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Last month it was reported how Persona 5 Royal will be receiving some changes for its English
release, to content that originally saw some controversy when Persona 5 was originally
released back in 2017.
Persona 5 Royal is the updated re-release version, similar in vain to Persona 3 FES
and Persona 4 Golden, and it was released in Japan last October and will be coming to
the West March 31st.
The scenes in question revolve around a pair of LGBT characters who you bump into twice
during the course of the game and who take a liking to Ryuji and start hitting on him.
This caused controversy for some players due to reasons such as their very stereotypical
depictions and also due to them acting sexually aggressive and towards minors.
You can find a link to the channel’s previous video on the matter in the description, which
contains more background info, as well as comments from Atlus about why the scenes would
be changed.
This video on the other hand will be taking a look at how these scenes have been changed
for the English release of Royal, as well as translating the Japanese originals.
For the translation I’d like to give a big thanks to Tom Lipschultz, a video game localization
veteran who has worked on and translated countless games for companies such as XSEED Games.
The channel reached out to Tom, as I thought it would be good to have a very accurate and
professional translation of the Japanese version, as well as perhaps a statement from an industry
professional on their view of the situation and how things have been handled.
Also, a big thanks to GameExplain who have been able to upload an early look at how the
English version of Royal has changed one of the scenes, as well as the Twitter user PK
Gaming who has screenshots from Royal for the other changed scene.
First up we’ll be taking a look at the scene from the red light district, with the Japanese
version on the left with Tom’s translation underneath, and the English version on the
right.
Also, note, this is from the original version of Persona 5, with Royal coming afterwards.
Furthermore, one other big thing to point out is that, despite wide reports from the
media, the Japanese version of Royal actually also made some changes as well, which is something
we’ll also be taking a look at.
So, first up, in the Japanese version the character is described as “Extremely deep
voice” and says “Ooh, what's this about a lovely, loooovely "big thing"?
I'm getting excited now too!”
The English version however describes the character with “Uncanny Voice” and says
“Oooh, a real huuuge catch, you saY?
I’m getting pumped too!”
The next line is similar between the two versions although the character is given the name “Big
Sis with Facial Hair” in Japan, whilst the English version uses the name “Scruffy Romantic”.
The following line is a bit different in Japan, with Ryuji calling the other characters “monsters”.
And then the next line introduces the other character who is called “Muscular Big Sis”
in Japan and “Beefy Trendsetter” in English.
And the dialogue is similar although the English says “naughty troll” whilst the Japanese
says “creature of Shinjuku”.
Then the next 2 lines from Ryuji are very similar between versions, which see him distraught
and asking for help and so are the multi-choice responses you can pick.
Ryuji's reaction to this hasn’t been translated but the dialogue after from Muscular Big Sis
aka Beefy Trendsetter says “You're a feisty one.
I'm gonna give you the full service!” in Japan and “What an energetic studmuffin,
I’ll give you all the freebies you could ever desire!” in English.
Then the other character says “The night is long, you know.
Let's make the most of it together!” in Japan and the English version changes this
to “The night is young and so are you!
Let’s party it up!”
Following this, the scene then ends with Ryuji screaming and the screen going black.
So, so far, things are quite similar as the Japanese version, although some differences
in places such as the characters no longer being called “Big Sis” in the English
versions, which is a theme we will see more of and go further into as we go on.
Now as for the Japanese version of Royal, most of the dialogue before Ryuji asking the
player for help was changed.
The first line about the “big thing” is the same but then the scene is kicked off
with Ryuji saying “Gah!
Who the hell are these freaks?!” with Tom adding a translation note, clarifying that
he's using the term "koitsura," which is just kind of a rude/dismissive way of saying "these
people".
Then the next line has the character no longer been given a name and just 3 question marks.
However, the dialogue now has the character naming themselves, with the text saying: “Oh,
now you've done it!
I am no freak!
I am the fairy of Shinjuku...
You may call me Angela!”
The other character is then also given questions marks for a name and says “And I'm Ju-li-a-na.
Call me Big Sis Julie!
The next line was also featured in the original release, but for Royal the character is now
named Angela rather than Big Sis with Facial Hair.
And the difference in names is carried forward for the rest of the scene, including for the
other character.
And the next line from Juliana is also new, with it reading “Never mind all that.
Tell us more about the "big thing" you were talking about!
Tell us every.
Single.
Detail!”
And then from here, the scene proceeds like in the original version.
Now, let’s take a look at how the English version of Royal has changed things up.
The first thing to note is that the character is now initially named “Deep Voice” rather
than “Uncanny Voice”, which is much more similar to the Japanese, however pretty much
everything else from this scene has been drastically changed.
The character says: “Ooh, you're right!
He really WOULD be a natural!
But, a graphic tee with plaid pants?
Ugh, kill me now.”
Ryuji says: “Whoa, who the hell are they!?”
And the characters respond with “Oh, hell has nothing to do with it, honey.
I'm Angel--straight out of heaven!”
“And I'm Julian.
Julie, if you're feeling saucy!
The characters then go by the names Angel and Julian throughout the rest of the scene
and Angel says “What a cutie!
You'd never guess he was into the drag scene...
I say we show him the ropes!”
And Julian says “You can't deny it!
We saw you peeking into Crossroads!
Well, sweetie, if you're curious, we'll help you look DIVINE!”
Ryuji proclaims: “Wait, hey, it's not like that—“ “Dude, help!
Tell them we were just investigatin', or something!
And then the multi-choice responses are all different too, with the top one reading “Can’t
blow our cover”, the middle “But you’re a natural” and the bottom “Knock ‘em
dead”.
Leaving out Ryuji’s reaction again, Julian then says “Oh, honey, you've got the chutzpah.
And those cheekbones--I LOVE it!
That's what it takes to be a star!”
And Angel finishes with “Just follow my lead, stud!
We're gonna put your name in lights!
And I know just the dress for you..”
And then the scene proceeds to black with Ryuji screaming again.
So to briefly summarise, the English version of Royal has basically changed things around
so that now the characters want to dress Ryuji in drag.
The English version also seems to portray the characters themselves as males who are
into the drag scene and changed the names from Juliana, which is commonly a female name,
to Julian a commonly male name.
As well as Angela which is commonly a female name, to Angel which is used for both males
and females but in Spanish-speaking countries is commonly a male name.
The video mentioned earlier, with the removal of the “Big Sis” part of the names seen
in the non-Royal Japanese version, that this is a theme we’ll see more of as we go on
and these types of changes to gender-related text.
This is also something that we will encounter even more as we proceed to taking a look at
the next scene, which takes place during the beach trip.
Again, the Japanese original version will be on the left and the English on the right,
with taking a look at Royal afterwards.
As you can see, for the first line things were translated quite accurately and this
is also the case with the second line and, furthermore, the names “deep voice” and
“brawny voice” are very accurate to the Japanese version’s as well.
The next two lines from Ryuji are also very similar, where he recognises them from earlier
and asks what they are doing here.
And then the following two lines from the other characters are again similar, although
the English version keeps the “Scruffy Romantic” and “Beefy Trendsetter” names from earlier,
whilst in Japan it is again “Big Sis with Facial Hair” and “Muscular Big Sis”
respectively.
The next line is mostly similar but the Japanese version uses the term “Big Sis Police”
rather than “Fashion Police”.
And then the next line introduces the biggest change made to the original English version,
as over in Japan the question that they ask is “So, which one of us would you say is
really an M-A-N?”
Whilst in English they ask “Which of us do you think is more manly?”
So, in the Japanese version, these characters are asking who is really a man, not who is
more manly, but literally just a male.
Ryuji’s line afterwards is similar between both versions and then it’s in the next
2 lines where again differences can be found.
The biggest differences being that when they reveal the answer in the Japanese version
they say that both of them are “maidens”, seeming to indicate that neither of them are
male.
Whilst over in the West the characters instead just say that “they are both lovely”.
And then all of the following lines are also similar between versions, with the pair sentencing
Ryuji with “stripping” in the English version for not answering the question, whilst
it’s “confiscating” his clothes in Japanese.
And then the scene proceeds with the pair saying that Ryuji is under arrest, Ryuji running
away and then the pair chasing after him.
Now, before we get into the English version of Royal – how did the Japanese Royal version
change things?
Well, unlike the previous scene, interestingly the only change to dialogue was not a case
of adding anything new but actually straight up removing one of the lines.
This being the line “I'm afraid I'll need to confiscate those clothes!”, following
Ryuji not answering the question correctly.
It’s not known why this happened but perhaps there was a bit of a concern within Atlus
that this may have taken things too far or perhaps they felt it just didn’t work very
well.
Royal did however reintroduce the characters’ names from the previous scene, and so “Muscular
Big Sis” is Juliana and “Big Sis with Facial Hair” is Angela.
As for the English release of Royal, the game doesn’t release until March 31st but we
have been able to see 4 screenshots from the scene.
The first is of Ryuji asking “What are YOU guys doing here!?”, the second is of one
of the characters, who is again named “Julian” saying “We thought we lost our protégé!
Who would’ve guessed our vacay was actually the call of fate?”
Julian then says “Just an hour at the vanity, three hours at the boutique, and we can just
pick up where we left off last time.”
And then the last scene shows Ryuji after running away and saying “Ugh!
No more makeovers!
Ughhh!”
So from these screenshots it shows that Atlus USA have decided to stick with the whole makeover
thing from the previous scene.
Now, like mentioned earlier, I also thought it could be interesting to get a statement
from an industry professional on their view of the situation and how things have been
handled.
And Tom has added these thoughts alongside his translation, although, note, this should
only been seen as his own personal view and not representative of anything else.
To quote: “I felt that Persona 5 was initially translated
a bit too directly from the Japanese, with not much editing done to make the dialogue
sound more natural in English.
As such, I was not personally fond of the Persona 5 localization initially.
Based on the small snippets I've seen of the Royal localization, it seems as though a lot
more time and effort was taken in editing this time around, and the dialogue sounds
much, much more natural as a result, which is a really good thing, and should make Atlus'
localization staff feel proud.
However, it is now explicitly clear that content sanitization has occurred in relation to the
characters who have been given the names Angela and Juliana (some sanitization may have occurred
previously as well, but things have been taken notably further now).
The reasoning behind these changes is understandable, but the fact is, the Japanese Royal script
very much doubled down on the unfortunate stereotypes featured in the original game,
meaning -- for better or for worse -- that that IS what the original developers intended.
And I think it's irresponsible to try to "cleanse" a script of such things in localization, as
doing so runs counter to the intention of those who make these changes.
If a game is released with altered text, that means the writer who wrote the offending content
has officially "gotten away" with it.
He or she will no longer be held accountable by international audiences, because most of
them will never know that the offending content was there in the first place.
And thus, that writer will likely include similar content in future games.
It sends a very mixed message, and presents a historically inaccurate image of this moment
in game development.
I'm personally fond of the approach taken by Warner Bros. when releasing many of their
older cartoons in unaltered form on DVD and such, and wish more localization studios would
simply add a disclaimer like this to the beginning of their games rather than altering content
to avoid possible backlash: I think some of the alterations in P5R's English
script are especially egregious, as the original Japanese makes it fairly clear that the characters
of Angela and Juliana identify as female -- they specifically ask the player to guess which
of them is "otoko" (male), then reveal the answer to be neither of them, as they're both
"otome" (maidens).
This has been removed in the English, but in doing so, two LGBTQ characters who identify
as female have had that identity stripped away from them.
The characters are not sensitive depictions of LGBTQ personages by any means, but removing
their gender identity from the script simply because their actions paint them as negative
stereotypes feels like a somewhat tone-deaf and counterproductive decision.
I'm not in favor of content sanitization actions under any circumstances, but when those actions
arguably make the very situation they were meant to fix a little bit worse, I'm left
scratching my head even harder.”
So, that’s it for the comparison between the two scenes in English and Japanese and
also for the new Royal versions.
But, what do you think about the situation?
As always, please let us know your thoughts in the comments below and, once again, a big
thanks to our faithful sponsors at NordVPN.
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