Talking Final Fantasy XII's Localisation

In 2015 John Learned of USGamer did a fantastic interview of the translators and voice actors involved in localising Final Fantasy XII. It's great read, but more than that, it's a rare insight into the localisation process. This post collects four interesting points that I gleaned from the interviews, as well as some of my own personal comments.

Early Nintendo Localisation: The Origin Of Mario

A previous post discussed the arcade game Pac-Man, and how localisation defined the game and its titular character. However, the name of an even more prominent character traces back to the arcade scene of the early eighties, the beloved Italian plumber we know as Mario. The character first appeared as the user controlled avatar in Nintendo’s arcade hit Donkey Kong, but was known as Jumpman. Back in those days, gameplay was king and story mattered little, so it’s understandable why Nintendo gave him this utilitarian name to encapsulate his purpose. So what led to him ending up being called Mario?

The Localisation Of Pac-Man

The early eighties was when the videogame industry established itself in North America. This was thanks to the popularity of arcade machines. A Japanese company by the name of Namco was responsible for the most famous arcade game of this period, Pac-Man. Such was its fame that today, over thirty years later, people still know the name. However, what people likely do not know is that Pac-Man is one of the earliest examples of videogame localisation.

First, the name of the game itself. In Japan, the game was titled Pakkuman. This name was based on the Japanese onomatopoeic word pakupaku, which describes the noise a person makes when gobbling down food. This made sense given that the game is all about the titular character navigating a maze and eating pellets. For the game's foreign release, Namco transliterated the Japanese title. This resulted in the name, Puck-Man. So how did the game end up being titled as Pac-Man? The answer lies with Midway, the company who obtained the rights to manufacture the game in the United States. They were concerned by the potential for people to vandalise the machine by changing the 'P' into an 'F.' And so, Pac-Man was born! Following the North American release, Namco adopted Pac-Man as the official name for all future iterations of the game in Japan and abroad.

However, the game's title was not the only part of it touched by localisation. The nicknames of the above-pictured enemy ghosts that chase Pac-Man were also localised (as opposed to being directly translated). In the Japanese version of the game, the red, pink, cyan, and orange ghosts are called Akabei, Pinky, Aosuke, Guzuta. If translated literally, these names would read as Reddy, Pinky, Bluey, and Tardy (although note that the unifying nature of the 'y' sound is just my personal addition and is absent from the Japanese). When the game came to the West, these ghosts were introduced as Blinky, Pinky, Inky, and Clyde. Pinky and Inky can be seen as  transliterations of the colours (with the caveat of regarding Inky as a reference to blue ink). In contrast, Blinky and Cylde are entirely new creations. The choice of Blinky likely stemmed from a desire to match the ending 'y' sound of the other two ghosts. Plus, it links to how the bodies of the ghosts blink as the period when they are vulnerable to Pac-Man is running out. It is a perfectly good choice of name (certainly better than 'Reddy') but it does not compare to the master stroke of naming the fourth ghost Clyde. His Japanese nickname means 'tardy', and his AI programming matches this personality. All the other ghosts are programmed to complement each other by working as a team to track down Pac-Man. The red ghost gives direct chase, the pink ghost plots ambushes, and the blue ghost reacts to the red ghost's positioning to come at Pac-Man via an opposing route. However, Clyde's behavioural programming makes him appear to act on a whim, often not capitalising on prime chances to capture Pac-Man. In other words, his behaviour is completely detached from the combined work of the other ghosts. It was therefore wonderfully fitting to give him such a left-field name as Clyde that contrasts so sharply to the unified naming scheme of the other ghosts. Whoever thought up this name deserves a pat on the back!

The arcade machine era introduced videogames to the masses in North America, and the naming of Pac-Man and its ghosts represent some of the earliest examples of videogame localisation. Approximately five years later, Nintendo entered the North American home console market with the Nintendo Entertainment System, and with it brought about a slew of Japanese videogames that needed to be localised. Next time, I'll discuss the localisation challenges of this period, as well as the surprising story behind how and why a character originally known as Jumpman ended up with the name Mario.

Learning Japanese & Translation Skills With Anime

I'm a fluent Japanese speaker. I can handle novels and text-heavy videogames. When it comes to films or anime, I am just about able to enjoy them without subtitles (though having them there certainly makes things less mentally taxing). Regardless, it's a fact that the more you read and listen, the more your reading and listening skills improve. However, this week I have found myself back watching anime with English subtitles, back to a time when I could barely speak Japanese. But why?

Super Mario RPG - Localisation Review (2)

This is an entry in a series of posts looking at the localisation of the beginning segment of the game, Super Mario RPG. You can find the first post here. Thanks for reading!

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	Original Japanese	Game's Translation	Literal Translation	LocaliReview Translation
Bowser	フンギャ！	Fungah! Foiled again!	Fungya!	Fungah! Foiled again!

At first I was suspicious of the game's original translation because it replicates the sound Bowser makes in Japanese, albeit finessed from fungya to fungah to include the word gah, a common noise of dismay in English. Many Japanese noises, if exactly replicated, do not translate well. For example, the animal sound, gero gero. I doubt any native English speakers would imagine that this is the sound of a frog. This is because in English, we write the sound frogs make as ribbit ribbit. 

In this case, fungah has no meaning in English and is not a common term. However, to my surprise, I found that the same can be said about the term in Japanese! Googling the term revealed only a very sparse usage. In this way, I've come to appreciate the game's translation! I also like the addition of foiled again. I initially thought this might have been added because the translator was concerned about whether the meaning of fungah would carry across in English. However, upon reviewing the game footage, Bowser utters this line right after Mario stomps on his head and is sent plummeting to his doom. A single fungah would seem rather lacking, so I think adding foiled again is a much more natural way for Bowser to bow out.

Final Fantasy XIV - Midgardsomr's Dragon Speak

This blog is home to my thoughts on game localisation. I sometimes write thought pieces, but most of my posts involve comparing the script of a Japanese game with its localised English. I dig down into the minutia of the text to reveal some nuggets of information that were lost in translation, or just highlight some particularly impressive translations. The internet is a big place, especially in this age of user-generated content, yet analysis or discussions about the localisation of games is notably sparse. This is one of the reasons why I decided to make this blog! However (as this blog never gets any comments) it occasionally feels like I am alone in having this interest.

I was therefore overjoyed when my friend linked me to a message board discussion about Final Fantasy XIV's localisation. Though it concerned just a tiny aspect of the game's localisation, it was debated with deep care and consideration! 'There are other people in the world like me,' I thought. I found it incredibly enjoyable to read through the nine pages of discussion about this one localisation aspect. That's why, for this post, I want to share with you some of the highlights of this heated discussion.

Super Mario RPG - Localisation Review (1)

This is an entry in a series of posts looking at the localisation of the beginning segment of the game, Super Mario RPG. Thanks for reading!

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	Original Japanese	Game's Translation	Literal Translation	LocaliReview Translation
Peach	クッパにきをつけてマリオ！！	Don't let Bowser bruise you, Mario!	Pay attention to Bowser, Mario!	Be careful, Mario!

The phrase Peach uses, ki wo tsukeru, is a common everyday Japanese expression. The JMDict definitions of, "to be careful; to pay attention; to take care," perfectly summarise its usage. It's a simple sentence to translate, yet the game's translation is fairly quirky. The Japanese is closer to specific advice than the official English translation, but both comments have the same function; Peach is warning Mario so that he will be less likely to be hurt by Bowser. There's no denying that the word bruise can function as a verb, but I don't think this usage is particularly widespread. It's hard to imagine a fight occurring and either participants or bystanders using the word bruise as a verb. Given that this is a Mario game, set in the fantasy world of the Mushroom Kingdom, it will always be possible to argue that quirky sounding dialogue is always passable. While I acknowledge this point, there is no such quirkiness in the Japanese. Unless the translator was given the directive to make the dialogue more quirky, I don't think it was necessary here to deviate from a more straight forward translation. In this case, the difference isn't particularly pronounced, but it is a matter that become more noticeable further down the line. (Just look at the next paragraph I discuss).

As an aside, it's worth noting that in Japanese, the villain Western players know as Bowser is called kuppa (Koopa). According to MarioWiki, "Bowser was created by Shigeru Miyamoto as the villain of Super Mario Bros. Miyamoto stated that they considered naming him either Kuppa (국밥), Yukke (육회), or Bibinba (비빔밥), which are all Korean dishes as they are known in Japanese. In the end, 'Kuppa' was chosen. For the later North American release of the game, which also introduced the anglicized spelling Koopa, the character was named 'Bowser.'" As for how this translation came about, an article on 11points,com states, 'During the import process, there was a concern that the American crowd wouldn't understand how the little turtles and big bad guy could both be called Koopa. So a marketing team put together dozens of choices for a name, they liked Bowser the best, and slapped it on him.' I'd be surprised it really was a marketing team that had the final say over this decision, but I couldn't find any other sources related to this matter.

The Count Of Monte Cristo's Retranslation - Locali Thoughts

While the field of videogame translation can be said to still be in its relative infancy, literature translation dates back aeons. Translating videogames has its own unique qualities (such as the added consideration that must be paid to the animation on screen), yet at its core it is still based around the task of expressing the sense of a set text in another language. The majority of this blog's posts involve shining a spotlight on the English translations of Japanese videogames, pointing out moments of superb translation or when it diverges from the source text. The translation of some videogames (in particular, JRPGs from the nineties) have long been a target of criticism, and have even seen retranslations. Indeed, translator Tom Slattery did this for the rerelease of a number of Square Enix games (such as Final Fantasy VI), and once commented that his job was, "translating games that have been translated already." Some games have also even have fanmade retranslations; see Final Fantasy VII or Chrono Trigger. One day I intend to devote some time to analysing the necessity of these retranslations, but for this post I mention them as way to highlight how some classic videogames have translations that have caused tongues to wag and new translations to be produced. The same is true of classic literature!

One of the most common pieces of advice for aspiring translators is to read as much as possible. On the forums of Gengo (a freelance translation company), Mohamed Yehia, an English to Arabic translator offers the following advice...

Super Mario RPG - Peach's XXX (UPDATED)

The screenshot from Super Mario RPG tells the whole story here! If you check the right corner of the fireplace in the room of Princess Peach (who at the time was still known as Princess Toadstool) you will find an item. In the Japanese version of the game it is called "XXX" but in the translated English copy it is termed "???" The MarioWiki has more details on this scene:

Toadstool's ??? is in between a blue chair and the fireplace in the back of Toadstool's room in the Mushroom Castle. If Mario finds it at the beginning of the game, Grandma rushes over to Mario and offers him a Mushroom if he'll mind his own business; however, this can only occur once, and before Toadstool joins the party. If they look at it after returning Toadstool to the kingdom, either Toadstool or Grandma (it is unspecified) tells Mario to return it. If Mario looks at the object after Toadstool joins Mario's party, the princess will scold the plumber, saying that he does not respect her personal, private belongings. Players cannot see the object on either occasion as Mario faces away from the player rather than towards them when he finds it.

From a localization standpoint, this scene caught my attention because linguistically-speaking XXX is valid English. However, I wondered if this XXX was an example of waseieigo, a word that has English origins but differs in meaning when used in Japanese. As I am sure many people are aware, in English, XXX is typically used to refer to pornographic or explicit material. For example, the domain .xxx is used as a marker for pornographic Internet sites. But does the word hold the same meaning in Japanese? I scoured the Japanese internet for answers.