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Reviews of Ys VIII's translation were so bad that the Japanese CEO had to step in and make a statement (source) In 2017, an official English translation of Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of Dana was released. After fans pointed out that the script was filled with bizarre translation choices and genuine translation mistakes, a re-translated version was released months later. And because no two translations are alike, the updated translation feels quite a bit different from the original translation.

Anyway, I literally have 144,670 before and after images from both versions of the game that I hope to organize and share someday in some way. But for now, ignoring all the mistranslations and whatnot, I’m curious to see which translation “style” players prefer more – the original translation style or the updated translation style.

Below are nine sets of jumbled-up before-and-after Ys VIII translation screenshots. For each set, choose your preferred translation, Translation A or Translation B. When you’re done, click the “Display My Results!” button and you’ll find out which translation style you prefer!

Note that I programmed this survey thing myself, and it doesn’t store any information at all anywhere. So if you’d like to share your results with others, post them in the comments! Also, this isn’t meant to be a super-serious thing, it’s just casual “I wonder what different people think” thing I threw together.

Which of the above translations do you prefer?

Translation A

Translation B

Which of the above translations do you prefer?

Translation A

Translation B

Which of the above translations do you prefer?

Translation A

Translation B

Which of the above translations do you prefer?

Translation A

Translation B

Which of the above translations do you prefer?

Translation A

Translation B

Which of the above translations do you prefer?

Translation A

Translation B

Which of the above translations do you prefer?

Translation A

Translation B

Which of the above translations do you prefer?

Translation A

Translation B

Which of the above translations do you prefer?

Translation A

Translation B

Once you’ve made all your choices, press the button below to find out which translation style you prefer more:

Display My Results!

Which translation style came out on top for you? Share in the comments!

If you'd like to see more about video game translation problems and difficulties, see my other articles here. Or if you just want to read some funny stuff about game translation, see here!