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!

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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!

FE Three Houses Localization: Felix and Annette’s ENG A Support Dialogue Change in the Patch

Spoiler warning: This article involves info about a late-game A support conversation in Three Houses.

Yesterday I looked at how one of Bernadetta’s lines in her B support with Byleth changed in the 1.0.2 patch for Three Houses. The JP had remained the same, yet it was an odd situation where the English changed for some reason.

Today, u/entitq on reddit brought up how a change was made in Felix and Annette’s A support conversation as well.

This one was strange compared to yesterday, as a change was made to one of Felix’s lines that is rather inconsequential, yet completely different to the Japanese this time. Let’s take a look:

FE Three Houses Localization: Bernadetta’s ENG B Support Dialogue Change in the Patch

Spoiler warning: This article involves info about a B support conversation in Three Houses.

So there’s been news circulating around a line in Bernadetta’s English B support conversation with Byleth, and how it appears to be altered from how it originally appeared after an update.

A tweet from @Best_Lolicon stated:

So fire emblem decided it would be a great idea to censor Bernies support conversation in the last update, for seemingly no reason at all. Baffled at why they did this, the game was already rated and her character was handled really well, makes no sense. #FireEmblem pic.twitter.com/d1iArVdcwG

— Justin iZ Here (@Best_Lolicon) September 12, 2019

A thread on serenesforest by user Jedi also brought up this issue.

I was curious if the issue really was about potential “censorship,” and whether it was a case of the original Japanese having changed too (so the English changed with it), or if it was just the English that changed (to tone it down or alter it significantly).

The surprising result is… that the Japanese is the same as it was before, and that the new English ends up oddly closer to the (literal) meaning of the Japanese! Though with some subtleties lost, as may happen with literal translations.

FE9 Path of Radiance Localization: Was Greil’s “Harsh Scolding” a “Harsh Beating” in Japanese? [JPN vs ENG]

Please note there may be some spoilers in for Path of Radiance!

Today’s post is a brief request from a reader on another page of this blog. It was a simple concern:

In the English version of Path of Radiance, when Ike tried to touch the medallion, he says his father “scolded him harshly”. Remembering your article about the Shiro slap scene, I became curious and checked the Japanese script. I don’t know Japanese, so I checked Google translate. I honestly don’t know what I expected to find, but I was shocked and horrified that it looked like the “harsh scolding” was originally a bad beating. Maybe I’m just in denial, but I know Google translate is not all that reliable, so I hope you can confirm it for me.

 

The “Shiro slap scene” they mention is in reference to this previous comparison about Fire Emblem Fates.

The short answer: Yes, Greil did strike Ike in some way in Japanese.

For details, let’s take a look at the dialogue!

FE Fates Localization: “I was about to walk my cat” [JPN vs ENG]

This post is part of a series on reader requested (and personal curiosity) comparisons between Fire Emblem games’ Japanese and English scripts. Last time, I looked at how Lukas from Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia is portrayed slightly differently in English

Today, I return to Fire Emblem Fates thanks to a reader on twitter:

“I was going through my Miiverse when I saw this and I was wondering if the cat was in the Japanese original or simply the localizers having fun. It’s from Revelation chapter 14.”

They provided a screen shot with it (seen above). It’s a brief side conversation with a villager upon visiting a home on the map.

Let’s take a look!

FE Fates Localization: Soleil & Cows [JPN vs ENG]

This post is part of a series on reader requested (and personal curiosity) comparisons between Fire Emblem games’ Japanese and English scripts. Last time, I looked at Garcia and Dozla’s support conversation in Fire Emblem: Sacred Stones FE8.

Today, I return to Fire Emblem Fates thanks to a reader request who emailed me:

“So Soleil has this line about how milking cows is ‘good practice.’ Dare I ask what it was in Japanese?”

Ah Soleil, you really hold a special place in my heart. I remember this line in English (and Japanese) as well, so let’s take a look at it!

FE: Radiant Dawn: “What does that ‘Moldy Onions!’ guy say in Japanese?” [JPN vs ENG]

Awhile back I looked into a silly line from Path of Radiance which featured a soldier who had amused fans by saying “eat rock!”

A commenter wondered about another soldier line, this time from the sequel, Radiant Dawn.

I’m still wondering where they got “Mouldy onions!” from in Radiant Dawn. Like… Why…?

So I finally got around to taking a look!

Japanese	English (Literal)	English (Localization)
くそっ、どこへ行った	Dammit, where’d they go?!	Moldy onions! Where’d they go?!

*Note: The above Japanese line is from the basic game script The extended dialogue does not change it significantly, so is omitted.

Pretty straightforward, as you can see! The meanings are quite close, with one word simply changed.

In Japanese, the word “kuso!” (くそっ) is often used as a form of exasperation, like in English with curse words along the line of “dammit!” If you watch anime, you probably hear it a lot.

Of course depending on the context, intonation, etc. It can be anywhere from a tame “darn!” to the other extreme (“f***!”) In this case, the “dammit” is probably the most accurate given the situation.

In the end, they decided to go with “Moldy onions!” which I think is a great way to work around the problem entirely as to which degree of exasperation to work with. It can be taken as harshly or lightly as the reader figures, rather than leaving it to the localizer to have to work out. Probably a good approach in this case when considering the audience and ESRB/age ratings they have to adhere to.

Oddly, though, there are plenty of cases of other characters saying “Damn it!” in some fashion throughout the game.

For example:

Zelgius: Damn it! They’ve been captured!

Tibarn: Damn. Fine, I’ll carry you. Don’t get thrown off, kid. You better hang on tight.

Skrimir: We will return and regroup. It pains me, but we must. Damn it, Ranulf… He…got my leg.

Sothe: …Damn it.

Seeing the above, it is possible they interpreted kuso in that context to be some degrees higher in exasperation (perhaps more toward “sh*t!”) and so went with moldy onions, rather than damn which they had been using throughout the game.

Of course another possibility is separate translators who just interpreted things differently, as the rest of the above are from outside of Part 1 of the game, where this line is.

Or, really, they just wanted to make this guy silly like the “eat rock!” guy for no reason beyond (potentially ill-placed) amusement!

A lot of possibilities we may never know…

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Well that does it for this brief comparison! I gained access to the Japanese text in both the Tellius games so hope to look into some other things in the future.

If you have any suggestions of what else to look into that you may be curious about, please feel free to leave a comment below!

Lastly, here is an infographic that summarizes this article.

 

 

FE Fates: Did Corrin reference a meme on the final chapter of Revelation? [JPN vs ENG]

It’s been a while since I did a comparison on Fire Emblem Fates, but this was one thing I was curious about that I got to check today.

Spoiler Warning: The scene in particular is from the final chapter of Revelation. It does not give too much away, nor do I go out of my way too. However, some things in the dialogue may give some minor elements away, so please proceed at your own risk. (I even blurred out the above image).

Please note that this post is purely informative and may share some opinion, but this does not mean the change is necessarily good or bad. A change is just a change that is being looked into, and you can be the judge of whether you like it or not!

Zelda – Windwaker: Is the “Hero’s New Clothes” a reference to “The Emperor’s New Clothes?” [JPN vs ENG]

My friends over at Source Gaming are doing a special Zelda week (February 22^nd through March 1^st) to celebrate the upcoming release of Breath of the Wild on the Switch.

They have made plenty of Zelda-themed content for the week, such as various facts about the first game of the series, and a piece on defending Skyward Sword  from backlash.

So, today, on my end, I look at a great example of localization found within Windwaker. The localization team behind the game managed to place a fitting cultural reference to an old story in an appropriately humorous moment in the game.