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Things You Never Knew About Metal Gear Solid 2′s Localization

By Ishaan . January 23, 2012 . 6:01pm

Things You Never Knew About Metal Gear Solid 2s Localization

Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty was localized by an individual named Agness Kaku. As a 24-year-old freelancer, Kaku worked past considerable hindrances on the most controversial Metal Gear Solid game to date, and in a recent interview with Hardcore Gaming 101, reveals her working conditions at the time.

 

For starters, she had access to no artwork or screenshots from the actual game.

 

This is in stark contrast to Jeremy Blaustein, who worked on the first Metal Gear Solid, and was provided with access to art work, information on the locales and weapons in the game, and to series director, Hideo Kojima, himself. Recalling her own experience with Sons of Liberty, Kaku shares: “Oh no, they were all originally just Word files. I should say that I was literally never given access to Konami.”

 

Konami were also not the type to negotiate.

 

“The writing had to be cut down due to screen space concerns and Konami insisted on editing the product extensively; however, from what I understand, much of the errata corrections I performed on the original screenplay did survive,” Kaku recalls. “Many, many in-game terms/words were written in stone and non-negotiable. I remember making a case for how stupid ‘sneak’ sounded; I’ve no idea whether the agent even took these concerns to the clients.”

 

In addition to this, Konami required that the game’s English script match the Japanese on a micro level, despite the fact that, at the same time, there were very strict character limits on the English translation, due to the amount of text that could be displayed at any given time on the screen.

 

Blame also lies, to a large extent, with Kojima himself, whose writing didn’t make matters any easier.

 

“When a story has a plethora of cliches (‘the-government-made-me-a-killer-then-abandoned-me’ comes painfully to the mind) AND takes itself seriously, all one can do is lay on a good coat of noir and make it stick,” Kaku shares. “That, and eliminate glaring factual inaccuracies. I wish I could remember specific instances, but I know that they were mostly if not all to do with the government and military stuff.”

 

Ironically, despite the considerably harsh working conditions — being a freelancer, she was paid less $5,000 for the project — Kaku’s name wasn’t even mentioned in the Sons of Liberty credits, and Konami later attempted to force her to remove critical write-ups of some of their titles from her website, despite the fact that she’d never been made to sign any non-disclosure agreements.

 

You can read the full interview with her at the HG101 link above; it provides fascinating insight into the very different localization processes for two very different games. You can even download translation files for Metal Gear Solid 2!



  • Ereek

    Wow, that whole adventure sounds like a nightmare.  I’m glad I don’t work for Konami. That or they need to understand the limits of their translators better – especially for how little they paid her.

  • Go2hell66

    Wow that sucks. Reminds me of an article about the working conditions of the guys that developed kofxii, that was probably the closest thing to slave labor i’ve ever seen

    • Ereek

      There was an interesting article about game testers and QA that was posted Anonymously on Destructoid about a year ago about some of the brutal conditions big companies force their employees into sometimes.

      Yes, it does get disturbingly close to slavery sometimes.  It really makes you respect  those who work the positions, but also hate the industry all the more.  When those writers at NISA, Aksys, and XSEED joke about how they spend their free time translating, all-nighters, and living off of caffeine for a year at a time, I don’t doubt it in the least. It makes me appreciate the small companies, who can’t hire a dozen people for testing, even more.

      • Go2hell66

        hope its okay to post this here, very interesting read

        http://iplaywinner.com/news/2011/1/2/ex-programmer-talks-kofxiii-console-port-situation-working-c.html

        this guy was forced to sleep under his desk and wasn’t allowed to leave the office for a week, damn the gaming industry is a cruel place sometimes T_T

        • z_merquise

          Things like that happen most of the time but it’s very sad to see if the developer you liked and supported also do these ugly things.

          Let me add that after these horrible stories about the working conditions at SNK from that programmer, it was then followed by then KOF producer Masaaki Kukino and Metal Slug artist and creator ‘AKIO’ leaving SNK because their current CEO/president wanted to focus only in licensing (which actually wasn’t bad), pachinko (ugh!) and social games (ugh!).

          Current SNK’s decision may be rumors (as SNK rep denied it) but after seeing their current Japanese official site, they were hiring programmers, game designers and directors. Sounds good right? Well, they need them to work for their upcoming pachinko and social games. So yeah, there’s a truth behind those rumors.

          • Setsu Oh

            i don’t know anything about shinkiro’s leave capcom ad if theyeven considered his ‘pupil’ for the new look of the kof franchise…
            i hope all went well. i want some more work done by shinkiro on snk chars…..

        • http://www.siliconera.com Ishaan

          Hahaha, sleeping at the office for a week is nothing. There are far, far worse crunch stories. :P

          That’s just how the games industry is, unfortunately.

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=512740433 Zubi Khan

    That sucks, wish i didn’t like metal gear solid so much 

  • l777l

    What the hell. That doesn’t exactly make the ever so modest Kojima look good.

    • Setsu Oh

      i liked when he humiliated his crew though. or made them humiliate themselves. serves them right: because of them he will have to rot yet another MGS game instead of doing a franchise he doesn’t messes up weirdly enough, ZOE.

  • lurkingsalt

    I have always felt Konami has lost it’s way in the past decade. The more I hear about internal conflicts with employess/press, the more I don’t feel like supporting their products. This story reminds of the Silent Hill original voice actor fiasco. I now tend to believe Mr. Cihi 100%.

    • Setsu Oh

      well that is a classic lucas syndrome. kojima is way too big for konami now and they let him do whatever he wants including messing up a good version of the first mgs on GC(he resent the cinemas to be remade way much more overthetop than the first draft’s were). just like fantom menace, …too much lee way. i’m just glad he didn’t drool all over castlevania with his crazines..

  • http://twitter.com/DanijoEX DanijoEX

    You know, some of the biggest jobs out there may not have the greatest working conditions, but many do pay really good. but that’s not always case all the time.

    • Ereek

      I don’t disagree, but $5,000 isn’t much considering the time and effort required of her. Especially with how much she could have gotten in the same field elsewhere.

      • http://twitter.com/DanijoEX DanijoEX

        True. All I know I wouldn’t want to handle such jobs like that. Otherwise, I would just call myself a weakling at most.

  • http://www.genkaibreak.com Code

    Wouldn’t be surprised about Konami, there’s definitely been stories come out about the company that make it sound pretty heavy handed o~o’ And that isn’t the first one, the other recent one that comes to mind:
     
    http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/39339/Konami_Loses_Lawsuit_Over_Maternity_Leave_Discrimination.php    

    It’s always disheartening to hear some of these stories, especially considering Konami actually does make games I’ve really enjoyed, but seriously stuff like this should never fly omo”

  • Setsu Oh

    if squareenix could retranslate xenogears and finish the second cd then release it as an anniversary sold gift to the fans… but that won’t happen ain’t it?

    • http://www.genkaibreak.com Code

      You know… one company doesn’t make all games o3o’ Konami didn’t even have anything to do with Xenogears, come on T3T”

      • http://www.facebook.com/keishenra Kyle D. Johnson

        I must’ve seen that errant “Squareenix” by mistake and missed the invisible “Konami” in that sentence.

      • Setsu Oh

        we are talking about bad translation and translation problems here …how rocky the trip to western countries was at the time. xenogears too got the bad end of the stick with one man translating everything, and stuff. listen to the podcast from 8-4 featuring that very man to get the whole story.

    • icecoffemix

      An extremely interesting and salivating thought but what’s that got to do with this article?

      Oh wait, “translate”, okay I guess.

      (And you know what? I actually enjoyed the second disk of Xenogears, the style really set it apart and made for a nice change of pace, I only wished it was longer…)

      • Setsu Oh

        everything he was saying in that disc made me want to actually do it. do those things he was talking about. i didn’t want to listen to it i wanted to play it. and with the very few numbers of good to very good rpgs around i knew it would be one of those:’ what if they really put 100% of their efforts in it!, it is already monumental, it could have been gigantic! ‘ 
        FF8 didn’t satisfy me, i wanted quistis instead of linoa.
        FF9 felt hollow in a number of ways
        FFX made me sad ; how come people loved that one? 
        FF12 was butchered. 
        it is like i already knew that they wouldn’t be able to top xenogears and didn’t even finished it properly. it was too excellent to be perfect and too unique to be properly continued (xenosaga).

        • icecoffemix

          But imo, because of its flaw Xenogears was perfect.

          Sure it may could have been much more, but even cut, dungeon crawling was getting tiresome, and even though event progression was a tad too fast, in the end they successfully told it in much emotion we rarely ever see nowadays, the only regretting thing they cut was maybe more characters development of others party members but the scale of the events was already too enormous as it is on 2nd disc I doubt it would make much impact at that point.

          And where’s FF7 there? it’s nothing compared to 9 for me. :p

          • Setsu Oh

            i heard some say that the new castlevania was too long… well i dont feel it.  i don’t think i would find xeno too long either. i was eager (ended up playing other stuff, and not having the time to) to begin a new game plus with chrono cross to see the dif story without kid. to me: the more the merrier. 

    • Luna Kazemaru

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    • Guest

      The problem with Xenogears second disc go way beyond the translation. Square slashed the budget of that game, at that time the main focus was FFVIII, so that one sucked resources from other games in developement. This is why we ended up with hours of Fei sitting on a desk telling the story, instead of actually playing those parts.

      • Setsu Oh

        HENCE my post! it shouldn’t eat too much money now to FINISH it (not remake it with the FF13 engine, i’m not that gullible) 
        at the time they didn’t know the pearl they had in their hands now it is cult and the very best rpg for a lot of people. somekind of a firefly type of story even , for some. so why not grease the fans ‘ wallet openings with a nice gift like that , you never know it might make people talk less badly of square by the release date of ffversus.( iknow they don’t care about xenogears fans already they sold 6 million and counting of ff13wich is considered a failure. so they can do any sheet they want and get away with murder. i just wanted to put my opinion and desires out there for the world to see )

    • http://www.siliconera.com Spencer

      I’m totally lost. Where in this article did we mention Square Enix or Xenogears? I thought this is a post about Metal Gear Solid 2 and Konami.

  • Guest

    Some things to notice:

    -I understand that a translator has to get very involved with the material he/she is working with, but i find a bit silly, if not arrogant, her attitude about how the franchise should had a premise that she thinks is better. The creators prefer to use american and western military more than japanese mercenaries, deal with it. If you think you have a good premise for a video game story/franchise then go and propose that to a vg company, stop thinking you are the original writer.

    -Sucks that Kojima blamed the translators for what is essentially his own hack writting. I do remember him saying that MGS2 was a mess regarding the plot, but him blaming others for that is very dickish move. I also remember people blaming the translation of MGS2 as the reason the story sucked. The reality is: the story sucks because whoever wrote it originally made a miserable job in all fronts. The translators didn’t come up with the idea of a talking arm. Even Kojima admits he didn’t think too much about MGS2 aside from focusing of making it as over the top as possible.

    -Video game programmers are not writers, no surprise there. Again, this is a problem that has been going around forever. Is like having your doctor work as your lawyer, and viceversa. Just because you are good in one area doesn’t mean you are good in the other. Even if we are talking here about jobs were creativity is essential, designing a game and writting a story are just not the same thing at all.

    -No surprise about Konami not giving a damn about their franchises, the current state of several of them (Silent Hill, Rocket Knight Adventures, Castlevania) speaks for itself.

    -Fully agreed about the video game industry lacking proper criticism, this comes from all fronts, both from inside and outside. From the consumers themselves right to the video game “media” and their so called “journalists”. Games won’t grow as a form of entertainment until people demand more from them than just cutscenes, throphies and multiplayer, and until vg sites and magazines start doing actual journalism instead of being PR tools for the studios.

    • http://www.facebook.com/people/Roberto-Armando-Iraheta/775564143 Roberto Armando Iraheta

      I wouldn’t say that Kojima is a bad writer, because overall the whole message behind MGS2 was way ahead of its time, talking about media and social control way before FOX News and the internet boom.

      The real problem is that he needs an editor. BADLY. Much like how George Lucas was tied down to the ground with the original trilogy and when he was let loose, made a new trilogy that ruined the whole universe entire.

      As we saw with MGS4, he really went nuts and made a horribly incoherent and covoluted game, because he needs someone to tie his crazy ideas down to the earth.

      • Guest

        Wait, how is the message of MGS2 “ahead” of it’s time? Have you ever read Farenheit 451? 1984? Brave New World? Is not so much as someone editing his ideas as somebody helping him with the writting. To write engaging, well constructed fiction with developed characters you need a lot more than just having a “message”, not to mention is not just the what but the how that matters. Kojima has problems with both the what and how, the man is a fantastic game designer, there’s no question about that at all. That’s his area, his forte, but writting a story and constructing characters is a completely different thing. Lucas had people that made things for him, both in the writting and direction, and the result was the best film in the franchise (Empire Strikes Back) Kojima could hire an actual writer to work on the stories in the MGS games, but not that it matters much at this point.

        • http://twitter.com/Paradox_me Paradox me

          However, his stories and characters are still interesting and enjoyable, which is all I ask.

          I would also point to Snatcher and Policenauts as better examples of Kojima’s work, though I’m hardly an experienced critic, thus calling them more cohesive, well written experiences than Metal Gear probably doesn’t mean much coming from me.

          • Guest

            Of course, i was replying about how the story of MGS2 is suppose to have this “groundbreaking” message. Which is hardly the case, in other words, one thing is to say the game as an enjoyable story, and another very different is saying the game explored “new grounds” about some kind of super serious philosophical theme.

    • ShadowWolf

      agreed.

      also you forgot Suikoden, we haven’t had a Original Story related story since i think 2005.

      • Guest

        At least we haven’t seen a really lousy Suikoden game recently. I think in this case, nothing is better than having one or two bad games.

        • ShadowWolf

          i suppose your right.

    • Guest

      Also, i find the whole “if you don’t know how to use a gun you can’t write about armed conflicts” angle quite the clueless argument. So, you can’t write about a certain subject until you go and “live it” by yourself? As in, the writers of Silent Hill 2 probably had to be molested by their parents in order to write the character of Angela? I guess she was talking about writting fiction that involves armed conflicts and what not, but that will mean the vision of the civilians doesn’t count, unless it’s written from the perspective of a victim i guess.

      The subject matter is not what makes or breaks a story, is HOW you tell the story what matters. Regardless of being a story about mercenaries and soldiers, or a story about civilians in their daily lives. We all have regular lives with work, school and family, that doesn’t mean everyone can write a good story involving all those topics. Like other translators, she sounds like a frustrated writer. If you have such good ideas, well, why not publish a book about it? A lot of people self-publish their books these days. She could save us the “my ideas are better” lecture, and just focus more on the stories when she was working with Konami.

      • Nemesis_Dawn

        Exactly. I don’t doubt that Konami treated her this way, but half the interview is simply made up of her opinions on what the MGS series should be, or stuff like her saying that they should’ve given Revolver Ocelot a funnier name or that MGS2 should’ve been a completely camp story, all of which I disagree with. 

      • Ereek

        Actually, my thoughts were somewhat similar.  She did a lot of criticizing about conditions that I can support and even empathize with to some extent, but later on I think she came off more opinionated and harsher than is probably appropriate.  I was with her until she started spouting what Kojima should and shouldn’t write about. 

        That said, I liked her Katamari idea. It was dark, but it would have been interesting. Maybe even a fun psychological horror game. It isn’t really in Katamari’s “silly” spirit, but I thought a game like that would be interesting nonetheless.

        • Guest

          In that aspect she sounds, again, like a frustrated writer. In other words, you can criticize a story for what it is, not so much for what it isn’t.

      • Göran Isacson

        In a way, she isn’t ENTIRELY wrong about thinking so. See, while I COULD write about the military despite being found unfit for it odds are high it wouldn’t feel true to a person with experience from the military life.

        Being part of a group means you get steeped in that groups psychology- little things like behaviours, thought patterns, insider knowledge… all that effects who you are as a person and how you think, act and write. If you haven’t been a part of the military or really listened to the stories of those who are, or analyzed them in some way… then you Just. Won’t. Get It. And you can’t write good stories about what you just don’t get.

        I don’t know what life is like for, say, a fifteen year old growing up in todays Mozambique. I may want to write that story, but since I don’t really know what that’s like because I don’t know any fifteen year old Mozambiquans, my story won’t be true to the actual experience. And yes, one can say “it’s not the subject matter but how you tell it” that matters, but I honestly believe that unless you have experience in or with a particular subject, the how WILL be bad or miss the point in some way or another.

        • Ereek

          While I agree, I’ve always felt that part of the fun about MGS was that it was the Japanese take on American culture.  It still feels foreign because it does have those subtle inaccuracies.  It’s both familiar and unfamiliar at the same time.  A bit like Valkyria Chronicles or Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together (which is based off of the Yugoslav wars).

          For something similar, look at Katawa Shoujo, a game made by fans of anime and Japanese games in Japanese VN style.  It certainly ended up very good, better than some Japanese VNs I’ve read.

          • Göran Isacson

            I agree in so far as we’re simply talking about pastiches: anyone can make a Bollywood parody after watching a few flicks and going “oh those zany indians, their storytelling structure is hilarious to me”. But if you want to write something that actually SAYS something intelligent and deep about a subject, you need to know your stuff. Like I wrote in my comment up above, I too am in love with MGS and it’s crazy world- but I don’t think much of it’s messages because the crazy keep getting in the way of taking it seriously.

            And while I have not played Katawa Shoujo, from what I have heard they have done a ton of work with an international development crew over a number of years… I am willing to believe they have studied their subject (teenage relationships in modern Japan) far more than Hideo Kojima has studied military history, geopolitics, genetics and memetics, and as such they probably come closer to actually saying something that’s relevant about the genre rather than just crazy outside observer hodge-podge.

            Unless Katawa Shoujou has a scene where the girls suddenly turn into COGs and start chain-sawing demons from Doom while english Heavy Metal plays and american flags start flying and the whole thing turns into an FPS. THEN we’re talking “something similar”.

        • Guest

          Yeah but, one thing is having the experience, and other having the writting skills to put those experiences on paper. There’s a reason why people who write about their life doing a sport, being in a war, and other situations get a proper writer to help them translate all that into a book. They are different areas, plain and simple. You are also talking about doing proper research for a subject. So all boils down to the same thing: Kojima is not a writer, he’s a video game developer, but not a writer.

          • Göran Isacson

            I think we’re just not seeing the same things in her writing. When you said her argument was “clueless”, it seems to me that you’re reading her comments as “You can’t EVER talk about things you’ve directly experienced”. THAT is wrong, in my mind.

            But what I’M reading is that she’s saying “his research and writing is abysmal and he has no business writing about these subjects because he is SO BAD at it”. And honestly, I think that IS a fair argument. If you ARE really bad at something, you shouldn’t write about it and expect to have your opinion taken seriously or go uncriticised. That’s all I’m seeing from her- valid critique of Kojima.

          • Guest

            But she went on to say how if Kojima and all these guys that write military fiction were in an actualy conflict they wouldn’t know what to do. That to me is missing the point here, that bad writting is bad writting, regardless of actual combat experience, or just a hunger for hollywood blockbusters.

      • Joanna

        She was too extreme I agree (as people should be free to write about whatever they want and you don’t need to live through stuff to be able to write about it), but I do think that if you are going to do a subject you are not really well versed on, you had better do your research or I have to ask why bother? If you can’t be bothered to do research on the subject, why would you want to write about it? I think perhaps that’s more what she meant, but she did come off too hard and too culturally restrictive. I’ve never played any MGS games so I don’t really have an opinion on them, but writers not doing their research is sort of a growing pet peeve of mine, so I can certainly see where she is coming from in criticizing the writing. I can forgive minor things of little importance, but when it’s bigger things like portrayal of psychologically ill people or historical events…it really bothers me. Granted the latter can be done deliberately and I’ve seen it done as such to great effect, but it’s usually fairly easy to tell when something was changed deliberately by the writer for some special reason or whether it was the writer not knowing what they are talking about.

    • Gatchaman1

      FF XIII-2 is the newest culprit…

    • amagidyne

      Well, they did ask her.

      • Guest

        Sure, it makes sense they will ask her that, but a good chunck of the interview went into that particular area.

  • ZBaksh386

    This makes me want to work for the gaming industry less and less.

    • Guest

      The vg industry is dominated by such a rigid, absurd and borderline idiotic system of suits, intolerance and dated production models sometimes it’s a miracle there hasn’t been another crash. I guess that means we will be seeing sequels to the same six franchises for the rest of our lives.

  • MrSirFeatherFang

    Ah, Hardcore Gaming 101… and Creative Uncut introduced me to so many gaming franchises. I love those sites. Great to know and I downloaded the Ghost Babel and Sons of Liberty scripts!

  • Nemesis_Dawn

    Reading the interview, she sounds incredibly bitter and is probably coloring things a certain way to favor herself. That said, I don’t doubt that most of her recollections are true. 

  • z_merquise

    You know, this interview instantly reminded me of the translator Jeremy Blaustein (who was mentioned many times in Miss Kaku’s interview) who also had an issue working with Kojima in MGS 1:
    http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/jb/jb.htm

    Perhaps they don’t have proper communication with each other or it could be just that Kojima (or the other staff) had a huge ego. Either way, it was always sad when you see a game developer you liked had people who treated their employees/collaborators like slaves or worse.

    It’s really sad to see things like this in the gaming industry but this is also applicable in other media as well. Guess no one can be perfect.

    • Guest

      Is not just a Kojima thing per se, is Konami as a company in general. Kind of ironic how Kojima has criticized the attitude of japanese companies, when he works in one that displays this very same attitude of intolerance, being close minded, and having little respect for their employees.

  • Raiu

    From what I read, the translation has to be in Kojima’s demand and has to match precisely of the script without alternative arrangements. Therefore making the plot confusing.

    Since she is under contract with Konami and her name not in the credits is not a surprise to me, some movies i know do that.

    Harsh working conditions aren’t uncommon in some parts of Asia.

    I rather have a ‘rewrite’ of the english script than a rough translation for it…

    • Setsu Oh

      well if only the text was at fault here ….. i think konami lets kojima way too much lee way. we went from crazy mantis to mental guy standing on a harrier, stupid woman who can’t figure out she has a barrier and freak ghoth. messing the script was nothing compared to the craziness of that episode. i still regret it not being a more simple boat and base type of environments game …with more olga in it.  like god of war i enjoyed the first level and hated the rest.
      the translation was just a detail of my boredom.

      • Raiu

        But hey, at least it’s better to see unique characters and villains rather than generic ones you seen in military FPS shooters.. That I give props to Kojima…

        • Setsu Oh

          i rather epic sniper wolf and raven than the 4 ‘ female bosses beasts’. he goes so far it becomes ridiculous.

  • Göran Isacson

    A very interesting article, one I greatly enjoyed. While I can see where the people calling “bitter ex-employee” are coming from, I think she makes enough good points that the bitterness feels more like she’s a person of taste and education despairing over the “monkey at a keyboard” style of Kojima.

    Now, I AM a fan of Kojimas games. I love MGS, but I love it because it is absolutely crazy and makes little sense at the best of times. If I have to THINK about the writing it for any extended period of time my enjoyment diminishes because there’s so much that you just can’t defend, so I don’t. I just enjoy, at avery superficial and shallow level, an insane world where old men are photosyntethic because heck, why SHOULDN’T they be photosyntethic? Do you hate plants, is that it? You some kind of meat supremacist?

    But I can see why someone who not only has to work with little support from the main company AND whose tastes in entertainment probably are more demanding than my own would think it’s dodo droppings, and from that angle her wish to either see it done with WAY more attention to detail and the real world or just go full parody makes sense. She’s looking for consistency in a game made by a man who probably starts spontaneously combusting when people even utter the word in his presence.

    • Guest

      There’s nothing wrong in giving some constructive criticism to the story in a video game like MGS2, quite the opposite, it should be encouraged. You can see from some of the comments, and from both the vg media and fans alike, that this kind of criticism doesn’t exist. It’s either “THIZ GAME SUZ” or “THIZ GAME CHANGED MY LIFE” with no middle point.

      The problem with this interview is, once more, that her arguments to criticize the story were quite lousy, if you haven’t been in a real combat situation you can’t write that kind of fiction? Her mentioning being in the shooting team in school was quite amusing, way to show your “combat” credentials lady. That a writer should write more about their own country and not about people from other countries? Kafka wrote about the USA without ever being there, and several artists made fantastic paintings of other parts of the world that they never visited.

      In other words, it was more about “let me tell you what i would do if i was in charge of writting a MGS/military game” and the answer to that, at least from me, is a big “who cares?” If Kojima is a frustrated movie director then it’s safe to say many translators are frustrated writers.

      • Göran Isacson

        I think this too is one point where we differ- I LIKE hearing the “let me tell you what I would do if I was in charge of X” type of answers. Sure, sometimes they can be nothing but meaningless fanboyism like say, there should be a Final Fantasy 7 sequel where Cloud is suddenly super-depressed and Sephiroth is for some reason obsessed with making Clouds life a living hell instead of just ignoring him for the sake of ascending to a higher state of being. That would just be stupid if something like that happened.

        But sometimes what you get is an interesting and different perspective on what the game COULD have been. Granted, she didn’t do a very good job of explaining what she’d do differently, but I am just not seeing her saying “if you haven’t had experience with x situation you should NEVER write about x situation”- I’m just hearing her say “For the love of God, at least research your subject”. Her talking about the rifle team was her way of letting us know what she would say if someone told her she had no experience with weapons, it wasn’t a boast or anything like that.

        • Guest

          “a Final Fantasy 7 sequel where Cloud is suddenly super-depressed and
          Sephiroth is for some reason obsessed with making Clouds life a living
          hell instead of just ignoring him for the sake of ascending to a higher
          state of being.”

          Wasn’t that the plot of Advent Children?

          As for the research thing, Kojima did research with military experts. He also went to a shooting range, not sure if he did it for every single MGS game, but i remember clearly a video where he went to practice prior to make MGS4. I even remember him cutting cartridge with a shotgun and telling the shooting instructor “this is like that terminator movie”.

          So, her point seems quite invalid. Unless she wants Kojima to join a mercenary group and fight the taliban, or drug cartels in Mexico.

          • Göran Isacson

            Yes, yes it was. And that movie was meaningless, fannish nonsense at it’s highest.

            And I read that as well- it seemed he learned his lesson from MGS2 in that case, which he admits in the interview linked to inside the interview on Hardcore 101 that he basically just cobbled together from disparate ideas he had in the past with very little coherency. So for the game she was working on the advice was quite apt… and since she isn’t the type to play games, she probably wouldn’t know of any improvements Kojima made during the years.

  • Zanasea

    Breaking news: many video game translators (this is my job) work without a single screenshot or artwork from the game AND have very harsh size constraints AND must make sense out of cryptic dialogues AND have to deal with stupid in-game terms. So this, here, is not a rare case. This is video game translation.

    • Ereek

      In the gaming industry, perhaps. But most of that would not fly at all in other industries, my own included, but I admit I work in quite a different translation field. Just because it’s not rare also does not make it acceptable – or perhaps “acceptable” is too “moral” of a term when it comes to business.  It does not excuse the ignorance of the higher-ups when it comes to translation between languages. If they’re hiring for it, they should know the limitations and capabilities of their future employees and not expect miracles, which is pretty much what seemed to happen here (IE you can’t have perfect micro-translation in as few words as possible). And, if they do, at the very least you should properly communicate with the employee.

      • Zanasea

        Of course it should not be acceptable. Thing is, in video game translation, most translators are free-lance or are working in external agencies specialised in translation (which is my case). So video game editors are our “clients” and they consider we owe them something. I’ve been faced with many absurd requests — especially from big game editors — and in that case you can’t do anything. You can rarely discuss with localisation managers because they are the link between you and the producers and what they want is to have the job done. So you start working on unfinished in-game texts, knowing it will be changed later and you will have to revise your temporary translation.

  • http://www.facebook.com/benjtan Benjamin Tan

    reminds me of F*** in my coffee and all your base are belong to us haha

  • skymap

    I read this article because I’m interested in this field. There was some interesting information, but the article is just terrible. If you hate MGS, you might like it. But it came across as juvenile to me.

    I still don’t understand the comments about the story taking itself too seriously and having no sense of humor.

    • ForeverFidelis

      The game takes itself too seriously? Three words

      Infinite ammo
      Jejunum

    • Guest

      The story of MGS2 does take itself way too seriously, and not in the best way possible. I think it’s no coincidence that MGS3, which had a story that was far more playful with the elements of the cold war, ended up being far more engaging and enjoyable than MGS2 repetition of silly cliches and pointless plot twists.

      Regardless of what all of us think about the story of the MGS franchise, i agree with your point about this interview drifting way too much into other things that had nothing to do with working as a translator, and that weren’t very interesting at all. So yeah, this interview was a bit of a mixed bag, but it did let us know about the job of a translator, and their personalities for sure.

      • skymap

        I’m not arguing that MGS2 doesn’t take itself seriously, I’m just confused as to why she thinks that she would like to inject humor into a series that apparently doesn’t have it. MGS may take itself seriously, but it does have a sense of humor.

        It’s not just that, but the way the whole interview is framed and written. It reads like a rant on MGS with quotes sprinkled in.

  • The Icon

    Out of context, the story of MGS2 doesn’t make a lot of immediate sense. Even in context, when experienced during the game, it’s still a pretty strange story. But I think it somehow works as a video game. I always thought it was a little unprofessional of Agness to publicly take a crap on Konami like this, but it’s interesting to read nonetheless.

  • Setsu Oh

    u should know this isn’t a matter to joke about.

    • http://twitter.com/#!/kaishou Kaishou

      Your English isn’t a matter to joke about…

      • Setsu Oh

        my  engrish is as fine as my emotional state at the time i write so….messy

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