Review of narcissu -SIDE 2nd-

Subject	narcissu -SIDE 2nd-
By	Helpfulness: 3 Vote: 4BelgianCookie on 2022-03-14
Review	I played the Steam version. I don't think the game itself is bad, even though it's pretty minimalist (no sprites, only a few CGs, only text and background most of the time). The art is nice, it has voice acting, the characters are pretty intersting (aside from Setsumi) The thing is, because it's so minimalist, it relies heavily on the text... Text that is incredibly poorly translated. The translator tries so hard to maintain the structure of Japanese that you end up with a really poorly written text in English. I had to read some sentences several times to understand them because the word order made no sense. There are many words left in Japanese for no reason, pointless translator's notes, and overall the whole text is very bland. If you speak a little Japanese, you can basically translate the text word per word and will end up with the original text. I don't like to trash people's work for the sake of it, especially since the translator clearly isn't a profesional so it would be unfair to judge them according to the industry's standards... But it's also true that this visual novel wasn't an enjoyable read solely because the translation is so bad. The story does not make up for that poor translation unfortunately, especially since all the characters are so... bland and annoying in the way they speak. Here are some examples of really poorly translated sentences to prove my point. These are only some examples, the whole game is translated this way, unfortunately: -However, the words that Himeko-san spoke next was clearly in a different tone of voice. -I was wondering... if Setsumi-san was forcing herself to be together with her... (in this context the speaker is talking to Setsumi, but the translator chose to make it sound like she's talking to someone else instead of using "you") -And yokkoisho!* *Translator's note: No, there isn't any particular meaning in this. -Hey... What you're concerned about, is it your own hair? As you can see the phrasing is really unnatural, pretty hard to understand in some cases (despite the fact that I'm fluent in English and used to reading a lot in English.
	3 points

#1 by japanication 2023-01-24 at 10:03	< report >>The translator tries so hard to maintain the structure of Japanese that you end up with a really poorly written text in English. I had to read some sentences several times to understand them because the word order made no sense. There are many words left in Japanese for no reason, pointless translator's notes, and overall the whole text is very bland. If you speak a little Japanese, you can basically translate the text word per word and will end up with the original text. I think that's honestly a good way to translate tbh. Just sharing my opinion tho
#2 by BelgianCookie 2023-03-05 at 10:06	< report >Yeah, it's a matter of personnal taste I guess. Personnally I like my translations to read as if they were originally written in English, otherwise I would juste read the original text (or run it through Google Translate). I especially disliked this particular translation because the translator's notes are absolutely pointless, and all characters sounds like they're completely stupid because their English is so unnatural and weird.
#3 by japanication 2023-05-15 at 05:43	< report >That's fair too. In the end I think if you're able to internalize the "weird non-english-isms" and look past them, they let you approximate the original text better than over-localized (or under-localized) stuff. I don't remember the translator's notes at all so I guess they were pointless indeed. And yeah I'd read it in the original text too but I'm sure you're aware that it'd be much slower in my case haha. Oh yeah also you shouldn't tank your rating just because of the translation though right? But you do you mane. Peace :)