Localization Staff: Apostrophe

[vencabot]

I love NIS games more than I can adequately describe, and I purchase every one that comes out without exception. Character growth, customization... mmm... That being said, after having gone through so many NIS games rapid-fire these past couple of years, there's one oversight that's common in the localization of every single one, and that is the lack of a @#$%ing apostrophe on text-input menus.

Want to name your character tilde-heart-musical-note-male-infinity? Go ahead.
Want to name your accessory circle-square-slash-open-bracket-close-bracket McGie? We got the hook up.
Want to name your sword Bob's Katana? Whoa, whoa, whoa, now slow the @#$% down.

I've had this problem when naming gear in every Disgaea game, in Zettai Hero Project, and, now, I notice that the tradition is still maintained when I want to name a character "Karv A'Dahg" in Cladun.

Just for the fun of it, these text-input screens always have a ridiculous surplus of symbols and punctuation marks, but never an apostrophe, which I'd say is probably the most-commonly utilized punctuation mark in the games' own library of item names. This has gone on long enough, and so, please, if anybody in a position of power reads this feedback, let's not forget the apostrophe on text-entry screens for Disgaea 4, Cladun 2, ZHP 2, etc.

NISA games always have killer localizations -- flavorful translations, suitable voice-acting -- and, of course, the games are amazing. Here's a little nitpick, though, that has never failed to get on my nerves, haha.

Thanks for all of your hard work, and have a nice day!

-David

[LAMV]

I don't think there's a whole lot NIS America can do about it since they only localize the games, they didn't program it. But maybe NISA can bring it to NIS Japan's attention.

[vampko]

I don't recall being able to use an apostrophe on anything but a PC/MAC/etc, it's never worked on consoles as far as I've seen. Except of course, when they just let you draw it, but then that's basically a jpg/png/whatever, that is your name.

But, yes, NISA can't do anything about it themselves, but they could pass this overseas.

[Houk]

I actually never even realized it wasn't an option. It's a bit strange for that to be left out, huh?

As others have mentioned, this isn't an issue of localization but of programming. It's certainly something we can look into though, and see what NIS-J thinks about it.

[Ringwraith]

Seems like one of those things which is simply an oversight as it's a relative minor thing, and one of those things you won't notice it's gone until you've actually try and use it.

[SpaceDrake]

As an outsider (but one who still works The Job, as it were) this probably shouldn't be too hard, since assuming the games are put together with anything like common sense the character name input font should be at least a subset of the wider system font used throughout the game, and I can't imagine a situation in which an apostrophe would confuse the game, namewise.

Of course, we do know that NIS likes to take a dump on common sense, so who knows! Either way, I bet this can be sorted, though.

[Solice]

I would also like to mention that the apostrophe, or also known as the single quote can be a text delimiter in some languages. If you include an apostrophe in a string, it may either cause a runtime error or cause the string to be prematurely ended when being interpreted. In some, but not all, languages, this can be worked around by using the single quote escape sequence; however, this isn't available in all languages.

[Lyner Barfless]

I would also like to mention that the apostrophe, or also known as the single quote can be a text delimiter in some languages. If you include an apostrophe in a string, it may either cause a runtime error or cause the string to be prematurely ended when being interpreted. In some, but not all, languages, this can be worked around by using the single quote escape sequence; however, this isn't available in all languages.

A pretty simple example I can think of to support this... go into MS Excel, start any cell with an apostrophe, hit enter. It vanishes! You need to double it up to make an apostrophe appear. Just one of those weird quirks!

[stealth20k]

I would also like to mention that the apostrophe, or also known as the single quote can be a text delimiter in some languages. If you include an apostrophe in a string, it may either cause a runtime error or cause the string to be prematurely ended when being interpreted. In some, but not all, languages, this can be worked around by using the single quote escape sequence; however, this isn't available in all languages.

A pretty simple example I can think of to support this... go into MS Excel, start any cell with an apostrophe, hit enter. It vanishes! You need to double it up to make an apostrophe appear. Just one of those weird quirks!

not with the neewest verison

[Solice]

My point was to provide a logical counterweight to the "it's an easy concept" argument. Sometimes there's a technological reason why something wasn't done a particular way.

[Rednal]

*Raises hand* Can we ask the Japanese staff to program in a "Space" for their games, too?

[vencabot]

I actually never even realized it wasn't an option. It's a bit strange for that to be left out, huh?

As others have mentioned, this isn't an issue of localization but of programming. It's certainly something we can look into though, and see what NIS-J thinks about it.

I'm sorry for the confusion regarding who I was directing the complaint to, haha; I don't really know much about how the localization process works. I assumed that, in the case of these games, these text-input screens are originally populated with hiragana and katakana characters, and I thought that it was the localization team that replaced those with alphabetical characters -- that somebody at NIS America went into the game's code to replace the Japanese text with English text. It sounds like NISA may just translate the game and send it back to Japan for the programmers to implement?

Anyway, to whoever's appropriating the English characters on the text-input screens, do pass along this message, haha. Thanks a lot, and have a good one!

-David

[vencabot]

*Raises hand* Can we ask the Japanese staff to program in a "Space" for their games, too?

Also, I've never had a problem with NISA games not having a space character, in my memory. I'm always naming stuff with multiple words... Maybe you're not finding it because, well, the key is just an empty space? Also, in Cladun, at least, you can create a space by just moving the character-cursor forward past an empty spot and placing a new character; the skipped spot is regarded as a space, then.

[Rednal]

For the life of me, I could not find a "space" in Hyperdimension Neptunia.

[blandgum]

For the life of me, I could not find a "space" in Hyperdimension Neptunia.

I had the same problem. I ended up using underscores instead, which didn't really look right.