Japanese video games have entertained players around the world and played an important role in the video game industry since its origins. In order to export Japanese games overseas, they need to be localized, i.e., they need to be technically, linguistically, and culturally adapted for the territories where they will be sold. This article hopes to shed light onto the current localization practices for Japanese games, their reception in North America, and how users’ feedback can contribute to fine-tuning localization strategies. After briefly defining what game localization entails, an overview of the localization practices followed by Japanese developers and publishers is provided. Next, the paper presents three brief case studies of the strategies applied to the localization into English of three renowned Japanese video game sagas set in Japan: Persona (1996–present), Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney (2005–present), and Yakuza (2005–present). The objective of the paper is to analyze how localization practices for these series have evolved over time by looking at industry perspectives on localization, as well as the target market expectations, in order to examine how the dialogue between industry and consumers occurs. Special attention is given to how players’ feedback impacted on localization practices. A descriptive, participant-oriented, and documentary approach was used to collect information from specialized websites, blogs, and forums regarding localization strategies and the reception of the localized English versions. The analysis indicates that localization strategies for Japanese games have evolved over time from a higher to a lower degree of cultural adaptation in order to meet target markets’ expectations. However, it was also noted that despite the increasing tendency to preserve the sociocultural content of the original, the language used in the translations needs to be vivid and idiomatic in order to reach a wider audience and provide an enjoyable gameplay experience.

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在翻译中发现：日本视频游戏本地化的不断发展的方法

自诞生之日起，日本视频游戏就已经在世界各地的玩家中引起了极大的欢迎，并在视频游戏行业中发挥了重要作用。为了将日本游戏出口到海外，需要将它们本地化，即，它们必须在技术，语言和文化上适应要出售的地区。本文希望阐明日本游戏的当前本地化做法，它们在北美的接待情况以及用户的反馈如何有助于微调本地化策略。在简要定义了游戏本地化的含义之后，将概述日本开发人员和发行商遵循的本地化实践。接下来，本文介绍了三个简单的案例研究，介绍了在日本设置的三个著名的日本视频游戏sagas的英语本地化策略：女神异闻录（1996年至今），菲尼克斯·赖特：Ace律师（2005年至今）和雅库扎（2005年至今）。本文的目的是通过研究行业对本地化的观点以及目标市场的期望，分析这些系列的本地化实践是如何随着时间演变的，从而研究行业与消费者之间的对话是如何发生的。特别注意玩家的反馈意见如何影响本地化实践。描述性，面向参与者和记录性方法用于从专门的网站，博客和论坛中收集有关本地化策略和本地化英语版本的信息。分析表明，为了满足目标市场的期望，日本游戏的本地化策略已随着时间的推移从较高的文化适应性发展到较低的文化适应性。然而，