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Nov 23
Winner of the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor in 2014 NYT Crossword Clue
Nov 23
Dismal or dark horse Crossword Clue
Nov 23
Review: SINce Memories: Off the Starry Sky Is a Slow Burn with a Weak Pay-Off
Nov 22
FFVII Rebirth Vincent Will Lead Play Arts Shin Lineup
Nov 22
Review: Dragon Age: The Veilguard Continues BioWare’s Downward Spiral
Nov 22
“Most studios are creatively bankrupt”: Real Reason Dean DeBlois Returned for How to Train Your Dragon Live Action is Making Fans Realize He’s a Hero
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Horse with a darker coat and some white hairs Crossword ClueThat should be all the information you need to solve for the Horse with a darker coat and some white hairs crossword clue! Be sure to check more clues on our Crossword Answers.
The post Horse with a darker coat and some white hairs Crossword Clue appeared first on Try Hard Guides .
Nov 23
Winner of the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor in 2014 NYT Crossword ClueThat should be all the information you need to solve for the Winner of the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor in 2014 crossword clue! Be sure to check more clues on our Crossword Answers.
The post Winner of the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor in 2014 NYT Crossword Clue appeared first on Try Hard Guides .
Nov 23
Dismal or dark horse Crossword ClueThat should be all the information you need to solve for the Dismal or dark horse crossword clue! Be sure to check more clues on our Crossword Answers.
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Nov 23
Review: SINce Memories: Off the Starry Sky Is a Slow Burn with a Weak Pay-Off
Just before the turn of the millennium, a workhorse studio named KID took a chance on creating an original visual novel game for the PlayStation after years of mainly working on action games and PC game ports to consoles. Memories Off was a coming-of-age romance story with surprising depth to its characters. It broke a few unstated rules of the genre, and perhaps in part because of that it found an audience. KID spent the next several years making follow-ups to Memories Off along with other assorted visual novels, none of which were localized because… well, visual novels tended not to be localized back then.
KID collapsed in 2006, with its former staff scattering to various corners of the Japanese games industry. Some key members ended up at MAGES, a developer mainly known for visual novel games like Steins;Gate . As for KID's intellectual property, it bounced around from company to company until it ended up with MAGES. Oh hey, that's convenient. As the star of the package, Memories Off wasn't on the bench long. MAGES picked it up almost immediately, producing more sequels and spin-offs. The franchise seemed to largely peter out as the Science Adventure series rose up on the back of the popularity of Steins;Gate .
SINce Memories: Off the Starry Sky is a spin-off of the main series. Its story largely stands alone, but fans of the previous games should be able to spot a number of connections as they make their way through. In an unexpected move, this installment was picked up for localization by PQube. This marks the first time the series has seen an official English release. On paper, it makes a lot of sense for this game to take that role. It's the newest release after all, and its story requires absolutely no knowledge of prior games to enjoy.
In practice, I really wonder if this is the best introduction to Memories Off . It certainly carries a lot of the qualities of those beloved early games. It too is a coming-of-age romance story that deals with loss, grief, and acceptance. The protagonist, Junya, is an actual character rather than a mere player stand-in. The heroines might seem like tropes at first, but they almost all defy those expectations over the course of their respective routes. The game's pace is extremely slow, particularly in the opening handful of hours as it sets up all of its pieces. The real punch of a Memories Off game comes in the pay-off for all of that, though. It's in that respect where I'm not sure Off the Starry Sky does what it needs to.
SINce Memories: Off the Starry Sky follows the story of Junya Mizumoto, a young university student who works part-time at his family's handyman business. One year before the start of the game, he was involved in a car accident while riding with his older brother, Takaya. While he survived, Takaya did not. On top of that, Junya's memories of the incident seem to have been mostly lost outside of a few flashes here and there. What really happened that day? The answer to this serves as the main mystery for the story, and one that gets more fully explained in some routes than others.
Junya's brother was something of a local hero in the town of Sumisora, and Junya constantly wrestles with survivor's guilt as a result. He feels he can't possibly measure up to his brother, and that he should have died instead. This inner conflict is another aspect that gets explored to varying degrees depending on which route you opt to follow, but it's one whose resolution I wasn't terribly satisfied with after all was said and done. Junya's spotty memories make him an unreliable narrator, but even with that I feel like some of the jumps his character makes could have been set up better.
Off the Starry Sky is like that across the board, though. It feels like almost every aspect of its is a few steps away from being great, but instead has to settle for middling to decent. What's missing from each element isn't even consistent, which makes for a frustrating aftertaste. Some things are over-explained while others don't get enough explanation. Some characters have interesting personalities with weak storylines, while the ones with more interesting plots are less appealing as characters. The only convergence here is in Hinata's route, a dreadful combination of a bland character and a story that is downright poor.
Otherwise, you're dealing with contrasting flavors. If you want the real plot nuggets, those are sitting in the routes of childhood friend Chihaya and Azusa, the fiery stranger who barges into Junya's life. You'll probably want to save those routes for last, as they pretty much spoil the whole mystery. Those two were the routes I enjoyed the most overall, though I can't say I really cared much for either character. Chihaya is the daughter of a wealthy family. She's headed for an arranged marriage when she graduates but is more or less allowed to do what she wants until then. Her dream is to convert her grandparents' old house into a cafe, and she ropes Junya into it. This one goes about the way you would expect, but it was written well enough to keep my interest.
Azusa takes the bull by the horns. Junya runs into her while out on a job, and she does a double-take when she sees him. She quickly becomes angry and accuses Junya of murdering his brother. She clearly knows some things no one else is privy to, and while I can't talk much about her route without spoiling things that are best left unspoiled, I will say that this route is where the biggest plot movements happen in SINce Memories: Off the Starry Sky . Unfortunately, Azusa is a really unpleasant character for much of her route. That's by design of course, as she has a bone to pick with Junya. It doesn't make her any easier to deal with for those hours before she starts to warm up, though.
As I've already mentioned, Hinata's route is a complete wash. She's another of Junya's childhood friends, and also Chihaya's attendant. While she puts up a strong front, she's actually deeply insecure. She's also a closet geek. I really don't know how to describe how off the rails this route goes. It feels like it was written by someone else entirely when compared to the rest of the game. The way events happen and how the characters involved behave both come across as forced.
Chunyu Huang is a Chinese exchange student at Junya's university, and it's hard not to fall in love with her immediately. She's a fun, vibrant character who has plenty of potential to drive a great plot. Her peppy theme music is also my favorite piece in the game. I was extremely dismayed when her route's story turned out to be really weak. Another heroine barges in frequently and at points it comes off like it's her route more than Chunyu's. Perhaps the writers had difficulty creating a satisfying arc for Chunyu because she's more put-together than the other characters from the get-go? I'm not sure, but it's a waste of a great character.
Finally, we have Yuriko. You won't even meet her until several hours into the game, and her late entrance ends up hurting her story a little. She's an idol who is taking a break from show biz, and she's trying to decide if she wants to go back or not. She knew Junya's older brother, as he actually encouraged her to reach for her dream, and she is grieving him in her own way. I like Yuriko. She's a decent character, and while I don't think her route does much for the main plot, I think it's a good breather. Since she comes into the story far later than the other heroines, her arc doesn't get as much time to develop as the others. Somehow, it sticks its landing anyway.
Overall, I found myself somewhat torn by the writing in SINce Memories: Off the Starry Sky . It was engaging enough that I wanted to finish almost all of the routes (not you, Hinata), but I admit that finding the motivation to sniff out all of the endings was hard. Each heroine's route has two endings, and you need to be very careful at literally every choice that comes up in the game. Sometimes things you couldn't possibly imagine would have an effect on the ending will muck everything up. You've got room to make a lot of saves; I strongly recommend you exercise that option.
When I reflect on the parts of the plot that I liked, I can admit there's a lot to appreciate in this game. The problem is that there is just so much build-up that doesn't properly deliver on its promise. Some of the characters misfire, some of the sub-plots misfire, and even the main mystery's resolution doesn't exactly feel like it was worth the squeeze. I think it's okay for a game to take it slow and really set its scene before pushing the drama, but SINce Memories: Off the Starry Sky asks too much for how little it gives back.
At least with the presentation, it's hard to fault the game. The art is fantastic. The music is terrific. You get full Japanese voice acting, and it's good stuff. Even side characters are treated with care, and it helps create a very believable setting. Sometimes visual novels feel like they have a few sets with only five characters in the whole world, but SINce Memories: Off the Starry Sky goes to great lengths to bring its setting alive with plenty of locations, incidental characters, and an excellent soundscape.
I wish the localization matched that level, though. While it does a decent enough job with the broad strokes, the text needed more editing. Typos abound, along with grammar tense mistakes, incorrect pronouns, and outright translation errors. It's not bad enough to sink the game, but it's frequent enough to be noticeable. A slight blemish, but a blemish nonetheless. In a game where you do this much reading, it's really essential to make that prose sing, after all.
SINce Memories: Off the Starry Sky has its good points. The production values haven't been skimped on, the setting is well-realized, and some of the characters are very interesting to get to know. Sadly, the writing on the whole is very uneven, leading to a lot of routes that don't pay off properly and a couple really poor characters. There's some potential here but the game ultimately fails to realize it, despite taking a very long time to get everything into position. It's an inauspicious Western debut for such a beloved franchise.
SINce Memories: Off the Starry Sky is available for PS4, Switch, and PC.
The post Review: SINce Memories: Off the Starry Sky Is a Slow Burn with a Weak Pay-Off appeared first on Siliconera .
Nov 23
FFVII Rebirth Vincent Will Lead Play Arts Shin Lineup
Square Enix has revealed a new action figure line named Play Arts Shin, and Vincent Valentine will be the first character in the lineup. The company will specifically use Vincent's appearance in Final Fantasy VII Rebirth for this new action figure.
The new Play Arts Shin brand, derived from the kanji character that can be translated to "Real" or "True," will mark a new evolution in Square Enix's Play Arts action figure series. The company launched the overall series with an action figure of Final Fantasy X-2 's Yuna in 2003.
Square Enix then upgraded the line to Play Arts Kai, which features the kanji character that means "Revised." Some of the more recent examples of these figures are Final Fantasy VII Rebirth 's Yuffie , Aerith, and Elena , which the company will release in 2025.
This announcement was freshly made on the Square Enix Official Goods X account. The company has still yet to publish a listing for the product on its Japanese e-Store website as of the reveal.
The reveal tweet is also available to view right below:
https://twitter.com/SQEX_MD_GOODS/status/1859793928913912274
Square Enix will publish more details on the Play Arts Shin action figure of Vincent Valentine from Final Fantasy VII Rebirth —including the release date—at a later time.
The post FFVII Rebirth Vincent Will Lead Play Arts Shin Lineup appeared first on Siliconera .
Nov 22
Review: Dragon Age: The Veilguard Continues BioWare’s Downward Spiral
Where are you, BioWare? This is a question I have been asking for about a decade now and, sadly, with the release of Dragon Age: The Veilguard , it seems I won’t be stopping anytime soon. Dragon Age: The Veilguard features solid, engaging action RPG combat and decent characters, but it does little to make up for an overall linear, by-the-numbers product.
The past Dragon Age games have been BioWare on its richest fantasy lore, and The Veilguard finds itself in a strange position. This is one of the most unwelcoming RPGs in recent memory to newcomers, as it hinges entirely on the events of the previous title, Inquisition , and even as a diehard fan myself, I felt lost at times.
But then, on the other side of the coin, The Veilguard feels so disconnected from the rest of the series. Sure, it continues the ideas of the Fade, Darkspawn, and even has familiar characters like Solas. But it all feels almost like a reboot, with a completely different vibe and tone compared to past titles. This is even more apparent in certain brief cameos where characters act almost completely differently. A huge part of this issue comes from the lack of depth to the writing and story.
Screenshot by Siliconera
Outside of the linearity (more on them in a bit), the story of this BioWare RPG is the most disappointing part. Even when I didn’t love Dragon Age 2 or Inquisition , they made up for it in the writing department. This isn’t the case here. The main plot takes a good bit to get going and I don’t find the end result as worthwhile as it needed to be in the decade since the last game.
Worse still, the moment-to-moment elements lack depth as well. Take, for instance, the myriad throwaway side quests in the experience. There is an early optional quest where you have to go to various areas to appease a ghost and lay them to rest. In another BioWare game, this would include tearjerker moments about this person and their group’s lives. Instead, it felt like checking off a list to complete a quest for rewards. Even the final cutscene with the ghost was way too short and almost incoherent to the point where I still don’t understand why I was doing this.
This is a far cry from what I expect from BioWare. Heck, even this year’s The Legend of Heroes: Trails through Daybreak did a better ghost girl side quest in a shorter time, too. This general writing problem is seen in the main story, too. Conversations are far too short and rely on mostly pointless responses. Outside of some key choices here and there, most options your annoyingly optimistic player character, Rook, picks are just there to pad out the story.
An example of the seemingly rushed and underwhelming storyline is your Rook’s background. You pick from several options of a faction you were part of. There is apparently some elaborate and fascinating backstory for your character but you don’t see it. Instead, my Rook’s epic standoff against an undead army just happens to be a quick summary noted in a couple of sentences in a couple of conversations. This was a great chance to let players experience their unique origin again, and it didn’t happen. It honestly has me wondering why it exists in the first place.
Screenshot by Siliconera
The only saving grace for the plot are the party members. In general, I liked these characters overall more than in Inquisition . Characters like the possessed hottie Lucanis was always a blast to speak with. Bellara is a little goofy and always hilarious to chat with. Heck, even a previous side character like Harding was upgraded to a full-time party member in a surprisingly great way.
The most joy I had with The Veilguard came from these chats with the titular group. Getting to know these characters showed the remaining hopeful glimmer BioWare is still in there somewhere. But even Mass Effect Andromeda had ann interesting cast. Fortunately, BioWare also continues its expertise when it comes to action RPG combat. I primarily played as a Mage, but all three classes feel better than ever in this experience.
Strangely enough, I didn’t even notice the lack of being able to play as party members. The combat is fast, fluid, and constantly engaging so this missing feature didn’t matter. Being able to command the two party members to throw down priming skills for me to detonate with my spells never got old. Battles are challenging but don’t take too long thanks to the swift pace. There is a constant flurry of effects that constantly had me in awe.
So, while I didn’t have much fun with the story or missions, the combat and party members always kept me going. Unfortunately, the locations don’t help with this, though. Dragon Age: The Veilguard takes a step back from the open-world environments of its predecessor for more linear missions. This restricted the progression of the game way too much and hindered a lot of my desire to keep going.
Screenshot by Siliconera
There isn’t much reason to explore except for mandatory puzzles and the occasional chest. I got to the point less than 10 hours in where I would rush through missions just to get to the next story beat. Even in the more opening areas, the mission structure of quests halted any enjoyment of exploration. I miss the good old days of gathering some side quests and completing them together as I go through an intriguing new locale.
The same goes for the cities, too. I looked forward to visiting the Tevinter Imperium for so long but the execution fails to deliver in any way. Like the mission areas, these cities are bland and empty of anything interesting to do. There might be a side quest to accept here and there or a merchant or two but that’s it. It seems BioWare didn’t learn from the city mistakes with Inquisition and give NPCs with memorable conversations or anything like that.
Part of the problems with Dragon Age: The Veilguard feels possibly tied to its original multiplayer focus. The mission structure, linearity, and lack of depth story-wise harken back to its origins. To BioWare’s credit, though, it could be much worse.
Screenshot by Siliconera
After all, the party members are a delight to spend time with and woo. The combat is some of the most fun I’ve had in a while with an action RPG. It is just a shame everything else falls short. The exploration is far too uninteresting, the story is haphazardly put together, and the mission structure is too linear. There is a good enough RPG to enjoy in Dragon Age: The Veilguard for diehard fans like myself, but this is certainly no second coming of BioWare. I have disliked each new Dragon Age more than the previous one and, unfortunately, The Veilguard continues that.
Dragon Age: The Veilguard is available right now for PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC .
The post Review: Dragon Age: The Veilguard Continues BioWare’s Downward Spiral appeared first on Siliconera .
Nov 22
“Most studios are creatively bankrupt”: Real Reason Dean DeBlois Returned for How to Train Your Dragon Live Action is Making Fans Realize He’s a Hero
It was fun to see a few animated classics come to life in a live-action movie, but as soon as Hollywood learned that it’s an easy cash grab that does not require an original thought or risk, the market was filled with unnecessary live-action remakes. How To Train Your Dragon has also joined the list, […]
This post belongs to FandomWire and first appeared on FandomWire
Nov 22
“Guess he’s not exactly the chill guy we thought, huh?”: Chill Guy Creator Cries Copyright Violation after Crypto Meme Coin Blows Past $500M
In November 2024, a viral meme turned cryptocurrency, Chill Guy, caused a stir in both the crypto and legal worlds. The Solana-based meme coin soared to an astonishing $500 million market capitalization in just a few days, driven by social media buzz and TikTok fame. However, this rapid success has been marred by legal disputes, […]
This post belongs to FandomWire and first appeared on FandomWire
Nov 22
“I was envisioning pure evil”: Toyotarou Had the Most Anti-Broly Approach While Creating the Greatest Dragon Ball Super Villain
Planet Eater Moro is the undisputed GOAT of Dragon Ball Super, both literally and figuratively. The scene where Goku first sensed his Ki signature in a Galactic Patrol spaceship is one of Dragon Ball‘s coldest introductions to a villain. Goku remarked that his Ki isn’t that huge but it was terrifying, but he felt quite […]
This post belongs to FandomWire and first appeared on FandomWire
Nov 22
“I had no idea it was coming”: Even A.J. Cook Has No Idea about the Allegedly Dark Reason Criminal Minds Kicked JJ Out of the Show
Criminal Minds, since the last decade and more, has captivated audiences with its skillfully crafted storylines, following the intense lives of criminal profilers and their pursuit of justice. However, the drama on-screen has occasionally been rivaled by equally intriguing controversies behind the scenes, blurring the lines between fiction and reality. None of this holds more […]
This post belongs to FandomWire and first appeared on FandomWire
Nov 22
“He doesn’t have time for his family”: Mark Harmon Allegedly Almost Left NCIS 14 Seasons Ago Because of a Very Toxic Reason
Mark Harmon was a very crucial part of NCIS. Being at the very center of the series for nineteen years, fans watched Leroy Jethro Gibbs go through many stages of his life. Although the hole that he left in the series was filled by Gary Cole’s Alden Parker, fans have certainly felt his absence in […]
This post belongs to FandomWire and first appeared on FandomWire
Nov 22
Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 and Dragon Ball: Sparking! ZERO Topped US Sales Charts for OctoberSeveral other new releases also occupy places in the top 20 for October, including the likes of Undisputed, Metaphor: ReFantazio, and Dragon Age: The Veilguard.
Nov 22
TMNT Introduces Dark Leonardo, and He's Already Getting an Action FigureTeenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Saturday Morning Adventures will introduce evil, twisted versions of the TMNT gang, and Dark Leonardo is already getting an action figure.
Nov 22
Golden Joystick Awards: More Than Best Multiplayer, Helldivers 2 Won in a Category Where it Set an Absolutely Unbreakable Benchmark
The Golden Joystick Awards 2024 has come and gone, and Helldivers 2 emerged as one of the night’s biggest winners. While taking home multiple awards is impressive enough, one particular victory stands out as a testament to Arrowhead’s masterful craftsmanship in more ways than one. Among its four wins at the prestigious ceremony, including Best […]
This post belongs to FandomWire and first appeared on FandomWire
Nov 22
AI Translations Cannot and Should Never Replace Human Creativity
Whether we like it or not, more and more companies are considering experimenting with MTL (machine translation) and AI translations. Reasons they give usually focus on how quickly they can deliver new chapters or episodes to fans, but the real motive behind shifting this creative work to machines is money. It costs far less for a company to run text through an AI translator, after all. But a move to fully AI-translated works only benefits the companies. Such a decision would only damage creators, artists, writers, readers, and fans in the long run.
Machine translations have been a pretty hot button issue the past few years as AI technology becomes more advanced. For the longest time, it was common sense that machines aren’t the most reliable translators. Who hasn’t chuckled at a profanity-laden Chinese menu or a funnily-worded sign when travelling abroad? Heck, even today, you really shouldn’t trust everything Google Translate or similar programs gives you for a variety of reasons. Innocuous words might have wild slang meanings, Internet lingo doesn’t translate well, connotations of certain words may not be conveyed, et cetera. So it’s quite strange that a tool you can’t trust to fully translate a website or a business document is something people want to see in creative works that may contain hundreds upon thousands of pages.
Image via Gallop, Madhouse
On one hand, I kind of get it. One of the most common arguments for machine translation that I see from fans is a distrust of localization. This is rather gauche to admit, but when I was younger (before I decided to become a translator), I used to take notice when official localizations didn’t fully match up to the original Japanese. Heck, part of why I even learned Japanese was so that I could play Japanese games directly without needing to read or wait for translations. Even today, there are some works with translations that I don't agree with (and I'm sure there are translators and fans who dislike my work as well). However, I don't get the blatant hostility and toxicity that some fans direct at translators. The vitriol I've seen targeted at certain localizers is a sentiment I never want to understand.
Now I know that some changes are necessary for reasons like character count. Other changes are a little less understandable, such as replacing entire lines of rather harmless dialogue. But a machine is not going to do better. You can even see it for yourself! (Heck, machine translators being free and easy to use are selling points. Anyone can use them; why does a company think people would pay for something they can do in two seconds for free?). If you were to copy and paste an entire game or manga’s text into something like DeepL, you’ll probably be able to see the limitations of the program yourself. These programs are fine for easy tasks like checking product description. But in stories—especially ones that rely on text for story or explanations—it’s pretty clear that AI is not the solution that people seem to think it is.
Image via Konami
Let’s look at an actual example though. I’m going to show you a brief excerpt from Mary’s letter in Silent Hill 2 :
“In my restless dreams, I see that town. Silent Hill. You promised me you’d take me there again some day. But you never did. Well, I’m alone there now... In our “special place”... Waiting for you... Waiting for you to come to see me.”
Okay, so now this is where my little experiment or test might get controversial. I’m going to take the Japanese text of the game, punch in that same part of the letter into DeepL, and then give you what the machine translated for me. This is so that you can see the difference between the languages:
“In a vague sleep, I dream of that town. Silent Hill. Someday we’ll go there together again. I promised that one day we’d go again. But because of me, it didn’t happen. I’m there alone. In that place of memories waiting for you. Waiting for you to come one day.”
Now, this test might not be the most accurate; I’m sure that if a company plans on charging for machine-translated products, it would use more sophisticated programs than DeepL and ChatGPT, which gave me the same translation as DeepL. Nonetheless, the translation is serviceable. But more than that, it gives us a good look at both the limitations of the tool and how English differs from Japanese.
Let’s look at the second part of the letter: “You promised me you’d take me there again some day” in English and “Someday we’ll go there together again.” The first is more direct and active, and implies that this is a conversation James and Mary had before. Meanwhile, the second one is vague and doesn’t sound definite. It sounds like something you and your friend might say to each other, and then you both never make concrete plans to do something. Basic writing tips would inform us that the first translation is stronger. The second translation likely stems from how Japanese lets you get away with avoiding pronouns. Indeed, in the Japanese version of the line, the first pronoun that shows up in the letter is when Mary writes “But because of me, it didn’t happen.” That lent to the more passive translation, which is something a human can avoid.
Another thing to note when comparing the two is the lack of character in the writing. Without taking into consideration the voice actress’s delivery, let’s just look at the text on its own. The inclusion of “Well” before “I’m alone there now” feels closer to natural speech. It’s a linking word that someone might actually include in real life in this particular context. The choice of translating “place of memories” as “special place” also makes more sense. James and Mary have a lot of fond memories from their trip to Silent Hill, therefore it’s special to them. It’s more natural to call such a place your “special place” but since the original Japanese text didn’t use that particular phrasing, the machine didn’t—couldn’t—think to make that choice.
Again, the DeepL translation is perfectly understandable. You can get the gist of the letter. But when playing a story-heavy game, simply “getting the gist” isn’t enough. Silent Hill 2 is the cult classic that it is today precisely because of its story, and I highly doubt that if Konami had used machine translation back then (barring the fact that technology in the late 90s and early 2000s wasn’t advanced enough for this kind of work), the game would’ve gotten the recognition or popularity it enjoys today.
Image via Bones
It’s not just in long forms of text too. The same goes for very specific tasks such as coming up with names for things in a story. For example, Leonardo in Kekkai Sensen possesses the “All-Seeing Eyes of the Gods,” which sounds very cool. It doesn’t retain the original Japanese’s usage of the term “prosthetic eye” but in this particular case, the English name works really well. It’s snappy and it would lose a bit of its punch if you tried to fit in “prosthetic” or “artificial” before “eyes.” When I input the original Japanese name, DeepL gave me “The Righteous Eye of the Gods,” which is pretty neat, I admit.
However, this is less because DeepL is good at coming up with cool names and more because it’s getting tripped up by the kanji for “artificial eye.” 義眼 is the term for “artificial eye” and both kanji form the phrase together. However, if you simply input 義 on its own into DeepL, it gives “righteousness.” This tells me that it’s not actually recognizing “artificial eye." Instead, it split up the term when you’re not supposed to. It can recognize “prosthetic eye” though, so I believe the "Gods'" part is confusing the machine. This is a problem that a human won't make and while it’s true that you can train a machine to recognize these original terms, it’s hard to say if the machine is capable of inferring when a character is referring to an actual prosthetic and when they’re using a shorthand name for the All-Seeing Eyes.
Stories don’t even need fancy terminology to trip up AI. Idioms, metaphors, and colloquialisms don't always translate well. Authors and editors aren’t infallible either. In my time translating and reading Japanese, I've seen all sorts of minor errors, like a discrepancy in numbers or a typo. As a human myself, I can make the distinction between what's a mistake and what isn't, and choose to either gently correct it in the translation or gloss over it. A machine can’t. Writing quirks exist too. A light novel I translate had two instances of a character waving to another, but the description used the same kanji for “sex appeal.” Judging by the context, I can tell that the character is not going “Yoohoo ♪” like she’s picking up boys outside the club. I made the judgment call to interpret it as a passionate wave instead. Can a machine do that? No.
There’s one more thing about Japanese and English in particular that a machine cannot figure out and it’s unique cultural values that come out in language. To fully understand a language, you need to understand the culture as well. A common sentiment I see is that English doesn’t have an equivalent to Japanese’s keigo—the polite register. That’s not true, exactly. It may not be a one-to-one equivalent, but you can translate a keigo-speaking character as someone who uses sophisticated vocabulary and proper grammar, or business English.
Image via Nomad
Rudeness can also look and sound different. In English, the easiest method to display rudeness is through words. Think Jesse from Breaking Bad . While swears and naughty words certainly exist in Japanese, English still trumps it when it comes to sheer variety and quantity. But the easiest way to tell that someone is rude in Japanese is to look at their register. How are they ending their sentences or shortening certain verbs? Things like that. I remember a stink on Twitter over Gallica’s localization in the demo of Metaphor: ReFantazio because the Japanese register was on the more casual side and the English went the snarky route. Why was there a stink? Because of these sorts of unspoken cultural expectations in the language. It really was not that big of a change and I'm saying this as someone who didn't even like Metaphor .
Now, I’ll give DeepL credit. It can certainly tell the difference between various ways to say the same thing. I inputted “Don’t mess with me” in three different registers and got “Don’t be silly” (for the keigo), “Screw you” (for the more neutral register), and “Don’t [explicit] with me!” (for the rudest option). But what about characters like Suiseiseki from Rozen Maiden or when professionals are mad in humorous scenes in Gintama ? In these two examples, characters mix keigo with a much ruder register as a joke. This is possible thanks to the unique structure of Japanese, but that doesn’t mean you can’t convey it in another tongue.
For this test, I put in a fake line written in the same manner as Suiseiseki’s speech patterns. DeepL only gave me a rude translation. That’s fair. I wouldn’t be mad if a translator decided to just keep it rude or polite. They could also decide to translate it as something like, “What, pray tell, do you think you’re doing, you numbskull?” to combine the two. Who knows. But at least you put in the time and effort to consider this dilemma. This isn’t even getting into characters who have Homestuck -like speaking quirks, like the characters in the Toaru series. Honestly, if we get into all of the “what ifs” we can be here all day. I haven’t even mentioned how machines could bungle up references to pop culture.
Image via @MiraVylash
Screenshot by Siliconera
Image via Crunchyroll
AI infiltrating the localization space isn’t a bogeyman for translators. Certain anime , manga , and games have come out recently that have pretty blatant machine translation, and yet it’s interesting to me that I don’t really see anyone cheer for these changes. No one praised Northern War , for example. Same thing happened when Crunchyroll seemed to push out machine-translated subtitles for The Yuzuki Family’s Four Sons back in 2023. I mean, I get it. We see the results and they’re not good. I doubt even the most thick-skinned person could point at these examples and say that this is exactly what they wanted.
A common defense of the shoddy job AI does is that the engine is still learning or the technology is still developing. The thing with AI, though, is that it’s a program. It can only really learn from what you feed it, in contrast to how a human is able to create organically. For works with a lot of set and original terms, such as Nasuverse, you might need to train the machine on the entire franchise for consistency. But what if Nasu or someone else decides to add in a new concept or term that the AI can’t break down or understand? A human might need to go in and make corrections. At that point, though, just hire the human.
It's a lot more work to fix AI than to simply translate it by yourself and guess what? Companies can pay less for more work with the excuse that the translations are already done. When it comes to longer stories, AI really jumbles things up to the point that it can take far more time for a translator fix it than to simply translate it themself. That's not even getting into the environmental impact and ethics of programs like ChatGPT. It takes a person's hard work, chops it up, and then spits it out. Where's the guarantee that the person whose work the program was trained on even gave permission? The fruits of my labor as writer and translator are not so that a company can put them into machines, churn out garbage, and then edge me out.
Image via Bones
Humans have been telling each other stories for centuries now through mediums like songs, poems, novels, and more. Art is something that comes from the mind and soul; it’s not something that a machine can replicate, no matter how many things you train it on. A mindset that a non-creative might fall into is that they don’t know how to make things good . Perhaps this is a side effect of this horrible social media-obsessed, clout-chasing era we live in, that things need to be of good quality in order to be valid. But that's not true.
Look at ONE. His writing is phenomenal, of course. His art was kind of infamous though. While he understands basics like anatomy and such, he has a rather quirky style that's not conventionally pretty. However, you can still feel the passion and emotion and whatnot in the characters’ expressions and such, despite the simplicity of the art. Art doesn't need to be good to make you feel something. Someone’s ridiculous doodle of their co-worker’s expression in response to a 9-11 joke invoked more emotions than me than any polished AI "art" that appeared on my TL.
Translation is an art in and of itself, in my opinion. Yes, we have to remain faithful to the original text, but our interpretation of scenes and understanding of the characters or what the author is going for help us to decide things like word choice or sentence structure. But even if you don’t subscribe to this way of thinking, I feel like trying to say AI can completely overhaul this creative process is disrespectful on so many levels.
It disrespects the creator, no matter how much effort went into the original work. Imagine you put your blood, tears, and sweat—your whole soul—into something that you want to share with the world, and companies and readers believe that a heartless machine is capable of translating your message. Not only that, but it steals it and mixes it with other people's to churn out later, without your permission or input. AI disrespects the fans as well, especially when companies are trying to gouge you of your hard-earned money with lazily translated content.
If a company won't bother to put in the time and money to get a work a proper translation, then why should you bother wasting your time and money on it? That's the impression I tend to get when I see companies prioritize profit and fall back on MTL. Now more than ever is when we should be uplifting human creativity, and there is simply no room for AI in this space if doing so threatens integrity and livelihood.
The post AI Translations Cannot and Should Never Replace Human Creativity appeared first on Siliconera .
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