Saki-Endo

Saki-Endo

Somewhere buried in my Rubbish Heap

Comments 33

Re: Review: EverDrive GBA Pro - Praise The Sun!

Saki-Endo

This sure looks tempting but my X5 mini is still doing solid service, and I already own the couple of motion based games I want for the GBA but the Boktai support is intriguing. Just imagine a later revision with rumble for Drill Dozer....A girl can dream

Re: "No Human Proofreading Pass" - Langrisser V Gets An AI-Driven Translation Patch

Saki-Endo

I think the translation sphere is quite a contested space. On the one hand, I know from years of studying Japanese that the more I learned, as the old adage goes, I only became more aware of my shortcomings and the true scale of what's involved.

To get to where I am has taken years of dedication, literally studying every day almost for at least an hour, taking tests, living in the country for over 5 years and do I "know it all" now. Of course not!

I recognise that for me there is a sense that I personally want to have this knowledge and ability within myself. I needed to know the language when I needed my van serviced in Japan; I needed to understand Kansai dialect with Tomiyama-san and to have our long rambling chats about our travels around the country! Or when I broke my wrist and had 2 weeks in hospital in Ichinoseki and had to go through two surgeries and communicate with doctors, nurses and anaesthetists!

But...that's me, and I have to acknowledge my own pride in knowing the language and what it has taken, is not to be confused with or taken against those who will find how useful some of these AI and/or translation tools available to the wider masses who have no inclination to learn the language.

They have come on a long way, but they do still produce quite stilted unnatural translations or just flat out get things wrong, and not just because of the dropped subject issue in Japanese vs English. They'll continue to improve to the point of being good enough.

Honestly, I can see the future being that the translator becomes more of a proof reader and in many cases some have been for a while now. By proof reader, I mean looking at the source and machine translation and adjusting at sentence level and taking into account the wider passage's tone. When it comes to video games or manga or whatever involves characters, maybe speaking to the creator to get that sense of who the character is allows the translator to get into the character's shoes.

Recently, Yuji Horii was unfairly critiqued in English media for supposedly saying English is a simpler language than Japanese therefore the nuance of the original can't be put across. That's not what he said, he was saying there are some things that just plain don't exist in English that do in Japanese and therefore it takes a very skilful translator to articulate that nuance of a character. The irony of his "lost in translation" comments being "lost in translation" was not lost on me....

Anyway probably a bit tldr but I care about this stuff

Re: Random Game Saturday: Langrisser III (Sega Saturn)

Saki-Endo

It's not impossible, a grain of sand a day stacked will one day make a mountain.

Honestly, to get to a point where you can read more or less all of what they teach kids in Japanese class (the so-called Jouyou - everyday - kanji), and of course hiragana/katakana, get to a fluent speaking state with good listening comprehension and a vocabulary of well over 10,000+ words took me 8 years with 5 years of living in Japan.

It can be done, I am nearly 43. It requires persistence, patience and determination more than anything else.

I run a YouTube channel dedicated to helping learners as well as those who have no intention of learning Japanese understand a bit more about mostly Japanese exclusive games and what level of Japanese is required if any. I won't mention what it is here as it's advertising.

I can highly recommend the Langrisser I & II package on PlayStation if you've reached a high level with your Japanese (JLPT N1 or so).

Re: These Photos Of Old Japanese Arcades Remind Me Of What We've Lost

Saki-Endo

I must admit, I have a love/hate with Japanese arcades as they were, great games and often a lot of choice, but absolutely full of rancid tobacco smoke made it an unpleasant experience for a non-smoker, just as clubbing in the UK in the late 90s/early 2000s was, enjoyed the vibes and music, didn't like the stench. Maybe I'm just sensitive to it, used to bug the hell out of me skating in Japan too that I'd been enjoying a good ramp session and then someone would spark up outside and suddenly the place reeked of tobacco.

Personally I have more nostalgia for the small arcade we had in the local bowling alley which also had quasar. That was always a great afternoon out, bowling, quasar, dodgy hot dog and chips, Daytona USA, Virtua Cop, Air Hockey and then prank calling 0800 numbers from the payphone, halcyon days

Re: PopoloCrois Creator Yosuke Tamori Has Passsed Away At The Age Of 74

Saki-Endo

ご愁傷様でした。

Really sad to hear of his passing. The revival of Popolocrois in the mid 90s by SCE was wonderful, and sure Poporogue is fine, the first and secondnd games were absolutely stellar, and really respected the brought alive the world of Popolocrois. There is even some charm to be had in the PS2 outings though I don't rate them as highly. What a world Tamori-san left us. Precious and heartfelt.

Re: "It Does Not Save Time Or Offer Anything Of Value" - Translator Hilltop Isn't A Fan Of AI

Saki-Endo

I of course don't know the facts but if a translation patch is put out by a team or individual that doesn't understand Japanese, then they should not be doing translation patches, sorry. Not saying that's the case with Segagaga, but if you don't understand Japanese, then you are likely blind to the issues that will arise with machine translation. I admit, in the last 5-6 years Google Translate has come on leaps and bounds but there still sizeable gaps to bridge, that likely never will be unless AI develops a sense of humour and emotions, and works out that jokes and nuance won't always translate to another language literally.

Re: Pure FX Appeal - Unpicking The History Of The PC-FX, One Of Japan's Biggest '90s Console Flops

Saki-Endo

@sdelfin There's that on-off rumour to suggest the PC-FX was delayed from its original launch target, but in my research there is no evidence to show this in the Japanese press that I researched. Maybe I should have asked Itagaki-san that question as well. Released in 1992, it would have been pretty compelling, definitely giving the MegaCD a run for its money. As you say, Sega rushed to beef up its Saturn offering up with the second SH2 processor, which kinda alludes to Sega who were riding high in the arcades at the time not seeing that 3D in the home was what the consumer would soon be demanding. Behind all of this is the fact the PlayStation was such a leap for all its faults, and it caught the incumbent players standing. The thing I love about it is that there are so many competing visions of the future in the 5th generation that we're left with a rich tapestry of different game playing experiences as a result.

Glad you enjoyed the article.

Re: Producer Behind This Classic Racing Series Reveals Why He Was "Amazed" At Mobile Hit 'Umamusume: Pretty Derby'

Saki-Endo

@KingMike Yeah very famous illustrator, he also did quite a lot of illustration for Hudson Soft too. I'm not really sure on how Famitsu got away with it's name, as it was for a long time called Famicom Tsuushin, my guess is that at the time Sharp held the trademark from their microwave oven that was called the Famicon (sic) but with Nintendo and Sharp's warm relationship when the trademark was handed over to Nintendo, maybe it was already extant? Maybe Nintendo calculated going after ASCII would be unpopular and decided to let sleeping dogs lie?

Re: Interview: "I Did My Best To Make It Work" - Legendary Localiser On Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest, & The "Total Nightmare" Of Xenogears

Saki-Endo

Absolutely fascinating insight into what went on. Gosh it sounds like it was a bit of a s*** show at times, with the usual tales of パワーハラ (power harassment) from managers at times or grandstanding, and herculean efforts to get things over the line. I'm sure Richard feels a lot of pride in what he did, but at the time it must have been insane at times. お疲れ様でした。

Re: The Definitive Version Of Tales Of Phantasia's PSP Remake Is Now Available In English

Saki-Endo

"X, meanwhile, took things a step further, refining the battle system so that multiple characters can use magical attacks at the same time."

That's a big quality of life improvement there and fixes the biggest flaw of the original game. I love this on the PlayStation (currently playing the Japanese release) and whilst the magic spells look great to start with, after the 1512th time of seeing them it really slows down the rhythm of the battles with constant stop start, which when performing Ougi and selecting special techniques for your party members lends some of the more defining battles with Dhaos a slightly, huh, so I cheesed my way through that. Finding the technical ring for Cless helps a little but not enough, so well done on the team for this update on the PSP, I'm sure the game will benefit massively from it.

Re: Sonic Comes To The Commodore Amiga (In Tech Demo Form, At Least)

Saki-Endo

@cawley1 Due to the way the Amiga draws screens, 16 colours is faster than 32 colours. The Amiga's bitter, which is the engine that pastes graphics around the screen in a simple sense, works with biplanes. The more colour you have on screen, the more data the blitter has to shift around and the slower it gets. If you're trying to hit 50/60Hz refresh this becomes important.

Having played the both ECS versions, there are speed issues evident with some slow down on an A600 with 2MB Chip RAM in both 16 and 32 colours. It is more evident in the 32 colour version as expected.

Both I am sure could be improved with some optimisations, especially if reduced to 16 colours. Even so, your average A500 you had back in 1990 isn't going to run this without an ECS Agnus and a 2MB Chip RAM upgrade.

This is not to take anything away from the hard work put into this, just things I notice.

As for what US Gold would have done, it would have been an unplayable mess whatever route they took.

Re: "It Shouldn't Be That Way" - Tetris Company CEO Laments Low Female Representation In The Games Industry

Saki-Endo

@Bod2019 Plenty of us would love to but getting a job isn't easy for anyone right now. Almost all employers want 100% fully formed (experienced) individuals, employers often don't want to train to realise potential, it makes the bar so high to clear for everyone. The stark difference between recruitment adverts you'd see in Edge magazine in the mid 90s versus what you see now is stark. And worse yet in the UK, the pay isn't massively better when you take into account 30 years have elapsed with inflation. Anyway I digress...

I suppose what I am saying maybe the younger generation in general find it tough to get into the industry due to these high bars of entry, and if the industry was willing to take on people who aren't fully experienced, give them a chance, maybe more representation may come naturally due to gaming being a more diverse interest these days. I remember in the mid-90s it was quite unusual for me to be into gaming in a big way. Even these days my parents question it!!

I don't include myself in that, at 42 I know I'm probably too old to even be given a second look these days, at least that's going on my experience trying to get work in the gaming industry anyway.

Re: Talking Point: A Curious Contradiction At The Core Of "New" Commodore Makes Me Uncomfortable

Saki-Endo

@profo For his own channel, that's his decision, but generative AI has been trained on untold amounts of illegally accessed and used data to produce the results it does. If they continue this forward with "Commodore", they could be empowering and employing people who have not only have the creative skills but passion for the brand and the topic, potentially giving people a foothold in an industry hard to crack.