History TranslationConvention / VideoGames

* In ''VideoGame/{{Siren}}: Blood Curse'', characters actually speak English when they're supposed to be speaking English, and Japanese when they're supposed to be speaking Japanese -- the appropriate language for the localization is subtitled for the benefit of the player.

* Given the setting and the amount of GratuitousGerman throughout, the player is meant to understand that the first ''VideoGame/{{Atelier}}'' games use German (or something like it) as the spoken language, even though all important readable text and all dialog is in Japanese (or English, should the games ever be brought over). This is, however, abandoned from ''Atelier Iris'' onward - the characters may or may not be speaking "our" language but there are basically no hints as to what else they'd be saying.

* ''VideoGame/Cyberpunk2077'' has all sorts of languages heard in the game, but translation implants allow people to get real-time subtitles appear near whoever is not speaking their language within earshot. It fails when confronted to a more exotic language [[spoiler: like the Voodoo Boys' Haitian Creole]].

* The native language of all characters in ''VideoGame/{{Solatorobo}}'' is French, but apart from short sound bites, they're shown speaking English (or other languages, in non-English localizations).

* ''VideoGame/AlphaProtocol''. You visit locations such as Saudi Arabia, Taipei, Rome, and Moscow, but none of the locals or enemies speak their own languages. The biggest example would be in Taipei, where a fictional President of Taiwan gives a bold speech asserting Taiwan's independence, and it's heard only in English. Justified as the protagonist is a {{Polyglot}}.

Amusingly enough, Naked Snake's Japanese voice actor, Creator/AkioOhtsuka, was more than prepared to do all the dialogue in Russian, and had been taking lessons. The director, Creator/HideoKojima, was also enthusiastic about the idea, but the rest of the voice cast, who did not want to learn an entirely different language for very little purpose (and after all, they weren't learning English for conversations between American characters, were they?), threw various tantrums until the idea was finally overrun and dropped. Ohtsuka, disappointed, reportedly dropped random ad-libbed Russian into his lines until the rest of the cast was thoroughly sick of him constantly necessitating re-takes.

** ''VideoGame/{{Persona 5}}'' has a few instances of this trope, most notably right before the game's fourth dungeon. An international hacker group known as Medjed puts out a message in English that most of the main characters, being high school students from Japan, can't read. Ann has to be the one to translate the message to Japanese since she's bilingual, being part-American. Also, when the group travels to Hawaii for a short time, there's a tour guide who welcomes them to Hawaii dubbed in English, but the characters react with surprise that the guide speaks Japanese.

** In the ''VideoGame/PokemonMysteryDungeon'' spin offs, all the characters, including [[BalefulPolymorph the player]] talk using PokemonSpeak, but players read it in their language, this only happens in this sister series.

** However, this trope gets somewhat averted in ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolidVThePhantomPain'', where various enemies and [[NonPlayerCharacter NPCs]] can be heard speaking in untranslated Russian ([[UsefulNotes/RedsWithRockets Soviet Army soldiers]]), Pashto ([[UsefulNotes/SovietInvasionOfAfghanistan Afghan mujaheddin]] [[POWCamp POWs]]), Afrikaans ([[AmoralAfrikaner South African mercenaries]]), and Kikongo (the {{child soldiers}} from northern {{UsefulNotes/Angola}}). English subtitles for their speech will only be enabled if the player has recruited a respective Interpreter to join their [[PrivateMilitaryContractors Diamond Dogs]] staff at [[HomeBase Mother Base]].

** ''StreetFighter'' on the other hand (due to the nationality) has stated that characters speak in either English or Japanese with the translation convention going both ways. For example Ryu and Sakura are speaking Japanese, while Guile and Cammy are speaking english, with Chun Li pretty much speaking English, or Japanese depending on the situation. This is why Ryu has no accent (since TranslationConvention is going on) but Cammy sports an English accent. ''Street Fighter IV'' even allows players to choose which characters speak in English and which ones speak in Japanese.

** Scaled down in ''VideoGame/JadeEmpire'', another Bioware game, where half the {{NPC}}s speak [[AsLongAsItSoundsForeign the old tongue]], but all the [=PCs=] (and, it's implied, everyone in the empire) know this language perfectly, so you always get the subtitles.

* Speaking of Metroid, ''VideoGame/MetroidDread'' would play this trope straight with the Chozo. However, the Chozo are only shown speaking their own language (Aside from [[spoiler:Raven Beak impersonating Adam]]), with English subtitles. Interestingly, they do seem to have a proper ConLang, as most of the Chozo dialogue can be directly translated back to the subtitles without contradicting itself, with little exception.

* Speaking of Metroid, ''VideoGame/MetroidDread'' would play this trope straight with the Chozo. However, the Chozo are only shown speaking their own language (Aside from [[spoilers:Raven Beak impersonating Adam]]), with English subtitles. Interestingly, they do seem to have a proper ConLang, as most of the Chozo dialogue can be directly translated back to the subtitles without contradicting itself, with little exception.

* ''VisualNovel/TheGreatAceAttorney'' is a prequel to the ''Franchise/AceAttorney'' series that takes place both in Meiji-era Japan and Victorian London. While all the text is in Japanese or English depending on the game version, it's made clear that the characters are speaking English in the London segments (one case features a Russian juror who specifically comments that his English isn't very good), except possibly when the protagonists are talking to other Japanese characters. The English localization addresses this by having the characters use Japanese honorifics when speaking Japanese, and English titles when speaking English.