Publisher Apologizes For Bad Localization In Ys VIII, Promises To Fix Issues For Free

While it's always positive news when games that might easily remain exclusive to Japan are localized for international markets, fans rightly expect the accompanying translation to not be plagued with issues. That unfortunately hasn't proven to be the case with Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of Dana, which debuted last month in North America and Europe following its 2016 release in Japan. The president of NIS America, which published the game outside of Japan and handled the translation, has now acknowledged and apologized for the English script's problems.

We made note of the mediocre translation in our Ys VIII review, and fans have continued to point out problems with it since then. Some of the errors are downright hilarious, as evidenced by the screenshots from Imgur below--"Big Hole" is just an incredible name for something. But in other cases, this could actually have a real impact on gameplay, as one Twitter user reported that item descriptions were mixed up--thus confusing what effect using them would have. Perhaps worse yet, fans raised concerns about the translation ahead of the game's release.

Gallery

NIS America has not shied away from the problems. "It has come to my attention that the quality of the Ys VIII localization has not reached an acceptable level by our own standards, but most importantly by yours," president and CEO Takuro Yamashita said in a statement received by GameSpot. "As president of NIS America, Inc. I want to apologize to you personally for this grave error. This situation should not have happened-- especially to a game as wonderful as Ys VIII and by a company that strives to deliver the very best customer experience in each title."

In addition to the apology, Yamashita said that NIS will figure out how this happened and fix the game in the near future. "We have begun internally to investigate the causes of this situation as well as to implement steps to ensure that a similar situation does not occur again," he said. "As for Ys VIII itself, we will have a new translator and editor go over the entire localization to fix grammatical errors, typos, inconsistencies, and also to take a fresh look at the dialog and characterizations. For the script, where necessary, we will re-translate and re-edit the game including updating voicework to reflect these changes."

For an RPG with a good amount of text, that's no simple task, and it will take some time. NIS expects to have the matter resolved by the end of November. The new localization will be released as a free update on PS4 and Vita, and it will be available in the PC version (which does not yet have a release date) once it launches on Steam.

"We humbly request your patience in this process," the statement concludes. "Again, as the president and CEO of NIS America, Inc, I deeply apologize and vow to you that we will bring the quality of the localization of Ys VIII up to the high standards that it and you deserve. Please allow us this opportunity to restore your faith in NIS America."