A segment of the gaming community has expressed significant dissatisfaction regarding the absence of official localizations for their languages in the popular games Undertale and Deltarune. Recently, this criticism intensified, particularly from players in Latin American countries, directed towards creator tobyfox for the lack of official translations.
tobyfox issued an open letter clarifying the situation:
“Unfortunately, Undertale does not have official translations into any language other than Japanese. There is no translation for Spanish, Brazilian Portuguese, or any other languages — Chinese, Korean, Russian, French […and many others]. I understand that the lack of an official translation into your language is very frustrating. However, I want to clarify: this is not because I am biased against other countries.”
The developer stated that he is generally not opposed to official translations for other languages. However, he emphasized that the level of quality and adherence to his creative vision are paramount:
“Simply put, if I release something officially, I want it to perfectly align with my vision. I was only able to achieve a Japanese translation because I understand the language myself and worked closely with our talented translator, meticulously checking all the text. I am not against official translations into other languages, provided we can implement them with the same level of quality… I have previously explored different options with my publisher, but nothing has materialized yet. Perhaps a different approach is needed.”
tobyfox also expressed his appreciation and happiness regarding the existence of unofficial fan translations for the PC versions:
“Given that I don’t understand other languages, the ability to let fans interpret the game themselves without the pressure of achieving ‘official perfection’ is incredibly valuable.”
Regarding Deltarune’s translation specifically:
“From a development standpoint, it’s currently simply impossible to support other languages because it would significantly slow down the game’s release…”