Dear Reader:
XSEED talks about the challenge of localizing the humor of Heroland
Localizing any game is hard, but Heroland presented a unique challenge. A lot of Heroland's dialog includes humor and jokes, which very rarely have a straightforward translation. In an interview with Siliconera, Localization Translator Lori Snyder talks about how tough it was to keep the funny aspects of the original script.
“The game’s humor as a whole was one big “how do I say this?” because it’s…inherently Japanese. The boke/tsukkomi (wise guy/straight man) dynamic was really strong in a lot of these scenes, so working to make these jokes accessible to Western players was both entertaining and a big head-scratcher. I absolutely had to translate these ideas correctly from the start, or it would end up as something entirely different.
At first I referenced a lot of Abbot and Costello-esque humor, and with that style as a base, I was able to transfer the idea of what kind of jokes were being conveyed. After that I got to dress the text up a little bit, and by the time Derk got to it he pushed it up to this completely different level! I remember reading some of his edits and trying not to laugh out loud in the office…
We’re both really proud of the end product, and I hope it’ll make you smile when you need something fun and lighthearted!”