I am just asking for examples of bad translations in the English patch of Imperishable Night or other games. Just examples, for fun, out of curiosity.
I still remember the time I laughed when I realized that the translations for Aya's final spellcard in th10 wasn't quite right.
The 塞 in 塞符 actually refers to 岐の神, which is the gods of crossroads, and is related to Sarutahiko. (I say related, but it's more like being an equivalent)
The spellcard names themselves are related to Sarutahiko.
Someone will have to have a profound knowledge of Japanese myth to even catch this reference.
There even might not be a good enough translation for 塞, but what I can say is 'Cork' is too distant to be a translation for 塞, and 塞 has absolutely no relation to cork oaks.
The reason I laughed was not because of the translation itself, but because of the comments from the wiki editors.
It is now fixed in the wiki, but Nue's first card in th12 was translated to "Peaceful Dark Clouds", because the Kanji for Heian(平安) means 'Peaceful'
In th07, 仙 was translated to 'Wizard', which isn't actually wrong. It is now translated to 'Hermit', because ZUN decided to use the word in 東方茨歌仙.
One example of a translation that isn't related to English Patches, completely wrong, but still quite insightful.
One of the music in ZUN's Strange Works, 夢幻回廊, was translated to 'Infinite Corridor', which actually should be translated to 'Fantasy Corridor' or 'Illusion Corridor' or something like that.
The 'insightful' part is that it is supposed to be a pun, 無限(Infinite) and 夢幻(Fantasy) having the same pronunciation in Japanese. Wouldn't have noticed it if the translation wasn't wrong.
I, personally, think that one of the most biggest things lost in English patches is that it can't really differentiate between Kanji and Katakana.
Nobody would say that ストレートとカーブの夢郷 and 直と曲の夢郷 really conveys the same thing. (Or maybe someone will, I don't know)
I think that the Music and spellcards sort of loses the 'ZUNness' in their names.
Many other things are lost in translation, but anyone knows what they are.
Ignoring all the small details, the English patches are quite well done, and there really isn't any completely wrong translations.
Translating between completely different languages is never a easy task, especially if it makes a bunch of references to folklore and Chinese idioms and the like.
I would say that the things lost in translation is quite a small price to pay compared to what someone will have to go through to understand most of the game.