Japanese is, to quote a friend, a very economic language. Japanese grammatical structure allows for the complete elimination of the subject, and there are a lot of ways to end a sentence that leaves the reader/listener having to assume the rest of the sentence. Native speakers are able to pick up on this quite easily and infer things by reading between the lines. However, these nuances are much more difficult to understand for non-native speakers.
Leaving things out and shortening phrases is rampantly present in Japanese phone games. Not only is the language already geared towards taking up less space, now it has to fit onto the screen of your phone or tablet.
This is one of the things that comes across as a challenge when translating stories for this game. If a phrase is translated literally, it will come out short and choppy. So as a translator, I will often add words and phrases to lengthen a sentence. This allows me to use some creative license in how I write the translation, as there is a choice to be made between artistry and economy. As these translations are posted on a website with basically no limitations, I go for artistry. But if the game were translated to English, economy would take precedence and my translations would take up too much space on your screen.
Comments