Wait, so are you machine translating this game?Devil Girl Translation update:
All the strings in the main SWF file have at least a basic translation now. I'd say half of those I'm happy with as they are, the other half are in a state of needing further refinement. That might mean they need another pass, with some context to improve their meaning, or that they are little better than machine translations.
Each ending and H-scene has its own SWF file, each with its own set of strings to translate. I've not done a lot of these yet, but many of these strings are things like "Mmn!" and "Ahn~" if you get my meaning. Translating those shouldn't take as long. Most of the "sex talk" uses words and metaphors unfamiliar to me, interesting from a language-learner's perspective, but slightly tricky to translate at times.
Couple of quick questions:
The game makes several references to "Devils" as a race. The backstory is that the Human player has sought out the ruler of the Devils to end a war between Humans and Devils. I personally prefer "Demons" as a word than "Devils", and have been using the former in my translations. Does anyone feel strongly about that? Prefer one over the other?
The titular girl is referred to in the game as 魔族の王 "Mazoku no Ou" or literally "King of the Devils". In Japanese "王" can be gender-neutral, so it makes sense for her to be called that, but in English it doesn't sound right to call a female "king". I can't think of a suitable replacement which sounds right. "Monarch of the Devils" just doesn't work if you ask me. I could use "Queen" I suppose, but one of the first things the player can say in the game is "I have no business with the daughter of the <魔族の王>" implying that he does not expect the ruler of the Devils to be a woman. Any suggestions on how to deal with this pronoun problem? At the moment I've just left all instances of 魔族の王 as "Demon King".
Ruler is the only good gender neutral word for that IMO. Monarch is actually male, with Matriarch being the female version.Devil Girl Translation update:
All the strings in the main SWF file have at least a basic translation now. I'd say half of those I'm happy with as they are, the other half are in a state of needing further refinement. That might mean they need another pass, with some context to improve their meaning, or that they are little better than machine translations.
Each ending and H-scene has its own SWF file, each with its own set of strings to translate. I've not done a lot of these yet, but many of these strings are things like "Mmn!" and "Ahn~" if you get my meaning. Translating those shouldn't take as long. Most of the "sex talk" uses words and metaphors unfamiliar to me, interesting from a language-learner's perspective, but slightly tricky to translate at times.
Couple of quick questions:
The game makes several references to "Devils" as a race. The backstory is that the Human player has sought out the ruler of the Devils to end a war between Humans and Devils. I personally prefer "Demons" as a word than "Devils", and have been using the former in my translations. Does anyone feel strongly about that? Prefer one over the other?
The titular girl is referred to in the game as 魔族の王 "Mazoku no Ou" or literally "King of the Devils". In Japanese "王" can be gender-neutral, so it makes sense for her to be called that, but in English it doesn't sound right to call a female "king". I can't think of a suitable replacement which sounds right. "Monarch of the Devils" just doesn't work if you ask me. I could use "Queen" I suppose, but one of the first things the player can say in the game is "I have no business with the daughter of the <魔族の王>" implying that he does not expect the ruler of the Devils to be a woman. Any suggestions on how to deal with this pronoun problem? At the moment I've just left all instances of 魔族の王 as "Demon King".
in some religious text being such as Beelzebub and Asmodeus are referred to as Devils rather then DemonsRuler is the only good gender neutral word for that IMO. Monarch is actually male, with Matriarch being the female version.
Also, I agree with your usage demon as a translation for mazoku. English does not have a strong distinction between devil and demon but devil is the one which tends to refer to a specific entity (Satan, the Devil, etc) and the etymology differs in that devil comes from the Latin word for Satan (a specific entity) while demon comes from the Latin word for a lesser diety or thing of divine nature.
Mazoku refers to an evil or supernatural spirit, not to a specific entity such as Satan, so the most accurate English translation is actually demon.
Basically, the female equivalent to Lord is Lady... and Demon Lady is.... kinda... goofy. You might want to change it to Queen, since Lord can also be a title that can be given to kings. Or... Lord is also a title used for God. She could be the Demon Goddess. Of course, since she is the daughter of the Lord, Princess could apply, but.. Demon Princess is almost as goofy as Demon Lady. Find a good title and stick with it.As Ristu said, Demon Lord could work fine.
"I have no business wuth the daughter of the Demon Lord"
It might still sound weird callyng a woman "lord", but it sounds better than calling her "king"
I agree with Garou here. Since it's often difficult to figure out a good english translation for japanese kanji etc. things like "Itadakimasu" or "Yoroshiku" are left like they are very often ( e.g. Scanlations of mangas etc.).Looking at lists... since this is Japanese in origin.... Princess can be either Hi-Denka or O-jo (Actually the truly correct version of O-jo has a ^ above the capital O). I think it may be interesting to give it the title Demon O-jo.
Just tossin' out thoughts...
It's pointless to look into western religious sources because they have no relevance to the content being translated. We're looking for the closest English word to translate to, so the best way to go is look at the etymology/origin of the English words.in some religious text being such as Beelzebub and Asmodeus are referred to as Devils rather then Demons
of course there are text that say Lucifer and Satan are two completely different beings as well but as fascinating as theology is I'm starting to go off topic
what I mean to point out there are lots of old text that say there's more then one devil so Devils as a race wouldn't be much of a stretch.
That being said I think just leaving it Mazoku is fine as well
Actually, Monarch is gender neural term referring to both kings and queens, and a Matriarch is the female head of a family.Ruler is the only good gender neutral word for that IMO. Monarch is actually male, with Matriarch being the female version.
Devil Girl doesn't have as many endings as some of JSK's other games, and a couple of the ending files are pretty short. You're right that the sound effects only take up about 40% but overall the main SWF file has more dialogue, I think.Don't know about demon lord, but in the games i've done, this part takes the most time, because h scenes have a shitload of lines and the 'mmm' things are like 40% of them.
What would be the point in that? It wouldn't make any more sense than the Japanese! Every sentence I can't read immediately does get thrown at chiitrans, but I'm only using machine translation to aggregate dictionary lookups. Even then, I'm using real dictionaries to ensure I'm not missing the meaning of some kanji I don't recognise. So don't worry, each sentence goes through my actual brain first.Wait, so are you machine translating this game?
I was going to say, looks like we'll have to call Queen Liz something else! "Patriarch" is the male version of "matriarch". I'll try using "Demon Lord", maybe "Demon Overlord", see how that scans.Actually, Monarch is gender neural term referring to both kings and queens, and a Matriarch is the female head of a family.
Are you talking about Fuuma Girl Maisa? I can find it in the appropriate sub folder in localhost. If you are looking for the sol file it should be called save_data_maisa.sol.I haven't seen it here, and I've been searching my comp for a few days now (whenever I think of it) trying to find the save files for the two latest games. Where the heck are they? Not in the same place as the others, even though they all reside in the same folder... Are the two latest games' saves stored in a specific place other than the localhost directory?
I did read the thread, but it's 20 pages... In any case, I spent an hour trying to find whatever you are referring to, and the best I could figure out was that you're referring to something called Minerva?@Mojo, try reading the thread (somewhere around the 10th page).