Yasumi Matsuno, the director of Final Fantasy Tactics, Tactics Ogre, and more has chimed in on recent localization discourse concerning Unicorn Overlord.

Anti-censorship activist Zakogdo (who has been featured here on Niche Gamer previously) shared his thoughts on the localization for the game. Chiefly, he appears to have concerns about the flowery language used in order to give the dialogue a “ye olde English” tone, but possibly at the cost of accuracy.

Unicorn Overlord had a free demo released. After playing it, I can say quite confidently that the localisation is abhorrent. Here begins a thread of numerous examples. pic.twitter.com/udrMNUsaWb

— Zakogdo (@zakogdo) February 25, 2024

Recently, discourse surrounding localization has become more relevant due to some high profile incidents such as the recent Lovely Complex dub vandalism.

Yasumi Matsuno eventually retweeted the original thread and shared his experience working on Final Fantasy Tactics, during the game’s development Square allegedly wanted to properly localize the names and dialogue, but due to being pressed for time some things were left as is.

When asked to clarify, Matsuno thoughtfully responded in English that “both arguments have merit”, referring to how many fans desire accuracy in translations as opposed to allowing for some adaptation.

This is my personal opinion, but may I share it with you?

I believe that it is unacceptable for someone to alter a work without considering the original author's intent. However, when the market or language is different, a direct translation may not convey the intended meaning…

— 松野泰己🐈‍⬛ (@YasumiMatsuno) February 26, 2024

It’s worth mentioning that Matsuno hasn’t offered any explicit comment on ideologically motivated censorship or localization but instead his comment appears to focus on good-faith alterations intended to make the game more enjoyable.