Any fan of old-school RPG games will know that Japan has some of the best out there. There is, however, one small problem. Namely, that very few of them ever saw an official release in the West and, as such, lack the Japanese to English translations necessary to actually know what you’re doing.
In a report via Kotaku, however, a new emulation program looks to fix that. RetroArch, one of the most popular open-source gaming emulators has just released a new AI update. One that looks to translate Japanese in-game text to English on the fly!
RetroArch Adds Real-Time Japanese to English AI
So, how does it work? Well, RetroArch’s new “AI Service button” utilises Google’s API (Application programming interface) to scan what is displayed on the screen. It’s AI then does a check to see if the text/image is Japanese and, if confirmed, then translates it to English.
This essentially means that the AI is capable of translating games from Japanese to English in real-time. In addition, it can also read these out to you as if the game had (very basic) voice work.
As you might expect, however, occasionally some things get lost in translation…
What Do We Think?
It’s a very clever addition to their already popular app and will clearly open up a lot of games to people who don’t speak Japanese. This is particularly useful in the world of RPGs where, you know, an actual story is being told and you likely have a very complicated inventory to manage.
Although now available, it is still a work in progress. Still, it is better than nothing and may perhaps even throw up some amusing mistranslations to make the game even more fun!
What do you think? Are you impressed with this AI? – Let us know in the comments!
