Quote Originally Posted by SenseiMaria View Post
I would echo others in this topic and say that I would have felt nothing / little for his death if the JP script was in EN.

I already dislike Alisae's & G'raha's more subtle...enthusiasm about our character, JP Haurchefant would leave me despising his character with all my being. I play games to have fun, not having my proxy insert for myself get hit on or commented with any sort of sexual tone - such things should be left entirely to the player to activate & pursue on their end, not forced on them. His localization was 100% the correct move in my own view. They only apologized after the fact because you had a small minority complaining too loud, and a simple apology is effortless to give to placate them, instead of the alternative route of introducing an utter creep of a caricature and pray that the NA fanbase likes him.

Characters that even remotely act like JP haurchefant in media get labeled as creeps & perverts in EN media, for good reason.
I disagree with it being 'forced' on you, and I also don't get this "proxy" analogy you're making. Your character isn't supposed to be an avatar of yourself or a virtualized projection of yourself in a digital world. It can be, but ultimately it's not, especially within these narrative contexts.
The fact that your character reacts with discomfort to it all makes it very apparent that it's a comedic trope, and not to be taken seriously.
I'm genuinely beginning to suspect that people recoil like terrified vipers at this because they believe it's fashionable to feel this way, and not just take it for what it is.

In any case, I see so many posts in this thread claiming that the JP characterization was bad or worse than the localization, or that it would have killed the character for them when he inevitably dies. I'm sorry, but if this is genuinely how you feel, then that says more about you than it does about the character that SE created. It says you're uncomfortable. It says you're distraught. Fine. But your discomfort isn't worth sacrificing the integrity of the product, or if it is, then that respect should be shared across all versions of the game, including the Japanese translation.

Also, they apologized because they agreed that it was genuinely the wrong move for them to take, going so far as to acknowledge that they deprived the audience of a memorable character. It was a departure from their own processes, in addition to a change they would not have made, had they had the foresight to see how this would go down.

I also don't know where you get this delusion that it's a 'vocal minority' of players who voiced their concerns over this, because they're not a vocal minority. It was an uproar, with many fans posting about it in the forums from EN, GER, and FR languages because their experience was deliberately censored. They wouldn't have apologized for this if a mistake hadn't been made, and no amount of assumptions will change that fact. It was viewed as an abuse of discretion by the translators, and rightfully so.

I'm a strong proponent of translation over localization when it comes to the adaptation of foreign media, since the very concept of localization opens the door to censorship and revisionism. At that point, it's no longer the vision of the creators, but that of someone else who decided on your behalf what was appropriate for you and others like you to experience, rather than letting you see a translation of it and decide this for yourself.

Localization, in my view, is a fool's errand unless you plan on an all-out reconstruction of the content in question, not unlike the American pilot for Sailor Moon, which served as a proof-of-concept of how localization and adaptation of foreign media could be done. Why? Because ultimately, no matter how much you try to adapt it, it's still going to be foreign to Western audiences by virtue of its inception. It's distinctly Japanese and carries with it all the nuances and artistic/literary intricacies which surround it, which goes hand-in-hand as to why it's largely unnecessary. You and others like you would have overlooked the Haurchefant issues, or wouldn't have been phased or bothered by it had it released translated, and not censored. You would have consumed it and shrugged it off. It's not like he was a dealbreaker between you being able to enjoy the game and its story.

Localization of the type this forum post was about isn't something that should be celebrated or cheered on. This type of approach went beyond mere adaptation of media to appeal to a foreign market, it was a deliberate act of censorship and represented an egregious and nauseating departure from the initial vision. As consumers of and appreciators of art, we shouldn't want that. We shouldn't want to support this.
We should accept that Japanese media may be 'problematic' in these ways and enjoy it for what it is just like they do, because to them, it's not problematic. It's comedy. It's entertainment. I've said it before, but localization of this type really does erode a real chance at cultural understanding. The fact that people are even debating this with me shows that they're more concerned about their own preferences rather than retaining artistic and literary integrity, which matters far more than they'd care to ever realize.