Is it just me or was BBCP's localization job rather sloppy?

[Elochai]

Anyone bother comparing the LE poster to the move list in-game? There're some cute differences (in game, Ragna has consumed by darkness, but devoured by darkness on the poster).

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[BlackYakuzu94]

To be fair, Ragna always said "let darkness consume you" rather than it's proper name.

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[NeoStrayCat]

There was a blu-ray disc in the LE? Where?

Its in the back of the same CD case where the "broken" soundtrack is. And yes, I understand why they are charging this much for 2/3rds or something for content that don't work. (Of course, the physical items are a nice bonus though. The only things that don't work properly is the Song Interlude, and the Blue Radio episode. Everything else is fine.)

 

How bad are the subs?

I dunno how bad/good they are, I went through it once, and it was just mostly about the releases of CP in Arcade/Console and stuff. I can't remember much of it, but someone else that has it should know how it is, sorry. >_>

[z121231211]

Next time they will not translate story mode because it will be "too hard and too long".

 

And it will be released a year later after JP release.

[werewolfgold]

Finally got my hands on the game (my proxy in America was super slow in sending it to me). Time to see how bad the damage really is...

 

The first thing that I noticed was in the main menu, the last two tabs have the options in all caps while all the rest don't. I dunno why they would choose to do that. And the gallery info talks about music when there is none. This doesn't bode well. lol

[Poultrygeist]

I would be okay with not getting story mode if we got the game earlier TBH.

[Narroo]

I would be okay with not getting story mode if we got the game earlier TBH.

But most people wouldn't.  That's a huge chunk of game time for a lot of people.

[Sashi]

Yeah, we would be fine with story mode, but the vast majority of the people who bought the game did it for the story.

[BlackYakuzu94]

I would be okay with not getting story mode if we got the game earlier TBH.

 

The story of the series is arguably half of the reason people are in it. Cutting completely is just...dumb.

[Domenic93]

is the vita version any better? did they include library mode?

[Blade]

I was just going over this thread, and a lot of people have voiced their passionate opinions about how much work "should" be put in to ARC System Works' games...

 

About all I can say is, in the end this sort of thing will either cost time, or it will cost money.

 

It will cost money because ARCSys needs it to keep making the games we know and love, and let's face it, they aren't that big a company (in fact they're still trying to hire on more 3D animator help to make more GGXrd and future games because according to an interview they are inexperienced in 3D animation and design).  So localization is not their number 1 priority, if it was we'd see a lot more news and information by now.

 

It will cost time because English isn't the easiest language to learn (Japanese people have often complained about that, actually).  To say nothing of the other countries south of the United States' Border (and in Europe) who want this in their own native languages.

 

As someone who has been passionate for Guilty Gear since day one, you can EXPECT me to be doing all that I can to bypass the problems Guilty Gear has "almost always" had with regards to localization (as I've done in the past).

 

So, even if ARCSys doesn't do a stellar job in one area (localization), I think it's reasonable for them to focus on the main area of their talents: making quality games.

 

That being said, I'm more than willing (as some of you may also be) to support their works by looking at both the English and Japanese versions of their games and possibly translating/sharing whatever information gets lost in translation.

 

That costs time, effort, (and possibly money) as well, but if it's something that we truly want, it's something we'll have to strive for.  It's clear to me that ARCSys can't do this all by themselves (even if Aksys offered to support them and went out of their way to do so).  It just doesn't seem feasible right now.

 

As the old saying goes: "If you want something done right, you do it yourself."

 

It's one thing to complain about a problem that could easily be solved... but this isn't an easy problem, it's a problem with money and time involved, something that ARCSys does not seem to have a lot of.

 

So for now, support them in any way you can (even if that means supporting a 3rd party translator), that's about all I can say.

[SoWL]

It's one thing to complain about a problem that could easily be solved... but this isn't an easy problem, it's a problem with money and time involved, something that ARCSys does not seem to have a lot of.

Should I remind you how much time has passed between the JP and EN releases? That's everyone's main gripe here: this localization feels rushed despite ASW having all the time in the world to do better.

[Blade]

Consider that ARCSys puts their priorities on what makes the most money.

 

If the most money they get involves making (and publishing) new games over localizing and exporting existing games, they're going to prioritize that way.

 

The reason localization feels rushed is because it's given a small time window.  That means it's not a high priority with them compared to working on newer titles that are a guaranteed sell in Japan (which generally don't require localization work at all).

 

Let's say a game takes 1 year to make and 3 months to translate, and let's say there's another game that takes 1 additional year to make and doesn't really need to be translated.

 

2 years and 3 months would be the expected total time, right?  But what if in that span of time, a third game were in the works for some other project?  What can be done to squeeze in everything within the deadlines?  Everything has a time cost.  Spending time on one thing means you can't spend time on something else.

 

So, in order to compensate, that 3 months worth of time that was planned for translating might be squeezed in to 1 month or less if it wasn't the highest priority.

 

That's just how it goes.

[NeoStrayCat]

Is the vita version any better? Did they include library mode?

From what I've read across other forums, nope (if you mean the US Vita port, it also does not have the Library mode), also, besides the longer loading times (though its on vita hardware specifically), I've also read that the game forces English vocals in the Story mode and the Teach Me segments even if you set the game vocals to JP (due to space constraints, as i've read so far, dunno if this extends to voices in-gameplay).

 

Other than that, at least its still playable, besides issues.

[Aegis High]

It cost money to us too, Blade. I’m a fighting game/ASW fan, but I’m also a consumer and I want quality for my money. Of course I can overlook some stuff, nobody is perfect, but I can’t condone missing modes, questionable translation, missing audio or framing errors.

[Soviet Bear]

 

The reason localization feels rushed is because it's given a small time window.  That means it's not a high priority with them compared to working on newer titles that are a guaranteed sell in Japan (which generally don't require localization work at all).

 

Let's say a game takes 1 year to make and 3 months to translate, and let's say there's another game that takes 1 additional year to make and doesn't really need to be translated.

 

2 years and 3 months would be the expected total time, right?  But what if in that span of time, a third game were in the works for some other project?  What can be done to squeeze in everything within the deadlines?  Everything has a time cost.  Spending time on one thing means you can't spend time on something else.

 

So, in order to compensate, that 3 months worth of time that was planned for translating might be squeezed in to 1 month or less if it wasn't the highest priority.

 

That's just how it goes.

 

 

I might be missing something, but that doesn't make sense to me. Localization doesn't take away time from development, unless the people who are doing the localization are the actual developers, artists, sound directors, etc. If that's the case with ARC, I think they have more serious issues on their hands. If you meant that they'd rather pour in money into a new project than localization right away (IE, they delay costs), that's still a bit too flimsy for me, because a smaller window for translating a product is gonna end up being most expensive.

 

If you have internal localization, then the most cost-effective way of localizing text strings (the bulk of the work) is doing it as you define it in the game (for example, "We're gonna definitely call this move Super Soaker of the Void, so lets commit all the text that relates to it in the game's tutorial, challenge, move list, achievements, etc). If you're outsourcing it, then it's either sending localization strings at development milestones or when you're completely done with the game and are doing tweaks, polish and things that generally aren't related to outsourcing.

 

It will cost money because ARCSys needs it to keep making the games we know and love, and let's face it, they aren't that big a company (in fact they're still trying to hire on more 3D animator help to make more GGXrd and future games because according to an interview they are inexperienced in 3D animation and design).  So localization is not their number 1 priority, if it was we'd see a lot more news and information by now.

 

 

This was an excuse since Battle Fantasia (I recall it was 3D specifically so they could get a better hang of it). I love Arc, but that's a really long time in game development to be hurting for a 3D guy and I hope they don't drag it on for even longer.

 

My personal take on all of this: I'm guessing the bulk of their profits come from Japan, although this is just a guess and I could be just as easily wrong (I'm really not sure how much arcade games actually learn). CT's localization and release was great because it was a fresh franchise and they wanted it to take off. The sequels didn't have that much of a presence (I don't recall even hearing much about CP save from people and places who were already hyped for it). I don't blame them, because trying to explain the differences between "BlazBlue Calamity Trigger", "BlazBlue Continuum Shift" "BlazBlue Continuum Shift Extend" and "BlazBlue Chrono Phantasma" to your regular non-fighting game player (or regular fighting game player even) is like me trying to grasp the Assassin's Creed series between AC2 and AC3.

 

With Guilty Gear Xrd, I am assuming they're taking the BBCT approach and that it won't be as sloppy. It's a short name, it's a reboot of sorts, or a new chapter, whatever you wanna call it. It's new tech, it's on a new console, it has the big buzzwords like 1080p and 60FPS. If it doesn't take off as well in the mainstream, you can expect Xrd reload, Xrd slash, Xrd Overture Mix and so on to have less and less quality in localization and less of a marketing presence. I feel like out of all the fighting games, NetherRealm does it best by just releasing one game and updating it with new characters. Of course, they have an obscenely larger market...

 

I personally didn't care for getting BBCP in English, since I only ever played it for my Arc fighter fix, but I am much more involved in the GG series and if Xrd got the treatment CP did, I'd probably be hurting for it as much as some posters here. It wouldn't affect my decision to purchase it, but it would leave me disappointed. But it all really depends whether Arc's plan for the franchise is to compete with the mainstream fighters or if they want to cater to the niche fighter group of dedicated fans.

[Aegis High]

From what I've read across other forums, nope (if you mean the US Vita port, it also does not have the Library mode), also, besides the longer loading times (though its on vita hardware specifically), I've also read that the game forces English vocals in the Story mode and the Teach Me segments even if you set the game vocals to JP (due to space constraints, as i've read so far, dunno if this extends to voices in-gameplay).

 

Wow, really?  They did not include Japanese voices in story mode? WTF! That’s exactly the stuff I can't support. Fortunately I don’t play BB on Vita, otherwise I would be hyper mad about this.

[Blade]

@Soviet Bear: Usually it goes like this:

 

--ARCSys makes a game first for the local Arcade market. (Mostly for Sega).

--Then they port it over to console and do whatever needs to be done to localize it (assuming it will even hit overseas, some titles never did).

Localization is probably one of the last things on their minds (and sometimes the in-game code shows evidence of this as with CS Extend, the Japanese audio would sometimes clip in to the English).

 

It wasn't until recently that Sony accepted them in to the 3rd Party fold support for their game development that they started getting better resources.  

 

Before that they were just making games for other companies, publishing games from lesser known developers (like FK Digital), and just barely making their own in-house titles (GG and BB are in-house, most everything else that's big from them is produced by another source like SMT:P4A and Hokuto no Ken, Contra Hard Corps Uprising, possibly Magical Beat).

 

And you're right, it would be more cost-effective to have in-house localization, which is why I think at one point some Aksys Games employees transferred to an ARCSys branch office.  But I don't think it stuck.

 

With past titles, they relied on Aksys, now they have to do localization in-house, which probably means staffing problems (besides lacking a "3D guy" as you put it).

[BlackJustin13]

Nah ive got the fat old school ps3. And I know it's not Aksys, its probably the Internet connection skrewing up. Because the same thing happened to my sister when she downloaded that Alice in Wonderland game (we share a console). She just had to suck it up and DL it again like I'm doing now...

Only thing im worried about is that I've seen posts(not here. Shitty gamefaqs) of dudes who ended up downloading their game five times to no avail.

:/

Yeah,I was in that boat too.Downloaded the game multiple times and got the same error,finally just got a refund from PSN and got a retail copy..the silver lining was that I got both Kokonoe and Terumi for free. And the worst part is, CP was the only time I had this issue.I have downloaded many games before and after the incident without a hiccup but chronophantasma's just "Lol nope."

[TeeJay]

Yeah,I was in that boat too.Downloaded the game multiple times and got the same error,finally just got a refund from PSN and got a retail copy..the silver lining was that I got both Kokonoe and Terumi for free. And the worst part is, CP was the only time I had this issue.I have downloaded many games before and after the incident without a hiccup but chronophantasma's just "Lol nope."

Really? I downloaded 9 times and still got the error. They said they were gonna give me a refund, said they didn't do them but...Then 7-10 days later, I get that my refund has been denied. 

[BlackJustin13]

I did have this problem,though in my case,I had already bought the disc copy and was playing it,so they may  have seen it as the online copy working.But I pretty much kept hounding them about the refund for weeks(and I did provide my reciept so they knew I had a physical copy) and eventually I got it...in store credit.

[werewolfgold]

Wow, really?  They did not include Japanese voices in story mode? WTF! That’s exactly the stuff I can't support. Fortunately I don’t play BB on Vita, otherwise I would be hyper mad about this.

 

To be fair, I don't think the Japanese version has English story voices available. It's probably just a space thing.

[Master Of Chaos]

That is 100% false. I've seen people use in-game English subtitles (Something exclusive to the U.S. Version) with the Japanese voice tracks.

[Aegis High]

To be fair, I don't think the Japanese version has English story voices available. It's probably just a space thing.

 

Yes, the japanese version doesn’t have english voices for story mode, that's the way it's always been. But if they were going to leave a language out because of space limit in the NA version, that should be the english audio, since the game already have english text, you know, like XBlaze.

 

But that’s not the real problem. The problem is that, once again like library mode, Aksys did not informed the fans about this decision. That’s not how you treat you customers.

[Blade]

It wasn't Aksys' decision to make.  They said that even to me when I asked them about it on Facebook.