Localisation of games into Chinese seems to have turned a corner (inc. game recommendations)

[StChris]

One thing that has often made me jealous of Japanese learners is the fact that they have 30+ years worth of games to play in order to improve their language skills. While it's easy to be cynical about this method of "studying", I've met a fair few people who have credited their English skills with playing English language games when they were kids. I myself think that I have learnt as much Chinese through media (films, TV shows etc) as I have from any teacher or textbook.

 

Until just a couple of years ago, the paucity of home developed Chinese games and the lack of Chinese localisation of Japanese/Western developed games meant that this method of improving your Chinese skills wasn't a viable option. With foreign developed games, you usually had to be grateful with traditional character menus and maybe even subtitles, if you were very lucky, and that was when the publisher bothered with any localisation at all. What few Chinese made games there were were mostly MMO type games, which I'm not personally a fan of. However, recently we have started to see some real progress, with many games not only getting simplified subtitles and menus, but even Chinese voiceovers. I now think that we have turned a corner and that good times for Chinese learners lie ahead.

 

First for some localisations already released:

 

Resident Evil 2 Remake / 生化危机2

 

 

This is the one which really made me sit up and take notice, and ultimately inspired me to create this whole thread. I'm sure the game itself needs no introduction (well, maybe those of us who owned a Sega Saturn and not a PS1 are a little less familiar with it - I'm still bitter the sequel never came out for the good old Saturn!). Resident Evil 7 didn't have a Chinese dub, so I was pleasantly surprised that this one did. It seems pretty good too, with even the lip syncing looking fine to me. Check it out yourself. 

 

Two Point Hospital / 双点医院

 

 

Those who were into PC gaming in the 90s might remember the Theme series of games from Bullfrog (Theme Park, Theme Hospital etc). Well, Sega teamed up with some of the original makers of that game and released this spiritual sequel last year. Although it only started off with Chinese subtitles, a full dub was added with the latest DLC. If you're into resource management games and want to learn some medical vocab, then this could be just the game for you. Here's a taste of the Chinese dub.

 

Shadow of the Tomb Raider / 古墓丽影 暗影

 

 

While I'm already too used to Camilla Luddington's posh English voice to switch to a Chinese dub for these games, the option for a Chinese dub is available.

 

Civilisation 6 / 文明6

 

 

In theory, playing this game would be a great way of improving your historical vocab. I had the same idea when I bought Civ 5, but unfortunately the font used was too small for me to make out the characters, so I ended up just switching back to English. 300+ hours later (according to Steam) and while I've conquered many an empire, my historical Chinese vocab remains as small as before :(. I haven't played Civ 6 yet, but the font still looks a little small to me. Check it out for yourself before buying.

 

 

Now for some localisations due to arrive later this year:

 

Total War: Three Kingdoms / 全面战争：三国

 

 

Given the popularity of the Three Kingdoms story in China, Sega and Creative Assembly would have been insane to have not given it the full localisation treatment. Just like the Civ series, Total War is a strategy game franchise one I've spent way too much time playing over the years, but I'll feel less guilty about it if I'm "learning" Chinese at the same time ?

 

Ace Attorney: Phoenix Wright Trilogy 逆转裁判

 

 

I've never played any of these games before, but I'm quite excited at the prospect of playing such a text heavy game in Chinese (the Chinese translation will come out some time after the game is released). Since it's set in a courtroom, I'm looking forward to developing my law vocab.

 

 

[StChris]

Now for a few locally developed Chinese games:

 

中国式家长 / Chinese Parents

 

 

Released on steam last year, this is a text heavy series of mini games which, in spite of the name, actually takes you through the life of a young Chinese person as they grow up. If you've ever wondered what it would be like to be like to grow up Chinese, study for the gaokao and have your parents set you up on blind dates, then this could be the game for you. This video will give you an idea of the gameplay. I have already bought this, but haven't had a chance to play. Hopefully I'll be able to report back with an in depth review next month.

 

返校 / Detention

 

 

This creepy survival horror game set in a Taiwanese school during the White Terror has been out for a while and is very popular on Steam (it has an English translation as well). A new survival horror game by the same developer, called Devotion, is due out next month.

 

Sinner: Sacrifice for Redemption

 

 

If you like Dark Souls, then this one might be worth a try when it is released next month. While the amount of fighting means that the opportunities for Chinese learning might be limited, it looks like it could be a competent effort and worthy of support.

[StChris]

I'm sure I've missed a lot, so feel free to add more. Hopefully, as Chinese games and localised foreign games become more and more common, they will become as much a topic for discussion here as books and TV shows have been.

[Tomsima]

Thanks so much for posting this, I was literally just about to ask for more info on this exact topic and you posted this excellent thread!

[StChris]

You're welcome @Tomsima. Unfortunately, I'm stuck with a ordinary laptop with Intel integrated graphics for the time being, so can't run most of the games I listed above, so I'd be interested to hear back from you if you manage to give any of the Chinese versions a try.

[Dawei3]

StChris - Your post is an example of why I like this forum, i.e., participants have very diverse interests and knowledge.  It's a learning approach I hadn't considered (but I could see it being very effective if the game is very engaging).  

 

On a broader level, this approach could be good for kids too.  My teenage daughter had no interest in learning a 2nd language, until she started to listen to KPOP and other Korean entertainment.  Now, I'd like to find a way for her to learn Korean.  

[StChris]

@Dawei3 I'm sure there are games in Korean too. If you'd like you daughter to get into Chinese, then I've been reliably informed that there are plenty of Kpop-esque Chinese boy bands nowadays.

[roddy]

Happened to notice 中国式家长 / Chinese Parents is 30% off on Steam today, if anyone was tempted. 

[markhavemann]

Nice idea creating this list. I'm always looking for an excuse to play games and call it studying. 

 

Another one I came across a while ago was 古剑奇谭三(Gujian3) https://store.steampowered.com/app/994280/Gujian3/. I haven't actually tried it because I thought I'd come back to it at a point when I am able to spend time playing without needed to look up every other word. 

 

Isn't Startcraft 2 also available in a fully Chinese version?

[Mijin]

StarCraft 2 is indeed available with mandarin voice over as well as subtitles.

IIRC it was a bit of a pain to set up though -- Chinese version needs online log in, and if you already have a western account or license number those of course won't work.
This is from memory though so I may be misremembering.

 

As a suggestion, can we also mention which of these games have voice over and whether it's simplified or traditional Chinese etc, where known? Because it's relatively easy to find lists of games with any Chinese translation of any kind, but harder to find lists of games with actual Chinese voice. And e.g. I bought Detention before finding it was just traditional Chinese (at least at that time), which isn't useful for me.

 

[agewisdom]

On 1/30/2019 at 6:15 PM, roddy said:

Happened to notice 中国式家长 / Chinese Parents is 30% off on Steam today, if anyone was tempted. 

 

This game looks very interesting but I am getting only a very vague idea off Google Translate. A few questions:

 

1. At what HSK level is it suitable for? I'm halfway to HSK 3 now. How difficult is the Mandarin?

2. How does it exactly help in English Mandarin learning? (typo)

3. Is it voiced?

 

I'm getting a feeling it's a hugely popular Indie title in China so I'm guessing it's gotta be good, but why? I've no idea.

[feihong]

HSK is pretty foundational Chinese, so even some kids’ games would be HSK 5 or 6 (I was pretty surprised at how many new words I learned from playing Mario RPG and Zelda games in Chinese). That said, it shouldn’t necessarily deter you from playing a game if your level is lower. It depends on your motivation and patience to look up new words and phrases while playing the game.

 

Personally, I didn’t bother looking up everything in the middle of game play. I would just take a screenshot of a new word and keep playing until I ran into a situation where not knowing what something meant stymied my forward progression. After I put the game down, I’d slowly look up all the unfamiliar words in my dictionary and add them to my flash card database.

 

Most games have a somewhat specific vocabulary, so the further you get in the game, the fewer words you have to look up. Once you’ve gotten past this hump, the game becomes more enjoyable and less of a chore.

 

Here is a playthrough video of 中国式家长: https://youtu.be/wexeDrKB4Bg. Presumably it shows all the important screens in the game. You can pause the video at various points to see how much of the interface you can understand at your current level.

[agewisdom]

45 minutes ago, feihong said:

Here is a playthrough video of 中国式家长: https://youtu.be/wexeDrKB4Bg. Presumably it shows all the important screens in the game. You can pause the video at various points to see how much of the interface you can understand at your current level.

 

Many thanks for the link. I think I'll just buy the game since it's rated highly.

 

46 minutes ago, feihong said:

HSK is pretty foundational Chinese, so even some kids’ games would be HSK 5 or 6

 

I tend to think so since I find that even at mid HSK3, it's still covering the basic characters. HSK1-3 should just be grouped together as HSK 1 and then go on from there. It's somewhat misleading in using HSK exclusively to gauge one's Chinese. It's really a very rough measure... better than none I suppose. But as you said, even some kids game requires HSK 5 and 6, so... as a measure of proficiency, I'm feeling it's a bit inadequate.

[roddy]

Just now, agewisdom said:

I think I'll just buy the game since it's rated highly.

If you like, start a new topic to tell us about it and we'll see if we can help out with any language problems...

[agewisdom]

1 minute ago, roddy said:

If you like, start a new topic to tell us about it and we'll see if we can help out with any language problems...

 

Indeed. I might do just do that or a review depending on how far I get. It seems quite interesting and from the comments I hear, there's a lot of insider meme or jokes that would only get lost in translation.

[trevorld]

12 hours ago, Mijin said:

As a suggestion, can we also mention which of these games have voice over and whether it's simplified or traditional Chinese etc, where known? Because it's relatively easy to find lists of games with any Chinese translation of any kind, but harder to find lists of games with actual Chinese voice. And e.g. I bought Detention before finding it was just traditional Chinese (at least at that time), which isn't useful for me.

 

Yeah, even restricted to just drm-free games that are playable on Linux one can still easily find hundreds of games with Simplified Chinese translations of text using GOG search filters.  Although the Steam/GOG stores make it easy to filter on games with Simplified Chinese text they don't let you filter on just Mandarin audio (although if you look at a game in either store it'll tell you if it has Mandarin audio).  Hands of Fate 2 is another game that seems to also have Mandarin voice (with simplified Chinese text) -- haven't played it though.

[Mijin]

21 hours ago, agewisdom said:

1. At what HSK level is it suitable for? I'm halfway to HSK 3 now. How difficult is the Mandarin?

2. How does it exactly help in English learning?

3. Is it voiced?

I also bit the bullet and bought this game (I am paying so much for Chinese lessons, that punting 50RMB every now and then to try out an alternative is a no-brainer).

I've only played for a few minutes at this point, and it's too soon to say how much audio it has. But I can say the language level is approx. HSK6.

I can tell it is using what a native-speaker would consider to be simple Chinese. But from my perspective (I can pass HSK5 past papers though not comfortably), there are lots of characters that I don't know.

[roddy]

Ok, the game is now getting coverage in the New York Times. 

[roddy]

And of course, someone recorded their actual mother playing the game and talking over it for quarter of an hour. 

[agewisdom]

3 hours ago, roddy said:

Ok, the game is now getting coverage in the New York Times. 

 

Hope it gets a boost and an English translation soon. Would be great to play both versions and learn Mandarin at the same time