Grant

May I kindly ask who made the decision to remove Amy's crush on Sonic during translation? Was it true that it was you?
As a woman, I am beginning to feel a bit underrepresented. I felt Amy's love for Sonic was relatable, as I also care for a boy in my life.

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Not up to me 😄(edited)

Thank you for answering! May I know if someone specific within Sega is advising you, or a team?
It's interesting to me that there have been some changes to certain things recently.

Lore team was who I worked with

4:48 AM

And yeah it is interesting

4:49 AM

There’s a lot of push and pull between Japan and SOA too

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Do you mean Katie, Evan, Chris, Ian...? Those are the members of the lore team I remember, but I'm sure there's more.

Grant

There’s a lot of push and pull between Japan and SOA too

Yeah I'd imagine! Sounds difficult.

˗ˏˋ✧quark✧ˎˊ˗

Yeah I'd imagine! Sounds difficult.

Right so like Zor is the Japanese personality

4:51 AM

Even tho in our Lost World, Zor is an emo kid

4:51 AM

But yeah as far as Amy goes, I was definitely trying to thread the needle

4:51 AM

Between the original text and what they wanted the text to be

Oh yeah, the Zor part was really interesting. I'm super big into Sonic, but I haven't looked at the Japanese cutscenes for Lost World, so it took me by surprise.
It kinda sounds like there's a push from the lore team to make Amy's crush a bit more...subdued. As well as some of the other changes as of recently.

Well I think it’s more like this to be honest - the Japanese bios are all very much like the characters are still in their main arcs (Amy’s crush, Tails’ belief in himself) and then Western ones try to reflect a bit more that the characters have advanced a bit (like how they are at end of Frontiers)

4:56 AM

So I think the US lore team isn’t trying to erase the crush so much as emphasize she has other traits

I think the Japanese Sonic Team has the stance that these characters are supposed to be more permanant, like they don't change much, they're always their same lovable selves. Whereas the US lore team is kind of pushing for character development and growth. I wonder if that causes friction.

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Nailed it

4:58 AM

That’s exactly it

I've always been interested in how the internal mechanics of all these decisions work, so thanks for that! I love hearing it. Was there anything else interesting that happened when you were writing?

When I began the task, I had the Japanese text; the machine translation; the SEGA translation; and then the SOA brand team version of a rewrite (which were sometimes very different, especially Amy) so,

As someone familiar with the machine translations and the Japanese vs Western visions of the characters, I knew it was kind of an unwinnable battle - but I did try my best to include how important Sonic is to her (it says she’s “inspired by” Sonic which I argued was impossible to deny as the foundation of her heroics) — Sonic is mentioned in Knuckles, Tails, Shadow, Eggman’s bios as being important to their development so it only seemed right to make that true for Amy as well(edited)

5:05 AM

And there were so many more revisions and back and forths than you would ever believe lol

🤔 Honestly that's super interesting. I kind of wanted to work with Sega when I was a kid, you're pretty lucky. But I bet all of the changes weren't as fun 😆

I like the Channel flow charts too

Shadow's my favorite, one thing I noticed is that Maria isn't mentioned in his bio. I found that slightly odd, or maybe not. But it's my understanding that Maria is what inspires him to seek out and defeat evil, but it doesn't seem to be mentioned, even after all the Shadow Generations stuff.

Original message was deleted or could not be loaded.

By the us lore team or Soj?

5:12 AM

That's weird.

5:14 AM

Did they have any notes on Maria's bio? 🤔 Like I know it mentions Shadow

Let me look at my notes to be sure I’m taking credit for the right thing but I believe the last para about how she was in life was my addition

5:16 AM

Yeah this part I think

5:16 AM

In life, she possessed profound compassion and deeply believed in a world where everyone could exist in harmony. Maria’s gentle strength and optimism left a lasting impression on those who knew her, particularly Shadow, who is committed and driven to honor her memory.

(edited)

That's a great line. I personally like it!
Shadow and Maria's relationship seems to be more vague in Japanese. I'm wondering if "almost like brother and sister" was something added by them or by you? They tend to take that description a bit more non-literally over there, but it's kind of hard to translate it over to English, people here will take it as a more literal thing, if you get what I'm saying.

How do you see it?

5:21 AM

And I’m trying to think if there were any other exciting tidbits, but I think you’ve identified the major ones already

5:22 AM

Well, it was all exciting imo too but you know what I mean

I see it kind of like...a venn diagram. Maria played many roles in Shadow's life subsequently. Friend, family, love, teacher, etc. She was just "everything". Everything good in his world. It's a bit nebulous to me

5:23 AM

I think they don't need a label. They're just them. Perfect bond

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Grant

And I’m trying to think if there were any other exciting tidbits, but I think yo...

I appreciate it greatly! Thank you kindly.

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I was really pleased by this sentence in Tails' bio

5:24 AM

One look at the hedgehog's blazing speed filled Tails with inspiration, and the fox took off after Sonic without a second thought.

5:25 AM

Ok I found the last Shadow bio I sent

5:25 AM

It has this line in it

5:25 AM

Created to be the Ultimate Lifeform by Professor Gerald, the brilliant grandfather of Dr. Eggman, Shadow is driven by neither good nor evil. Rather, he pursues his own agenda, which occasionally pits him against Sonic and friends. His motivations are his own, but in times of doubt, the memory of Maria anchors his sense of right and wrong.

5:26 AM

Like yeah he is an anti-hero and could go dark but Maria is the light in his soul

5:28 AM

If you have any questions I'm happy to answer to the best of my ability 😄

5:29 AM

I'm looking now at some of the art you've posted in our mutual servers -- you're very talented and skilled! 👍

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That was beautiful. I think you described him a bit better, personally 😆
And thank you!
One more question I have, when was this being written? Like when you started working vs. when you finished. I'm curious as to how long the process usually takes for that stuff.

It was in the spring, it took about a month all told

5:35 AM

It was around March/April(edited)

Huh, that's around what I expected. That makes sense I think. Although, it'd probably be way faster without the back and forths I'd imagine. 🤔
Oh, I also thought it was interesting Rouge's bio didn't mention Knuckles or Shadow. Usually her bios mention one of em (her alliance with Shadow or her love-hate relationship with Knuckles)

For Rouge, iirc I don't think she had relationships mentioned in the Japanese text either

5:49 AM

But yeah

5:50 AM

Another character who has nobody else mentioned in their bio is Sonic but I guess that makes a little more sense maybe

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I kind of expected Silver and Blaze to have something on each other too since I think Evan from the lore team really likes their dynamic

5:58 AM

Either way, I appreciate that you tried your best with what you were given. Thank you for that.

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