Gossip: Wuthering Waves' Japanese CBT Survey Sparks Backlash for Poor Localization and Machine-Translation-Like Phrasing

Wuthering Waves recently launched its Closed Beta Test (CBT) survey in both China and Japan. However, Japanese players quickly pointed out that the survey felt like a direct machine translation of the Chinese source material, resulting in extremely unnatural phrasing. For instance, the term '2D-style game' (二次元游戏), which is common in Chinese gaming culture, doesn't translate directly into Japanese, and phrases like '2D RPG card game' left Japanese users confused. Additionally, the description of a game as merely a 'time-killer' felt far too informal for a professional survey.

The localization of game titles was equally problematic. Major titles like FGO were listed without proper phonetic readings (furigana), while others had incomplete titles. Furthermore, the taxonomy of RPGs ignored how Japanese players categorize games; the survey lumped turn-based, SRPG, and action games together in a confusing manner, and even failed to distinguish between the classic 90s 'Ninja Ryukenden' and the modern 'Ninja Gaiden' series, proving a lack of cultural context.

In the comment section, users noted that the term 'Er-You' (Otaku/Anime game as a distinct category) used in China is redundant in Japan, where most mainstream mobile games already adopt an anime aesthetic. Some users mocked the survey's spending brackets, noting they appeared to be direct conversions from Chinese Yuan to Japanese Yen without considering actual purchasing power parity, leading many to joke that the clunky Katakana made the English version look much cleaner by comparison.