Trails developer Nihon Falcom is considering using AI in order to assist with translation for its future games, the studio's CEO has revealed.
In an interview with Japanese gaming platform 4Gamer (via Automaton Media), Nihon Falcom head Toshihiro Kondo said that leaving initial translation work to AI could "compress the entire process and ultimately speed up development".
Kondo acknowledges that "human effort would still be needed to make final adjustments to the translated words and lines", but expresses a hope that AI translation could shorten the distance between the Japanese release of a Nihon Falcom game and the Western release.
In the interview, Kondo says that it's not possible to release Trails games simultaneously worldwide due to the amount of text in them, which he says is "several times larger than that of a typical RPG".
According to Kondo, the Nihon Falcom team begins translation work on a Trails game once the Japanese version is complete, which is why Western versions of the games usually "come out a year later at best".
He doesn't acknowledge the possibility of bringing in a translation team to work on a Trails game alongside the Japanese developers, although it's fair to say Nihon Falcom is...
