Carmine with her hand held in the air in Nihon Falcom's The Legend of Heroes: Trails through Daybreak 2

Trails Studio Nihon Falcom Considering Using AI for Translation in Future

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Published: October 22, 2024 9:26 AM

Trails developer Nihon Falcom is considering using AI in order to assist with translation for its future games, the studio's CEO has revealed.

In an interview with Japanese gaming platform 4Gamer (via Automaton Media), Nihon Falcom head Toshihiro Kondo said that leaving initial translation work to AI could "compress the entire process and ultimately speed up development".

Kondo acknowledges that "human effort would still be needed to make final adjustments to the translated words and lines", but expresses a hope that AI translation could shorten the distance between the Japanese release of a Nihon Falcom game and the Western release.

A character using a magic attack on enemies in Nihon Falcom's Trails through Daybreak 2
Future Nihon Falcom games could be translated by AI before being tweaked by humans.

In the interview, Kondo says that it's not possible to release Trails games simultaneously worldwide due to the amount of text in them, which he says is "several times larger than that of a typical RPG".

According to Kondo, the Nihon Falcom team begins translation work on a Trails game once the Japanese version is complete, which is why Western versions of the games usually "come out a year later at best".

He doesn't acknowledge the possibility of bringing in a translation team to work on a Trails game alongside the Japanese developers, although it's fair to say Nihon Falcom is a relatively small studio, so perhaps this isn't possible for logistical reasons.

In any case, although Kondo doesn't fully commit to using AI in order to translate future Trails games, I'd be surprised if we didn't start seeing first-pass translations done by AI on Trails games, with humans touching up the results to make sure they're fit for purpose.

Agate saying "if you get all caught up in yourselves and forget that, one of these days you're going to get the rug pulled out from under you" in Trails in the Sky, a Nihon Falcom game
Nihon Falcom is currently working on a remake of Trails in the Sky.

Kondo doesn't say his studio has already used AI to work on any translations, which means we probably won't see AI being used for projects like Trails through Daybreak 2 or the upcoming Trails in the Sky remake, nor should other games like Ys X: Nordics be affected.

Stay tuned for more on this and all other things Nihon Falcom.


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