I have been off-and-on replaying the fan-translation of Policenauts recently (PSX version), and good gravy this thing has not aged well at all.
Part of that is just that the game itself has not aged well, what with it being a game from the 1990s via Hideo Kojima, and thus containing all manner of lecherous perversion*. But part of it really feels like liberties being taken with the translation itself. For example, in a more harmless instance, at one point the actual in-game dialogue involves the game's protagonist saying "Quoted for truth". The character speaks a line in Japanese, and the subtitles honestly read "Quoted for truth". Really kind of dates the translation, and also makes it clear who was making it.
I am uncertain which of these is to blame for the blatant transphobia and hatred of sex workers.
I do wonder if the more recent Saturn fan-translation cleans at least some of this up.
*Perversion is not a negative in and of its own right, but the kind of casual, non-consensual sexual violation endemic to this era of Konami adventure game is not what I would consider healthy perversion.


