Persona 4: Golden, The Famitsu Interview (Part I)

Translator's Note:

This is my first attempt at translation of an interview from Japanese into English. I couldn't find an English version of this Famitsu published anywhere, but if anyone knows of such, I'd be curious to see their take. This is an interview conducted by Famitsu's Keiji Kawashima, asking questions to Altus' head translator, Yu Namba, about the long process of localizing Persona 4: Golden into English.. I am by no means an expert in Japanese or translation, so as expected, this interview may be riddled with errors, and should be taken with a grain of salt. If anyone has any constructive criticism for me, leave a comment below or hit me up by email at sansuthecat@yahoo.com. All this being said, I very much enjoyed the interview, and I hope you do, too.

- Joseph Erobha




Persona 4: The Golden's Reasons For Popularity In America. An Interview With The Head Translator, Part I.

A Game With A Setting In The Japanese Countryside...What Gives?

Even though the setting of Persona 4: The Golden is in the Japanese countryside, North American gamers valued it very highly. We heard from the head translator at Atlus the reasons why this is so.

Persona 4: The Golden is a unique blend of RPG that simulates everyday high school life with battles that use the Persona, the power of one's heart. Even though the game is set in the Japanese countryside, North American gamers thought rather highly of it. For this article, the information editor of our weekly publication, Keiji Kawashima, who had played the North American version, spoke with Atlus's head translator. Kawashima greatly loves the Persona series. Even here in Japan, he often plays the best-selling game's North American version. He has but one reason for this: Playing a game you like once more like playing it for the first time. For this RPG, that includes hearing the characters speak to themselves in English, obviously, but the graphical and production aspects undergo change as well. There are numerous secrets and experiences to discover. This time, we overflowed with anticipation for the North American edition of Persona 4: The Golden (abv. P4G) and we heard from Yu Namba, who is responsible for translation and localization at Index Digital Media, Inc. (Atlus's North American counterpart).


Kawashima: "First of all, tell us how the West values P4G."

Namba: "Two months since its release (1/24/2013) the North American version of P4G has recieved a high score of 94 out of 100 on the aggregate review site, Metacritic. It's also number one in the PS Vita category and is on its way to becoming number one in the genre. The PS2 version was also highly revered in North America, but P4G added many elements of quality and variety that further enriched the game's content. So it were as if from the start these natural inclusions were ready for warm reception."

Kawashima: "North American gamers also accepted a story that unfolded on the Japanese countryside."

Namba: "Whenever I read a comment on the content like, "The Japanese setting was irrelevant, I could intimately embrace and empathize with the story and characters", I think that the development team, the localization team, and the voice actors came together as one to wrestle with the North American version, and I'm happy that they could release such a wonderful game. The Persona summons, 1-more turn, and All-Out Attack also contributed to the highly rated battle system. Additionally, scooter attacks and costume changes were brought in as new elements, so I often see opinions that say, "The battles are a lot better. As such, the modes of everyday life activities and dungeon crawling also had a major impact. In every part put in by the gamer, they can get very absorbed in playing the role as protagonist, and I think that the heartstrings of Western gamers were touched by game that allowed such a high degree of choice. "

Kawashima: "Can you tell us about the heavy use of vocals on the background music?

Namba: "Overall, the background music was also highly well-received. I think that the reach of the Western versions of had a role in PG4 and Persona 3 adopting English vocals in even the original Japanese titles. That's a little interesting, isn't it?"

Kawashina: "A lot of other elements also added to the popular reception, right? For instance, the PS2's title was "Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 4", but the "Shin Megami Tensei" title wasn't in the Japanese version. Is there a reason for that?"

Namba: "I think that between around 2003 to 2004, the "Shin Megami Tensei" brand name had just been established in North America. Their first title was "Shin Megami Tensei III: NOCTURNE." Ever since, other Shin Megami Tensei series also came to use the "Shin Megami Tensei" name in English."

Kawashima: "And the official North American title for Persona 4: The Golden became Persona 4: Golden."

Namba: "Throughout the year of 2012, we were finishing up the North American releases of not only P4G, but also Persona 4: Mayonaka Arena, and we came to the opinion that if both games used "Shin Megami Tensei", their titles would be too long. Also, for reasons relevant to the original game's release, I wanted the titles to start with "Persona 4." We left the Japanese title for P4A as is, but for the North American version, we played with the title "Persona 4: Complete Edition (Ultimate)", but we figured that Persona 4: Arena would be much simpler to understand for a fighting game. P4G's title was also subject to this, as it also didn't feel right grammatically. So Persona 4: Golden lost the "The" from the Japanese edition."

Kawashima: "The name of Kuma* (the protagonist's friend) is changed to "Teddie", isn't this linked to the word "bear"?

*"kuma" means "bear" in Japanese.

Namba: "In romanji* Kuma's name us spelled the same, but I don't think it would carry over the same meaning in North America, so we used "Teddie" from the "Teddy" in teddy bear. We also decided to drop the verbal tick "kuma" and instead limit him to adopting "bear". As a noun, "bear" can only mean "kuma", but as a verb, it can hold a variety of meanings. After that, we slightly change a word's spelling while maintaining the pronunciation. In this way, for instance, "very" is said as "beary". So concerning Kuma, his naming and speaking came out like fastballs. The jokes were so Kuma-entangled until our brains were fried. Western gamers have accepted Kuma's character, too, so we are grateful for the hard efforts if the head translation staff."

*"romanji" are romanized versions of Japanese letters. e.g., "たべる" becomes "taberu."

Kawashima: "The pet name of Rise Kujikawa (a friend of the protagonist) was also changed from "Risechi" to "Risette"."

Namba: "'Risechi' is really a common pet name in Japan, but we didn't think North American gamers would feel comfortable saying it, so we named her as though she were the singer if a Western band. So an element of French was thrown into "Risette" to make it look more feminine. Since she was originally called "Risechi", the "Risette" pronunciation affected the game, so commands were changed in English to "Push Risette" or in Japanese, "Rizetto (Risetto) moshite!""

Kawashima: "This game's feature system "Community", was also changed to "Social Link" in the North American version, right?"

Namba: "In Japan, "community" is written in katakana*, so the word gives a unique impression, but I think in North America, "community" is a common word so I wanted to make another word. Both "relationships with others" and "the nurturing of bonds" are ideas in Igor's lines, so from there, we took "relationships with others" to equal "Social" and "bonds" to equal "Link", thus making "Social Link.""

*"katakana" refers to one of the three types of Japanese spelling often used for words of non-native origin.

Kawashima: "How did you translate the humorous jargon for words like "Kaere-ru"*, an item for dungeon escape, or "Okan** Rank" for the "Understanding" Social Quality?"

*"kaere-ru" is a pun on the Japanese word "kaeru (かえる)" meaning "return", often in the context of returning home.

**I have no idea what "okan (オカン)" refers to, though I assume it relates to Buddhism. If anyone has any idea, let me know.

Namba: "The transmission of a word's meaning is dependent on the translation, so the nuances are rarely changed. In the case of "Kaere-ru", we took its English meaning "Go home (uchi ni kaeru)" and made it look like "Goho-M." The protagonist's Understanding, in the Japanese version, progresses from "Bodhisattva" to "Okan", but since America is a Christian nation, we changed it to progress from "Motherly (onna no you na)" to "Saintly (no you na)".

Kawashima: "You must make an effort to respect the Japanese version's nuances while also communicating to North American audiences."

Namba: "Certainly. Another time was with the plastic model item "Mass production type Brahman." "Mass production type" was too long and a weak English translation, so we tried to prepare a different word. We came up with naming it "MF-065 Brahman" after a certain mass production type green robot model. Only certain people will understand this enigmatic reference, but there are lots of Gundam fans in North America, too. (laughs)*"

*It's a reference to Gundam's MS-06S Zaku Commander Type II

Kawashima: "The dialogue and the cut scenes were also greatly affected. Nanako only sings "Everyday, young life! Junes!", but the lyrics change slightly in the North American version."

Namba: "The Junes jingle did not work well in English, so it was necessary to change it to sound more like Western supermarkets and department stores. However, the spelling of "Junes" constantly appears throughout the game in the town's graphical background, so we couldn't change the department name. The word originally comes from "Jeunesse" (youth), so we dropped "young life" from the jingle and added "Mainichi saikou! Anata no junesu" which became translated as "Everyday's great at your Junes." I was quite happy when Nanako's voice actress sang it for us so cute.

"Moving on, Chie had a line like, "From generation to generation? Wow, that's just like Kaneda." As expected, I thought that Americans wouldn't know that Japanese detective, so I considered replacing Kaneda with Holmes, Poirot, Marlowe, or Miss Marple, but that wouldn't be Chie. Such novels and films were hardly fresh when we included them, so we used the Kizunoha clan name from another company title. I think that Atlus fans who have played the North American versions of Persona 2: Eternal Punishment and Devil Summoner: Raidou Kizunoha vs The Soulless Army, will understand the reference. Even so, the nuance of the original line, "From generation to generation," is lost in translation. Americans don't understand phrases such as "You wear your uncle's name.""

Kawashima: "When shadows of Princess Yukiko, Kanji Tatsumi, and Rise Kujikawa appear in the dungeons, the production title graphics are arranged like a film production." (Laughs)

Namba: "All of the staff enjoyed making the production titles for the English version. Only the characters changed, while the title decorations themselves were left alone, however, ingenuity was necessary for putting English into spaces where Japanese was written. In fact, the titles unintentionally appear to pop out when you see them displayed as banners during the game, so the time spent on them was well worth it. After that, we made the "Void Quest" dungeon's boss fight resemble a Famicom-era game. I remember the staff referencing NES RPG titles when they made the display texts."

Kawashima: "When you see gamer opinions on the Web, it looks like Kanji's Shadow became a much bigger topic in North America."

Namba: "I think that the Shadow embodies Kanji's dilemma, and though his appearance and behavior are bawdy (laughs), the theme he represents weights heavily since it occurs realistic fashion. The theme of "Can you accept yourself, completely, as you are?" An American gamer who sympathized with Kanji told me that this work's stance of "This is okay" had saved them. This is easy to mock, but that kind of sentiment is flowing throughout the company now. Persona 4 can change a single person's life. I think that's truly wonderful. All of this is due to the enthusiasm of the development team, and the passionate performance of Kanji's voice actor...though I wonder if Kanji's Shadow was a little too passionate (laughs)."

Kawashima: "As a translator, which scene would you cite as having the deepest impression on you?"

Namba: "Since this will be a spoiler, specific occurrences can go without saying. So without spoiling anything in Persona 4, I personally think it's the scene at the hospital. That one. Persona 4 is about high school life and an ongoing, bizarre murder case. Both "the good life" and "the shadow of death" are depicted in this work. Until now, the main characters have lived relatively carefree, but here, the danger lurking beneath is recognized anew. This is a very important moment. I think that we definitely didn't cut corners here. We were all so fired up in handling the writing and voice recording of the script. The superb acting by the voice actors really brought it home, especially the voices for Yosuke and Dojima. Those two overwhelmed us with their bloodcurdling performances. Ever since Atlus USA formed in 1999, we have handled the localization of many various titles. To me, that scene was the turning point, that from now on, we must exceed our objectives."

- End of Part I


The interview in the original Japanese:
https://web.archive.org/web/20141024074917/http://www.famitsu.com/news/201302/02028096.html

The Art of Video Games: Persona 4
https://sansuthecat.blogspot.com/2017/07/the-art-of-video-games-persona-4.html