×
  • remind me tomorrow
  • remind me next week
  • never remind me
Subscribe to the ANN Newsletter • Wake up every Sunday to a curated list of ANN's most interesting posts of the week. read more

Forum - View topic
The X Button - First Impressions: Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth


Goto page 1, 2, 3  Next

Note: this is the discussion thread for this article

Anime News Network Forum Index -> Site-related -> Talkback
View previous topic :: View next topic  
Author Message
Vanadise



Joined: 06 Apr 2015
Posts: 487
PostPosted: Thu Feb 25, 2016 11:36 am Reply with quote
Quote:
The complaints about Fire Emblem Fates are broader among certain subsets of fans, who want to retranslate the game without any of Nintendo's alleged alterations, whether it's the facial flirting or a conversation between two assassins. They find that the solution is a straight, unflavored translation that sticks close to the Japanese text.


I think this is setting up a strawman that doesn't really accurately represent what these "certain subsets of fans" want at all. Very few (if any) people want a literal translation of the Japanese text. There's a group of fan translators who are producing a translation that is pretty literal, but it's still a work in progress and that's not necessarily an indication of what the larger fan base wants at all.

For reference, a brief list of what the official translation has changed/removed:
Petting minigame is gone; high-res 3D character models are still viewable in your Private Quarters, but it automatically kicks you out after a few seconds.
Over half of the voice files have been removed.
Many character names were pointlessly changed.
Several character outfits have been removed (some of which gave stat bonuses in castle battles)
Many support conversations have been altered; the most famous example is a serious, lengthy conversation that was replaced with a short, unoriginal joke -- and the later support conversations between those characters continue as though the original actually happened. Others were rewritten to focus entirely on jokey character quirks; some characters have had their marriage options turned into purely platonic relationships; homosexual characters have had their unique same-sex support dialogs removed so that they have the same conversations regardless of sex.
Lots of characters talk in "funny" accents or quirks when none were present in the original.
At least one character has had her personality completely changed and rewritten.

I don't think it's unreasonable to want a well-written translation that doesn't remove and alter a ton of content.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
synaia



Joined: 10 Oct 2011
Posts: 112
PostPosted: Thu Feb 25, 2016 11:36 am Reply with quote
Digimon did had some poor quality control at times. Just one example would be or talking to a male guy and the text says she. At least it wasn't as bad as the original sao hollow fragment version. Googling will get plenty results how bad the translation/editing was at times in the game.

Leveling is also way too easy in the game, at least you don't have to go that quick route if you don't want to do it.

I do hope BN will also release the next (sequel?) digimon game that comes out in Japan next month here in the west.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Hoppy800



Joined: 09 Aug 2013
Posts: 3331
PostPosted: Thu Feb 25, 2016 11:39 am Reply with quote
Not only SRW but Gundam Breaker 3 has an English release in Asia this June and it looks to be the best game in the series. Not to mention they added some Advance of Z MS in the game.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Vaisaga



Joined: 07 Oct 2011
Posts: 13224
PostPosted: Thu Feb 25, 2016 11:42 am Reply with quote
So is Angewomon still in the English version of the Digimon game? Or did they remove her, because, ya know, "[the original rights holders] wished to market Digimon as a child-friendly property and deemed the scantily-clad Angewomon as inappropriate."
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message My Anime
JacobC
ANN Contributor


Joined: 15 Jan 2008
Posts: 3728
Location: SoCal
PostPosted: Thu Feb 25, 2016 11:43 am Reply with quote
synaia wrote:
Digimon did had some poor quality control at times. Just one example would be or talking to a male guy and the text says she. At least it wasn't as bad as the original sao hollow fragment version. Googling will get plenty results how bad the translation/editing was at times in the game.

Leveling is also way too easy in the game, at least you don't have to go that quick route if you don't want to do it.

I do hope BN will also release the next (sequel?) digimon game that comes out in Japan next month here in the west.


Yeah, I thought I might mention the troublesome localization, but I was trying to keep the writeup short. Strictly speaking, it wasn't a full review, just a broad-scale look at the pros and cons. I could have written about that game all day though, because the stuff it does well, it does REALLY well (I love the easy leveling personally, grinding should be fun and breezy and there are a million monsters to create), but the stuff it does poorly is just deep secondhand embarrassment (pretty cruddy/confusing localization, even outside of downright errors like the one you posted, it's just not a good english-language story translation either.)

Vaisaga wrote:
So is Angewomon still in the English version of the Digimon game? Or did they remove her, because, ya know, "[the original rights holders] wished to market Digimon as a child-friendly property and deemed the scantily-clad Angewomon as inappropriate."


No, Cyber Sleuth is almost uncomfortably adult (okay "teen," nothing actually mature here) in terms of content. Plots revolve around sexual and violence-based topics from start to finish, there's tons of fanservice and weird effed-up subplots...I'm glad the game wasn't censored for the Western release, but I was honestly kinda perturbed that Media Vision had turned Digimon in such a late-night anime direction. I'm no prude when it comes to anime content, but apart from the occasional half-nude humanoid monster, I don't want that sort of tone in the Digimon franchise. It's weird. It's like putting cocaine in pixie stix.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message Visit poster's website My Anime
synaia



Joined: 10 Oct 2011
Posts: 112
PostPosted: Thu Feb 25, 2016 11:53 am Reply with quote
JesuOtaku wrote:


Yeah, I thought I might mention the troublesome localization, but I was trying to keep the writeup short. Strictly speaking, it wasn't a full review, just a broad-scale look at the pros and cons. I could have written about that game all day though, because the stuff it does well, it does REALLY well (I love the easy leveling personally, grinding should be fun and breezy and there are a million monsters to create), but the stuff it does poorly is just deep secondhand embarrassment (pretty cruddy/confusing localization, even outside of downright errors like the one you posted, it's just not a good english-language story translation either.)



I do the easy leveling myself to get those fast digivolves and devolves to get enough ABI to get the digimon you want and then get them to the max lvl asap with that method, it does make the game easier if you do it early on. It's just a bit boring after doing it for some time.

Did you play the 7 Deadly sins DLC quests yet? Had so much fun with them and change party for each fight if the original party I run didn't work out well enough.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
AiddonValentine



Joined: 07 Aug 2006
Posts: 2201
PostPosted: Thu Feb 25, 2016 11:58 am Reply with quote
It would be hilarious to break to the fan translators that EVERY entry in the FE franchise has been localized to the same degree as Fates has. Maybe the whole enterprise wouldn't be so insufferable were it not for me seeing parts of the fan translation which is completely boring and robotic. There's a reason straight translation is not entertaining in media.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Vaisaga



Joined: 07 Oct 2011
Posts: 13224
PostPosted: Thu Feb 25, 2016 12:08 pm Reply with quote
JesuOtaku wrote:
No, Cyber Sleuth is almost uncomfortably adult (okay "teen," nothing actually mature here) in terms of content. Plots revolve around sexual and violence-based topics from start to finish, there's tons of fanservice and weird effed-up subplots...I'm glad the game wasn't censored for the Western release, but I was honestly kinda perturbed that Media Vision had turned Digimon in such a late-night anime direction. I'm no prude when it comes to anime content, but apart from the occasional half-nude humanoid monster, I don't want that sort of tone in the Digimon franchise. It's weird. It's like putting cocaine in pixie stix.


Well that just makes the cancellation of the GEM Angewomon figure an even bigger pile of bullshit.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message My Anime
KH91



Joined: 17 May 2013
Posts: 6176
PostPosted: Thu Feb 25, 2016 12:28 pm Reply with quote
I just beat Cyber Sleuth yesterday(DLC, too) after buying on Day 1(I played it everyday) and I loved it. It was the game I was waiting my whole life for after being disappointed with Pokemon Black/White, a game that tried to get me, an older audience to enjoy, but failed. When Habu said this game was for the mature older audience that started from the beginning, he meant it and delivered. Nothing noteworthy was censored/edited. I could enjoy the game as it was meant to be(other devs should take notes). I spent days in the digifarm getting the Digimon I wanted and leveling up through the platsuka/tactician strategy before continuing the story. The story, imo, was amazing, but it's Digimon, so obviously. My only problem is that the MC spoiler[didn't end up with Nokia.] I hope they add that in later Story games like this game that were made for an older audience.

Cyber Sleuth is my GOTY...so far. Hope it holds.

Yes, I did have Angewomon. Wink

Nokia was supposed to be my only waifu coming into this game, but other characters won me over in their own way that I had to reconsider multiple times, but in the end I decided to take the harem route. Very Happy
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
synaia



Joined: 10 Oct 2011
Posts: 112
PostPosted: Thu Feb 25, 2016 12:36 pm Reply with quote
Vaisaga wrote:


Well that just makes the cancellation of the GEM Angewomon figure an even bigger pile of bullshit.


Luckily importing from Japan directly exists. I do feel bad for all the people who pre-ordered it for the western sites like CR and then get that cancellation email.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Angel'sArcanum



Joined: 02 Sep 2010
Posts: 303
Location: Toronto, Ontario
PostPosted: Thu Feb 25, 2016 12:40 pm Reply with quote
Definitely agree with Jacob about Cyber Sleuth's story; the infodumps were bloated and constant with little energy to them, hokey plots and stiff editing with a lack of emotional punch, the characters are a bit irksome (the main character even makes questionable decisions or is given strange dialogue options, kind of lame), Arata's progression is predictable and too self-serious (like a 1:1 Sasuke), Yuuko is the uninteresting overly serious quiet one, Makiko Date's constant gags about arresting the main character over nothing and total arrogance makes me want to strangle her, Jimiken is obnoxious, and the rest are kind of bland.

The game also doesn't do anything interesting with its urban settings, like it took the Persona series purely at face value there and forgot to add the fun social elements and lots of things to explore, the areas are quite limited with only like 2-3 screens or so per area and not much to do.

The gameplay is fun though, and I'm glad I've gotten to play a good Digimon game again after like a decade (at least, I remember some fond memories of World 3, and I never got to play the DS games). It seems to take a lot of pages from Pokemon with the nature system and additional stat development stuff to add more beyond surface leveling, and here I prefer the how easy it is to change natures and those stats as well rather than all the RNG and time wasting of Pokemon trying to breed the perfect mon. I do wish ABI was easier to raise though and they had a larger digivolution flowchart if possible, it's hard to remember who you were trying to get to Mega after constantly de-digivolving to raise your ABI and such. The gameplay with its monster type and element advantages stack which add some serious damage if you dominate in both areas and give you a bit of a chance if you only have an element advantage, so I enjoy that. The game is more about straight up fighting rather than some more unorthodox tactics employed in Pokemon with weather conditions, traps and all that, so it may get tiring if you want some twists to the battles, but it's still really fun. Despite my grievances it's a really fun grind, great selection of digimon, digivolving is addictive, and the gameplay is quite solid, good stuff.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message Visit poster's website My Anime My Manga
Stuart Smith



Joined: 13 Jan 2013
Posts: 1298
PostPosted: Thu Feb 25, 2016 12:53 pm Reply with quote
AiddonValentine wrote:
It would be hilarious to break to the fan translators that EVERY entry in the FE franchise has been localized to the same degree as Fates has.


That doesn't sound like something to brag about in all honesty. It's a bit ironic and perhaps fitting Digimon Cyber Sleuth is the mirror in this article. If they went under the notion that Digimon has always been heavily censored in America then Cyber Sleuth would have been heavily censored as well. While Sony seems to be moving forward and being progressive, Nintendo is still stuck in the 90s mentality. Personally I can never understand why someone would get so happy or proud about a game being censored, but perhaps that just me. Perhaps its just left over from the anti otaku mindset of the petting mini-game. Now that we know that the game has been heavily altered in non otaku ways like Saizou and Belka's support being change from them discussing their childhood as soldiers and the effects of being an assassin from birth on their mental state to just a joke about ellipses, it almost feels like they defend it because if they complain it gives the other side an edge when it comes to other content being cut. Some kind of all-or-nothing mentality.

JesuOtaku wrote:
I'm glad the game wasn't censored for the Western release, but I was honestly kinda perturbed that Media Vision had turned Digimon in such a late-night anime direction. I'm no prude when it comes to anime content, but apart from the occasional half-nude humanoid monster, I don't want that sort of tone in the Digimon franchise. It's weird. It's like putting cocaine in pixie stix.


I didn't see anything in Cyber Sleuth that was out of place or hasn't been done before in other Digimon media. The series has always had fanservice, and in the first series alone we dealt with Yamato being solicited by an adult woman, Taichi's grief over almost killing Hikari as a kid, and Pinocchimon going on a shooting spree with a 44 Magnum, killing a bunch of Digimon and trying to kill Takeru by, in his own words "make your stomach explode" with hollow point dumdum bullets. Later series were more extreme, like the ethics of killing in 02, or Tamers in general, but that's just the nature of kids anime.

I also loved all the characters and story. My only real complaint was there is no sort of dating aspect like in Persona, or the ability to get people to join you outside a specific story missions. Yuuko is obviously best girl

The Angewomon controvery is unfortunate, but given Digimon Xros Wars is still heavily censored on Nickelodeon, there's still some old guard left in keeping the franchise family friendly in America.

-Stuart Smith
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Vaisaga



Joined: 07 Oct 2011
Posts: 13224
PostPosted: Thu Feb 25, 2016 1:05 pm Reply with quote
synaia wrote:
Luckily importing from Japan directly exists. I do feel bad for all the people who pre-ordered it for the western sites like CR and then get that cancellation email.


The thing is I couldn't find it on any of those sites when preorders first opened. And by now most places will be out of stock or more expensive.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message My Anime
synaia



Joined: 10 Oct 2011
Posts: 112
PostPosted: Thu Feb 25, 2016 1:12 pm Reply with quote
Vaisaga wrote:
synaia wrote:
Luckily importing from Japan directly exists. I do feel bad for all the people who pre-ordered it for the western sites like CR and then get that cancellation email.


The thing is I couldn't find it on any of those sites when preorders first opened. And by now most places will be out of stock or more expensive.


yeah that's the downside now.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Cecilthedarkknight_234



Joined: 02 Apr 2011
Posts: 3819
Location: Louisville, KY
PostPosted: Thu Feb 25, 2016 2:17 pm Reply with quote
AiddonValentine wrote:
It would be hilarious to break to the fan translators that EVERY entry in the FE franchise has been localized to the same degree as Fates has. Maybe the whole enterprise wouldn't be so insufferable were it not for me seeing parts of the fan translation which is completely boring and robotic. There's a reason straight translation is not entertaining in media.


True straight translations are boring but there has to be a line when bringing rpg's to the west. Game's like neptunia, disgaea or stein's; gate have meta/intenet humor so inserting jokes/meme's is fine. That's charm of those type of games and why they are loved by fans.

However games like fire emblem that have a serious story line. Jokes like "rawr=I love you in dinosaur" does not fit well into the narrative. Honestly stuff like that ruins the immersion for me and I really wish NoA/Tree-house would've given more effort into writing a better script.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message Send e-mail Visit poster's website My Anime My Manga
Display posts from previous:   
Reply to topic    Anime News Network Forum Index -> Site-related -> Talkback All times are GMT - 5 Hours
Goto page 1, 2, 3  Next
Page 1 of 3

 


Powered by phpBB © 2001, 2005 phpBB Group