First of all, I am not born in an English-speaking country, so I will use a translator. Sorry if the sentence is weird. Main topic I'm always having fun playing TSW4, but when it comes to scenarios, there are sentences and words that need to be translated. There is some slang, and there are some parts that cannot be understood through translation. (In the first place, translating from English to Japanese results in strange sentences that take some time to understand.) I could solve the problem by studying English and understanding the sentences in the game, but I don't go out of my way to study English just for the game, and I hardly use English in my daily life. Also, from looking at ROAD MAP, I don't know when it will be released, but it seems that the Tadami Line is currently under development, so I think this is a chance to attract Japanese customers. Based on this, I hope that a Japanese translated version of TSW will be created. Sorry for my selfish opinion thank you for reading.
Not selfish at all, and you make a valid point. I've been trying to learn Japanese in my free time to challenge myself, since Japanese is one of the hardest languages for a Westerner to learn. Between the sentence structures being reversed (verbs in Japanese go at the end of a sentence, for those curious), and the various character alphabets (Kanji, Hiragana, etc.), the two languages are very different and I do not doubt it is equally hard for Nihonjin to learn English. That said, Japan has a huge rail enthusiast culture from what I've seen. I completely agree that providing native Japanese translations to the game would open a pretty big market of rail fans. Especially, as you've noted, that the Tadami Line is in production.
thank you for your reply. We often hear that it is difficult for Westerners to learn Japanese. I have been using Japanese for decades, but there are many questionable parts. Recently, the accuracy of translators has improved and Japanese grammar has become a little more natural, but when you translate the words that appear in the game into Japanese, there are still a few moments where you say, ｢That's weird...this Japanese...｣ You can see that it appears. I think the reason why the Japanese translated version of TSW has not been added is because of the difficulty of learning Japanese. But if it happens... The release of the Japanese version may attract Japanese users and become a new source of income. As with the Tadami Line, there are trains made by Hitachi that Japanese people know and are familiar with (Class 395, Class 800 Azuma). People who are into things know about TGV and ICE And RhB Ge 4/4 II's "Hakone Tozan Train" paint, M9 manufactured by Kawasaki Heavy Industries. ÖBB 1116, where you can hear the familiar inverter sound if you rode the Keikyu train a few years ago. I think there are people who will buy the DLC even outside of Tadami Line. Most Japanese railway fans pay too much attention to Japanese railways and are completely uninterested in railways in Britain, Germany, America, etc. It's a little sad that when Japanese people talk about the railway situation in other countries, all they say is that there are "a lot of accidents." Even though it has the romance and goodness of a foreign railway... I want to eliminate that prejudice, and I believe that TSW is the only fully CG train simulator that is realistic (though there are some parts that aren't real). (There is also a game called ``Densha de Go'' in Japan, but it's boring because you can only drive some trains in the metropolitan area and the price is too high) Best of all, having subtitles in Japanese will make it easier to understand tutorials on how to operate locomotives, etc., and it will save you the trouble of translating like I did. You will have a deep understanding of locomotives and trains, and you will be able to understand explanations of complex safety systems such as PZB.
I understand that, I speak English and I have a hard time understanding some of the safety systems lol. I do also understand the prejudice that Japanese enthusiasts have of railways in other countries. Culturally, railways in other countries are so vastly different that I'm sure the differences would be off-putting. Japan's trains are known for being clean, efficient, modern, and having friendly employees and overall respectful passengers. I dream of the day that passengers here in the US don't use their cell phones and have loud conversations in the seating area (I was once on a two hour ride where someone was on speaker phone a few seats away the entire time). That said, I have noticed Kato is producing more and more Western trains, so I'm sure that's helping Japanese fans expand their pallet for those that model. I also agree that train simulators are a great way to gain interest in other countries' trains; I learned about British and Japanese from Microsoft Train Simulator way back in the day. I actually wrote a Suggestion post a couple weeks ago to get Romance Cars back in the game.
I totally understand what you're saying. The Shinkansen is an example of how clean Japanese trains are. On the commuter train, you'll find wrapped snacks stuck between the seats, and drinks someone brought in left by the window for a long time. (Surprisingly...Japan is also dirty in some places.) And KATO, that railroad model company. They sell N gauge ET425, TGV Thalys, etc. I can finally buy a train from another country with Japanese yen! I was delighted. (I was disappointed when I saw the price.) There is also a place in Yokohama, Japan, where model railroads from various countries are exhibited, as if to say, ``Other countries have cool locomotives like this!'' However, it is a bit sad that even with all this, Japanese people are not interested in Western railways. (I think the proposal to bring Romance Cars back into the game is lovely.)
I agree and fully support your request for Japanese translations, or at least having Japanese subtitles. As an intermediate Japanese language learner (JLPT N3), I'd love if there was an option for me to turn on the Japanese language or text in game every now and then for fun or practice. Also, with the Tadami Line coming out, even if Union Works can't secure the JR East licence, I really hope the line comes with Japanese station announcements. I love listening to JR conductor announcements, and they are probably the reason why I was able to understand the basics of speaking sonkeigo faster than my classmates when I was in university. The Tadami Line looks promising, and it could be a way to create greater interest from the western world into driving Japanese routes. I am a big fan of JR West especially, and would love to see my local line, the Seto-Ohashi Line from Okayama to Takamatsu, and the Sanyo Hon-Sen from Himeji to Osaka or Kyoto, represented in game. Others have suggested the route of the Haruka Limited Express from Kyoto to Kansai International Airport via the JR Kyoto, Osaka Loop, and Kansai Airport/Wakayama lines, another suggestion I would love. Doing so would easily draw in western players, but to break into the Japanese train simulator players, a Japanese language translation would be essential. Doing so would give Japanese players more reason to play TSW and their interest could lead to more Japanese route developments. Especially for a game with the term "World" in the title, DTG's intentions for the game aside, I feel like at the very least the game should come with greater language accessibility, even if at first the narrations don't have Japanese versions.
I know the Wakayama & Sakurai Line route on TSC had some for their scenarios, though I don't remember if the TSC version of Tadami had any.
I've never played TSC, but I believe their rendition of the Keihin Tohoku Line in Tokyo Commuter had announcements as well. They were good enough from what I could hear when I watch videos of it, but I would love to hear some improvement on the delivery as well.
As you say, it's a shame that TSC's in-car announcements are in so-called katakkoto Japanese. As far as I've seen the TSC Keihin Tohoku video, it's nice to hear that unique JR East (E233) vehicle sound. It's a familiar sound to me. However, I was disappointed that the flange noise was so loud that it lost a bit of a realistic feel. When adding it to TSW, I would like them to be careful about this kind of sound problem when developing it.
I remember years ago importing the Densha de Go games for the PS1 and PS2. Reading Kanji was beyond me but I did start to learn some of the spoken dialogue. Of course these days you have a feature in Google where you can open an app on your phone or tablet, point the camera at the text and it will translate for you! Came in handy when I dabbled with the Ongakukan drive the video clip games.
はじめまして、minishinというものです。 僕も日本人ですが、tuna#9496さんと同じく英語がよくわからないのでGoogle翻訳を使ってプレイするんですが、ちょこちょこ一時停止して翻訳しつつ進めるのは凄く面倒くさいんですよね。鉄道の知識に関しても電車でGO！から得た知識だけだし。だから、最初に買ったTSW2020は1時間くらいプレイした後は3年間放置してました。その3年間でいろんなAdd-Onの割引率が上がって買いやすくなったので良かったんですけどね。 [EDIT - Jan - Translated with Google Translate] Nice to meet you, this is minishin. I'm Japanese, but like tuna#9496, I don't understand English very well, so I use Google Translate to play, but it's really annoying to have to pause every now and then to translate while proceeding. When it comes to knowledge about railways, go by train! It's just the knowledge I got from it. That's why I played the first TSW2020 I bought for about an hour and then left it alone for 3 years. I'm glad that over those three years, the discount rates for various Add-Ons have increased, making them easier to buy.
You could use a tablet with Google Glass. Hold that in front of the screen and the camera will pick up the onscreen display which Google Glass will then display in your preferred language. I have used the process in reverse for Japanese text on screen in the Kyoto video clip sim (which unlike the Ongakukan games doesn’t have much English) and works very well. Certainly something for DTG to look at but they are going to need someone fluent in both technical English and Japanese would also be a huge task translating the game from scratch.
I can vouch for Vern's suggestion, I use the same function on the Google Translate App with my phone. I use it more for reading the labels on the Asian snacks I buy than Train Simulator, but can confirm it works very well.
JPN:初めまして。 返信ありがとうございます、自分の英語の読解力の無さもあるんですけど、PZBとかのチュートリアルでは翻訳機使わないと難しいところだったりあるんですよね～。 私も鉄道シュミレーターゲームはPS2のTHE 京浜急行と電車でGOくらいで日本以外の鉄道に触れるのは初めてで、グラフィックとBR406に惹かれてTSW2を始めたときはめっちゃハードルが高かったです。 今はある程度慣れたんですけど新しいDLCとか買った時に説明とかチュートリアルが英語まみれでめっちゃ時間がかかるんですよね。 Expart BR101も発売された訳ですので個人的な意見かもしれないですけど簡単に理解できるように日本語字幕ぐらいは付けてほしいところですね ENG(translation):nice to meet you. Thank you for your reply. It's partly my own lack of English reading comprehension, but there are some parts of tutorials like PZB that are difficult to understand without using a translator. For me, the only train simulator game I've played is THE Keikyu and Densha de GO on the PS2, and it was my first experience with a railway outside of Japan, so when I started playing TSW2, it was a really high hurdle. I've gotten used to it to some extent now, but when I buy new DLC, the explanations and tutorials are all in English and it takes a really long time. Expart BR101 has also been released, so this may be my personal opinion, but I would like to see Japanese subtitles added so that it can be easily understood.
こんばんは。返信ありがとうございます。 確かに安全システムはわかりにくいですね。自分の場合はPZBを装備した路線をあまりプレイしていないのが原因のひとつですが。 皆さんが仰ってるGoogle翻訳のカメラ機能も試してみたんですが、驚きました！ちゃんと翻訳してくれますね。画面が小さいのが難点ですが。 実は今、自力でTSW3,4の日本語化MODを作成していて、一般公開もする予定です。この件についてDovetailに連絡したところ、無料なら共有すること自体は問題ないとの回答でした。 [EDIT - Jan - Google translation below] Good evening. thank you for your reply. It's true that the safety system is difficult to understand. In my case, one of the reasons is that I don't play many routes equipped with PZB. I also tried the Google Translate camera feature that everyone is talking about, and I was surprised! It translates well. The problem is that the screen is small and the text appears and disappears when you move it. Actually, I'm currently creating a Japanese mod for TSW3 and 4 on my own, and plan to release it to the public. When I contacted Dovetail regarding this matter, they said that there is no problem with sharing it for free.
