I have seen zero people talking about this on Tumblr so it's time for me to change that.
OTOME FANS ON TWITTER ARE MAD AT AKSYS GAMES.
Why, you ask?
BECAUSE PLAYERS HAVE COMPILED A LIST OF +600 ERRORS FOUND IN COLLAR X MALICE UNLIMITED AND TO THIS DAY AKSYS GAMES HAS STAYED SILENT ABOUT IT.
People have been bringing their attention to this list (you can find the excel listing all the errors with screenshots on Twitter) since day 1 and even sent it to their email for days until Aksys answered some of them saying that they will work on a patch.
That's it. No apology to the people who spent 50$ on the game, no public announcement, no tweets or posts talking about it. We are currently spamming them to announce the patch publicly so that they can't act as if it was never promised to us.
But they still promote the game. That, and the Piofiore preorders. And people comment on those preorder announcements saying they won't buy the game because of the CxMU issue.
CxMU was released in Europe after it was released in USA, and I left a comment in one of Aksys Europe Store's tweets saying that they had the nerve to promote the release of something with 0 quality. And they answered that all complains regarding that should go to Aksys Games USA, that they only sell the games in Europe.
And bear in mind that this has happened before. Many times. Just look for posts talking about the localisation of Norn9 from years ago.
And they even release ports with the same errors as the original release (CxM and C:R Switch ports of PSVita localisations).
CONCLUSION: IF YOU ARE PLANNING ON BUYING CXMU, PIOFIORE, CAFE ENCHANTE OR ANY FUTURE OTOME RELEASES FROM AKSYS GAMES, BEAR IN MIND YOU MIGHT SPEND 50$ ON THIS:
Screenshot of one of the errors listed in the Excel compilation, originally uploaded by @APPLEJUSTICE on Twitter. Yes, THAT WHOLE SENTENCE IN RED is written EXACTLY LIKE THAT IN THE GAME. A game that is 50$.
Please reblog so that people on Tumblr know what's going on!!!
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Hello naughty children, I am going to talk about âpsychotic breakdownsâ in the P5 localization, and the fact that itâs a (very big) mistranslation that could mess up your perception of a fair amount of things in the game. (also, the fact that âpsychotic breakdownsâ and âmental shutdownsâ are different things).
As usual, post is pretty long & screenshot heavy.
In Persona 5, there are incidents the localization refers to as âpsychotic breakdownsâ throughout the game. âPsychotic breakdownâ is wildly different from what the Japanese version of the game seemingly wanted to convey.
In Japanese, theyâre often referred to as æŽè”°äșä»¶(lit ârunaway incident)â & the term relating to those incidents and the power used to create them is æŽè”°(lit ârunaway/run wildly)âÂ
 A more correct translation for these wouldâve been things such as human rampages, rampage incidents, berserk incidents, berserk, rampage, frenzy. âPsychotic breakdownâ is straight up wrong, and nigh contradictory for how the power is explained to work(more in that later in the post).Â
In this post, Iâll be using the terms ârampage incidentsâ and ârampageâ in English, and æŽè”°äșä»¶/ æŽè”° to cite the exact term in Japanese.
The term in Japanese the localization refers to as âmental shutdownsâ is ć»äșșć(literally âcripple/invalid/disabled person -ification.)â Iâve seen it translated as âshellificationâ but the localized term âmental shutdownâ is fine, so, those will just be referred to as âmental shutdown(s)â for simplicityâs sake.
The rampage power is specifically a power that Akechiâs initial persona, Loki, can use. It was the power used to create the subway accident near the beginning of the game (which was later revealed to have been at the request of one of Shidoâs men) by using it on the driver. This ability is not fatal on its own. The subway engineer is still alive after this, and none of the people on the subway were killed, just injured. He also uses it on the two shadows before you fight him the first time, and again on himself when you fight him the second time.
âBastard, you made yourself rampage!â or along those lines. The thing of note here is the usage of æŽè”°
What it does is remove the bonds on oneâs heart, causes them to run wildly, and they forget what happened afterward. He describes how it works here:
Localized line is mostly fine, however âchainsâ is better translated as âbonds.â He uses æ· here, which can refer to literal or more metaphorical bonds, such as societyâs restrictions, relationships, or what youâre allowed to do. The explanation for how the power works is (mostly) intact in the localization, but âpsychotic breakdownâ doesnât convey that at all.
Localized line is fine, thing of note: usage of æŽè”°(rampage). âPsychoticâ also changes your perception of the character, because the power is noted to have been born from his own heart:
Localized lines are mostly fine, but âcontrolâ shouldâve been âmanipulateâ in line #2. He canât control people with the ability, just remove their restraint and cause them to run wild. This isnât a âpsychotic breakdown.â
Before the first boss fight, Akechi noted how he was jealous of Joker, because he wasnât imprisoned by who heâs been so far or his relation to others, the very same types of bonds the rampage power is able to temporarily free one from. The localization messes this up by translating æŽè”° as âpsychotic.â Â
The first shouldâve been âthe person youâve been until nowâ rather than âpast selves.â The second line shouldâve been âI envy that from the bottom of my heartâ instead of âTo be honest, Iâm envious.â
In short, any and all instances of âpsychotic breakdown(s)â and âpsychoticâ are better translated as ârampage incident(s)â and ârampage.â The latter gets the point across way better than what Atlus USA localized it as.
Moving on, âpsychotic breakdown(s)â vs âmental shutdown(s)â are different things. The localization also made the mistake of giving these two similar sounding terms when they are completely separate events. The Japanese terms æŽè”°äșä»¶ (rampage incident) and ć»äșșć (shellification) do not sound similar at all.
A mental shutdown occurs when the shadow self is killed. Itâs not necessary lethal per se (itâs left people comatose, such as Ohyaâs partner) but, it is what was causing deaths throughout the events of the game. What happens is something similar to apathy syndrome in Persona 3, but, it causes death when the person is in poor health(like the SIU Director, Okumura) or in immediate danger (Wakaba, the principal).Â
A âpsychotic breakdownâ does not lead to a âmental shutdown.â Theyâre two different things with different causes.Â
The localization also made the mistake of combining the two into a general statement when both were explicitly mentioned in some lines, such as this one:
Here it doesnât mention æŽè”° specifically, but, it was "mental shutdowns & chain of incidents" rather than just âmental shutdowns.âÂ
Akechiâs approach of Shido was offering the rampage power, specifically.
And and all instances of killing had come from Shido(or the adults you spent the cruise ship talking to). I go over that a bit more in-depth here.Â
Shido even says so, here:
Localization left out âto achieve my idealsâ at the start of the sentence, implying that eliminating people for his ideals was his idea. A common misconception Iâve seen is that Akechi killed people to get Shidoâs attention or that he had killed people before he approached Shido, which is wrong.
tl;dr âPsychoticâ in the Persona 5 localization is better translated as ârampageâ and âmental shutdownsâ and âpsychotic breakdownsâ are different things. Hope this clears up some misconceptions!
shoutouts:
@redwhiteandgold for helping me with translation stuff & proofreading, that one anon on my blog who helped me word some things here, another friend for helping w translation stuff
This is one of those Localization flubs I frequently come across where a Winquote is translated once and then they just leave it for subsequent games, not changing it when the quote DOES change.
The first two quotes are the same: English and Japanese.
The third quote was changed in Revelator, but never got translated and still has the same English text from the first quote.
Eventually I will translate this once I get it OCR'd. Â But it's one of those pet peeves of mine that nags me to no end with stuff like this.
Once the GGXrd series is done, I intend to document all the changes between quotes and make sure everything is properly translated... 'cuz it drives me crazy otherwise.
(pt1) just remembered another line that's probably causing misunderstandings. in the jp version, while goro's using his ability on himself, mona's surprised he can use two (personas') powers together, then says ăăȘăăŠć„Žă âŠć§żăăăćă ăŁăăŁăŠăźăïŒ ă. that got localized as "Then everything⊠even his appearance is a fake!" but there's no "everything" in the original sentence, just surprise that he's even able to alter his appearance. a lot of people seem to think that how he acted when he's with the party was
mhmm, thanks for pointing that out! it kind of sounds like the localization team thought âeverythingâ was fake, too _(:3ăâ )_ like 3 diff japanese speakers & i are working on compiling a post dissecting the original dialogue vs the localization in a bunch of varied scenes (like a tv scenes, justice rankup scene, saeâs palace stuff, shido scene, and the loki bossfight scene), mind if i include that point in there?
âyou care about jokerâ being localized as âyou donât hate jokerâ kind of hurt that, too.
go for it! there's definitely other parts where the localization team misinterpeted something and messed up the translation (there's a scene on 10/28 that has⊠a really blatant error in the localization⊠the motorcycle line in mementos is about the bicycle kind of bike in jp too but that's more innocuous), so i⊠wouldn't be surprised at all if they screwed that line up because they thought everything about him pre-reveal was fake. (ïżŁâĄïżŁ;;)
Thanks ovo !
And oh yeah, Iâve been meaning to bring that one up here! Itâs the scene where Haru asks what justice means to him.
Hereâs a rough translation of the scene by @redwhiteandgold
âThe very worst adult.Â
Yes. My spirit to rebel against this individual is the very root of my own justice.Â
Itâs not for society, or for idealismâs sake.The reasonâs nothing lofty like that.
 Itâs extremely personal⊠Itâs just a worthless sense of resentmentâ *
* being the same word that was used after boss fight #2 when talking about the power he awakened. Also an important word that shouldâve been translated consistently.Â
The problem here is that he was talking about a singular person, which you later find out to be Shido. The localization mightâve given people the idea that he was talking about the people Shido was having him kill rather than Shido himself. Hereâs the english dialogue:
âBecause of sickening human beingsâŠÂ
Yes. My contempt for such people drives my sense of justice.Â
It isnât for some grand reason like societyâs sake or some lofty ideal.Â
Itâs simply an absurd grudge. And extremely personal.â
So, yeah, another error that could give people the wrong idea.
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So, @vork---m shared a certain video on Bridget with me recently... and it only highlights all the political and social confusion going on with the not-Perfected American Localization (and social media promotional engine) for Guilty Gear Strive.
Iâll be honest... Iâm getting too old for these debates and discussions... it tires me out to the point of stress (literal knots in my stomach).
What I will say is... just like with the confusion over Sinâs Gear Eye entry in the GG World Library article (which contradicts previous Lore information)... thereâs still confusion over how to treat various characters.
Now, either they just didnât want to step on a landmine, or they inadvertently created a Nuclear Bomb of discussion/arguments/abuse and whathaveyou... regardless, I think itâs still important to look at the interpretations as just what they are: Interpretations.
Please... Donât assert your opinions, donât enforce the idea that people are wrong or non-deserving of being âtrue fansâ... itâs fine to like characters on your own terms.
But, the very fact this conversation is still going on proves to me that:
1. People donât look at characters in earnest and just see what they want to see.
2. Arbitrarily Rewriting Fiction for the sake of Pandering is more important now than it was years prior (or at the very least, the standards for such have dropped).
3. People use Characters/Icons to enforce their own personal Agenda instead of letting the character be itself.
4. People still donât have the maturity to discuss these things without resorting to personal and verbal attacks... Nobody deserves this on either side. It needs to stop.
Yes, itâs fine to âstand upâ for your takes... but stand up for them for the sake of enforcing the TRUTH. Not your own spin of it.
But above all else... Respect people around you...
âThe Truth is only as big as those willing to believe in it.â
 âFrau (07 Ghost Children)