A Comparative Analysis of Video Game Localization: The Last of Us Series
Özet
Video game translation or localization entails the process of translating or localizing all elements
in a video game, including but not limited to the story, dialogues, cut scenes, in-game menus,
explanatory elements, etc. Video game localization processes have started with the first video
games that involve text-intensive content. Then, video games started to incorporate more texts
and longer dialogues. This thesis study aims to analyze the translation strategies utilized in video
game localization processes of two games: The Last of Us and The Last of Us Part II. The
strategies that this study examines has been put forward by Alberto Fernández Costales in
Exploring Translation Strategies in Video Game Localisation (Costales, 2012). The study aims to
determine the most commonly utilized translation strategy and to compare these strategies in
terms of their utilization within those video games. It also aims to determine the possible reasons
behind the choices of the localizers. Data have been extracted from both games and selected
samples have been analyzed in terms of the translation strategy utilized for each sample. It has
been observed as a result that the most frequently utilized translation strategy was domestication
in both games.
