itch.io

Thank you!

Thank you for making this. I would like to download it, but the download link has expired. Would it be possible to post a download link again?

Thank you! This is very helpful!

Hello, I am curious to see how you solved the word order problem, but it seems the link to your ZIP file has expired.  Could you possibly upload it again? (Some Japanese groups are still working on their localizations..

The most interesting part was deciding how to translate the terms "Aspect" and "Stunt." I was surprised that all of the other members who were present during that discussion thought it should be transliterated "アスペクト" and "スタント." The argument was that these English terms grow on you while you say them during the game - they are fun to learn and use, and provide a unique feel and identity to the game.  These are not English words that everyone knows, but that was considered an advantage because the word would be a blank slate for players; Aspects in this game work in a special way to drive the story, and if we used a similar concept in Japanese such as 側面(side) or 要素(element), it might not fit the special meaning that the term "Aspect" takes on in this game.

I was very surprised by this argument.  It made me think about the difference between the expectations of Japanese gamers and English-language gamers. 

Many English games/IPs use common words imbued with a special meaning specific to that setting (especially in capitalized form), such as "walkers" "The Awakening" or "The Warp." (Although Japanese doesn't have capitalization, it's still possible to show that something is a game concept by putting it in brackets.) In contrast, maybe the audience  of Japanese games/IPs have more tolerance towards new words and can even relish learning them. If this was a Japanese game being translated into English, I can't imagine the translation talking about "Character Yousos" and "Scene Yousos" (Youso means "element") so that the word can be a blank slate, and so that players can enjoy learning it and saying it. 

Personally, I prefer to only leave a term in the original language for the sake of flavor if it's something easy to grasp like "Chi points" or "Pikachu." But if the word or concept is more abstract, and is there to help players understand how the game works, I think it's important to make it a word where the player can get the overall gist of it just by looking at it. Learning several such concepts at once can be confusing, and if possible, the words should help the player instinctively see how they all fit together as a system.  In this case, the word "Stunt" in English automatically communicates that they are something a character "does," unlike Aspects.  I think it would help players grasp the system better if it was translated into a word that Japanese players could automatically recognize as a kind of action.

As a compromise, we decided to add more explanation to the sections describing concepts such as "Aspect" and "Stunt." We also added specific examples of Stunts and Situation Aspects in places where the original text didn't have any.