Janet Hsu is a Capcom employee working as part of the company's localization team in Osaka Japan. They[1] are best known for their work on the Ace Attorney games; they were in charge of the English localization of Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney: Justice For All, Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney: Dual Destinies, and Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney: Spirit of Justice. They also provides the voice of prosecutor Franziska von Karma in the English and French versions of the Ace Attorney games.
Career[]
Janet Hsu was born in Taiwan, but moved to New Jersey shortly thereafter. They studied Japanese for two and a half years at college before travelling to Japan in 2004 to teach English, where they were constantly using the language. They applied to Capcom while there and was hired in 2005. Hsu also speaks Mandarin, but claims that their Japanese is more proficient.
Since starting at Capcom in 2005, Hsu has worked on the mainline Ace Attorney games since the Nintendo DS port of Justice For All, as well as a number of other games, including Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective, Monster Hunter Freedom Unite, Monster Hunter Tri, the canceled Mega Man Legends 3, Lost Planet, Mega Man: Powered Up, and Mega Man Battle Network 6. For Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective, Hsu also acted as product manager.[2]
Ace Attorney[]
Janet Hsu's method for translating the Ace Attorney games (until Dual Destinies[3]) was to play through the game first and then begin translating it. The translation process takes between 6-8 months for each game. Hsu's favorite part of game translation is the localization aspect. They have said that the challenge is "[h]ow do I recreate the feeling and experience Japanese gamers had in a way that is understandable to a Western audience?".[4] They have cited their fellow localization team member Brandon Gay as being especially helpful in making sure the story in English made sense to first-time players. Additionally, they have mentioned that it was thanks to Jean Pierre ("JP") Kellams that Moe's jokes came out the way they did. Specific challenges that Hsu faced during the Ace Attorney series were translating Morgan Fey's speech style as well as some of Hotti's comments about Pearl Fey.
Janet Hsu's favorite aspects of the Ace Attorney series are the humor and mystery of their stories, and their favourite characters as of 2007 were Adrian Andrews, Franziska von Karma, and Pearl Fey, remarking that the first two had a lot of hidden depth. They also enjoyed writing the scene in Justice For All where Miles Edgeworth and Phoenix Wright discuss what it means to be a lawyer.[5][6]
Trivia[]
- In their spare time during 2007, Hsu enjoyed watching The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, The Colbert Report, and Ghost in the Shell: S.A.C. – 2nd GIG.
References[]
- ↑ Kotaku - Ace Attorney Dev Talks Apollo Justice, Japanifornia, And The Series' Future
- ↑ Destructoid interview: Ghost Trick's Shu Takumi
- ↑ Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - Dual Destinies Localization: Secrets of Character Design Revealed
- ↑ Interview - Janet Hsu of Capcom Japan, Localization Team
- ↑ On Lawyers and Localization, Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney: Justice for All interview. January 18, 2007. Spencer on Siliconera.com. Retrieved on May 16, 2014.
- ↑ Capcom Unity: Zvarri! Word Choices & Localization of Text-Based Games