That's because the Japanese equivalent to quotation marks are brackets that look like this 「」. Outside of being used to denote character speech separate from narration, it's common to use those brackets on things like work names, a proper noun or concept you're introducing, something you want to put emphasis on, or a group of words you want to separate out from the rest of the sentence for ease of reading.
Funny enough, these brackets aren't usually for quotes within character speech, and almost never to denote a character is unsure of what something is called or to be sarcastic like English quotation marks are used. This is mostly because Japanese has a way to verbally indicate something as being a quote or something you've heard, via adding と (to) or more casually って (tte) after the word or phrase. So if a character is quoting something or unsure of something's name then that's indicated grammatically by how they talk about it rather than needing any visual indicator for the audience's sake like quotation marks.
Indeed. All the games I've played in Japanese use the brackets to indicate a concept or a proper noun that's important to the game lore somehow. Many times, it's a made-up term. Some even use a different colour to indicate it and that carries over to the translated text - like in FFX.
A lot of things are hard-coded in Japanese dialogue cause traditionally game development has been a bit of the wild west.
Edited by lu127 on Aug 2nd 2024 at 9:39:33 PM
"If you aren't him, then you apparently got your brain from the same discount retailer, so..." - FighteerFinished Chapter Two and its substory so here are more localization changes:
- The side stories are still stylized (-White Shadow-)
- Both Asuka and Mitsuki have their Red Baron nicknames changes (Spirit Sword Wielder to Astral Blade; White Maiden to the Holy Sorceress).
- Sora's grunting has been made less literal.
- Instead of a reference to The Odyssey, the question is about how make a sentence in future tense (the answer is "I won't forget this journey").
- Chapter 2 has been renamed from -Mysteries- to The Greed.
- Correction on my last post regarding the Eclipse: The Eclipse refers to the phenomena of people being transported to the Otherworld Labyrinth. The lore is a little confusing lol.
- Kou uses anime and light novel rather than comic book (more accurate to the original Japanese version).
- The side quests have been renamed: "I dropped My Precious...Wallet" is now "My Precious" and "Caffenating my Third Eye" is now "Morimiya Runs on Fury".
- I noticed that some of the sidequest and side stories inner monologues by the characters are now in the third person rather than the first person.
- There is more unique dialogue for the obtainable items in Kou's room:
Retranslation: The cactus sits on the shelf, happy and spiky.
- Elder Greed is still in proper caps.
- Everyone has been un-Fawfulized. The *chortles* are no more.
We have a clip of a death end in Death end re;Quest Code Z
4th post in a row! Here are some more localization changes found in TX's switch port.
- Aoi's nickname for Yuuki is now "Yuuki-Boo".
- The book Tokyo Disasters: A Primer is now The Tokyo Earthquake: A Primer
- Multiple sidequests have been renamed:
- Pursuit of (Overdue) Knowledge is Due Today, Not Tome-morrow
- Tofu Maker's Soul is Tofu Trader's Trusty Trumpet
- Eclipse Searching is Rift Compatible
- Surfing the Netscape is Struggling in the Database
- I Got No Sole is Poor Unfortunate Soles
- Wanted: Fleet-Footed Female is Run, Sora, Run
- Diamond in the Rough is Shine, On You Crazy Diamond
- Spartan Training is This is Sparta...n Training!
- More new item descriptions:
- The SPiKA posters cheer you on from beyond the poster.
- Morimaru says hello from high up. Forsooth!
- The old telescope sits there. Too bad its not nighttime or you could do some stargazing.
- The HELM poster sits on the wall. Rock on.
- The Perfectly Catty book is now Kitty Talk for Dummies
- Morimiya's Newsflash is also renamed "Mysteries, Accidents and Apps, Oh My!"
- Sora uses emotes in messages
- *Towa Stare*
- Food items (specifically the fails) have been renamed:
- Too Damn Hard -> Rock Hard Brick
- Too Damn Sour -> Sourful Sorrow
- Gelatinous Goo is the same
- BLAZE and CHAOS is now just Blaze and Chaos
Double post but this has been in my mind for a while. If Tokyo Xanadu had an English cast, here is my cast list:
- Kou: Chris Hackney
- Asuka: Erica Mendez
- Sora: Cassandra Lee Morris
- Yuuki: Bryce Papenbrook
- Shio: Justice Slocum
- Mitsuki: Lauren Landa
- Rion: Bonnie Gordon
- Shiori: Kimberly Brooks
- Ryota: Ryan Colt Levy
- Jun: Lucien Dodge
- Gorou: Yuri Lowenthal
Alright, Chapter 5, the Intermission and Chapter 6 of TX done. Here are the localization changes, but bare in mind we are reaching more spoilery territory.
- Quest renames:
- Gift for a friend -> Do It For The Vine
- Ingredients from the Eclipse -> Ingredients, Diven-In and Dives
- The Model...Model -> Morimiya's Next Top Model
- One More Into The Brooch... is the same albeit it was the "Into" was changed to "Unto" and removed the elipses (One More Unto the Brooch)
- Lights Camera ACTION is the same but with exclamation points on each end (Light! Camera! ACTION!)
- Bizarre Liquid Gathering -> Looking for Law-Breaking Liquids
- Tsubasa's Day Off is the same
- Daddy's Keepsake -> Strapped for Keepsakes
- Kou Room item descriptions:
- The Pom & Mona cushions greet you happily. You'll figure out who they are one day.
- The MegaStation 4 sits there yearning to bee played with. Did you actually buy games for it?
- The comfortable, luxurious bed set sits on you bed, ever tempting. A nap sounds nice actually.
- The Magical Alisa figure cheers you on. Try not to think about the price tag.
- Shooting Star Love is the same but without quote marks.
- Spanish Rice is now Taco Rice
- The Tokyo Walking Guide book is now The Best of Tokyo
- The Too Damn Spicy failed dish is now Spice-A-Million
- Asuka's infamous "Taking the L" line is changed to "All right, you win".
- Witch of the Misty Castle has a "the" now (The Witch of the Misty Castle)
- Level S and Level SSS is now S-Level and SSS-Level
- The Mist Witch is now renamed to Nebula Magia
- Maiden and the Silent Flame is now The Sorceress and the Silent Flame (though only in the save file)
- Morimiya Mystery Explorers are now only Mystery Explorers
- Boobs have been replaced with chests
- Mythological class is changed to simply "mythical"
- Kou's rant about being in "perpetual adolescence" is now him being "embarrassing".
- Rem's name as the "Child of the Eclipse" has been changed into "Child of the Otherworld". Likewise, her self-proclaimed nickname as the "Wanderer of the Void" is changed to "Interstitial Wanderer"
- In the save files, White Shadow II is now "White Shadow, Black Knight"
- The X.R.C is now XRC (without the periods)
- Cloud Disk is now Chunky HDD
- Instead of calling Towa the m-word (likely due to it being an offensive term for people with dwarfism), Kou instead called Towa "short stuff"
- In the OG translation, Seijuuro's name was spelled as "Seijyuuro". This translation uses the former spelling.
- Song of Disaster is now Song of Ruin
- The lyrics of Shooting Star Love have been rewritten
Never thing you're less than others! Let your own feeling ring!
When you sing, you have to let your convictions shine!
You can't only rely on what-ifs all the time!
- Seraph of Despair is now Seraphin Aura
- The side story boss, Noa Grendel is now Light Grendel
Edited by Ayumi-chan on Aug 17th 2024 at 12:37:39 AM
She/Her | Currently cleaning: N/AYesterday I finished Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth - Hacker's Memory, and thus the entirety of Digimon Story Cyber Sleuth: Complete Edition. Between the two games, it took me over 135 hours, albeit a lot of that was just me dicking around with filling out my Field Guide by constantly digivolving stuff.
It was a fun romp. If you liked Cyber Sleuth, you'll like this, and if you didn't like that game, you likely won't like this. I think I liked Cyber Sleuth's story a bit more, but on the flip side I like Hacker's Memories' characters more.
Not the biggest fan of the endings of either game though. But it is what it is.
I still can't beat the VenomMyotismon superboss in Cyber Sleuth even though I beat every other superboss.
Edited by lalalei2001 on Aug 14th 2024 at 3:22:07 PM
The Protomen enhanced my life.I'm at the final stretch of chapters in TX's Switch version so here are all the stuff I found. Be warned that we are entering major spoiler territory so don't click the folder if you want to buy the game.
- Quest Renames (Chapter 7):
- X.R.C. Interview -> What the XRC Does In The Shadows
- In Search off... -> Where is in the World is Airi?
- Treasure Beyond Time -> Treasure that Transcends Time
- Summer Shilling -> Friends with Morimaru
- Different Strokes -> Splashing Free
- The Mumbawamba is renamed to Super Sucker 9000
- The "Let's Rockstar" manga is now "Rockin' the World"
- Kou Room Item Description for the Roomba:
- Kou turned on the Super Sucker 9000. Look at that suction go!
- The Super Sucker 9000 isdoing its thing, just sucking...up dirt. It'll turn itself off once there's nothing left to suck.
- Kou's "fukkleducks" line was removed.
- "Frozen Pond at Memorial Park" is renamed to "Frozen Lake at Memorial Park"
- "Paranormal Activity in Morimiya" is now "A Series of Paranormal Events"
- Breed of Dawn is now Twilight Breed
- The Box of Disaster — Pandora is now The Harbringer of Doom — Pandora's Box
- The Barrier Device Talisman is now apothropiac barrier device
- Golden Element is now Golden Stone
- Noble weapons are Noble gears
- Hidden sidequests in the Final Chapter:
- Armor of Righteouness -> Armored Chore
- Fantastical Foraging -> Soup Kitchen From Another World
- Spika-Boo! is the same but the B is "boo!" is now capitalized
- Cure For What Ails -> Antitode for Otherworld Ailments
- The Pillar Bosses are also renamed:
- Pillar of Darkness -> Cocytus Pillar
- Pillar of Eternity -> Lethe Pillar
- Pillar of Refinement -> Phlegethon Pillar
- The Pillar Bosses are also renamed:
- Galon Guardian -> Gulua Galon
- Seediq Guardian -> Gulua Seediq
- Azure Guardian -> Gulua Azura
- The "It's...somthing" failed dish is now "Mysterious Whatever"
- "Has Armageddon Come?!" is now "Have The End Times Arrived?!"
- Burning Grass is now Hellfire Grass
- Pandora's levels have been renamed:
- Box - Road of Interstice -> Pandora - Path of Interstices
- Box - Road of Division -> Pandora - Path of Boundaries
- Box - Road of Rebirth -> Pandora - Path of the Afterlife
- Box - Road of Infinity -> Pandora - Path of the Afterlife
- Box - Final Corridor is the same but replaces Box with Pandora
- Shiori's title as "Princess of Doom" is renamed to "She of Afterlight"
- Ravenous Chaos is now Divine Beast of Calamity
- Princess of Doom is now She Who Brings the Ruinous Afterlight
- Quests in the Epilogue
- Lights, Camera, Action! Part Duex -> Lights! Camera! ACTION! 2 Electric Boogaloo
- The Show Must Go On! -> Stepping in for the Idol Masters
- International Girl of Mystery is the same
- Ten Years Gone -> You Will (Not) Avoid Home
- The Nine-Tailed Fox is now Nine-Tailed Beast
Now on to the After-Story. There are more from the main game I missed but after I finish AF, I'll take a break before starting a NG+ playthrough, since I have quite a bit on my gamelog (and haven't been able to beat the final boss Octopath II).
She/Her | Currently cleaning: N/AFinished After-Story now. More localization changes but be warned that there are endgame spoilers in here
- Quest Renames:
- A Season of Selling -> This is Halloween
- The Great Pumpkin...s... -> Pumpkin Spice and Everything Nice
- I Sing the Brew Fest Electric -> Lager Than Life
- Nice Boat! is the same
- Dance for Me, Morimaru! Dance -> Dance, Morimaru, Dance!
- The message for putting flyers is changed but I don't recall how much:
- They began to put up the flyers
- They posted another flyer for all to see
- They posted another flyer conspicuously
- One more flyer that's embraced its purpose
- Another flyer has embraced its destiny
- One more flyer on the wall
- The flyer met its new friend, wall
- Another flyer put in its place
- Another Wall, another flyer
- Another flyer fulfilling its purpose. Good job, little flyer!
- One more flyer erected
- The Twilight Apostle voice messages doesn't have corrupted text (eXaMpLe)
- Boundary of Exhaustion is now Boundary of Blood
- Viridian Path is now Emerald Waterway
- Amber Waterway is the same
- Frost Demon Path is now Ice Demon Path
- Boundary of Tears is now Boundary of Blue Tears
- Boundary of Death is now Sky Tomb Boundary
- Mythical Greed: Specter of Twilight is now Mythical 3X Greed: Vesper Umbra
- Here is Rem's Sequel Hook speech from both the OG version and the Switch version:
- OG: *Giggle* Of course I do...on all counts. I am an "Observer" after all. Short version is everything happened because it was supposed to—Including the appearance of the "Box". That all I can tell you...For now anyway.[...]—What happened this time around was something not even I could predict. I wonder if that signals the coming of a true "beginning"...In this world...Or perhaps it's even possible "something" will happen somewhere else.[...]*chuckle* Never you mind. But keep in mind there will be a time when you will have to "choose" yet again. And when that time does come, what course of action you humans decide upon— I'll be there, watching. And I await the day there's an "answer".
- Switch: Heehee. Of course I know. I am an Observer, after all. I suppose the best way to put it is...Everything happened because it was supposed to. Including the Box appearing. That's all I can tell you. For now anyway[...]Even so, what happened this time was something not even I could have predicted. It could be that this all was an omen of a true beginning. Whether that's here...or somewhere else entirely.[...]In any case, there will be a time when you will face a decision yet again. And when that time does come, I wonder what humans will choose? For now, I'll continue watching until that answer comes.
I'll play NG+ another since I want to finish some other games.
She/Her | Currently cleaning: N/AGood news Visions of Mana releases today. Bad news This Twitter post says the studio behind the game will be shut down
.
Dear lord the industry has shed more jobs this year than we can possibly imagine. We are really gonna feel a drought in a few years.
... I've been playing Chained Echoes i could have sworn it had a dedicated thread.
You are not alone.![]()
I wonder if a Game-Breaking Bug will be found shortly after rollout when nobody's around to patch it.

The impression I get is that the original translation wasn't bad exactly, but it was rushed and didn't have as much attention dedicated to it as it needed.
Although I did hear once that when you get weird formatting in a translation, that's sometimes inserted by the Japanese studio when they do the programming for the translation. A lot of PS 1 RPGs have bizarre formatting hiccups and it's really hard to imagine that someone who knows English would have added them, but no, in a lot of cases, it was someone on the Japanese side who knows a little English but not much going like "oh yes, you use quotation marks to highlight a word in English, right?" when the answer is like...sometimes, but rarely, and it's more an indicator that you think that's what the term is, but you're not sure.
Like..."I've heard it's called a "soul device", but I'm not sure" is a correct way to do it. But "I picked up the "soul device" and held it" comes off as unnatural because it makes you sound unsure of what it's called. But if you're vaguely sort of okay at English as a second language in a pinch but never really use it in a conversational context, then weird formatting problems tend to sneak in, and because someone on the Japanese end is like, inserting the text, that can creep in without actually changing the literal translation.
One thing I have seen coming from Japanese speakers who are not terrible at English but not exactly good either is that they seem to use quotation marks where the appropriate formatting is to italicize a lot.
Edited by Zendervai on Aug 2nd 2024 at 12:21:42 PM