Dear TPCi, that is NOT how people talk

[El_]

I'd think that you'd all at least remember ONE piece of dialect that did not sound right to you.

If its bad enough that people complain about it then yes, adequate proof is needed.

And YES, Looker is suppose to sound and act like that. It is apart of his character. Thats probably why there are complaints, because there is more focus on characters this gen which reflects in their speech.

I dunno why it wasn't expected though with a region such as Unova, which is meant to have many different people from different backgrounds living in one place.

 

[Zeta]

I'd think that you'd all at least remember ONE piece of dialect that did not sound right to you.

Name several pieces of dialogue that do sound right to you.

Right now.

Perfectly.

From memory.

 

[Grave-E]

Is Looker supposed to talk like a moron? Because I never played Platinum, but after meeting him in the end of Black his dialogue was so oddly written I cannot for the life of me tell what he was saying most of the time.

He spoke the same way in Platinum. He's a member of the international police, so I'm guessing that's why his english isn't 100%. That, and he's a bit loopy anyway.

 

[El_]

I don't need to state anything really, as I've already explained to you before Looker's uniqueness, a trait that even the in game mother commented on mind you.

Honestly, none of it really sounded wrong or out of place. It fit well with the characters that were talking, for example like Cilian, Chile, and Cress as well as Clay. It gives them more unique characters, even the random NPCs were given this most likely to reflect the diversity of the Unova region.

Please remember, that I am not the one complaining, but the OP, you, and various others who are making a big deal out of nothing. Sure, there may be a few random lines here or there, but seriously what do you expect in a Pokemon game?

All I ask is that you please bring evidence instead of simply "Well they sound wrong because thats not how people talk!"

Some might actually find these complaints insulting since this is actually how some people converse. Believe it or not, not everybody talks the same lol

 

[Zeta]

All I ask is that you please bring evidence instead of simply "Well they sound wrong because thats not how people talk!"

The game's problem is basically that it was translated, not localized. In a direct translation, you lose:

* Contractions
* Regional accents or dialogue
* General casual way of speaking.

The only character who talks with a localized accent is Clay. I'd forgive this if the basis of the region wasn't a melting pot, but to talk to so many people that speak like a babelfish program.

I'm not making a big deal of this. What I am making a big deal of is people who are asking people complaining about this for a detailed transcript of the game, as if you're going to be playing Pokemon black and white and jotting down every single thing you read. That's an unrealistic expectation of anyone on a forum to make, especially when the game was just recently released.

By your logic, film critics would need to include quotes and clips from each film in each of their reviews, no matter how impractical it would be to do so.

The game was essentially translated without thought to locality or variation in dialect.

I think the RPG Rhapsody noted the problem with this best:

"This is White Snow, a town filled with snow.
Enjoy the world of snow."
(Note: This is what happens when you do a direct translation.)
— Rhapsody: A Musical Adventure

 

[Falconwing]

Yeah, the game was essentially translated but the characters were localized a bit. Iris doesn't sound a thing in the English versions like she does in the Japanese.

 

[Zeta]

Yeah, there was some localization (primarily in the Gym Leaders and town mottos) but it seems like quite a bit less than in earlier games.

In particular, I think what bothers people is the "Spock Speak":

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/SpockSpeak

To summarize:

* Excessively rigid adherence to proper word use and grammar
* Total (or near-total) avoidance of contractions (except when the actor forgets)
* Avoidance of slang
* Clipped tones and a very precise way of speaking, underplaying emotions (except for a sort of mild disappointment in the listener)
* Heavy use of the Expospeak Gag
* An inability to learn metaphor and figures of speech
* Inability to get or tell jokes, including sarcasm
* Preferring longer or more technical terms to simpler ones ("Affirmative" instead of "Yes")
* Heavy use of understated, single-word reactions ("Fascinating," "Indeed."), without any intensifiers: "Indeed" would work equally well as a response to "Would you like some coffee?" as to "They're going to kill us all!"
* A preference for the passive voice over active voice ("It is done" vs "I did it")
* Ludicrous Precision in estimates of numbers, most often time and distance

There are people who speak like that in real life, obviously, but it rings a bit false to hear so many people doing it.

 

[Falconwing]

avoidance of contractions? What language are you playing in? There's plenty of contractions in the games.

 

[The Outrage]

Is Looker supposed to talk like a moron? Because I never played Platinum, but after meeting him in the end of Black his dialogue was so oddly written I cannot for the life of me tell what he was saying most of the time. It was stuff like

And that there is your problem. If you played Platinum, you'd know that yes, he is in fact supposed to talk like that. He's meant to be a quirky character, playing the Bunny Ears Lawyer trope to the extreme, something his animé portrayal totally sucked out of him, and what BW did much better.

The game's problem is basically that it was translated, not localized. In a direct translation, you lose:

* Contractions
* Regional accents or dialogue
* General casual way of speaking.

The only character who talks with a localized accent is Clay. I'd forgive this if the basis of the region wasn't a melting pot, but to talk to so many people that speak like a babelfish program.

Looking at the most prominent dialogue, and even some evidence for random NPC's in this thread, the point on contractions is moot, as its been shown multiple times that it still exists in this game.

As for regional accents or dialogue, I'm surprised this game is being criticized for this when none of the previous games have had distinctive accents either (apart from that foreign grunt who was more of a case of not getting the semantics of the language properly rather than a real accent).

I also recall that Goldenrod City is supposed to have a completely different dialect in Japan due to being based off of Osaka, yet low and behold, the old translation show no traces of Bill, nor anyone in Goldenrod city speaking in a different dialect. Sure, they can't replicate an Osaka accent in English, but should we throw a dart on a map of the United States and find a place that has its own unique dialect they could have substituted in its place? Other incarnations of Bill, including ones that relied on printed words managed to pull of an accent. Surely they couldn't have just pulled that out of their ass if there wasnt something in the game to suggest it in the first place.

People have given evidence to the contrary early in this thread, where's the evidence towards it? Perhaps the random NPC's may be a bit more bland, but here's the thing, when it came to the characters that counted, the dialogue was brilliantly done. I've looked through the gym leader dialogue, and there wasn't a heavy bias towards not using contractions (on the contrary, more leaders used contractions than not using it), and the ones that made a habit of not using them tended to be serious characters who would be believable talking like that.

I recall you mentioning in another thread about how the translation team failed to translate Turtwig's name in one of the dialogue. The only time Turtwig is mentioned in-game is on one of the "Learn Japanese" shows on TV, so its untranslated name is completely intentional.

What's more ironic is that this region is being grilled for having essentially a different dialect than past games despite being far removed from other regions, while people from the southernmost part of Hoenn could speak the exact same way as people in the northern most part of Sinnoh, and no one makes a comment about that. But when we finally get a noticeable difference in dialect, suddenly there's criticism that a small region talks incredibly homogenous.

Then there's the Battle Zone, where trainers from all over the world are supposed to gather in Sinnoh, yet everyone there spoke the same way...but again no criticism on that.

Yeah, go ahead, complain you find the dialogue is more bland, that's valid, but going around saying they lost dialects and accents with a direct translation when the previous team hasn't even done any of that over four regions in the first place? You have got to be kidding me.

Should we go over the mistakes of the previous translation team? There were shout-outs to movie characters from the sixth and eighth movies in Platinum in the Japanese version. This was lost in the English version. They spent all their time shoving in memes yet they didn't spend the time to investigate in-franchise references? Sure, we don't have a similar situation to compare against them from TPCi, but one would think they'd catch that reference, but we won't hold this as a point toward TPCi so much as a point against the old team.

Movie characters aside, there was missing out Janine completely. They translated GSC did they not? Yet they somehow missed that? There's also the mix up in the Fighting Dojo leader's name. Yeah, the original fucked that one up too, but they had a chance to fix it, but didn't. But should we have expected that from the team that couldn't remember Janine?

* Excessively rigid adherence to proper word use and grammar
Yet somehow we're complaining about bad grammar? Kind of contradictory, that and its been shown many times that they don't
* Total (or near-total) avoidance of contractions (except when the actor forgets)
More like near-total use of contractions going by prominent gym leader dialogue, quite the contradiction to the claim that its a direct translation
* Avoidance of slang
* Clipped tones and a very precise way of speaking, underplaying emotions (except for a sort of mild disappointment in the listener)
Hardly, when one can tell that Iris is being portrayed as a Genki girl, Chili as an energetic douche, and yes, Cress is formal, but that's how he roles.
* Heavy use of the Expospeak Gag
* An inability to learn metaphor and figures of speech
Grimsley's card metaphor was fairly easy to figure out despite being a direct translation, and it was fairly straight forward figuring out who Shauntal was writing about
* Inability to get or tell jokes, including sarcasm
Not like Pokemon ever made use of good jokes or used sarcasm
* Preferring longer or more technical terms to simpler ones ("Affirmative" instead of "Yes")
Only ones who seem to use that are people who seem like it would, in fact, fit their character
* Heavy use of understated, single-word reactions ("Fascinating," "Indeed."), without any intensifiers: "Indeed" would work equally well as a response to "Would you like some coffee?" as to "They're going to kill us all!"
* A preference for the passive voice over active voice ("It is done" vs "I did it")
* Ludicrous Precision in estimates of numbers, most often time and distance