Here’s Why Judgment Will Have Two Differing Localisation Texts For Japanese And English Audio

Subs=Dubs

When Project Judge is revealed to be Judgment for its global release, it comfirms that for the first time since the original Yakuza game on PS2, this Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio-developed game will have an English dub. And as such, there’s not only dual-audio for Japanese and English, but also two different sets of subtitles. Which meant the game was localised twice.

Scott Strichart, Localisation Producer at Sega who was behind the many stellar localisation efforts of the Yakuza game recently, explained why they did that, which also caused the people in Sega Japan scratching their heads.

“Have you ever played a game with a dub and selected the Japanese audio, only to have the English dub’s subtitles appear, despite clearly not matching the length or maybe even the intensity of the line? People call those ‘dubtitles,'”, he wrote on the Playstation Blog.

“And they happen because the English audio is generally treated as the lead language, for obvious reasons, and the Japanese audio acts as simply a bonus feature for the enthusiast crowd.

“But for a game as steeped in Japanese as Judgment and its Yakuza legacy is, this was not an acceptable concession to me.”

As so, for the English dub and audio, Judgment was localised again so it would sound like people are conversing naturally in English. But for those who would want to stick with the usual Japanese audio, you still have the usual localised subtitled that sticks close to Japanese source.

The two localised texts will either be similar or sometimes differently worded. But when the words are different, it should carry the same weight and meaning.

For this scene, the full lines are:

Japanese: “Fair warning… Suing me is a bad idea.”

English: “You still wanna sue? You won’t know what hit you.”

See? Same weight and meaning, but the English one is what you expect a native speaker would say.

Strichart also has another reason why they did the localisation this way:

“I dream of a day that efforts like this will put the whole subs versus dubs debate to rest – both are valid ways to experience any media, as long as they’re both treated with equal care.”

And may subs and dubs coexist peacefully.

Judgment will be out exclusively on the PS4 on June 25th.

Source: Playstation Blog

This website uses cookies to improve your experience. We'll assume you're ok with this, but you can opt-out if you wish. Accept