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Your translation preference?


Cadgy

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I've been working on a few partials and I am finally getting the hang of it enough to try and take it to the next level by doing a complete translation, story and all.

I'm a huge fan of first person perspective narratives, they make me feel more immersed in the game, but many games have 3rd person elements mixed in which kinda ruins the immersion for me.

I was curious as to what you guys prefer? If I did do a complete translation would it be a crime if I altered all the 3rd person perspective texts into 1st person perspective?

Example from Hunter Quest ~Aina's Fighting Story:

Actual translation- Aina desperately twists her body trying to free herself from the restraints, but despite that the meat flower continues to tear off her clothes.

Altered translation- I desperately twist my body trying to free myself from the restraints, but despite that the meat flower continues to tear off my clothes.
 

Deleted member 39802

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Re: Your translation preference?

hmmm....i don't really know. i like both sides.
If you want to translate Ainas Quest i think Yummytiger already has it up his sleeve nearly but needs to finish his other game first, or at least the first chapter.
but if you want to try it i wont say no :)
 
E

erobotan

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Re: Your translation preference?

Personally, I'm a fan of 3rd person games.

Regarding translation, I prefer the one who is true to it's original material so if the original material is 1st person then translation should be 1st person, if it's 3rd person then the translation should be in 3rd person.
 

markus0i

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Re: Your translation preference?

I prefer 3rd but I 1st wouldn't poison my experience.
 

Froggus

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Re: Your translation preference?

A translator's job is to transform the words of the author into a new language. While a good translator will take some liberties -- as translating the intent is far more important than a word-for-word translation -- changing viewpoint is going too far.
 

Bryanis

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Re: Your translation preference?

I think the best is a translation that ring true. If it's coherent through all the game and with all the other character text, either way can be good.
I mean, having the character talk in the first person through all the game and put the H-scene in the 3rd person will seem strange if not well writted.

Still, won't complain about full game translation. There way too rare.
 

DeeFrost

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Re: Your translation preference?

I prefer 3rd person. Don't really want to read graphic descriptions of a dick going up my ass, you know?
 

imercenary

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Re: Your translation preference?

Generally speaking, third person perspective.

THAT SAID, I say that because most first person writers tend to be shit. (I absolutely hate stories where the girl is moaning non-stop but we magically hear her thoughts anyway. Just take the goddamn dick out of her mouth and let her speak, the moaning is just plain annoying.)
 

Kyrieru

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Re: Your translation preference?

I much prefer first person, when it comes to visual novels.

That said, I don't think it will be a huge deal if you switch to 3rd person when the situation calls for it. So long as it's consistent, and done in a way that makes sense.

Of course, you could always just go with whatever you think you'd be better at writing.
 

moonblack

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Re: Your translation preference?

I prefer sticking with whatever point of view is used in the original text. Switch it only when it switches in the original text.
 

Gromelon

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Re: Your translation preference?

Let the author decide. Rewrites of any kind is almost always inferior and inconsistent.
 

djweish

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Re: Your translation preference?

Second person or get out! :p

There's often a good reason an author has chosen a particular voice for a game; maybe they choose first person to make the player feel more involved, or they choose second person to indicate the player character is a blank slate and it's you who are driving the story. Attempting to second guess the author's intentions and impose your own on the story, unless you have contact with them and their permission/agreement, is probably a bad idea in general. There might be ways you could "improve" a translation, and maybe that would make for a better game; but you'll always have purists who demand you stick as closely as possible to the original text. All in all, it's more a case of localisation than translation. A translator attempts to convey exactly what was in the original translation. A localiser makes what changes are necessary to bring about the same effect as the original translation in a different audience.

(For example, a localiser translating a US game for a UK audience might change a reference to Wendy's into McDonald's/Burger King.)
 

BigJohnny

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Re: Your translation preference?

A different, but kinda related question- how do you prefer your sex scenes written, scenes through dialogue or narrative?
 

Larcx

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Re: Your translation preference?

A different, but kinda related question- how do you prefer your sex scenes written, scenes through dialogue or narrative?
Mind if You giving it some sample like Cadgy?

As for Cadgy question
I prefer Actual translation (3'rd POV)

Of course 1'st POV wasn't that bad either
But I think , stick to Original is the best choice
 

Bark

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Re: Your translation preference?

First of all, changing the perspective of a text means more than just interchanging "[Name]" with "I" or "her" with "my". To take your example: "I desperately twist my body trying to free myself from the restraints, but despite that the meat flower continues to tear off my clothes." just seems somewhat wrong to me. A character being restrained would not normally describe the situation in such a dry way. As for an inner monologue, you'd expect something like "Ugh, I can't break free... What?! That thing is tearing of my clothes!" or if the character were to adress the meat flower, you'd expect to hear something like "Let go of me! Hey! Don't rip my clothes!". Hence it's not just a question about whether using 1st person or 3rd person perspective, but it's about entirely rewriting the sentence.

It should be mentioned, however, that this whole "manipulative translation" thing does exist. There are people who'd actually change a text according to their ideology (or rather preference, in the case of H-Games) and merely see the source text as an inspiration rather than an actual source text. But in the end, that's just rewriting, not translating. It also causes a considerable amount of extra work. Not to mention that most people (that I'm aware of) who'd be willing to use such a strategy, tend to be bad translators. That is, they also incorporate errors in their translations that have nothing to do do with the style itself. Go figure.

Then again, from a player's perspective, while most people tend to say "keep the original the way it is", most of most people will never compare the translation to the original... Obviously, as they wouldn't normally need a translation if they could read the original. And as long as there are no blatant errors, many people may not even notice any changes done in the translation. Sometimes changes can even enhance a translation when compared to the original.

Furthermore, as a rogue translator, you are not bound by the will of the game creator or even those reading your translation (unless you are paid for your translation or such, but that's another topic). So just doing what you deem appropriate may also work. If you don't have fun translating, you may as well don't. In the worst case, nobody likes your translation. More likely, however, at least some people will be pleased.

Having said all that, there most often are good reasons why a game creator chooses a certain writing style over another. I remember some of the vore scenes in Card Quest 2... which basically had a dialogue style, though the protagonist's share of speech was reduced mainly to "Ugh"s, "Ah"s and "No"s. Both a 1st person and 3rd person perspective would have been entirely inappropriate. The 1st person perspective because the protagonist, while being eaten alive or being inside the enemy's stomach, would not really seem helpless if she could coherently think or even talk back to the opponent, the 3rd person perspective (always sounding descriptory and somewhat objective) because it would not really demonstrate the dominance relation between the protagonist and the opponent.

So, in short, unless there are really good reasons to make changes to the original (which do in fact exist but should not be arbitrary), you are better off staying loyal to the original. Outright changing the perspective seems to be too far off by any measure that I can think of right now. If you are willing to translate a game but prefer a 1st person perspective, then it may be better to just look for a game that features such a style to begin with.
 

Lucky777

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Re: Your translation preference?

My opinion?

Dead simple.

Just stick with the original and don't fuck it up.
 
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