Another Code: R – A Journey into Lost Memories is out in Europe today and it was entirely localized by a European team at Nintendo. Usually, first party games are handled by Nintendo’s Treehouse team. After an English translation is ready it’s handed to Europe for regional localization.
“Well, from our team end it’s the opposite of what we usually do,” said Colin Farrell, the Japanese to English translator said in an interview on the Another Code R site. “We often get the US text and culturalise it for the UK, but for this we were trying to give it an American feel, so we ended up doing the opposite of that. So it was strange, because we were trying to keep the dialogue to UK English while keeping the mannerisms and everything more American.” While made in Japan, Another Code R has many American elements like a park ranger dressed like a stereotypical cowboy.
Translating 130,000 words into five languages took the team “about three and a half months.” Farrell’s previous work includes New Play Control: Donkey Kong Jungle Beat which had around 2,000 words and an English translation to start with.
If Nintendo of America wants to publish Another Code R it’s likely that someone will have to touch up the translation done by Nintendo of Europe with American English. Currently, Nintendo of America has no plans to publish Another Code R.
