Maidens of the Kaleidoscope
~Bunbunmaru News~ => Front Page Headlines => Topic started by: Keine Kamishirasawa on March 09, 2014, 03:38:19 PM
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Comment on At BitSummit 2014, ZUN Announced Intention to Publish Touhou Overseas (http://www.shrinemaiden.org/2014/03/13/at-bitsummit-2014-zun-announced-intention-to-publish-touhou-overseas/)
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Broken link by any chance?
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oh wow, that's really interesting. What are the chances he'll also make a new touhou game this year, then?
I'm guessing he'll be setting up some work with translators from the fandom to help make international release possible as well. Perhaps touhou wiki will be able to have a hand in official release of a touhou game overseas? That'd be like a dream come true from us westerners.
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Broken link by any chance?
Link fixed.
Now, on to ZUN.
?I?ve come here to say this. In the end, even I will have to sell my games to the world. I, too, want to make friends with the world.?
?Instead of putting all my games on sale, I will test it starting by selling some new game overseas.?
Are you ready for Call Of Duty: Gensokyo Ops?
Seriously, though, I think this was just a matter of time. After getting to see, firsthand, just a fraction of the WTC, I think ZUN has come to realize that the effort required in online distribution is vastly outweighed by the benefits. That said, I know he wants to be able to maintain his grassroots, cottage industry business model, so to me it makes sense that he would start by taking a tentative step with new games first, then seeing how bringing in older workers goes. Pretty exciting stuff.
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I have to say, having followed the news in the past, about ZUN at AWA and everything, I am not /too/ surprised, but seeing this taking this kind of development is absolutely fantastic. I doubt we will get to see anything concrete in terms of 'new game' anytime soon, probably by the end of the year... unless ZUN plans to publish whatever he has in the works for May to the Western audiences as well. Wouldn't a spin-off game be a good game to start experiments with on a new sales platform, instead of fiddling around with the main series before knowing it will work out somehow?
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lol actually that was a haphazardly written post, meant to go up immediately. A real report is in the works. When it is posted, I'll talk about what ZUN was thinking.
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It's habbening :getdown:
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Doubtful, but hopefully if things sell well for him (and i expect they will) this will make fangame devs like aquastyle consider opening up to western audiences as well.
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This'll be interesting. I wonder what sort of game he has in mind, and whether he has any plan for localization.
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This'll be interesting. I wonder what sort of game he has in mind, and whether he has any plan for localization.
Why would he have to, if the fans would end up doing it anyway, as he's no doubt seen?
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I suspect if any of the usual translation crews have gotten wind of this yet they've already tried to contact him about what sort of help he'd like on that end.
That said, the wording of the announcement makes me think that ZUN implied that this next game would be made with global publishing in mind; I'm both excited to see whether he takes advantage of that and hoping he won't stray too far from the formula for our sake.
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Why would he have to, if the fans would end up doing it anyway, as he's no doubt seen?
"Letting fans do it" is a plan to me. :]
One never knows if he might pull a rabbit out of his hat where this sort of thing is concerned.
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Can you imagine if the character and places names were localized? I don't think it will happen but if it did... some names like Reimu, Marisa, Sakuya and Alice are safe because they are main characters. So are western-styled names like Wriggle, Mystia and Remilia. But what about Reisen Udongein Inaba? Suwako Moriya? Shinmyoumaru Sukuna?
A more likely scenario is that the translators accept that the game deals more with eastern culture and leave the names be. But there are other things to take into consideration. Will youkai be called spirits now? Will characters like Futo be referred to as Futo of the Mononobe? Orin means "piss" in spanish which is why I'd suggest calling her "Rinina" (a portmanteau of Rin and minina, which means she-kitty) at least in that language, or just plain Rin. Cirno could probably change to Chiruno or something else, the pronunciation of Keine could change to sound phonetically-correct in german and finally... Shikieiki Yamaxanadu could also see some changes, like being called Eiki Shiki the Yamaxanadu or something like that.
Ahh so much at stake and to tell the truth I'd be interested to see the changes that it would entail if any. Then again, ZUN still has this in the "I'm interested" phase.
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There is a 0% chance ZUN will agree to a deal with any localization team that would make such changes without asking him first, and there is a negative% chance ZUN would vet such things.
ZUN doesn't need the money from overseas sales, and thanks to AWA, he knows there are a number of folks here that would do just about anything for the privilege of bringing the games to the West. He's holding all the cards in this situation.
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The only change you suggested there that makes sense is Eiki Shiki, because that's what we should have been calling her the whole time.
Will youkai be called spirits now?
Youkai aren't spirits. If anything, our current terminology of yuurei -> "phantom" and bourei -> "ghost" would change.
Will characters like Futo be referred to as Futo of the Mononobe?
Perhaps, but this isn't really a necessary change to make at all. This is just how it ends up being pronounced; it isn't even written this way.
Orin means "piss" in spanish which is why I'd suggest calling her "Rinina" (a portmanteau of Rin and minina, which means she-kitty) at least in that language, or just plain Rin.
Why would you be wary of translators "localizing" names and then make an exception.
Cirno could probably change to Chiruno or something else
why
the pronunciation of Keine could change to sound phonetically-correct in german
keine being a german word is a total coincidence
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It's very unlikely that they would "localize" the name, the game is filled with eastern culture reference and whoever do the the translation should know the demographic who would most likely want to buy the game. and I imagine that a huge backlash from the western Touhou fandom would ensues should they do that.
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There is a reason why I started my post with "can you imagine?" Well thanks to the replies I think I have an idea of what would happen! :D
and there is a negative% chance ZUN would vet such things.
Though I have seen no evidence for this statement, you people know ZUN more than I do. And I really hope, no, I trust you're right; else, everyone will flip.
@Drake: Nope, the only change I suggested was the Rinina one. Everything else was anticipating changes that, for the sake of the fandom, would never undergo. All points taken except...
Why would you be wary of translators "localizing" names and then make an exception. No, no, even if none were localized at all, this is still a realistic situation that has already happened. Dragon Ball for the Latin American version with Chichi being called Milk. Most of the rest of the names were respected (with some phonetic changes), even Mr. Satan.
@Kimidori: Exactly, if they want their "adapted" games to sell that is. Thankfully, as Kilgamayan already stated, ZUN has THE say in this. Hopefully he will think that way.
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Orin means "piss" in spanish
Nope. its "Orina" that means piss. like the same thing with just an added a.