It undoubtedly takes a lot to translate translate anything from one language to another, but when that thing is a 50-hour action-adventure game that hundreds of thousands of people are waiting to play, the pressure will certainly rise. Over at the PlayStation Blog, Scott Strichart – the Localization Producer for SEGA – takes us through the process of localizing the upcoming Yakuza 6: The Song of Life.
During the beginning stages, Strichart described the process as having “little challenges” that needed to be met early on, and while the big things are important, so are the little things such as mini-games centered on comforting a baby. “For example: when baby Haruto is upset, as Kiryu, it’s your job to console him. The hints he gives you about how to do that are delivered via voice in the middle of a baby-comforting mini-game where the UI takes up the subtitle space, so we had to be creative about ensuring those hints were subtitled and displayed somewhere else on screen without conflicting with the UI.”
Strichart went on to describe the focus of trying to find a balance between comedy and drama, especially considering how the game features some dramatic twists and turns along the way. “I think our localization team really gets the dev team’s adult-oriented humor, and the substories in Yakuza 6 have some great social commentary about technology and the way people use it (or fail to use it) that’s universal around the world.”
If you want to learn even more on the localization process, make sure to check out the full talk over at the PlayStation Blog. Strichart also recommends checking out the teams weekly streams where they often make announcements or showcase some of the game. You can keep up to date on that by following their Twitter account.
Yakuza 6: The Song of Life is set to release worldwide on March 20, 2018.
[Source: PlayStation Blog]
