Category Archives: editorial

PSA: BlazBlue’s dub is quietly being killed off.

Posted by cj_iwakura on

 

 

I’ve made the rounds with this as much as I can; to several forums I visit, twitter, and even Reddit. Not really picking up any steam. Doubt a little blog post will make a difference, but the least I can do is try.

 

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So Guilty Gear Xrd had a dub. No one really expected it, but no one complained much either(to my knowledge, anyway). No game before it had a dub. And apparently Xrd will be the last: Revelator did not receive a dub at all. So in a way, it was back to the status quo.

BlazBlue is a COMPLETELY different story.


For FIVE releases now(CT, CS, CSE, CP, CPE), each game has been fully dubbed, and as the above video hopefully shows, very well.

However, there’s been no word about the forthcoming Central Fiction console release having a dub. Not only is this the last game in the series, it also sends two bad messages: one, that the dub is no longer important.

And much worse, that neither Aksys(https://twitter.com/aksysgames) nor Arc System Works(https://twitter.com/ArcSystemWorksU) care to comment. Nor will the localization company they’ve outsourced to, Strangely Compelling(https://twitter.com/itscompelling).

I’ve asked them all for comment repeatedly, as have fans, to no avail.

I was flat-out told that Aksys no longer oversee the BB localizations. It’s all up to Arc System Works, who in turn outsourced it. So we’ve had nothing but silence to go by… until Patrick Seitz himself, the voice of Ragna, finally chimed in.

Cristina Vee(the voice of Noel) joined in as well, adding another nail to the CF dub coffin.

Not looking good, is it?

So there’s one of two things that can happen. Well, three, but I’d say the third is about as likely as Yoko Taro securing the Democratic Nomination.

  1. Sit back and let the dub quietly die, which I’m sure fans if not Aksys will quietly confirm at launch.
  2. Give them hell. Blitz Aksys and ArcSys’ twitter and send every media contact you know an email. No media sites have covered this, and I’ve emailed just about every major one of note. Here’s a few!  siliconera@gmail.com,  editor@gematsu.com, bashcraft@kotaku.com, jason@kotaku.com. I’ve emailed all four, and none of those three sites have covered the story. Maybe if enough people make noise, they will. Not bloody likely, but hey, we tried.
  3. The dub actually happens, whether it was planned all along or we change their minds(ha). Again, not counting on this at all.

So hopefully this was enlightening at worst, causes you to take some action at best. Don’t let the dub die without a fight.

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Tsubaki is counting on you.

[EDITORIAL] Playism and ZUN’s treatment of Touhou is unacceptable.

Posted by cj_iwakura on

I usually don’t use this site to soapbox, but if you’re reading this, I assume you’re into niche games, and at very least have heard of the omnipresent Touhou franchise.

If by some chance you haven’t, it’s a long-running shmup series basically created by one guy: a doujin/indie developer who goes by ZUN. He does it all: programming, music, art, and story.

ZUN is an extremely talented and prolific individual, and I’ll never contest that.

What I will say is that he comes across as one of the most stubborn, prideful developers in the industry, and he’s only doing him and his works harm as a result.

ZUN is notoriously protective of Touhou, to the point that he has yet to allow anyone to make an anime out of the franchise, despite what I can assume are dozens of lucrative offers.

He additionally has refused to let the games see official localization. Although there is a very devout fan community that continue to translate and patch his games for them to receive wider notice, his pride continues to belittle their efforts by refusing to let the games get any proper release, dooming them to a tiny niche.

This brings me to Playism.

The Touhou community was abuzz with the news that Playism had struck a deal with ZUN to release the newest title, Touhou 14: Double Dealing Character, digitally on PC.

This was unexpected, and a great cause for optimism. Maybe ZUN had lightened up! Maybe Touhou was finally getting the official globalization it deserved!

Except… the game was completely untranslated. Menus, story, EVERYTHING was left in Japanese.

http://playism-games.com/game/215/double-dealing-character

At ZUN’s insistence.

That neither the media or community has expressed outrage at this is beyond me.

It is unacceptable in this day and age to expect players to pay money for a lazy localization.

I’m sure there’s people out there who think that this is just a shooting game, and localization doesn’t matter.

Well, people say the same thing about BlazBlue in regards to its story mode. But there are people who play those story modes. There are people who care. And they deserve just as much respect as those who play the games to dodge ridiculous amounts of bullets. (Personally, I play them for both.)

It’s entirely possible that Playism had no control. Maybe ZUN’s stipulation was that they could only release it untranslated.

If that really is the case(and I believe it is), then were I in Playism’s shoes, I’d have told ZUN to get lost. It’s not worth the reputation, the insult to fans’ intelligence(especially when they had it patched within days), or catering to ZUN’s foolish pride.

As an aside, some may mention that Touhou games have begun to finally see some official release on Sony’s platforms… except these are only fan made ones.


All the games so far have been derivatives of Touhou works, nothing from the mainline series.

If this is the precedent that ZUN hopes to set in western territories with his franchise, then maybe it really is meant to stay over there. If ZUN doesn’t care about us, then we have no obligation to care about him.