Translation

Sakura can translate a game’s dialogue as you read it, using Apple’s on-device Translation framework — no text ever leaves your device.

Open a game’s settings and enable Auto-Translate, then set:

• Target Language — the language you want dialogue translated into. Defaults to None, which keeps translation off. You can also pick Device Language to always follow whatever language your iPhone or iPad is set to.
• Source Language — the language the game’s script is written in. Defaults to Japanese.
• Service — currently only Apple is available.

Each language in the picker shows Apple’s on-device pair status: a green check means the language pack is installed, a blue arrow means it’s supported but needs downloading, and a red X means Apple doesn’t support that pair at all.

Once you’ve picked a target language, a status row shows whether the pack is Installed, Download Required, or Pair Not Supported. If a download is available, tap Download to trigger Apple’s system language-pack prompt. As the app puts it:

Translation runs entirely on this device using Apple’s language packs. Nothing leaves the device.

The pack downloads once and translates offline from then on.

Two extra toggles refine how translation shows up in-game:

• Comparison Mode (off by default) — shows the original line beneath its translation, so you can cross-check against the source text.
• Pre-Scan Script (on by default) — translates the whole script in the background as soon as you launch the game, so text rarely shows up untranslated while you’re reading. Without it, lines translate the first time you reach them, and you may briefly see the original text before the translation catches up.

Translation works from a cache: if a line has already been translated, you see the translated version immediately (with the original line appended below it, if Comparison Mode is on). If a line hasn’t been translated yet, you’ll briefly see the original text while it’s queued for translation in the background — once it’s ready, the line updates in place.

You can also reach translation settings, including a language switcher, from the in-game overlay’s translate button (classic engine only) while playing.

Sakura keeps translated lines cached per game so it doesn’t have to re-translate them every time you replay a scene. From a game’s settings, Clear Translation Cache shows how many lines are currently cached and lets you wipe them — useful if you’ve changed languages and want a clean slate. The same reset is available from the in-game overlay’s translation menu.

See Fonts if you want to pair translation with a font that has better coverage for your target language, and Overlays for the rest of the in-game controls.