Using the Otome game Amnesia and its localized version Amnesia: Memories as a case study, the phenomenon of Otome games was explored from a translation- and Japanese studies' perspective. This paper investigated how translation choices shape character personality, and, as such, Western views. Toma, the most popular character from the Amnesia franchise according to Japanese popularity rankings, was received differently by the Western audience. This study aimed at exploring how translation choices might be related to this difference in reception. As such, it posed the questions: In what respect could changes that occurred during the localization process have led to an alteration of Toma's personality? How could these changes explain the discrepancy between player reception in Japan and the West? Upon analyzing the scripts, a connection between the effect created by certain translation strategies and Western player reception became apparent. Effects identified included the erasure of entry points for "self-inserting" players, the creation of a distorted first impression and the infringement of the players' spaces in ways not present in the original. The connection between character personality and the creation of an "equivalent gameplay experience" was explored. It resulted in the confirmation of the hypothesis surrounding their overall inseparability in an Otome game context, with the exception of a minority of justifiable cases where personality alterations were conducted in favor of a culturally equivalent gameplay experience. The impact of pre-filled gaps in the text led to decreased opportunities for players to contribute to the creation of meaning, while the presence of mistranslations sparked feelings of confusion regarding the character's sanity. Taking the role of the translator, the player and the virtual love interest into consideration, this paper suggests an approach derived from acting as a tool for future character personality preservation in Otome game translation.

Hakuōki, produced by Idea Factory, is an otome game series set in late Edo periodJapan. It is among the most popular video game series in its genre. The games inthis series have been localized for the English video game market, one that is verydifferent from the source culture. The game play experience is expected to beequivalent in all language versions of the game – however, given that any twolanguages cannot be completely equivalent and have different cultural contexts,translation problems are expected to arise. Acknowledging these problems, thisstudy aimed to determine whether or not, due to choices made in the translationprocess, dialogue was altered. Consequently, the study aimed to find out if aselected character’s personality could be perceived differently between the playersof two language versions of the video game Hakuōki. The study was conducted intwo parts: first, a translation analysis was conducted by the researcher. Secondly,to see if character personality was altered in translation, selected lines were used ina questionnaire survey that was conducted both in English and Japanese. Therespondents were asked to describe their perception of the character based on theexcerpts provided in the questionnaire survey. The results of the surveys werecompared and contrasted with the findings of the translation analysis. The resultsof the study show that dialogue was altered in translation, and that the selectedcharacter’s personality can be perceived differently between the players of twolanguage versions of the video game.

Au moment de déposer ce mémoire, la base de données créée par les fans, pour les fans nommée The Visual Novel Database (https://vndb.org/) liste plus de 37 000 visual novels. Ce corpus non- négligeable demeure peu abordé dans la recherche vidéoludique, particulièrement dans une perspective englobant les différents sous-genres qui lui sont associé, telles que « simulateur de drague » (dating simulator), jeu bishoujo ou jeu otome. Ce mémoire se penche sur des éléments culturels et de jouabilité récurrents dans ces sous-catégories à l’aide des études des genres (gender studies), des études queer, des études otaku et des études narratologiques. Il propose un cadre conceptuel afin d’articuler l’expérience particulière qu’offrent les visual novels, l’employant ensuite pour les analyses des jeux Psychedelica of the Black Butterfly (STING & Otomate, 2015), Hustle Cat (Date Nighto, 2016) et Gnosia (Petit Depotto, 2021). / At the time of handing in this thesis, the database created by fans, for fans called The Visual Novel Database (https://vndb.org/) lists over 37,000 visual novels. This significant corpus remains barely addressed in videogame research, particularly from the perspective of the various sub-genres associated with it, such as dating simulator, bishoujo game and otome game. This dissertation examines recurring cultural and gameplay elements in these subcategories using gender studies, queer studies, otaku studies and narratological studies. It proposes a conceptual framework to articulate the distinct experience that visual novels offer, before employing it to analyze the games Psychedelica of the Black Butterfly (STING & Otomate, 2015), Hustle Cat (Date Nighto, 2016) and Gnosia (Petit Depotto, 2021).