Loekalization Blog

Imagine this: a small American town in the 1960s, all pastel colors and warm summer days. Kids riding bikes past vintage diners, neighbors chatting on their porches, an old bookstore filled with dusty conspiracy theories. It’s the kind of place where you’d expect to spend an idyllic childhood. But just beneath the surface, there’s something… off. Children are disappearing. Shadows move where they shouldn’t. And hidden beneath Bloomtown lies the Underside, a nightmarish mirror world where people’s deepest fears take monstrous form. This is Bloomtown: A Different Story—a turn-based JRPG with monster-taming, social simulation, and a story that dances effortlessly between warmth and creeping dread. It’s a game with real soul, the kind that sticks with you long after the credits roll. And it was our job to bring that soul to life in Simplified Chinese, Japanese, Korean and English (the original was in Russian).

At Loekalization, we don’t just translate games—we reimagine them for new audiences while keeping every joke, every emotion, and every eerie revelation intact. And with Bloomtown, we were in for one hell of a ride.

March 5, 2024: Diving into 149,156 Words of Americana, Monsters, and Small-Town Secrets

When localization began, we immediately knew that Bloomtown was not your typical JRPG. It was quirky, heartfelt, and unsettling in all the right ways—a game that could make you laugh with a snarky one-liner one moment and send chills down your spine the next.

This meant we had to nail the tone in every language. The sarcasm needed to be sharp but not too harsh. The high-tech barn’s bizarre alien theories had to be just as absurd in Korean as they were in English. The cozy, small-town charm had to contrast perfectly with the eerie horror creeping in from the Underside. And every word had to flow as naturally in Chinese, Japanese, and Korean as it did in the original.

That’s why we spent nine months carefully translating, defining 1,338 key terms, and even refining parts of the original English and Russian text to make sure everything was seamless. And then… Bloomtown launched.

Players React: A Localization That Feels Like Home

Almost immediately, players took notice. They weren’t just playing Bloomtown—they were immersed in it. The Chinese players loved how fluid and natural the text felt, with one review excitedly pointing out that the localization was clearly crafted by hand, not by a machine. The Japanese community called the translation solid, and Korean players praised its high quality and sense of polish.

But we weren’t done yet. A great localization doesn’t stop at translation. It has to be tested, polished, and refined until it feels like the game was built from the ground up in each language. That’s why, in December, we played through every single language version for 50 hours each, hunting down awkward phrasing, UI issues, and anything that could break immersion. This is where our team truly brought Bloomtown to life.

Niu Pengfei: A Translator Who Lived the Game

For Niu Pengfei, translating Bloomtown wasn’t just a job—it was an adventure. He didn’t just localize the game. He played it. He struggled through it. And by the end, he conquered it. During his playthrough, he hit three major challenges that any player could relate to. First, there was the fishing mechanic. At first, it was a disaster—bait wasted, lines snapping, an empty bucket mocking him. With no proper tutorials to rely on, he had to figure it out through sheer trial and error. But when he finally mastered the technique? He was unstoppable. Fishing became his favorite part of the game.

Then came the forest underworld. Here, he wandered in circles, lost in a maze of eerie trees and shifting shadows, before realizing that his mistake was almost comically simple—he had overlooked a living demon bush that was right there. It was a moment of frustration, then laughter, then satisfaction as he finally cracked the puzzle and moved forward.

But the toughest test of all? Outrunning the forest ranger. This wasn’t just difficult—it was downright brutal. Time and time again, he was caught, his escape attempts foiled at the last second. For nearly two hours, he tried different strategies, adjusting his movements, searching for any possible trick. Frustration turned into determination. And then, finally—success. By keeping his speed and distance just right, he managed to break the ranger’s line of sight, stealthily collecting fuel while his heart pounded in his chest.

Despite all the struggle, the challenge only made the victory sweeter. And for him, that’s what made Bloomtown special—it wasn’t just a game, it was an experience.

Noah van Kooten (son): The Combat Strategist

While Pengfei tackled puzzles and survival, Noah van Kooten approached Bloomtown from a different angle: combat strategy. As an avid gamer with experience in everything from FPS games to MMOs, he immediately took to Bloomtown’s element-based battle system. The idea of stacking elemental attacks for massive damage fascinated him, and he spent time figuring out the most efficient ways to string together combos. The combat was fun and engaging without being punishing, striking the perfect balance between challenge and accessibility. For him, the most difficult parts of the game were the puzzles. Some took time, some took patience, and some left him scratching his head. But ultimately, he appreciated how Bloomtown kept players thinking without ever feeling unfair.

His verdict? Bloomtown wasn’t just a good game—it was a game that kept your attention, made you think, and rewarded you for experimenting.

Loek van Kooten (dad), the Engineer

Loek van Kooten, Project Manager and Localization Engineer, knows firsthand the depth of work that goes into ensuring a game like Bloomtown isn’t just translated—it’s transformed. “Even with context-rich annotations, descriptive string IDs, and extensive translator comments, a game of this scale still generates about 600 questions during translation. Context is king, and without it, dialogue trees can become surrealist paintings—beautiful, but utterly baffling.”

Loekalization’s approach to LQA isn’t just about catching errors—it’s about understanding why those errors happen. “LQA isn’t just a checkbox on a development timeline. It’s a deep dive that uncovers thousands of small but critical refinements, lowering the error rate from ‘players raging on forums’ to a level of polish that makes the game shine in every language.”

Beyond traditional LQA, Loekalization’s self-developed CAT tool, Cattitude, streamlined the entire process. “All changes made in the game since the start of LQA—whether spread across multiple projects or not—are automatically exported and reintegrated. If additional projects arise, they can be easily included or excluded without losing consistency across translations.”

What Did Lazy Bear Games Think?

Ultimately, no one says it better than the developers themselves. Here’s what Lazy Bear Games had to say about working with us:

“We mostly work with small-scale translators, and their tools are Google Spreadsheets and Google Docs. Your CAT tool is like a BFG in the world of translation—hats off, truly.” – Stanislav Rozhdestvenskiy, Manager.

“We have been working with Loekalization for more than eight years now, and they continue to deliver perfect translations for our games time and time again. Bloomtown was our fifth project localized by them, following Punch Club, Graveyard Keeper, Swag & Sorcery, and Punch Club 2. Their expertise and attention to detail have consistently elevated our games, and we have no doubt we’ll be collaborating with them again on our future projects. It is always a pleasure! Their job was always scrupulous, and I always felt sure that the result would be great.” – Slava Cherkasov, CTO/Co-founder

For us, this is what it’s all about. We take games that deserve to shine and make sure they do—in every language, for every player, with all the heart, humor, and horror intact.

Bloomtown’s English, Japanese, Chinese (Simplified) and Korean localization was brought to you by:

Loek van Kooten (Project Management and Localization Engineering)
Mikhail Kropotov (English Translation)
Niu Pengfei (Simplified Chinese Translation)
Cindy Kim (Korean Translation)
Aya Pickard (Japanese Translation)
Rumi Tasaki (Japanese Proofreading)
Noah van Kooten (Japanese LQA)