An Interview with Hatsuu on Localization and Voice Acting

[@SuperDerek]

Hype responsibly and snag your own rad shirt over at shop.superderekrpgs.com! :D

[@insanylum13]

Looks like Hatsuu is directly responsible for me crying since she was behind the CS2 ending video idea and choosing the images. I’ll never forget my first time hearing “I’ll Remember You” when the credits rolled and seeing Class VII’s different backstories and idk if they had the artwork of You Know Who dead planning to be in the credits beforehand, but that to this day is still one of the most powerful scenes in the series to me.

[@MiamiSunrise]

This was a phenomenal interview and the insight is invaluable. Her voice is so perfect for voice acting in this series. This was a lot of fun Derek, thank you and Hatsuu for doing this!

[@juancarlosrodriguez5022]

Super Derek, this is a great initiative. Thank you for letting us hear from the people behind the localization of these amazing JRPGs in the West. Leona Renee, thanks to you and your team I was able to discover what has become my favorite RPG series of all time, the Trails Series, which IMO is much better than the Final Fantasy series and has become the beacon that determines the standards needed to shine as a top quality RPG in the market. For instance, Trails in the Sky SC is my favorite game of all time, surpassing my top 3 list, which is composed by Persona 5, The Witcher 3 and Ys 8 Lacrimosa of Dana. I think you're making history by working on this kind of projects and letting us play amazing games in an RPG industry that seems decadent so many times. Thank you and God bless.

[@blizz1278]

fantastic and thanks to hatsuu and everyone who does this stuff paid or otherwise. I can not express my gratitude for the amazing work everyone does.

[@TSignature]

I’m so unbelievably happy to hear Hatsuu is back on the Trails team for Reverie! Her work on the previous games was outstanding

[@SuperOtakuKyo]

Hatsuu was an inspiration for me to one day get into localization after seeing her years of passion during her time at XSEED, very cool interview.

[@somebodyelseathome]

👍

[@emil4445]

Great interview and perfect timing. I literally finished Trails to Azure 15 min ago and then this pops up in my recommended. Very Interesting and insightful, especially now that I’m ready to play Cold Steel 2 (ive played the series out of order until now)

[@tiffanyastrid]

Wow, I've loved her work and followed her since I fell in love with the Trails in the Sky games, so I'm super excited to listen to this! 😍

[@Ninjahankin]

Thank you for this interview! Always enjoyed her insights in the industry.

[@DiceWatari]

This interview was such a treat. I remember learning of Hatsuu years back when I was diving into the Corpse Party games. Getting to hear of her background & experiences is equal parts delightful and enlightening. Can't thank you both enough for this, definitely in favor of more interviews like this!

[@jeremie714]

This interview is amazing, thank you so much to both of you!

[@kekgoogle4809]

Very cool interview! The this chest is empty in the 3rd was a hitter, brilliant move. Hatsuu doesn't get the recognition she deserves, so glad the trails games had such passionate people working on them. Good stuff Derek!

[@davidvinc]

“I was more into drinking”. Girl, same!

[@Joeystick]

literally was nodding as she was saying it lol

[@redstratus97]

Wow! This was an amazing interview! Well worth the time to listen!

[@BakusanDayo]

OMG yes! This is an awesome series! Looking forward for more!

[@Eagleknight815]

Very cool interview Derek! Would recommend doing more.

[@jamesz28]

Great Video, Derek. I look forward to potential future interviews.

[@sethhale235]

Just saw this and I have to say it wasn't the interview I was expecting. I'm excited for it.

[@cassiusvictus7838]

A good interview! It was nice to hear the perspective of an insider on the localization team. Based on her comments I am a little curious how we manage to get some of those notorious localizations (Fire Emblem: Fates for example) by the developers.

[@DrMrMrColin]

What an amazing interview.

[@Painmaster212]

Awesome interview and lots of great information and funny stories. Definitely could do a part 2!

[@realtayo42]

Holy Crap, Leona's resume of games she's worked on is incredible! Massive thanks to her and the teams that brought me some of my favorite games of all time.

[@patricksabel3958]

She sounds like an anime voice actor herself! She definitely sounds passionate and it's amazing that people like her work on these kind of games with character building and emotions.

[@sorenman1]

i think she did voice some of the minor npcs in games she was involve in

[@patricksabel3958]

@@sorenman1 that sounds amazing 🤩

[@foxtrix]

she voice some of the leaders for Cygames' Shadowverse card game and she's the English VA for Anila, one of the upcoming characters for Granblue Fantasy Versus' new version.

[@patricksabel3958]

I wrote my comment after watching a third of the interview. 🤣 I feel so stupid now. But my first impression of her was exactly this.

[@urmanascrewed]

Excellent interview!

[@ThatGuyWhoComments1]

Oh God she sounds cute lol. Trails localizers are amazing so thank you Leona! Huge fan of many of the games you worked on!

[@blackmanlistening7909]

Awesome interview from a pretty lady!!! Good job dude WINK WINK!!!

[@Ghalion666]

This is like nostalgia back when girls were waiting warmly for SC to become localized. I never realized she changed her name though. I also have to say I never watched anime so maybe I'm late to the party, but I always get a kick out of it when I recognize a VA from someone I first knew through Cold steel (Playing honkai star rail atm, and I just put Pela in my team and I'm like omg it's Altina! yay).

[@jzblue345]

Trails series is my favorite video game series of all time.

[@Kruxx26]

Great video, Derek. I hope we see more of this type of interviews in the near future! Hatsuu, it was a pleasure to listen to your stories and knowledge about the industry. I can't thank you enough for being one of the many moving parts that have helped localize the Trails series. As someone from Latin America, I feel that we need to rely heavily on the English localizations. We rarely get Spanish localizations for RPG's and Japanese games in general. This has helped me with my English knowledge over the years. I really want to try my hand at editing. Is there any particular way to get started as a freelancer? I've been curious for a while now.

[@azurealph6493]

32:58 oh so this is perhaps the same reason for the chest messages in Sigmund's area in the azure tree for Trails to Azure

[@Lamasis2]

I really like the machine translations which are so bad that they melt your brain. Good localization is so important, it really can weigh a game down if it is subpar, like with Tales of Arise. And good voice acting is a nice bonus.

[@noneofyourbusiness4616]

Shallow observation, but I love her giggles.

[@franciscor390]

The insights here were amazing, what a ride.

[@foxtrix]

Oh it's Mama Trails. Nice

[@Some_Random_Guy]

those new images they used for the ending of CS2 confused me so much! I thought I had missed some optional events. I was actually panicking a little bit because I wanted to do a 100% run before moving on to 3 🤣

[@bernardschaeffer8000]

great video

[@awatkhalid9091]

she has a cute way of laughing

[@quezcatol]

"im lenoa renee formerly credited as brittany avery"??! maybe im dumb, but what?

[@Floura0100]

Yeah what’s the deal with that? Great interview nevertheless.

[@AlexandraIDV]

She changed her name to Leona a few years ago or so, so in a lot of older games she's worked on the credits list her under her old name.

[@aninymouse1651]

Sometimes, if someone who is in a union does non-union work, they have to use a pseudonym to avoid being blacklisted or punished.

[@SuperDerek]

I actually asked her about this pre-interview to find out if it was ok to mention their previously credited name, (didn't want to dead-name somebody!) And she actually said it didn't have anything to do with the union, but instead was more of a mark of a turning point in her life. Super cool stuff! :)

[@pencilcheck]

i miss chest messages in CS2

[@mychannel11231]

Who is the girl next to Olivert?

[@SuperDerek]

That's Piercye from a Shadowverse, a character Hatsuu voices. :)

[@belstar1128]

I am learning Japanese and a few other languages. so much gets lost in translation you really got to play in the original language when you can its better.

[@Kaytenorg]

What game is the thumbnail character from?

[@SuperDerek]

That's Piercye from a Shadowverse, a character she voices. :)

[@Kaytenorg]

@@SuperDerek Cheers mate!

[@matthewlumibao7057]

i remember hearing her in a techraptor interview about 7 years ago, did her voice change somehow? kzbin.info/www/bejne/m5ioZ6qtaLiSkLs

[@SuperDerek]

Maybe! Change in venue (not having to try to be as loud) and years of practice controlling their voice as a V-tuber and voice actress also probably has given her a lot more control over how they sound as well. :)

[@matthewlumibao7057]

@@SuperDerek interesting thanks for the reply

[@pencilcheck]

i recall empty chest messages, it was chilly

[@quezcatol]

Speaking of localization the ONLY thing that has bothered me through all the jrpgs I played is when Bugenhagen in final fantasy 7 says "that is all greek to me". I think that is way worse localization of a game than any spelling errors or grammar issues. That is a reference, to when monks ONLY understood greek and could translate the Bible (...which was written in greek back then) and commoners knew no greek and many thought it was way too complex to learn so a saying "that is greek to me" became something you couldnt solve ... but has nothing to do with the final fantasy 7 universe so why would someone in this world make reference to our world? and so that is a very bad take - in my opinion.

[@pite9]

Hell in Sky3 is the heaviest passage in the entire series so far. Chest messages there surely would have felt out of place. That whole game was just dark on a totally different level. I hope that Reverie repeated some of that magic, and without most of the shortcomings, like the massive amount of filler.

[@S_Hyde]

Seems like a nice person, and there was a lot of cool info, too bad many bad apples and lousy work/decisions have turned "localization" into sort of a dirty word.

[@gamegear8803]

Like me I can’t talk clear

[@gamegear8803]

I still watch the video I on google translated

[@rolandssavdons7993]

There's no chest messages in Cold Steel? ?? I'm incredibly disappointed and my day has been ruined. Trails to Azure is my last one fr. ¡Viva Chavéz!