Political References in Video Game Translations

This is Part 2 of my “Political References in Video Game Translations” series. See Part 1 for more details. Also, for reference, I posted Part 1 in 2018 and Part 2 in 2025.

Lunar: Eternal Blue (Sega CD / Mega-CD)

Japanese version	English version

This classic Japanese role-playing game was officially published in English by Working Designs in 1995. Working Designs was infamous for inserting unwarranted American pop culture jokes into Japanese games, and Lunar: Eternal Blue offers many examples.

One scene in particular references Bill Clinton, who was the president of the United States at the time:

As we can see, the original Japanese scene has no equivalent political humor – it’s just a simple “money growing on trees” joke. In contrast, the English joke is potentially a reference to Bill Clinton’s attempts to combat homelessness in the 1990s.

The King of Fighters XI (Arcade / PlayStation 2)

Japanese version	English version

After a victory, this fighter sometimes says in English:

You are one snoozefest of an opponent. Winning on defense alone? You’re a Democrat?

Again, it’s surprising to see a Japanese video game referencing the United States’ Democratic Party. In the Japanese version of the game, however, this fighter actually says something like:

You’re boring. Did you honestly think you could win by staying on defense?

The official English translation appears to be pretty close to the original – except that there was no political party joke in the original Japanese script. It seems someone added the political reference to the English script at some point for some reason.

Yo-Kai Watch 3 (3DS)

Japanese version	English version

In English, this character says:

You can’t bring pets in! This is why they should build a wall to keep your kind out!

This translated line appears to reference the political controversy regarding building a border wall between the United States and Mexico.

In Japanese, this same person says:

Pets aren’t allowed! Honestly, this is why I can’t stand commoners!

It appears that the English script follows the spirit of the original Japanese script, while quietly inserting political commentary from the era. This editing “style” closely parallels the government bailout joke that was added to Yo-Kai Watch 1’s English script a few years earlier.

Dragon Quest VIII (Multi-Platform)

Japanese version	English version

Very late into Dragon Quest VIII, inside a post-game bonus dungeon, players can encounter a strange group of four monsters.

Eventually, the four monsters introduce themselves:

At first glance, these monsters’ Japanese names don’t seem to hold any particular significance by themselves. In contrast, the English names are all clearly named after political terminology.

However, some Japanese fans theorize that there are multiple Japanese pop culture references at work in this entire scene, with topics including Japanese professional wrestling and classic giant robot anime.

Meanwhile, following its political theme, the English dialogue has the “Left wing” monster comically shout “I’m the other right wing”:

Japanese version	English version

Is this new English line a simple “subverting expectations” joke, or is it political commentary? Whatever this line is, it has clearly changed in an extra way in English.

After introducing themselves, the four monsters now combine into one, larger enemy:

Japanese version	English version

In Japanese, this new monster is named the “Great Zinger”. This is likely a reference to the Great Mazinger giant robot series.

In English, the new monster is named the “democrobot”. Given this lowercase “d” in the name – along with the English names of each individual monster – my guess is that “democrobot” was intended to be short for “democracy robot” rather than “Democrat (the U.S. political party) robot”.

Atelier Iris 2: The Azoth of Destiny (PlayStation 2)

Japanese version	English version

A merchant named Yach is a reoccurring merchant character in the Atelier Iris series. Yach loves money, so he’ll sell anything he can find, as this scene demonstrates:

As we can see, the comedic core of this English scene is a silly joke about running for Congress. In contrast, the original Japanese comedic core is simply a silly metaphor that goes out of control.

Fire Emblem Awakening (3DS)

English version

In this optional scene, a merchant character named Anna tries to profit off of a Dragon Priestess known as Tiki. Naturally, Tiki is unhappy:

In the original Japanese script, Anna simply moans out of frustration that she has to give up all of her money.

In contrast, the English script replaces this moaning with Western-style “word bickering” centered on the word “understand”, followed by a political joke intended as a bitter insult.

If you’re interested, I’ve included a full scene comparison for reference:

View full scene text comparison

Xak III: The Eternal Recurrence (PC Engine CD)

Japanese version	English version

The very first villager NPC in this game says in English:

Yesterday’s storm was awful!

Oh btw, if you enjoy this game, don’t forget to check out RIGG for more PCE fun & US translations at: http://rigg.servegame.com/mb

Of course, you didn’t hear that from me… I’m just a simple man walking around in a RPG game… :-)

…What’s that you say…? You’re a republican!? Well, that’s good to hear my boy. Screw those commie-pinko democrats, I say!!!

In Japanese, the character simply says:

Yesterday’s storm sure was intense!

As we can see, the English script adds a lot to this basic Japanese line, including a strong political statement. This change can also be seen in the fan translation’s documentation:

Incidentally, I would classify this type of script addition as a “fan translation autograph”: a short personal introduction with a short personal message.

Autographs are a very common sight in the unofficial translation world – it’s a lot like signing a school yearbook after a long school year or carving your initials into something to let others know you were there. Autographs can also serve as a way to claim responsibility for your work when it’s not feasible to add a brand-new “unofficial fan translation intro screen” to a game. In this particular case, someone on the fan translation team chose to make their autograph hyper-political in nature.

Anyway, because this does appear to be a simple autograph, I haven’t bothered to look too deep into the rest of the game’s translation yet. But if you’re interested, the fan translation project’s website includes a full Japanese-versus-English comparison document for players to look through.

FEDA: The Emblem of Justice (Super Famicom)

FEDA’s story is a familiar one: a high-ranking imperial soldier is disgusted after his squad slaughters a peaceful village of innocent people. The soldier rebels, and becomes a wanted fugitive who must stay on the run. Fortunately, he befriends many other battle-hardened warriors on his journey to take down the evil empire.

Although FEDA was never officially released in English, there have been multiple fan translation attempts over the years. The most complete fan translation of the game debuted in 2009, and it inserts brand-new text not found in the original Japanese script, including:

• Impotence and fart jokes
• Sex jokes
• Domestic abuse jokes
• More sex jokes
• Hate
• Brand-new character dialogue
• Meta references that break the fourth wall
• Godzilla
• King Kong
• Girl Scout cookie jokes
• Shirley Temple
• Sexual assaults
• and hundreds of screenshots of other additions

In addition to the above, this fan translation of FEDA also appears to add political references and statements. Many of these out-of-nowhere references are from the mid-2000s and relate to events surrounding the Iraq War / Second Gulf War. Some examples include:

"Dammit, I guess so...! This guy has more hideouts than Sadaam-freaking-Hussein!!"

(all-new dialogue added in fan translation, full scene comparison)

"Lousy parasites... living the good life, while lining their pockets with shells from both sides!"

(all-new dialogue about neutrality being bad added in fan translation, full scene comparison)

"...and get blown to hell and gone by 'friendly fire'...!?"

(all-new conversation added in fan translation)

Other out-of-nowhere political commentary has been added to the script as well:

"Common people are too stupid in affairs of governance to be granted self-determination!"

(all-new dialogue added in fan translation)

"You secular people are always up to no good, aren't you...? Can't you stand peace and prosperity!?"

(all-new dialogue added in fan translation)

"You aetheist [sic] swine aren't fit to breathe the same air as our beloved Pope...!!"

(all-new dialogue added in fan translation)

There are actually so many issues in this fan translation that I’m considering comparing it in detail someday, similar to the comparisons I’ve done here.

Thoughts So Far

By this point, we’ve seen how unwarranted political references can appear in fan translations and official translations alike. In other words, it doesn’t seem to matter whether you’re a random fan group on the Internet or a giant, billion-dollar corporation – it can happen regardless. It’s strange.

One thing I have noticed is that in general, it seems that if a scene involves a character being greedy, judgmental, sarcastic, or mean, there’s some sort of deep-down instinct that says “ooh! let’s add politics!” that translation script editors have. Why is this the case, though? Is it human nature somehow? Is it regional or cultural in some way? Is it a personality thing? I still don’t know.

Whatever this phenomenon is, it’s intriguing to see in action, so I hope to study it more.

Other Game Examples

If you know of any other examples of translations that had political stuff added in, let me know and I’ll add them to this article. Similarly, if you know of any translations that might have political silliness when taken out of context, let me know too.

I’ll try to update this article from time to time with new things as I find them, so check back once in a while!

If you liked this article, you'll probably like this one about viral mistranslations and video game news announcements too!