Earlier today, a few outlets reported on a new interview from 4Gamer with Falcom President Toshihiro Kondo, in which he supposedly shared that the company is open to AI translations. After reviewing the interview, we can confirm that Kondo did not mention using AI in future titles.
The conversation has Kondo discussing his impressions of ELLA, this new AI translation model, and his thoughts on the effects something like AI could have in the industry. Essentially, Kondo determines that it is impressive that ELLA is as good enough to only need small human edits, and he is excited to see how the technology progresses in the future as it can help titles that otherwise would not be translated. In the end, he shares that even with ELLA being impressive, the model did not reach the capability of a human translator.
Overall, this is simply a conversation about the technology and what was impressive about it. Kondo did not one mention future titles using the AI at Falcom. We’ve translated the interview below (provided by @RyujiBlades):
Kondo: Looking back, it is a historical fact that an industrialized society has changed the role of human beings and created a society of a higher rank.
When it comes to games, up until now only well-known titles have been translated, but if it becomes easier to translate even slightly quirkier titles that appeal to a certain segment of the population, this will be a great benefit to game creators, and not a bad thing for fans either.
Some people may lose their jobs temporarily, but overall, I believe that society will enjoy the benefits of AI in the future. This will be especially true for game development.
Interviewer: In that case, is there a chance that Nihon Falcom may apply AI translation techniques such as ELLA?
Kondo: Speed is also an important factor in game development. Until about 20 years ago, 80-90% of our audience was Japanese. Recently, however, the percentage of overseas customers is increasing, especially in Asia. If our games do not sell well overseas, we may not be able to even bring them to our Japanese customers.
In light of this, I see potential in AI translation in terms of shortening the time it takes to reach overseas customers and improving accuracy.
Interviewer: Right. So you want to make the games global, but the language barrier is a challenge.
Kondo: Since the Kiseki/Trails series is a game about enjoying the story, it is absolutely necessary for a human to make the final adjustments to the translated words and lines.
However, from a manager’s standpoint, I sometimes think that by delegating the primary translation work up to that point to an AI: could this process be shortened, which in turn, may speed up the development process?
Interviewer: Right. You don’t want to make the game suddenly lose in popularity just because it’s taking a while to translate.
Kondo: The Trails/Kiseki series cannot be released simultaneously around the world, because the amount of text is many times larger than that of a typical RPG. We have to work on the Japanese version until the very last minute, and only after we’ve finished, the translation process begins.
Inevitably, this causes the localized version to come out a year later at the earliest. Under such circumstances, if we can release the overseas version maybe six months later [after the Japanese release] or at the same time by using AI translation, from a business standpoint, it would be a great thing, and it might not be a bad thing for the fans.
Interviewer: Right, because the newest Trails game, Kai no Kiseki, has not yet been released overseas, but it has been released in Japan.
Kondo: In a way, there are some staff members at Falcom who remain cautious about AI, especially among designers. They are in a position where their drawings and designs could be illegally used for AI, so I understand their concern. This is a different situation from translation, but we would like to find a better way to use AI, without denying actual human work, but without outright denying AI either.
Just recently, it was announced that The Legend of Heroes: Trails Through Daybreak II will be released on February 14, 2025. With a release so early in the year, it seems plausible that fans can expect NIS America to provide The Legend of Heroes: Kai no Kiseki -Farewell, O Zemuria- in English sometime in 2025.
