I’m not going to write about Machi today – I’ve already written something about it four years ago. But that was a long time past, and my Japanese skills weren’t as good as they are now (note: they are definitely still not good, but at least better than they used to be). So in April, spurred by that lockdown which left me with very little to do, I’ve taken it upon myself to play the game again and document my experience on Twitter.
This project took me longer than I expected: after all, my first time through the game, skipping quite a bit of text and just giving up on what I couldn’t quite understand, took me “just” two months. This time I made a proper effort to try and understand every word, every phrase. And it was a better experience for it – everything from the bomber’s hints, to Sunday’s machinations, to Ichikawa’s struggles is so much better when it makes sense (yes I realize this sounds obvious). Even if it took me eight months to see it through, playing mostly on weekends.
The result is a 1500-odd tweets long thread, which isn’t anywhere like a proper translation, but could at least give people a vague idea of what the game is like. It starts here:
I doubt anyone will actually bother to read such a long thread or my inane rantings inside. But given that the game will probably never see a localization, I wanted to at least give something to non-Japanese speakers. And, for those who are skilled enough in Japanese, hopefully give them something of a nudge toward experiencing it for themselves.
Chinchikoru!
A Few Steps 