Japanese company Cygames (Umamusume: Pretty Derby, Granblue Fantasy, Shadowverse...) works with Western localizers to adapt the game to Gen Z Cygames presented a session on localizing characters’ dialects, speech patterns, and personalities. Some characters do not receive a direct translation of their Japanese speech, the localization team creates a different English voice to convey the same personality and social background. For example, “Merry Christmas” was changed to “Happy Holidays” in parts of the English version, despite the Japanese dialogue saying “Merry Christmas.” Many romantic scenes are also toned down. Mihono Bourbon is another example. In Japanese, she calls the Trainer “Master,” while the English text uses “Trainer.” Her Japanese voice still says “Master,” creating a noticeable difference. The localization team explains that some cultural concepts are difficult to communicate directly to Western audiences, so they seek English equivalents that convey the character’s intended image rather than literally translating the terminology.

Umamusume: Pretty Derby’s English version is getting two big updates earlier than expected. To celebrate the game’s first year in English and its upcoming 1.5-year anniversary, Cygames announced two new features that will arrive sooner than planned. >The first is Independent Training: -Characters will keep training in real time even when the game is closed, allowing progress without constant play. >The second update is for the Steam version. - Winning Concerts will soon run at 60 FPS -4K support will be added later for sharper graphics and more detailed character models. Cygames also announced more updates, new stories, and special anniversary events as it improves the English version.

I am a french freelancer illustrator living in Japan. I usually work on character designs on games,figurines, light novels etc I worked with various companies from cygames, Sega,yostar,netease, Bank of innovation, squarenix... #PortfolioDay#