Hi everyone! It’s Janet Hsu, Localization Director of The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles again, here today to talk a little about the localization of this long-awaited game.
I mentioned in a recent interview that my guiding philosophy for the localization of this title was ‘Authentic, yet Accessible’, and I thought I’d expand on that a little more here. I’ve long thought that unlike medical or legal translation, translating and localizing for video games is a sort of art: a balancing act of faithfulness to the literal words of the original text and correctly conveying the intentions behind them in a way that the audience can connect with. This also means each game – or indeed, any piece of entertainment media – has its own needs and limitations: What sort of game is it? Action? Adventure? Who is the intended audience and what should they be expected to know going in? etc. As with any form of art, what’s considered ‘best practices’ also changes over time as they are based on contemporary cultural sensibilities. Therefore, the concept of ‘Authentic, yet Accessible’ can mean different things in different contexts.
