As reported by Eurogamer, Hollow Knight: Silksong has not met Chinese gamers’ expectations the way in which it has globally, with a 42% constructive “Mixed” assessment standing from practically 20,000 Chinese language customers, who say that the sport’s localization was abysmally, uniquely poor.
Team Cherry has already responded to the problem, promising to work on the Chinese localization. “We appreciate you letting us know about quality issues with the current Simplified Chinese translation of Hollow Knight: Silksong,” wrote the sport’s publishing and advertising and marketing lead, Matthew Griffin. “We’ll be working to improve the translation over the coming weeks.”
The reception among Chinese speaking reviewers sharply contrasts with Silksong’s reviews in all other languages it’s available in, with an overall 80% “Very Positive” rating among over 80,000 reviews worldwide. Of about 16,000 negative reviews worldwide, 11,800 of them are in Simplified Chinese.
Some commenters on Griffin’s post have tried to elaborate on the specific issues at hand. Tiger Tang, who led the Chinese localization of 2020 RPG Omori, wrote that the main issues in Silksong’s localization are creative, not grammatical. “The current Silksong CN translation reads like a Wuxia novel as an alternative of conveying the sport’s tone,” said Tang. “This isn’t about effort, but about taste and direction, and speaking from experience likely can’t be fixed without replacing the translator.”
Others within the feedback famous the identical weird, anachronistic high quality Tang mentions, whereas it additionally reportedly devolves into complete gibberish in locations. Kotaku cited criticism from translation knowledgeable Loek van Kooten, who referred to as Silksong’s Chinese dialogue the equal of “a high-school drama club’s Elizabethan improv night.” Silksong had two individuals credited for its Chinese localization, versus the primary recreation’s group of six.
In a last twist, a type of two translators, Hertzz Liu, seems to have been leaking particulars concerning the much-anticipated Silksong on social media. A June touch upon the r/Silksong subreddit by person Infinite-Lake-7523 features a screenshot of a Q&A on the Chinese website Tieba from a person named “Hertzzzz.” Infinite-Lake-7523 satirically thought this was a hoax, however stated Herzz(zz) estimated a pre-Christmas launch date and shared a few of their plans for the localization.
Is it nonetheless a “review bomb” if persons are understandably upset over a faulty product? The present Chinese translation of Silksong feels like that notorious “restoration” of Ecce Homo. With points this in depth and structural, I might anticipate Team Cherry to decide to a wholly new Chinese localization, however that may possible take a while.