I'm not sure I fully understand the question. Do you mean a 1:1 word translation, without any context? That would probably result in a nearly incomprehensible mess.
This is why fan translations don't want to use machine translation/Google Translate as the initial step/first pass for translation.
If you translate the words individually, and not by groupings of phrases/sentences, you will lose all context of words within their sentence structure. Depending on the language, the actual sentence construction may be different. Not all words have direct correlations across languages, whereas the opposite problem could also occur, with multiple possible word substitutions from language A to language B.
So this is why it's important that one takes a larger scope when looking at doing any translation, it's not just enough to translate the words themselves, but the actual meaning and intent (and voicing) is just as, if not more important. If you are a fan of literature you can see this yourself by picking up a copy of a translated book that has two different translated editions (with separate translators for each edition). Although the plot and characters will largely be the same, you will lose a lot of the flavor and original intent depending on how literal the translator modified the original text.
Unless your question is actually about localization itself, there are cultural differences that need to be taken into consideration when bringing a title from another culture. Let's take the Ace Attorney/Phoenix Wright series. A lot of the charm of the original title was the Japanese pop culture references and links to Japanese mythology. For a Western audience, that wasn't going to make a ton of sense, and you'd lose a lot of the charm. So Capcom's localization team changed things to fit a Western/American demographic, with English/American pop culture references.
There are also some censorship issues, some content doesn't fit the cultural norms, so character's ages and outfits will be changed (i.e. Bravely Default) as to not offend. Personally, I don't see this as a major issue, I'd rather have a censored/modified version of a title than no title at all, but to each their own.
I hope that helps
This is why fan translations don't want to use machine translation/Google Translate as the initial step/first pass for translation.
If you translate the words individually, and not by groupings of phrases/sentences, you will lose all context of words within their sentence structure. Depending on the language, the actual sentence construction may be different. Not all words have direct correlations across languages, whereas the opposite problem could also occur, with multiple possible word substitutions from language A to language B.
So this is why it's important that one takes a larger scope when looking at doing any translation, it's not just enough to translate the words themselves, but the actual meaning and intent (and voicing) is just as, if not more important. If you are a fan of literature you can see this yourself by picking up a copy of a translated book that has two different translated editions (with separate translators for each edition). Although the plot and characters will largely be the same, you will lose a lot of the flavor and original intent depending on how literal the translator modified the original text.
Unless your question is actually about localization itself, there are cultural differences that need to be taken into consideration when bringing a title from another culture. Let's take the Ace Attorney/Phoenix Wright series. A lot of the charm of the original title was the Japanese pop culture references and links to Japanese mythology. For a Western audience, that wasn't going to make a ton of sense, and you'd lose a lot of the charm. So Capcom's localization team changed things to fit a Western/American demographic, with English/American pop culture references.
There are also some censorship issues, some content doesn't fit the cultural norms, so character's ages and outfits will be changed (i.e. Bravely Default) as to not offend. Personally, I don't see this as a major issue, I'd rather have a censored/modified version of a title than no title at all, but to each their own.
I hope that helps
Last edited by jesterscourt,
, Reason: Grammar and expansion on original thought
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