I never played the Japanese version, but I live in Japan and I have worked with various game localization companies. It’s a pretty fine line on how they handle these kinds of translations, and it is often the developers who give the direction.

A good localization firm will take the original intent, and then culturalize it for the target market to make sure it has the same intended “vibe” rather than an actual 1:1 translation. The first company I worked at here did the localization for Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice. They were using a lot of old Japanese in that, and they specifically DID want us to get as close to 1:1 as possible, while ensuring that the intent was still very clear. Another game that I cannot say was more free saying “please make sure that the jokes land with the US”, and quite a bit of the actual dialog was re-written, but once again, to match the vibe and intent that the developer was searching.

Each project is different. Each player is different. You aren’t wrong for your wants here, but developers aren’t wrong for trying to make something be more culturally appropriate for their target market, often which will sell more copies than their local market.

This is really rough, but it sounds like Jay is going through some stuff after what I am sure has been quite a whirlwind few years. The industry is rough, and finding a space for a niche that he fills, I do wonder how the sales would go when contractors and publishers are taking cuts.

I hope he gets some time and makes something new that soothes his soul.

Thanks for mentioning Orwell. I worked on this game and it’s probably the favorite title I’ve shipped!

Oh dang, I never noticed that before. Will play around with it after work and see how it feels!

I’m so glad I switched to Kagi. The writing was on the wall once they started rolling out the AI suggestions wide.