The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess Gets Localized

It’s easy to forget that games made and produced in Japan don’t magically get turned into English after they are completed. The process requires a whole team to ‘localize’ the title, translating text, audio dialogue, and menu systems. Game Informer, a popular gaming magazine, recently conducted an interview with Bill Trinen and Nate Bihldorff of NOA and several other game localizationists from other companies, asking them how they went about doing their job.

In the interview, The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess came up in conversation. It was revealed that the localization team has been working very closely with Eiji Aonuma, the man in charge of overseeing the game’s development, since before E3 2004. “With Twilight Princess, the depth of story and its connection to past games means that not only does it have twice as much text as Wind Waker, but it includes a fair number of legacy terms that originate in past games, so consistency is a big focus there.” When dealing with that much to translate, it is relieving to know the team in constant contact with the man in charge of the project.

Another point of interest was Bill Trinen’s speculations relating to the ESRB rating of the game. Trinen says the game will probably end up with a ‘T’ rating, due to its “more realistic graphics” and use of “scenes and situations that wouldn’t have fit in a game like The Wind Waker.”

The interview also tells about the localizationists’ struggles to translate Japanese into rough ‘Engrish,’ then finally linguistically bend the words to make the text understandable in English. After reading all about it, you’ll have a whole new level of respect for these guys!

It’s easy to forget that games made and produced in Japan don’t magically get turned into English after they are completed. The process requires a whole team to ‘localize’ the title, translating text, audio dialogue, and menu systems. Game Informer, a popular gaming magazine, recently conducted an interview with Bill Trinen and Nate Bihldorff of NOA and several other game localizationists from other companies, asking them how they went about doing their job.

In the interview, The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess came up in conversation. It was revealed that the localization team has been working very closely with Eiji Aonuma, the man in charge of overseeing the game’s development, since before E3 2004. “With Twilight Princess, the depth of story and its connection to past games means that not only does it have twice as much text as Wind Waker, but it includes a fair number of legacy terms that originate in past games, so consistency is a big focus there.” When dealing with that much to translate, it is relieving to know the team in constant contact with the man in charge of the project.

Another point of interest was Bill Trinen’s speculations relating to the ESRB rating of the game. Trinen says the game will probably end up with a ‘T’ rating, due to its “more realistic graphics” and use of “scenes and situations that wouldn’t have fit in a game like The Wind Waker.”

The interview also tells about the localizationists’ struggles to translate Japanese into rough ‘Engrish,’ then finally linguistically bend the words to make the text understandable in English. After reading all about it, you’ll have a whole new level of respect for these guys!