Smash Bros. Byleth’s Reveal Trailer: Did the joke in the female Byleth reveal part change from the JP version?

Byleth recently joined Super Smash Bros. Ultimate as the latest DLC fighter. They had a reveal trailer in the style of Three Houses‘s cutscenes, featuring Sothis.

Multiple readers have reached out to me regarding said reveal trailer, often asking about one joke in it. An example question from one reader:

I saw comments on youtube and gamefaqs talking about that part where male Byleth comes back in the english trailer being different than japanese, or that a joke was removed or something. But I can’t find anyone clearly providing a source. Can you look into what the joke was that changed?

They provided some links to people discussing it, such as to a thread on gamefaqs. I could not find anyone clearly talking about the joke itself beyond hearsay, either, so decided to make this post to service as possible reference in case it is discussed in the future.

The short answer: Yes the joke plays out slightly differently in Japanese! But they both retain similarities in their double meanings and intent as well. I don’t think the joke was changed or removed entirely as one may say, but it was indeed slightly altered.

Let’s take a deeper look!

Lilina’s spirit is represented by Palutena in Smash Bros. Ultimate?

Today is a quick post that isn’t really a comparison or anything, just a curiosity.

In Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, there is a system of spirits that inhabit different fighters that you rescue them from. This is a fun way to get even more characters in a game by getting similar characters and quirks in on a character that best represents them, for a lack of better words. (This is not the exact intention/statement as given by anyone, just a summarized observation).

Anyway, for fans of these characters who are familiar with their original source games, you get a lot of fun nods that others may not get.

One particular favorite of mine is L’Arachel’s spirit, for instance. She inhabits female Robin –and with her are two other allies: Wario and Sheik.

Fans can already get why the other two are even here. They represent Dozla and Rennac! It’s much like how Awakening‘s bonus box fights featured classes that were meant to represent other characters that traveled together.

Another instance is how Ninian is represented by Palutena, and with her is Roy (likely to be Eliwood):

There are many more, but as a final example, which I unfortunately neglected to take a screen shot of, was that Wrys was inhabiting Kirby. I suppose they went all out on his baldness.

So I started to wonder if Lilina is around. I figured the Zelda (of the A Link to the Past look) would be a good candidate for her.

A Japanese friend posted this when they found it:

I was pretty surprised! Since I fully expected Lilina to actually be inhabiting Zelda rather than Palutena. The fire affinity/ability, the manner of dress, the red alt, body structure, and status as a Princess seemed pretty fitting in my head! So this was especially interesting. I wonder why they went with Palutena?

One guess, due to her staff, is that perhaps it was to reflect Lilina’s sage look –where she has the long white dress and can wield a staff as well. I’m sure there are other reasons.

Outfit as seen here. Also drawn by said friend who presented the screen shot to me. Please follow them on twitter!

So for fun I drew a quick oekaki (pixel sketch) of Lilina in one of Zelda’s victory poses, just because it was fun to imagine.

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When I get through the game, I’d love to write a post that has every single fun FE nod through the spirits (I’m sure the wikis will do that already, but still).

Just to be clear –this isn’t a complaint or anything. I just thought it was odd!

What do you all think of the game so far? Please avoid any World of Light spoilers if you can. Who are you playing as? Main? All that good stuff. Last game I would mostly play as Lucina, but this time I’m prioritizing Zelda for the above, hehe.

Smash Bros: “Ridley Hits the Big Time” in Japanese? (Also every 3DS/Wii U Line) [JPN vs ENG]

A follower on twitter asked the following:

That reminds me, I’m curious to know what Ridleys Japanese splash screen says. Whether the ‘too big’ in-joke is a thing there…

— Martyn (@martynstuff) 2018年6月25日

I took a quick look at it, and the results were as expected. It simply says 参戦 (san-sen), which means to “join” or “participate” in an event of sorts. It’s often used, but not limited to, fighting games. You see it used in Smash Bros a lot however!

I had recalled in response to the twitter user above is that the Japanese all across the board actually just had “Character Name 参戦,” leaving the localization to come up with colorful lines instead. But memory can be a fickle thing that can lead to misinformation, so those of you who know me also know I like to be very thorough, and so I went through all the trailers once again just to double check for all of you, and made this table:

Character	Localization	Japanese 日本語
Villager	Villager comes to town!	むらびと参戦！！
Mega Man	Mega Man joins the battle!	ロックマン参戦！！
Wii Fit Trainer	Wii Fit Trainer weighs in!	Wii Fit トレーナ参戦！！
Sonic	NA	NA
Rosalina & Luma	Rosalina & Luma launch into battle!	ロゼッタ＆チコ参戦！！
Little Mac	Little Mac punches in!	リトル・マック参戦！！
Charizard	Charizard fires it up!	リザードン参戦！！
Greninja	Greninja makes a splash!	ゲッコウガ参戦！！
Mii Fighters
Lincoln	Lincoln gets sworn in!	リンカーン参戦！！
Elijah Wood	Elijah Wood like to battle!	イライジャ・ウッド参戦！！
Ice-T*	Ice-T Pours it on!	NA
Arino Kachou*	NA	有野課長参戦！！
Palutena	Palutena alights!	パルテナ参戦！！
Dark Pit	NA	NA
Pac-Man	Pac-Man hungers for battle!	パックマン参戦！！
Lucina	Lucina wakes her blade?!	ルキナ参戦！？
Robin	Robin brings the thunder!	ルフレ参戦！！
Shulk	Shulk foresees a fight!	シュルク参戦！！
Bowser Jr.	Bowser Jr. clowns the competition!	クッパJr.参戦！！
Duck Hunt	Duck Hunt takes aim!	ダックハント参戦！！
Mewtwo	Mewtwo Strikes Back!	ミュウツー参戦！！
Lucas	Lucas comes out of Nowhere!	リュカ参戦！！
Roy	Roy seals the deal!	ロイ参戦！！
Ryu	Here comes a new challenger! Ryu!	リュウ参戦！！
Cloud	Cloud storms into battle!	クラウド参戦！！
Corrin	Corrin chooses to smash!	カムイ参戦！！
Bayonetta	Bayonetta gets wicked!	ベヨネッタ参戦！！
(Ultimate)
Ridley	Ridley hits the big time!	リドリ参戦！！

Some quick notes/pointers:

• Mega Man is the only character that actually had it translated to “joins the battle.” Perhaps they felt it worked just fine, or that particular translator did not decide to do anything colorful. Being one of the first trailers, perhaps there was reluctance, yet, Villager was shown before that with his own colorful tag.
• Sonic lacks a tag, perhaps due to being a returning character. Though the title of the video seems to be “Sonic Joins the Battle” which is also ソニック参戦 in Japanese. Straightforward enough!
• Ice-T was exclusive for the NoA version. In the NoJ one, it was Arino Kachou instead, a celebrity associated with video games. This was rightfully changed as he would likely be totally unknown to an NoA audience. I did not check, but I wonder if NoE had a third celebrity? Please let me know.
• Dark Pit lacks any tag for himself in both versions, and his trailer title is shared with Palutena’s so does not include him.
• Lucina is the only character where the Japanese is slightly different. She has a “?” added where the usual second “!” is in all the rest of the titles. This is reflected in the localization too.
• In Ryu’s trailer, where it says “I’m Looking / for a / Challenge”, the Japanese says, ” 俺より / 強いやつに / 会いに行く” (ore yori / tsuyoi yatsu ni / ai ni iku), which would mean “I’ve come to meet those stronger than me” (or, literally, “More than me / stronger guys / go to meet”).

So even if you do not speak Japanese, you can simply look at the characters 参戦 and how they appear straight down the Japanese column on the table above. You can even put it into Ctrl + F and highlight all instances.

As expected, the localization indeed spiced up many of the lines with either references to the characters and their source material or puns –which I’m sure is a touch that has been mostly well received. The Japanese side would have been “character joins the battle” all across the board, so perhaps they felt this would be a way to differentiate the characters with references/nods to their origins and fans.

In short:

Japanese is “CharacterName 参戦!! (joins the battle!!)” across the board. All the references and puns are solely creations of the localization. You can assume in the future that any title line in Japanese was likely 参戦.

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How would you have gone about writing these lines? What sort of alternate titles for characters would you have come up with? Feel free to share!

Ideally I’d have provided a picture of every single character add on with subtitle, but I just lacked the time to do so. Does anyone know if there is a gallery out there that already has all the (actual) characters and their lines? My search was bogged down by all the fan made ones, so…

Smash Bros Ultimate: Which Zelda is that? ALttP? ALBW?

Image source: a wonderful SourceGaming post that translates a Sakurai column.

Super Smash Bros: Ultimate for Nintendo Switch features a new design for Zelda compared to her previous incarnations. But there was a little bit of confusion regarding which Zelda she is, due to a slight translation tidbit which is not too widely known from what I’ve observed.

Basically:

People weren’t sure if she is based on the one from A Link Between Worlds (NoA wrote) or A Link to the Past. (NoJ wrote).

Explanation of why both are fine:

• In Japan, A Link to the Past is 神々のトライフォース (Triforce of the Gods), and, A Link Between Worlds is 神々のトライフォース2 (Triforce of the Gods 2). As such, both are Triforce of the Gods (the title that became A Link to the Past), one simply with a “2” that emphasizes the sequel. Box art example.
• In the west, the second title dropped “2” and was made into A Link Between Worlds. As such, this makes it harder to refer to them both as A Link to the Past, as that is only the first one’s name.
• To help clear confusion, a look at the designs of Zelda in both games reveal they are essentially the same, too with only slight differences, and, in Smash Bros. Ultimate, if you look at her design, you see she’s a combination of both Zelda’s seen here. The top accessories are like from the first game, and the pattern on her lower side are like the second game, for instance.
• As such, saying Zelda from A Link to the Past or Link Between Worlds are both accurate. In Japanese it is simply Zelda from 神々のトライフォース (Triforce of the Gods), so can be either of them too.

And so:

They are actually referring to the same game, but it’s harder to specify which one in English as the Japanese encompasses both. The English specified the sequel (likely as it’s more recent and so more people may recognize it), where as the Japanese can refer to them both due to the titles being the same (with just a number to differentiate). There was no explicit “2” in the Smash Bros. trailer, so the localization likely decided on A Link Between Worlds. Though, they were likely in contact with the original staff behind the direct to help reach this conclusion.

Summary infographic:

So there you go! Same game. Both A Link Between Worlds and A Link to the Past apply here. If you see it referred to as A Link to the Past by Japanese staff (and translations), now you know why.

For more details including shots that caused the confusion (as well as similarities in the Zelda design), see below.

Fire Emblem Fates: “Lost in Thoughts All Alone” English Lyrics

Today’s post are the lyrics for “Lost in Thoughts All Alone” (the theme song to Fire Emblem Fates) as they appear in the official translation. The lyrics are vastly different than the Japanese lyrics that I translated back in July, so it will be interesting to compare them later on!

Update: I updated the above video for the full song!

It is notably missing the second verse of the song (which equates to Conquest/Nohr). As such, the song is incomplete, but will be updated to include the full song when it becomes available. UPDATE: We now have the second verse lyrics! Thanks to reader JL Brown for the link! Updated the lyrics below! Thanks to reader JL Brown for the link!

This was all done on my free time, and so took a while. It was certainly a lot of work, but I do hope you enjoy! Please consider donating if you like the work I do. : )

Note this is not an official transcript, but all by ear, though there are not many words that can be misunderstood.

SSB4 – Why Corrin over Aqua [via SourceGaming]

Today I’m posting (another) awareness post! SourceGaming wrote a nice article as to why Corrin (Kamui) may have made it into Super Smash Bros. for Wii U/3DS over Azura (Aqua), the heroine of the game.

Some brief background, points, and counter-points are included among other things. A nice read, so:

Please read the full thing here!

Note: This does not necessarily represent my views on the matter. : )

SSB4 – A Case for Corrin [via SourceGaming]

Today I’m just posting an awareness post! A guest on SourceGaming wrote a partially opinion partially factual piece regarding the case for why Corrin (Kamui) made it into Super Smash Bros. for Wii U/3DS.

Please read the full thing here!

Note: This does not necessarily represent my, or SourceGaming’s, view on the matter. : ) Personally, I am happy for whoever wanted him in, and am sorry for those who did not!

Super Smash Bros. Melee: Roy’s Character Intro Webpage Translation

This image is from and created by the amazing Nirbion for SourceGaming

Today, I present an article from SourceGaming that is a translation of  Roy’s Smash Bros. Dojo introduction back during the Super Smash Bros. Melee days.

Please read it here in full!

However, I did edit it onto the webpage in a style that imitates the original page as close as I could possibly make. All translation credits go to Soma and PushDustIn of SourceGaming this time around.

 The images below give a preview for the final product. Full resolution coming soon!

Sakurai Interview (Part 2): Fire Emblem 25th Anniversary

There was a lengthy (eight page) interview with Masahiro Sakurai near the end of the Fire Emblem 25th Anniversary Book. In it, Sakurai’s history with the Fire Emblem franchise is explored.

I provided the scans to my friends at SourceGaming, who translated the first part of the interview before. And now, they translated the second part of the interview in full. Sakurai details his opinions on the games of the franchise, such as Genealogy of the Holy War among others! There are some Fire Emblem Fates spoilers, so please be careful. Thankfully, SourceGaming has marked the spoilers so they can be avoided.

Please go over and read it!

As you can imagine, the process of doing all this (scanning, editing, translating in some cases, etc) took a lot of time, and I am unemployed…so if you like what I did, then…

Please donate! It helps fund future projects!

Sakurai Interview: Fire Emblem 25th Anniversary

There was a lengthy (eight page) interview with Masahiro Sakurai near the end of the Fire Emblem 25th Anniversary Book. In it, Sakurai’s history with the Fire Emblem franchise is explored.

I provided the scans to my friends at SourceGaming, who translated the first part of the interview. Please head over there to read this insightful interview! It details info on Sakurai’s thoughts and background regarding Fire Emblem and the Super Smash Bros. series. The second part will be up later.

At one point Sakurai refers to a more “energetic” Roy, as well as when Roy was once named Ike. I have provided the relevant pages in translation below to give you an idea of what he’s talking about. For more information from the 25th Anniversary Book in general, go to my compilation post here!

As you can imagine, the process of doing all this (scanning, editing, translating in some cases, etc) took a lot of time, and I am unemployed…so if you like what I did, then…

Please donate! It helps fund future projects!

Enjoy!