Elden Ring – How It Got Translated

Elden Ring, as well as most other FromSoftware games, is fairly unique in that while it’s a game developed in Japan, it portrays a very much Western fantasy setting. And that’s not even mentioning just how cryptic everything is in those games. As such, translating a game like Elden Ring can be a real challenge.

And if you wouldn’t mind a glimpse behind the curtain of how a game like this gets translated, you should check out this PC Gamer interview with Ryan Morris, a translator over at Frognation.

A quick excerpt to get you started:

When Ryan Morris, long time localizer and translator of FromSoftware games, first saw Demon’s Souls, he wasn’t impressed. His first exposure to the series was the opening cutscene for the RPG that started it all, and it clocked as awkward.

“To be honest, my first concern was, can a Japanese director effectively make a Western-style fantasy game?” remembers Morris, who works with London and Tokyo-based localisation company Frognation. “I was quite concerned about that. I mean, the passion was there. But is he really going to be able to follow through? He’s unknown at this time. He’s not a legendary director.”

Hidetaka Miyazaki, the creator of the Dark Souls series, Bloodborne, Sekiro, and now Elden Ring, has definitely proven that he can follow through. Western fantasy is a strong influence on Dark Souls and Elden Ring, so much so that in order to capture the mood of Western fantasy, Miyazaki chose to have English-language voice acting even in the Japanese version of his games.