One of the coolest parts of gaming history is when you hear from those who worked on certain series and franchises and learn that key elements led to things either working beautifully or nearly falling apart at the seams. In the case of Animal Crossing, it already had issues with the Nintendo of America team due to its name. Then, as noted by former localization manager Leslie Swan, the other big issue was that the original version of the game was basically “meant for Japan alone,” complete with items, holidays, and themes that would only work in that country.
In a chat with Time Extension, she admitted that even Mr. Iwata himself wasn’t sure if she would be able to pull off all the localization changes that would be needed, and she made clear how much had to be done for its Western release:
“We had to go in and rename every character, every character’s catchphrases, and also the events. So what we would do is go through the list of events they sent over and say, ‘That event’s not going to work at all. We need to find something else that we can do during that month so that month wouldn’t be just empty’. So we wanted whatever it was to be something that would be useful in as many areas as possible so we would do things like call it “Fireworks Day” or something so other cultures, not just the US, would be able to use it without it being tied to Independence Day.
Then there were also some items that didn’t make sense at all. They would have so much charm in the Japanese version, but they wouldn’t have provided the same kind of charm for Western audiences. I can’t tell you the number of hours we spent on that game, all hands on deck. We were so lucky at that point that we didn’t have other big projects, as we pretty much had the entire staff dedicated to that game.”
By her recollection, Animal Crossing was the hardest project she ever did due to all the localization changes her team had to make. Thankfully, it all worked, and it’s now a praised Nintendo franchise, with many expecting a new entry on the Switch 2 eventually, but next time you play it, say a “thank you” to the original localization team who made things happen.
Source: Time Extension
