I give up... NISA is making me sick of localizations....

[Silverwolf X]

So yeah, I don't want to rant an essay here but they've done it again for Cross Edge. The first sign of a butchered product (as far as NISA is concerned) comes from renaming characters... sigh...

Originals:
Yuuto to York... HolyWTFBBQHuH!?
Mikoto to Miko... WTH? So hard to say a few more letters!?

Mana Khemia 2:
Lilliane to Lily.... ok......
Roze to Raze.... wtf...
Wuim to Whim.... huh?

Terminology errors from Ar tonelico are back as well... gawd...

The rest seem fine so far. Anyway, NISA's name changing is getting annoying, and always a prelude to worse things (AT2, Gust games in general...). I won't be getting this version since I've played the import to the point I'm sick of it but... man, I pity you guys. Rant. Out.

Oh and before you anti-weabos can say it. I'll gladly f**k off from now on and never touch another US NISA game again. Thank you very much.

[Akira]

Not even remotely surprised. I played this game too. Thought about doing an import review but then I didn't. While enjoying the rather hit-or-miss otaku humor I kept thinking to myself "wow, I bet this game gets a shitty localization."

NISA is pretty consistent I guess. No point in bothering with dubs and translations if you don't have to. You get spoiled fast once the language gap disappears. I only buy games that are originally in English (Mass Effect, Fallout 3, etc.) weaboo or whatever. (god I hate 4chan)

[Silverwolf X]

Theres a scene in the game where Roze will ask Lilliane to say his full anme... but now that its Raze... I don't even want to know...

But Yuuto to York.... I sprayed spit all over my com screen when i read it dammit.

[dalucifer0]

Sounds like NISA is the 4Kids of JRPGs.

It's hard for me to look at One Piece the same way because of 4Kids (and I love OP.)

[flashrom]

As bad as NISA translations are, you have to admit they are one of the few sources the US has that actually releases J-RPGs.  Most people in the US can't understand Japanese, and getting through those games is almost impossible without a script.  I'm not trying to defend NISA. I just don't want to see them move on because other than Atlus, who else does the US really have?  I can't see anyone here picking up a game like Cross Edge.

[Tomara]

NISA is the new Working Designs. You either love them for bringing over obscure Japanse RPGs, or you hate them for what they do the games they bring over.

I know enough Japanese to get me through some simple menu's, but there is no way I could play the avarage Gust game in Japanese. I can tolerate a few spelling mistakes and a sensible name change or two, but NISA really needs some quality control...

[Ryos]

NISA is the new Working Designs. You either love them for bringing over obscure Japanse RPGs, or you hate them for what they do the games they bring over.

As much as I bashed several different elements of Working Designs, at least their translation alterations were (usually) high quality.  For example, the original Lunar has next to NOTHING to do with the tone of the original game (just a wild guess) but darn if those weren't some of the most amusing random NPC conversations around.  The only game they did with lolwhat changes was in the Sega CD version of the sequel where they decided to make a character...different.  Not Atlus Mark different but still a change that was neither necessary nor done well.

NISA?  Complete and utter joke.  So much for this unfounded rumor that NIS in Japan was jumping on their asses for their incompetent work.  I hate to say it but this string of progressively worsening idiocy is making me feel quite happy about my boycott on NISA.

[Ramza]

Honestly? If some stupid name changes are the worst offense they bring in Cross Edge, it'll be an excellent localization.

However, I suspect we'll see plenty of typos, maybe some large-scale removals of voice acting (for both JP and EN), a game-breaking glitch or two, and maybe even some bonus content removed entirely from the game. That's been their track record anyway.

If they DON'T do those things, and their greatest offense comes down to screwing with peoples' names, then I'll be happy to play it.

Ramza

[Silverwolf X]

NISA didn't start out bad, but they've recently for the past few years, been getting slack and complacent. Sure they are 1 of 2 (the other Atlus) publishers who bother to bring niche stuff over, but their complacency and their track record for breaking Gust's licenses are seriously pissing me off.

Of course, that's why I decided even if I had to wreck my brains and study a third language (Japanese), I still felt it was better then relying on localizations. I'm glad I made that decision.

Of course knowing the language also made me even more critical about localizations. Having a design study background doesn't help either.

Maybe I AM being overly critical, but it annoys the hell out of me when JRPGs get shoddy translations/localizations and result in everyone saying they suck after that. Its getting tiresome really.

[Parn]

This sudden decision to not buy localized JRPGs is strange considering they were the driving force for you to learn a third language, so you wouldn't have to deal with bad localizations and could just import.  Yet you kept buying localizations anyway.

It's kind of like having someone drop rocks on your feet, griping about the pain, thinking about how you could resolve the issue, coming to a solution yet continuing to let it happen for awhile longer and enduring the pain, and then finally announcing to the world that you're going to take a few steps back.

Congratulations?  I mean, seriously dude.  This is silly.

[Tomara]

NISA is the new Working Designs. You either love them for bringing over obscure Japanse RPGs, or you hate them for what they do the games they bring over.

As much as I bashed several different elements of Working Designs, at least their translation alterations were (usually) high quality.  For example, the original Lunar has next to NOTHING to do with the tone of the original game (just a wild guess) but darn if those weren't some of the most amusing random NPC conversations around.  The only game they did with lolwhat changes was in the Sega CD version of the sequel where they decided to make a character...different.  Not Atlus Mark different but still a change that was neither necessary nor done well.

NISA?  Complete and utter joke.  So much for this unfounded rumor that NIS in Japan was jumping on their asses for their incompetent work.  I hate to say it but this string of progressively worsening idiocy is making me feel quite happy about my boycott on NISA.

Not everyone was happy with Working Designs' jokes about Clinton, pop music and farts. They often tried a bit too hard to make a game funny.

In any case, I'm not going to boycot them. Boycotting NISA would mean boycotting Koei and Koei actually gives a damn about European RPGfans.

[Silverwolf X]

Like I said it was my whim. I bought to support the companies that bother to localize, if more people buy then you'll see better games. Of course I'm just 1 person.

Of course, NISA right now is the one that has managed to be the first to make me rethink on my habit. They're making me think its not worth it to support them anymore.

Yes its silly. Its silly that I had hopes that NISA would do a good job for making niche titles more available.

[Gen Eric Gui]

Sure they are 1 of 2 (the other Atlus) publishers who bother to bring niche stuff over,

Why do people hold such contempt for XSEED?  They're pretty amazing for how small they are, having given us Retro Game Challenge, all the Wild ARMS games after 3, Avalon Code, Brave Story, the new Rune Factory game, and a bunch of other stuff.

There are a lot more than 2 companies who bring this stuff over.  They're not all huge companies, and some of them are little better than NISA(Mastiff edited the HELL out of La Pucelle(lol it's a game about churches that has no religious symbols), but the rest of the translation was great), but they -are- out there.


And as for whoever said that NISA "started out good", their first couple of games were great because Atlus helped them get on their feet.  Disgaea was all Atlus translators, and then Phantom Brave and Makai Kingdom were done mostly by ATLUS again under NISA's label.  Disgaea 2 was their first stand-alone game, and it was riddled with spelling errors and problems.  NISA has been shit quality since day one, they just had ATLUS supporting them to make them look not as bad.

[Ramza]

If people don't *make mention of* XSEED, how is that equivalent to "holding them in contempt?" A lot of people just forget they exist.

The four companies that regularly publish niche JRPGs at this point, I believe, are:

Atlus
NISA
XSEED
Aksys

Decide for yourself which are good and bad. And I will again disagree with you about NISA, I thought the localization on Disgaea 2 was just fine. They started fine, with or without Atlus' help (after all, Atlus didn't touch the first Atelier Iris, and that came out alright). They've gotten worse, no questions asked.

Ramza

[Ryos]

XSEED is still pretty recent (considering their first game was a little over three years ago).  They had quite the reverse pattern of NISA - their first couple games had a few issues (none to the extent of say Ar Tonelico II but there were a couple problems for completionists like with Wild Arms 4).  Now that they're the official handlers for Marvelous Entertainment's games, they'll probably be less of a blip on the radar than they have been.  It doesn't help any a few of their games seem to have been pretty big flops (the final Shadow Hearts game and the Valhalla Knights series).