Well, I haven't had to think about editors very much. While I've completed four scripts, none of my translation projects have actually reached the final-beta stage due to hacking difficulties.
When it comes to editing and polishing, I'm pretty exhaustive myself, and I'm stubborn, too. It seems that each translation I do winds up going through three main phases, which I'll go ahead and explain. Keep in mind that I also make it a rule to play a game before I translate it.
1. J-E rote translation phase:
Here, I don't worry too much about anything other than just getting the damn lines into English. Trying to perfect things so early turns into a waste of time, anyway. Only the stuff that simply can't be translated in a direct way do I really mull over. While I don't leave things in a super literal state, I also don't take too much poetic license unless I have a really good idea. The point is that after this phase, I don't want to have to look at the Japanese very much.
2. Plain text editing phase:
Before any text gets inserted, I go through all the script files in the translation again to make sure that the English sounds natural, flows well, and is consistent. During this time, I don't look at the Japanese much unless I change something significantly. I also make doubly sure of the context of each scene as I edit, which is not always easy given how many scenes there typically are. In the end, this phase actually takes almost as much time as the first one.
3. In-game editing phase:
I play-test the game itself with the English inserted and edit according to how it actually looks. Believe it or not, I wind up changing a lot here, too. I think most people would be surprised at how different dialogue can look when it's actually displaying in a game compared to when it's in a plain text file. The movement of the characters and the way they're staged, the place of the scene in the game's structure, and even things like the music all contribute to how I think the dialogue should play out. I suppose the biggest thing that I change here is the length of the lines, since it's only in this phase that I can get an accurate sense of each scene's "rhythm".
So, on one hand, I agree that it's generally a good idea to have someone edit and proofread your writing. I have bad habits and limitations like anyone else, after all. I also agree that two heads can be better than one when it comes to thinking up good solutions for tough spots in translations. I may be stubborn, but when someone comes up with an idea that I like, I don't have any qualms about using it (and giving credit, too).
On the other hand, though, I think that for translation projects like these, recruiting a ground-floor editor is likely to cause more problems than it fixes. If you don't know Japanese, there's not much you can do in the first phase, and if you don't know the game, there's not much you can do in the second phase. Unfortunately, if you don't know Japanese, you probably don't know the game either, and so there's a really big barrier right from the start. Not to mention, if you know Japanese and you know the game and you want to write for it, then why aren't you translating the game yourself right now? This is definitely part of why fan translators go solo most of the time.
If someone wants to help in the third phase, that's great, but like I said, I'm stubborn. I'm not married to my lines, and I'll replace them if I like someone's suggestion more. However, if I
don't like the suggestion, I'm going to flatly say "no", and that sounds like a recipe for drama to me. This may sound arrogant, but I don't want to spend time arguing about nuance when I'm pretty confident in my ability to understand the Japanese and translate it into "localized" English dialogue. Frankly speaking, if I do get an editor, it would have to be someone who would be fine with only ever making suggestions and me getting my way pretty much all the time.
Don't get me wrong, I take it way seriously when someone tells me something I wrote sucks. I mean, I stop just short of sobbing in the bathroom. It's just that after all the work of the first two phases, I still want executive control, especially if the editor doesn't know Japanese.
What I have had in mind is to recruit a few people to play-test my translations before they're released, and to invite them to let me know about any lines they think are flat/awkward/yucky/whatever. Of course, if they have any really killer suggestions, that's cool, too.
Princess Crown and Spriggan MK2 are the two games I've done where I've been able to play-test them, thereby completing all three phases. I'm pretty happy with the results. They aren't perfect, but I think that they are
well above average for fan translations.
