It's not really British at all, honestly. It's just a fictional variant of English dialect that they decided to create to give the game more of a fantastical, unearthly feel. Personally, I quite like it, as it gives the game its own unique flavor.
It's not meant to imitate Shakespeare (and it really doesn't if you read any of Shakespeare's actual works), nor is it really Medieval-style English (that's even worse than Shakespeare in terms of modern comprehensibility). It's just flavor and seasoning, that's all.
That being said, it shouldn't be very difficult for you to rewrite the dialogue to modern English if that's your thing, since it already only uses a handful of archaic words and phrases to create that flavor. Just replace them with more modern terms and you're good to go.
Somehow I fail to see the issue here. They don't have to be the same. Japanese and English in particular have so many enormous grammatical, stylistic, and cultural differences between the two that a literal translation is barely even comprehensible to native English speakers. If I did an actually literal translation of the Japanese dialect I'd have to do a LOT of omission of subjects and essential words that make English sound like English.
Hence, they just write separate dialogue that puts the same points across. It's the preferable route to take, IMO, especially for native English speakers as they will have a much easier time navigating the dialogue than with the alternative, more literal approach.
It's not meant to imitate Shakespeare (and it really doesn't if you read any of Shakespeare's actual works), nor is it really Medieval-style English (that's even worse than Shakespeare in terms of modern comprehensibility). It's just flavor and seasoning, that's all.
That being said, it shouldn't be very difficult for you to rewrite the dialogue to modern English if that's your thing, since it already only uses a handful of archaic words and phrases to create that flavor. Just replace them with more modern terms and you're good to go.
(06-23-2015, 05:35 PM)Lilia Lia Wrote: I just wanted to say I know exactly what you're getting at and I share your frustration. I have Japanese audio and English subtitles and I can't help feeling like the translation takes a lot of liberties (regardless whether the English or the Japanese was the original). Every time I hear the character say "Nani?" and the English text is something like "Is aught amiss?" or "What hath transpired heretofore?" it just grates on me and it makes me wonder how much difference there actually is between the Japanese and the English scripts. Is the Japanese dialogue also overloaded with the equivalent of a corny pseudo-archaic dialect? I'm not sure but I'd be surprised if it were.
Somehow I fail to see the issue here. They don't have to be the same. Japanese and English in particular have so many enormous grammatical, stylistic, and cultural differences between the two that a literal translation is barely even comprehensible to native English speakers. If I did an actually literal translation of the Japanese dialect I'd have to do a LOT of omission of subjects and essential words that make English sound like English.
Hence, they just write separate dialogue that puts the same points across. It's the preferable route to take, IMO, especially for native English speakers as they will have a much easier time navigating the dialogue than with the alternative, more literal approach.
