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.
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.