Higurashi Game Translation Project

[lovelysan]

Originally Posted by tobiast88

My opinion is that since its a fan translation for fans, and the fans want the nanodesu, you should just leave it in. Yen's "sir" adaptation isn't bad for the literal politeness-adding meaning, but your "yes" more accurately conveys the moe-ness; however, both don't quite make it because *it's untranslateable anyway*.

THIS particular fan is incredibly thankful that leaving it "nanodesu" was not done. Thank you, thank you, thank you! Seriously.
My pet peeve about fan-translations is when things that should be translated/adapted AREN'T .

Anyways, I just went as far as I can go through the Higurashi translation patch/demo this past week and it was a lot of fun. So keep up the great work guys ! Can't wait for the rest.

[chronotrig]

Originally Posted by lovelysan

THIS particular fan is incredibly thankful that leaving it "nanodesu" was not done. Thank you, thank you, thank you! Seriously.
My pet peeve about fan-translations is when things that should be translated/adapted AREN'T .

Anyways, I just went as far as I can go through the Higurashi translation patch/demo this past week and it was a lot of fun. So keep up the great work guys ! Can't wait for the rest.

You've got to understand that some things are simply impossible to translate or adapt. If you're going to read a story which was written in another language, especially one as different as Japanese, you have to learn something about that language and the culture or you're going to miss out on some of the most important parts of the story.

That said, my personal opinion is that this one doesn't stick out enough to be left as 'nanodesu', since it's really a style of speech rather than a separate word. But you should know what nanodesu means before reading this story.

[tobiast88]

Mmm, then what about Rena's "Hauu"? Should that have been adapted? In my opinion, the nanodesu, even if it has literal meaning, is more of a speech tic that can be let unadapted rather than words that need translation.

[lovelysan]

Actually, when it comes to foods or some "cute" noises ("Hauuuu....") and other such cultural things, than yeah, of course I don't want it changed. For example, calling Okonimiyaki um... well, anything else. *laughs*
This also of course also refers to character names
( baring some special exceptions. Such as "Duck" in Princess Tutu. A story which is related very closely to old fairy tales that yes, had beings named directly after what they were.)


But when it comes to things like attack names (in other shows obviously), or the occasional sentence structure quirk. Well, I just like it to be translated so that "the joke" can come through.

Maybe it's because I took some beginning Japanese classes that I sort of erks me when "desu" is added to the end of English text. Since we were just beginners (and kind of really sucked), I and my classmates had a tendency to put "desu" on the end of every sentence.
So yeah, I can understand how that particular thing is "polite. but very childish".


Long story short. Er. I have specific tastes when it comes to translation styles ^^; .

(As a side note, yes, my Japanese does indeed still suck so I depend on these translations XD . Keep up the great work all of ya'll!)

[lovelysan]

Originally Posted by chronotrig

That said, my personal opinion is that this one doesn't stick out enough to be left as 'nanodesu', since it's really a style of speech rather than a separate word. But you should know what nanodesu means before reading this story.

By the way, you explained it better than I did. Eheheheheh. Yes, what I meant was that if something is just a "style of speech" than I would like it adapted so that the style comes through.
If it's a made up word, than obviously I would say keep the new word! (or in the case of the When they Cry series, various laughs.)

[tobiast88]

The thing is, lovelysan, the nanodesu in this case is more than a speech pattern since it's repeated everywhere *regardless of it's original and legitimate meaning*. Therefore I would argue that it falls under your "made-up word" category making it ok to leave untranslated.

Also, the laughs in higurashi are normal japanese. Ryuukishi07 didn't invent Shion's kukukukuku for example - it's simply onomatopeia for "creepy laughter" (called a 擬態語 gitaigo, word imitating a state). Should it be adapted as simply "ahahahaha", as by your standards it should be ?

[lovelysan]

Mm, well, on the "nanodesu" we'll just have to agree to disagree. I thought the "yes" replacement was pretty cute though. So that's just my vote. I think I understand better now why some folk don't like the replacement though. So I'll give you that .

About the laughter- the problem is, in English, we really don't HAVE that many different kinds of laughter onomonopia beyond "ahaha" and santa's "HO HO HO". Hence the reason I enjoy the Japanese equivilants. (....okay, mostly, I just like Battler's way of laughing in Umineko *grin*.)

[tobiast88]

Just in passing, my adaptation suggestion for nanodesu was "you see", since the expression carries more "explicative" nuances than real politeness. How does that sound ?

[lovelysan]

.....It depends, I'm gonna need to hear it in a Rika-esque sentence!

*grabs nearby "Yen+" magazine*

Alright, here's how they translated a Rika line: (she's talking to Satoko by the way.)

"It's not nice to be noisy, sir... Let's go somewhere else, sir."


replace with "you see"....

"It's not nice to be noisy, you see.... Let's go somewhere else, you see."



....A-actually, that's pretty cute . Yeah, I can see that working pretty well.

[Jaymer]

Originally Posted by lovelysan

.....It depends, I'm gonna need to hear it in a Rika-esque sentence!

*grabs nearby "Yen+" magazine*

Alright, here's how they translated a Rika line: (she's talking to Satoko by the way.)

"It's not nice to be noisy, sir... Let's go somewhere else, sir."


replace with "you see"....

"It's not nice to be noisy, you see.... Let's go somewhere else, you see."



....A-actually, that's pretty cute . Yeah, I can see that working pretty well.

o3o That could actually work. I don't really like what they did to Rika's speech in the manga, but, atleast it's something. ;p

[Eryops]

Originally Posted by lovelysan

"It's not nice to be noisy, you see.... Let's go somewhere else, you see."

....A-actually, that's pretty cute . Yeah, I can see that working pretty well.

When reading that line I couldn't help but imagine Rika talking with a gangster accent.

[Sonozaki Futagotachi]

Hi everyone!

We're still working on day 15 and pondering the best way to do Rika's speech, so we're definitely following the discussion here. What's certain is it's not going to be the exact same as what we have now - even if we give her a catchphrase like 'you see' or 'yes', we won't use it at the end of _every_ sentence, since that sort of excessive verbal tic really looks weird in English even though it's fine in Japanese.

On that note, we welcome suggestions and we definitely welcome comments on how well you think it reads. No matter what decisions go into our translation choices, the important thing is that it makes sense and gives an appropriate impression IN ENGLISH, so please don't feel like you need to be a Japanese expert to tell us if something feels off.

Thanks!

Shion (Sonozaki Futagotachi)

[Keriaku]

I have to say 'you see' seems like it could be really good. But I'd have to actually see it in the story a bit to really tell.

[rogerpepitone]

Play through the game, then watch the credits. After the credits finish, Onscripter will crash (demo version, Linux), and doesn't save the "You've finished the novel" global that unlocks the extras.

[Sonozaki Futagotachi]

Originally Posted by rogerpepitone

Play through the game, then watch the credits. After the credits finish, Onscripter will crash (demo version, Linux), and doesn't save the "You've finished the novel" global that unlocks the extras.

Hi rogerpepitone,

We haven't been able to replicate the problem in Windows or Mac, so I'm not sure what caused the crash for you on Linux.

I did take a look at the script to see what commands run after the game ends, and took a look at the onscripter code for them, and I don't see anything that would obviously cause a crash.

Have you tried running it through to the end again? What build of onscripter did you use, or else which source code base & exactly when did you download it?

Thanks,
Mion (Sonozaki Futago-tachi)

[rogerpepitone]

Huh. I just tried again and it worked correctly. No idea what happened.

[Orophin]

By the way, how's the translation of Day 15 going?

[Sonozaki Futagotachi]

It's coming along. We have been working on the translation, but we also got busy with other things this fall. Not to mention it's a long chapter, with extras, and then the whole thing needs a final polish since this finishes the story arc (and the demo). We do know people are waiting, but we want to keep a pace that lets us do a good job on both this project AND our real jobs. We should be finished in a few weeks, hopefully by the end of the year - Christmas present maybe? ^^.

Cheers,

Shion (Sonozaki Futagotachi)

[Roll]

Originally Posted by Sonozaki Futagotachi

It's coming along. We have been working on the translation, but we also got busy with other things this fall. Not to mention it's a long chapter, with extras, and then the whole thing needs a final polish since this finishes the story arc (and the demo). We do know people are waiting, but we want to keep a pace that lets us do a good job on both this project AND our real jobs. We should be finished in a few weeks, hopefully by the end of the year - Christmas present maybe? ^^.

Cheers,

Shion (Sonozaki Futagotachi)

Yay~! I can't wait to play the full arc ! By the way, will you try translating Watanagashi-hen?

[rogerpepitone]

Does the credits roll at the end somehow trigger the same effect as "Hide Text"? (Hide text, then moving the mouse seems to crash onscripter-en; I sent a PM with more information.)