If you're referring to the remark portraying lgbt in a positive way in Marble, it's a one time off. Unless there's another hidden one that I'm unaware.

Tbh the game is still really good and has less "agenda" than the majority of western games these days anyway. If you look at the big picture the game isn't really progressive at all, it's still very straight male oriented in terms of MC perspective, along with multiple attractive, young heroines.

People existing is not an agenda.

The line admittedly did feel out of place, especially considering Mizuki's attitude towards the character in question and her own age (12), but there is plenty of humor involving said character even if it does seem a bit sensitive towards them at times, it's somewhat random, partially due to the translation.

For instance it at one point has Mama refer to themselves as an "otome" which gets translated as "lady", to which another character jokingly thinks "Who's a lady?". But generally even if an older straight woman had referred to herself as an "otome" you'd have seen the same joke reaction in Japanese media.

Most of the time when you're randomly selecting stuff which is how you trigger that line you're dealing with bad Japanese/English puns that're also very random and feel out of place while exploring a murder scene/questioning suspects; i.e. clicking a "high stool" has them joking about
"high school". So even if the earlier line somehow offends you it really is as random as the rest of the optional stuff that doesn't really take away from the rest of a so far great game.

Does anyone know if the line in question is an accurate translation or whether the localization team forcibly shoved it in?

Don't worry about it. It's far less than you'd find in a western game. Multiple characters are gay but they literally don't bother to tell you explicitly about either of them, and they have you figure it out for yourself. A western game would probably make absolute certain that you knew these characters were gay. Especially since it's a driving motivational factor behind why they act the way that they do.

It also doesn't "represent the LGBT communtiy as the best thing since sliced bread." It just says the community has good artists. In 20 hours that's basically all you get. The number of jokes about one character having huge knockers far outnumbers the number of references to the LGBT community.

Originally posted by Companion Pube:

Does anyone know if the line in question is an accurate translation or whether the localization team forcibly shoved it in?

https://twitter.com/DrCullenPHD/status/1174150265043210240

Also for the record, the translation team didn't seem to take many liberties in general with this game it felt like, I swapped between Japanese and English a few times just to hear voice actors and deliveries and it was surprisingly on point between the two. The only missed pun between the languages I was a little sad about is probably the japanese pronunciation of "Aiba" being "ai-bo" (because they just removed "ru" from "ai-bo-ru", or eyeball), which also means "partner."

Originally posted by Kazumi:

Originally posted by Companion Pube:

Does anyone know if the line in question is an accurate translation or whether the localization team forcibly shoved it in?

https://twitter.com/DrCullenPHD/status/1174150265043210240

Also for the record, the translation team didn't seem to take many liberties in general with this game it felt like, I swapped between Japanese and English a few times just to hear voice actors and deliveries and it was surprisingly on point between the two. The only missed pun between the languages I was a little sad about is probably the japanese pronunciation of "Aiba" being "ai-bo" (because they just removed "ru" from "ai-bo-ru", or eyeball), which also means "partner."

I disagree, I found too many instances where the JP voice does not match the eng subtitle. It really should be more literal.

Originally posted by Kazumi:

Originally posted by Companion Pube:

Does anyone know if the line in question is an accurate translation or whether the localization team forcibly shoved it in?

https://twitter.com/DrCullenPHD/status/1174150265043210240

Also for the record, the translation team didn't seem to take many liberties in general with this game it felt like, I swapped between Japanese and English a few times just to hear voice actors and deliveries and it was surprisingly on point between the two. The only missed pun between the languages I was a little sad about is probably the japanese pronunciation of "Aiba" being "ai-bo" (because they just removed "ru" from "ai-bo-ru", or eyeball), which also means "partner."

Thanks, I was kinda hoping it was another localization issue. Really disappointing to see a respected Japanese dev taint his own work with this.

i think "lgbtq scene" it´s too much, there is a momment where a 12 years old girl say something like "oh yeah, i admire the lgbtq community cause they are very brave for acting how they feel". And thats pretty much it.
Not pushing any kind of agenda imo.
The game is great with or without that dialogue, i really recomend it.

Originally posted by ScreamsRain:

People existing is not an agenda.

That can be debatable through history, on the game though, maybe you read something into a situation / question that didn’t exist. -.-

Originally posted by BloodyPork:

Originally posted by Kazumi:

https://twitter.com/DrCullenPHD/status/1174150265043210240

Also for the record, the translation team didn't seem to take many liberties in general with this game it felt like, I swapped between Japanese and English a few times just to hear voice actors and deliveries and it was surprisingly on point between the two. The only missed pun between the languages I was a little sad about is probably the japanese pronunciation of "Aiba" being "ai-bo" (because they just removed "ru" from "ai-bo-ru", or eyeball), which also means "partner."

I disagree, I found too many instances where the JP voice does not match the eng subtitle. It really should be more literal.

I still don't have the game, but sometimes localisation teams have to find the right balance between liberal translation and a more literal approach. The pitfall of sticking too closely to the original script is losing the intended meaning, tone, or even sometimes the way of speaking of some characters (which can be impossible to properly translate at times due to how languages work). I'll give my personal feedback once I get the game.

By the way, found in the replies to the previously mentioned tweet: https://twitter.com/PalaAgain/status/1175064368809205760
And yes, there are lots of hesitations and marks of it being a personal opinion (less close to personal conviction) in the Japanese audio. So in a way the delivery is a bit more affirmative in the localisation; your mileage may vary when it comes to considering whether it's good or not.

But again: it's a single scene that was already there in the original script, it wasn't shoehorned into the Western release. I would also have had an issue with it if it was the case, because such contents changes are similar to censorship in the way that things get political when they shouldn't. If it's that much of a deal-breaker to you, have fun missing out on an entire game because of it.


Edit: Just had a translation idea for Aiba/Aibo: Pair.
- Idea of partner: check.
- "AI" in the name: check.
- Eye-related term: check.
But the game's already out, so it's not going to change much now...

There's a one-off (completely optional, i believe) dialogue about how great the LGBTQ community is, which kinda felt like it came out of nowhere i'll admit.

But in no way does it detract from anything about the game. I've seen that ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ on twitter about how people dropped the game over something so minor, and they're honestly doing themselves a disservice dropping such a phenomenal story over something so petty.

Originally posted by Juanold Deagsley:

There's a one-off (completely optional, i believe) dialogue about how great the LGBTQ community is, which kinda felt like it came out of nowhere i'll admit.

But in no way does it detract from anything about the game. I've seen that ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ on twitter about how people dropped the game over something so minor, and they're honestly doing themselves a disservice dropping such a phenomenal story over something so petty.

on one hand i agree with you about dropping but on the other i can understand ppls anger and frustration considering the amount of ♥♥♥♥ thats been ruined or changed due to the current political climate or whatever you wanna call it. i just skipped through all of mamas dialogue since i had a feeling something somewhere would be shoehorned in. can anyone name an instance of a character like that just existing and not being used for brownie points with that crowd.

slow down there, gamergate

Originally posted by HATFPWDCATE:

Originally posted by Juanold Deagsley:

There's a one-off (completely optional, i believe) dialogue about how great the LGBTQ community is, which kinda felt like it came out of nowhere i'll admit.

But in no way does it detract from anything about the game. I've seen that ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ on twitter about how people dropped the game over something so minor, and they're honestly doing themselves a disservice dropping such a phenomenal story over something so petty.

on one hand i agree with you about dropping but on the other i can understand ppls anger and frustration considering the amount of ♥♥♥♥ thats been ruined or changed due to the current political climate or whatever you wanna call it. i just skipped through all of mamas dialogue since i had a feeling something somewhere would be shoehorned in. can anyone name an instance of a character like that just existing and not being used for brownie points with that crowd.

I know how you're feeling but tbh for 2019 standard this game is still less "progressive" than most western games. If you take out Mama, then the rest of the game is not "progressive" at all, really. It's a very minor thing if you look at the big picture.

It's not like the MC goes out of his way to protect Mama or have romantic relationship Mama, Mama is just there for comedic purpose. Unimportant side character, he isn't even helpful to MC or major to the plot in any way. The most important characters for MC are Mizuki and Iris, which is very realistic and is a realistic portrayal of an average joe (adult man) that the MC is supposed to represent.