Lost in Translation: minor plots differences

I thought it would be interesting to discuss the small differences in plot and character's lines you notice when you compare the same version of a pokémon game in different languages. Here's what gave me the idea.


Ever since I started learning German back in 2011 I've been playing pokémon games in that language. I've always played XY in German, so I got used to the names and characters in that language. But today I was doing a speed-run on my X version in English and was surprised by how plain and uninspired some Gym Leaders sounded. In German some of them had an annoying speech pattern, that even though, well, annoying, added some sort of personality to them and made them memorable. For example:


. Valerie always says everything in the diminutive. That's more or less like putting "tiny" or "little" before words. Some random quotes (roughly translated by me): "Good little day trainer. Did the warp fields confuse you're little head?" "What a great little battle it was!" (I can hear her squeaky irritating voice as she says that)


. Olympia doesn't use the verb to be. She just tells you to see things in a certain way: "See this battle as a sort of ritual." "See this badge as a sort of certificate". (I imagine her speaking slowly and with a soft voice)


. Wulfric can't finish a sentence without working in a "you know": "Ice is... you know, hard, but also fragile." "If think you can... you know, break through my defenses..." (he sounds so insecure!)


In English those same Gym Leaders were much more straightforward and ended up sounding similar to each other. As if they were the same person just reading different lines. In German they were much more silly and annoying, but that helped making them somewhat unique and funny.


When the credits were rolling after the scene in Lumiose, I noticed another difference: not only was the English version of the song (well, of the lyrics of the song) different from the German one I was used to, but for some reason I was shown the French version as well and it was a completely different song!


So this got me thinking how many such small differences between translations of Pokémon games exist. I'm sure I'm not the only to have played pokémon games in more than one language, especially XY where you can just set a different language for every playthrough. Have you guys ever spotted something?


I'm particular curious to know what characters say/how they sound in Japanese, since that's supposed to be the original version the other versions are translated from. For instance, I assume all the peculiarities from the Gym Leaders I mentioned above come from the original Japanese and haven't been properly translated in the English version. Or maybe were the German translators particularly creative?


I hope you guys find the idea interesting and the discussion can bring to light some funny differences.
 
The old man in Viridian Town for RBY/FRLG who teaches you how to catch Pokemon had a different reason for lying on the road depending on your version. In the English version, he just wants his damn coffee. In the Japanese version, he's hungover and needs coffee to sober up.
 
In Japan, there's a dirty joke involving the item Nugget. See, the Japanese name for is is also slang for testicles. And now you know. And knowing is half the battle.
 

If you used a badly hacked LeafGreen/RedFire cartridge with the English language, the guy at the entrance of the bridge to the SS Anne would say "By the way, buy this game or die." Not sure about Japanese or even English, but that quote got lost on the Spanish and French versions.
 

cant say

twitch.tv/jakecantsay
is a Site Content Manager Alumnusis a Team Rater Alumnusis a Top Social Media Contributor Alumnusis a Senior Staff Member Alumnusis a Community Contributor Alumnusis a Contributor Alumnusis a Battle Simulator Moderator Alumnus

If you used a badly hacked LeafGreen/RedFire cartridge with the English language, the guy at the entrance of the bridge to the SS Anne would say "By the way, buy this game or die." Not sure about Japanese or even English, but that quote got lost on the Spanish and French versions.
What has that got to do with different translations? The guy that coded the ROM would have just added that in...
 
Something funny I just found out is that Wynaut's name in different languages gives different rhetorical responses.
English, Italian and Spanish it's "Why Not"
Japanese it's "Really"
French it's a repetition of "Okay"
German it's "Is it so?"
And in Korean it's "That's right"
 

Layell

Alas poor Yorick!
is a Social Media Contributor Alumnusis a Top Artist Alumnusis a Community Leader Alumnusis a Community Contributor Alumnusis a Researcher Alumnusis a Top Smogon Media Contributor Alumnusis a Battle Simulator Moderator Alumnus

If you used a badly hacked LeafGreen/RedFire cartridge with the English language, the guy at the entrance of the bridge to the SS Anne would say "By the way, buy this game or die." Not sure about Japanese or even English, but that quote got lost on the Spanish and French versions.
I'm going to take the time to call this out, I have no reason to believe this is in the actual game. I took a quick look at the dialogue tree and I don't see it. Unless some pirate copy somehow added this I think it's crap.

Anyways what I've always found interesting is how the anime has an English theme song and all other languages tend to just translate that, although the Japanese theme is entirely different.
 
The old man in Viridian Town for RBY/FRLG who teaches you how to catch Pokemon had a different reason for lying on the road depending on your version. In the English version, he just wants his damn coffee. In the Japanese version, he's hungover and needs coffee to sober up.
In Japan, there's a dirty joke involving the item Nugget. See, the Japanese name for is is also slang for testicles. And now you know. And knowing is half the battle.
Is it just me or are the Japanese games much less child-friendly? '-'

Anyways what I've always found interesting is how the anime has an English theme song and all other languages tend to just translate that, although the Japanese theme is entirely different.
And the Japanese themes have always been better. Especially after DP when the English OPs started to suck badly.
 

Codraroll

Cod Mod
is a Forum Moderatoris a Community Contributoris a Top Smogon Media Contributor
Moderator
Don't know if this is much "lost in translation", and it's not a game thing, but the Norwegian dub of the Anime (the most significant part of Pokémon media translated into Norwegian, apart from a couple of short-lived magazines) has translated only three Pokémon names: Meowth (into "Mjauth", "mjau" being the Norwegian onomatopoetica for the sound a cat makes), Unown (into "Ukjent", a literal translation of the word "unknown"), and Kakuna ("Kokong", literal translation of the word "Cocoon"). Why this was done, I have no idea. I think the latter two were mistakes made by the translators, while the former was done for convenience. Neither translation was ever seen in text.

For the longest time, the Anime also translated move names, sometimes with hilarious results, more often with face-palmingly bad ones. The word "Thunderbolt" is easily translatable to Norwegian, but for some reason, they translated only "Thunder" and kept "bolt" as-is. The only meaning of "bolt" in Norwegian is in the context of "bolts and screws", so it sounded like Ash ordered Pikachu to fling thundering ironware at Team Rocket in every other episode.
 
yeah i've tried several FR/LG roms and never encountered that message it's probably a rom which was edited to say that to make people think that or was a release that had that added in because of people wanting it released ASAP and that message was a sorta "take that" to them if they wanted to play it so badly just buy the real deal.
 
The old man in Viridian Town for RBY/FRLG who teaches you how to catch Pokemon had a different reason for lying on the road depending on your version. In the English version, he just wants his damn coffee. In the Japanese version, he's hungover and needs coffee to sober up.
Nah, even in the English version it's pretty obvious he's hungover. He's lying in the street for crying out loud. It doesn't need to be spelt out.

I prefer to think of it as us Westerners having a subtler sense of humour rather than being keener on censorship.
 
Is it just me or are the Japanese games much less child-friendly? '-'
Japan just doesn't care. I mean, they are the country that gave us School Days for goodness sake.

I prefer to think of it as us Westerners having a subtler sense of humour rather than being keener on censorship.
No, it's more likely Nintendo of America not wanting a drunk in a game aimed at ten-year-olds.
 
Nah, even in the English version it's pretty obvious he's hungover. He's lying in the street for crying out loud. It doesn't need to be spelt out.

I prefer to think of it as us Westerners having a subtler sense of humour rather than being keener on censorship.
Maybe so, but it's undeniably altered from the original dialogue.
 
I was half-joking you know... but seriously guys, if Pikmin 2 can feature a marijuana leaf then why would Nintendo be so caught up about this random pisshead?
Different standards from games years apart and the leaf wasn't used in any sort of reference other than "is a leaf."
ESRB would say nay to the explicit alcohol reference but the leaf is fine


actually, looking it up, they did change that leaf in localization:
In the Japanese version, Olimar's journal entry and the sales pitch describe this treasure as the "ultimate drug", and Olimar even states that he might even want to use it some day. Users are also warned not to overdose, as it may cause death. Its name in the Japanese version isIchikorodaore, which means "One-hit kill".
and in america the journal became
Olimar's Journal
"The ship seems to think this leaf would be a smash hit among naturalist interior designers. I just think it looks and feels like a soft blanket. In the interest of scientific discovery, I'd better give it a test run..."
while the leaf was changed to a reddish color presumably to look like a leaf in fall
 
Olympia speaks in haiku in the English version, so her speech isn't "uninspired".

I have one: In the English version of Pokemon Stadium 2, when a Pokemon lands a critical hit, many trainers will say that it hit the opposing Pokemon's weak point. In the Japanese games, critical hits are also known as "weak points" (aka pressure points), so this comes off as an overly-literal translation. Remember, literal translations aren't always a good thing!

Anyway, I love learning about little localization differences. I hope this doesn't devolve into a "Durr localization sucks" or "Durr censorship" thread.
 
I have one: In the English version of Pokemon Stadium 2, when a Pokemon lands a critical hit, many trainers will say that it hit the opposing Pokemon's weak point. In the Japanese games, critical hits are also known as "weak points" (aka pressure points), so this comes off as an overly-literal translation. Remember, literal translations aren't always a good thing!
It was also in the first Stadium. I can still hear the announcer (i.e., the main reason I want Pokémon Stadium XY for Wii U) mentioning hitting the weak spot. I like it for the announcer since it has a different flavor to the official term (which is still used in the text when it occurs), which works since we do similar things when we talk about matches.
 

Users Who Are Viewing This Thread (Users: 1, Guests: 0)

Top