Tales of Hearts R localization confirmed (Winter 2014)

There's a lot wrong with it due to the localization (and probably the re-imagining) but I'm loving ToHR so far. It's weird - it's in full 3D, and the re-imagining got rid of the traditional 2D battles, but it feels more like a Tales game from the PS1 era than PS2 onward. It has a certain sort of charm to it that I feel has been missing from more recent entries in the series.

After playing through Graces, Xillia, and Xillia 2, I'm loving the return to the classic worldmap style of travel. The random battles get on my nerves sometimes, but on the  other hand I'm actually loving the fact that battles are random because it gives me a reason to use Holy Bottles again. Holy Bottles were a rather nostalgic part of my Tales experience back in the day, but with more modern titles where you can simply avoid the encounters there's no real need to waste Gald on them at all!

The plot's pretty good so far, but the whole "dragging around an emotionless girl" thing seems like retread ground for the series - and this time it's practically the whole game. (Presea

Spoiler:

in Symphonia, and to an extent Sophie in Graces all count as emotionless.)

Honestly, I thought the translation would bother me as much as the JoJo ASB changes and localization, but im actually enjoying it. I guess not playing the original and having zilch Japanese knowledge works well sometimes.

I kinda like some of the liberties they took with the dialogue.

I know very little Japanese, but it's enough that at times I can tell what's being said and what's in the text is like extremely different. Not wrong, but different. With entire sentences added to the script that weren't there at times. They also changed enough names that when certain people get addressed it drives me bonkers. I think I've gotten used to the Shing -> Kor thing, but it's also in the sense that I see "Kor" in the text and start anticipating "Shing" in the accompanying audio even before it's said. I react somewhat similarly to Japanese words I know.

That's understandable though.

I have an angrier reaction to the liberties in the JoJo game they decided to bring, but that's because I probably know more about the context of the lines than Namco themselves (inb4 someonebashesme).

But with this, I guess not playing the original version made me a bit more lenient. And I have to be honest, I laugh at some of the wackier lines they decided to add on.

I'm honestly enjoying this cast, surprisingly. It's been a while since I've actually enjoyed the whole cast of a Tales game.

Translators are always going to take liberties...and the Japanese habit of often not including the subject doesn't help.

As for Hearts R...almost bought a Vita TV for it. I know the physical western release probably won't get much of a print run and will be hard to find someday.

But if the liberties they took changed the feeling and emotion in a character's line, then screw them. (Johnny's GHA line in JoJo ASB. Fan translators of the manga do a better job than Namco).

I can basically play as anyone now in Hearts R. Gal is fun with his Axe manipulation.

To be honest, I feel like the localization is better than people are giving it credit for. I found a translated script of the original a while ago from 2008 and I took a quick look at it and, frankly, the differences are minor. Yes, things are reworded, but that's just it, they're reworded, not changed, with the exception of stuff that was changed in the Japanese version in general for Hearts R. I'm no expert in Japanese but I remember several words from watching stuff with subs and I found I was able to tell what was right and what was wrong. There are some stuff wrong, but I personally feel that it is much more passable than people are saying. I mainly don't like the name changes and some of the use of slang. The rest of my issues are with the game itself, but I'm enjoying it otherwise.

In terms of location names and enemy names the localization did a fantastic job IMO.

I feel like a lot of my problems stem from Hearts R compared to Hearts itself, in that now that its in English its very clear how much depth is lost in some places because of the cuts to the story. I do feel like this localization would benefit from not having the "some stuff wrong" Flamzeron mentioned though, those things really get on my nerves, but I have a giant bias towards Hearts so that does make sense.

I do give this localization a lot of crap, some of it I feel is justified, some I know I'm going overboard with. I'm happy that western audiences get to experience these characters at all, though!

It makes me sad that the Western audience can't experience both the original and R which both offer some good things to the Hearts story. R added a lot of extras that are great when you've played the original, and as a standalone game it feels a lot more generic, which is odd because it was only a few scenes (and one majorly changed scene) that were cut, but the original felt very not generic. Maybe the original was just more generic than I realized, or perhaps the small details on the DS added to the atmosphere, who knows.