What translation do you prefer?

I personally prefer the Nicalis translation, but I'm curious to hear what you guys think?

 

I used to prefer the AG, but once I actually started playing Cave Story+, I found myself not actually noticing a lot of the differences. Still, I think there are some moments, when compared side to side, where I lean more towards the AG, just because I feel like the dialogue adds more character, like when Toroko refers to the Doctor as a “mean guy” rather than an “evil man” (or something like that; I can’t exactly remember).

But, I dunno, maybe the Google translated version blows those two versions out of the water.

 

Probably Aeon Genesis because that's how I first played the game, and like Random-storykeeper said, I think a lot of lines have more character than in the Nicalis version.

That's just my opinion tho

 

I resorted to eating cockroaches, ha ha just kidding...

...unless?


NICALiS translation has a buncha unnecessary changes that make it omega cringe, though I can understand why they did what they did.

 

Spoiler: And that's all you need to know.

 

I prefer the Nicalis translation because it feels more natural to me. The AGTP translation is good too, but it has some mistakes and I feel like it's too verbose, almost like reading a novel.

 

AGTP solely for the fact that it's more quirky. It's not like other girls...

 

The "clever harrier" line felt incredibly forced. Other than that I have no issues with the Nicalis translation.

 

both have their pros and cons for me, while nicalis is technically more accurate, i feel it does lose a bit of charm and words some lines more awkwardly, and on the other hand, some of the dialogue between characters in AGTP feels weird (like kazuma's messages to sue), and it does have its mistranslations.

overall i like certain lines in each version. i first played cave story on steam, so i do have a great deal of nostalgia for the nicalis translation, but ever since i got into modding, i haven't played CS+ a whole lot compared to how much i read through the AGTP scripts, so it does kinda feel a bit weird to play through.

 

I think the Nicalis translation is a somewhat americanized one for some reasons, the replace of "Huzzah!" to "Oh Yeah !", give me the impression that they wanted to make the game easy to read and understand and to make the american players be able to identify they're culture into Cave Story, I'm totally fine with whatever tf the Nicalis translation did.

a̶l̶s̶o̶,̶ ̶s̶h̶o̶u̶d̶n̶'̶t̶ ̶i̶t̶ ̶b̶e̶ ̶"̶W̶h̶i̶c̶h̶"̶ ̶i̶n̶s̶t̶e̶a̶d̶ ̶o̶f̶ ̶"̶W̶h̶a̶t̶"̶
What ?

 

give me the impression that they wanted to make the game easy to read and understand and to make the american players be able to identify they're culture into Cave Story

This weirdly reminds me of a certain scene from the original English dub of DBZ that Funimation did in the 2000s. I'm docking points off of Nicalis' translation for not saying anything being mondo cool.

 

This weirdly reminds me of a certain scene from the original English dub of DBZ that Funimation did in the 2000s. I'm docking points off of Nicalis' translation for not saying anything being mondo cool.

I wonder if pixel had any involvement to the translation

 

I wonder if pixel had any involvement to the translation

I'd hope so, but i'm not 100% sure.

 

AGTP solely for the fact that it's more quirky. It's not like other girls...

i agree aeon genesis always

 

I wonder if pixel had any involvement to the translation

According to an interview he did.
That said, the translation team consisted of two Japanese people whose native language probably isn't English.
Likely as a result of that, although the NiCALiS translation may sometimes be more accurate ("Nikumaru" -> "290", etc.), it often comes off as flat by comparison ("to come along with us. I beg you. Take that girl with you and flee." -> "She had no choice but to follow us to the island. Please. Take her and escape.").
And some it comes off as completely unnatural. ("I haven't lost yet! I'm gonna take it serious^[sic] now!" (unnatural phrase with improper grammar) -> "Hey, I'm not dead yet! You're gonna eat it this time!!" (characterises her a a brat) and "Grasslands" -> "Bushlands"??)
A couple of years ago I found that the way Google Translate translated Cave Story was eerily similar to the NiCALiS translation, particularly in terms of the wording. It's probably quite different now, but I think that that well demonstrates how literal of a translation it is.

The "clever harrier" line felt incredibly forced. Other than that I have no issues with the Nicalis translation.

Ugh, I hate that line.

 

Since this discussion is being had again, I'll once again copy what I've written before on this subject:

Basically I like the Aeon Genesis translation much better because it flows much more naturally. The NICALiS translation is awkward, lacks heart and emotion, and sometimes doesn't make much sense. This is a little bit subjective, but most people would agree that the NICALiS translation is dry and flat compared to the fan translation. For example, Booster's dying line "I pray for your victory" was changed to a much less meaningful "Best of... luck...". Or the description of the Iron Bond "Your tie to Curly Brace, the only warrior you would trust your back to. Surely you will meet again one day..." changed to "Your connection to Curly Brace, the only person you trust. You'll see each other again...". Another change that really baffled me was the difference in the way Booster talks when you talk to him if you have the Mimiga mask. His original response "I'm truly sorry for the chaos that has befallen your island. We humans must take the blame." was changed to "I'm sorry. We've ruined your island. We humans are evil." And of course let's not forget Balrog's catchy line "Huzzah" being changed to "Oh Yeah." As far as I'm aware, the NICALiS translation is more accurate and literal, but the fact that it's also so poorly written in terms of often not having believable conversational dialogue makes the gaming experience less enjoyable.

 

I prefer the AG translation because it gave the dialog more of an impact, and it characterized the game a whole lot more. Some good examples of this are found above (Good job, @HaydenStudios). I still enjoy the Nicalis translation, though. They could've done worse...

 

Spoiler: Lies spread by a complete lunatic

They could've done worse...

Unfortunately, that phrase is almost universally applicable, and softens a blow about as much as a dry palm leaf.
Consider this:
They could have just taken the AGTP translation and switched a few words out using a thesaurus.
But, they could've done worse.
They could've run the whole thing through Google Translate and then given up.
Well, they could've done worse.
They could've run the whole thing through Bing Translator.
*shudders* ... but they could've done worse...
They could've not even translated the game at all!
They could've done worse...
They could've taken every second word from the original the text and replaced it with an English racial slur.
They could've done worse...
They could've made every textbox crash the game with invalid characters.
They could've done worse...
They could've reprogrammed the message boxes to format your hard-drive and install a new operating system that tells you to learn Japanese, and then boot loops.
They could've done worse...
They could've used fluffy yet engaging dialogue to divert you from your computer being hijacked by the game to be part of a bot-net sending messages to Kim Jong-un that instiagate a missile launch resulting in world destruction.



Yeah but they could've done worse.

 

Spoiler: Lies spread by a complete lunatic

Unfortunately, that phrase is almost universally applicable, and softens a blow about as much as a dry palm leaf.
Consider this:
They could have just taken the AGTP translation and switched a few words out using a thesaurus.
But, they could've done worse.
They could've run the whole thing through Google Translate and then given up.
Well, they could've done worse.
They could've run the whole thing through Bing Translator.
*shudders* ... but they could've done worse...
They could've not even translated the game at all!
They could've done worse...
They could've taken every second word from the original the text and replaced it with an English racial slur.
They could've done worse...
They could've made every textbox crash the game with invalid characters.
They could've done worse...
They could've reprogrammed the message boxes to format your hard-drive and install a new operating system that tells you to learn Japanese, and then boot loops.
They could've done worse...
They could've used fluffy yet engaging dialogue to divert you from your computer being hijacked by the game to be part of a bot-net sending messages to Kim Jong-un that instiagate a missile launch resulting in world destruction.



Yeah but they could've done worse.

You do have a valid point...

...but that wasn't meant to soften any blow. It's meant to be a statement. Nicalis' translation was not so good, but it's not so bad that you have to chuck the game out the metaphorical (or literal, if you have the Switch version or Cave Story 3D) window; in-fact, it's still somewhat enjoyable. That's what I was trying to say. So, let's try not to blow things out of proportion, yeah?

 

He could've done worse.