Sonic Adventure Retranslated Mod

Awesome work, I've always wanted a mod like this. I've always wanted to know just how different the JP script was compared to the english one.

Now SA2 when?

 

As explained in the link the translation work was all done by Windii and this mod implements it into the game.

The script is all taken from a playlist on her YouTube channel, where she's covered a lot more games than just SA1 (even Shuffle):
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLbIN7v5nv4aNEpa7YCLyOHL1A85ECjfR9

It's great to be able to look how different the characters are handled between the two countries - especially Sonic. I've gotten tired of explaining my thoughts on it by this point, so I'm just going to link to this post I made a while ago about it.

 

This sounds like a great idea for a mod - still not had the chance to play it yet, but have grabbed the mod in preparation for when I have time to give Adventure mode another run-through. = )

Out of interest, does this mod just retranslate the cutscene dialogue, or all the dialogue (i.e. the random NPCs/Tikal orbs/Hint monitors etc)?

 

Looking at the files, it's just the cutscene dialogue.

 

I've got a little too much to play on my plate right now but ever since I saw it on Twitter I've been really interested in this mod. Thanks for putting this together!

 

This is a really good idea, but something I brought up when Windii's SA2 retranslation came across my Tumblr dash still bothers me, and it's the same issue that a lot of fan translation projects sometimes have...

A lot of this dialog is really stilted. It doesn't read like native english. I mean, don't get me wrong, the work here is fine, and even if it doesn't read like native english, it's still readable enough, it's just I'm more of a "localization, not translation" guy and this reads like dialog directly translated from Japanese.

When I was made aware of Windii's SA2 retranslation, I actually started trying to westernize it a little bit (with her permission), but she mentioned she didn't want "dubtitling" which I was a little hazy on, but with her mentioning grammar fixes I assume that basically meant she didn't want anything being re-written too drastically. In other words, she's a "translation, not localization" person -- which makes sense, given how much work this would have undoubtedly taken.

But it still nags at me. I should have probably gotten clarification on what she meant, but I didn't want to step on any toes. Also, to be honest, I made it less than a quarter of the way through SA2's script before I got distracted by moving cross-country and I sort of forgot about it until now.

I'd be willing to try something with SA1's script here, but I dunno what interest there is or whether or not I'm even allowed, or how far I can go.

 

I'm currently not looking for any editing help because I'm already cooperating on that stuff with Jmtshaw. Also, I've updated those Pastebin scripts since then, as they're a part of my SA2 vids on YouTube now.

 

Yeah, I literally haven't touched any of my stuff in over a year at this point, so it would make sense if I'm out of date.

 

We went through and updated the text in the SA2 vids today (while staying accurate the original text), so everything should flow better now. SA2's script is a lot easier to work out then SA1's script, having way fewer lines that are just straight up hard to translate without looking strange (such as Sonic's first line in SA1).

 

Actually, checking now, it's a little cheap that your Pastebin would even have links to the Hero/Dark/Final Story scripts that are literally just Youtube links and not actually the scripts themselves

I get that you have those Youtube videos, and they're very well done, but removing that information and replacing it with a Youtube link is not the same

I understand I'm probably being super nitpicky about a lot of things right now, but still

 

I replaced them with YouTube links because the translation was horribly outdated and obviously I want to give my videos more exposure. Plus, I'm sure my old posts where I link to my Pastebin page are still going around somewhere out there, and I don't want people to click those links only to find that there's nothing there. I at least want to direct people to where they can see a non-botched version of Sonic Adventure 2's story.

But I mean, if you want me to add "now a youtube video" to the title of each link, I can do that.

 

I mean, no, not really

I feel like we're getting off on the wrong foot here so I'll just drop it, I guess

 

Here I bring my contribution for the mod! (along with Dashell_MAFB from Twitter)

https://xcancel.com/SonicMasta57/status/972982053900816384

All the script/subtitles are now adapted to Spanish! If you guys find some minor grammatical mistake, or any other error in particular, don't hesitate to contact me.

 

I wanna bump this thread to say that my friend DeLaKeK has completed the SA2 retranslation mod for the PC version recently. Also don't be fooled by the credits section, the Robowil guy merely replaced some lines in Last Story with my script, while DeLaKeK handled replacing for the rest of the game. He just forgot to edit that in is all.

 

I don't think it's a matter or "localization, not translation", but rather "good translation, not bad translation". Not that I've seen both of you's works, but I'm assuming you weren't changing onigiries to "donuts" to make it "safe for Americans" or some-thing. If you were just WORDING THINGS BETTER, that's not 'localization'. A translator's GOAL is to make (in this case) an English equivalent of the Japanese dialog. If it sounds natural in Japanese, but stilted in English, the translator has faild their job. The master translators are translators who are also good writers and can write the dialog like a professional writer would, and make it sound like it was in English all along without the help of a separate person taskt as Writer. Most translators, however, are not this good...but they try their best to be. And the ones that don't are calld "Weeabooes".

 

I've been playing through SA1 with this mod and although I really appreciate the work this took, I do have to echo that it reads very stilted in English. I found myself having to reread things a few times because it doesn't sound like natural English. Either way it's been really interesting seeing the differences in the scripts as I assume this is a very accurate direct translation. Thanks

 

I share the sentiment that many people here have expressed - however, I specialize in editing and relocalizing scripts, so I decided to attempt to give it a second draft.
It's not as literal or perfectly accurate as the original translation by Windii, but it is several magnitudes more faithful than the official localization - basically, I'm trying to strike a happy medium between the two. I've only done Sonic's story and a small portion of Tails' at the moment, but if people are interested in me continuing I'll definitely do so.

https://pastebin.com/N8iYcKkb

 

Reading some of the posts in this thread, it seems to me that people have some very real misconceptions about the differences between translation and localization.

If all you know about the subject is from what's on anime message boards or whatever, you'd think that “translation” simply means shoving a wall of foreign text through Google Translate and then mindlessly regurgitating whatever awkward string of words it craps out. And that “localization,” meanwhile, is this wonderful art of crafting natural-sounding prose that flows so well it makes the viewer forget that what they're seeing was in fact something that was originally written in another language. People sing the praises of the latter while condemning the limitations of the former.

But that reduces the whole process into this black and white "translation bad, localization good" thing. It's not. Translations can be good and bad, and so can localizations.

Shadow saying, "Is that what Chaos Control is?" in Sonic Adventure 2, for example, is certainly a case of a lousy translation. But the issue here isn't a translation vs. localization one; it's a simple "good vs bad translation" one. Any translator worth their salt would have looked at the Japanese line ??????????? and either:

• Translated it as "Was that Chaos Control?!" since Shadow here is supposed to be surprised that his prototype can use Chaos Control as well
• Translated it simply as "Chaos Control?!". This variant is closer to the original line and conveys about the same meaning, but probably would not have satisfied the length of the mouth movements so going with the first variant would be just as acceptable

The art of massaging a sentence so that it flows in a natural way doesn't suddenly make what you're doing not a translation; it just makes it a competent one.

“Localizing," on the other hand, is more along the lines of taking Japanese vocab/grammar concepts that don't really exist in English (puns, first or second person pronouns, honorifics and what have you) and changing them to the next best thing you can actually expect to be heard in English. Or if you want a reverse example, things like changing Cubot's cowboy and pirate dialects to that of a ninja and sumo wrestler in Japanese Colors. Something like that. Some localization choices are decent (Cream referring to people as "Mr." and "Ms." instead of "-san" is good and makes sense) but others are... less so (i.e. the whole Eggman to Robotnik name change. YMMV on that though, I guess).

TL;DR, if you want to edit my scripts to sound more "natural" or something, "localizing" is kind of a poor choice of word. Use "editing" or "cleaning up" instead.