Continued: Who did the translations anyway?
[quote=“Sirlin”]I’m most worried about fighting game terms in the translations. They require the translator to know fighting game terms in their own language, which they might not know. Some examples.
Block is correct term in English, even though there are synonyms for that word that might seem reasonable to someone who didn’t know fighting games terms. In Japanese, translating that to the equivalent of “block” is incorrect though. Japanese fighting gamers call that term “guard.”
In English, normal / special / super are the specific, correct words for different types of moves. I can imagine that coming out as like “ordinary / unusual / mega” or something weirdo in another language if the translator doesn’t know the right terms.
Mixup normals isn’t exactly a fighting game term, but mixup and normal separately are the correct words. A “mixup” is a thing. Maybe in another language fighting gamers use a slightly different word. But choosing the wrong word in German or something would come out sounding like “trickshot” in English or who knows what, which isn’t correct.
“Meaty attack” (Zane) is the correct fighting game term for attacking early against a rising opponent, even though it’s a dumb-sounding word. That should not be translated literally or even to something like “tricky attack” or “early attack.” Instead it should be whatever is the correct term in the fighting game community for that language. To a lesser extent that’s true of Zane’s “Shenanigans” too. That’s not quite as rigidly defined a term as Meaty Attacks, but it is lingo from fighting games. If the translation where the equivalent of “dirty tricks,” that’s sensible if you don’t know fighting games, but it appears tone deaf to call it that if the fighting game community calls it “shenanigans” or whatever. (Translator’s note: the term refers to fighting games moves or tactics that are not dependable, but that you might try to get away with anyway.)
“Wall Dive Loop” refers to what Vega does in Street Fighter. Again, it translating literally or even “in the spirit” of it can end up really wrong if some other language commonly uses a different word than “loop” to refer to repeated move in a fighting game.
I bet there are a bunch more of these fighting game terms in the game, those are just the ones off the top of my head.[/quote]
[quote=“GRAG”]Right, yeah. That’s sort of my point with the Japanese translation: there’s a lot that feels “translated,” for lack of a better way to put it.
I actually just stumbled across a list of fighting game terminology with translations of English slang, of all things, based on my curiosity about this topic (熊花日記 : [格ゲー]格ゲー用語を英語で言ってみよう！). A lot of the Japanese is a lot more straightforward and less slangy, though. For instance, the Japanese term for a “meaty attack” is essentially just “hits-during” or “continued-hit.” Even more disappointingly, “footsies” has the rather pedestrian* Japanese equivalent just meaning “fighting on the ground.” Amusingly enough, there’s also a Twitter account called @FightingGameESL that is just all about this topic.
Of course, there are a few pieces of English fighting game terminology that come from Japanese, more or less directly. “Empty jump” is a literal translation, and “okizeme” is just a romanization. If you play Virtua Fighter, you might know the term “abare” (literally “rampage,” more or less) to refer to an extremely aggressive play style.
Incidentally, was the Japanese translation done by an amateur fan, or by an actual professional? There’s clearly room for improvement and polishing, though it’s certainly at least workable. It just feels… y’know, translated. I’d offer my assistance, but with the caveat that an actual native speaker should absolutely check it at some point too, because only half of the job of translating is actually understanding the source language; the other half is writing in the target language, which is a difficult enough skill to master in one’s own native language.
*rim shot[/quote]
[quote=“Zejety”]A problem I can see is that some local communities may not even translate many words. German gamers in general tend to just use English terms for most technical stuff, at least in my extended circle of friends.
Btw.: The translations on the reference card were mostly done by Thelo and me in one evening on the IRC. We’ll have to see how they hold up since I had barely any contact to the German scene (but I didn’t have to name any moves so we’re probably golden).[/quote]
[quote=“Kasumi”]Thanks @DoctorFedora ! Uh, May we use this works?
We will be exhibited at “Game market Tokyo”.
I want to distribute to people you need these.
YOMI Japanese trancelation by @SIN1024 .
We have but did not respond nobody recruiting translators.
So I asked SIN.
I was scolded by @midge11 about it. He was told that I should be translation.
He knew some Trouble about boardgame translation.
He was worried about everyone’s position. SIN, Mr.Sirlin, and me.
As a result, he was pleased with translation very much because SIN and @Thelo
made a big success.
Japanese people use the most convenient foreign words .
ex. “draw a card” is “カードを(1枚)引く” kaad wo (ichi mai) hiku.
(引く has other means. “Pull”. hahaha, Japanese language is so crazy!)
But we use “draw” (ドロー). Because this is easy to talking with game.:D[/quote]
[quote=“Star Slayer”]Thanks. That is really helpful and makes it really easy to look at the cards.
Here is a list of (German) Vendetta’s dragon abilities:
2 / Klauenstoß / Claw Thrust
3 / Klauenstich / Claw Stab
7 / Klauenfeger / Claw Sweeper
K / Klauenschlitzer / Claw Slasher
Now compare those to Midori’s dragon abilities:
J / Giftodem / Poisonous Breath
K / Herabshießende Klaue / Swooping Claw
A / Finaler Dragon Buster / Final Dragon Buster
That’s 4-3 for Vendetta. In other words: German Vendetta is more of a dragon than Midori is! :eek:
And since we are comparing and playing with languages (a thing that I really like to do): The German word “Klauen” is the plural of “claw”, while the verb “klauen” means “(to) steal”. It therefore makes sense that only Vendetta’s “Klauen” attacks are dragon abilities, since it seems that he was stealing them from Midori.[/quote]
[quote=“mysticjuicer”]Picking up where I left off… Onimaru! Seems the French general’s sword is sharper than his counterparts, because his innate has changed to ‘Opening’, in the sense of ‘An Opening In Someone’s Defence’. A slight change in ‘Rising Sword’ to ‘Cutting/Keen Ascension’. BBB’s ‘Robo-Headbutt’ becomes ‘Iron Head’, which I love, and his ‘Overdrive’ becomes ‘Overclock’ or ‘Overheat’. My french is terrible. 
Persephone toughens up her ‘Do As You’re Told’ for the whip-backed ‘Obey!’ and her ‘Bare Your Soul’ becomes ‘Confess’, in a move that Madonna would certainly approve of. Her J gets upgraded to ‘Resounding Whip’ and ‘Scathing Whip’ respectively. Her ‘Rising Passion’ becomes an ‘Irresistible Impulse’, and a ‘Wild Ride’ becomes a ‘Dangerous Liaison.’ ‘Mistress’ command’ becomes ‘That’s an order!’ 5/5 blushy faces! :oops:
Bring out your dead, because Gwen’s got ‘Black Plague’ as her innate. Her ‘Shadow Slice’ becomes a ‘Fatal Cut’, and ‘Burnbarrow’ becomes straight out ‘Incineration.’ Her A gets the full black metal treatment on both sides with ‘Dread Portal’, and ‘Slaughter’. I think 'Skysplitter’s guitarist has guest appearances on both of those tracks. \m/ \m/ Zane has a tough act to follow, but starts out strong, trading his ‘Meaty Attacks’ for ‘Massive Attacks’. ‘Anarch Crusher’ becomes the faaaaaaantastic ‘Radical Torpedo’! ‘Shoulder Ram’ becomes the excellent ‘Ram’s Blow’, and ‘Slipstream Phase’ becomes ‘X-TREEEEEM turbulence’!!!
Much love to the French translation! 
I think it’s beautifully done![/quote]
[quote=“GRAG”]Oh man, that’s a great translation for “Guard Crush.” That same use of “opening” would work really well in Japanese, like 隙を見切る (“Catch openings [in one’s defense]”).
Well, hell, I’m done being at work for today. Let’s take a crack at some of these.
Grave:
Innate: Knowing the Opponent —> 敵を知る (“Know the enemy”) is pretty much just as-is translation.
7: Martial Mastery —> 格闘術 (“Fighting technique” in the sense of “a fighting technique”) feels a little vague and slightly off. Maybe something more along the lines of 極めた格闘術? (“Mastered fighting technique”) Maybe I’m just missing something because I’m not a native speaker of Japanese, but it doesn’t feel like the English meaning quite made it through.
10: Mental Toughness —> 根性 is pretty much spot on. “Willpower” or “spirit” or “grit,” essentially.
J: Lightning Cloud —> 雷雲掌 (“Thundercloud Palm”) is a damn solid translation! It even takes advantage of the illustration to make it sound more legitimate as a technique name through specificity of the body part used for the strike (as it were).
J*: Lightning Trap —> 雷雲固め should probably be 雷雲ハメ if we’re looking to keep the fighting game terminology/slang intact, since that’s the accepted term in the Japanese fighting game community.
Q: Dragonheart —> 龍心拳 (“Dragon heart fist”) nails it by just being a straightforward translation. Sounds like it could be the shoryuken equivalent for the Ryu clone in some Data East fighting game in the '90s.
K: Whirlwind —> 旋風脚 (“Whirlwind leg/kick”) is… well, it’s literally just the last 60% of tatsumaki sempukyaku (“tornado whirlwind leg/kick”). Nothing to see here. Move along.
A: True-Spark Arc —> 真・雷電閃 (“True • flash of lightning”) sounds nicely Ryu-esque. Not bad!
A: True Power of Storms —> 真・嵐龍拳 (“True • storm dragon fist”) actually sounds pretty badass and completely spot-on for a lightning-themed Ryu clone.
Jaina:
Innate: Burning Vigor —> 熱血 (“hot-blooded”) is actually a pretty good translation, inasmuch as it uses a well-established target language phrase at the cost of ever-so-slight inaccuracy, which can be completely acceptable depending on the context. Whether the pun will actually be noticed, though, is hard to say.
Burning Desperation —> 熱狂 is an interesting case. The word itself actually means “fanatical enthusiasm,” in the sense of “extremely hype,” but it loses the “desperation” element, though it does retain the “hot” pun in the first kanji. The second kanji does mean “crazy” or “wild,” though, so it’s still not too bad overall.
7: Unstable Power —> 定まり得ぬ力 (“power that cannot find tranquility/order”) isn’t too bad either. The use of literary phrasing (the 得ぬ) makes it sound more like a “real” saying, though again, as a non-native speaker, I also don’t quite have the ability to tell if it’s a reference to a real saying after all.
10: Smoldering Embers —> くすぶる残り火 is just a direct translation.
J: Flame Arrow —> 炎弓弾 (“flame bow shot/bullet”) and Charged Shot —> 溜め炎弓弾 (“charged flame bow shot”) are both pretty much as-is. The “charged” is the same as is used in fighting game terminology in Japan, too.
Q: Dragonheart —> See above
K: Crossfire Kick —> 炎舞十字脚 (“flame dance cross [shape] leg/kick”) feels a little off, if only because it feels like the translator missed the wordplay involved in “crossfire” and assumed it had something to do with a + shape. The “flame dance” part does sound cool, though.
A: Letter J —> イニシャルJ (“Initial J”) trades a completely opaque reference ('sup Johnny) for a much more accessible one.
Red Dragon —> 紅龍拳 (“Crimson dragon fist”) sounds pretty badass.
I’ll post more as I get more free time. I need to go pick up my wife from work shortly so I’ll leave it at these for now.[/quote]