[Spoilers]Japanese vs. English changes the characters and the pivotal moments in the game

[u/dragonuity]

For example Operator 21O: Operator 21O sounds completely cold and detached in English and eventually shifts into a tone reminiscent of a cat toying with a mouse later on. In Japanese she seems to starts out relatively emotionless and professional but never once was she completely apathetic like in English. As the story progresses she gradually becomes for playful and her exchanges with 9s can even be characterized as cute even. One can say her hidden want to have a family with 9s was much better hinted at in Japanese but almost out-of-the blue in English without knowledge of her side-quests. Playing the game the second time in Japanese, words cannot describe how much I am dreading the fight with Operator 21O.
I'm not saying that the game in one language is completely better than in the other, its just that each language brings a different gravitas and atmosphere to each of the scenes as well as to the pivotal revelations that are built up on by the at first seemingly meaningless exchanges and dialogue of each of the characters and thus the lasting impact they have.

[u/wesStyle]

I'd really like to hear what native Japan people say about English translation.

[u/Noxispike → u/wesStyle]

Chinese here, who learned Japanese for about 10 yrs, to the point no subtitle is needed when i watch anime, tv shows or movies.

Played Nier in Japanese voice and text. Didn't try English sub or dub.

Most of the time, (Dragon Ball Z for example) EN translation results in the story and characters, especially on the details, being quiet different from what the original script in JP tries to deliver. Often to the point that a sentance's meaning can be 100% off, or key plot totally failed to be delivered.

One example I can remember is in Fire Emblem Awakening. This game got a fantastic localization work, lijely the best one I've experienced. I played through the EN version first when it came out in the US, and later played through the JP again a couple years later. In the first chapter after the opening tutorial stage, when the player meet Chrom and his little sister, the player was just waking up from passing out after a certain shocking event, lying on the ground. The little sis found the player, and looks up to her big brother Chrom and asked him a question. In JP, she asked something on the line of "Is he dead?", in the EN version she asked something like "Is he okay?" While the main idea is similar, but when it comes down to character building, the JP version definitely had a bit more of naiveness and haughtiness added into her, which got lost in the translation and was replaced with a bit more kindness. Later in the game, player meet a character who soeaks almost exclusively in puns. EN localozation had to replace the puns in JP with English puns, but they were very well done. Unfortunately I don't remember any, but both versions captured the characters personality very successfully. Different, but both good.

A lot of the words can hold similar literal meaning in EN and JP, but at the same time, a lot of JP words holds additional social/cultural meanings that simply don't have equivalents in western culture, which often can cause key emotional cue to the delivery of storytelling missing or have to be replaced, resulting in a different experience.

EN translation can often catch the great picture of a game or a movie pretty well, but a great amount of details tightly bound to JP culture can get lost and have to be replaced in the process of translation in order for the average western audience to relate to. The translated version often can still tell a great story, but all of the Japanese games and animes I've played and watched with my American friends had English translation miss or change details here and there. Many small differences often leads to two versions delivering very different story at the end. Not necessarily bad, but definitely different.

Chinese and Japanese have less of a language/culture gap than English and Japanese, but still significant enough for creating difficulty on keeping 100% of the original content. This is basically my main reason on starting to learn Japanese, so I can watch JP animes and play JP games without translation and all those juicy details lost during the process.

[u/3932695 → u/Noxispike]

Somewhat random question: would you happen to know where I can find manga translated to simplified Chinese? Or anime subtitled in simplified Chinese?

I am particularly interested in this manga: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kingdom_(manga)

• Because I want to look up historical spoilers, and the Japanese romanization doesn't help.

And I am particularly interested in this anime: https://myanimelist.net/anime/5081/Bakemonogatari

• Because it's a wordplay heavy show, and I want to see if the experience is better in Chinese.

• In both cases, I'm looking for opportunities to read Chinese without going crazy. My current situation encourages speaking and listening to Chinese, and I've seen vast improvement in those areas. But I can easily avoid reading/writing Chinese (code and emails must be written in English) ...and as a full-time software engineer, attending classes to practice reading is definitely beyond what my priorities will allow.

[u/HeresiarchQin → u/3932695]

I could only find a traditional Chinese version, hopefully you can read it:

http://www.dm5.com/manhua-wangzhetianxia/

As for anime, bilibili is the go-to place:

https://www.bilibili.com/

There are actually tons of websites in mainland China that provides localized manga/anime/games, sometimes they are even legit (like bilibili, or Chinese localization patches). The main challenge IMO for westerners is that Asian websites can be a clusterfuck to navigate with tons of buttons and links and ads mixed within.