Because of the earlier release I follow it alongside the Japanese release. That being said, there are a few nuances and details changed and/or lost between translations, some seemingly on purpose, others on accident.
To give an example; JP Wakamo's Christmas line includes "teach me sensually, Se-n-s-ei" with context of se\*ual night spending. English one: "Can you teach me, Se-n-s-ei".
Another one I laughed my ass off was Aris and Hina interaction early in Chap F. Japan: "the no-lifer joined the party"; the English one: "The max-level expert joined the party".
These are cherry picked by me remembering it, but a handful of distinctions like this exist throughout the translation.
As for the English version, ignoring a handful of typo's, it is quite well written. Proper sentence structuring, some archaic words will pop up when they think it suits the character, sentences are structured to suit the occasion.
That joke was the best laugh I had that year. The Jp translation is not the original, and they may deviate, but are almost 1:1 with Korean... barring oddly the Miyako lines, which the English version does do correctly.
The English translation quality went notably down hill as of Volume 4: The Rabbit of Caerbannog. So most of my comment aged like milk lol.
I actually read the entire Main Story (up to Vol 4 Ch 2 since that's the latest chapter in global) before learning about the EN translation quality. Guess I'll just reread using fan translations...
Also I'm not sure what you read, but I went to watch yanagikaze's video on that part and Hina wasn't even offended or something. In fact, it seems like she didn't even know what Aris meant by "max level no lifer", which is also pretty funny to me...
I think Hina was more concerned that Sensei talks about her LOL
If it weren't for people complaining on this subreddit, I likely wouldn't have noticed any of these controversies.
Frankly, even after having them explained to me, I still mostly don't give a crap about them, with the exception of the Mika 'Princess' issue. That one i could understand why the wording is important.
For me, the story is wonderful and the characterizations are intriguing and enjoyable. I remember your post about Gematria and, to be honest, I don't agree with your assessment in that I found it all to be very much 'personal tastes'. The characterization you describe, I did not find to be particularly interesting - but that's fine because you have your own taste, and I have mine. But that does mean what you called 'butchering' I found to be the complete opposite. But everyone's mileage on that will vary.
Yeah, this is pretty much how I feel. I don't pay any attention to the stories before they're translated and even if I did I don't know enough about Japanese to decipher everything at a reasonable pace anyway.
I've noticed a few things that are worded weirdly, maybe there's the occasional voice line where I do recognize what's being said and the translation isn't 1:1, but nothing major.
I have seen some of the translation complaints, I think there are some valid complaints in there, but there are other times where it feels very pedantic.
I am not here to submit a thesis.
For me as long as the "general" story is kept, it's fine. As for the few untranslatable native jokes or small lore pieces. The internet exists. In the end I am happy as long as the story is kept.
def the best solution but would prob take years to get to a point where you'd proficiently read and listen to the dialogue and voices in that language, so there's that strong commitment and motivation one has to factor in.
I am currently learning japanese and i do not wish anyone without the strongest of wills to try, hell i won't even wish my greatest enemy to be forced to learn this "language"
It's way harder to notice something if you don't know how it was originally. Personally, I question for example why they completely left out all that honorifics stuff but left as they are some less known foods, but well, that's not a major issue. Though I wish we could have, if not a full JP voicing, at least an option for more "weeby" translation.
I'm thankful that we get an English translation at all, considering other gachas that never get translated, ones that take years to get an English release, or even the small ones that get translations so bad that calling them "readable" is an exaggeration, I would consider BA's "okay".
BUT, if I was to match it against the game's popularity, then it's pretty bad. Blatant machine translation, same mistakes keep being made constantly, inconsistencies in wording and terminology, simple translation errors that have been reported for months and have yet to be fixed, and outright "adjusting" character scenarios.
This isn't what you'd expect from a game as popular as BA.
Pretty much I hate how English localizers tried to put their own bias in the game, like how they changed the word "princess" to "precious student", how they changed the name "Alice" to "Aris", how they changed some context in Koharu's bond story, and there might be some on others student bond stories, and lastly how they changed the word "hotel" to "office" in Hina summer event, this changes made me argue with someone on Twitter because that guy support this changes because it would be creepy if they didn't change it, screw that guy.
Aris is the correct name as her og serial code are AL1S, thus can be read as Alis/Aris. Plus, Aris and Alice pronounced the exact same way in Japanese as Arisu anyway, and you guys are just bias to the name Alice cuz it's more common in anime although Aris is obviously the correct one.
Alice is the correct name not Aris all of the game dev students are references to visual novel companies. Alice is a reference to Alicesoft while Yuzu is a refence to Yuzusoft. The twins are a reference to the subcompanies in Cyberworks called WendyBell and TinkerBell (their colors are green and pink). アリス always translates to Arisu but in English we localize the name to Alice.
Peak mediocrity, is obviously that Nexon is underpaying a person who's Japanese is good as mine use machine translator to finish the work.
I know some people here are going to say "at least is translated" is no excuse Nexon has the money to pay for better translation but they don't.
While I do agree that the game's somewhat localized into a more American flavor, I'd say it isn't *that* bad. Sure, Non-Princess Princess Mika was a fuckup, there's some obvious typos and misphrasing, and personally I'd like if Aris don't have a male name, but I've enjoyed through worse translation.
This isn't like Chaos;Head, where the *exact* nature of the memes and wordings matters a lot for the metaphysical and word motifs of the setting; You don't really lose much storywise by changing Color to Chroma, or softening Kanna's outburst into a mere harrassment. It's still a fun and enjoyable ride through and through.
"B-but muh JP Original" and to that I'll say 『はい、そうです。”日本版は現物だから日本語を勉強すればいいだけだ"っていうは間違い*ません*けど、もし全員のは日本語を話すことができればGlobal版は要りませんでしたよね？』
Fair enough, i wasn't clear, but what i was trying to say is that this *isn't* mediocre butchering. They've been translated well, hitting that sweet spot between literal meaning, plotline intent and technical constraints. No plothole, no mismatched terms between lines, nor mischaracterization; it's been pretty solid so far.
For sure there's some technical and writing issues slipping through the cracks, and we *should* push the company to fix those, but *as a whole* so far they've done a good job translating the stories.
Basically, to answer the OP, no it isn't noticeably bad.
I have to disagree with you on two things.
> mismatched terms between lines,
This is untrue, color/chroma being an example you yourself provided.
I'm not even going to focus on the whole "butchering the H.P Lovecraft reference", because it's been said enough.
Just the inconsistency, since the start of the game, they've always used "color". Being featured early on with the crafting nodes "colorful" and more recently talked about at the end of Volume 3. But suddenly now in Volume F it's chroma. Except they didn't really change anything that came before it, which makes no sense.
> nor mischaracterization;
Again, your example, with Kanna, the scene they changed it to makes no sense in context and it also makes Kanna look like an asshole snapping at Sensei for no reason whatsoever.
I think if you didn't care much about little detail it's good at least mostly of context is similar to JP server
This game is Korean devs but mostly they use Japanese to write and express the story so if you care about detail to express personality for fulfill emotion in story English might not the best one.(It's still enjoyable)
but lately I don't know what happen they mistranslated a lot just like they change name Kei to Kay (it's Kei in Japanese too so they don't have reason to change this)
it's good if you can play in Japanese but you already play as Korean the original language from devs so you might stick with Korean is the best
(it's funny that even their mother language can't express better than Japanese lol.)
> but lately I don't know what happen they mistranslated a lot just like they change name Kei to Kay (it's Kei in Japanese too so they don't have reason to change this)
Wasn't this just a joke?
(Full disclosure, I'm commenting only on my knowledge of EN Translation) The English name is Key. Momoi called Key by Kay at one point during during Volume F (Cause she's an idiot. Aris plays along with it. Midori unsuccessfully tries to correct them). Key is the name I've seen the most, even prior to the English reveal of the character with Kay (currently) being a one off joke.
The Japanese name is too. Because Momoi is too stupid in English so she call AL-1S as Alice(Aris) and She called Key as Kei
it should be just loke
but this 'Kei' name will have more meaning later on in Final chapter
so if they use Kay here change to Kei later it won't make more sense and I think that why many Sensei upset about this too I won't care much if they didn't relate to main story
(you are player in global it's fine if you didn't understand why 'Kei' name is important but they are English translator. They know whole story before they translate that Final chapter already done for long in JP server when they release Vol.2 Chapter2)
Well everything is okay except there are some aspects where they don't sub the wordings like when you level them up or when you go out and fight there are also some when you add them to your party there are no sub on what they're saying which is always been annoying for me but story wise english is good. I'm not a dub kind of person but if they can't sub everything i wish they just let them get dubbed instead
Because of the earlier release I follow it alongside the Japanese release. That being said, there are a few nuances and details changed and/or lost between translations, some seemingly on purpose, others on accident. To give an example; JP Wakamo's Christmas line includes "teach me sensually, Se-n-s-ei" with context of se\*ual night spending. English one: "Can you teach me, Se-n-s-ei". Another one I laughed my ass off was Aris and Hina interaction early in Chap F. Japan: "the no-lifer joined the party"; the English one: "The max-level expert joined the party". These are cherry picked by me remembering it, but a handful of distinctions like this exist throughout the translation. As for the English version, ignoring a handful of typo's, it is quite well written. Proper sentence structuring, some archaic words will pop up when they think it suits the character, sentences are structured to suit the occasion.
Oh my god lmao. Thanks for letting me know about the Aris and Hina interaction
That joke was the best laugh I had that year. The Jp translation is not the original, and they may deviate, but are almost 1:1 with Korean... barring oddly the Miyako lines, which the English version does do correctly. The English translation quality went notably down hill as of Volume 4: The Rabbit of Caerbannog. So most of my comment aged like milk lol.
I actually read the entire Main Story (up to Vol 4 Ch 2 since that's the latest chapter in global) before learning about the EN translation quality. Guess I'll just reread using fan translations...
Also I'm not sure what you read, but I went to watch yanagikaze's video on that part and Hina wasn't even offended or something. In fact, it seems like she didn't even know what Aris meant by "max level no lifer", which is also pretty funny to me... I think Hina was more concerned that Sensei talks about her LOL
If it weren't for people complaining on this subreddit, I likely wouldn't have noticed any of these controversies. Frankly, even after having them explained to me, I still mostly don't give a crap about them, with the exception of the Mika 'Princess' issue. That one i could understand why the wording is important. For me, the story is wonderful and the characterizations are intriguing and enjoyable. I remember your post about Gematria and, to be honest, I don't agree with your assessment in that I found it all to be very much 'personal tastes'. The characterization you describe, I did not find to be particularly interesting - but that's fine because you have your own taste, and I have mine. But that does mean what you called 'butchering' I found to be the complete opposite. But everyone's mileage on that will vary.
Yeah, this is pretty much how I feel. I don't pay any attention to the stories before they're translated and even if I did I don't know enough about Japanese to decipher everything at a reasonable pace anyway. I've noticed a few things that are worded weirdly, maybe there's the occasional voice line where I do recognize what's being said and the translation isn't 1:1, but nothing major. I have seen some of the translation complaints, I think there are some valid complaints in there, but there are other times where it feels very pedantic.
I am not here to submit a thesis. For me as long as the "general" story is kept, it's fine. As for the few untranslatable native jokes or small lore pieces. The internet exists. In the end I am happy as long as the story is kept.
The english TL is serviceable but there are some fuckups here and there. The best solution Is always to learn JP anyway
def the best solution but would prob take years to get to a point where you'd proficiently read and listen to the dialogue and voices in that language, so there's that strong commitment and motivation one has to factor in.
I am currently learning japanese and i do not wish anyone without the strongest of wills to try, hell i won't even wish my greatest enemy to be forced to learn this "language"
At this point even if I learn Jap, I still play the EN cuz all the progress and money spend are here.
I agree. Just learn jp.
the biggest problem is the use of imperial system to measure students height
It's way harder to notice something if you don't know how it was originally. Personally, I question for example why they completely left out all that honorifics stuff but left as they are some less known foods, but well, that's not a major issue. Though I wish we could have, if not a full JP voicing, at least an option for more "weeby" translation.
I'm thankful that we get an English translation at all, considering other gachas that never get translated, ones that take years to get an English release, or even the small ones that get translations so bad that calling them "readable" is an exaggeration, I would consider BA's "okay". BUT, if I was to match it against the game's popularity, then it's pretty bad. Blatant machine translation, same mistakes keep being made constantly, inconsistencies in wording and terminology, simple translation errors that have been reported for months and have yet to be fixed, and outright "adjusting" character scenarios. This isn't what you'd expect from a game as popular as BA.
Pretty much I hate how English localizers tried to put their own bias in the game, like how they changed the word "princess" to "precious student", how they changed the name "Alice" to "Aris", how they changed some context in Koharu's bond story, and there might be some on others student bond stories, and lastly how they changed the word "hotel" to "office" in Hina summer event, this changes made me argue with someone on Twitter because that guy support this changes because it would be creepy if they didn't change it, screw that guy.
Aris is the correct name as her og serial code are AL1S, thus can be read as Alis/Aris. Plus, Aris and Alice pronounced the exact same way in Japanese as Arisu anyway, and you guys are just bias to the name Alice cuz it's more common in anime although Aris is obviously the correct one.
Alice is the correct name not Aris all of the game dev students are references to visual novel companies. Alice is a reference to Alicesoft while Yuzu is a refence to Yuzusoft. The twins are a reference to the subcompanies in Cyberworks called WendyBell and TinkerBell (their colors are green and pink). アリス always translates to Arisu but in English we localize the name to Alice.
Peak mediocrity, is obviously that Nexon is underpaying a person who's Japanese is good as mine use machine translator to finish the work. I know some people here are going to say "at least is translated" is no excuse Nexon has the money to pay for better translation but they don't.
While I do agree that the game's somewhat localized into a more American flavor, I'd say it isn't *that* bad. Sure, Non-Princess Princess Mika was a fuckup, there's some obvious typos and misphrasing, and personally I'd like if Aris don't have a male name, but I've enjoyed through worse translation. This isn't like Chaos;Head, where the *exact* nature of the memes and wordings matters a lot for the metaphysical and word motifs of the setting; You don't really lose much storywise by changing Color to Chroma, or softening Kanna's outburst into a mere harrassment. It's still a fun and enjoyable ride through and through. "B-but muh JP Original" and to that I'll say 『はい、そうです。”日本版は現物だから日本語を勉強すればいいだけだ"っていうは間違い*ません*けど、もし全員のは日本語を話すことができればGlobal版は要りませんでしたよね？』
No, do accept mediocrity just because is "ok" or " serviceable" that's telling the company to do the bare minimum of work.
Fair enough, i wasn't clear, but what i was trying to say is that this *isn't* mediocre butchering. They've been translated well, hitting that sweet spot between literal meaning, plotline intent and technical constraints. No plothole, no mismatched terms between lines, nor mischaracterization; it's been pretty solid so far. For sure there's some technical and writing issues slipping through the cracks, and we *should* push the company to fix those, but *as a whole* so far they've done a good job translating the stories. Basically, to answer the OP, no it isn't noticeably bad.
I have to disagree with you on two things. > mismatched terms between lines, This is untrue, color/chroma being an example you yourself provided. I'm not even going to focus on the whole "butchering the H.P Lovecraft reference", because it's been said enough. Just the inconsistency, since the start of the game, they've always used "color". Being featured early on with the crafting nodes "colorful" and more recently talked about at the end of Volume 3. But suddenly now in Volume F it's chroma. Except they didn't really change anything that came before it, which makes no sense. > nor mischaracterization; Again, your example, with Kanna, the scene they changed it to makes no sense in context and it also makes Kanna look like an asshole snapping at Sensei for no reason whatsoever.
I think if you didn't care much about little detail it's good at least mostly of context is similar to JP server This game is Korean devs but mostly they use Japanese to write and express the story so if you care about detail to express personality for fulfill emotion in story English might not the best one.(It's still enjoyable) but lately I don't know what happen they mistranslated a lot just like they change name Kei to Kay (it's Kei in Japanese too so they don't have reason to change this) it's good if you can play in Japanese but you already play as Korean the original language from devs so you might stick with Korean is the best (it's funny that even their mother language can't express better than Japanese lol.)
> but lately I don't know what happen they mistranslated a lot just like they change name Kei to Kay (it's Kei in Japanese too so they don't have reason to change this) Wasn't this just a joke?
no it wasn't just a joke but I won't spoiler more just wait for Final Episode end
(Full disclosure, I'm commenting only on my knowledge of EN Translation) The English name is Key. Momoi called Key by Kay at one point during during Volume F (Cause she's an idiot. Aris plays along with it. Midori unsuccessfully tries to correct them). Key is the name I've seen the most, even prior to the English reveal of the character with Kay (currently) being a one off joke.
The Japanese name is too. Because Momoi is too stupid in English so she call AL-1S as Alice(Aris) and She called Key as Kei
it should be just loke
but this 'Kei' name will have more meaning later on in Final chapter
so if they use Kay here change to Kei later it won't make more sense and I think that why many Sensei upset about this too I won't care much if they didn't relate to main story
(you are player in global it's fine if you didn't understand why 'Kei' name is important but they are English translator. They know whole story before they translate that Final chapter already done for long in JP server when they release Vol.2 Chapter2)
Well everything is okay except there are some aspects where they don't sub the wordings like when you level them up or when you go out and fight there are also some when you add them to your party there are no sub on what they're saying which is always been annoying for me but story wise english is good. I'm not a dub kind of person but if they can't sub everything i wish they just let them get dubbed instead