Zelda – Windwaker: The “Complimentary ID” in Japanese? [JPN vs ENG]

Today, I look at what I would say is an example of good localization found in the Legend of Zelda: Windwaker.

The player receives something called the “Complimentary ID” which results in a silly dialogue exchange where it is literally an item that has the shop keeper (Beedle) compliment the player –rather than offering any actual tangible goods to your purchases free of charge. A different kind of complimentary than what one may expect!

And that is where the question comes in: What was the ID’s name, and the scene like, in Japanese?

In short: It does revolve around “compliments” (or praise), but the localization team seized the opportunity to make this even more fun in the English language with a pun that was different, yet worked with the original Japanese intent.

Let’s take a closer look!

Advertisement

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.

---

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.

Breath of the Wild: How do those sand seal puns work in Japanese? [JPN vs ENG]

Screen shot from here.

This is part of a series of comparing the Japanese and English versions of the game. Read more about that here! And feel free to leave a request or curiosity on the comments here or on that page.

The section question regarding Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild comes from personal curiosity.

So in the Gerudo Town in the game, there is a woman who sells sand seals. She makes quite a few puns (as seen on the image at the top of the page), and so I’m sure many were curious at what that may have been in Japanese.

So let’s take a look!

Breath of the Wild: How do the “-son”‘s work in Japanese? [JPN vs ENG]

This is part of a series of comparing the Japanese and English versions of the game. Read more about that here! And feel free to leave a request or curiosity on the comments here or on that page.

This is the question a few people have asked me:

“How do the -son names (Bolson, Hudson, etc) work in Japanese?”

Well, let’s take a quick look!  Quick context: There’s a group of characters with names that end in “-son” in the game as part of a side quest. I was curious about this one myself so was glad someone asked!

Zelda: Does Ganondorf have a surname in the Japanese ALttP manual too? [JPN/ENG]

A reader sent me a question a few weeks ago that I had a chance to look into now.

Nintendo updated its Zelda website to include a profile of Ganon that refers to him as “Ganondorf Dragmire.” I heard this was also in A Link to the Past‘s game manual. Was there any mention of the name or some other surname in Japanese?

Zelda Legends thankfully had scanned copies of the manual for the game both in Japanese and English which I used in reference for this post. So let’s take a look:

The dialogue is highlighted in Japanese (left) and English (right).

In Japanese: He is simply ガノンドロフ　and ガノン (Ganondorf and Ganon respectively). He has the title of an Evil King/King of Thieves/etc, but no mention of a surname of any sort.

The English above is straightforward, mentioning both Dragmire and Mandrag as other names.

So, no, the Japanese manual did not make a mention of this surname at all, and it is likely a localization creation that the site decided to stick with!

---

Comparisons are always fun! I hope this post can be used in reference for those who may not be aware of the lack of surname in Japanese.

Let me know if there’s anything you’d love to have looked into. Feel free to leave any comments below!

 

Zelda: Breath of the Wild Fan Comic Translation (1)

Today I translated a fun, single page comic that puts things into perspective, based on Breath of the Wild.

This comic was originally drawn by artist @sbrk_koo . See the original in the gallery here.

So please keep in mind I did not draw these. I simply translated them. I did however have to edit the graphics slightly to get the English sound effects in there!

If you have any brief fan comic/picture requests, or are feeling kind enough to donate, please use the “DONATE” button on the top right of this page!

Breath of the Wild: What was the “neigh” scene like in Japanese? [JPN vs ENG]

This is part of a series of comparing the Japanese and English versions of the game. Read more about that here! And feel free to leave a request or curiosity on the comments here or on that page.

The section question regarding Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild comes from a reader on twitter.

It is a very simple one. “What do the two boys (pictured above) say in Japanese?” They are found at the Dueling Peaks stable during the day, for reference.

It is a good question as the joke in English revolves around the English specific “neigh.”

So let’s take a look!

Breath of the Wild: How do the Gerudo refer to boys/girls in Japanese? [JPN vs ENG]

This is part of a series of comparing the Japanese and English versions of the game. Read more about that here! And feel free to leave a request or curiosity on the comments here or on that page.

The first question regarding Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild!

It is a very simple one:

“What do the Gerudo call boys and girls in Japanese?”

Well, let’s take a look!

Let’s Compare Zelda: Breath of the Wild!

I just recently beat Breath of the Wild (not to 100% completion, though), and found myself curious about some of the dialogue I came across along the way.

The Switch is a region free system, and as such the language is easy to change between Japanese and English. So this got me thinking: why not take a look at what may have changed between games?

From location names, sidequest names, or dialogue anywhere in between, it may make for some fun articles!

I want my readers to give suggestions in the comments, on twitter, or by email, about some things for me to look into. We’ll have a lot of fun seeing what may have changed, or what may have remained the same. The game is largely untapped when it comes to comparisons due to being a recent release.

Personally, I am thinking about looking into what the Gerudo terminology is in Japanese for starters! But I welcome any and all reader comments/suggestions/requests. I recall seeing some puns and rhymes that only work in English in some areas, so that’s another curiosity to look into (that lady selling sand seals, for instance…)

As I have completed the game I do not mind suggestions that may contain spoilers, but for the sake of other readers who may not have completed the game yet, please mention if your post/suggestion will contain spoilers or not. : )