Alexander O. Smith | The Albert Chessa Network #10
from The Albert Chessa Podcast Hosted by Albert Chessa
Alexander O. Smith is a writer, translator and localization director best known for shaping the English-language voices of acclaimed Japanese games including Vagrant Story, Final Fantasy XII and Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney. After studying classical Japanese literature at Harvard, Smith joined Square’s emerging localization team, developing an approach that treated translation as creative adaptation rather than literal substitution. He later established Kajiya Productions with fellow translator Joseph Reeder, extending his work across games, novels, manga and song lyrics. From the theatrical language of Ivalice to the humour and wordplay of Ace Attorney, Smith’s scripts preserve the character of their originals while allowing them to live naturally in English. Through translation, voice direction and narrative design, he has become one of the medium’s most distinctive interpreters of language, culture and authored worlds.
Embed this episode
No transcript yet.