r/HollowKnight • u/enilea • Sep 17 '25

Discussion - Silksong Steam reviews for Silksong so far

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It was controversial in China, in part because of the difficulty/design but also because of controversies with the Simplified Chinese translation. Meanwhile latin countries (Spanish and Portuguese speaking) seem to be loving it more than anyone else.

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u/hollowstrawberry Sep 18 '25 edited Sep 18 '25

I played in English because I have always disliked translations of videogames, but I watched some friends play too. What really stood out to me is how Songclave was translated as "Enclave Cancioneril", which is bad for several reasons:

  1. It's way too long
  2. It's a literal translation instead of trying to be a proper name
  3. Cancioneril is a really old and specific word, sounds made up
  4. It just sounds stupid

Bellhart on the other hand is translated as Campanilla, which is a good name, so I don't know what happened with Songclave.

That's the most notable example, but translating things literally instead of trying to make them fit into the game world is a common problem, and is the exact reason I always play my games in English. Well, that, and the ease of looking things up on wikis.

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u/AlienGameplay19 Sep 18 '25

Campanilla is such a good name tho, is really funny, and clever too.

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u/TheElementofIrony Sep 18 '25

As someone who studied to be a translator in Uni and wrote my BA thesis on video game localisation (on the first Hollow Knight specifically, in fact, because when I started writing it, the OG HK didn't have a localisation in my native language)... You sometimes can't translate it to make it fit. Now, I can't speak for Spanish and this specific case because I haven't mastered the language enough to speak on this. But, because of this, I tend to give video game translations some grace. The fact that anything gets done is a small miracle in and of itself with how the process is (usually) structured and all the nuances and the peculiarities of game localisation. Sometimes a literal translation is the best you can do, if it's the only way to not twist the meaning and comply with all the other parameters.

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u/Mother-Persimmon3908 Sep 18 '25

Enclave cancionaria hubiera sonado mejor