505 Games Dismisses Criticism Regarding ‘Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes’ Localization Amid Accusations Of Rewrites And Censorship
The English localization for Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes is being scrutinized, signs pointing to yet another rewritten JRPG.
Being the third most-funded video game on Kickstarter and the most-funded in 2020, Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes launched last month. Highly praised by critics and most players, its localization has come under scrutiny due to other JRPGs suffering censorship and “translation” that becomes a full-blown rewrite.
X user @zakogdo — self-proclaimed “Faithful translation advocate, [and] censorship opponent” — shared examples of the game’s worst localization faux pas around the time of its closed beta, just prior to launch.
These include modern lingo such as “git gud” and “chud” in a fantasy setting (the latter not even used correctly), added non-sequitur metaphors you’d usually expect to see in a 4Kids production, and the unironic use of the mocked Joss Whedon-esque line “Well, THAT was a thing.”
Characters also suffer changes from small details. For example, the childish alteration of insults undermines Francesca. The Japanese language features honorifics to convey rudeness, which is usually localized with the addition of swear words. Yet despite her explosive temper and composure-devoid ranting, Francesca never utters a single swear in English (only getting close with “motherforsaken”).
“There are people who say there aren’t swears in Japanese. There’s truth to that in a technical sense, but with politeness registers, a character that is speaking in an extremely rude and vulgar manner should have that conveyed. The loc here does not,” @zakogdo argues, later noting how the insults were made softer, “comical and cringeworthy.”
It should be noted the ESRB gives the game an Everyone 10+ age rating.
The character Lian also seems to have changed from the original script. While still childish, she seems far more bratty- impatient, aggressive, and with dialogue that tries to make her even more “quirky.”
@zakogdo opened their thread with that very case. “Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes came out and is another victim of botched, disrespectful localisation. Here’s a thread with a few examples. First off, everyone’s favourite localisation meme!” While Lian rubs the Rune Lens to make it shine and show it off, the English scene attempts to be more comical.
Japanese:
Lian: Oh? You’ve got a lens too, Nowa? Heh heh… And I… Look! Come on, come on, come on!! There, you could see it for a moment, right?
English:
Lian: You’ve got a lens, Nowa? Well ladies and gentlewolves… so do I! Rub-a-dub-dub, don’t be a flub! There! Did you see the glint?
The line is infamous due to an old meme mocking liberal anime localization at the time. It poked fun at how “itadakimasu (頂きます)” — often said before meals — would be translated as “rub-a-dub-dub, thanks for the grub,” a jovial take on grace. Rather than citing any particular show, the meme stuck as an example of poor localization.
Rather than avoid such comparisons, the localizers did it twice. While attempting to open a gate using a Rune Lens, Lian says “open sesame” in Japanese — an understandable and fitting gag. In English, Lian says “Rub-a-dub-dub, open ya schlub!”
Another bizarre moment comes shortly after the party defeat the Golem Pulverizer. In Japanese, Mio asks, “But what is that huge thing?” A logical question after being ambushed by an ancient technological guardian. Yet in English, prompted by Nowa saying “got him!”, the female samurai quips “You sure it’s a he?”
It’s likely intended as a joke, as the creature has no humanoid or biological traits, and the rest of the scene continues without addressing it. Nonetheless, with gender identity being such a red-hot point of contention in media, @zakogdo mocked the alteration, inquiring, “Did you just assume the golem’s gender?“
@SeitaroYami was another X user who put Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes under the microscope. They found added puns, Lian continuing to be a localized brat (in multiple instances), yet more colorful metaphors undermining serious moments, complete rewrites, and other more debatable changes.
@videogeimu even asked @zakogdo “Who worked on this localization? Very likely we’ll see some, ahem, ‘industry veterans’ who have already given their Midas Touch to other works,” to which @zakogdo replied, “You hit the nail on the head,” showcasing the game’s localization credits.
They then revealed the prior works of two particular localizers. Alan Averill handled localization editing for Unicorn Overlord, another game which had localization that @zakogdo took issue with.
The other localizer @zakogdo took aim at was Brian Gray. Their prior work on Gotta Protectors: Cart of Darkness was showcased (heavily editing a scene to mock the trend of prophesized heroes being white men), and an interview they gave in an academic paper.
As @reyzafany revealed to @zakogdo, in University of California alum Stephen Mandiberg’s “Responsible Localization: Game Translation Between Japan and the United States” dissertation, Gray discussed how content that could be deemed sexist, homophobic, or a gender stereotype were removed during localization.
“Gender issues… in terms of how women are viewed… portrayed as ultimately being secondary to the man and the male hero… and where women will play along to that role,” reads an extract of the document, which adds, “They won’t be laughed at or made fun of… everyone is on the same page here.”
It continues, “In Japanese [these characters] come across as endearing, whereas in the West they come across as very sexist. And these are things that tend to universally get cut [when localizing from Japan to the United States]… because certainly the writer’s intention was not to offend anybody and that would be offensive. And so the idea is that this isn’t really what’s important in this scene.”
“I mean, if it is important then it will be left in, but if it’s not important then let’s just find another gag or joke or riff here. And [this cutting] happens fairly often,” Gray concludes.
While the above localization examples don’t seem to bend over backwards to avoid offense, it should be noted Digital Bros (the parent company to publisher 505 Games) has a commitment to ESG. This is similar to other companies’ DEI commitments that uphold diversity and environmental issues to make themselves deemed sustainable to investors.
Gray himself would later discuss the localization process of Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes. Praising his fellow localizers, he went on to explain his involvement from the start.
“I’ve been working with Rabbit & Bear quietly on the game since 2020, before the Kickstarter was announced. Throughout the project, I answered directly to [Yoshitaka] Murayama-san and spoke with him regularly, and he provided me access to his scenario notes.”
“As someone with a deep understanding of character, Murayama-san supported the direction we would be taking the localization,” Gray asserts. “He took the time to answer a ton of questions (translators like to ask questions!), gave feedback, and helped us get the dialogue how he intended it.”
“Toward the end of development, as the project got busier, other localization partners were brought in to handle the large volume of text. I would have liked to look at and review the quality of everything myself, but unfortunately that just wasn’t possible,” Gray admitted.
Gray concluded, with his deepest gratitude for having worked with the late Murayama.
Even so, amid discussions of Gray’s academic quote, @Chriss_m claimed the social media team for Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes were quick to cut off critisism.
“Yeah, it’s quite sad. Unfortunately the Eiyuden team is infested with this sort of nonsense. Indeed, I got banned from the Discord for saying the localisation is bad – a mod decided that’s ‘bad faith’ and that they wouldn’t ‘put up with it’. Bizarre stuff.” @Chriss_m also included a screenshot of their alleged Discord ban message.
The purported ban message also states they had violated “standards of basic respect,” and “[disregarded] moderator requests to cease the conversation. The exact tone of @Chriss_m’s messages were not shared by the user.
Similar discussion also took place on the Steam Community forums for the game. VanzerKlain insisted in a now locked thread, declaring, “I went to the discord for the game Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes, started reading what and how. I wrote what a good game, but the localization is not very good.”
“After that, an ordinary person wrote that it was quite normal… to which I wrote that compared to the Japanese voice acting, the text of the translation into different languages is very much reduced. Why am I doing this? After that, I was immediately banned and thrown out of the group.”
While some also claimed they had been banned, others theorized they may have done more than polite discussion to warrant their bans.
505 Games also seem to be very aware of the outcry. In a thread titled “A love letter to the haters” — praising Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes and defending it’s localization — an account belonging to the publisher was heartened to hear the praise and dismissed the criticism as an organized campaign.
“I appreciate there’s posts such as this one,” thanked Question_505. “It can be difficult for people to make positive posts when there’s an influx of negative activity on the boards.”
“People who are having a good experience can be bullied into just staying quiet when there’s brigading happening. It usually eased up a day or two after launch and discussion turns to gameplay and questions,” it continued, ultimately concluding, “As a side note, it helps out the game to leave a review! It helps people find the game who may enjoy it.”
At this time of writing, there are still multiple threads discussing the game’s localization. Even a day 1 patch with “Refinement of localised text” is likely a false hope, as the game’s voiced English lines would need to be re-recording.
@zakogdo noted, “I know this says ‘refinement of localised text’, but this is about the day 1 patch. I took a quick look at a recent stream and didn’t see any changes. The top review notes there are many errors with technical text, so it’s probably about that.”
NEXT: ‘Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes’ Review – The ‘Suikoden’ Sequel We Never Got But Always Deserved
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