Castlevania: Symphony of the Night

[Anonymous No.2305676]

Should I play the original localization of SOTN or the English Fan Translation of the Japanese version?

[Anonymous No.2305678]

>>2305676
What's the difference?

[Anonymous No.2305679]

>>2305678
That's what I'm trying to gauge, as far as I know it's just autism, but who knows if there's actually some merit to the fan translation.

[Anonymous No.2305684]

>>2305679
The voices, maybe?
Well, I'd play the original one.

[Razz No.2305690]

>>2305679
The fan translation is "How DARE they take a little creative licence instead of keeping a proper, stiff Japanese tone?!" levels of outrage.

The official translation is perfectly fine for anyone who isn't obsessing about the 3% of difference from the original script.

[Anonymous No.2305693]

>>2305690
That's what I expected, this whole thing reeks of the levels of autism that the FF7 fan translation is going for as well. I mean it's fine if you want to translate it to make it more genuine, and if you prefer the original japanese voice acting that's cool and all. But it just seems like such a misplaced effort when so many games are in dire need of fan translations, specially the buttload of japanese-only playstation and saturn games that are out there.

[Anonymous No.2305701]

play the official english translation with the japanese audio (PSP version on dracula X chronicles, which also includes missing stuff from the original japanese release)

[Anonymous No.2305704]

>>2305693
Well, it's like pic related.
You know what it is and it's fine if they tried to cover it, but teens and people who know-everything-about-japan-and-wish-they-were-japanese will always say "OMG THAT'S A NIGIRI, A JAPANESE FOOD WITH GOHAN (RICE) AND FILLING, WRAPPED IN NORI (SEAWEED), STUPID GAIJIN."

[Anonymous No.2305708]

>>2305701
I was considering that but my PSP is all kinds of fucked up
Plus I rather play it on a CRT, the PSP's screen is not very pleasant.

[Anonymous No.2305714]

>>2305704
I just call it a rice ball

[Anonymous No.2305723]

>>2305693
>But it just seems like such a misplaced effort when so many games are in dire need of fan translations
I know! Don't those people realize that they didn't learn Japanese for themselves, they learned it so they could translate for YOU.

[Anonymous No.2305729]

>>2305723
Hey Anon I understand what you're saying, your instincts are your true god and you should follow what gives you pleasure, of course that if they want to retranslate FF7 who am I to tell them what to do with their free time. But I can't help in feeling that it all amounts to misplaced effort when there are perfectly serviceable (albeit not perfect) localizations.

[Anonymous No.2305731]

>>2305704
can you smoke seaweed?

[Anonymous No.2305734]

>>2305676
just play the normal usa release.
its iconic at this point anyways.

[Anonymous No.2305735]

>>2305731

[Anonymous No.2305738]

>>2305704
>know-everything-about-japan-and-wish-they-were-japanese

Bunch of kisama-yarou-tachi

[Anonymous No.2305753]

>>2305693

To be fair, FF7 is a RPG game where the dialogue is very important so having a correct translation might actually be worth looking into.

SoTN has like 5 minutes of audio, literally autism to go and try to change it.

[Razz No.2305769]

>>2305729
Here's the problem with fan translations: they usually fuck up on things that weren't wrong in the first place.

Let's just take a theoretical example of what a certain segment of FF7 fans would do if they were in charge of localization.

>In the original script, Aerith sells flowers
>In the translation, Aeris sells flowers
>In the fan translation, Aerith sells 'flowers' WINK WINK NUDGE NUDGE

[Anonymous No.2305775]

>>2305769
Hey I'm not gonna complain, shitty translation is better than no translation. Besides, I don't really mind that stuff, don't forget that Working Designs was usually guilty of that kind of stuff as well.

[Razz No.2305784]

>>2305775
I wasn't arguing against no translation, I was arguing against fan vs official translations.

>Working Designs
Actually, I stand corrected.

[Anonymous No.2305791]

>>2305784
They were mostly the exception anyways, most localizations didn't get that intentionally goofy

[Anonymous No.2305812]

>>2305693
Not to derail, but I read the guy behind Project II would love to do VII.

God I wish he would, his style isn't the tone of the re-translation project and tries to make it an even amount of both. Like what it really should've been in the first place.

[Anonymous No.2305830]

>>2305812
Project II BoFII are the couple times when a fan retranslation actually worked completely to my expectations. All the others are major text fixes or bust.

[Anonymous No.2305837]

I just wish they'd translate the Saturn version.

At least the fucking item list.

[Anonymous No.2305853]

>>2305679
From what I gather it isn't just the spoken dialog (the VA is par for the course for PS1 games, awful) but it was the menu items and mistranslations/spelling in the enemy names.

It's nothing to really give a shit about with Castlevania in general though, I'd find it more of a big deal in FF games where terms are normally shared throughout the entire series. Not the case with Castlevania. It has a few monster names shared and Dracula is Dracula, but just compare things between this and Aria of Sorrow.

So between the translations you're really splitting hairs in general. I'd only use it if you find the acting ear grating enough to dump.

[Anonymous No.2305865]

>>2305679
>>2305853
Not quite, there was also some content cut from the original. And while it isn't important it is really cool to see.

Either if you just want to play the game though, play it in the official translation.

[Anonymous No.2305889]

Why haven't you learned japanese already /vr/? All those games that'll never get a translation are waiting for you..

[Anonymous No.2308096]

>>2305690

Not even close. The whole translation is badly mangled and the voice acting was just terrible. Take off the goggles - the English localization was never good.

It's not like this game is all that good to begin with, though. It's way too easy and retains very little of the gameplay style of the earlier games. It also started the trend of Castlevania becoming just Metroid clones with RPG elements, totally abandoning the original style of the series.

[Anonymous No.2308121]

>>2308096
What a worthless post, why did you even chime in with your vast wisdom to begin with?

[Anonymous No.2308136]

>>2305676
The original English dub has a ton of personality. Mega-weebs could be annoyed that it's not a transliteration of the Japanese text, but that's their problem. The fact that you even asked this question suggests that you are not an overbearing autist and thus don't have such special needs. I don't recommend playing the re-dubbed version on PSP though. That script is more "accurate" but the voice acting is listless and boring.

If you really want to experience the minor differences in the Japanese version, play through the original US one and then do the Japanese un-translated. You won't have any trouble with the menus once you know your way around.

[Anonymous No.2308141]

>>2305676
you can watch both intros off youtube
only remarkable thing missing is the fairy familiar song.
look up nocturne on youube

[Anonymous No.2308146]

>>2305723
I seriously doubt the people who undertake these fan translations have the language skills to tackle something that wasn't 99% done for them already. Their effort is invested in nitpicking minor details like how a "ne" or "yo" should be rendered.

[Anonymous No.2308150]

>>2308136
>hurr it has personality
>ur just a weeb
>ur just an autist

SoTN nostalgiafags in a nutshell

[Anonymous No.2308154]

>>2308146
That's the thing, by checking their translation against a professional product they are improving their language and writing skills.

[Anonymous No.2308164]

>>2308146
Stop making ignorant generalizations. You can just compare the intro to see how wrong you are. The original translation didn't just "take a little creative license", it almost totally changed the script. That's just fucking terrible and not at all acceptable.

[Anonymous No.2308170]

>>2308121
Your butthurt post is what's worthless.

[Anonymous No.2308172]

>>2305693
>autism that the FF7 fan translation is going for as well.

To be fair, FF7 could need some autism. The official translation is horrible and sometimes barely intelligible. Someone should make a fan translation on basis of the German translation project, like they did with Breath of Fire II.

It's also not really comparable to SotN where story/text really doesn't play the leading role.

[Anonymous No.2308173]

Uondervul fread.

[Anonymous No.2308808]

>>2308096
"badly mangled" isn't a proper description for "not direct"

Chill out weeb, somewhere in the crunchyroll forum there's a future buddy who'll undeniably agree with you that sub is always better.

[Anonymous No.2308821]

>>2308170
>"this that and the other are erroneous enough to warrant fan intervention for the sake of the game!"
>"You're the mad one! >:^)"

Some of you are truly pathetic.

[Anonymous No.2308839]

I didn't even know there was a fan-translated version of SotN, but unless they were undubbing it because they didn't like the voice acting of the original english version, it seems kinda pointless.

Basically it comes down to this:
If you want hammy, so-bad-it's-hilarious voice acting, and don't mind the removal of two joke familars: play the original english version (or the PS1 classics version on PSN or the version on XBL).

If you want to be able to choose between Japanese voices or an English dub that's serious and not bad but also not great, and all the familiars that were in the Japanese PS1 game: play the DXC version.

If you want a fan-translated version, the play the Saturn version, since it never got an English release and actually needs a fan-translation. Also it has unique content that's not in any other version of the game.

[Anonymous No.2308864]

>>2308839
Saturn version has some shortcomings that end up hurting it. Lots of loading areas that weren't in the PSX version, and the framerate sometimes dies when there's too much going on.

[Anonymous No.2308874]

>>2308864
SotN is a 2D game, the Saturn should have been the best version

[Anonymous No.2308880]

>>2308874
They outsourced the port and the people making it did a shitty job.

[Anonymous No.2308883]

>>2308874

Yeah, but it was developed for the PS1. I seem to remember reading SOTN's sprites are actually "flat 3D models" or somehting like that, not true 2D sprites. Not sure if this is bullshit or not, maybe some tech guy can clarify.
But yeah, had SOTN been a Saturn game originally, it would probably been even better, and a PS1 port of it would have suffered worse than the Saturn port did.

[Anonymous No.2308887]

Shame they changed SotN Maria back to her RoB playstyle for the PSP version. I would have loved to play as the broken as fuck Saturn version.

[Anonymous No.2308890]

>>2308887

To be honest, Maria on PSP is pretty broken too.
Loved the new animal attack animations too.

[Anonymous No.2308894]

>>2308890
Really? I found her much tougher to use than Alucard or Richter. Her overall offense is pretty weak from what I experienced.

Also, trying to do Richter's dash attack on the PSP sucks. I suck at fighting games though,so that may have something to do with it.

[Anonymous No.2308901]

>>2308894

Well, the PSP had the same dpad as the PS1 (actually, I like the PSP's more, but they're mostly the same), so you will have trouble either way unless you play on Saturn which has the perfect pad for these kind of inputs.

As for Maria on PSP: abuse the fuck out of the dragon. Takes a lot of HP to enemies and you get heart refill all the time. But even the doves are pretty efficient for most enemies on the normal castle.
I found Maria on PSP SOTN to be easy modo (just like in Rondo)

[Anonymous No.2308902]

>>2308901

Also forgot to say: she's fucking FAST!

[Anonymous No.2308906]

>>2308839
>I didn't even know there was a fan-translated version of SotN, but unless they were undubbing it because they didn't like the voice acting of the original english version, it seems kinda pointless.

To be honest, the US release's translation isn't very good. I'm not saying a lot of time needed to be spent retranslating it, and fixing all the issues with the localization, but I can see why someone would do it.

Tons of enemy and item names were changed in the US for no real reason, and the script itself is quite a bit different in the US. What's funny about the PSP script is that it's no closer to the JP script than the US PS1 version was. They just changed up the script (again), and threw new voice actors at it.

Having said that, the US PS1 release will always hold a special place in my heart, and I felt that Drac's PS1 dub VA was legitimately good.

[Anonymous No.2308908]

Maria is extremely overrated no matter what version. You'll finish her game in 30 minutes.

[Anonymous No.2308912]

>>2308901
I had an easier time doing the dash attack on the PSX. Probably has something to do with my massive hands.

I found the owls (I liked that, she's grown up so her birds are as well) to be too weak to do much. Though you can hilariously mash the square button and kill Galamoth by throwing birds at his face for ten minutes.

I did use the dragon a lot, as well as the phoenix. Probably didn't item crash enough.

Changing the subject a bit, what does /vr/ thik of Akumajou Dracula x68000? Gave it a replay for the first time in forever, and I really enjoyed it, yet I never hear anyone talk about it.

[Anonymous No.2308915]

>>2308906
>What's funny about the PSP script is that it's no closer to the JP script than the US PS1 version was. They just changed up the script (again), and threw new voice actors at it.

Something else funny is that even though IGA doesn't speak English, he could tell that the original English version was really corny.

[Anonymous No.2308918]

>>2308864
There aren't additional loading areas, they just present a now loading screen when there are loading areas. Level transitions are noticeably faster as well, but that's where it ends.

Slowdown is more prevalent during gameplay, especially when using detailed effects like potions or after defeating Dracula the second time. Because of the inability to program for the Saturn, developers replaced a lot of the rendered effects with sprites instead, many of which don't look very pretty. There aren't enough buttons for a direct map button, so it's accessed in the pause menu, and it takes a very long time to switch between gameplay and the pause menu to begin with, so map checking in particular is very time consuming. The underground garden is kind of cool, I guess? There's not much to it. The prison is featureless and almost useless unless you want some inflated experience points from some of the gargoyles in it.

On the plus side, there are more spells, more familiars, more relics, including a cool running relic you get after acquiring access to the floating castle that comes in handy if you're too lazy to shield dash. Wingsmash can go indefinitely as long as you have the magic for it. You can play as Maria and Richter in his cool long sleeve coat. Many more weapons are available, and that's about it.

[Anonymous No.2308937]

>>2308908
>*overpowered

[Anonymous No.2309068]

>>2305784
I'd take a working designs translation over shit like the breath of fire 2 translation any day

[Anonymous No.2309085]

>>2308164
I've played through SOTN about a dozen times and I don't even remember the content of the intro. It's what, 30 seconds out of the entire game? Who even cares? Should we launch a fan translation for Contra III because "It's time for revenge. Let's attack aggressively." isn't true enough to the original manuscript?

[Anonymous No.2309095]

>>2308883
The Saturn port was just extremely sloppy. Someone detailed it very thoroughly on this board once but the gist is they (Konami, or whoever they outsourced) did stuff like used the wrong VDP banks so like one that could handle 20 different background layers was rendering just the pause menu text while the one that could render just one layer was being used to do all the heavy lifting for in-game effects. Just completely incompetent programming.

[Anonymous No.2309097]

It doesn't matter, either way you will get to the upside down castle part and it will be too hard and you won't finish it.

[Anonymous No.2309113]

>>2309097

>SOTN
>too hard

[Anonymous No.2309120]

>>2309097
There is no part of SotN which isn't piss easy.

[Anonymous No.2309138]

>>2309097
>Inverted castle
>Hard

>SotN
>Hard

what

[Anonymous No.2309141]

>>2309120
Oh yeah? How easy will it be to piss when your downtown and there are cops everywhere? You're drunk and your bladder is aching and there is nowhere to go. How easy will it be to piss then tough guy?

[Anonymous No.2309892]

great game, loved it on release

[Anonymous No.2312524]

>>2309892
B|

[Anonymous No.2313016]

Everyone's so pissy about the dialogue in the PSP version.

[Anonymous No.2313056]

>>2305676
What is a secret? A miserable little pile of men.

Just realized that, "A miserable little pile of secrets," is not even a complete sentence.

[Anonymous No.2313581]

>>2313056
it's called an ellipsis

[Anonymous No.2313583]

>>2313056
>Just realized that, "A miserable little pile of secrets," is not even a complete sentence.

Wow, you're an idiot.

[Anonymous No.2313584]

>>2305693
This. Lagrange Point took forever to translate because of this.

[Anonymous No.2313891]

>>2313584
Like most AGTP games Lagrange Point was long translated and the hacking took forever.

It's an older Tomato script.

[Anonymous No.2313994]

>>2313584
That's a different matter entirely, you're talking about technical difficulties. Policenauts also took a long time to translate, but the actual script was translated years before they managed to hack the game, and theoretically they still haven't succeed since they were aiming for the saturn version and had to compromise with the Playstation one.

[Anonymous No.2315438]

>>2309141
Just piss behind a building, cunt, Pissing is piss easy, how the fuck can you suck so much at pissing?

[Anonymous No.2315464]

>>2313994
pretty much this. lagrange point was translated for a long time, the issue with releasing the patch was due to technical issues, not "weeb autism translation problems".

I haven't played the translation, but tomato has said that it was among his first works, and he isn't super happy with it. in general I know him to not succumb to too much weebiness so I think it's probably fine.

That CT fan translation though? Stab me in the dick. It's terrible.

[Anonymous No.2315479]

>>2308883
it's not bullshit. technically, the PS1 can't do sprites.

[Anonymous No.2315505]

>>2308096
Ok, hold up!
Yes, symphony of the night is a poorly designed piece of shit that becomes stupid easy after the first level and has a tedious amount of novelty equipment, but the other games that followed its design are some of the best castlevanies available.

Don't let the awful first impression of SOTN keep you from giving circle of the moon, or order of ecclessia a chance

[Anonymous No.2315513]

>>2309120
>There is no part of SotN which isn't piss easy.

There is one, that one boss which is a 2-3 screen tall humanoid monster that attacks you with electricity (strongest boss other than Dracula). You specifically need a thunder-absorbing equipment to be able to beat him, and even then it takes a bit because it has so much health (though you really cannot lose with the right equipment since he'll just heal you with his thunderbolts).

Some of the very early bosses can be difficult too, until you get decent equipment and a high enough level to cast magic. Actually, most of the early game is like that, especially if you accidentally walk into some area that has monsters way above your level.

But yeah, once you get good equipment and enough mana to use the healing spell repeatedly, the game becomes a joke.

[Anonymous No.2315517]

Damn, read you peeps' comments is surprising

on every gaming website ive gone to for the last 15 years, SotN is always given high praise left and right

have I been misled by ignorant "pro" writers?

[Anonymous No.2315525]

>>2315513
>especially if you accidentally walk into some area that has monsters way above your level.

if anything! that makes the game easier! You level up faster and all the areas you skip become harmless.

[Anonymous No.2315527]

>>2315517
Hashtag gamma gap

[Anonymous No.2315532]

>>2315513
look at this guy not knowing the Shield Rod + Alucard Shield easy win combo

[Anonymous No.2315540]

>>2315527
>#gammagap

Parden me?

[Anonymous No.2315541]

>>2305708
Then play it on a PlayStation TV... oh, wait.

[Anonymous No.2315812]

>>2315517
It's not a bad game, old Castlevania fans are just pissed off at it (and rightfully) for destroying the classic Castlevania formula. If it was a different series entirely I'm sure they would be able to appreciate it.
Although I still think this game kind of saved Castlevania in a weird way, the main Castlevania games at the time that Konami was pushing were that 3D crap, and SOTN was actually just a low budget offshoot. If it wasn't for SOTN, 2D Castlevanias would probably be entirely dead. As much as I love the classic Castlevanias they would never survive in the post 32-bit era, none of those hard 2D platformers with limited lives survived.

[NESfag No.2315849]

>>2315812
Yes this is true. It was all about 3D back then, and SOTN did NOT prevent to have successors of Classic CVs. Those successors existed, on the N64, and still exist today. As God Of War clones.

SOTN saved the series and gave it a new life, but 2D classic-vanias were dead either way, with or without SOTN and its successors.

[Anonymous No.2315906]

>>2305714
Just like handegg. Bro fist.

[Anonymous No.2316007]

>>2315812
I love the gba and DS castlevanies, and SOTN is terrible.

[Anonymous No.2316039]

>>2316007
I like both.

I like classicvania like Super IV, 3, RoB, and Bloodlines

But I also love modern "Metroidvanias" like SOTN, CoM, AoS, and PoR. (Didn't really like OoE for some reason..)

I think we can ALL agree, Nobody likes LoS though.

[Anonymous No.2316292]

>>2316039
You know, it's weird. I've enjoyed most of the Castlevania games I've played (except LoS, like you said), but I couldn't get into Rondo. A lot of people hail that game as one of the best CVs, and I just wasn't feeling it.

[Anonymous No.2316296]

>>2313581
No, that's when it ends in a...

[Anonymous No.2316315]

>>2308821

Yes, like you for example.

[Anonymous No.2320770]

I feel like i'm the only one who doesn't think the english voice acting is bad.

[Anonymous No.2320786]

>>2313581
Back to /b/ with you.

[Anonymous No.2321627]

>>2320770
Most of the cast is pretty good, at least to PS1 standards. and they add kind of a b-horror movie feel to the whole thing.

Dracula's voice could have been a lot better.

[Anonymous No.2321632]

>>2321627
>at least to PS1 standards
And good god are there some examples. Outside of Valkyire Profile, MGS, and games developed in English speaking countries, some of the worst voice acting I've ever heard has come from PS1 games.

SoTN is actually one of the average ones though. Could've been a whole lot worse.

[Anonymous No.2321646]

>>2321632
>Could've been a whole lot worse.
Look at the Playstation Mega Man games. Least in SOTN, most of the voices are at least somewhat fitting. Though Maria sounds like she's twenty years older than she's supposed to be.

[Anonymous No.2321761]

>>2305676
If one really wants a less hammy more accurate translation of SOTN, the version on the Dracula X Chronicles on PSP features a redone more faithful script. Bit droll, I prefer the oiginal track, as it's alot more fun.

[Anonymous No.2321775]

>>2321761
Like others have said earlier in the thread, the PSP script is less of a retranslation and more of a re-wording of the 1998 English script. Lines that don't even remotely resemble the Japanese script in the 1998 English version pretty much all remain in the PSP version, but fancied up with a thesaurus.

[Anonymous No.2321805]

>>2321775
Well, if you know Japanese, the DXC does at least give you the option of hearing the Japanese voices. Even if the text on the screen doesn't match what's being said.

[Anonymous No.2321909]

>>2305676

Either is fine. I love the at times absurd American localization's voice acting.

I also like the Japanese translation. The voice acting is good, and the dialogue is more accurate. And more importantly, the items have accurate names instead of the silly LOTR ones they added for the localization.