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[TheInfamousKira]

So, though it's happening less frequently with more synergised release schedules and the shift in proportion between voice work and text, but it creeps up here and there: the localization change.

This can and has varied from censorship of nudity and religious references in old school Nintendo games, to utilitarian changes due to space or character limitations. See: Woolsey's FFVI script, and character names like Mash, Tina, Stragus vs. Their localized counterparts.

Sometimes it's just bad translation, primarily due to time limitations and rushing, I'd wager in most cases, but you've all seen this, too. All your base, Basilisk being translated as Bagrisk in FFVII, etc.

And further still, sometimes you have localization changes to account for differences in culture, slang or phrases, etc. FFVIII decided people lining up for bread sounded too soup kitchen for Western audiences, so English FFVIII features Zell pounding down hot dogs that are missing a key ingredient.

So how about it, GAF? What's your personal best and worst localization change? How do you feel about the shit in general? Has it ever ruined a game for you? Bilingual-GAF, have you ever played the same game in two different languages? How was the experience?

 

[drganon]

A recent example I can think of is Digimon survive. It had an issue where they screwed up the pronouns of one of the monsters, referring to it as both he and she during different parts of the game.

 

[Guilty_AI]

A recent example I can think of is Digimon survive. It had an issue where they screwed up the pronouns of one of the monsters, referring to it as both he and she during different parts of the game.

how dare you the monster was obviously gender fluid

 

[Dr. Suchong]

All your base are belong to us.
Legendary.

 

[PanzerCute]

As a French, I was happy that they changed the name of FF9 main character, whose name was... Zidane (!) in the japanese version.

Spoiler

(Well at least thats the translation that was mainly used in the previews of the japanese version.)

 

[BlueLyria]

The entirety of the skill system and some loading tips in Resident Evil 6 on the PS3, that was the game that made me use English for all games moving foward instead of Portuguese.

Fun fact, my brother played Re4 remake in Pt-br and there's a line in chapter 5, right at the start that was not translated for the Closed captions.

 

[Robb]

There’s a lot of funny classics;

Not sure what this would fall under, but seems related to translation in terms of how the game recognizes correct pronunciation. I’ve never played it myself, just find the video hilarious. Lifeline (Ps2) by Konami;

 

[STARSBarry]

I mean...



The classic

 

[theStartupSound]

Not gaming, but in the TV show Fargo, they translated “Excuse my french” just by the words, not the meaning. Problem: no one outside english speaking regions know that this means cursing.

 

[NeoIkaruGAF]

 

[H4ze]

All your base are belong to us.
Legendary.

This, it's always the first line to come up in my head when I read about bad translation.

Also: Castlevania, was it the second where you could just not know what to do due to bad translation?

 

[Beer Baelly]

 

[ProgenitorCastle]

 

[killatopak]

 

[saintjules]

Also:

https://www.neogaf.com/threads/weir...-localized-games.762878/page-6#post-102978260

 

[westman]

Never ruined any game for me – usually found them more quirky than annoying. This one was annoying, though, although quite funny in retrospect:



(You should actually avoid attacking when the tail is up, because that will trigger a powerful counterattack. The counterattack is mentioned in a separate sentence, and it's not at all clear that it's conditional on attacking while the machine has its tail up.)

 

[kvltus lvlzvs]

Never ruined any game for me – usually found them more quirky than annoying. This one was annoying, though, although quite funny in retrospect:



(You should actually avoid attacking when the tail is up, because that will trigger a powerful counterattack. The counterattack is mentioned in a separate sentence, and it's not at all clear that it's conditional on attacking while the machine has its tail up.)

Got me every time

 

[Dr. Suchong]

 

[shaddam]

This thread reminded me to check on the last of us (game and tv) Hungarian translated jokes. Problaby they used different jokes

 

[AJUMP23]

FF7 had some rough ones, but this is all your base are belong to us the thread.

 

[jufonuk]

All your base are belong to us.
Legendary.

 

[skit_data]

The original PS4 UI (like at launch, for just a couple of weeks) had
”Party” translated to
”Fest” which is more akin to like… having a specific celebration or like music based event.

Edit: Don’t know if it’s the worst but it was rather funny and we were always joking about it

 

[El Muerto]

The Yakuza games had some localization changes. The remasters were edited.
Kiryu's cigarette was shopped' out.

Hana and Akiyama's converstation in Yakuza 4

 

[darth.shrimp]

There are two localizations in Tales games that I'm 100% sure are wrong, but still used in the more recent games of the series:

• the spell "Grave". It's an earth-type magic that shoots stone spears from the ground at your target; easrth-type, so grave, right? Well given what the spell actually does I'm pretty sure it's supposed to be "glaive" instead. Remember, in Japanese, the "R" and "L" sounds are written the same.
• the accessory "Reverse Doll". It's an accessory that resurrects the holder once and is destroyed after, and looks like a voodoo doll. Probably supposed to be "Rebirth" Doll instead; same reason/mistake as the above but with "B" and "V" sounds.

Translators back then had barely any context to work with, and certainly didn't have time to play the game they were translating. I even remember a game were the same place was translated differently in different parts of the game, because members of the localization team wouldn't even communicate with each other...

 

[_Ex_]

 

[stranno]

The funniest I have seen in my life was the classic quote "su fiesta le espera en el piso 2" in Final Fantasy VII.

The English version says something like "your party awaits upstairs" and the Spanish translator used the celebration meaning instead of group.

 

[01011001]

Monkey Island's german translations are legendary,
so much so in fact that this was part of Thimbleweed Park's Kickstarter (3rd from the top)

 

[rogr rogr]

Bloodborne.

Only the americam version got it right naming that item "one third of umbilical cord", instead of just "third umbilical cord".

 

[01011001]

this one:

I was laughing my ass of as a kid when I played this.
sadly Nintendo removed all that stuff in the DX version

 

[Naked Lunch]

Worst: Working Designs anything.
God that company sucked.
Not only did they incorporate some dumbass nonsensical script changes - but they went in and altered the code to make the games more difficult for no reason. Beyond just higher enemy hp and such - in one game you lost overall mana points or something just to save the game.

Good thing in recent years modders have released "Un-Working Designs" hacks for many of their butchershop ports.

Best: Vagrant Story.
A damn fine English translation. Matsuno done justice.

 

[ZoukGalaxy]

Hi from Bimmy

Please stay calm and don't be jealous if your mom did not give a so sexy name.

 

[Davevil]

Suikoden II in italian : worst translation ever, konami managed to do worse than a normal google translate

 

[F31 Leopard]

Other M was bad localization. I would like a remaster on Switch in line with the Japanese version. I personally like Other M.

 

[DelireMan7]

I can't remember the name of the game but I've seen it in a video :

It was a strategy RPG I think. In Japan there was 2 difficulty mode "Normal and Hard".
Somehow for the western localization it was translated to "Easy and Normal". So Normal mode in the West was in reality Hard mode and apparently it was quite challenging at this difficulty.

EDIT : Found it ! It's Fire Emblem Radiant Dawn ! There are actually 3 modes in Japan : Normal / Hard / Maniac (to unlock) and it became Easy / Normal / Hard in English localization. But outside of the names between the 2 versions, difficulty stays the same...