CAPCOM Translators: Ruining The Plot Since 1996

[News Bot]

I've just about reached my breaking point with these people. They are responsible for almost every last single bit of confusion in the series. Every plot hole, every contradiction. They are also the cause of most of the appalling dialogue in the series. The fact that these people get paid to do atrocious, sub-par and inaccurate work is beyond me. I've been working on an editorial detailing all of their copious fuck-ups and it's still going strong with each new addition. It's simply mind-baffling how they mess up so much, the only conclusion I can reach is that they either rush, don't care, or are simply awful translators. Some of the stuff is like Google Translate material. Actually, that's being too harsh to Google Translate. Software translations are more accurate and, not uncommonly, tend to sound better. There is a lack of consistency between each game, even though the translators were.

There are exceptions. The script for BH4 was an okay translation, it remained somewhat accurate (probably because there wasn't a lot of plot to fuck with) although there were a few mishaps that led to parts of the plot being lost (when Leon meets Ada, he specifically mentions Wesker's organization, but it's missing in the English version) which is the last thing BH4 needed. The script for Separate Ways was translated pretty well, however, this is primarily because the script for Separate Ways was pretty to-the-point and at times, quite vague. There wasn't a lot to screw up. In comparison, they completely butchered Ada's Report. In fact, it is the plot-heavy material (namely files and such) that get screwed up the most.

Some things written in the Japanese version sound off when translated into English. This is generally natural, and it's up to the translators to make it sound right while ensuring that the original intention is kept. In this series, that's not an option, instead they tend to completely re-write it. This is a travesty when the people translating barely have a grasp of English themselves and are not renowned for their writing skills. In the end, the English version sounds worse than it would have if they just literally translated from Japanese. Most of the dialogue in the original Japanese script is straight-forward and quite to-the-point. In English, the dialogue is messy, vague, cheesy, and pretty far removed from the original intention of the writers. This leads to confusion and the plot simply doesn't get very well explained.

Perhaps the worst part about all of this would be that the translation does not actually have any oversight. The developers are Japanese, and very few of them have even a basic grasp of English. As a result, they cannot interject when something is mistranslated (because how would they know? as far as they know, they're perfect), and the translators have quite a lot of leeway when it comes to skipping over things, and often times, making things up completely just to fill the space. To be fair to them, the lack of any help from the Japanese developers would probably be a part of the problem. That would be the case... if the translators weren't Japanese themselves (Shinsaku Ohara, Takuya Shiraiwa, Manabu Takemura, Erik Suzuki, Dan Okada, Abu Takemura, Miki Takano). They just didn't ask.

The developers have never really raised it as an issue because they are oblivious. The only time the issue was raised was with BH1 (because localization ruined part of that game) and BH5 (because Just Cause Productions noticed that CAPCOM's translators can't write worth shit, and while JCP did a decent job, the effort was still sub-par). The only way the developers would be able to tell how bad the localization was, would be if the translators completely re-wrote the storyline. And even then, people would likely blame the writers for that. I'd sacrifice all of the stupid fucking Hollywood shit in BH5 just to fund an actual professional translation of the series. CAPCOM have their priorities completely skewed and it is a travesty that they still have not corrected it after 16 years.

I don't even know where to begin when it comes to examples... but here's a recent one.

There is now evidence that when the host loses consciousness, the body goes into a dormant state. During this time the virus becomes active and rapidly transforms and reconstructs the basic composition of the body.

The host eventually mutated into a humanoid creature. (We call them V-ACTs)

Its speed and amazing muscular development are particularly noteworthy. After transformation, it becomes more agile and aggressive.

Already four of our researchers have died from trying to feed it, turning the place into an instant blood bath. (Ever since this tragic and barbaric accident, we have decided to call its kind "Crimson Heads")

That dangerous and precious prototype specimen can't be left there. We have to figure out a way to deal with it. Termination is definitely not an option.

We finally decided to freeze the specimen and confine the body inside the basement of the backyard cemetery.

ABOUT V-ACT

About V-ACT　〜A Researcher's Note〜

It has become clear that the mutant form of the "t-Virus" results in changes to the body, which is the vessel of the genome. The host's consciousness is lost, and this type enters a dormant period and reconstructs body tissue. It appears that cells are activated in this case, and reconstruction of the body tissue itself is also performed.
(We named this "V-ACT")

I should specifically mention, it has a "significant increase in muscular strength and speed".

The solid body in this condition has "faster" movement due body tissue changes. And its nature is above all "berserk".

Four researchers were killed already in an accident which occurred when we fed them.
The spot became a blood bath in an instant.
(We named these "Crimson Head" from their excessive savagery.)

Although these cannot be neglected in their current state, we have to avoid disposing of the precious prototype (Proto 1).
It's our duty.

However, what should we do do with this excessively dangerous specimen?
We decided to use freezing gas for "Crimson Head Prototype 1" and decided to confine it in the basement of the mansion graveyard.

One explains the origins of Crimson Heads. One doesn't. Crimson Heads are not called "V-ACTs", V-ACT is just the name of the process the virus causes.

[Reston]

What did the segment between Leon and Ada say in reference to the organization Wesker was with?

[News Bot]

What did the segment between Leon and Ada say in reference to the organization Wesker was with?

Leon directly references the fact that Ada "joined Wesker's organization". He just vaguely says they're working together in the English version.

References to Wesker's organization (the rival company of Umbrella) were also skewered in RE5. His file made it sound as though he was providing viruses to many rival companies in exchange for money while not working for any particular one. However.

Wesker had already obtained samples of various organisms and viruses including the T-Virus, the G-virus, the T-Veronica virus, and Las Plagas. All of these were eagerly and enthusiastically received by Umbrella’s former rival companies who compensated him greatly for each. With wealth, power, and glory, Wesker appeared to have everything a person could ever want.

Until now, Wesker had obtained many viruses and organisms, including the t-Virus, G-Virus, t-Veronica and the Plaga. Armed with these, he rose within the rival company of Umbrella and obtained status, wealth and honor. Materially, he was contented.

And another reference to the rival company is missing altogether:

Wesker used all the organization's power, money and time, and finally discovered Spencer's whereabouts.

[Pikminister]

Is this a problem with translation or interpretation?

And another thing... is there a discrepancy in the number of words the Japanese and English language has? This may affect how they translate from one language to another.

[News Bot]

Is this a problem with translation or interpretation?

And another thing... is there a discrepancy in the number of words the Japanese and English language has? This may affect how they translate from one language to another.

Translation. There's no real room for interpretation because the original Japanese is very clear as it is.

There's no discrepancy. The English files may have more or less depending on whether the translators want to dress it up or are too lazy to translate the whole thing.

[Pikminister]

What Japanese alphabet does the original files employ? They got 3 of them over there, not just one.

And from what I've read, Japanese translators actually do use interpretation when translating texts. But they have to be very experienced at that job. To avoid mistakes.

[News Bot]

What Japanese alphabet does the original files employ? They got 3 of them over there, not just one.

And from what I've read, Japanese translators actually do use interpretation when translating texts. But they have to be very experienced at that job. To avoid mistakes.

All three are used. Kanji, Katakana and Hiragana. However, the latter two are used more often to make things easier to understand for children (and because it's the series standard, since they were easier to use on the PS1).

Interpretation only goes so far as choosing certain words in English (many words are the same in Japanese) and sentence structure/phrasing. Other than that, the basic information is as clear as it can possibly get.

[Pikminister]

Well I guess those guys at Capcom are being lazy.

But what can we do about it?

I dunno if this issue has even been discussed with those who are responsible or in charge. I haven't even seen anything related to this issue at Capcom-Unity (can they even do something about it?). But then again, I don't go there much.

It's a damn shame.

[Carnivol]

Not gonna touch the translations myself, but I think I'll add some extra layers of perspective to stuff here. (Finally! After nearly 10 years of professional industry work, I get to add some bla bla bla that isn't just me abusing my BS detector skills )

All three are used. Kanji, Katakana and Hiragana. However, the latter two are used more often to make things easier to understand for children (and because it's the series standard, since they were easier to use on the PS1).

Interpretation only goes so far as choosing certain words in English (many words are the same in Japanese) and sentence structure/phrasing. Other than that, the basic information is as clear as it can possibly get.

Actually. Context plays a much larger role when dealing solely with hiragana and katakana alphabets than when dealing with a more kanji heavy text (Ditching Kanji is also more often done in old games due to memory and screen resolution issues than anything else; furigana, on the other hand, is often employed in more text heavy/focused media to aid the illiterate.)

As for translating mistakes; context is everything and sometimes it's sadly not in the LOC or QA department's job description to know "exotic" languages when contextually proofreading and/or playtesting something that's been translated "on paper." (On paper being a general way of referencing to working on a translation for something you can't see.) Japanese is also one of the worst "major" languages to deal with when you don't have proper context for the stuff you're translating. Anyway, that doesn't excuse any and all mistakes. Another common issue is of course developers/writers rewriting their stuff on a daily basis to the point where the localization budget (or general time constraints) just doesn't allow for a set of altered strings to go out for translation/review more times than they've already have.

This is one of the "issues" Capcom has to deal with, thanks to them being like the only Japanese third party developer in the entire world who's actually capable of handling large scale localization efforts during the midst of development (but maybe they shouldn't and instead push their international releases a few months back, or ... with their current business plan, lock down game design early and basically sit on a complete game for over 3 months while the translator(s) gets to ask as many question he'd like and the localization team does their thing later on, and also not being able to put their dev teams at full force onto a new production; thanks to the fact that they still need to be on standby to provide technical support for any and all changes the loc team might require - since not all loc teams can be as overly gifted and talented as certain underappreciated people/teams handling their own tech stuff often are.)

[Wrathborne]

So Wesker blew all his money to Locate Spencer? Thats really just bad writing and storytelling. Spencer was such a trivial part of RE5's heinous story anyways.

[Reston]

It makes more sense as to why Wesker broke his heart. Literally.

It's too bad though because it seems a lot of these translation errors would've fixed a lot of issues fans had in terms of the lore. ::Looking at you Slant Six::

[News Bot]

Not gonna touch the translations myself, but I think I'll add some extra layers of perspective to stuff here. (Finally! After nearly 10 years of professional industry work, I get to add some bla bla bla that isn't just me abusing my BS detector skills )

Actually. Context plays a much larger role when dealing solely with hiragana and katakana alphabets than when dealing with a more kanji heavy text (Ditching Kanji is also more often done in old games due to memory and screen resolution issues than anything else; furigana, on the other hand, is often employed in more text heavy/focused media to aid the illiterate.)

As for translating mistakes; context is everything and sometimes it's sadly not in the LOC or QA department's job description to know "exotic" languages when contextually proofreading and/or playtesting something that's been translated "on paper." (On paper being a general way of referencing to working on a translation for something you can't see.) Japanese is also one of the worst "major" languages to deal with when you don't have proper context for the stuff you're translating. Anyway, that doesn't excuse any and all mistakes. Another common issue is of course developers/writers rewriting their stuff on a daily basis to the point where the localization budget (or general time constraints) just doesn't allow for a set of altered strings to go out for translation/review more times than they've already have.

This is one of the "issues" Capcom has to deal with, thanks to them being like the only Japanese third party developer in the entire world who's actually capable of handling large scale localization efforts during the midst of development (but maybe they shouldn't and instead push their international releases a few months back, or ... with their current business plan, lock down game design early and basically sit on a complete game for over 3 months while the translator(s) gets to ask as many question he'd like and the localization team does their thing later on, and also not being able to put their dev teams at full force onto a new production; thanks to the fact that they still need to be on standby to provide technical support for any and all changes the loc team might require - since not all loc teams can be as overly gifted and talented as certain underappreciated people/teams handling their own tech stuff often are.)

Haha yeah, I know that context is vital. However, it's rare in the series that I see something that needs a lot of context, outside of set phrases or words. A lot of the mistranslations in the series are pretty inexplicable, like claiming that one character is a plant, or somehow mistaking the word "specimen" for "virus", or outright changing a sentence to reflect that characters are either still alive or only recently died when they have been dead for several decades, despite their death being pretty explicitly stated in the original text. It's all very stupid stuff, often minor, they tend to get wrong, but it ends up having a giant impact on the overall plot.

So Wesker blew all his money to Locate Spencer? Thats really just bad writing and storytelling. Spencer was such a trivial part of RE5's heinous story anyways.

He was a trivial part of the entire series storyline in general going by that logic. At least his actions directly impacted on the plot and actually directly affected another character. I couldn't have asked for a better depiction of him.

[Mrox2]

Wow lol , looking at these , ugh Wow ,Official English Translation is really Dumb Lol !
Ah well they need to hire new translators "didn't they already?"

[Carnivol]

Haha yeah, I know that context is vital. However, it's rare in the series that I see something that needs a lot of context, outside of set phrases or words. A lot of the mistranslations in the series are pretty inexplicable, like claiming that one character is a plant, or somehow mistaking the word "specimen" for "virus", or outright changing a sentence to reflect that characters are either still alive or only recently died when they have been dead for several decades, despite their death being pretty explicitly stated in the original text. It's all very stupid stuff, often minor, they tend to get wrong, but it ends up having a giant impact on the overall plot.

Well, not gonna defend any mistakes, but another common "issue" (with actually bad translators) is the reliance on inaccurate translation memories (or other tools) or too high threshold on the what to apply a translation memory to. This is basically the source of many odd mistakes where single words for some absurd reason gets swapped with another. (At least in the non-kangaroo cases out there, which are the product of people letting their spellcheckers run wild and unattended)

Basically; a translation memory is a pre-translated piece of text that is applied instantly if an ## amount of the text to be translate matches a previous translation in your translation memory. Most tools will tell you that something's been fetched from memory and needs to be double-checked... (a good tool will even highlight where the source text differs from the text the memory was based on) but... well... lazy translators don't always do that... Lazy translators suck :/

[News Bot]

Well, not gonna defend any mistakes, but another common "issue" (with actually bad translators) is the reliance on inaccurate translation memories (or other tools) or too high threshold on the what to apply a translation memory to. This is basically the source of many odd mistakes where single words for some absurd reason gets swapped with another. (At least in the non-kangaroo cases out there, which are the product of people letting their spellcheckers run wild and unattended)

Basically; a translation memory is a pre-translated piece of text that is applied instantly if an ## amount of the text to be translate matches a previous translation in your translation memory. Most tools will tell you that something's been fetched from memory and needs to be double-checked... (a good tool will even highlight where the source text differs from the text the memory was based on) but... well... lazy translators don't always do that... Lazy translators suck :/

Quite insightful, and it would explain quite a lot.