Nocturnal Revelations: In Review

Now that Nocturnal Revelations: The Legacy of Shin Megami Tensei's First Localization has been fully completed and published on Persona Central, it's time to put it to work!

Not familiar with Nocturnal Revelations? It's an exhaustive look at the best and worst of Nocturne's journey into English, with a special focus on how the choices made over a decade ago have affected the Shin Megami Tensei series' localizations going forward. Short descriptions and links to all three parts are available below! 

Eirikr's Personal Canon

Let’s face it, Tumblr sucks as an archive. A shame, as there have been some good questions and discussions over the years and it would be a shame for them to be lost forever to the ether. So what better way to protest the ephemeral nature of Internet content than to make my own archive? 

Below are links to just about every major thing I've written online, including website articles, Tumblr asks, etc. It will be updated periodically as warranted! Right now consider it a work-in-progress (formatting is a little rough), but all the links should be live.

LATEST UPDATE: 4/1/18! The latest additions are in boldface. 

From the Precipice of the Garbage Can: Musings About Ann Takamaki

[IMPORTANT INTRODUCTORY NOTE: PERSONA 5 is happening, so it wouldn’t make sense not to have something to say about it, right? As a matter of fact, I almost did a number of months ago, only you didn’t hear about it because, well, I didn’t think it was quite up to snuff. Intended to be published to Persona Central, the following article examines Ann’s mixed-race heritage and how Persona 5 could frame it within the discriminatory context of modern Japanese culture. (A different article on Nocturne--more my speed--will be available shortly.)

Even though this Ann article is missing that je ne sais quoi (probably due to my lack of passion for the plight of a unfamiliar character from a game I’ve never played), there’s still some stuff I like about it, particularly the conclusion, which forced me to change some of my existing assumptions. Seeing as this is probably the final day anything about its content could even hope to be relevant, it was time to release the article into the wild or delete it forever. Hopefully it’s worthwhile for at least one of you!]

Of the scant information released thus far about Persona 5, the tidbits concerning party member Ann Takamaki in particular caught my attention: Described as “one-quarter American,” that ethnic split, and the resulting personality trait stereotypes, allegedly make her unable to gel with her Japanese peers. Upon hearing that for the first time, I thought it was a joke. How could a small fraction of a particular ethnicity (especially as potentially nebulous as “American” can be) not only define a character but also elicit such severe discrimination?

Nevertheless, this is an issue that will likely define much of Ann’s early characterization and her persona arc, so it was worth investigating further: Was it plausible or not? Armed with my own contrary experiences from teaching for two years in a Japanese public high school, I went looking for evidence that Ann’s scenario wasn’t just an ignorant attempt to acknowledge the series’ burgeoning overseas fanbase. What I found, however, was at once surprising and, sadly, predictable. 

Selected Translations from: Shin Megami Tensei IV Final/Apocalypse Official World Setting Collection + Journey Towards the World of Mythology

 (真・女神転生IV FINAL 公式設定資料集+神話世界への旅)

 

Translated by Dijeh [tumblr]

Produced by Eirikr [tumblr] [twitter] ...and YOU 

Thanks to the SMT community on Tumblr, our premier polyglot, Dijeh, was able to expertly translate certain sections of the recently released Japanese SMT4F/A artbook. Precisely, this includes Masayuki Doi's commentary on each of his new demon designs plus a full-length interview with the game's producer, Kazuyuki Yamai, and its scenario writer, Yusuke Miyata. There's a lot to unpack here!

As a bonus, I have meticulously scanned and edited most of the book's new demon artwork, which entails both the official game art AND Doi's unused concepts, the latter of which are as great in number as the finalized designs. Of course, FULL SPOILERS will be out in the open from the start, so only click through or scroll down if you're prepared for them. Please enjoy this exclusive English foray behind the scenes of Shin Megami Tensei IV Final/Apocalypse!

Oh, and did you know that Dijeh translated these materials, not me? Just making sure. :) 

UPDATE 1/28/17: Dijeh translated the profiles for BOTH forms of 4A's final boss. Check them out under their related entries! 

UPDATE... some months before 12/18/20: Dijeh has polished the entire translation!