Comparing game localizations

[FlamePurge]

I love Tomato and Poe's streams! They are such cool people. I used Mato's FFIV page on Legends of Localization a lot of the time when I was doing my FFIV mod, Project II.

[Bregalad]

Some, but not all, of the 8 Clerics in the PSX version having southern accents stands out as, in my opinion, the worst localization choice I have ever seen

Oh, not this again. I have already said it, but I repeat : In comparison of what was available in french and other european language at that time, those translations were very well made.

If you don't belive me learn french and play the french versions of RPGs that were officially released here (Final Fantasy Adventure, Secret of Mana, Breath of Fire III, Final Fantasy VII) and you will see what is a truly bad translation.

[geishaboy]

Tomato is a really cool dude. He livestreams often with his wife on twitch, live-translating stuff for fun.

http://www.twitch.tv/clydemandelin

Love his site and his work.

Holy shit!

I always thought Tomato was a she.

The more you know.

[Spooniest]

Oh, not this again. I have already said it, but I repeat : In comparison of what was available in french and other european language at that time, those translations were very well made.

If you don't belive me learn french and play the french versions of RPGs that were officially released here (Final Fantasy Adventure, Secret of Mana, Breath of Fire III, Final Fantasy VII) and you will see what is a truly bad translation.

Oh, I believe you. Note the wording of my original assertion: "In my opinion, the worst localization choice I have ever seen."

I have no doubt the translations into La Francais were probably abysmal, with how badly they've handled the English localizations.

[Bregalad]

Note the wording of my original assertion: "In my opinion, the worst localization choice I have ever seen."

My bad, I didn't pay attention.

[Lilinda]

Merged these two together as we already had a topic, though it was admittedly fairly old.

[tryphon]

I have no doubt the translations into La Francais were probably abysmal, with how badly they've handled the English localizations.

They were so bad, that I prefered to play these games in English. At least the syntaxic errors and the global lack of sense was hidden to me (the same for many fansubbed anime).

[Spooniest]

Merged these two together as we already had a topic, though it was admittedly fairly old.

I could have sworn it wasn't this forum that I read that on.



Oh well, the more the merrier!

[KingMike]

I was watching one of Tomato's past streams and he mentioned looking at Bubsy.
(the only game released in Japan was the SNES version of the first game, a year after the western release)

The problem I hear was that he just couldn't understand the Japanese voice actor very well after listening repeatedly to the clips.
I don't know if anyone else had better luck? (I uploaded a comparison video on youtube, with the video even being linking on several Japanese pages. As well as sending the passwords to GameFAQs.)
Darn my current PC might be too fast as it seems to actually run higan somewhat decently so I can't slow it down enough though (at least in the older bsnes I have) I can click the menu to make it stutter. But I'm still not sure if I'd get the sounds right.

[Tomato]

It's been a long time since I first started this thread, and I've gone through a lot of games and articles. I recently decided to take the plunge and start turning some of my work into books, starting with Zelda 1! (if this is considered advertising feel free to moderate it, I feel it's worth sharing on this old thread though)

I've posted more info on the book, future books, and FAQs about the Legends of Localization site in general here: http://legendsoflocalization.com/announcing-the-first-legends-of-localization-book/

You can sign up a for pre-order notification here: http://www.fangamer.com/products/legends-of-localization-zelda-book

And I posted a whole bunch of photos of a recent photography day just for fun: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.718357604936883.1073741827.309189339187047&type=3





The book's coming along great and it's looking absolutely amazing. I'm also adding a lot of new content, rewriting existing content, and fixing + adding more info to content that was lacking on my site. And I own so many versions of Zelda now that I lost count

If you think there's anything I've missed on my site that I should include in the print version, let me know! My deadline for finishing everything up is really soon.

(Bonus: I got a rare Japanese board game of the first Zelda game and opened it up on stream the other day! https://youtu.be/upGNkOI2gE8?list=PL8fufren85t977dKqRouxheOB4KEMccs_&t=86 )

[KillerBob]

If you think there's anything I've missed on my site that I should include in the print version, let me know! My deadline for finishing everything up is really soon.

According to some sites, an uncredited Keiji Terui wrote the manual background story, see: http://dragonball.wikia.com/wiki/Keiji_Terui He's credited for scenario on the Japanese wikipedia page.  If he just was the manual writer or if he also came up with the story, I don't know. In the past it usually has been reported that Tezuka came up with the story.

The programmer I. Marui is still an enigma.

Not that relevant but the nice FDS flyer you have, had a few revisions made. Early ones, display slightly different artwork of the princess. See:http://www.chrismcovell.com/secret/1980s/FDS_Flyer_Zelda.jpg

[VicVergil]

Some side mention about Zelda 1's SFC remake as a Satellaview project on a stict timer developed by interns, but with dungeons themed as ST GIGA (named after the company providing the radio service), I guess? It also did the male/female protagonist choice years ahead of what some gaming sites would like to credit.
And since you're doing Zelda 2 as well, there's that SNES tech demo screenshot showing off kanji, and some of the music for that cancelled game (alongside beta SMW graphics) in a leaked NoA internal technical support cartridge.

And...
That the extra NPC sprites in Zelda 2's English edition were just possible thanks to Nintendo over-writing the kana font? Explaining their obsession with righting that wrong with the canned SFC remake which has room in the VRAM this time for kana, the improved lady sprite (also seen in that screenshot), the kanji, and then some more!

The Loto joke involves, well, Loto (Dragon Quest), Zelda 2 (Here lies Loto), Final Fantasy (Here lies Link / Erdrick), and Tengai Makyou 2 (a whole graveyard with Loto, Mario, and Adol of Ys fame). The whole area in Zelda 2 was removed in the US version and the text replaced internally with "NOTHING.".

If you could make up an excuse to fit in a mention of Marvelous Mouhitotsu no Takarajima (originally a SNES-CD game with FMVs using the Zelda 3 engine, Eiji Aonuma's very first game then was split to a SNES game and two BS-X spin-offs - a GC revival was eventually dolled-up as a Zelda game, namely Navi's Trackers), please do, by all means.

[KillerBob]

The Loto joke involves, well, Loto (Dragon Quest), Zelda 2 (Here lies Loto), Final Fantasy (Here lies Link / Erdrick), and Tengai Makyou 2 (a whole graveyard with Loto, Mario, and Adol of Ys fame). The whole area in Zelda 2 was removed in the US version and the text replaced internally with "NOTHING.".

Only the text was removed, the Dragon Quest reference is found in the Town of Saria. You might be thinking of the King's Tomb area which was altered and instead received an NPC with a line of text not in the Japanese version.

As for possible things worthy to include in your Zelda book, the NES version included the "Maps and Strategies" most likely due to Nintendo of America's fear that people would find the game to hard to understand. IMO it was a bit overkill as the manual itself was a big guide in itself. In the end I guess they did the right decision due to the crude localization within the game and manual. The original FDS version didn't include it but the Japanese re-release on cartridge did. Nintendo of America would later treat Zelda III with a very similar extra not found in its Japanese counterpart.

EDIT: Perhaps you could cover some of the more poorly translated tips in the manual. One of my favorites: "In the caves where people live are invisible closed doors. How to open them? That's a secret, too."

[KillerBob]

Just thought I would post this. Unfortunately I don't have the context for these but I assume they come from a development piece in a Japanese magazine.




The Triforce goes by the name Power Triangle, the dungeon map is quite different and instead of their levels the dungeons all went by their names at this point. The regular NES font is used etc. Man, there must be a ton of cool little stuff about many of our favorite games out there in various japanese magazines we have never seen.

[Chpexo]

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[Tomato]

Whoa, that's some awesome stuff!

[KillerBob]

Thanks for that magazine scan! I reverse-image-searched it and it let me to a French site with other scans that had multiple differences. I have no doubt in my mind there exists some prototypes of these differences but they're in a collector's hands by now.

The photos was posted on twitter two years ago by a guy named John Ricciardi.

What I found most interesting about it, is that the double-size moon dungeon on that picture suggests that the story told in the Iwata Asks http://iwataasks.nintendo.com/interviews/#/ds/zelda/1/5 how the second quest came about due to Tezuka's mistake of only using half of the available data, may not be the entire story.

[Chpexo]

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[KillerBob]

Good stuff. I'm actually creating a pre-release article on TCRF.net so this information is valuable to me. I also cited you for that interesting observation; I hope you don't mind. A link (feel free to edit if you have an account if you know what you're doing):

https://tcrf.net/User:Chpexo/Prerelease:The_Legend_of_Zelda

Cool, I don't mind. I do have an account over there so I might add some things if I come up with something. You might want to mention the different color of the Magical Rod in that pic I posted. In case you are unaware, there are many more proto or beta graphics to be found in the manuals. You might want to add these, page numbers are for FDS manual...

The screen on page 16 contains Octoroks instead of Tektites.

The Enemy Bait on page 24 is a beta version (also seen in that magazine photo I posted).

The Old Man on page 27 is a bit different from the final ones. (see the beard)

The Octoroks on page 28 are beta. (see their eyes)

Ghinis on page 29 are beta, the Lynels might be.

Page 34, Gel and Stalfos are beta, the bat might also be an early look.

The Dodongo and Aquamentus are early versions. The mini patra and trap are as well. And Digdogger and Gleeok looks suspicious but it might just be due to poor screenshots.

The rocky area outside level 2 in the screen on page 17 in the NES manual has a different color to the final game. Also, early versions of Darknut and Pols Voice in NES manuals.

I guess this is all a little off topic, I hope you don't mind Mato.

[Tomato]

Nope, I'm glad to be seeing this! I missed a lot of this about the manual, so it's cool new info to me!