How do the fan translations compare to the official release?

[Kion]

Something that I've been curious about. Now that there's an official NA release, in your opinion how do the fan translations stack up compared to the official release?

[MikonX]

Not sure about the dialog translations, but many of the infrastructure names are substantially worse in the NA release. Two that jump out at me are S-ATK to MEL-Pwr and Teams to Alliances. Emergency Quests also got renamed something stupid but I can't remember what it is off the top of my head.

[Tymek]

A lot of PSO/PSU terminology got changed for no particular reason, i.e. Support Partner -> Auxiliary. Emergency Quests are now Urgent Quests and shortened to UQ even though we already have another UQ known as Ultimate Quest, so that's definitely not going to cause any confusion for people in the future...unless the plan on renaming Ultimate Quest.

Sato is became Chat. Gurhal became Grahl. It's a mess.

[Kion]

Those are some pretty weird decisions. I wonder if Segac thought they might be accused of taking advantage of the work the community has done and intentionally made changes, or if that's what came out of the company they outsourced to and nobody bothered checking.

[the_importer_]

I really don't get the changes, especially since they were all English terms to begin with. Changing for changing's sake I guess, dare to be different!

[landman]

I don't think they will change Urgent Quests to another thing, or anything that has a dub saying it (they will provably not redub it even if there is a huge mistake), but people should send tickets to report those kind of things, specially the ones where one text uses a name and the other text (mission description or whatever) uses another. The translation was outsourced and provably managed by Sega Japan, I don't expect them to lore check any of this. Gurhal is flagrant, and it's only on text, this should be reported and changed, even if it's not a big deal in "PSO2".

[Loveless62]

I really don't get the changes, especially since they were all English terms to begin with. Changing for changing's sake I guess, dare to be different!
There is an inherent degree of vagueness in a lot of Japanese text, so translators have some to choose how they translate Japanese text to English. I seriously doubt that the NA PSO2 translation team started with the Tweaker translation. Instead, they both translated the text independently and simply made different choices. The Tweaker translation is solid, but there are places where I like the NA translation better.

For example, I think Urgent Quest is a better name than Emergency Quest. The quests are "urgent" in that they are available for a short amount of time, but they aren't all emergencies. Is VR tower defense training really an emergency?

[Anduril]

There is an inherent degree of vagueness in a lot of Japanese text, so translators have some to choose how they translate Japanese text to English. I seriously doubt that the NA PSO2 translation team started with the Tweaker translation. Instead, they both translated the text independently and simply made different choices. The Tweaker translation is solid, but there are places where I like the NA translation better.

For example, I think Urgent Quest is a better name than Emergency Quest. The quests are "urgent" in that they are available for a short amount of time, but they aren't all emergencies. Is VR tower defense training really an emergency?

In some cases it seems like they have some communication issues within the translation team since you can see various discrepancies, like the S-ATK MAG S-Action; the item in the ExCube Shop is called Dance but on the Mag it is called Barbarous Boogie. Also, there is an Achievement that calls for the use of an Ilios-type Photon Blast, but in game they have translated Ilios as Troy (which is technically accurate).

[Dark Mits]

Also, there is an Achievement that calls for the use of an Ilios-type Photon Blast, but in game they have translated Ilios as Troy (which is technically accurate).I have to nitpick here a bit. "Troy", as in the ancient area of Troy (where most of the Homeric epic Iliad takes place), was called "Ilion", with an 'n' at the end. "Ilios" or phonetically in English "Helios" is the word Sun. So I believe that "Ilios" would be more appropriate given the theme of the game. Then again, they have named one of the five forms as "Ajax", which... was one of the warriors that fought in Troy.

What suffixes have they used in the West version for "Proi (Morning)", "Mera (Day)" and "Nichta (Night)"?

[Klubbah]

What suffixes have they used in the West version for "Proi (Morning)", "Mera (Day)" and "Nichta (Night)"?

https://github.com/SynthSy/PSO2-Dictionary/wiki/Pet-Potentials,-Photon-Blasts-&-Others

Proi, Imera, Nifta

[Anduril]

I have to nitpick here a bit. "Troy", as in the ancient area of Troy (where most of the Homeric epic Iliad takes place), was called "Ilion", with an 'n' at the end. "Ilios" or phonetically in English "Helios" is the word Sun.
Some sources also name the city/area Ἴλιος/Ílios, thus why the "technically" accurate. I imagine that this was more a bit of Google-fu gone wrong from that seeming communication disconnect.

[Redandblack1287]

My opinion is that the fan patch is much better. I cringe at most of the screenshots I see with the NA translation, but obviously plenty of people don't feel the same about it

[Loveless62]

In some cases it seems like they have some communication issues within the translation team since you can see various discrepancies, like the S-ATK MAG S-Action; the item in the ExCube Shop is called Dance but on the Mag it is called Barbarous Boogie.
Well, it is still in beta... :-P

[Anduril]

Well, it is still in beta... :-P

Ummm... It has actually officially been out of Beta since April 12th.

[Tymek]

Ummm... It has actually officially been out of Beta since April 12th.

It definitely still feels like a beta that needs a lot of work.

[ralf542]

It's the best after that fan english patch. Can't wait for the PC version so that I can augment some precise reflexes, maybe some genius and spirit would help too.

[Dark Mits]

https://github.com/SynthSy/PSO2-Dictionary/wiki/Pet-Potentials,-Photon-Blasts-&-Others

Proi, Imera, NiftaYep, Nifta is unfortunately a mistake. They got 2 out of 3 right. "Nichta" is "night", "nifta" is not even a word in Greek. -=Prepost edit=- Apparently Nifta is the word Nichta in South-Italian dialect.


Some sources also name the city/area Ἴλιος/Ílios, thus why the "technically" accurate. I imagine that this was more a bit of Google-fu gone wrong from that seeming communication disconnect.Indeed, I checked Google and Wikipedia and I did notice that many websites list "Ilios" as a name. However, I did not find (with a quick search that is) any reference in actual ancient greek texts as Ilios, but I found tens as Ilion. Iliad itself mentions it as Ilion in line 71 in the A' Rhapsody, and there is no occurence of "Ίλιος" in it. My guess is that it was a mistake by one writer/publisher that others picked on. All Modern Greek literature also mentions that Ilion was the name for Troy.

[Kazzi]

A lot of PSO/PSU terminology got changed for no particular reason, i.e. Support Partner -> Auxiliary. Emergency Quests are now Urgent Quests and shortened to UQ even though we already have another UQ known as Ultimate Quest, so that's definitely not going to cause any confusion for people in the future...unless the plan on renaming Ultimate Quest.

Sato is became Chat. Gurhal became Grahl. It's a mess.

Chat isn't actually wrong. It's called Chat in Japanese (シャト), it was just localized as Sato in the original PSO so that's how we remember it. Official merch has had it written Chat, it's literally French for Cat.

The translation is... Ehhh. It's like they looked at each name and thought "damn we can't use the logical translation because we'll get accused of copying the fan translation". So you end up with obvious mistakes that make it look like a copied homework meme. They go to such lengths to avoid the fan names that they end up with some really dumb decisions, not just in names but in conversation too.

For example Dark Falz Double is now Gemini, which isn't bad really but all of toy darker baby falz starts with "dou" in their name (dourill, douran, dourumble), so now all of those got renamed too. Hunar is now Hyunal because they would rather use Google translate than lore (it being based of HUmar).

Then you got affixes, which despite using English in the Japanese version they just become totally new words. Power, Shoot and Technique are now Might, Precision and Casting. Skill trees have weird choices too, just attacks are now perfect attacks which is ok, but then you get skills like [Tech Arts JA PP Save] which are now word salad [Combo Var. P. Attack PP Save] and it doesn't fit in the box on my screen. The one that made me laugh the most and think "now you're just being stupid" was Dear Master being Dia Master.

It's just loads of really stupid little things which if you never played the JP version you wouldn't notice at all. However like the EQ/UQ problem if you call an urgent quest an EQ on the NA server you get people either trying to correct you or telling you to go back to the weeb server (lmao). NA players seem to hate those who have come from the JP server and that's their loss tbh. If you really really wanna wind them up call the Dark Falz Luther EQ Falz Loser and watch a block rage.

[huck]

. NA players seem to hate those who have come from the JP server and that's their loss tbh. .

The feeling is kinda mutual from allot I've seen.

[ArcaneTechs]

The feeling is kinda mutual from allot I've seen.

well if the blind NA players didnt get so butthurt about how their Fo/Hu Sword main doesnt work very well then they probably wouldnt be nearly as upset. itll bite them in the ass when they get filtered later on with expert reqs but thats not to say those who cheesed the JP reqs are still going to blab their mouths off about how to do it only to get filtered again later on when they cant meet 12min solo PD UH/Guides reqs

[Zorak000]

the real issue from what I've been hearing from people is high amounts of inconsistency; like say the whole Sato/Chat thing, there are items that say Sato, and items that say Chat! that's pretty messed up to still have a lot of stuff in there like that despite it being officially in "out-of-beta" form. yeah there's a -ton- of text to have done, but on the other hand, this still feels pretty sloppy imo.

I don't mind the changes, I'd just would like to see consistency before I really start picking at the actual decisions. (I'll throw my hat into the "not sure why they felt the need to rename stats and item abilities" pile)

[ArcaneTechs]

TECHTER :wacko:

[Tymek]

the real issue from what I've been hearing from people is high amounts of inconsistency; like say the whole Sato/Chat thing, there are items that say Sato, and items that say Chat! that's pretty messed up to still have a lot of stuff in there like that despite it being officially in "out-of-beta" form. yeah there's a -ton- of text to have done, but on the other hand, this still feels pretty sloppy imo.

I don't mind the changes, I'd just would like to see consistency before I really start picking at the actual decisions. (I'll throw my hat into the "not sure why they felt the need to rename stats and item abilities" pile)

Excellent summary of the situation.

[NightlightPro]

SEA translation was even worse

[HardBoiledPapa]

SEA translation was even worse

So are we suppose to feel better if someone is worse than us?

[ArcaneTechs]

So are we suppose to feel better if someone is worse than us?

yes mr Wizard

[Sirius-91]

The translation is... Ehhh. It's like they looked at each name and thought "damn we can't use the logical translation because we'll get accused of copying the fan translation". So you end up with obvious mistakes that make it look like a copied homework meme. They go to such lengths to avoid the fan names that they end up with some really dumb decisions, not just in names but in conversation too.

I'm glad I'm not the only one who noticed this. I've always considered their translations to be the anti-patch of our stuff.

[Reilet]

Hey mate. :wacko:

[ArcaneTechs]

Hey mate. :wacko:

#notmyaibo

[Zipzo]

TECHTER :wacko:

Not sure why you think this is funny, but that's how the class is actually spelled in Japanese. You can question a lot of the translations of the katakana-based words that were already based on English words, but Techter is actually one of the translations that was essentially accurate to the original pronunciation.

I get that people are used to the patch translations because they've been using them for years, so it honestly doesn't even matter what they did for the western release, people were gonna sperg at literally any divergence they made from what you've been using for the past 8 years. Fact of the matter is just because something is in katakana doesn't automatically mean it's direct English counterpart is a good translation. This is a linguistic topic that is not purely objective in nature, so it's up for debate, but given the nature of how Japanese creators use katakana words in entertainment, it is not out-of-ordinary for such uses to sometimes get modified for westernized releases.

So that's why some words were changed even if "the original was an English word anyway".

[Ezodagrom]

Other than some consistency problems here and there, I think the biggest problem with the official translation is the missing flavor text in weapons descriptions (seems like the NA version replaced those with the same generic text for all weapons of the same type) and the flavor text in client orders windows (which are empty).
While with the fan patch doesn't have all of those translated as well, at least some of them are.

[ArcaneTechs]

Not sure why you think this is funny, but that's how the class is actually spelled in Japanese. You can question a lot of the translations of the katakana-based words that were already based on English words, but Techter is actually one of the translations that was essentially accurate to the original pronunciation.

I get that people are used to the patch translations because they've been using them for years, so it honestly doesn't even matter what they did for the western release, people were gonna sperg at literally any divergence they made from what you've been using for the past 8 years. Fact of the matter is just because something is in katakana doesn't automatically mean it's direct English counterpart is a good translation. This is a linguistic topic that is not purely objective in nature, so it's up for debate, but given the nature of how Japanese creators use katakana words in entertainment, it is not out-of-ordinary for such uses to sometimes get modified for westernized releases.

So that's why some words were changed even if "the original was an English word anyway".

I posted :wacko: for a reason

[chaoko99]

Honestly I feel like this might have been translated independently by some team not given enough context.

I deduct this by the fact that in Astarte's quiz, the Gurahl system is called.. "Ghral", along the whole Sato > Chat thing. also the inconsistent capitalization of meseta.. That sort of thing.

[Atmius]

And yet neither of them could get last nemesis right.

[Ezodagrom]

Honestly I feel like this might have been translated independently by some team not given enough context.

I deduct this by the fact that in Astarte's quiz, the Gurahl system is called.. "Ghral", along the whole Sato > Chat thing. also the inconsistent capitalization of meseta.. That sort of thing.
To be able to rush the game out as soon as possible, it's very likely that they hired a big localization team, which is alot more likely to result in consistency issues than with a smaller team.

[sol_trigger]

Falspawn = darkers, not gonna like this one
meanwhile katana PA names ...