What Does The “Killing Weenies” Line in The Last Blade 2 Say in Japanese?

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Dylan asked a question about a quote from The Last Blade 2, a cool fighting game I recall playing back in the day:

Hello! In the SNK fighting game ‘Last Blade 2’, there’s a character named Zantetsu who is very serious. He doesn’t yell out his attack names, unlike every other character, and in fact barely speaks at all – even his taunt is just him adjusting his hat.

Which makes this win quote of his very strange:

Gee golly what a weenie

’I can’t kill weenies.’

Wha-? The game’s feudal japan themed, so ‘weenies’ is a very odd word choice. Unfortunately I was unable to find video of the JP version, or a japanese rom, but if you can find an arcade runthrough of the JP version with Zantetsu, the line should appear at some point, since he only has a few win quotes.

Also: As a suggestion, SNK fighting games in general have had very strange translations all the way up to the present day. The win quotes border on near-nonsensical in places. A brief look at, say, the King of Fighters series would be very interesting!

This is a pretty simple request, so I tracked down the Japanese quote for comparison:

NOW THOSE ARE SOME FIGHTING WORDS!NOW THOSE ARE SOME FIGHTING WORDS!

In Japanese, he says something like, “I do not kill the weak.” or “I do not strike down the weak.” Just stuff along that line, basically. He actually speaks in an old, serious style usually used with samurais and ninjas and stuff in entertainment. It’s a bit hard to convey in English sometimes, but it’s usually doable without too much work.

Anyway, there are literally dozens upon dozens of possible translations, but the translators definitely made a weird choice by using the word “weenie” here, as that’s indeed the exact opposite of the type of speech style he uses.

Hopefully that helps answer the question a bit – I realize that SNK games are filled with these things, so who knows, maybe it was all intentional? It definitely gives the games a unique charm, at least!

If you liked this article and know any fellow The Last Blade fans, let them know about this article. People rarely seek out localization articles, so sharing really helps me a lot!
14 Comments
  1. “Weenie” actually seems to be a favorite among classic SNK translators. Ryo’s used the word twice in KoF ’01 and ’03, though nothing can match his “dweebenheimer” ’98 win quote.

    1. SNK is weird in Japan too. They had one shmup with a dolphin pilot (this was a standard modern-planes-over-urban-setting game, not Parodius or anything like that).

      1. Oh, Aero Fighters 2. Yeah, that was on the Neo-Geo, but it was made by a developer called Video System, not SNK.

  2. I’d love to see some of the Samurai Shodown original text properly translated. Stuff like “Because of his bloody life, it’s no accident that he was involved in the troubles” or “I awake from 100 years of sleep to kick some butt!”.

    1. Art of Fighting 2 had something of a gag translation where they gave the mostly serious dialogue from the Japanese version a more humorous touch. And the weird thing about it is that the Spanish localization actually has a more faithful script.

      I always thought some of the more awkward translation choices in SNK fighting games were the result of the dialogue being translated too literally. I’m sure Terry’s win quote in Fatal Fury 1 (“He was not much of a fighter despite his ugly face”) was obviously meant to be “he’s not as mean as he looks” or something along those lines.

      1. Off-hand, that sounds more like a “for someone who looks so thuggish, he was a pretty weak fighter” than a “he’s not as mean as he looks”. Maybe a “he’s not as tough as he looks” could work?

        Mind, this is a very quick, off-the-cuff interpretation, using nothing but what you wrote in that comment.

        1. “Mean” is a synonym for toughness too though. Having looked it up, Terry’s Japanese win quote goes like this:
          「顔の割には、大したことのない奴だったぜ!!」
          Literal translation: “Despite his face, he wasn’t much of a big deal.”

  3. I realize that SNK games are filled with these things, so who knows, maybe it was all intentional? It definitely gives the games a unique charm, at least!

    I remember reading this article on The Super Spy. That game had quite a few odd lines such as “ARE WE GOING TO BE DESTROYED AS IN THE LAST TERRORISM?”, “BRING IT WITH, WE COULD USE A NEW KNIFE.”, and “TERRORISTS CAME IN… AND… ME”

    1. That top paragraph was supposed to quote Clyde.

  4. Ever play Samurai Shodown II? The English script has a few little gems of poorly-translated English. Though actually, at least on the Wii Virtual Console version, the original Japanese text is an option too.

  5. SNK really, really, really seems to like the word weenie. KOF98 uses it a bunch too, as well as other entries in the series. You could write pages on SNK’s silly translation, although they aren’t usually as bad as many earlier Namco titles. Just silly.

  6. “Weenie” is basically SNK’s favourite insult from back in the day.

  7. What about Ryo saying dweebenheimer in KOF ’98? That one made me laugh!