Less than a month after launch Empty Track Chapter 2GungHo Online Entertainment America took stock of the localization work for the Nihon Falcom series remake, and also made its position clearApplication of artificial intelligence in video game translation.
In an interview with Level Up, CEO Fumiaki Shiraishi and producer Matthias Pergams explained that GungHo will not use artificial intelligence for translation and has no current plans to do so. Then entrust the localization work of the game to human translator for the entire process.
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Among the reasons cited by the company are: public expectations A work created by people, but above all required to maintain strong narrative coherence in a particularly complex series. The Locus universe has developed over many chapters, with a large cast of characters, recurring terminology, and narrative details that must remain consistent over time.
According to GungHo, “This level of detail still requires human judgment.” The goal is to ensure that “every character says exactly what they’re supposed to say, the terminology is consistent, and all of those little details are preserved in the game.” That’s why the company believes it’s crucial to retain what it calls the “human touch” in localization.
The trial version of Trails in the Sky Chapter 2 is online, and the introductory movie has also been released
GungHo’s stance is also interesting given some of the announcements made in 2024 Toshihiro Kondo, CEO of Falcom Japan. At that time, Kondo opened up the possibility of using artificial intelligence in the initial stages of localization, with the aim of improving the efficiency of the game’s international distribution. However, managers recognize that even in the presence of automated translation, human revision and revision intervention will still be necessary.
For the remake of “Kiss in the Sky”, at least for now, this solution has not been adopted. The first chapter of “Trails in the Sky Chapter 1” did not use AI for localization when it was launched in the international market, and the second chapter of “Trails in the Sky” will take the same approach.
GungHo also explains how to achieve simultaneous global distribution. The fact that the remake didn’t require entirely new scenes to be written allowed Nihon Falcom to Produce Japanese and international versions at the same time. In fact, when the remake project began, contact with GungHo about localization issues had already begun.
“Kiseki in the Sky Chapter 2” is scheduled to be released on September 17th for PC, Nintendo Switch, Nintendo Switch 2 and PlayStation 5.