小屋創作

日誌2016-04-12 19:14

【報導翻譯】Oprainfall 採訪 Idea Factory Int 有關 語言翻譯 VS 在地化文本

作者:貝克薩德 綠丘

(原標題) Translation and Localization: How Idea Factory International Finds a Balance


原網址 :
http://operationrainfall.com/2016/04/11/translation-idea-factory-international/


語言翻譯 VS 在地化文本 : 考驗 Idea Factory 如何從中取得平衡?

前言:
這是我第一次嘗試用自己不太精湛的文學基礎把近期的報導大致翻譯,其中配合英文和中文來做上下配讀,然後偶爾我個人會再加個括號內的文字當作我的感想跟意見。

*請注意,翻譯上多有刪減其目的是為了方便讀者閱讀,不必要增加太多贅字,請見諒。

謝謝

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正文 :

In late March 2016, oprainfall was invited to hang out at Idea Factory International’s Headquarters in Los Angeles, California. We took this chance to sit down with the translator Nobara Nakayama and editor Alex Valles who both most recently worked together on MegaTagmension: Blanc + Neptune vs Zombies.

The team at Idea Factory International began their work with the Neptunia franchise on Hyperdimension Neptunia Re;birth 1 for the PlayStation Vita and continued to localize every mainline and spin-off game developed. It’s safe to say that the dialogue found throughout the Neptunia series is full of memes and jokes made to resonate with retro gamers, anime otakus, and RPG fans alike. But fans are divided when it comes to how games are localized for the West; each side is just as vocal about how they feel a Japanese game’s text should be handled.

Since Idea Factory International is taking on a comedic franchise with obscure references to gaming culture, we spoke to them about how they approach translating and localizing in MegaTagmension: Blanc + Neptune vs Zombies.

在今年的三月終,Oprainfall有幸受到美國分部的Idea Factory邀請到該公司位於洛杉磯的總部進行一次訪談。我們訪談的對象則是兩位近期密切合作的譯者 中山小姐 和 編輯者 Valles 先生 (其合作項目也就是 "激次元組合 戰機少女")

這對編譯組從超次元系列的重生一代開始便進行每一代主線續作和外傳作品的語言在地化翻譯。可以大膽打包票地說,超次元在歐美市場能夠充滿著不亞於原版的各種名句重現,以及各種從懷舊遊戲到動漫梗等RPG粉絲的"笑"果,其功不可沒。不過也正因為如此,粉絲的喜好被分化成了兩派針對文本翻譯上不同的主張,各方對於日文翻譯的在地化有著強大的偏見。

如今IF inc. 已經以捏她遊戲業界的歡樂向系列作為名,趁此機會以 激次元組合 戰機少女 為主題,來起來詳談語言翻譯和在地化的問題。


(有些話我憋在心裡實在不舒服.... 這幾天綜觀遊戲新聞,一堆人在那裏XXXXX 我想問 : 這到底哪裡有問題?? 我自打一代開始就是玩英版的,偶爾也會切換日配來聽,最新的新次元也是先衝首發而後買中文版更了解劇情(不必說就是換成日文聽到底,照樣OK)....很奇怪嗎?? 而且我個人認為英版的文本跟配音很讚啊! 超次元大概是我玩過不少日系風RPG或是主題中英配跟英文文本很完美的呈現。甚至有時候,日版的一些文本除了萌感反而展現不出令人發笑的感覺;英版則是有演繹上可能不是很入戲的完美,各有優劣、各有長處)



Do you find it difficult when taking the literal translation handed to you and making it make sense to Western gamers?

Alex – Difficult? Yes. It’s so nuanced, you know? There’s so many nuances in humor. My take on it would be that I would want the player to still have a hilarious reaction to whatever’s happening in the dialogue. I would want the player to laugh. How do I get there and how do I retain that same mood and environment that was originally intended in the Japanese script? So I guess translating it is just really hard to do sometimes.
Nobara – I would leave notes on the side saying things like “this is the intended joke and the feeling of that joke” and then Alex would take my notes and I would see him on the internet looking for an equivalent of that same feeling. There’s no way you could have a section that says “a Japanese comedian said this…” and that’s funny in Japan but it would not be funny in the states. It would become more like [a] Japanese culture 101 session, so that [means] Alex will have to do his research and find a situation that is similar. So I think the challenge of localizing is more on him and my challenge is how to figure out and dissect the intention of that joke.


請問二位在進行字面翻譯轉成在地人比較能夠理解的文辭上,有遇到甚麼的困難??


Alex : 困難?? 當然是有的,最重要的莫過於 "笑點"。我希望我翻譯過後的文本是可以勾起玩家在過目之後還可以真正感到幽默而發笑的。我希望玩家是真心而笑。其中,要怎麼在不完全抹去日文原意跟劇本的條件下達到效果,這是蠻令人傷腦筋的。


Nobara :  通常我會在文本旁用便條紙標記說比如 : 「這個笑話或是這個文句來自於日文本土文化的哪一種感覺」然後Alex就會上網翻閱相近的字詞以便重組成類似的英文說法。你不可能每一句都一一給它標記「此話來自於日文的.....」對日本土生土長的人可能覺得有趣,但是對其他國家(美國)就不見得了。那樣子的話更像是 "暢遊日本文化101條守則" ,所以Alex就必須自己先把"功課"做足了才能找到類似的翻譯。因此我認為其實在地化方翻譯的擔子比我重了很多,而我的職責就是把原句語意透過跟Alex進行溝通來編出最適合的稿子。


(首先,我得先在這裡向兩位行一個BIG BOSS敬禮。 辛苦兩位了,兩位殊不知當你們正在辛苦翻譯文本之時,一群撐飽不學好的腦粉(?)和滋事人士在底下留言戰個你死我活要不然就是把矛頭指向二位,真不知道二位的感想如何.......)




There are instances when the Idea Factory International team will get on Skype and discuss whether or not some of these references or jokes will work. Nobara trusts Alex with the editing because she has found him to be in tune with the Neptunia fanbase and knows what they like. Nobara tells us that Alex is really good at, “Pulling off that fine balance of creativity and keeping that original tone.”


Idea Factory Int 小組之間也會時常在Skype上面互相交流有關於捏它跟遊戲隱喻的感想,是完美的還是需要改進的。Nobara本人則表示她完全信任Alex,因為他甚至會親自到 超次元 的粉絲專業 / 討論區去聆聽意見。這也是Alex很擅長的 : 他可以在創意和原意之間取到一個中間值。



Do you ever get any type of criticism from gamers?
Alex – I’ve pretty much read all the comments, good and bad, out there. I think that it’s always good to be aware of where the games are landing in terms of how fans are feeling about it. So I have pretty thick skin to begin with because I came out of the music industry world where it’s also super cutthroat and you’re always being criticized for whatever you end up doing. Does bad criticism phase me? No, I think if anything it’s just funny a lot of the time. But usually there’s also nuggets of truth in those complaints that fans have and I do try to make those complaints constructive for how I approach whatever title I’m working on.


Alex : 我幾乎都會看過所有的留言,不管好的壞的,都有。我覺得適度地反向關注粉絲的回應跟想法是還好的一件事。因為我是個從玩音樂起家的人,在那個領域也是處處充滿著言詞暴力的地方,不管你做甚麼都會有人評論,也逐漸地把我的臉皮越練越厚。我會受到壞評的引響嗎?? 其實不會,大多時候只是看看笑笑就罷了。但是更多時候這些粉絲的抱怨也不全然都是廢話,而是有不少建議,而我也試著把這些抱怨有建設性地在之後的續作做出修正。



What’s it like to go from working on Neptunia games to working on more serious titles?

Alex – I’ve only worked on Neptunia stuff.


Nobara – I’ve worked on Zero Escape and what I can say is Uchi throws in a lot of comedy within the darkness. So I feel like it’s not that different from Nep since the jokes are pretty much the same. This could be because the people writing it are all similar in age so a lot of the perverted references are all based off of very similar pop-culture in Japan. It’s all pretty much the same for me because I try not to do much studying or comparing [the game to] other projects. I’ll get the script and I’ll read it and what my emotion is is probably what I’m supposed to be feeling for that project. The darker titles don’t affect me in terms of translating, but it could affect your work because you get invested in certain characters.


請問,跟其他經手過的比較正經的作品比起來,跟超次元系列有甚麼不同??


Alex : 目前我只有接超次元系列的Case。


Nobara : 我曾有接手過 極限脫出系列 其中我覺得 打越剛太郎 先生 (極限脫出的製作人)試圖在黑暗的世界觀裡加入很多歡樂要素,甚至我都認為這些笑話的梗跟超次元的梗是沒甚麼太大差別的。這可能是因為這些編搞的人年紀都相仿所以才會些出一些比較 "特別的引用" (這裡用perverted references本意應該是殺必死或是賣萌情節,不過我個人更趨向於 "不同於該世界觀氣氛的隱喻") 來表現出時下的日本文化。我也認為,不要讓自己過度研究故事或是拿著本跟其他遊戲去比較,讓自己對於"第一映像的新奇感"被磨到光。拿到稿子就會專心的先閱讀過一遍,期間所引發的情緒艮感覺(好笑、生氣、無言、害羞)大概就是這個文本想給玩家的一個份為。黑化劇情是不會引響我做普通翻譯的,但是要針對一個角色的對白和性格就要有身歷其境的感覺。



Some localization companies do take upon themselves to change the feel and tone of a game. Is it hard to avoid that when working on a game like MegaTagmension: Blanc + Neptune vs Zombies?


Alex – I feel like with Zombies, specifically, it was more difficult because the main enemy is taken from these Japanese blogs and there is no Western equivalent [for] that whole stealth marketing thing that was happening in Japan. Fuck that was crazy and that was the first question we brought up, so for that we just left it alone because it would be stupid to make up some Western version of that because it would be impossible. So I guess when the text is relying heavily on Japanese cultural references, maintaining the tone is probably what racks my brain the most. For Neptunia VII, I feel like there weren’t as many references like that so it was a lot easier to really like keep true to the text without me having to like go home and have nightmares about coming to work the next morning. So it depends on the title; sometimes it’ll be more difficult, I guess.


Nobara – Yea, I feel like if it is too Japanese culturally oriented we just leave it as is because you can’t find that equivalent. For the localized game version, consumers are used to having it maintain the Japanese in it anyways, like they half expect it. Then the reaction starts changing when you start being creative, you can’t make everybody happy, but that’s when we’re extra careful of making sure that the intention is still left with what ever Alex replaces it with.



似乎有不少其他家公司的美國分部,在本土化上選擇改變風格。請問在激次元組合中有遇到這種困境嗎?



Alex :  我覺得硬要說的話就是 "殭屍" 吧.... 因為這遊戲的主要敵人是來自於日本類似部落格的東西,而英文卻沒有相近詞來代表在日本出現過的秘密行銷。媽DER很瘋狂,也是我們第一個遇到的問題,我們只能將其原封不動的留下來,因為我們知道硬是要掰出一個英式版本是很作死的行為。所以每當文案有過多著重在日文化的字句、通常要本土人才知道其中的梗的話,就是我進入修羅場邊的時刻了。以新次元作為例子,像這一代本身就沒有太多偏重日文化的字眼,因此翻譯起來容易多了,完全不需要把文本帶回家進行無薪加班的必要。所以,標題很重要,有的時候也是很難搞定的。(Sorry 紅字部分我不太明白他想表達的意思,因為我還沒玩過激次元,不過我認為重點應該是在後半部藍字部分)



Nobara :  是的,如果我們發現該原文的日系文化太重的話,我們就會寧可照本意原封不動。而且大部分的消費者(西方)都已經很習慣看日語的原意了,甚至是很期待可以省去不必要的麻煩。然而,當我們開始著手慢慢嘗試新點子的時候,就會有人有意見了。我們無法避免有人會有反對的風聲,但Alex還是會盡量加倍小心地在翻譯上下好每一部棋子。



Alex – Serving the story, for us, is always the most important part. Sometimes you might even need to change a name, but most of the time I don’t think we change names.


Nobara – Since I’ve been here I don’t think we’ve changed any names; maybe delete a space or add a space to read better, but that’s it.



Alex : 我們的主要工作是翻譯故事,一直以來都是最重要的。有的時候也會被要求給歐美地區取一個比較貼切的名字,不過好像沒甚麼必要。



Nobara : 既然我都在這裡了,我覺得會需要更動名字的機率不大。可能就...加個空格或是減個空格讓標題更好看,這樣吧。




Why is it so hard for characters to say ‘Neptunia’?


[laughs]


Nobara explains how the Japanese characters that spell out Neptunia are hard to say and that’s why characters usually stop at Nept.


Nobara – I think that’s one of those things that is lost in translation because for us it’s like, “oh, Neptune”.


Alex – And that existed for years.


Nobara – It’s a pretty big challage.


Alex – Yea, coming up with more nicknames [is the] hardest part.



為什麼超次元的其他角色總是不會念Neptunia的名字呢?



〔兩人大笑〕



* Nobara 解釋說日文的拼音上很難拼出完整的 Neptunia 所以才想出了讓角色故意沒有辦法完整念出涅普迪努四個梗 (我深感懷疑,是逐字稿有搞錯嗎? 感覺這整個很牛頭不對馬嘴ㄝ??)


Nobara : 我想這可能是翻譯上有失誤吧? 因為對我來說就是 : 喔 涅普迪努!


Alex : 而且這問題也存在好幾年了~~


Nobara : 是個不小的挑戰。


Alex : 對啊,給這些角色想新的小名也是最困難的部分



[spoiler warning] The team laughs amongst themselves as they talk about how hard it was working on Trillion. Apparently, each girl has like 3 or 4 different nicknames for the main character. It’s brought up that ‘Nepsy’ is Neptunia’s newest nickname given to her by Uzume in Neptunia VII. They remember that in MegaTagmension: Blanc + Neptune vs Zombies there is a secret, dark past where Blanc and Noire are school idols (think Love Live!). The Japanese names for the girls translated to ‘Magical Blaren’ and ‘Magical Noiren’ so they decided to change them to ‘Magical Blancella’ and ‘Magical Noirina’.



[劇透警告] 兩人談笑間就聊起了當初在 Trillion (魔壞神) 的經歷。光是每個女角都至少 3 到
4個不同的小名來稱呼主角。他們倆個還提起新次元中,天王星渦芽給涅普起了個涅普吉。甚至還提到 激次元的某個黑歷史橋段,述說當年普蘭和諾瓦露曾擔任過校園偶像 (Love Live 嗎??) 日文字面翻譯叫做 魔法少女普蘭蓮 和 魔法少女諾瓦蓮,後來才改成 魔法少女 普蘭希拉 和 魔法少女 諾瓦琳娜




There’s tons of spin-off titles featuring the cast of Neptunia but what type ofNeptunia game would you guys like to see?


Nobara – You know, I am 100% on board with the 8-bit Neptunia that you see in the credits of the games.


Alex – I’ve been playing with the idea of an Umio kart game


現在該系列作已經有很多不同的外傳衍生作品了,但是就二位而言,你們最期待看到甚麼類型的外傳作品?



Nobara : 要是我我會非常期待那些8 bit版的遊戲,就是常常出現在遊戲片尾的改編遊戲。


Alex :  我一直很希望能夠玩 海男賽車 ~~!!!




(我也很期待超次元系列可以不再只是用圖像來捏他,而是可以體驗更有創意和經典遊戲的小遊戲)



We go off topic to talk about Umio and how Nobara jumped on the team when they received the Umio plush. She asked, “what is this ugly fish?” and the entire team came to Umio’s defense. Nobara has since found love for Umio and they have grown close. The team insists that anyone with the Umio plush take pictures face-swapping with Umio on Snapchat.



我們開始聊起了一些題外話,有關於海男和為何Nobara會加入編譯組的過程,一切皆由一隻海男絨毛玩具開始。那時候她問說 : 這隻醜醜魚是甚麼啊? 結果引起整個製作組的護航行動。後來Nobara也漸漸地喜歡海男這個角色,整組人還跟海男布偶用SnapChat拍大頭照。



So what are you guys playing other than Idea Factory games?

Nobara – I’ve been playing Puzzles and Dragons on my mobile for like 600 days and Monster Strike.

Alex – Since I started working here, I try to stay away from screens in my free time. I do play Halo since I’ve been playing since I was young.



請問兩位有玩過其他的遊戲嗎?


Nobara : 我玩手機板龍族拼圖超過600天了吧,還有怪物彈珠。

Alex : 自打我在這裡工作開始,能盡量遠離螢幕就盡量遠離 = = 年輕的時候倒是蠻常打Halo的


*正文結束*
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簡而言之,每個人都是Honest Pay for Honest work,今天超次元系列能夠在歐美地區有著不小於台日的市場,正是因為文本有趣又道地,才能打動外國人也一起加入這個系列。

當你在針對別國的翻譯韻味跑位而批評時,試想,今天如果這個重擔落在你身上,你會怎麼處理? 全憑日文你怎麼說就怎麼翻? 就因為原汁原味所以應該照翻不誤? 孩子們,別再泛日配主義了.....人家強那是人家的事情,我們不行最起碼做到 尊重 二字,連這點尊重和重視文化水平的基本態度都沒有,台灣何來進步??


(資料來源)

來自Oprainfall 的報導

http://operationrainfall.com/2016/04/11/translation-idea-factory-international/

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