“Was that a joke?” : Investigating the translation of humour in video games in the case of 999

Sammanfattning

Even though video games are a form of entertainment enjoyed by many, they are often consumed in a language that is not the player’s native language. The localization of a video game may involve various changes being made to the original product, one of which is the translation of the game’s narrative. Within the scope of this translation, the translation of humour is one of the many components that may impact the players’ reception of the localized product. The present study investigates the Japanese-to-English translation of humour in the case of the game 999: Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors in order to find if instances of humour in the translated narrative have a corresponding instance in the original narrative. Moreover, it aims to identify any predominant translation strategies used and identify any signs of modification to increase the appeal of the game to the target audience. This is done by analysing a selection of scenes from the translated narrative of the game that contain humorous elements and, afterwards, identifying which translation strategies have been used to see if there are any predominant tendencies. The study finds that the majority of the humour scenes identified have been modified through the use of translation strategies such as compensation and equivalence, most likely to increase the appeal towards the target audience. Moreover, an example of humour being removed from the original narrative is also identified.