Games can be a lot harder to localize than any other piece of media since they’re nonlinear. In many cases the localization team is just handed a raw text dump with no context of what line is from what part of the game, or even what character is speaking. Then it becomes a scavenger hunt to play through the game and find each line, but in something like a long JRPG that kind of scavenger hunt can miss a lot. It’s not like how you can just read the book or watch the anime and fully cover everything.
But these days a lot of developers have started working closely with localization teams during development to help make their job easier. As they write the script, annotate it with detailed notes providing context and commentary, explanations of wordplay, cultural references, even advice directing the localizers on what you think they should do. And then stay in communication with the localization team, let them ask you questions as needed.
Good localization is hard, but I don’t agree with Horii saying a loss of flavor is inevitable. Not when done right.
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Games can be a lot harder to localize than any other piece of media since they’re nonlinear. In many cases the localization team is just handed a raw text dump with no context of what line is from what part of the game, or even what character is speaking. Then it becomes a scavenger hunt to play through the game and find each line, but in something like a long JRPG that kind of scavenger hunt can miss a lot. It’s not like how you can just read the book or watch the anime and fully cover everything.
But these days a lot of developers have started working closely with localization teams during development to help make their job easier. As they write the script, annotate it with detailed notes providing context and commentary, explanations of wordplay, cultural references, even advice directing the localizers on what you think they should do. And then stay in communication with the localization team, let them ask you questions as needed.
Good localization is hard, but I don’t agree with Horii saying a loss of flavor is inevitable. Not when done right.