Translating Galaxies - A Localized Dive into 2024’s GOTY Astro Bot

Unless you are new to the gaming world, you have likely heard about Astro Bot, 2024 GOTY (Game of the year) winner.

Created by Team Asobi, Astro Bot is a PS5 exsclusive 3D action platformer, a sequel to VR Astro Bot rescue mission for PS4 and Astro’s playroom.
The latest was a free game for PS5 release, aiming to show (off) all the potential of PS5 Dual Sense Controller.

The title received praise for its Sony cameos, wide audience appeal and solid design: the game ran well from day one and delivered on its promises for the genre, collecting positive critics (90+ score on both Metacritics and OpenCritic).

Following the crash of a PS5-shaped spaceship, players are tasked to rescue bots stranded across galaxies and planets. This adventure across the stars is localized in 30 languages, ten more compared to its PS4 predecessor.

Let’s take a closer look to Astro Bot's universe with Wordfoxes’ eyes!

Text-wise, Astro Bot presents a minimalistic UI. Its cutscenes rely on music and animation to convey their message, rather than subtitles and VOs.
Overall, that makes the localization process less challenging than for other titles: less text means less translation time, while no VOs means no subtitles nor dubbing required.

On the other hand, with minimal text to guide and immerse international players into Astro Bot’s universe, the linguistic choices are possibly even more crucial for the success of the localized product.

With 6 galaxies composed of 10+ planets acting as levels, translating the name of each area might have been the biggest and most challenging part of the localization process.

Let’s start at the beginning: our Bot’s space vessel is attacked and torn to pieces by a mean-spirited alien.

This attack results in our protagonist Bot being stranded in a desert planet, accurately called Crash Site in English.

Both the Italian and French localization for the first planet do not retain an explicit reference to the initial collision that starts the game. Both languages highlight the function of the planet instead, renaming it ‘‘base camp’’ (it) or ‘‘bot base’’ (fr).

Privileging a translation that is not literal is the best choice in this context for two reasons:

1. Maintaining a reference to initial collision would restrain the translation and give it a less natural effect. In both French and Italian, ‘‘crash’’ does not have an equally short and evocative word.
2. Matching length to safeguard implementation. While different from the source in their literal meaning, both translations’ character count is close to the source, which facilitates a cut-off free implementation.

An extra dose of creativity is often the key to ensure that your localized product feels like the original to a different audience. That is when transcreation works its wonders.

A perfect example can be found in the Italian translation for Slo-Mo Casino, first planet of Serpent Starway.

Don’t get us wrong, the French version of this Vegas inspired planet is absolutely valid. Following the source, it catches the player’s ears with a nice alliteration while referencing the special move of this level: a slow-motion mechanism.

The Italian version takes the transcreation route: it hints to the slow-motion aspect of the level by rephrasing a proverb that most Italians would know. The results is a catchy title ‘‘Fortune favors the slow" which sounds both familiar and entertaining to its audience.

Flying through Astro Bot’s universe, we encounter several levels seemingly left untranslated. However, it would be more accurate to say that the English names of some planets were intentionally kept in English. A perfect example is a special level inside the Tentacle System.

Upon defeating the final boss, Wako Tako, a new level becomes available.
The name of the planet is Bot of War, an homage to the 2018 Game of the Year winner‘‘God of War’’.

Unsurprisingly, both French and Italian retained the source name. The reason is rather simple: the original game title was not translated for its supported localized languages either. As a result, the word play between God and Bot is easily caught by international players familiar with the game.

Attempting to translate (or transcreate) this level in French or Italian would not bear a better result than leaving it English, proving that sometimes localization experts must know when not to translate.

In the examples we examined, the localized title stays true to its original lighthearted tone, family friendly language and nostalgia elements - confirming its well-deserved success across diverse audiences.

Now we want to hear from our fellow space explorers: what are your favorite levels and Bots?