Quote Originally Posted by LeafyVegetable View Post
While I understand some people enjoy the references, every time I see a western pop culture reference in this game I die a little inside. Shouldn't translations be as literal as possible? I fansub anime and always, ALWAYS as a rule keep translations as accurate as possible to the sentence structure and name order.
Translating and localizing are two different things. Localization is about taking that translation and presenting it in a way that keeps the core spirit of the original script while retaining an understandable frame of reference and culture for the local audience to connect with. It's a tricky balance to be sure, and there are always spots where something might have been handled differently had someone else had a chance at it. Legends of Localization (http://legendsoflocalization.com/) is a good blog to read about the trickiness of it all as well as comparisons between literal translations, various official localizations, as well as fan localizations.