Mastodawn

Always. For all soups. Forever. Three words for "if. " Three completely different brains behind them. We wrote a full guide using nothing but real game dialogue: Graveyard Keeper, Punch Club 2, Dustborn, Bloomtown. No textbook examples. 10-question quiz at the end. Try it: https://learn.japanology.nl/article/tara-ba-nara #Japanese #LearnJapanese #JLPT #JapaneseGrammar #Japanology #GameLocalization

たら vs ば vs なら: Three Ways to Say "If" in Japanese

Japanese has three conditional forms that all translate to "if," but each frames the condition differently. Learn when to use たら, ば, and なら with real game dialogue examples.

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Loek van Kooten, MA 3d ago

Full article with audio, furigana, and quiz: learn.japanology.nl/article/wa-ga What tripped you up the most with は and が? Drop your answer below. #Japanese #LearnJapanese #JLPT #Grammar #Japanology #は #が #WaVsGa #GameLocalization

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Loek van Kooten, MA 4d ago

Get it wrong, and the character sounds off before the player even notices why. We wrote a deep dive with 25 real game dialogue examples (from Graveyard Keeper, Dustborn, Punch Club 2, and more), interactive quiz, and audio on every sentence. Free to read. No signup. https://learn.japanology.nl/article/kara-node #Japanese #GameLocalization #JapaneseGrammar #LearnJapanese #Localization #JLPT #JapaneseLanguage

から vs ので: The Two Faces of "Because" in Japanese

Both から and ので mean "because," but choosing the wrong one can make you sound rude or robotic. Learn when to use each form, plus だから and んだから, with real game dialogue examples.

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Loek van Kooten, MA 5d ago

32,500+ words, nearly 2,000 kanji, and now grammar guides too. #Japanese #LearnJapanese #JLPT #Grammar #Anime #GameLocalization #Japanology #SentenceEndingParticles #日本語

DotPack 5d ago

AI Translator Video Game: Kingdom Come 2 and The Human Cost

Discover how a Kingdom Come 2 translator claims AI replaced him, stirring debate in game localization. Explore AI's impact on human jobs in tech. #aitranslation #gamelocalization #aiethics #kotaku #futureofgaming

https://bulklayers.com/blog/ai-translator-video-game-kingdom-come-2/

Sznymo Mar 25

S.M.A.L.L. Engine v0.3.0 – Major update for #RPGMaker MV/MZ! 🚀

Now with:
🎨 2 themes
📁 Create mods from GUI
📤 Export all game texts to CSV
🔗 Author social links
🖼️ #Mod thumbnails
🎮 Full MZ support
...
🔗 https://www.patreon.com/posts/153872184

#RPGMakerMV #RPGMakerMZ #GameDev #IndieDev #Modding #Localization #GameLocalization #GamedevTools #OpenSource #IndieGameDev #GameMaker #DevLog #Plugin #RPG #Gaming #開発 #自作ゲーム #プログラミング #RPGツクール

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Loek van Kooten, MA Mar 18

This was a collaboration with Context Heroes (contextheroes. com), who coordinated the full 7-language effort. Vojtech Schubert runs a tight ship -- the kind of setup where every translator has what they need before they start. The result is in the graphic. The full story is here: https://www.loekalization.com/blog/blog/2026/03/18/how-we-localized-a-million-wishlist-game-into-japanese-and-what-game-devs-can-learn-from-it/ #GameLocalization #Japanese #Everwind #GameDev #CJK #Localization

How We Localized a Million-Wishlist Game Into Japanese (And What Game Devs Can Learn From It) – Loekalization Blog

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Loek van Kooten, MA Mar 17

Source: Lode Lauwaert & Ann-Katrien Oimann, "Moral Responsibility and Autonomous Technologies", in The Cambridge Handbook of the Law, Ethics and Policy of Artificial Intelligence (Cambridge University Press), p. 108. Credit: Deborah do Carmo for raising this issue and pursuing it with professionalism despite the silence. #GameLocalization #Translation #AI #CambridgeUniversityPress #AcademicIntegrity #Localization

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Loek van Kooten, MA Mar 17

And then the AI contradicted itself in the final sentence, still mentioning "the Yamano Gakki building in the Ginza district of Tokyo" as "the most expensive location in the Netherlands. " This isn't a translation error. This is an AI rewriting reality. Source: Japanese government official land price announcement (March 17, 2026), translated by Mistral. #GameLocalization #AI #Translation #Japanese #Dutch #Localization #Hallucination #CJK #GameDev

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Loek van Kooten, MA Mar 16

Source: Ulatus, "2026 Japanese-to-English AI Translator Shootout: GPT-4o vs DeepL vs Claude on Keigo, Subtext, and Brand Voice," January 2026 #GameLocalization #Japanese #Localization #AI #Keigo #GameDev #CJK #Translation