Umineko Project

Hello,

It isn't really too big of a deal, but I was wondering if there was any way we could get something like a patch that would change Auntie and Uncle back to the japanese Oba-San and Oji-San. The use of Auntie bothers me a bit, as one would not use Auntie along with the name of their aunt, At least not commonly. One could say "I visited my Auntie", or "I visited my Aunt Eva", but "Auntie Eva" just sounds strange to me. And especially in a high-status family like the Ushiromiya family, the use of 'Auntie' would be far too casual. It isn't exactly a common colloquialism, either. It's common enough, but most people, aside from younger children, don't use it. It is also used by lower-class people from rural or urban areas, but a rich family like the ushiromiyas would most likely not use it.

Like I said, it isn't that big of a deal, but I would definitely prefer to have either 'Oba-San' and 'Oji-San' or at least just 'Aunt'. I would have tried to edit the script myself, but I don't have the right program to edit whatever file 'en.file' is.

TL;DR - I hear your concerns, but probably not right now. Sorry

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On the topic of the "correct" usage of Aunt vs. Auntie (or Aunty, even)... I can answer the question without getting into any of that, so let me do that first, then I'll come back to it just briefly at the end below the divider.

The reason we haven't made it easy to edit en.file is that we're trying not to open up script patching yet. The scripts undergo a lot of changes, which will probably continue until Episode 8 is done, and allowing patches while we're still actively working on it will make it very hard for people to upgrade correctly, and make people unhappy when we break their stuff. So all our patches/options are centralized here for the time being.

Could we make such a patch ourselves? Technically yes. I could imagine an Auntie->Aunt option for English. (We'd probably go with that instead of an oji-san/oba-san patch because that's what MG does. After seeing MG take the same direction in avoiding those words, we're happy with our decision to do so.)

In fact, we recently added the option to use Steam conventions that (for example) put quotes around the word "see" when it's used with a special meaning in phrases like "Without love, it cannot be ‘seen’." Everywhere in the script that uses the word in this way is special-cased so the user can choose. We have the technical ability to implement a similar thing for Auntie/Uncle, too.

The problem is it doesn't come free. Adding things like this (other non-text features people ask for too) steadily complicates the script, introducing logic into otherwise simple lines, and grows the pile of little things we have to remember to account for as we edit and work on the game. Whether we make it an option is a tradeoff of how important it is vs. how much it will cost us in terms of complexity. There is also a Russian translation, and Vit might also consider "how easy it is to implement in Russian" as part of the complexity factor.

You yourself don't consider this a huge priority, and I think many of the team also are unsure it's worth the maintenance right now.

A straight replacement rather than an option would be easier (zero maintenance), but I am unconvinced, and there are complicating factors, which brings me to the topic of the correct usage, as I mentioned at the start.

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What you say about Aunt vs. Auntie makes sense, but I'd very much be interested in any proper sources or analyses that cover the usage of these words by geography and social class -- I couldn't find any myself. Certainly disallowing "Auntie + name" contradicts my personal experience and a lot of internet anecdotes I can find. Also:

• We have some evidence from Episode 4 that Rosa is fond of the name <Auntie Rosa>.

  [+] Spoiler

  (It's the name of her design company. It has an English name.)

• Although the Ushiromiya head family is a high-class family, the branch families, and particularly the children, are not necessarily living high-class lives. Quoting from Episode 1:

  Come to think of it, I guess that means George‐aniki, Jessica, Maria, and I are all wealthy, high‐class gentlemen and ladies. Needless to say, none of us feel that way at all.

  Jessica routinely ignores the way her mother asks her to speak, Battler was brought up with the poorly-spoken Rudolf, and Maria's speech is heavily casual despite Rosa's attempts to get her to speak properly (see "Long time no see" at the beginning of Episode 1). We intentionally did use "Aunt Natsuhi" because we believed her to be the kind of high-class person who would insist on being addressed properly.
• We do have young children that might use the term.

  [+] Spoiler

  Maria is definitely at least borderline with her childish speech; also, should young Ange use "Auntie" to refer to Eva? See our Chiru trailer.

I see. I hadn't realized making an option would affect so much. In regards to aunt vs. auntie, I was basing it on my personal experience living in America. Even living in the south, I don't hear it used often, and if it is used, it is by a young child or by someone referencing a close family friend. I could see it being used by Maria and Young Ange, and maybe even Jessica. In regards to George, Battler, and Jessica 'not feeling that way', I take that less literally. It is hard to imagine that you'd carry the exact same mannerisms as a person of lower social stature, especially when they attend rich private schools. In regards to Rosa, where I believe she's called 'oba-chan'? I think that auntie would work in that case.

However, like I said before, it isn't too big of a deal, just something that bothered me a bit.