Anyone else playing this?

Not much has been said about this... gem... that got ported over to the US. Its a digital only release and boy is the translation amazing. I actually find the game to be pretty good if your in for either tons of fan service or a decent rpg with very classic JRPG roots. Its a grind fest, translations are incredible, and the frame rate drops to 20s in some spots in town. Was wondering if anyone else picked this thing up for a spin and see if we can pool our collective brain power to figure out what the systems are

Yikes, that sure is quite a translation. Not playing this myself though, sorry.

For sure that I picked up the game thing as well.

I was going to pick this up when I thought it was going to come out in July, but then I found out it came out on the same day as Tales of Xilla 2. No go. With the translation as it is, I am most likely going to just wait for a sale and pick it up for cheap.

Heard never it of but show is know. Most of don't care so much, is worded though fun humour.

Holy. I figured considering the overseas release circumstances that the translation budget wasn't going to be super high, but woof.

They also included an HD remastering of the PSP game for the North American release, didn't they? Is that game's translation just as magical as this?

@pepsiman: Its all just a redo of the psp game with a whole new section of the game, in a month they say they are adding ANOTHER 30 hours of content for free in an update, game is already dense as fuck

Looks like fun, will probably pick it up when it goes on sale

I posted these screens to my personal Tumblr (properly sourced, of course) since a lot of people follow me on there for my own translation work and apparently they just reused the existing English text that was present in the Chinese release more or less whole hog.

It makes sense now because the grammar isn't weird in the way that most "bad" direct Japanese-English translations are.

But man. Man. There's corner-cutting and then there's cutting off so much that you don't even have corners left. This is just art.

@pepsiman: Should i be sourcing these? These screens are not mine, I found them on google! (some site called Gamezone to be specific)

I'm to the point of reading theories to figure out how to make your party members do what you want to do, I bet the Japanese version of the game explains all of this but the translations are too awful amazing

Ah, I just presumed they're yours. I don't think it's a big deal either way here since you're not writing an article or anything. I just mentioned it in passing out of due diligence.

If I had more time today, I'd sit down and help you all out by translating Japanese wiki stuff or whatever. This sounds magically cryptic in ways we haven't witnessed since, like, Castle Shikigami 2.

Considering most people buying it already had to experience the "great" fan translation of the novels, I'd say a bad translation won't hurt sales

I did, but haven't played much of it. I'm pretty much having the "I have no idea what I'm doing" experience right now. Really bummed about the translation, but I still bought in so they (hopefully) bring the sequel over too.

I *think* I have the basics down. It really feels like I'm playing an MMO from another country with all the shitty parts of an MMO included!

Respawning quest monsters? Yep!

Grinding? Yup!

The ablility to equip Kirito with what ever weapons and armor you want (including making him a spearman, axeman, ect)? Hell yeah!

Random mechanics in an attempt to submerse the player in the game? Of course (there is a first person mode for...reasons)!

Other 'players' walking around the fighting areas killing monsters before you get there? You betcha!

Overall I do like the game and I'm having fun stumbling through it, I might write up something about it if only about the pretty cool meta-game mechanics

The chinese release was much much MUCH worse. It had such gems as "That black man is assaulting the maid" or "How dare you defy the Legendary Bench in the Legendary Place!". Though that doesn't excuse the game for almost never using pronouns. It also uses "tsundere" non ironically.

A patch may be coming to fix the translation.

Since I think the show is garbage and I can't stand games that are entirely poorly translated, probably won't be picking it up.

Oh man. This saga continues to get better and better by the day.

I haven't bought a game for its botched localization since Castle Shikigami 2, but that version especially sounds like a worthy successor. I do wanna legit play the game at some point, so I'll probably just pick up the Japanese edition at some point, but the allure of a beautifully terribly translation is simply too much for me to ignore.

I thank you for enlightening me.

@pepsiman: Just for you

But in the game's defence, the main story's translation isn't really that bad

Put about 7 hours into it so far and having fun with it...but that translation has been well, yeah.

I played it for a few hours on a long flight I just got off of. I guess I am having fun, but all the above criticisms apply. Very much.
I also get a almost dark souls like feeling from the game in the sense that you usually have no means of knowing which exit of the map to explore next. And 3 of 4 usually get you killed fast. Which kind of goes against the premise of the show. Dying isn't encouraged in the death game. Plus you lose your exp when you die. Which can make the grinding a little frustrating.

But, like I said, I was still having fun.

I plan on getting this in the next week or so. I'm a fan of the show and I like stupid grindy japanese rpg's.

I really love the SAO anime so this game was a no brainer for me. Its fun with a complex combat system and some relationship stuff that is way to grindy for me. Oh and yeah, the translation...

How's the exploration?

@kucheeky: realize this is a little late but ... exploration: there is the psp port part of the game where you have a hub town with the expected shops and Inn and such. Not super huge. All the towns on other floors are just menues, think P3P. In the main town on floor 76 you can team up with the main gals but also with almost every other NPC you run into. There is little side missions and stories to explore, but, tbh, given the bad engrish, I mostly fast forward them (actually hammer the circle button).

Then there is the native Vita part, the "hollow" region, this part is pretty much open world, with fast travel points every once in a while. You will also die a lot here if you explore too much :) So leveling up in the first part of the game is a good idea. But you are free to go back and forth between the two.

Disclaimer, I am far from done yet.

So is the translation seriously that bad throughout the entire game? Did the people who translate it not speak English or something?

I was thinking about getting it, but god damn, I don't know if I could stomach that.

Is the PS4 port of this coming stateside? That shitty translation work looks like the foundation for an amazing blog series.

I played this on PS VITA and yeah the translation of this game really suck. Thou the only disappointing here (if you're not a SAO fan) the combat system is quite slow. I will wait for the Lost Song to come out on PS4.