Fates released! + Fire Emblem If 4Koma Kings Announced for Feb. 25th

Fire Emblem Fates released today in North America. I do hope they make an announcement for my friends in Europe soon… I am compiling things to compare over on serenesforest.net, and will soon start posting them rather regularly.

In other news, the game is also receiving a 4Koma book in Japan, titled: Fire Emblem If 4Koma Kings Sound familiar? That’s because there was a Fire Emblem Awakening 4Koma Kings that I translated in its entirety. It releases on February 25th, just a few days away!

This will differ slightly from the Fire Emblem if 4Koma Character Book as it will likely focus on random situations rather than per character.

I have already pre-ordered the book with the intention to translate the entire thing. This will make my third 4Koma project, so I do hope you look forward to it!

I do all the scanning/editing/translation by myself, and for free. But I do appreciate any and all donations people make to help keep the project going! If you’re feeling up to donating, and this link doesn’t work, then please click the button right over there on the right side of the page! : )

 

Fire Emblem Fates: Guide Updates/Plans

Today’s post is a brief update regarding all the Fire Emblem Fates material on this site.

First, Aqua/Azura’s song, “Lost in Thoughts All Alone” has been updated with its full lyrics. With this, I can finally compare it with the Japanese lyrics just to see the changes as I have done before with things like Ashley’s Theme in WarioWare.

Next, I will finally get around to doing a Fire Emblem Fates (well, technically if) review before the game’s release to give some final thoughts on the original version. Note that this will be written in a way that will make clear opinions, and that I still welcome discussion and will not berate anyone for disagreeing and such. I like to remain that reliably neutral source. xD A review may seem counter intuitive in that sense but it is mostly for those who were curious about my (personal) thoughts on the game. I hope to have this up soon.

There is a ton of stuff on Fire Emblem Fates‘s development inside the Making of Fire Emblem: 25 Years of Development Secrets that I hope to cover eventually, but will be focusing on finishing the Path of Radiance section first!

Lastly, I will slowly have to go through the Chapter Guide and Character Guide to update the names (as well as provide comparisons) with the officially localized . I’m keeping an eye on serenesforest’s name chart and such, and will likely rely on plenty other materials there to get this going, though will likely be a long term process, as I will be playing through the game itself, too!

If you have any other ideas for Fire Emblem Fates related content to cover, or specific things you may want compared when playing through the game yourself, please let me know, as I will have access to all paths (with the Special Edition), as well as all three paths in Japanese, so ideal way to compare them. : )

Happy Valentine’s Day! (2016) Japanese Culture Trivia + Misc Thoughts

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Taking a break from posting a translation today, with the shallow excuse of Valentine’s Day… either way a little busier today so here’s a post that isn’t really about anything in particular.

Did you know that in Japan, only girls give boys chocolate on Valentine’s Day rather than both giving to each other? There are many different types of chocolate, from “obligatory chocolate” [義理チョコ] (such as to a boss, colleague, etc), and “genuine chocolate” [本命チョコ] (given to those specifically intended, be they close friends, lovers, etc). A month later, on March 14th, the boys then have to pay them back, on a day known as “White Day.” The best part? They are expected to give back something that is “three times as valuable” [三倍返し] (as the usual saying goes, it does not literally have to be, but basically means not a simple mirror gift return). Now isn’t that just fun? Look up White Day on the net, you’ll run into some fun stuff on the matter!

Kantopia 2015 – Year in Review

Another short post quickly looking back on 2015. It was the 25th Anniversary for the Fire Emblem series, and it seems my portfolio/this blog kept true to that. Looking back, three major projects were completed this year. All three of them are Fire Emblem related, too!

January to April: Fire Emblem Awakening: Yonkoma Kings was the primary focus and completed!
May – August: Fire Emblem Fates pre-release information (via Famitsu), and then a complete guide (which includes a translated character guide, menu guide, chapter guide, story summary… and pretty much all things Fates!)
September – December: Fire Emblem Fates: 4Koma & Character Book started in September and ended right at the end in December.

That marks three major projects completed in one year, an accomplishment that I am quite proud of. According to the WordPress report, I posted something everyday with the average of 2 pictures uploaded per day, for a total of 907 new pictures! You can read the details here if curious. Considering this site is for personal use, I am quite humbled that so many people took interest as viewership has increased quite a bit.

I do not get paid per view or anything, though, as this is just a free blog. If you feel like supporting me in some fashion, I’m always happy to accept donations! It’s actually thanks to these donations that I was able to import some of the above books with ease and get to translating them for you myself and you all : )

Between all of these were various comparison posts between Japanese games and their localized counterparts in English, akin to how Legends of Localization goes about doing things. They were quite enjoyable and gave a greater understanding of how things work when it comes to the process. There was also plenty of Famitsu translations, a Splatoon manga, and a few things from the 25th Anniversary Book for Fire Emblem.

All in all a good year. Some future projects for this year may include Fire Emblem: Akaneia Chronicles character profiles. I hope to do more comparisons, and focus more on other things such as Pokemon, too!

I’m continuing to look for translation work, primarily in Nintendo of America or the Pokemon Company, so if you know anyone who can put me in touch with someone who can give me more information on the matter, please let me know. : )

Happy New Year!

Taking a break from translation today (due to being ill, not because it’s a holiday). Tomorrow I hope to review all that was translated in 2015, and the day after perhaps give a preview of what is to come! I still have several Fire Emblem books to look into, and beyond Fire Emblem I hope to start writing more about Pokemon and comparing things from some of the newer games together (for instance, Espurr and distracting Watchog in not so subtle flirtation xD)

Thank you to everyone who donated. This made it possible to import some of the books that I eventually translated, so hope that came in handy. It helped build my own portfolio too. If you’re still feeling charitable, well by all means feel free to donate on the button that is located on the right side of the page. : )

I hope to write a review of Legend of Localization’s first book, too. It certainly was a fun read, I can say in advance I recommend it to anyone who is interested in the differences in Japanese and English NES games, as well as how things change when they go to English audiences.

Happy Holidays!

To those who celebrate Christmas, I hope you have a good time! For everyone else, happy holidays! Have a Delibird for your trouble! (Translations will continue tomorrow).

Trivia: Delibird has the exact same name in Japanese, with the similar sound to “delivered.” Hope your gifts were delibird on time this year!

No translations today (due to JLPT)

No translations today as it’s the JLPT (Japanese Language Proficiency Test) around the world. I myself am participating, and hoping for good results.

Translations will continue as usual tomorrow!

Tsukimi 2015: A Super Bloody Harvest Moon Eclipse Viewing

A very brief trivia post today, but did you by chance witness the Super Blood Moon that occurred Sunday and into early Monday morning?

It also happened to land on “Tsukimi” 月見 (lit. “moon viewing”) In Japan, a fall tradition is to view the Harvest Moon (which this also was…)

That made this particular phenomena with the Moon quite special! It was a Super Moon, Blood Moon, Harvest Moon, and hence, the Tsukimi as well.

The more you know!

Fire Emblem Fates Guide Progress [8/13]

Hello everyone! If you follow this site you know it is still a blog that functions as a portfolio, and I like to upload at least one work a day. But, with this game, I did not want to make scattered posts and instead consolidated relevant information into large macro posts.

I decided to fill that quota, I can still mention the translations/works I did for the game today and going forward!

As usual, this is all done on my free time, and takes awhile. It can be a lot of work, but I do hope you enjoy! I am unemployed… so please consider donating if you like the work I do. : )

UPDATES:

Newest (Complete) Character Profile: Ryouma

Newest Chapter: Paralogue 2  (Kanna), can be seen on Chapter Page. Summary post hopefully up tomorrow!

NEED TO BE DONE:

• Remaining character epilogues/titles/death quotes.
• Sidequest/Paralogue/Child Quest chapter data and summaries.
• Weapons and Bonus Stats (though, you can find a handy resource for that over on serenesforest.net)

COMPLETED:

• Basic character profiles/all portraits!
• All maps for main story missions, and basic map data and chapter data with it.
• Chapter summaries for Hoshido, Nohr, Touma, the Prologue, and the Awakening DLC.

A lesson on NDA’s and thoughts on Nintendo’s firing of Chris Pranger

Dear @Thechrispranger: Hang in there. We all make mistakes — we kissed a princess once. Things will get better. pic.twitter.com/SwHt1rVOlb

— Sonic the Hedgehog (@sonic_hedgehog) August 13, 2015

This is just a brief post in wake of former localizer Chris Pranger being laid off from Nintendo due to some recent comments he made on a podcast last week.

It was a little sad reading the heartfelt remarks from his facebook post (now deleted). His dream of working for the company resonated with me, and I would have never thought that his few remarks in the podcast would ever lead to him losing his job.

Well, turned out it did. I cannot even begin to imagine how that feels, after all that post of his gives the harsh realities of being laid off in general. Health, family, all that goes right out the window. I know that people get laid off everyday and go unheard of (though if we actually had a glimpse of all their stories, our hearts would probably melt the same way). It is just that this one was made more public via gaming media, and especially in a way that has resonated with me too.

Fan response has been quite mixed. On one hand people say he deserved it for breaking an NDA’s (Non-Disclosure Agreements). This makes sense indeed, an NDA must be adhered too no matter what company you are in. However, it becomes a question of what was violated and what happened as a response. It seems that the ridiculing of the fanbase (mostly targeting the “why do you hate money Nintendo?” comments) was a blow in terms of public relations (according to what people said) which led to this.

Personally, I would say a warning of the violation or another strike off would have been more fair before directly canning him from his dream job. But of course, we would not know the full story. It is possible, as fans state, that this could have been the last straw after several other violations. Who knows? Much like the articles I write on localization, it’s all speculation that will not go one way or the other.

It has been nice to see an out pour of sympathy though.

These things happen, and there is not much that we as observers can do beyond learn from them.

I wish him (and people in similar situations) all the best and hope he can get through these hard times and move on to a job he may not have realized was a dream until he got there.