I don’t have the Heart to blog about how incredibly shitty a job they did despite having 6 months to fix it up and despite everyone telling them exactly what they did wrong. So instead, I’m going to focus on what they did right.
– They got Lithia right
– The Sleeping Beauty poem is cutely translated
– Some lines of dialogue (~40%+) aren’t a TOTAL trainwreck… 40%! That’s great, guys! That’s better than Sword Art Online!
That’s about it. You can spoil yourself if you want:
Buy it, or don’t. It barely matters. I won’t.
November 10, 2014 at 4:19 pm | Permalink
That’s quite disappointing to hear. I was hoping the translations we saw over the summer were works-in-progress, but it sounds like things didn’t improve much. Siliconera mentioned localization issues but didn’t go in-depth, making it sound like there were only a few things here or there.
If you ever decide to detail some of Bamco’s shoddy work in Hearts, I’d love to read about it; to be honest, I trust your opinion much more than Random News Writer #23’s. π
November 10, 2014 at 5:23 pm | Permalink
Better Tales of Hearts with shitty english translation than no english Tales of Hearts at all. People should ignore the quality of the translation and buy it to show Namco that there is demand for portable Tales games. There is a chance that Namco will then put more effort into translating future titles.
November 10, 2014 at 5:38 pm | Permalink
I think I would rather have the Sword Art Online translation. At least it doesn’t pretend to be anything but shitty. This translation has a veneer of polish masking a translation/edit/script rewrite that is fundamentally terrible. Kohaku, for example, is some kind of formal, stiff, stuck-up, haughty princess. Forget even what she was like in the Japanese version (which you can still hear just fine) — does this characterization make any sense in the game? Lithia doesn’t talk like that. Hisui talks like some kind of immature 12 year old on Xbox Live. She’s a normal girl from a rural snowy village in the mountains. Where did she learn that from? And why does she suddenly switch to talking like a normal girl two scenes later? The answer can be found in my blog post from June: “Every step of this localization looks like itβs done in a total vacuum”.
Maybe my opinion is different since I have at least some measure of Japanese understanding, but personally, I’d rather have no English translation at all than this tripe masquerading as an English version of Hearts. This is a complete and utter failure to deliver to you the Hearts characters and story. I guess to some people it’s better than nothing at all, but I just can’t see it that way.
November 10, 2014 at 6:48 pm | Permalink
Now it’s your turn to deliver the TRUE Tales of Hearts English experience!
November 10, 2014 at 7:16 pm | Permalink
Is the translation worse than Tales of Xillia, for example? I have really mixed feelings on this one, I’m not a fan of some of the changes they made from the DS version and even with practically no knowledge of Japanese that “moths to a flame” line was obvious. I’m still hoping that you will release the DS translation eventually.
November 10, 2014 at 10:04 pm | Permalink
so, what r u waiting for?! please release tales of hearts DS full english patch right now! since bamco didn’t bother fan
November 11, 2014 at 2:19 am | Permalink
zip, you are a dumb sack of shit. that doesn’t teach them anything.
buying a bad product will not tell them their translation was garbage.
problem is there isn’t really a good way to be tell them
“take my money but don’t be a fucking lazy fuck when you translate this”
generally speaking, big companies look at success in a fairly linear manner
did it sell? did it not sell? they don’t necessarily look at the quality of the product
to determine whether it sold well or how well it sold.
an easy example is valkyria chronicles 2.
this was a game destined to fail in north america cause it was a product made with japan in mind
it was put on the psp, which was essentially dead in north america.
it only came with english dub, which further limited its sales potential.
also, since it’s sega, they don’t advertise at all cause it’s sega.
now, after they saw the interest that people showed for the 1st game, they’re like why not.
they put out the 2nd game and if it sold poorly that would basically seal the franchise’s future for more games.
Of course it came out in north america and tanked not meeting sales (i wonder why hurr durr).
Now, does this mean that Sega looked into why it failed? fuck no, they were just thinking
“wow why didn’t this sell, i thought you guys liked valkyria chronicles”
not thinking of the many things holding back any potential it had for sales.
Luckily Namco understands that we want tales games, so if this sells terribly due to that godawful translation, maybe they’ll look into it. It could also be possible that they just decide never to give us any more tales games on the vita, which is whatever. I’m sure though that, if you support their laziness, they will continue to be lazy and become arrogant and further marginalize the product you enjoy.
November 11, 2014 at 6:03 am | Permalink
Guess we’ll wait for you to release tales of hearts ds? What are the chances though
November 11, 2014 at 11:00 am | Permalink
Jesus Christ, the op is literally like the PS1 versions of Eternia and Destiny where they just dub over the song with some generic shitty music. What the fuck is this garbage? Are we back in the 90s or something? For what reason could they not have the original op?
November 11, 2014 at 12:09 pm | Permalink
So first you halt the translation in an effort to support Namco and so we could buy it. Now you tell them to go fuck themselves and you won’t buy it. All that time wasted. Also, you SHOULD blog how shitty of a job they did. At some point a decent publication will cover it.
November 11, 2014 at 12:14 pm | Permalink
Good sir, I hope your hard work will not go to waste. Many fans appreciate your work. Do you think, even if your enthusiasm is gone, we might at least see a MENU/etc patch for Hearts DS, forget a full story translation.
Thank you.
November 11, 2014 at 6:53 pm | Permalink
I think this is what will happen when a translation done by multiple person and never played the game before. Since they don’t know the story behind the texts, one would never know (won’t bother either) what kind of conversations they were having to grasp the personality of the talking people. Since Kaji have played this game, he should already know the flow of the conversations and what meaning the words they said. I think it’s like someone get to watch anime and someone just get anime texts. Without some great imagination, one would hard to translate the anime texts into the right emotion when the anime is playing.
If you can release your work half a year or a year later after Namco’s out, that would be the best.
November 11, 2014 at 8:30 pm | Permalink
I SINCERELY hope that this abysmal showing of a localization will make you and throughhim reconsider putting the project on hold and pick up the translation on Hearts for the DS again. I understand that you stopped progress on the patch so it wouldn’t conflict with supporing the official release, but if it means that games like Innocence R are going to be brought over here with just as horrible of a translation then I would rather not have it at all and I’m sure the two of you agree.
November 11, 2014 at 11:14 pm | Permalink
I’m not familiar with Hearts’ soundtrack, is the song they used for the localized opening a piece from the game, or a new composition? Because I’m hearing a hefty dose of Pachelbel’s Canon in D in there.
November 11, 2014 at 11:39 pm | Permalink
I have played and beaten the DS version and it’s defintely not a song I ever heard in that version.
November 12, 2014 at 2:00 pm | Permalink
Honestly got into about 2 hours of it and think the translation fits the characters fine. I obviously never attempted to translate the original DS version so I am coming into it not knowing the characters. I think all the characters I have encountered so far are really enjoyable. Even if the characters are as different as you claim, then I will enjoy the official localization first and your version 10~20 years from now. Keep in mind the vita version is completely different anyways with new characters and other elements, so it is really just another great game to enjoy.
tldr: Keep up the good work kaji, but dont bash on namco for bringing us over something even if it was rushed.
November 12, 2014 at 10:22 pm | Permalink
I kinda agree with you I have both version and played both but even in the beginning I was like rolling my eyes the poem is cute but some translation irks me because I know japanese, sample like θ¦γ€γγ = found you then its translated into you are mine LOL then the second θ¦γ€γγ = into 2 sentences words I forgot what it is, also the battle skit also translated poorly. And i feel like they change the character’s personality with their translation but maybe that just me since I played the japanese version
November 13, 2014 at 2:38 am | Permalink
While I cannot read Japanese, I’m incredibly irked by the translations as I understand it when it’s spoken. It just hurts how painfully they translated so many of the lines. It’s almost as bad, dare I say, as google translate at times.
I also really wanted the gameplay style of the DS version (though I knew they changed it for the Vita) and still hope to play a translated version of the DS title at some point in my life. I sadly just do not have the time at the moment to really practice my Japanese reading comprehension. I at least have my import of Hearts for the DS, but that only helps so much…
– Kat
November 13, 2014 at 4:41 am | Permalink
I see nothing wrong with the game. I’m glad they released it over here so I don’t have to wait 5-10 more years for this translation to finish only to find out they dropped it because of lack of translators like ALL of their other projects.
November 13, 2014 at 8:46 am | Permalink
If you know japanese for sure you won’t be satisfied with poor quality of translation just like me. Seriously Shing/Kor said of couse/mochiron why it becomes pure as snow fallen snow where that lines comes from?
November 13, 2014 at 7:31 pm | Permalink
I bought the game and am happy that we got a release of this game. Hoping to get Innocence: R too
You all sound like entitled beta whiny kids.
“OMG translation sucks”
Would you rather it not be translated at all?
“OMG his name changed and it doesn’t fit him”
lol just stop.
Don’t buy this game if you don’t want to. Enjoy the game for what it is. Another TALES game translated and brought over. As for me, I decided to support the tales series. You are welcome when they bring over Innocence: R
Then again all you whiners are probably broke
November 13, 2014 at 9:53 pm | Permalink
LOL sorry to say I have both Japanese version and English Version and I’m not broke, we only said our opinions, and yes for me since I can read Japanese I prefer this game not be translated at all, it’s really poor quality.
November 14, 2014 at 12:20 pm | Permalink
asga.
I’m glad you can read Japanese. But a lot of us can’t. So you may think the translation sucks, but for us non-japanese speakers and non weeaboo elitist we have nothing to compare it to.
So get outta here with your negativity. You prefer the game to not be translated at all? What a selfish thing to say and an insult to us Tales series fan.
November 14, 2014 at 1:15 pm | Permalink
I am most apologetic for asga’s negativity, Mr. President AlphaMale sir. I am deeply regretful that he dared to express an opinion different than yours on your own site. I will be sure to kick him outta here right away, sir, along with all the other selfish entitled beta broke whiny kids who have gravely insulted your esteemed personage by suggesting that they don’t want to enable further shitty localizations by supporting a shitty localization, sir.
November 14, 2014 at 7:42 pm | Permalink
Consider Kaji’s butt status as officially hurt.
If I was especially daring I might say… Butt-“heart”…
But that’s too soon.
November 14, 2014 at 7:56 pm | Permalink
While their menu/ items translation are good enough, the story translation is suck (their dub voice actor also, make me wanna puke hearing a guy pretending a girl’s voice). But I will still play it if it’s released on the same platform, not ported one though. I just need to know what to do next or what town/ people I need to visit next to advance the story without looking some walkthrough, while the story itself can be “imagined” as you want.
November 14, 2014 at 10:17 pm | Permalink
Lol sorry Mr. AlphaMale if you take my opinion as negativity, I only stated my honest opinion. And sorry Kaji-kun I don’t mean to insult any Tales fan with my opinion lol. I’ll out of here and be a silent reader π
November 14, 2014 at 11:26 pm | Permalink
I wonder how Kaji’s opinion toward the localization would’ve been different had he not started working on an english patch for Hearts. I’m also curious as to what changes Kaji would’ve personally made to make the localization less of a mess.
November 15, 2014 at 12:21 am | Permalink
It seems to me like Kajitani-Eizan is just a little butthurt because Bandai Namco beat him to the punch in translating it. So he’s going to do all he can to discourage people from getting the game. That seems like a pretty dick move to me. Since his translation was going to be so “elite”.
November 15, 2014 at 12:32 am | Permalink
Seriously, Kajitani-Eizan, for those of us tales fans who cannot speak japanese this translation is a godsend, otherwise we’d be literally waiting till we learn japanese or 20 years for your shitty translation to release! 12 Years of No Releases is NOTHING to be proud of and you should quit bickering with people on your blog and go finish translating something. Theres a first time for everything after all.
November 15, 2014 at 3:07 am | Permalink
Man I hope some of these defenses make it on the packaging.
“Having no way of understanding the standard this has failed to live up to I can only conclude it is good”
“Theoretically better than nothing at all”
“Personally I am satisfied with it which means nobody should criticize it ever”
“Contains three full servings of Pomeranian”
November 15, 2014 at 6:02 am | Permalink
I feel buttkor about it being a terrible localization, not about being beaten to the punch. Or do you think all these other people who also think it’s bad are also only whining about their butthurt about being beaten to the punch?
@asga I was being sarcastic, you’re fine, lol
November 15, 2014 at 7:12 am | Permalink
Lol it’s ok I know, I was being sarcatic too to Mr.AlphaMale. I guess some people can’t take different opinions.
November 15, 2014 at 7:13 am | Permalink
Hey Kaji! I don’t know what are you talkin’ about. ToHR have a excelent localization: http://www.rpgamer.com/games/tales/tohr/reviews/tohrstrev1.html —
Oh, my bad. Actually the story is terrible: http://www.rpgfan.com/reviews/Tales_of_Hearts_R
November 15, 2014 at 7:44 am | Permalink
He’s likely don’t understand english as well, just keep hitting the buttons to advance the story so he won’t bother about the translation, since menu or item translations should be good enough for him.
November 15, 2014 at 6:04 pm | Permalink
To me, I feel like the translation isn’t bad as much as it is punched up. That doesn’t make it bad, in my opinion. Xillia 1 and 2 were punched up as well. I feel like the issue with Hearts R is that it’s punched up too much.
From what people have told me, Japanese is a very contextual language, with multiple different ways to interpret it. With this in mind, I feel like a lot of people fall into the same trap of blindly following the exact Japanese text as is without taking cultural or structural differences into consideration. I ran into this when working as script editor for a translation of Clock Tower: The First Fear on PS1. The translator wanted to keep the script the same as the exact Japanese text, but some lines didn’t make sense in English, because people in English didn’t talk like the way the script in Japanese was written. The Japanese have a different culture and speaking style and different grammar rules than we do, obviously. In some cases, we have to twist things around, otherwise it won’t make sense or it will sound awkward.
I understand everyone’s frustration with the end result, though. The game’s text does seem more punched up than it needs to be. Even still, I don’t think it’s that bad. I don’t know enough Japanese to translate it myself, but even if I did, I’d imagine mine would be different than the next guy’s.
November 16, 2014 at 2:03 pm | Permalink
Buttkor. lol.
Luckily Kaji can take a joke and a bunch of people telling him his last 12 years sucked. I sincerely mean that as a compliment. He knows better than to give up just because people are trolling on him, unlike some of the weaker translators out there. And while I still like the localization, I agree Kaji and TH413 could have given a more accurate portrayal of the original characters.
November 16, 2014 at 3:24 pm | Permalink
Why not just release a duwang tier translation if people keep riding you about it?
November 16, 2014 at 9:49 pm | Permalink
Are you guys gonna finish the patch? The DS one looks more charming imo and your translations look amazing. I would really want a full english patch if possible, you guys are really great thanks for everything.