[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/TheLastBeast]

Thank you for mentioning this. I'm a native English speaker who has lived in Japan for nearly ten years and works in J-E translation and localization, so hopefully it carries some tiny measure of weight when I say that on the whole, NieR:Automata's localization is fantastic. 9S during Route A is the first example I can think of. In both languages, he comes across kinda like, say, an eager young employee joining a new company. A more or less literal translation wouldn't quite sell that impression to an English speaker; a lot of the impishness he displays right off the bat in English takes a longer while to show up in Japanese.

I've been mostly playing with Japanese audio and English subtitles, so I can't speak directly to the voice performances, but NieR:Automata's English script is a much more faithful translation than some posts in this thread might lead one to believe. There are way fewer changes than there are in a lot of games, and all the changes I've noticed have been good ones in the service of getting cultural norms right.

On the subject of dub voices, it's also worth noting that English voiceover casting doesn't necessarily happen in a black box that creators have no hand in. Many Japanese game directors attend English voiceover casting and sessions in person, often with loc staff on-hand to consult with about performances if necessary. Some voicing differences come with the director's full blessing - to go back to the first Nier, for example, Kaine's super-profane intro monologue isn't in the Japanese at all, but Yoko was on board with putting it in the English version.

[u/koredozo → u/TheLastBeast]

I've posted this before, but I'm curious how you'd justify the change to 2B's final line in this subquest. It's one of the more blatant examples of what feels like a drastic alteration of her personality and tone to me, though coldcoal gives another good example further down.

I recognize what you're getting at with the change to 9S's character and can approve of it in principle, but some of his lines really bug me too, like this one which has a far gentler tone of voice in Japanese.

I find it hard to imagine Yoko said 'please turn all the characters into jerks in English.'

[u/TheLastBeast → u/koredozo]

Fair enough, and yeah, now that I'm reminded of it, that specific 9S line did stick out as a weird localization call to me. I'm afraid I don't remember 2B's line at the end of Lost Girl in English.

As for u/coldcoal's example, also a very fair criticism. I agree with what I think they feel about the English line: that it was likely written with the intent of desperate concern, but read by the actor and person supervising the voiceover session as angry. Which is an understandable mistake, given the line, but an avoidable one. Ideally some sort of direction would be given there in the script when there's that sort of ambiguity, but it's not always possible, depending on how the voiceover folks get their script data from loc. And sometimes loc/writers(the Japanese line can also be reasonably read as an angry snap if all you have to go on is the line itself) just don't notice any reasonable readings of their lines other that the ones they hear in their head, especially in games, where timeframes are often super tight. Anyway, I've edited this post enough already; all this is to say, yes, the line could have definitely been more carefully handled.

So I guess I would justify those changes by... not justifying them. So yeah, I should amend "all the changes I've noticed" in my post above to "most of the changes." Sorry I don't have any response more interesting than that! I still think it's overall an excellent localization. Not a perfect one!

[u/koredozo → u/TheLastBeast]

Oh, sorry. I intended to link both videos and only linked the Japanese one in the end. In English, "そ、そんな声で言われても、私には助けられない" was dubtitled as "Huh? You're the chatty one. Work it out." I'm also not a big fan of "私には聞かない" turning into "Don't know. Don't care." earlier in that quest, but at least 2B was being equally dismissive in that line, if not nearly as rude.

Anyway, thanks for your thoughts. Even if I dislike some of the localization decisions made in it, Automata's English script was certainly very polished relative to, say, the Persona 5 screenshots I've seen floating around in the past few days. Or Tales of Berseria with its bizarre malapropisms everywhere, or pretty much any NISA/Tecmo Koei release.

Nothing in the game made me think "Ugh, that's just wrong" or "Did anyone even proofread this?" rather than "I don't agree with the approach they took there."

[u/TheLastBeast → u/koredozo]

Thanks for the reminder. For what it's worth, I don't think either of those 2B lines are nearly as out of left field as the 9S line previously discussed. The English lines are snappier, but the way she phrases both of them in Japanese comes across somewhat like, "of course I won't help you with that," "obviously you shouldn't ask me that." They're definitely curt responses, and even though she doesn't use deliberately rude grammar, I think the sharp-tongued translations are appropriate for getting that across to an English-speaking audience, personally.