The official English translation for Princess Connect! Re: Dive has just hit mobile marketplaces on January 19th. With its release includes Crunchyroll’s own localization of the 2016 mobile game; including notable alleged localization changes like “onii-chan” to “Mr. Nice Guy”.
Crunchyroll’s release of Princess Connect! Re: Dive was announced last year but nothing was said about any localization changes to the game’s content or dialogue. Twitter user @songofalchemy publicized an alleged erroneous localization which changed an audible “onii-chan” (older brother in Japanese) to “Mr. Nice Guy”.
The accuracy of localizations has been a point of contention in recent years for fans of Japanese media. While Funimation is considered one of the more egregious offenders in localization; this may no longer be an important distinction after Sony’s acquisition of Crunchyroll late last year (Funimation is a subsidiary of Sony).
Sony themselves have been criticized for their refusal to allow games on their consoles while citing “global standards” as the reason. Funimation adopted a similar tactic when they canceled their English release of Interspecies Reviewers.
Since the video of the change of “onii-chan” to “Mr. Nice Guy” was posted. Other players have been replying with other erroneous translations. Some of these include the insertion of recent memes like “bruh moment” and “GOAT“.
Princess Connect! Re:Dive is an action roleplaying game from Cygames, the developers behind Granblue Fantasy and The Idolmaster: Cinderella Girls. Crunchyroll Games is handling the western release.
Players take a team of heroes to fight waves of monsters in real-time battles. New characters are earned through a gacha system which has become a constant feature in many other mobile games.
In addition to localization changes, the English launch for Princess Connect! Re: Dive has not been without technical issues.
At the time of publishing, Crunchyroll has not made any acknowledgement of the alleged localization changes on the game’s official English Twitter.
