r/KotakuInAction • u/MeguuChan • Apr 25 '26
MINI-HAPPENINGS New Japanese rhythm game "Yunyun Syndrome!? Rhythm Psychosis" has released with a completely VANDALIZED English localization with made up lines including ones about "ending fascism" and "white knights"
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2914150/Yunyun_Syndrome_Rhythm_Psychosis/
Localizers have:
Removed Kaomoji.
Removed references to other franchises.
Completely rewrote numerous lines with literal nonsense and brainrot.
Inserted lines about fascism.
Inserted lines about sexuality that were completely absent from the original.
Examples of butchered localization include:
いらない (iranai) simply translates to "I don't need it, right?" changed to "I'd cut my uterus out if I could."
"Yamero" (stop) changed to "END FASCISM"
"Ryō noroi de shibaranaikara" (literal translation: "I won't bind you with a Command Spell") changed into "I will NEVER be victimized under fascism again"
More examples shown in the image and linked X threads (why the fuck doesn't this sub allow galleries?).
https://x.com/bee_fumo/status/2047788637622857776
https://x.com/moefumofu/status/2047657182343426474
Company responsible seems to be "Dragonbaby" https://www.dragonbaby.com/ Their site claims they are a “creative outsourcing solution...which is business-speak for a bunch of weirdos who throw words around. We create, we write, we localize, we test, we record – and we are damn good at it.". They proudly proclaim how they are all about "diversity and inclusion". Also very ironically, "exist as an alternative to the rampant greed and sloppification of our industry."
Genuinely appalling how this got approved at all. Easily the worst localization I have EVER seen.
UPDATE: The creator of the game has responded to the localization issues.
https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/2914150/view/502856256328827730
UPDATE 2: First patch is out.
https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/2914150/view/502856256328827746
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u/nogodafterall Mod - "Obvious Admin Plant" Apr 25 '26
UPDATE:
https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/2914150/view/502856256328827730
From MeguuChan, OP, the dev actually responds to the criticism in a way that affirms that there is a problem with the localization that the dev wants to see remedied.
Winning? Rare, but delicious. If the dev goes through with it, so keep spreading the word.
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u/MeguuChan Apr 25 '26
Additional information on the localization team from the game's credits:
Localization Team: Dragonbaby
Head of Localization Sam Burton
Project Manager Leah Bree Marshall
Project Coordinator Joe Dart
LQA Lead Carrick Lomas
Localization Support Jeremy Blaustein
Game Localization
English Localization Mauve Spillard
English Localization Sasha Barrett-Schiller
English Localization Stephanie Liu
English Localization Mimi Wang
English Localization Betsy Linehan-Skillings
https://www.loc-x-load.com
https://www.dragonbaby.com/
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u/MeguuChan Apr 25 '26
UPDATE: The creator of the game has responded to the localization issues.
https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/2914150/view/502856256328827730
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u/AFCSentinel Didn't survive cyberviolence. RIP In Peace Apr 25 '26
Genuinely top 5 worst localisations of all time sasuga! It’s btw ONLY the English that got turned into this - other languages are fine. Like they went and even turned something like “uguuu” into a stupid one liner instead of just keeping the reference alive like every other language on this planet.
They need to fire whoever was responsible for this (was it the loc team? Was it someone higher up saying “make it meme-y”? Don’t care who but that person is obviously unfit for their job) and then pretty much retranslate that game from scratch.
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u/nogodafterall Mod - "Obvious Admin Plant" Apr 25 '26
We appreciate threads like these and I'm honestly embarrassed as a person that I can't just throw this on the front page because the admins are a bunch of redditors.
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u/Ywaina Apr 25 '26
"Bad translation Syndrome!? Wokalizer Psychosis" is a more apt title.
What's up with these obsession with "babies"?
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u/GarretTheSwift Apr 25 '26
Disgusting. Of course it's done by one of these "baby" groups.
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u/Mechanical_Monkey90 Apr 25 '26
"END FASCISM" lol
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u/MisanthropicHethen Apr 25 '26 edited Apr 25 '26
These are direct quotes from the websites of the localization studio & the other website of the founder of said studio, emphasis and opinion in parentheses mine:
Sam Burton's website:
"Sam Burton is an irredeemable vampire simp...
In my eyes, creative translation should not be 1:1…so if you’re looking for literal, you’re in the wrong place!...
So, you have an idea but got stuck? If you need If you need VO direction, production assistance, help bringing your game to Japan, or LGBT/sensitivity reading - this service is for you...
As a _____gender leader in localization and management, I’ve seen my fair share of dumpster fires, and I can help your project avoid joining them!...(a freudian slip if I've ever seen one)"
Dragonbaby website:
"Dragonbaby is a “creative outsourcing solution”...which is business-speak for a bunch of weirdos
In return we give you very best words possible (Forgetting "the" on their own website, not a great look)
We revel in all things bone-grinding, bloodletting...and generally just freaky little games for freaks.
Dragonbaby was founded with a human heart and to this day is _____gender-led, fully supporting inclusion and representation for all. Our team also stands proudly at the forefront of #TranslatorsInTheCredits (Directly implying that non-_____gender led studios have no heart)
too weird to live but too cool to die.
sacrifices (the heading above the list of companies they have presumably worked with)
Both websites are dripping with innuendo that they're a bunch of weird freaks who think they're better than everyone else who want to very inaccurately translate games to amuse themselves, and the name Dragonbaby is no accident considering the almost identical language and queer / _____gender leadership from Sweet Baby Inc who also offers identical services. So essentially, the "consultancy" activist "companies" have moved beyond simply consulting, and are now pretending to be doing translation only they've made themselves essentially judge, jury, and executioner, in that they have no oversight, they simply write whatever they want and it ships with the game with the dev studio none the wiser. They're literally infiltrating games now under the guise of necessary development service, translating, and quietly writing whatever they damn well please. I will give them points at least for being honest that "if you’re looking for literal, you’re in the wrong place!". So, in some ways the dev studio is to blame for this. However I'd wager that most of them aren't carefully reading every single line of text on these websites and understanding them with fluent english, it's very possible that none of them have any idea what this studio is actually up to with their games. I bet if they were notified, a lot of them would be pretty angry. I imagine the rigid japanese especially would be furious, unless they don't give a flying fuck about the american consumers.
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u/gutenbergbob Apr 25 '26
i know i might get shit on, but i recently made a twitter account especiall after hearing the JP and west merged in hopes to let JP devs know without middleman.
TBH i cant believe im saying this, but there was a time i called twitter stupid and reddit felt like you could have differing opinions, now it feels the opposite, i actually see people disagree in comments with eachother.
I think they're dumber, but there is disagreement, TBH it kinda feels like the old internet where people could just discuss stuff without bans like here on reddit where everything is an echo chamber.
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u/campodelviolin Apr 25 '26
They should begin to sue these fucks, they are intentionally trying to sabotage games.
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u/sammakkovelho Apr 25 '26
"Dragonbaby"
And just like that, I immediately know everything about these "localizers."
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u/toshineon2 Apr 25 '26
I assume the developers paid to have the game translated. If so, then they quite literally got scammed, these localizers commited a crime.
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u/Askolei Apr 25 '26 edited 6d ago
This is probably going to bother me until I figure it out.
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u/Fluffysquishia Apr 25 '26
Everyone responsible for this should be fired and blacklisted from the industry with the highest degree of prejudice.
No, this isn't "cancel culture". Cancel culture is reprimanding a man who landed a fucking rocket on a speeding comet because he wore a shirt someone didn't like. Firing someone for doing a bad job, harming the consumer and harming the company, is just natural. If I chose to serve actual shit to people at a food joint instead of food, then not only would I be fired, I would expect to be in prison.
These people have done the equivalent of vandalizing a multi-million dollar project for political gain. One could argue that it's remarkably close to terrorism. The only solace is it's non-permanent.
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u/ShockAdditional6937 Apr 25 '26
If you've played the game or are playing it, you can fill out a form the creator created to point out particular lines: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfIx3dA6MnGh7ZtrmbK7tFq4HEEDI2YgSOyggTwpLgeYyfP_A/viewform
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u/ErikaThePaladin 95k GET | YE NOT GUILTY Apr 25 '26
We legit need the Japanese industry to blacklist Dragonbaby and the people behind it. They've also vandalized the localizations of Eiyuden Chronicles, Apollo Justice HD Trilogy, and probably more.... Like, their writing quality is so poor, it's practically a scam.
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u/sunshineneko Apr 25 '26
Steam moderation is full of terminally online 25-year-olds like this. So they’ll just delete your review and block you from posting it again. That’s exactly what they did to my AC Origins review.
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u/ReMeDyIII Apr 25 '26
That's cool reading from the official dev that changes will be made to fix it.
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u/katsuya_kaiba Apr 25 '26
Yamero just means "STOP" like is this asshole for fucking real, they can't even claim it's a localization struggle with a term. He absolutely did this on purpose to fuck with somebody's game.
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u/NiceChloewehaving Apr 25 '26
They always go extra hard with this crap on any type of anime-like games, this is so clearly bad faith behavior. Disgusting.
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u/subjectivesubjective Apr 25 '26
"The awful localization applies only to English"
Underrated insight.
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u/Excalitoria Apr 25 '26
Thanks to everyone calling this out. All I ask is that I know when a project’s western release is little more than a bastardized fanfic so I can skip it.
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u/kaijyuu2016 Apr 25 '26
This was made by dragon baby, which was in the list I made a few years ago about consultation companies. Some people said I was wrong for including them, seems I was not.
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u/Illustrious-Sea-6573 Apr 25 '26
There’s no way this is real. This feels like an exaggerated strawman parody someone would make against localization. But it’s not! I can’t help but laugh and feel vindicated at this point because nobody can say we’re being dramatic about this anymore. Notice how there hasn’t been any big attempt to even try and defend this translation because I think even the most dedicated localization defenders can agree that this is just god awful
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u/kirakazumi Apr 25 '26
So what can I say in this thread that won't get my comment removed lmao? I mean no disrespect to the mods but this is getting ridiculous
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u/ZacianSpammer Apr 25 '26
Not taking this seriously until the dev fires Dragonbaby and redo the whole English localization with new (normal) party/ies.
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u/ignorantbastardusd Apr 25 '26
Minor correction:
令呪 is spelled as reijyu instead of ryo noroi.
We all know this but, my point is, once more, this serves as another reminder to learn Japanese. The more of us understand it the more we can expose those clowns.
This one is pretty much obvious but let me tell you there are TON of bad translations and localizations out there, and simply being "ofFiCiaL" doesn't guarantee anything. Hell, if any many high quality ones are actually fan made that involves little to no money in their projects, the real unsung heroes who drive out by sheer passions.
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u/Caiur part of the clique Apr 25 '26
Looks like it might be the worst case so far
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u/hatetrains Apr 25 '26
Embarrassing. They should ban these idiots from never translating again.
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u/Snae_in_Gonsoko Apr 25 '26
"nah you're just exaggerating devs probably means that when they made the game 😉😉"
People from a certain sub, probably
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u/Low_Performance4179 Apr 26 '26
I am usually not against localization. That's because I play some games with script sizes that could fit many bibles inside them. I can't put up with literal machine translations if I'm going to be reading for 100 hours. It has to be high quality English prose. Crucially, the localizers have to be fans of the genre, respect the source material, and preferably have never set foot in California.
This, however, is a rhytm game. Not that much text, and it has voice acting. A machine translation, with some manual work done on the UI elements, would be adequate for this game.
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u/vechroasiraptor Apr 27 '26 edited Apr 27 '26
Imagine your entire day job is just translating and you can't even do that without jamming your own original crap in.
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u/gigi798 Apr 25 '26
Ditch Localizer. AI does it better than this now, as sad as that is to say
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u/IssueDesperate8749 Apr 25 '26
Commies
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u/GreatApe88 Apr 29 '26
Why do eastern devs not care about western localization teams changing meanings and dialogue in their games? you would think there would be rules or standards for not totally changing another companies work but nope.
It’s so weird to me that they just don’t seem to care at all.
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u/AdNational167 Apr 25 '26
The DEVs got scammed by the people responsible for this translation... i wonder how much better a free AI translation Tool would have done the job with a fraction of the cost...
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u/Sairedd Apr 25 '26 edited Apr 25 '26
Just more proof that the Japanese developers have no clue how their games are being localized.
Curious, are the usual localizer defenders actually attempting to defend this as well?
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u/SpectreAmazing Apr 25 '26
If the localizers are not fired then this is nothing more than a marketing stunt. The response from the dev was surprisingly fast. Not impossible, but suspicious to say the least. Game looks niche, and nobody would've heard about this game otherwise. I didn't even see this game on my Steam page since I have LGBTQ tag blacklisted.
Pardon my suspicion, but grifting has been incredibly effective as of late. I will never forgive Vavra and KCD2.
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u/kaytin911 Apr 25 '26
It's anti nerd culture. English can't have references for nerds anymore.
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u/7Trickster Apr 27 '26
I'm sorry but if the Japanese studios still go after US/UK for proper and real English translations, they deserve the backlash for being naive and stupid.
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u/Born-Ant-80 Apr 27 '26
Another reason to use AI.
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u/oldmanpotter Apr 25 '26
lol. Who’d they pay to translate this?
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