How Not to Translate a Videogame (2025 ver.) (ryandavis.io)

At the AI Builders Brisbane Meetup in July 2025, advancements in AI were highlighted through a new approach to translating the Japanese visual novel '12Riven.' The updated presentation built upon the speaker's 2019 efforts, showcasing how AI's agentic capabilities, particularly the use of Claude Code, significantly improved the translation quality and efficiency. The 2025 method transitioned from a cumbersome machine translation pipeline to a context-aware, LLM-based approach, allowing for sequential translation of script batches and maintaining consistency. This also introduced an unattended, high-throughput translation process, achieving remarkable outcomes at minimal cost. While the new translation method demonstrated considerable advancements, the speaker emphasized the need for caution when relying on AI for tasks beyond one's expertise. The quality of the translation remains uncertain since the speaker cannot read Japanese, highlighting the importance of professional translators for critical projects. Nonetheless, this innovative approach makes the game more accessible to English speakers, accomplishing a personal goal in the speaker's gaming journey. As they continue to refine the translation to address remaining issues, such as speaker detection and text wrapping, the project exemplifies both the potential and limitations of current AI technologies in real-world applications.