Translating songs, even understanding songs in another language is an ordeal, I acknowledge that. In the end, all I meant to suggest was that the localization didn’t do everything that it could have done. There were a lot of places where it felt like they cut corners to me. You are obviously welcome to disagree with me, but in the end, I think we’re both hoping for the same thing – that the second localization turns out better than the first one.

EDIT: I’ve seen a few comments elsewhere online that are surprised by the fact that I would recommend a game that I tore into so badly. I never said I disliked the game. As I stated, I found it average. I’m not one of those people whose “average” means bad. If I rate something a 5 out of 10, that’s average for me. I enjoyed it enough to finish it, but it’s not one of my favorites. I recommend the game because it represents a game that had potential but (I feel) fell short in several important ways. By examining those problems, it allows us to appreciate the games that get them right. That doesn’t mean that a flawed game isn’t fun or that it isn’t worth playing. Each imperfect game that I play allows me to enjoy the truly great ones even more. In any case, everything here is just opinion. Take it with a grain of salt.

And how do you suggest to translate the Hymmnos words in the songs?

And I think that tranlating them in-game would ruin the experience (not even the Japanese gamers understand these songs without the CD inserts), and the songs are fine already like they are. If you want to know what they mean, translate them yourself or seek the translations that others have made already.

Not to forget that the backstory and setting are very immersive and interesting (and a lot of the game-related materials, such as the arpeggio manga, the information on the hymmno server and the drama discs tie perfectly with the main plot of the game).

And yes, the sequel has a remedied a lot of the mistakes from the first game. I can only hope that NIS doesn’t butcher too much the localization (such as changing Hymmnos words or names).