Update #79 - New Shards and Graphical Updates

To Angel-Corlux

This is not so much a question as it is a little factoid that I would like you to know, because it may just come in handy  in the future.

I'm bringing this up because what Aztec  said just now: that he hopes the Spanish translation uses a neutral version of the language.

Spanish is a language of around 480 million native speakers spoken in 20 countries all over the world. I has even more native speakers than English, being second only to Standard Mandarin (though how many people count as actual native speakers of Standard Mandarin is debatable). You might imagine, then, that there is quite a number of  variants of Spanish, and so people prefer it when the localization doesn't sound  "foreign" to them. I mean, pretty much all variants of Spanish are mutually intelligible, but some terms and expressions that are perfectly normal in some regions might make speakers from other regions cringe.

This problem - common to all languages - is exacerbated by both the sheer number of Spanish speakers and the fact that the second person is conjugated differently in different regions. While it's a bit of a simplification, you could say there are three variants overall: the one with vos for second person singular, the one with vosotros for the second person plural, and the one where there is no pronoun beginning with vos whatsoever anywhere but in the Bible.

This last one is probably what most people are referring to when they say "neutral Latin-American Spanish": a non-vos variant free of regional slang. Basically, what you're likely to find in broadcast TV from Colombia, Mexico and Venezuela.

The problem is that 1) this doesn't actually apply to all of Latin America - just part of it - and 2) it most definitely does not apply to Spain. As a translator, I've been  asked to use a "neutral" variant of Spanish for my translation, only to have it "corrected" by some proofreader with Spain exclusive grammar. Because everyone believes that their variant is the most "neutral." But I'm telling you, the second person thing makes it so that just using the language will make it sound odd to two thirds of native speakers.

While it's not a perfect analogy, imagine if everyone in England always used "thou" instead of "you", and that's basically the situation you have with Spanish. Best way to make sure your localization is good is to create a base version, and then have it localized into three separate variants by native speakers from each region.

Since the biggest changes are likely to be in terms of verb conjugation, you may even be able to automate half of the workload.

If it's not too much to ask could we also add Bavarian subtitles to the game. It's not that I don't understand English but I feel it would make for a more authentic experience to have the option to listen to American actors fake a British accent while reading said dialog translated into my native Bavarian as opposed to just plain German / Hochdeutsch.

You guys have been really busy to translate and record all those languages. Where there any languages you had to cut or is that classified?

Thanks for the clarification! I’m a bit surprised any game would give priority to Latam rather than Spain but I guess the sheer number comparisons can’t be denied. It’s just that I lived through the decades where Spanish speaking ppl from Latam were all but ignored and the select few games we’d get in Spanish were always from Spain so this is why I found this so wonderfully weird and refreshing.

It’s still just text though, I’m sure Spaniards will have no problem reading it.

Right? this is great news. My brothers won't have a reason to complain about this particular thing that has been bothering them for ever in games like pokemon (although i actually find some of the attack names extremely hilarious "ascuas, falsotortazo, abocajarro" wtf does that mean?)

I remember playing Final Fantasy IX in full spanish but it was strangely neutral or i don't really know how to describe it but it really didn't feel that different from Latin spanish and many of the jokes made perfect sense and were easy to understand. whereas the spanish version of FFX...well, i was constantly scratching my head.