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Adventures in localization, MW2 edition
Posted on December 1st, 2009 18 comments
Hey! Remember this stirring scene from Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, a game you may’ve heard a thing or two about over the past month or so?
In the English original, Vladimir Makarov (far left; one of MW2′s chief villains) is telling you “Remember, no Russian” — i.e., “Don’t speak Russian during this topical Fox News-bait sequence we’re about to commit.” In the Japanese version that Square Enix is releasing next week, however, the trademark phrase — according to the above screenshot, anyway — has become “Korose, Roshia-jin da,” “Kill them; they are Russians.”
Maybe it’s a matter of matching with Makarov’s lip flaps, but isn’t that straying a pretty decent distance away from the original intent? As one 2ch commenter rather rudely put it: “It’s meaningless as Japanese already, but how does ‘No Russian’ translate as this? Is this just some college student using Excite [machine translation], or what?”
Square Enix came under fire last year for their Japanese localization of the original Modern Warfare, a game whose translation was questionable enough that even Famitsu and other publisher-friendly review sites brought it up as a fault. In addition to a slew of typos and instances where text got corrupted when it was imported into the game, a great deal of military vocabulary was simply mistranslated for the Japanese version. The most noted example in Japan reviews: The word “Marine” (officially kaiheitai (海兵隊) in Japanese) is repeatedly translated as kaigunhei (海軍兵), a term which literally translates to “naval soldier” that doesn’t actually exist in standard Japanese.
“It’d be one thing if these were obscure details,” Game Watch wrote in their Modern Warfare review, “but considering these things show up within the first 30 minutes of play, I really wish it was possible for QA to cover them more thoroughly. This is something that we could say to all overseas game publishers these days. These are not budget games, but full-price titles you’re expecting people to pay for, and especially with a big-name title like COD4, I wish they could’ve avoided disappointing gamers with issues that aren’t the fault of the game itself.”
Famitsu gave MW2 39 out of 40 points in its review this week, but news that the game is available only with Japanese voices has touched off nerd rage across the Internet over there, with dozens of gamers swearing they’ll only buy the English-language Asian version instead. We’ll see how the game fares next week. (Between the PS3 and 360, the original Modern Warfare sold about 250,000 copies in Japan.)
In case you’re curious, here is how MW2 sounds in Japanese:
2 responses to “Adventures in localization, MW2 edition”
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Doesn’t seem such a big deal when most of the dialogue is just transliterated English anyway.
16 Trackbacks / Pingbacks
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WiiGamer » Blog Archive » Modern Warfare 2 Japanese Localization Misses the Point December 2nd, 2009 at 15:45
[...] that the game is causing a little stir in Japan, but from fans instead of the government. Magweasel gives word that the Japanese localization leaves much to be desired. At the center of the issues is the [...]
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Modern Warfare 2 Japanese Localization Misses the Point | Gamezia : Games News and Previews December 2nd, 2009 at 16:16
[...] which the game is causing a small stir in Japan, but from fans instead of the government. Magweasel gives word which the Japanese localization leaves most to be desired. At the core of the issues is the [...]
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[...] that the game is causing a little stir in Japan, but from fans instead of the government. Magweasel gives word that the Japanese localization leaves much to be desired. At the center of the issues is the "No [...]
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Modern Warfare 2 Japanese Localization Misses the Point « photomaniacal.com December 2nd, 2009 at 17:44
[...] that the game is causing a little stir in Japan, but from fans instead of the government. Magweasel gives word that the Japanese localization leaves much to be desired. At the center of the issues is the [...]
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[...] that the game is causing a little stir in Japan, but from fans instead of the government. Magweasel gives word that the Japanese localization leaves much to be desired. At the center of the issues is the [...]
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Latest Game Reviews » Blog Archive » Modern Warfare 2 Japanese Localization Misses the Point December 2nd, 2009 at 18:05
[...] that the game is causing a little stir in Japan, but from fans instead of the government. Magweasel gives word that the Japanese localization leaves much to be desired. At the center of the issues is the [...]
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[...] that the game is causing a little stir in Japan, but from fans instead of the government. Magweasel gives word that the Japanese localization leaves much to be desired. At the center of the issues is the [...]
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[...] that the game is causing a little stir in Japan, but from fans instead of the government. Magweasel gives word that the Japanese localization leaves much to be desired. At the center of the issues is the [...]
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[...] that the game is causing a little stir in Japan, but from fans instead of the government. Magweasel gives word that the Japanese localization leaves much to be desired. At the center of the issues is the [...]
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Modern Warfare 2 Japanese Localization Misses the Point | Wii Gaming News December 2nd, 2009 at 21:00
[...] that the game is causing a little stir in Japan, but from fans instead of the government. Magweasel gives word that the Japanese localization leaves much to be desired. At the center of the issues is the [...]
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[...] that the game is causing a little stir in Japan, but from fans instead of the government. Magweasel gives word that the Japanese localization leaves much to be desired. At the center of the issues is the [...]
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[...] that the game is causing a little stir in Japan, but from fans instead of the government. Magweasel gives word that the Japanese localization leaves much to be desired. At the center of the issues is the [...]
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[...] that the game is causing a little stir in Japan, but from fans instead of the government. Magweasel gives word that the Japanese localization leaves much to be desired. At the center of the issues is the [...]
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[...] that the game is causing a little stir in Japan, but from fans instead of the government. Magweasel gives word that the Japanese localization leaves much to be desired. At the center of the issues is the [...]
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From Metal Gear: Peace Walker Dated To UMD For The PSP Go: News Roundup December 3rd – Dealspwn UK | Dealspwn December 3rd, 2009 at 12:09
[...] Unfortunately the Japanese release instead translated this to “Kill them; they are Russians,” giving the scene an entirely different meaning than intended, which turns out to be quite a pivotal point in the story indeed. Many fans in Japan are outraged, with some claiming they’ll be buying the English version instead, rather than be subjected to poor Japanese. But considering Famitsu’s score of 39/40, it looks like it’ll be ok. [MagWeasel] [...]
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Through the Looking Glass (Translator’s Note: Looking Glass Means Mirror) « OGIUE MANIAX December 5th, 2009 at 12:09
[...] Adventures in Localization, MW2 Edition [...]
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tsu December 2nd, 2009 at 14:31