Getting Blue Dragon to English – so far, so good

With Mistwalker‘s Blue Dragon, as the people in charge of bringing Hironobu Sakaguchi‘s RPG to worldwide shores, you don’t want to be the known as the guy who blew the localization. After all…

• “This guy are sick.”
• “I feel asleep!”
• “A winner is you!”
• And, of course, “All your base are belong to us!”

Well, while Engrish does have its place in the pantheon of things (usually in the funny bone), like we said, no one wants to be known as the guy who messed up localization. So you should be glad to hear of this IGN report that Microsoft “isn’t cutting costs” or corners for Blue Dragon.

• Localization team’s experience: Ninety-Nine Nights, Kameo: Elements of Power, Gears of War (guess they localize both ways, too), as well as RPG translation experience;
• 30-40 people in the team total, including play testers;
• Both Japanese and English voiceovers will be in the North American game; and
• Experienced voice cast includes Richard Epcar (Gears, Resistance: Fall of Man); Tara Strong (Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops, Final Fantasy X/X-2).

Of course, the challenges remain as daunting as ever, then as now.

• “It’s going to take an extended team roughly five months to localize a product. That includes translation, test, and review time.” – Laura Hamilton, Content Publishing Manager;
• 175,000 words in the script to translate – and all scripts then have to be polished, proofread, checked by Microsoft Japan, then by Mistwalker;
• Barriers both linguistic and cultural, wherein certain things make sense in Japanese culture but inspire an “Oro?” in American or European contexts. Laura revealed to IGN that in these cases, they would leave the direct translation “as it was” so as not to dilute the “flavor” of the translation/script/story.

Translation get? For great justice to Blue Dragon!

With Mistwalker‘s Blue Dragon, as the people in charge of bringing Hironobu Sakaguchi‘s RPG to worldwide shores, you don’t want to be the known as the guy who blew the localization. After all…

• “This guy are sick.”
• “I feel asleep!”
• “A winner is you!”
• And, of course, “All your base are belong to us!”

Well, while Engrish does have its place in the pantheon of things (usually in the funny bone), like we said, no one wants to be known as the guy who messed up localization. So you should be glad to hear of this IGN report that Microsoft “isn’t cutting costs” or corners for Blue Dragon.

• Localization team’s experience: Ninety-Nine Nights, Kameo: Elements of Power, Gears of War (guess they localize both ways, too), as well as RPG translation experience;
• 30-40 people in the team total, including play testers;
• Both Japanese and English voiceovers will be in the North American game; and
• Experienced voice cast includes Richard Epcar (Gears, Resistance: Fall of Man); Tara Strong (Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops, Final Fantasy X/X-2).

Of course, the challenges remain as daunting as ever, then as now.

• “It’s going to take an extended team roughly five months to localize a product. That includes translation, test, and review time.” – Laura Hamilton, Content Publishing Manager;
• 175,000 words in the script to translate – and all scripts then have to be polished, proofread, checked by Microsoft Japan, then by Mistwalker;
• Barriers both linguistic and cultural, wherein certain things make sense in Japanese culture but inspire an “Oro?” in American or European contexts. Laura revealed to IGN that in these cases, they would leave the direct translation “as it was” so as not to dilute the “flavor” of the translation/script/story.

Translation get? For great justice to Blue Dragon!