FE Three Houses Localization: Are there references to older FE Games in the Two-Toned Whetstone sidequest?

A fun trivia and comparison post today!

A reader brought this nifty easter egg that reddit user PeppersJacks noticed in English to my attention. It involved items you trade while getting the Two-Toned Whetstone to either Shamir or Catherine, and whether the item names are actually references to previous games in the series.

The main items people point to are the Whetstone referring to Fates, the eyedrops referencing Awakening, and the book Path of Dawn being the Tellius games. Is this also the case in Japanese? Are there references that weren’t fully translated, or is this just a little nod by the localization team, or is it all a coincidence?

I took a look in Japanese as requested, and it turns out they most likely are intentional references when looking at the Japanese! But whether the localization opted to convey these (or realized the references) is up to interpretation. They do not seem to reference individual titles per se, but rather the sagas seen over the series …with one exception.

PeppersJacks got most of it, though the Tome of Comely Saints left them a little unsure. However it and the others are made more obvious in Japanese.

Let’s take a deeper look.

FE Heroes: “Life of Heroes” (Page 99) Translation

A translation of Page 99 of the official Fire Emblem Heroes comic. See all the chapters thus far on the compilation post here!

Enjoy!

Page 99 (10/15)

The raw/original can be seen here.

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I do these all on my free time, so if you like what you see and want to help support me, feel free to donate!

 

FE Heroes: “Life of Heroes” (Page 98) Translation

A translation of Page 98 of the official Fire Emblem Heroes comic. See all the chapters thus far on the compilation post here!

Enjoy!

Page 98 (10/8)

The raw/original can be seen here.

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I do these all on my free time, so if you like what you see and want to help support me, feel free to donate!

 

FE Three Houses Localization: Byleth’s Name(s) in JP

A quick trivia post today! Some of you may have read a recent Life of Heroes chapter that revolved around this too, so I wished to note it for posterity.

This post only covers the spellings in JP and not the implications/reasons for the name, so is mostly spoiler free.

FE Heroes: “Life of Heroes” (Page 97) Translation

A translation of Page 97 of the official Fire Emblem Heroes comic. See all the chapters thus far on the compilation post here!

Enjoy!

Page 97 (10/1)

The raw/original can be seen here.

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I do these all on my free time, so if you like what you see and want to help support me, feel free to donate!

 

FE Heroes: “Life of Heroes” (Page 96) Translation

A translation of Page 96 of the official Fire Emblem Heroes comic. See all the chapters thus far on the compilation post here!

Enjoy!

Page 96 (9/24)

The raw/original can be seen here.

Notes:

For those curious, the joke in Japanese was:

英雄とも　ええ友になれるさ

(えいゆう　とも　ええゆう　に　なれるさ
(eiyuu tomo eeyuu ni narerusa)

Literally, it would be “You can be good friends with Heroes!”

I provided the romaji so you can see where the pun is. “Eiyuu” and “eeyuu” are read the same way, the first meaning “Hero” and the second meaning “good friend.” The Japanese also provides the kanji for “Heroes” in parenthesis next to the “good friend” reading to cue the reader in just to ensure the meaning/reading was indeed discerned correctly.

I decided to go Hero-Peero for a more rhyming lameness that would carry that intent forward.

No TN’s this time, comic!

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I do these all on my free time, so if you like what you see and want to help support me, feel free to donate!

 

FE Heroes: “A Day in the Life of the Heroes” (Page 95) Translation

A translation of Page 95 of the official Fire Emblem Heroes comic. See all the chapters thus far on the compilation post here!

Enjoy!

Page 95 (9/17)

The raw/original can be seen here.

Notes:

Here is a more literal version:

I try to avoid using Translator Notes unless absolutely necessary. But in this case, it was needed. There was no real way to alter this one as the localized name for “Byleth” in English was the problem. While uniform like the main characters of the last few games in English, it’s actually spelled differently in Japanese depending on the sex of the chosen character.

In Japanese:

Female Byleth = ベレス (Beresu, translated here as Beles)

Male Byleth = ベレト (Bereto, translated here as Beleth).

I originally decided to take an approach that would both emphasize the joke (how Byleth’s two versions get different name spellings in JP, compared to Rufure (Robin) and Kamui (Corrin)), while also playing with that tricky ス (su) that drives translators nuts (i.e. in Fire Emblem‘s case, マルス = Mars or Marth?!), or more widely known, FF7’s Aeris/Aerith!

With the update I decided to utilize the fact Byleth has a last name instead which would not require a TN, as it is something both audiences understand.

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I do these all on my free time, so if you like what you see and want to help support me, feel free to donate!

 

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.

FE Heroes: “A Day in the Life of the Heroes” (Page 94) Translation

A translation of Page 94 of the official Fire Emblem Heroes comic. See all the chapters thus far on the compilation post here!

Enjoy!

Page 94 (9/10)

The raw/original can be seen here.

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I do these all on my free time, so if you like what you see and want to help support me, feel free to donate!