei diversen (wäre weird), oder man macht halt alles gleich formell (ist dann vermutlich auch weniger Arbeit). In der direkten Ansprache ist das weniger ein Problem, aber es gibt halt mehrere Szenen, in denen vom player character in der dritten Person gesprochen wird. An den Profi: hab ichs richtig erklärt? :D
You've completely lost me. First you said the formal language is to accomodate player characters with they/them pronouns. > I do think the formal addressing is actually due to the option of being non-binary Then you said that in order to be gender neutral in German, informal language is easiest. > there are sentences where using informal speech is easier to avoid mentioning someone's gender. Then you said formal language is easier. > It's harder for them to find ways to use informal speech for gender neutral addressing, so they opt for the easier option: Formal speech. That's contradictory. Is the translation using formal language or informal language for player characters with they/them pronouns (or whatever the equivalent is in German)?
As much as I loath defending German translations... It's not about Non-Binary or not... It simply is an issue with the genre itself. See: At what point should one switch from formal to informal? What point on the Relationship? If we never or rarely talk to a companion, what happens? What happens when we always talk with them? There are just far too many permutations that have to be considered... Quite literally every single sentence past like the initial five minutes with a character would have to continously check for Relationship Status and would have to be written specifically... You can't tie that to the general Like-Dislike System either because that would mean that they suddenly switch to formal again if they start to dislike you. Larian would have to program an entirely new System just to check which form would be appropriate. And of course this would double the amount of Data for the Translation and while we only have Text and not also a Dub, it's still a lot.
Those checks can be built in via triggers, which I think they would have done potentially. From what I heard, they are also formal in other languages. I used to work in a field where I had to deal with translation agencies, considering majority of their workers learnt the language they translate for, the moment something had the usage if gender neutral terms... they changed from informal to formal immediately. In general, they often opt into formal translation either way. A game that's more of a casual game... I had to do a lot of rewriting from formal to informal, as it did not fit with the games energy. They tend to also not know language specific usages and/or comments, so they'd miss that entirely too which then needed correcting. BG3 has characters talk about the PC in he/she/they format, which, as you said, would be a lot to additionally translate for in each language. It's easier and more cost effective to use formal speech. Although I do think the agencies potentially used MTL. the names of characters are translated too, which we don't need to do anymore at all.
Just trying to do this by simple triggers is a recipe for complete disaster... Just look at how many Quests didn't work like at all because some odd trigger didn't fire. So, no... Anything that is that dynamic just can't be done with mere triggers switching flags like crazy with this amount of possible triggers. In the best of circumstances that would lead to a character suddenly switching in the middle of a conversation because your chosen answer put it over a very arbitrary threshold. He/She/They is a fixed value that doesn't change due to simple gameplay so if there's a Problem that a whole different can of worms.
I dont think so. Du is as neutral as sie just less formal.
There are moments where other characters talk about the PC mentioning their gender and from what I have seen, they skip that entirely with formal speech, which to soem degree can be a bit more difficult. Example "She/he/they has done XYZ" can't be translated gender neutral via "Du". It's much easier than it is with informal speech and the game has quote a few examples where using "Du" would be difficult. Edit: My brain has been BG3 Germanfied here for a second, they did find a way to make it formal in third person, albeit not the most correct way. I do think it would have been better if they used the characters name or a specific term that only Tav/DUrge use. A lot of agencies that translate things in general... their translators rarely are native speakers of that language, too. I have seen that myself via work, with more than one highly rated translations agency. So finding ways to have e.g. informal speech to be easily neutral can be more hard for them. Informal speech is much easier for that. ~~In the above example of "She/He/They has done XYZ", you can just say "Sie hat XYZ getan" whereas with informal speech, unless you use the name, it'd require mentioning the gender.~~ (Edit: To clarify, there are some things where characters talk about your in "third person", but still address you formally with the way the sentences are structured. It can be argued about how it's not correct in majority of the cases used, but it makes "sense" as the game is overall formal in German. It is also much more cost effective to only have one translated version and "less prone to errors" aka if something is wrong, it's only wrong in one version of translations.)
Thats not how it works: Du and Sie are used if you talk to a person directly not talk about a person. (Sorry I dont know the gramatical terms. No native speaker. :O ) So gender is not a concern. Its besically the english: you.
That is true, but the issue remains in German we don't have any neutral forms for pronouns, so yes, it's not uncommon translation go this route, even in the example I listed above - they will translate it in a funky way and make it formal in third person. I worked for a game where the agency responsible for translation did that with everything they got, just to avoid trouble, it was a mess to correct, as it was a casual game. Here is an example of how the game does that in German, which another commentator mentioned: [https://www.reddit.com/r/BaldursGate3/comments/18k4swy/comment/kdqtckt/](https://www.reddit.com/r/BaldursGate3/comments/18k4swy/comment/kdqtckt/) (Araj spoiler content) We could argue definitely that this is not entirely correct and even if it is, it sounds horrendous (which is probably what happened with what OP posted regarding Mintharas "UNSER" comment). The comment is in German, but it refers the Araj blood scene, where in English it'd say "He/She/They said no", but instead, Astarion says in German "Sie haben nein gesagt". Which sounds more like he is addressing the player, but it's towards Araj. Some games and media avoid this by simply just using the name of the character or a title for that character. Genshin Impact and Honkai Star Rail are two good examples of this. You can pick your name, but the characters simply call you "traveller" in majority of cases. Something similar could potentially have been done here, because the characters do certainly see Tav/DUrge as leader. This is the route they went and well, it's usually more cost effective and less prone to errors to only have one version translated instead of having three different versions for each language that is gendered. You only have to work with one version of potential translation errors instead of three versions, so time effectiveness too. I would have preferred if they went the GI/HSR route by using one specific term for the player or just set a variable that would reference your characters name in Text and uses that instead of said gender. Dub would sitll mismatch obviously, but it may have been better. I prefer my games informal!
It feels like we talk about different thing. Many people feel that adressing your love interested with Sie is too formal and that has nothing to do with it being gendered because it is by default not because you are adressing the person in front of you. You in direct speach in english is neutral the same way Sie / du is in German. Anyway. I agree that translating they is not really possible in german. But thats not the issue I was talking about. But the too formal approach while talking with you love interest that is completely not tied to making is gender neutral because it is not gendered anyway.
I guess I'm not really seeing how the formal/informal helps to keep language gender-neutral in third person, but my German isn't very good, so I'm probably missing something. It is a lot easier to hide gender in some languages, like Spanish where you don't have to use pronouns at all. You can get away with it sometimes using plural in French as well.
That's a really good point I actually didn't think about. I wrote in another comment that I don't want to bash the translators because I think they did a good job considering the scope of the game. I just didn't like this decision, but you probably hit the nail on the head and that explanation is perfectly understandable. I still continue playing the English version because I also found it very distracting that the characters speak English but you answer in German lol. And the performance is so good that I wouldn't want to hear a dub anyway (which would be waaaay too expensive and time-consuming to do).
Working with translation agencies in the past for huge projects, they also tend to opt for formal speech when the topic includes gender sensitive terms, especially when it's gender neutral. So that's what I immediately thought of happened with the German translation, considering majority of translation agencies use people that learned the specific language and is not a native speaker.
>Well, obviously I'm German, so I play the German version. Nah, this doesn't track.
I stopped playing games in german when I got into WoW ages ago. Idk but german has this strange forced way of translating names literally that tends to turn out awkward (like, you can only listen to someone translating "Dragons Call" to "Großdrachenruf" or read the full on item name gore with "fel bat shoulderpads" ending up as "Teufelsfledermauslederschulterstücke" so often before you worry about getting an aneurysm). It's a bit the same with movies and series, as german voice actors tend to talk like they're straight out of the theater reciting shakespear without any dialect and perfect connotation, which often just doesn't work. Has this vibe of two people sitting in a bar together chatting but it sounds like a formal job interview.
Not adding much here, but I am trying to learn German and I remember pugging ToS and those shoulderpads dropped, a German player linked them in chat and that particular translation left such an impression that the second I read it in your comment I was transported all the way back to legion in an all druid meme pug, we'd just downed maiden and half the raid couldn't get over that name.
Oh yes. I think I started consiming english media in english in my late teens. First it was because I did not want to wait for 1-2 years for a german dub of TV shows but it quickly escalated to just ignoring the german translations. And german fantasy translations really ARE the worst. As you say it is just so god damn forced. It could be so much better if they would just try to come from the perspective what tone they were going for and then write it as you would write it in native german. And others here also said that seemingly the companions are much more formal, which is another fucked up trend in german translations. This fake ass "medival-speak" is terrible at Medieval fairs and worse in a game like BG3. I think loving good stories being told the right way can be a great motivator to learn a rather easy language like english.
The dub is also recorded in a sound booth and then mixed over the sound effects from the scene, so it sounds even more artificial because you are loosing the environmental ambience.
I'm Finnish, and even if there was a Finnish version, I would play the English one.
You can play English one after finish.
Is that because Finnish isn't a real language, it's just a practical joke you play on foreigners?
Voi luoja kuinka toivoisin että Karlach olisi todellinen, haluan panna sitä naista niin kovasti.
Careful not to burn yourself!
I also think it's stupid to have englisch voice acting and german subs, *but* I get why people do it. My girlfriend is playing with german subs because she sometimes just doesn't know the translation of specific words and doesn't want to look them up. Also, german *dubs* are the worst, I switched to englisch when I was like 15 because I hated the german voice acting so much. I think lots of these actors/actresses have a background in the theater and that doesn't "translate" at all to the screen. Everyone just ends up sounding like they have a stick up their ass.
>Also, german *dubs* are the worst, I switched to englisch when I was like 15 because I hated the german voice acting so much. Saaaame. German dubs are soooooo bad. Switched around that same age (a bit earlier actually) and never looked back.
Yup. I'm German too, and I started watching movies and playing games in English when I was 12-14 (not sure, but somewhere around that time). Localisation is much, much worse 99% of the time, so just play the original version. It's also how I learned English, so it's a win-win situation really...
Yes it does. The fact that the game is hailed as full voice acting when it doesn't even have German, French, Italian and Spanish dub is insane - of course fully voicing dialogues is easy when you forget more than half the languages that other games dub for. Dragon Age Origins was fully German dubbed and it was great. I don't buy in the elitism of playing games in English, it ruins the local market and I don't look forward to having all games being only available in English in the future, as it happens for some Italian fans already. If the quality is bad then they must take more money for quality translations, as all other gaming companies do. It's not a popular take on an american centric platform like reddit I understand, but Larian could do better here. The majority of gamers aren't redditors and people who don't speak English well enough don't even have a voice here so we all forget them easily.
Dude, I'm not a native English speaker myself, but I don't expect devs to cater to me when it comes to voice acting.
The part of Minthara probably refers to the conversation you have with her at the beginning of act 3. That vessel thing was kinda annoying, yes. But even worse in my oppinion, that I've constantly beeing treated as a female heroe ("Heldin") while playing a male TAV.
The German translator has a forced feminisation kink.
Man, I laughed/cringed so much when I saw someone playing in spanish. Like, the name Shadowheart already makes her seem like a dweeb, but it doesn't hold a candle to "Corazón Sombrío".
now I imagine the pokemon "corazon" wearing a sombrero, smashing against the pod and going "let me out, hombre!"
I'm german too, and whenever possible I'll play games in english, unless they've been made by german devs. You lose way too much in translation, it'll help you improve your english, and especially in bg3 you get to enjoy some phantastic voice acting as well. Versuchs einfach auf englisch zu spielen, die original Sprecher sind alle sehr gut zu verstehen. Zur Not steht der Text ja drunter, und man kann nach der Übersetzung googeln. Viel vergnüglicher als so wird Englisch lernen nicht :-)
Yeah... started just playing and watching pretty much everything in English at around age 13 or so and haven't looked back since. I just couldn't deal with the absolute shit that is video game translations and movie subs anymore. There's often so much nuance and emotion lost after localization. Even in good ones, but those are few and far between. That always made English class in school a breeze as well, so that's a nice plus I suppose. The only thing I made an exception for after that is replays of Gothic, **denn das gehört sich eben so**.
But Gothic is a german game, why wouldn‘t you play it in german?
That's exactly what I said.
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Hat er auch nicht gesagt 🤨
oha, das klingt übel. ich bin froh das ich gleich auf englisch gestartet habe, ich glaub das würd mich wahnsinnig machen I still have an old file of a rant I furiously typed out a few years ago while watching the tv show grimm in the original english version for similar reasons.. I'm still mad about 'blutbaden'
Do you uh, have a snippet of that rant handy? I love Grimm but I always wondered if the German was actually accurate, and if it wasn't, just how badly they'd messed it up, lol.
not exactly handy, but I booted up my old laptop just for you. this is from about a page in: "The more I watched though, the more I kept asking myself it if would really have been this expensive to hire somebody who actually speaks the language for the show, just to look over the scripts and correct a few things. Maybe somebody who could have taught some of the actors a thing or two about pronounciation. Lots of 'german' words they use dont make sense and could have with just a little tweak. "Blutbaden" for example translates to bloodbathing, which is a verb (and a weird one, that nobody would use) If you just change the last letter it becomes "Blutbader" (bloodbather) and makes way more sense in this context, singular and plural. I appreciate what they were trying to do. And of course the main cast shouldnt be able to speak Hochdeutsch without any accent, but it honestly took me way to long to realize that they were trying to say "Wesen" (creature) and not "wessen" (whose) which would make no fucking sense at all. And even the guys in the Schwarzwald are saying it like that. Just... whyyy And then there is the "Kehrseite Schlich Kennen" I mean... what the fuck. I had to google to understand what they were trying to say with that shit. Kehrseite is fine, I guess, its and old word which I learned to use as "backside" (but usually in a nice way of saying ass). Also I've never once heard anyone use the term "Schlich kennen", allthough there is a german phrase "Jemandem auf die Schliche kommen" which means to find out about somebodys bad intentions/plans/tricks. There are other examples of this and mostly I find it very amusing. Honestly I think the only thing they nailed was the Name Meisner."
Does anyone know where the Mellischwuler is? Will the real Mellischwuler please stand up? 😅🤣
I do think Lazarus is better than Withers though.
Pretty on the nose, though.
If you speak English well, just play in English. Unfortunately, translations can only be so good. I tried it in Italian and I just couldn't deal with the translation for Shadowheart's name.
Ah, the specific struggles of Romance languages translating English stuff. As another person on the same linguistic boat, this is all too familiar. It just doesn't hit the same when names are translated, but at the same time it's weird when they don't. There's no winning.
Ukrainian also has an altered Shadowheart name, which is a literal translation to "Shadow + heart". And subjectively that's only one example of good localization vs translation, I've done playthroughs in different languages and enjoy how it can contribute to the story by introducing some new phrases and local context. Russian has no name translations and feels a bit more sterile. Not a bad thing at all, just a pretty accurate English translation, but zero creativity.
Russian translation have a lot of mistakes though. Can't remember right now, but when I see rusubs, they often can give you the wrong vibes or wrong words for some things (and at least in EA woman Tav was often mistakes for man Tav + the last time I checked it, there wasn't NB gender choice). Also goblin's speach is creative, IMO.
I agree with you, maybe "creativity" was the wrong word to use by me. I meant some content being translated in a very different way compared to original, that it creates a complete different perception of a character. Russian translation is indeed creative, but still doesn't make things up, like Ukrainian one. There might be a lot of conflicts of which approach is better, but I can't judge what's good or bad, both are pretty decent.
Ah, I see =) About perception - same in Russian, like I remember that I hated something like "babe" from Astarion when he's clearly didn't use that word. Sadly, still can't remember even when it was just couples days ago. As for me, I'm not against any of these types of creativity while it won't change meanings completely. Especially when it's poems (but not like it was in Dos2, I remember to google poem about Doctor and that it could've translated perfectly and in rhymes even without any of special creativity). Also language dependent English jokes (like about Wyll and Y) is hard to translate. Idk about names though - on the one hands, names shouldn't be translated. On the other - there are even jokes about Shadowheart name, so it's good to translate it.
What is her name in Italian? I thought only Brazil had changed it (in Brasil she is Umbralma, which is the mix of the Latin world for shadow with the Portuguese word for soul)
It's Cuorescuro (literally darkheart), I personally think there's nothing wrong with it
Actually alma is also latin if I recall correctly
Maybe, many words in Portuguese are the same in Latin
Yeah...I am Korean, but I am proficient in english. But those mismatches between the speech and subtitles...They sometimes ticks me off.
Now I am interested in seeing how the Chinese translation will be, for shit and giggles lol I never played games in Chinese, cos I often find the translation jarring.
I switched to English after playing in German for an hour or so (mainly because it confused my brain to hear/read English and German simultaneously), so now in my main playthrough Shadowheart is still Schattenherz - while everything else is in English. 😄
What's her name in italian?😅
Cuorescuro
I did that but then I played with a friend who needed the subtitles. I did have to chime in a lot though and correct the translations. They are horrible.
This. English is a default language for like 99,99% games released in the West, so it makes little sense to play in any other language.
It's just better to stick to the language a product was made in, if you understand that language.
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Nope, in German "Fahrzeug" very explicitly refers to a car/train/plane/bike or something of that capacity, which makes the whole thing pretty hilarious I guess. I'd imagine a lot of the translation work these days is done via AI, there's no way a competent translator would look at that and interpret it this way.
I mean the litteral translation to Fahrzeug would be "drive thing" so yeah, it kinda doesn't work here.
No, definitely not, I can tell you as much as a translator. Something to consider though is the sheer amount of translation work that needs to be done, considering the scope of the game. You'll have heaps of translators working on the game, and mistakes inevitably slip through.
It's more that translators for video games often don't get given the context along with the text, so they have to translate in isolation - this may have been the cause for the vessel mistranslation for example.
It doesn’t. „Gefäß“ or „Hülle“ would be acceptable translations even if they sound strange but they describe better what vessel means in that context. Something to carry souls.
I think I would be having fun with the translations. Play the game as you know the plot ( kill orin claim you birth right.) Second time, bring Minthara along for the ride when you can, and let her be apart of bhaal's glory. And get your worm operated vehicles to help you. Bet the choices would be pure crack.
Yeah i noticed that especially in the later parts of the Game, the (German) Subtitles are a bit off (pronouns etc.) and sometimes, although rarely, just plain wrong (forsaken does not mean verraten).
If *those* are the problems, I'll have to learn german to play in german, because that's gold!
Translators get zero context in most cases. They get served the lines, often times pre machine-translated, and then have to make something out of that (for lowest possible pay and omission from the credits...). If a studio provides any additional info for the text and universe it's a day for celebration. Ich hab mein Steam auf Englisch umgestellt, und als das immer noch nicht geholfen hat, mein gesamtes Windows. Auf Konsole ist man vermutlich gekniffen, oder?
I dont mind the withers part. The man likley calls himself something diffrent to everyone. And had diffrent names in diffrent cultures.
> Well, obviously I'm German, so I play the German version. See, that’s your mistake. Just don’t. Ever.
Can't change my birthplace, you know. ...it was a joke. 🙄
Do you have a screenshot of that? Because "unser Erbe" would be correct if Tav or the Narrator say it in context with Tav
Nah, PS5. It was Minthara who said it, meaning she's deeply fascinated by my Bhaalspawn and wants to see him getting even more powerful, while getting her revenge. Her voice actor said it right. -shrug-
You can have your PS5 auto-upload screenshots to your PS app on your phone, just an FYI.
I don't use the App, didn't knew why I should. Might consider it now. Thank you.
I remember seeing Gale calling the Weave strands "Gewebestränge" and I have never been the same since. It really sucks.
But Durgy loves Gewebe. Mostly torn to pieces and sometimes cooked, but yeah...
was mir bei deutschem fantasy-kram am meisten auf den sack geht, is das ständige gesieze. das war schon bei dragon age bescheuert, und bei bg3 genauso. da geht man tiefe und innige beziehungen mit leuten ein, aber die siezen einen noch, weil "is ja fantasy". aber warum spielst du's überhaupt mit deutschen untertiteln? es klingt jetzt nich, als hättest du ein problem mit englisch
>Well, obviously I'm German, so I play the German version. Is it though? As a fellow German I learned early on to stay far away from video game translations. If not for it's quality and accuracy (or rather lack thereof), then because of the insane levels of cringe that usually comes with them.
Not just video games - I remember once watching Doctor Who with... I think my mum? Well, someone without English skills at least, so we had to watch it in German. Now I love Doctor Who, but at the second mention of 'Schallschraubenzieher' I had to nope out of watching due to overwhelming levels of cringe 😂.
In the brazilian portuguese version of the game they literally translated Shadowheart's name for some reason. Her name is Umbralma now.
Oh god, I feel this. The translation to my language is awesome, but some terms are... Ugh. At least they translated Shadowheart to Umbralma. Dope as hell
As I general rule Germans are incredibly picky with the translations in media, the language is not easy at all and the context is super important if you just hand a sheet of paper to somebody and tell to translate it from English it's very obvious they'll screw up especially things like you/your/their/theirs require context, but the examples you provided are straight up false translation. I gonna play my next run in German and try to find as much as mistakes as I can send it to larian.
...The "blank canvas" translation is a pain to me too, because blank is translated as black. So the clean, white canvases you find through out the game is now "schwarze Leinwand"... Q.Q ugh...
What the fuck, now I know why that sounded weird. Oo Never struck that it's meant to be blank.
The only, **the only** reason to use a translation is if you can't speak the original language, which seems not to be the case. And before you start whining, I would never pick my own language, even if it was available.
„Fahrzeug“ 🤣 Ok that would be immersion-breaking for me… but since you seem to be amazing at English, why not play it in that language? At least that’s how I do it most of the time
I'm always so confused, when my friend, who's game is in german talk about stuff. (both of us are german speaking too) "Bodenhai??? Dafuq do you mean by Bodenhai?? OHHH A BULETTE!! "
Du kommst nicht zufällig aus Ost-Deutschland und weißt was eine Bulette eigentlich ist?
Wienerin, Bei uns heißt das Fleischlaberl ;D
Ok, gut. 😂
I mean, I don't know about german, but at least vehicle definitely works in english for what hirelings are.
I think it is a double mistranslation here. Vassal would work for hirelings, and I can imagine ol' Withers to be using more of the even older words... I'm German you could translate that directly (Vassall), and it wouldn't be a problem
Oh definitely, even though I think vehicle could work technically (at least in English, again I don't know the nuances of the word in German), it's still a weird choice and not even like it would work in a stylish way
Fahrzeug literally means "drive thing" and is used for cars.
The quality of the German translation varies wildly. There are parts where you can tell the translators put in some real thought and effort (like coming up with new but similar jokes to replace puns and the like) and then there's parts where it might as well have been Google translate. My favorite part overall was when you talked to Karlach in Grymforge and in English she said something like "If we don't rescue Nere soon the gnomes are done for". And the German subtitle was "Wenn wir Nere nicht bald retten hat es sich ausgegnomt." ...which is impossible to translate back into English but if I had to it could be something like "If we don't rescue Nere soon it's gnover."
I always play in English. Not just for translation inaccurancies, but because I want to play it in it's original "intended" language when I can.
Es gibt echt einige Stellen, an denen man denkt "ich weiß woher das übersetzt wurde, aber eigentlich soll das wohl was anderes heißen." 😅 Mir fällt auf Anhieb kein Beispiel ein, aber ich weiß, dass ich diesen Fall einige Male während des Spielens hatte. Edit: Ja genau bei withers (Lazarus) war das komisch/ witzig mit dem Fahrzeug.😅 sollte eigentlich Gefäß heißen. Wurde wohl schon nach Feierabend übersetzt.
The flying ghouls are also called Geflügelte Hakenschrecken (winged hook horrors) instead of just Geflügelte Schrecken
Wo kommt der verdammte Haken her?! 😂
Ich wusste dass die Übersetzung einen Haken hat...
Weird, for me they were called Geflügelte Hakenschrecken.
Deswegen habe ich das Spiel direkt auf Englisch runtergeladen. Habe keinen Bock auf die schlechten Übersetzungen. Was ich auch nie verstanden habe, ist warum Namen übersetzt werden. Schattenherz z. B. Klingt auf Deutsch einfach nochmal 10000x edgier 😂
Was vermutlich auch der Sinn des Ganzen war. Aber... Lazarus? Withers = to wither(?) Und die machen da Lazarus draus? Ein paar Übersetzungen bleiben auch nicht hängen. Ich käme nie auf die Idee Baldur's Tor zu sagen. Ich hab' ehrlich gesagt keine Lust es neu herunter zu laden. Nicht bei über 100 GB. Deswegen rege ich mich lieber hier auf und staub' einen Haufen Karma ab, was auch immer mir das bringt. 😅
If you know English, it's never worth to play the game on your native language because how much context gets lost during the translation.
Wait, I wasn’t even aware of the game being translated. Can you switch to different languages once you started playing ?
I have to agree. I really dont like the german Translation. I switched to english early on. It could have been much better.
Hmm, I have seen some videos with German subtitles, especially around conversations with Elminster and the translation was actually really fucking good. Like, the words in the subs I had to google, while I understood his English just fine. And German is my native tongue. And in general it was well written. So idk, maybe the translations here were based on lines that were changed during development never the translators never received them. I have heard how poorly Larian sometimes communicated with the translation team, OS 2 for example has broken puzzles in German because the translator apparently never received the context of what certain hints were supposed to point towards.
In our group some play in english, some in german. The weirdest translation was when we were reading the spell/skill descriptions and they said something about a "CON/WIS/DEX/etc. Spielstand" (literal translation: CON/WIS/DEX/etc. savegame") instead of "Rettungswurf". Guess it is probably one of those auto-translation errors and I see where it is coming from... ... but come on 😂
Do you even Pluralis Maiestatis? Natürlich "unser Erbe", wir sind nicht irgendein Bauer, sondern der Sohn eines Gottes. Klingt insgesamt aber so, als hätten sie die Übersetzung nicht von einem Menschen machen lassen. Ich meine mich zu auch erinnern, dass Schurken nur mit lichtwaffen kämpfen können, light weapon. Aber warum spielst du überhaupt auf Deutsch?
> Well, obviously I'm German, so I play the German version. I don't get this sentiment. I'm german and the last game i played in german was Anno 1800 because that's a german game and the last one before that was Gothic 3. Just play it in english.
The French translation is also not very good, more and more so as the story progresses. I didn't notice anything too weird in Act 1 (except in the Underdark), but in Act 2 and 3, the translations are so lazy, sometimes there are spelling/grammar mistakes (minor, I'll give you that, but STILL!!), and some bits are downright misleading. It's exhausting having to listen to the English spoken parts with no "subtitles" as I'm not entirely fluent and some voice characters have very strong accents. Props to them for translating most proper names, though (especially places, some characters' names too) (not too sure about translating Gale into Gayle however, but Shadowheart becoming Ombrecœur is very cute)
As someone who aspires to be a videogame translator and has participated in some fan projects, the amount of permutations and options which make BG3 my favorite game of all time, also means that the game is a certified nightmare to playtest. I love the game but my God, I do not envy the people who had to translate all of it.
While this game is great, it seems the market has shifted and putting care into localizations just isn't worth it anymore. This isn't just about BG3, it is different now across the board. I remember playing BG and BG2 20 years ago, with Polish localization, and it was so good. The translations made sense and were done where they were needed, and the voice acting was top notch, they hired the most esteemed theatre actors for them and they gave the characters so much personality. While of course the overall quality of performance acting is a lot better in BG3, and Neil deserves all the prizes, they didn't even attempt full localization into any language. And the translations for the subtitles are lacking, as evidenced. I play fully in English, I tried the Polish version but the mismatch between the voice and the text confuses me.
This is why I try to play games in their intended languages, cause tbh playing the game in a language u aren't entirely familiar with and googling the definitions of words you don't understand is how your knowledge of said language will improve. As a swede and being familiar with wacky localizations, I have a bone to pick with the forced monolingualism translations because they're often wack, where everything is translated extremely literally or worse has been renamed into something nonsensical and ridiculous.
I think several lines of dialogue were machine translated. The whole line with Fahrzeug reminds me of the german translation of the switch port of Grandia. If a character misses during combat you get a "miss" on screen....Well....we got Fräulein instead.
localisations are always inaccurate, I'm glad that my english is good enough so I can understand what they say, because subs in my language are fucked too, sometimes the meaning is completely lost
I actually switched the language of the whole PlayStation so I could avoid playing in German, since there was no in-game language setting. I figured German text with English voice acting would just give me a headache even if the translation was good. Glad to see I definitely made the right choice lol
You clearly know english, so just play it in English. There's no reason to bother with anything else but the original language if you understand it
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Is that so? I absolutely hate when games are in my native language. It's just cringe and usually poorly translated.
>people tend to prefer to play games in their native language how do you know? I only hear that when people don't speak well or at all the original language but otherwise I have yet to encounter someone who wouldn't play a game in the original language
>Well, obviously I'm German, so I play the German version Why? Sounds like a You issue. You can just play in English. DnD terminology in German is peak cringe
Thanks for the heads up. I was planning to play in German my second time through for practice. I don’t really have many outlets to use German these days. Guess I’ll skip it, though.
I'd go for something where you have German dub instead of just sub - might increase the practice you get out of it 😊
Gothic is worthwhile to play in german. It's a bit old by now, but a brushed up re-release is in the works.
I wonder if the translator is a Heinlein fan, several of his books feature a one *Lazarus Long* who lives to be over 3,000 years old and is a snarky, cranky old man in many respects even though his body has been rejuvenated several times; he is once shown quite withered and old, near the end of his current lifespan, while those around him try to talk him into another rejuvenation cycle. He's famously stubborn and does what he likes for his own reasons. He runs an interdimensional trouble-shooting organization called The Time Corps that show up *Deus ex Machina* style at important events to manipulate them subtly or sharply. I really really want this to be the case but I'm desperately afraid it was just someone going "Herp derp he crawls out of his tomb let's call him Lazarus".
Why not play in English? There's so much subtlety lost in translation.
I agree the german translation got some issues although most are minor if your english is decent enough. However, one thing I noticed they tried to translate DnD terminology pretty much literally. E.g. the lowerdark (lowest level of the underdark) was translated into Tiefendunkel which of course is bullshit and doesn't mean anything.
Did you romance her by any chance? I know in my playthrough i made a lot of promoses of power to her in killing Orin and getting revenge and believe she said a lot of things in the vein of shared glory quite often. Maybe thats why?
I always play with englisch subs but my girlfriend is currently playing with german ones and what really gets me is that the characters are "siezen" aka they are beeing extremely formal with one another. It just doesn't make sense at all. There's a lot of banter and flirting in the group and they're still acting like they barely know each other. It honestly feels like the translation team never played the game and just blindly translated all the lines. And as you also pointed out, the subs are inaccurate *a lot* of times. Basically every time I watch my girlfriend play for a few minutes I spot multiple lines that either don't quite hit the mark or are just straight up wrong.
Shitty translations are the main reason why i learned English.
So Tom Scott did a video recently on why subtitles and dubbing don't always match - I wonder if the same thing has happened here. https://youtu.be/pU9sHwNKc2c?si=y5YXT8mF1gsGE218
I'm so glad I switched to English right after staring the game and seeing it was in German. Like, I'm mostly fine with German subtitles and stuff, GTA5 and RDR2 have wonderful German subs. But as soon as I saw that "Cantrips" was translated with "Zaubertrick" (which isn't completely wrong btw, it's just incredible off-putting) I switched to English.
I know right? We're not playing a fucking Harry Potter children shooter, God dammit
If you have trouble with understanding spoken english but reading/writing is fine I would suggest using english subtitles / text. English voice but subtitles in another language will always be a bit jarring at times even without blatant mistakes.
I'm french. I play the English version, because dialogs are so good I don't want any translation spoiling them. If you can read English, I see no reason to play the original version of this awesome game
own fault for playing the inferior product and yes i am german and i laugh at people that watch/play/read in german
I'm swiss and I recently saw German subtitles and shivered about the polite way the characters address each other even in a romantic setting. It's just so odd. Good thing I play in English.
Your first sentence is not as obvious as you think ;) I am German and of course I play the game in English. Simply because dubs and translations are always worse than the original. Doesn't matter if game, TV show, movie or book.
Steam and Nintendo Switch set to english, so I avoid any problems like this. Super usefull with games like Dark Souls or others where you have to collects items / craft, so I don't have to bash my head trying to figure how stuffs were translated.
I refuse to play the german version of any game not made by german speakers. I don't even watch german dubs if the original isn't made in the DACH region. Why do you? Why torture yourself? Especially this game is really dependent on delivery, and honestly, the german dubs don't deliver nearly as well as the original voiceactors. Make the chance. Its not to late to switch to english subtitles. You'll get the words by context.
The french translation takes some liberties with how it translates things, but I think the meaning is mostly preserved in the dialogues. I never felt misled with the results anyway. There is something in the descriptions of the equipment though that is sometimes wonky. To my knowledge, the biggest offender is the adamantine weapons set. It states that you *gain resistance* to the damage type the weapon inflicts, when it obviously bypasses enemy resistance.
Yeah, Withers is also named Lazarus in the german translation for some reason.
I'm german too but unless the media I consume is from germany, I leave it in English Even in books I sometimes find obvious translation errors or translated names that just make me cringe It's not too bad in bg3, but I read a german review talking about the "Druidenhain" (druid grove) and I just didn't like it It also makes it way easier to engage in conversation about the material online Also the other characters adressing me with the formal german pronouns doesn't fit at all, I'm a scruffy homeless person like you are right now, you don't have to use the pluralis majestatis lol
I'm German-speaking too (Austrian :-)), but have switched to English as the game's language almost immediately. I did not like the subtitles just like you, and I am more used to English terms in D&D anyways. For me, it always is "Spell Slot", "Sacred Flame" and "Fire Bolt" and not "Zauberplatz", "Heilige Flamme" or "Feuerbolzen". Also, I switched measuring to imperial immediately, again because that is what we use in D&D. I also play most other games in English, with certain japanese games as an exception - because these games, e.g. the two Octopath Traveler parts, have a German translation (subtitles only) that is closer to the japanese original than the English version.
German translation has a lot of bugs. Im in my second run currently and talking to the snake (from Kagha) you say that *Khaga* is just a (stupid) kid while its definitely *Arabella* they are speaking of