In Final Fantasy III, which debuted in Japan in 1990, the player’s party must transform into frogs to advance the story:
Final Fantasy III (Famicom, 1990)
Final Fantasy III (Famicom, fan translation, approx. 1999)
This amusing, frog-themed gameplay mechanic was a highlight for Japanese fans of the series, enough for it to become a shared joke in manga and magazines.
Of particular note is this 4-panel manga by the famous manga artist Yoshida Sensha after Final Fantasy III’s release.
When the next Final Fantasy was released in 1991, it included a secret frog that quotes Yoshida Sensha’s comic:
Final Fantasy IV (Super Famicom, 1991)
Final Fantasy II (Super NES)
As we can see, this frog copies what the frogs said in Yoshida Sensha’s comic. It talks about how great it is being a frog – presumably in comparison to being an ordinary human.
When the fifth Final Fantasy game was released in 1992, it contained the same secret frog quote:
Final Fantasy V (Super Famicom, 1992)
Final Fantasy V (Playstation, 1999)
From all of this, we can see how this frog joke was a miniature running gag for some Final Fantasy fans back in the day. But because this was such an inside-joke in Japanese, how have these lines been translated into English over the years?
Final Fantasy IV (Super Famicom, J2e fan translation, approx. 2001)
Final Fantasy IV (Nintendo DS, 2008)
Final Fantasy V (Super Famicom, fan translation, 1998)
Final Fantasy V (Game Boy Advance, 2006)
From this and from my own experience, it appears that:
- The unofficial J2e fan translation changes the one secret talking frog into many secret talking frogs. The Japanese lines, even if they were just “(croak croak)” were replaced with American pop-culture references.
- The official Final Fantasy IV DS translation builds on the original Japanese line and maintains the original Japanese running joke, even if unintentionally.
- The unofficial Final Fantasy V RPGe fan translation follows the original Japanese line.
- The official PlayStation translation follow the original Japanese line.
- The official Final Fantasy V GBA translation does a Kermit the Frog reference of its own, similar to the Final Fantasy IV J2E fan translation.
I’m mostly surprised by the fact that the Final Fantasy V PlayStation translation wasn’t handled in a crazy, zany way.
Just as a fun side note, this frog comic and many more like it about Mario, Link, etc. came from this Yoshida Sensha compilation book:
I guess this has mostly just been a look at how locals’ inside-jokes in a video game can evolve over time, inside and outside the locale in question. Of course, it’s unlikely that this specific inside-joke was ever formally brought up or considered during translation into English.
Anyway, for now, I like this weird line enough that I hope to update this article from time to time with more screenshots from other translations.
![press start to translate [Final Fantasy IV]](https://legendsoflocalization.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/bbenma.png "press start to translate [Final Fantasy IV]")
Aaah, interesting that the line apparently has it’s origin in one of those four panel comics.
While I don’t know if there’s any basis for the Woolsey rumor, the English PSX script was being used in the canceled PC port, which predated it:
https://web.archive.org/web/20071101085752/http://www.warmech.net/special/ff5pcinterview/ff5pcinterview.html
What I’ve heard is that the English FFV translation is a rough translation Woolsey was contracted to do back when the game was new and intended for an English release, but the plug got pulled on the project before he had polished the translation properly. When the PSX release was done, they just used that old unpolished rough they had kept around since back then as is, with no further editing.
Not sure how much truth there is to it, but it’d certainly explain the general terribleness of that translation.
Frogs, frogs, frogs, what do they love them so much? Lizards are much cooler anyway. XD
*why
The PS1 translation of FF5 is pretty bad overall. For one thing many enemies have bizzare names (For example, Tonberry is translated as Dinglberry).
And Faris in PS1 version was given constant pirate speak, which wasn’t present in Japanese version. (As seen here: http://lparchive.org/Final-Fantasy-V-(by-Mega64)/Update%2002/ )
I always wondered about this!
Speaking of Final Fantasy 4, After Golbeza’s seige on Fabul in the SNES version, two of the monks say “T” No sentence, no nothing. So Mato, could you translate the original lin
http://static4.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20100807000239/finalfantasy/images/b/ba/Theguardswhosaytffiv.PNG
Drat, that’s the one character I forgot to talk to during my current playthrough π
It reminds me of the unused/blank lines that I recorded in this video too: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i-EPkWA66ag
ROMhacking.net recently made a hack of FF4 that uses your translation.
http://www.romhacking.net/hacks/1659/
Yeah, I saw that yesterday, although it seems strange to use my LoL stuff even though it’s not even half done π
I’ve been toying with the idea of making a patch of my own – actually, more like multiple patches meant to demonstrate different localization/translation styles. I’m pretty much working from scratch though, so it’s been kinda time-consuming and slow-going π
I noticed how some of the translations handle this line as the frog talking, and some handle it as an unnamed character saying it, but it couldn’t be the frog (unless the frog was using some dialect, which I doubt). Saying ο½γγγͺ or ο½γγγγͺ pretty much always means that you are referring to something that you would like to have/be. So if the frog said it, it would mean he wishes he was a frog, which wouldn’t make sense.
So it’s most likely an unnamed character/narrator saying it.
Neeeevermind!
I noticed in that 4koma that the woman’s referring to the little boy as ε η “sensei” (which you translated as “Sir”). I don’t know if this 4koma’s a stand-alone, or if it’s part of a series, but I’m going to guess that the little boy is actually a stand-in for the author’s avatar, with that woman being his assistant. Either that, or she’s a total noob at playing video games and is taking lessons from an young yet experienced gamer (as indicated by his interest in a frog-only challenge). Outside of those two scenarios, I can’t see any other reason why she’d be referring to the kid as such.
I remember wondering about that too – when I finally got the book and flipped through it it eventually made sense…but now I can’t remember why. It’s somewhere in the back of my black hole of a closet, so next time I find it I’ll take another look at it. I seem to vaguely recall it was meant to represent someone else in the industry, not the author like I was expecting.
Actually, Frog transformations were first seen in Final Fantasy II (the NES one).
I’d hate to see what became of that kid if he beat FF3 in Frog form. I couldn’t take grinding anymore to even finish the final dungeon playing it as intended.