Macross 30: The dedication that translates the game

Anyone who has known me for long enough knows that I am a HUGE fan of Macross and that when I get going about Macross, it’s near impossible to get me to stop. I love all the different Macross anime that have been released over the years ever since I first saw the original Macross (through Robotech) when I was a kid. A couple of months ago, I managed to get my hands on the collector’s edition version of Macross 30: The Voice that Connects the Galaxy (Makurosu 30: Ginga wo tsunagu utagoe) for PlayStation 3. I’m really glad the PS3 is region free because it allows me to play this game… the problem is that it’s all in Japanese!

Of course, just because this game is an RPG that’s in Japanese isn’t going to stop me from playing it! It’s easy enough just to skip all the dialogue and play all the gameplay sections, but that’s not enough! I want to know what’s going on with the dialogue between characters! So, I’ve started myself down a very tedious path, I’m a man on a mission…

There’s a tonne of text to translate and I don’t know how to read or speak Japanese, but I do know something that CAN.

Using Google Translate, I’m copying the characters that appear on-screen into Google Translate and HOPEFULLY coming up with enough of an idea of what is being said to get what’s going on in the scene. As cool as it is, Google Translate isn’t perfect and there are some odd sentences, but you do end up understanding most of what’s being said.

And how am I doing all of this? By using my Microsoft Surface Pro 2 with its digitizer pen, of course! It makes all the difference and makes the process quick and easy… well, except for the Kanji, that’s still a nightmare. With the Surface’s digitizer combined with Google Translate, I am able to, very slowly and painfully, understand what’s being said.

Of course, I don’t have to torture myself through everything in the game, thankfully, Zoroastres from MacrossWorld has created a Translation Guide for Macross 30 which has a lot of the menu’s and items and other stuff already translated which is a HUGE help. Using my ghetto translation method and the Translation Guide for the game, I should be able to get the most out of Macross 30… though, the one big problem aside from the whole tedious nature of this mission of mine is that I’m unable to translate the animated cutscenes since there’s no subtitles. Also, when characters speak during a battle in a mission, I’m not able to really pause and translate all of that either…

Bleah, I wish I knew Japanese so I could enjoy this game fully, but, I guess I’ll have to make do with the really janky solution I’ve created for myself lol.