Silent Hill 2 translator Jeremy Blaustein says it's "the right thing to do" for Konami to properly acknowledge his work on the original script that the forthcoming remake is based on.
Blaustein vented about the Silent Hill 2 remake on Twitter shortly after it was revealed. "They will, once again, use the [Silent Hill 2] English script that I wrote/translated (oh, directed too) completely by myself and I will get zero compensation for it and there will not be tens of thousands of people on Twitter outraged on my behalf," he said. He also confirmed that he wasn't informed of the remake before its announcement: "Would have been nice to drop a message," he said in a reply.
By "once again," Blaustein's seemingly referring to Silent Hill 2's previous re-releases, most notably the Silent Hill HD collection. The credits for the Silent Hill HD collection only list him under "Konami Special Thanks," right next to "New Voice Cast" and "Original Voice Cast."
Blaustein also handled translation work on Silent Hill 3 and Silent Hill 4: The Room, and has since founded his own localization company Dragonbaby. I reached out to get his thoughts on the Silent Hill 2 remake, and he implied that even his crediting on the original game didn't capture the scope of the job. The credits for Silent Hill 2 list Blaustein as the game's "English Supervisor/Translator," but he says his work on the game involved far more than that.
"My duties on the original were as follows, irrespective of what my official crediting said," he explains over email. "I translated every single word of the Silent Hill 2 game. There were no other translators. I directed the voice over work. All of it. I arranged the auditions, led them, and was one of about four to five people who made the decisions on which actors to go with. My voice in those matters was generally agreed to since none of the Japanese staff were capable of judging the actors due to their lack of English ability. I directed the dramatic performances in the motion capture sessions."
"I collaborated with the [Silent Hill] team and [Hiroyuki Owaku] in particular on a near-daily basis during the translation," Blaustein adds. "As you know, there was no Japanese VO because it was mostly aimed for a Western audience. That testifies to the importance of the script that I wrote."
Addressing the sentiments in his tweet, Blaustein clarified that he does not "expect or seek any financial compensation." However, he reiterates that "I do strongly feel that giving me appropriate credit for my role is the right thing to do."
GamesRadar reached out to Konami to clarify whether the Silent Hill 2 remake will use a one-to-one version of the original game's script, but a PR representative said such details aren't being released yet. Bloober Team, the studio developing the remake, has repeatedly insisted that it will stay true to the original and work closely with the original creators, only modernizing gameplay elements like the camera's perspective.
Fans are understandably thrilled to see the remake staying close to the original.
