What takes so long?

[Khaki45]

I know nothing about the process of making a game. But I know that there are people who do know out there. I would like to know:

Why has it taken so LONG for 358/2 days to come out..also, WHY did they say it was gonna be released in feb when they KNEW that was not gonna happen. But most importantly, I want to know why it takes so dang long for it to finish for other countries. I mean the Japanese already made the graphics and everything else right?..so shouldnt all they need to do is translate everything, add the voice acting and....thats it? And don't they get started on it as soon as they announce its coming to the country?

 

[Laz]

Re: What takes song long?

thats right,i dont see what is so hard on translating a game,they only have to erase the japanese stuff and put english,thats all and yet,they take like 3 months to do it,DAYS in english version is gonna be out like in agoust,maybe more,its annoying how long they take to do such a simple thing

 

[~azure.requiem]

Re: What takes song long?

I know nothing about the process of making a game. But I know that there are people who do know out there. I would like to know:

Why has it taken so LONG for 358/2 days to come out..also, WHY did they say it was gonna be released in feb when they KNEW that was not gonna happen. But most importantly, I want to know why it takes so dang long for it to finish for other countries. I mean the Japanese already made the graphics and everything else right?..so shouldnt all they need to do is translate everything, add the voice acting and....thats it? And don't they get started on it as soon as they announce its coming to the country?

~ because they have alot on their plate to take care of: plot development, budget, shooting for a release date and actually trying to make that release date with out being eaten alive by fans (which in this case was almost a bust), developing the software, getting this thing translated to a million languages around the world, casting the voice actors, etc. if it takes at least four years between the videogames that actually get released on a consol, imagine trying to take all that work load and coming up with a game that isn't gonna have the fans wanting to bulldose the square-enix building in tokyo in as short an amount of time as maybe a year or two.
~ *chuckles darkly* there's no 'that's it' about it, my friend. you left one huge factor out in the whole voice acting arena, LIP SYNCHING. let's not forget, there are ps2 quality cutscenes in this game.
~ when you look back on all the games that have been released by square, they always put their heart and soul into their work.

 

[Silent hero_]

Re: What takes song long?

Well, what to say... I rather have a good game that takes a long time to depeloved than a crappy game that gets finished fast.. And the results is shown. Two 9/10 from two reviews so far.

 

[Khaki45]

Re: What takes song long?

Trust me Id rather have a good quality game too....but my impatience comes from me being a big fan. But that still doesnt explain why they said Febuarary would be the original date.

 

[Laz]

Re: What takes song long?

Trust me Id rather have a good quality game too....but my impatience comes from me being a big fan. But that still doesnt explain why they said Febuarary would be the original date.

thats just a move to keep fans quiet and gain more time to finish the game

 

[Raeneth]

Re: What takes song long?

Companies also release products during cycles of the year. They don't just put it out the month it's done. Yeah, maybe it's already done in terms of localization and all that stuff, but releasing it in the summer makes little sense from a business standpoint. To the best of my knowledge there are really only two big release times for vidya gaems - Fall and Spring. If it's not done for Spring, then it goes to Fall. They also like to stagger releases to not compete with their own games being released. You don't want people to buy only one title and not another.

Plus the englishness is changing a lot more than just *delete* *retype*. Lots of stuff goes into making a game. Menus, battles, hell maybe even voice acting needs to be redone. Maybe some scenes need to be taking out or modified for release in the US and Europe. Lots of stuff needs to happen behind the scenes before a game is ready for release.

 

[Organization_42]

Re: What takes song long?

thats just a move to keep fans quiet and gain more time to finish the game

Or maybe they honestly thought that they could be done by then? Nomura told us that the content portion was done back in August last year, it was the gameplay that they were still perfecting and updating as they got the graphics better.

thats right,i dont see what is so hard on translating a game,they only have to erase the japanese stuff and put english,thats all and yet,they take like 3 months to do it,DAYS in english version is gonna be out like in agoust,maybe more,its annoying how long they take to do such a simple thing

The August release date was just a guess. For all we know, it could even be earlier.

I'm pretty sure it's A LOT more complicated than hitting the "delete" button and inserting English dialogue. And even if it wasn't, that in itself would probably take a long time. You're talking about going back through the entire game and rewriting everything in a different language: from the cutscenes, to the battle cries, to the subtitles and the game menus.

Also, I doubt that the voice actors nail their lines on the very first try every single time. That takes work too.

~ *chuckles darkly* there's no 'that's it' about it, my friend. you left one huge factor out in the whole voice acting arena, LIP SYNCHING. let's not forget, there are ps2 quality cutscenes in this game.

This is another one. The Japanese words won't exactly match their English counterparts, so the characters' lips must be changed to match the new words. That's going to take time too.

 

[Khaki45]

Re: What takes song long?

Ah that localization stuff would explain alot then.....its just incredibly fustrating when there is no other game you want more and it doesnt come in english till later....But summer I figure is a great time to release it though, kids are out of school an all...perhaps some getting jobs and earning money...perhaps theyd spend it on a game...

 

[Kingaison98]

Re: What takes song long?

For the North American version, it's making the game kid-friendly. Have you noticed? In KH2 Axels dieing scene was much more hardcore in the Japanese version. There were red lines across the screen, and he was on fire while he was lying down. There is swearing in the Japanese KH games. Plus,they have to change the lines of the character's to fit the character's voice actor. So, there's all that on top of Translation, Shipping, and localizing.

 

[Solar]

Re: What takes song long?

Finding all the voice actors, too.

 

[Sa?x]

Re: What takes song long?

Trust me Id rather have a good quality game too....but my impatience comes from me being a big fan. But that still doesnt explain why they said Febuarary would be the original date.

February wasn't the original release window, December '08 was. You have no comprehension of the difficulty of translating a game, especially one like this. Not only do they have to translate it, they have to assimilate western dialect. And then there's all the descriptions of items, abilities, which if directly translated, sound just plain illiterate. It's hardly about the translation, it's more about localization. They're providing you a service that they've pored sweat and blood into, and you're sitting here bitching that they take to long? Where do you get off?

 

[Laz]

Re: What takes song long?

February wasn't the original release window, December '08 was. You have no comprehension of the difficulty of translating a game, especially one like this. Not only do they have to translate it, they have to assimilate western dialect. And then there's all the descriptions of items, abilities, which if directly translated, sound just plain illiterate. It's hardly about the translation, it's more about localization. They're providing you a service that they've pored sweat and blood into, and you're sitting here bitching that they take to long? Where do you get off?

lol,why didnt you bitch slapped him this time*laughs darkly* ,anyway what do you think,the NA team is already working on it,or they are still scratching their belly doing nothing

 

[Sa?x]

Re: What takes song long?

lol,why didnt you bitch slapped him this time*laughs darkly* ,anyway what do you think,the NA team is already working on it,or they are still scratching their belly doing nothing

Doing nothing? They can only do so much before the game is out in Japan. They're done with the voice acting, but there's still a shit-load of synch work to be done. Nintendo Power will have a huge article on the game next month, the US version.

 

[Raz]

Re: What takes song long?

Trust me Id rather have a good quality game too....but my impatience comes from me being a big fan. But that still doesnt explain why they said Febuarary would be the original date.

That's when the thought it would be finished. Things go hay-wire, dates get pushed back, shit happens.

For the North American version, it's making the game kid-friendly. Have you noticed? In KH2 Axels dieing scene was much more hardcore in the Japanese version. There were red lines across the screen, and he was on fire while he was lying down. There is swearing in the Japanese KH games. Plus,they have to change the lines of the character's to fit the character's voice actor. So, there's all that on top of Translation, Shipping, and localizing.

They only really edited KHII. They didn't really edit much of anything in KH and CoM, just swearing. They even left some in for CoM.

 

[Eva]

Re: What takes song long?

From what I've guessed by comparing Japanese releases to American ones, it takes four to six months after the game is complete to localize it into a different region; including lip synching (this is something a LOT of people tend to whine about), voice acting, translating, proof reading the translations, making sure the translations make sense, double checking the gameplay, in some cases adding extra features (extra bosses, extra controls, etc., etc.,)...I assure you, I highly doubt they're sitting on their butts doing nothing.

 

[Sa?x]

Re: What takes song long?

Yes, but they started the translations a lot earlier with Days, and DS games are always localized quickly, save for Pokémon, which I just don't get. Suikoden Tierkreis was out in the US and Europe three moths after it was out in Japan, which is about the same time it's expected for Days to be localized.

 

[Omegas Squared]

Re: What takes song long?

basically everyone has said it, there's a lot of work in localization

Yes, but they started the translations a lot earlier with Days, and DS games are always localized quickly, save for Pokémon, which I just don't get. Suikoden Tierkreis was out in the US and Europe three moths after it was out in Japan, which is about the same time it's expected for Days to be localized.

Pokemon takes forever because the unstable programming that is pokemon requires the game to be actually re-made in english instead of the normal translating and localizing

 

[Sa?x]

Re: What takes song long?

Pokemon takes forever because the unstable programming that is pokemon requires the game to be actually re-made in english instead of the normal translating and localizing

I wasn't aware of that. But, that makes me a little sad that we'll have to wait longer for HG and SS. Why is the programming unstable?

 

[Omegas Squared]

Re: What takes song long?

I wasn't aware of that. But, that makes me a little sad that we'll have to wait longer for HG and SS. Why is the programming unstable?

i'm sorry, but I dont really know much beyond that. It has something to do with the large amount of variable data, but like I said, I dont really know too much. And I know, I cant wait for HG and SS, the second generation is my favorite generation.