So apparently in Labyrinth of Zangetsu the translations team fucked it up AGAINST the wishes of the writer.
| kakubomb ("Labyrinth of Zangetsu") Jul 14, 2023 @ 11:50am | |
| The reason I insist on translating "墨" as "Sumi" is because the essence of "Sumi" inherently carries the theme of death. The material for "Sumi" is made through the carbonization of living creatures after their death, hence death is inherent in its very existence.This nuance, however, is entirely lost when "墨" is translated simply as "Ink". | |
| This is what I complain about when the translation (usually done by an American) wants to just westernize any form of culture in a work. Usually Japanese culture suffers the worst as The US is used to having Spanish, French, and Italian culture (and language untranslated) peppered into the media. And Japan is kept as "exotic!". I get wanting to translate some things as to not exotify Japan. But when it's culture and folklore? Really? It's, as an opposite example, when God in Arabic is always left as "Allah" even though it should be translated. |
The game is very much steeped in Japanese culture and art style using the "sumi e" style akin to what Monster Hunter Rise used for the monster pictures.
Here. Sumi is a specific type of ink. Like "Indian Ink" is a specific type of ink. In the text they could say it's "Sumi type ink" and then explain how it's from the carbonizing of living creatures. But all of that is just wiped away by translating it as just "ink".
The game is very much about death dying and trying to survive.