Ushi No Tane Forum

Anyone willing to take a guess on how long it will take to get SoS on the e-shop? I'm debating on either trying my luck at downloading it verses importing it.

I still don't understand why they kept Licorice but didn't change raven's name back to her japanese name.

I also don't really like xseed because of their jokes. I get that some jokes don't just make sense in English, but they add jokes and I don't really like their kinds of jokes.

Anonymous Fish wrote:I still don't understand why they kept Licorice but didn't change raven's name back to her japanese name.

I also don't really like xseed because of their jokes. I get that some jokes don't just make sense in English, but they add jokes and I don't really like their kinds of jokes.

They explained that they kept Licorice because of Story of Seasons being a new IP. Rune Factory 4 was not a new IP, as it was still Rune Factory, and therefore they kept the names.

As for adding jokes, I believe fans have expressed how they disliked that aspect, and XSeed has since toned it down a fair bit? I could be wrong on that aspect, though. All I know of recently was some lines added to Vishnal's dialogue in RF4.

I thought that they just decided to not add jokes to serious scenes or something? And that was before rune factory was even released. When did they say that?

Anonymous Fish wrote:I thought that they just decided to not add jokes to serious scenes or something? And that was before rune factory was even released. When did they say that?

I'm not sure, but I remember reading it when browsing the forums, either here or on XSeed's forums. I think it was something like one of the writers added a lot of jokes to a Wii game or something.

Either way, they have expressed over and over that with SoS, they are playing it straight and narrow, and that they are working to be as close to the Japanese game as humanly possible. And since they did things like listening to fans when we objected over changing "gold" to "cents", as well as the names like Mistel to Micheal, and changed them back as well, I'm pretty sure that they got the picture that we don't like needless changes.

Yeah, unfortunately where I remember reading about it was on their old forums before it got hacked. It had to do with one of their older games.

If you're talking about RF4, they didn't add in any jokes that I know of that weren't already there in the Japanese version. I know there was a freakout by some people over the "Took an arrow to the knee" quote, but that was in the Japanese version. They have to rework some jokes to make sense in English, but that's not them just adding in content randomly, it's how localization works. If you don't, you end up getting things like Luke's AP love letter which makes absolutely no sense in English, because they put a straight translation in there without actually reworking it.

XSEED has been know to "punch up" their dialogue in games, which does annoy people. It doesn't bother me much personally as usually the same intent is in there. We've had conversations about Vishnal's dialogue in particular on here, but I don't think it was that bad personally by the examples I've seen. Arthur's was extremely true to his Japanese counterpart in my opinion (he's the one I married, so I've read more of his dialogue). *shrugs*

Honestly it's all just opinion anyways. Some people love XSEED translations, some people like Natsume's translations. Luckily we have a choice now to choose the game and translation we prefer :D

Anonymous Fish wrote:I still don't understand why they kept Licorice but didn't change raven's name back to her japanese name.

I also don't really like xseed because of their jokes. I get that some jokes don't just make sense in English, but they add jokes and I don't really like their kinds of jokes.

Natsume doesn't have dibbles on "Rune Factory" titles, only "Harvest Moon." Hence why they could use Natsume's translation...of a title that Marvelous (which XSEED is a subsidiary group of) owns.

XSEED "punched up" dialogue is a double edged sword. I don't mind if it's used sparingly, but too much of it and it will sound too artificial, if you get what I mean. There is nothing wrong with exercising creative freedom to translate jokes, puns and cultural references, but coming up with a new thing to replace whatever that does not exist in the original source is what I'm not okay with regardless if it's good or bad addition, and most of the time it's a bad one.

But I still prefer XSEED's translation over Natsume's anytime.

Like an example is when you try to propose to your child:

Jp: you know that you can't marry your child, right?

E: umm, I'm gonna run away now.

It sounds unnatural and it irritated me. I get that natsume did add jokes, but they made sense to the character, if that makes sence. When they added jokes, a lot of they time it felt unnatural to the character and you could tell it was different

Also, when we first found out that they were translating it, I heard a lot of people saying how happy that we're that they don't change names like natsume does, but I don't see how they're any different when they changed Georges and Gazer when they already had english names.

I just really don't like that they really punch up the dialog. It just irritates me.

Anonymous Fish wrote:Like an example is when you try to propose to your child:

Jp: you know that you can't marry your child, right?

E: umm, I'm gonna run away now.

It sounds unnatural and it irritated me. I get that natsume did add jokes, but they made sense to the character, if that makes sence. When they added jokes, a lot of they time it felt unnatural to the character and you could tell it was different

Also, when we first found out that they were translating it, I heard a lot of people saying how happy that we're that they don't change names like natsume does, but I don't see how they're any different when they changed Georges and Gazer when they already had english names.

I just really don't like that they really punch up the dialog. It just irritates me.

Forgive me for being confused, Anon, but I don't understand several of your points.

It seems to me that with the proposal thing, what game are you speaking of? RF4? I'm confused there, sorry.

I don't know why you seem to think the guy's Japanese name is George (with an English pronunciation, I am assuming, not the French variant), but it's not. It's ジョルジョ, which is Jyorujyo, aka Georgio or Giorgio (or George with the French pronunciation, according to the thread). So I'm really confused on your point when if you look at the XSeed thread, pretty much any names they changed they changed back, such as Mistel to Micheal back to Mistel, Lillie to Lyla back to Lillie, etc, with a few exceptions.

And forgive me for being ignorant, but who is Gazer? Maybe I just have forgotten, but I play the Japanese version of this game, and I don't remember a Gazer anywhere.

Yes, a few names are different, like Pesu to Pepita. But they are keeping the vast majority of the names, which Natsume never did. Natsume changed names that it made no sense to change, like taking one common Japanese name and swapping it for another, etc.

I'm also not sure what you mean by "it made sense to the character". For example, Neil in the Japanese game is radically different than the English/Natsume version, so I don't feel they made sense in how they changed him at all.

And either way, most people that are happy about XSeed taking over are happy because of all the glitches, coding errors, and typos Natsume added into their games (best examples are ANB, ToTT for 3DS, and HM DS). It's just that we've covered that aspect a ton already so we moved onto names in the discussion.

As for the punching up part... I agree with Rope's opinion; at least in RF4, I see why they did what they did with Vishnal's dialogue after reading the Japanese version's. I personally don't think it was a big stretch. I can't say about other games or other parts, but to me, that seemed a pretty normal extension of a more subtle phrasing joke in the Japanese version. (And people can feel free to disagree with me on this part.) Sure, I would have preferred it be 100% accurate (or as accurate as a localization can be without being verbatim levels of bad/awkward dialogue) , but I will take something like that over Natsume's problem ridden translations anyway.

I don't think XSeed is perfect... I just very much prefer them to Natsume, and find their translations more accurate and higher quality, as a whole. Especially given how much they have listened to fans and understand we don't like changes, and have changed back many of the names or concepts they had changed. They are listening to fans, and I think that's great.


Edit: Various edits made to clarify unclear things, sorry about that!

Melody Muse wrote:

Anonymous Fish wrote:Like an example is when you try to propose to your child:

Jp: you know that you can't marry your child, right?

E: umm, I'm gonna run away now.

It sounds unnatural and it irritated me. I get that natsume did add jokes, but they made sense to the character, if that makes sence. When they added jokes, a lot of they time it felt unnatural to the character and you could tell it was different

Also, when we first found out that they were translating it, I heard a lot of people saying how happy that we're that they don't change names like natsume does, but I don't see how they're any different when they changed Georges and Gazer when they already had english names.

I just really don't like that they really punch up the dialog. It just irritates me.

Forgive me for being confused, Anon, but I don't understand several of your points.

It seems to me that with the proposal thing, what game are you speaking of? RF4? I'm confused there, sorry.

I don't know why you seem to think the guy's Japanese name is George (with an English pronunciation, I am assuming, not the French variant), but it's not. It's ジョルジョ, which is Jyorujyo, aka Georgio or Giorgio (or George with the French pronunciation, according to the thread). So I'm really confused on your point when if you look at the XSeed thread, pretty much any names they changed they changed back, such as Mistel to Micheal back to Mistel, Lillie to Lyla back to Lillie, etc, with a few exceptions.

And forgive me for being ignorant, but who is Gazer? Maybe I just have forgotten, but I play the Japanese version of this game, and I don't remember a Gazer anywhere.

Yes, a few names are different, like Pesu to Pepita. But they are keeping the vast majority of the names, which Natsume never did. Natsume changed names that it made no sense to change, like taking one common Japanese name and swapping it for another, etc.

I'm also not sure what you mean by "it made sense to the character". For example, Neil in the Japanese game is radically different than the English/Natsume version, so I don't feel they made sense in how they changed him at all.

And either way, most people that are happy about XSeed taking over are happy because of all the glitches, coding errors, and typos Natsume added into their games (best examples are ANB, ToTT for 3DS, and HM DS). It's just that we've covered that aspect a ton already so we moved onto names in the discussion.

As for the punching up part... I agree with Rope's opinion; at least in RF4, I see why they did what they did with Vishnal's dialogue after reading the Japanese version's. I personally don't think it was a big stretch. I can't say about other games or other parts, but to me, that seemed a pretty normal extension of a more subtle phrasing joke in the Japanese version. (And people can feel free to disagree with me on this part.) Sure, I would have preferred it be 100% accurate (or as accurate as a localization can be without being verbatim levels of bad/awkward dialogue) , but I will take something like that over Natsume's problem ridden translations anyway.

I don't think XSeed is perfect... I just very much prefer them to Natsume, and find their translations more accurate and higher quality, as a whole. Especially given how much they have listened to fans and understand we don't like changes, and have changed back many of the names or concepts they had changed. They are listening to fans, and I think that's great.


Edit: Various edits made to clarify unclear things, sorry about that!

Yes, in the Japanese version of Rune Factory, if you give an engagement ring to your son he'll say something like "You know you can't marry me, right?" And in the English version, he says some thing like "Umm... I'm going to run away now." That was my example of them adding jokes when there wasn't one previously.

His name in the japanese version was ジョルジュ, which is the name Georges , the french version of George, not Georgio. Gazer is ゲイザー, which was changed to Gunther.

And what I mean with it made sence to their character is that when you play the game and they change something, it doesn't seem out of place. I understand that Neil seemed different when you had played the japanese version, but as someone who never did I didn't know he was any different. Another example of this was Colette from rf3. They ever exaggerate her eating habits a tad, but it doesn't feel out of place in the game. When Noel just jokes about that it feels really out of place and awkward. They do things like that for other games they've translated too, like corpse party.

I don't like that natsume censored things. Honestly, the grammar never bothered me because I never really noticed it. I don't like either company, honestly, but I feel like I like natsume' s'more because the dialog feels more realistic.

Maybe I'm mistaken here, but rf4 didn't have any dialog that wasn't just slight teasing of homosexual relationships. There weren't any characters that actually were. In rune factory 3, Carlos also joked about marrying Micah, so I don't see how that was any less towned down.

I just down want story of seasons to feel as silly as rune factory 4 did. I get that some people liked the comedy in that, but I just got annoyed of it pretty quickly

I think we're just going to have to agree to disagree anon.

I'm not trying to invalidate your opinion, but have you played any of the Japanese versions? That example you gave after I went digging for it (I never gave the ring to my kid in either version of RF4 so I was curious) was brought up by a fan to Hatsuu where she explained why she changed that in particular line. I can definitely see why it would bother someone as the intent has changed, and yes I'm not a gigantic fan of that either and wish it was kept closer to the original. Luckily from the 350+ hours I played of the Japanese version, I honestly don't see that much that the intent was changed on? I am not 100% fluent by any means, and there is some punched up dialogue yes (it's never in serious moments either thankfully, which is when it would personally really bother me), but I don't see hardly any dialogue that changed intent. Of course there may be more examples of them changing around the dialogue that I'm not privy to, but there is a hell of a lot of text in that game, so yeah. I mainly married Arthur and Leon in the Japanese version and I've had no problems with the localization of either of them. My favorite, Arthur, was translated beautifully IMO. I'm really happy with how RF4 came out personally.
I have a few friends that are more fluent than me (Fin, Koneko) that I've Skype chatted with when the NA version came out that also agree that the XSEED has done a stellar job of localizing the game--especially directed towards their favorite characters Dylas and Kiel respectively *shrugs*

But considering that Natsume has changed so much dialogue and even some character personalities before, I can't agree that they are the better option here. Not only because the various grammar issues (mainly ANB) but yes they do change intent quite a bit in their localizations. And you know what? That's their choice and prerogative because it isn't just "translate" and be done with it--localization is just a whole 'nother ball game. It is NOT easy. It is super easy to sit here and nitpick things either company has done. While knowing Japanese it's easy to be like "well, I would have translated that a tad bit differently" but as a whole because the two languages are so wholly different, it comes down to personal choice when translating, and that's why two translations from two different people/localizers are NEVER going to be 100% the same.. This being especially true when going from Japanese > English. You are never, EVER going to get a localization that is 100% word by word accurate, because not only would it sound incredibly horrible and stilted in English.. So much would be lost in translation.

Bringing this back onto SoS, I can see your concerns and I also agree that I hope they keep the changing intent low. I trust them though, as they really do listen to their fans.

Also, ジョルジュ (jyo-ru-jyu) can romanize to either George or Georges. Georgio is the Italian variant of George so it makes actually almost more sense for his name, as it gives him a sort of 'flair' considering his personality. It means "farmer"

ゲイザー (geizaa) isn't a real name so it could be a multitude of different romanizations (Gazer/Geizer/Gaither/etc) but instead they went with the Germanic name of Gunther which fits in with the general theme of the town. It fits him pretty well IMO.

It's mostly going to be opinion based on the names of course, but they've stuck pretty close to the originals for the most part which I'm happy about. Natsume changed a lot of names in their localizations (less so in recent years) so I dunno. Most people who buy these games (many of them children of course) could give two cares less what their Japanese names are and how 'faithful' they are to the originals. It's really only the more hardcore fan base that even ever has a problem with it.

Anywho, anon, I totally respect your opinions even if I don't agree with them. I hope SoS lives up to your expectations and that you can end up enjoying it in the end :D

RopeMaidenKirie wrote:I think we're just going to have to agree to disagree anon.

I'm not trying to invalidate your opinion, but have you played any of the Japanese versions? That example you gave after I went digging for it (I never gave the ring to my kid in either version of RF4 so I was curious) was brought up by a fan to Hatsuu where she explained why she changed that in particular line. I can definitely see why it would bother someone as the intent has changed, and yes I'm not a gigantic fan of that either and wish it was kept closer to the original. Luckily from the 350+ hours I played of the Japanese version, I honestly don't see that much that the intent was changed on? I am not 100% fluent by any means, and there is some punched up dialogue yes (it's never in serious moments either thankfully, which is when it would personally really bother me), but I don't see hardly any dialogue that changed intent. Of course there may be more examples of them changing around the dialogue that I'm not privy to, but there is a hell of a lot of text in that game, so yeah. I mainly married Arthur and Leon in the Japanese version and I've had no problems with the localization of either of them. My favorite, Arthur, was translated beautifully IMO. I'm really happy with how RF4 came out personally.
I have a few friends that are more fluent than me (Fin, Koneko) that I've Skype chatted with when the NA version came out that also agree that the XSEED has done a stellar job of localizing the game--especially directed towards their favorite characters Dylas and Kiel respectively *shrugs*

But considering that Natsume has changed so much dialogue and even some character personalities before, I can't agree that they are the better option here. Not only because the various grammar issues (mainly ANB) but yes they do change intent quite a bit in their localizations. And you know what? That's their choice and prerogative because it isn't just "translate" and be done with it--localization is just a whole 'nother ball game. It is NOT easy. It is super easy to sit here and nitpick things either company has done. While knowing Japanese it's easy to be like "well, I would have translated that a tad bit differently" but as a whole because the two languages are so wholly different, it comes down to personal choice when translating, and that's why two translations from two different people/localizers are NEVER going to be 100% the same.. This being especially true when going from Japanese > English. You are never, EVER going to get a localization that is 100% word by word accurate, because not only would it sound incredibly horrible and stilted in English.. So much would be lost in translation.

Bringing this back onto SoS, I can see your concerns and I also agree that I hope they keep the changing intent low. I trust them though, as they really do listen to their fans.

Also, ジョルジュ (jyo-ru-jyu) can romanize to either George or Georges. Georgio is the Italian variant of George so it makes actually almost more sense for his name, as it gives him a sort of 'flair' considering his personality. It means "farmer"

ゲイザー (geizaa) isn't a real name so it could be a multitude of different romanizations (Gazer/Geizer/Gaither/etc) but instead they went with the Germanic name of Gunther which fits in with the general theme of the town. It fits him pretty well IMO.

It's mostly going to be opinion based on the names of course, but they've stuck pretty close to the originals for the most part which I'm happy about. Natsume changed a lot of names in their localizations (less so in recent years) so I dunno. Most people who buy these games (many of them children of course) could give two cares less what their Japanese names are and how 'faithful' they are to the originals. It's really only the more hardcore fan base that even ever has a problem with it.

Anywho, anon, I totally respect your opinions even if I don't agree with them. I hope SoS lives up to your expectations and that you can end up enjoying it in the end :D

Thank you for replying Would you mind linking to where she talked about changing that dialog? I can't seem to find it. But I'd also like to say that I'm not trying to complain at all about their overall translation, just the punching up bit. Sometimes the dialog have the same meaning, but they word them differently to make them seem stranger/funnier.

Like in Arthur's bed dialog in the Japanese version he says something like "You're hopeless" (いけない人ですね。) and in the English version he says something like "That's improper as improper can be!"
I DON'T mind changes like this at all. The English version of that sounds natural at seems to fit his character. The only things I have any problems with the jokes, which sometimes feel very out of place to the character.

I think they did a good job on the translation overall, and I don't think that meaning was changed on anything important, I just don't like the punching up, that's all.

I'm just kind of don't want the same thing to happen to Story of Seasons, since they did that in Rune Factory and series like Corpse Party. I get that some people like that they do that, but for me, I feel like there should only be jokes were there were jokes before.

@Anon
Hatsuu explained about the engagement ring thing.
http://hatsuu.tumblr.com/post/916731724 ... o-give-the
She felt the reaction didn't fit the action, so that's why she changed it. Although, I see your point. I really didn't care that XSeed did some fiddling with the dialogue here and there because all in all the game is fantastic. In the long term, I feel that the game has more good than bad qualities in the translation. The game successfully made me cry from both sadness and laughter. A New Beginning on the other hand... Not much emotion in that game really. Comparing the two, Rune Factory 4 has a lot more charm.

That being said, however, the Rune Factory games and Bokujou Monogatari games are two radically different series. Sure Rune Factory stemmed from the BokuMono games, but I feel that Rune Factory by itself is much more silly and humorous so XSeed reacted accordingly when translating the jokes. Story of Seasons on the other hand, from what vague knowledge I have of the game, is a bit more serious than the Rune Factory series. XSeed is fully capable of translating serious games. Pandora's Tower is one that comes to mind... And not to mention the serious scenes in Rune Factory 4. They pulled no punches there, that's for sure.

Anyways, I do understand your hesitation with accepting XSeed as the translator. They do make mistakes, they are only human after all. But, I'm pretty positive that they will certainly do a better job translating the game. They do know the gravity of the situation regarding the series. I think the currency and name changing thing hammered that home for them. I will have to disagree with the "George" thing though. Considering the character attached to the name, Georgio is much more fitting for him. Natsume changed a lot of names too. Kamil to Cam, Licorice to Reina, Gluten to Blaise, Chocolat to Colette.... Effectively ruining the theme for that family in Rune Factory 3 with Rusk being the only one to keep his name intact. There was also: Tao to Toby, Anise to Anissa, Thyme to Taylor, Won to Jin, Lina to Renee, Mai to Maya, and I could keep going with the amount of name changes made to Animal Parade/Tree of Tranquility. Certainly there are names close enough to English names there too. And that's only one game out of the series.

It's a wait and see affair. We need to see the game before we can really pass judgement on XSeed's handling of the game. We can sit here and criticize Natsume for everything they've done since they had the series for well over 15 years. XSeed has two Rune Factory games under their belt. We haven't seen them localize a BokuMono game yet. That'll happen in Winter. And when that time rolls around, they will be looking for feedback. So if you do end up finding something you don't like, tell them. They like the criticism and make it a habit to listen to fans as best as they can. Hatsuu is active with her Tumblr and Tom is constantly in their forums. One way or another, as long as you want to be heard, you will be. Hatsuu has answered pretty much all of my questions that I've submitted on her Tumblr, and so has Tom in regard to their forums.

Night Owl wrote:@Anon
Hatsuu explained about the engagement ring thing.
http://hatsuu.tumblr.com/post/916731724 ... o-give-the
She felt the reaction didn't fit the action, so that's why she changed it. Although, I see your point. I really didn't care that XSeed did some fiddling with the dialogue here and there because all in all the game is fantastic. In the long term, I feel that the game has more good than bad qualities in the translation. The game successfully made me cry from both sadness and laughter. A New Beginning on the other hand... Not much emotion in that game really. Comparing the two, Rune Factory 4 has a lot more charm.

That being said, however, the Rune Factory games and Bokujou Monogatari games are two radically different series. Sure Rune Factory stemmed from the BokuMono games, but I feel that Rune Factory by itself is much more silly and humorous so XSeed reacted accordingly when translating the jokes. Story of Seasons on the other hand, from what vague knowledge I have of the game, is a bit more serious than the Rune Factory series. XSeed is fully capable of translating serious games. Pandora's Tower is one that comes to mind... And not to mention the serious scenes in Rune Factory 4. They pulled no punches there, that's for sure.

Anyways, I do understand your hesitation with accepting XSeed as the translator. They do make mistakes, they are only human after all. But, I'm pretty positive that they will certainly do a better job translating the game. They do know the gravity of the situation regarding the series. I think the currency and name changing thing hammered that home for them. I will have to disagree with the "George" thing though. Considering the character attached to the name, Georgio is much more fitting for him. Natsume changed a lot of names too. Kamil to Cam, Licorice to Reina, Gluten to Blaise, Chocolat to Colette.... Effectively ruining the theme for that family in Rune Factory 3 with Rusk being the only one to keep his name intact. There was also: Tao to Toby, Anise to Anissa, Thyme to Taylor, Won to Jin, Lina to Renee, Mai to Maya, and I could keep going with the amount of name changes made to Animal Parade/Tree of Tranquility. Certainly there are names close enough to English names there too. And that's only one game out of the series.

It's a wait and see affair. We need to see the game before we can really pass judgement on XSeed's handling of the game. We can sit here and criticize Natsume for everything they've done since they had the series for well over 15 years. XSeed has two Rune Factory games under their belt. We haven't seen them localize a BokuMono game yet. That'll happen in Winter. And when that time rolls around, they will be looking for feedback. So if you do end up finding something you don't like, tell them. They like the criticism and make it a habit to listen to fans as best as they can. Hatsuu is active with her Tumblr and Tom is constantly in their forums. One way or another, as long as you want to be heard, you will be. Hatsuu has answered pretty much all of my questions that I've submitted on her Tumblr, and so has Tom in regard to their forums.

Thank you I still don't like that they changed his dialog, but people have different opinions of course! I also don't hate that they changed names. I get that natsume did that too, it's just that at the beginning people were happy that they weren't going to change names, and they did alter them. I like the name Georgio, Gunter, Woofio, ect., and they did the same this as Rune Factory 3 with Konno, since their names referenced candy before. I don't mind this, I'm just saying that I don't think that Natsume should be criticized for changing names when Xseed does too and doesn't get as much flak for it.

I will be regarding story of seasons differently, though, as they are trying to be their own translation of bokujou, I just didn't like Rune factory 4/frontier's translation because they just randomly have a different style and translating things that are different from past games. I haven't even really seen any screenshots or anything yet, so I'll just have to wait, I suppose!