A Report On E-C Translation Of The Single-Player Game Pathfinder:Kingmaker

Video game develops dramatically as time draws on.The revenue of the video game in the global market increases every year.However games with simplified Chinese version are taking a small portion in the global market,which means that the game localization in China still has a vast developing space.At present,studies and researches on the video game translation do not meet the requirements of its rapid development.This is an E-C translation practice report based on the tabletop role-playing game(TRPG)Pathfinder: Kingmaker,which includes four chapters in total.In Chapter 1,the author makes an introduction to the translation task,including the background,game localization overview,research significance and the characteristics of the text in this game;in Chapter 2 the author describes the three processes in translation,which are “Before Translation”,“While Translation”,and “After Translation”.In this chapter,the author focuses on analyzing the difficulties encountered while translation and the solutions;in Chapter 3 the author makes case study on difficulties and the solutions;in Chapter 4,conclusions on findings and limitations are made.The report is based on Bernal-Merino's video game localization theory.Under the guidance of this theory,specific strategies and methods were adopted in the skill names translation,narrative text translation,and in handling the glossaries and TMs,with detailed examples in analysis.In the skill names translation,the author added effects in translation to accentuate features of the skills,turned skill names into Chinese four-character idioms with Chinese expression habit,standardized the expression of subordinate noun phrases by applying “?” to translation.When translated the narrative text,the author had to reconnect the context fragments after the first draft then made a revision,and mainly used domestication in storyline and quests translation.In facing the ambiguity and inconsistency of glossaries and TMs,zero translation and online inquiry were adopted.With this report,the author anticipates providing some enlightenments and data to the game translation and study,and urging more attentions on game translation from translation majors.