Alec sent in a request a while back about some Japanese text in Super Smash Bros. Wii U:
In Super Smash Bros. for Wii U, Punch-Out!!’s stage is the WVBA Boxing Ring. In the stage’s background sits a large monitor that displays the action. Periodically, the screen switches to a “Tale of the Tape” looking display with stats of two of the fighter’s currently duking it out. Their picture is accompanied by a title, usually comedic in nature or referencing an aspect of themselves of their games. I have here a video of the Japanese titles. If you could translate them, that would be most appreciated.
For comparison, here is a video of the English titles.
As well as a video of the European localization titles.
Thanks for your time.
I haven’t played the Wii U Super Smash Bros. at all, so until now I’ve never seen any of these descriptions in any language or region. Here’s a video I quickly put together that shows off the Japanese names, translated into English:
And here’s a quick look at all the different names in different regions:
| Character | Japanese Alias (basic translation) | North American Alias | European Alias |
| Mario | Mr. Video Game | Mr. Video Game Himself | Smashes Bricks With His Fists |
| Luigi | The Green Favorite | The Eternal Understudy | Lean, Green Fighting Machine |
| Princess Peach | Mushroom Kingdom Princess | Princess of Toadstools | Princess of the Mushroom Kingdom |
| Bowser | Great Demon King of the Turtle Tribe | King of the Koopas | King of the Koopas |
| Yoshi | Glutton of Yo’ster Isle | Omnivore of the Year | He’s Not Yolking Around |
| Rosalina & Luma | Travelers of the Stars | The Cosmic Travelers | Cosmic Travellers |
| Bowser Jr. | The Versatile Chariot | Prince of the Koopas | Like Father, Like Son |
| Wario | The Rough Ruffian | Scoundrel with a Fart of Gold | Scoundrel with a Fart of Gold |
| Donkey Kong | King of the Jungle | King of the Jungle | King of the Jungle |
| Diddy Kong | Tropical Acrobat | The Acrobat | Trigger Happy with His Peanut Popgun |
| Mr. Game & Watch | Flat World Denizen | Master of Two Dimensions | Master of Two Dimensions |
| Little Mac | Tenacious Fighting Spirit | Bruiser from the Bronx | The Only Numbers He Knows Are “One-Two” |
| Link | The Triforce of Courage | Hero of Hyrule | Hero of Hyrule |
| Zelda | The Princess of Hyrule | Hyrule’s Wise Princess | Hyrule’s Wise Princess |
| Sheik | Whirlwind that Dances in the Darkness | The Illusive Sheikah | A Sheikah Shrounded in Mystery |
| Ganondorf | The Reviving Demon King | The King of Darkness | The King of Evil |
| Toon Link | Seafaring Warrior | Wind-Waking Warrior | Wave-Riding, Wind-Waking Warrior |
| Samus | Masterful Bounty Hunter | Bounty Hunter Extraordinaire | Bounty Hunter Extraordinaire |
| Zero Suit Samus | Beautiful Galactic Warrior | The Warrior Within | Low Armour, High Agility |
| Pit | Palutena Army Royal Bodyguard Captain | Captain of Lady Palutena’s Guard | Lady Palutena’s Captain of the Guard |
| Palutena | Goddess of Light | Goddess of Light | Goddess of Light |
| Marth | Emblem Prince | The Hero-King | The Legendary Hero-King |
| Ike | Blue Flame Warrior | The Radiant Hero of Legend | The Radiant Hero |
| Robin | Brilliant Vigilante Tactician | The Tactician Magician | Tome-Toting Strategist |
| Duck Hunt | Unique Partners | Bark, Quack, Boom! | The Most Unlikely of Partnerships |
| Kirby | Pink Demon | The Pink Puffball | Gritty in Pink |
| King Dedede | Self-Proclaimed Great King | The King of Dream Land | Say’s He’s King and That’s That |
| Meta Knight | Masked Swordsman | The Masked Swordsman | The Masked Swordsman |
| Fox | Hired Flying Squadron Captain | Leader of Star Fox | Never Gives Up! Trusts His Instincts |
| Falco | Ace Space Pilot | Proud Space Ace | Proud Space Ace |
| Pikachu | Lightning Mouse Pokemon | Pika Pika! | The Electric Mouse Pokemon |
| Charizard | New Evolution | Blazing Fury | Blazing Fury |
| Lucario | Wave-Guiding Warrior | Master of Aura | Exudes Power |
| Jigglypuff | Mesmerising Balloon Pokemon | The Sleepy Singer | The Delightful Balloon Pokemon |
| Greninja | Fleet-Footed Shinobi Pokemon | Master of Stealth | The Unpredictable Ninja Pokemon |
| ROB | Scorching-Hot Robo Beam | The Last of His Kind | Robotic Obliterating Buddy |
| Ness | PSI-Wielding Boy | The PSI Powerhouse | The PSI Powerhouse |
| Captain Falcon | Sound-Speed F-Zero Pilot | The Supersonic Slugger | Supersonic F-Zero Pilot |
| Villager | Preacher of the Slow Life | Mayor of Smashville | Mayor of Smashville |
| Olimar | Veteran Astronaut | Veteran Astronaut | Veteran Astronaut |
| Alph | Young Space Mechanic | Astronaut in Training | Novice Explorer, Engineering Pro |
| Wii Fit Trainer F | Let’s Work Out More Today | Yoga Warrior | She’ll Make You Feel the Burn! |
| Wii Fit Trainer M | Let’s Tone Our Muscles Today | The BMI Bandit | He’ll Blast Your Core! |
| Shulk | Power Hidden Within Gentleness | The Visionary | Has Visions of Victory |
| Dr. Mario | Capsule Barrage | The Prescriber | Fists Full of Medicine |
| Dark Pit | Black Wings | Dark-Winged Doppleganger | Dark-Winged Doppleganger |
| Lucina | Princess Who Knows the Future | Warrior from a Doomed Future | Defiant of Destiny |
| Pac-Man | Yellow Legend | The Yellow Bane of Ghosts | Ghost Gobbler |
| Mega Man | Blue Metal Hero | Blue Metal Hero | The Blue Bomber |
| Sonic | World’s Fastest Hedgehog | The Blue Blur | Speed is His Game |
| Mii Brawler | Hand-to-hand Fighter with 1000 Faces | The Brawler of Many Faces | The Brawler of Many Faces |
| Mi Swordfighter | Sword Fighter with 1000 Faces | The Swordfighter of Many Faces | The Sword Fighter of Many Faces |
| Mii Gunner | Marksman with 1000 Faces | The Gunner of Many Faces | The Gunner of Many Faces |
| Larry | The Versatile Chariot | The Youngest | Leader of the Seven Minions |
| Roy | The Versatile Chariot | The Cool One | Fear the Shades |
| Wendy | The Versatile Chariot | The Bold Beauty | Bold, Bossy and Big-Headed |
| Iggy | The Versatile Chariot | The Laughing Prankster | The Laughing Prankster |
| Morton | The Versatile Chariot | The Enforcer | He’ll Make You See Stars |
| Lemmy | The Versatile Chariot | Wacky War Machine | Let’s Get Wacky |
| Ludwig | The Versatile Chariot | Pompous Prodigy | Pompous Prodigy |
Wow, so many neat little differences in there. I’m sad that “Blue Bomber” didn’t get used in the North American version. I wonder why that was.
You might notice that the Koopalings’ Japanese aliases are all the same – and the same as Bowser Jr.’s. There are a number of reasons for this, which you can see in the comments of this post. Here’s a screenshot from the Japanese version for reference, courtesy of Kasuga. Thanks, Kasuga!
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Anyway, hopefully this helps answer the question and creates many new ones for us all!
Whew, what an exhausting list!
Europe has some weirdest ones, and also some of the funniest ones.
Surprisingly, the most helpful site in getting the Japanese Boxing Ring titles for the Koopalings was the English Wiki!
Although sadly, it suggests that the Koopalings all share Bowser Jr’s title, which is a real shame when the other versions avoid that!
Also, nothing is better than Scoundrel with a Fart of Gold.
Of course, them all sharing the same title might be wrong, but given all the Japanese sites offered no help, I’m just gonna assume it’s right until proven wrong.
Of note
Blue Flame Warrior/Radiant Hero (of Legend) and Emblem Prince/(Legendary) Hero-King are both titles from their source games and the changes are simply localization consistency.
Pikachu and Jigglypuff’s titles in JP/EU are their Pokedex classification.
Luigi is called the “Eternal Understudy” way back in the original Super Smash Bros and his Melee trophy description
Did the EU version get an entirely different translation, or was it just for these titles?
It’s standard for EU localizations to be handled entirely separately from NA translations.
On a similar note, does anyone know why the North American and European localizations had different sets of trophy descriptions? It seems pointless, since most of them are very similar to each other.
It’s fairly standard for Nintendo. Following the debacle with Mario Party 8 (it was initially released with the US translation, then was quickly recalled due to it using the word ‘spastic’ which is a reasonably offensive slur in the UK), NoE’s policy has been to give all their games a local English translation in order to read better to European tastes. How much effort they put in varies considerably, mind you; it’ll usually use the American translation as a base and tweak spellings, word choices, etc., though occasionally you get one that is entirely different. There’s also they odd one where they put in no effort at all; Animal Crossing: New Leaf is very clearly an American translation with the only obvious change being that they’ve reformatted the dates. This incidentally was the reason Scribblenauts Unlimited was delayed for the better part of a year in Europe; Nintendo was handling the publishing, but the localised version they were supplied still used American English for the English version.
There were also a few games before hand that got a similarly localised English script, though these were always games that had a lot of translation required for FIGS languages, so I suppose they felt if they were delaying them anyway, they might as well give the English script a once over. In the case of things like Smash Bros and Fire Emblem, they seem to work concurrently though.
Interesting, was not aware of the reasoning behind some of the localization differences.
One of the differences that stood out to me comes from the trophy description for Mr. Sandman from Punch-Out. The American release states that his name originates “from a children’s tale about a mythical character who brought sleep to people.” The European description is a bit more specific, and says “His ring name comes from a German folk tale about a fairy who makes people fall asleep.” Previously, I was unaware that the sandman originates from Germanic folklore, which is a pretty cool bit of trivia.
I’m still pretty mad about how the European version basically lied and said that Lip’s Stick came from Tetris Attack. Really shows you how little Nintendo cares about Panel de Pon anymore.
It was probably an oversight.
interesting! i had noticed an uptick in noe-specific english localisations recently, though i didn’t know it started with mario party 8. certainly, many eu ds games i played from after 2008 didn’t even fix color into colour etc, i had thought the change was more like the last 5ish years, not almost 10!
In this particular instance, I assume that both countries got the same preliminary translation, then did their own thing from there. That’s why there are a lot of strange oddities like “Duck Hunt” being called “Duck Hunt Duo” in Europe.
As for the trophy descriptions, they probably just decided it was easier to rewrite them in every region rather than try to sort out what was canon in which regions. (like the how past games have still had games that were only released in Europe and Japan listed as “Japan Only” on the European trophy descriptions)
The name of “Duck Hunt Duo” actually creates a plot hole as it’s implied in their moves (and outright stated in both the American version and the European version of Palutena’s Guidance towards them) that the hunter from the game fights alongside them, thus technically making them a trio.
Too bad calling them “Duck Hunt” in English is so awkward :\
“Gritty in Pink”
“Says He’s King and That’s That”
lolol
I find it amusing that on box art, Kirby is made frowny and angry in America, but is called the Pink Puffball here in Smash, while it’s in Japan that he’s called the Pink Demon.
The Japanese name is a reference to his description in Kirby Super Star’s Arena.
https://sourcegaming.wordpress.com/2015/01/22/smash-translation-europe-vs-america-round-1/
I kinda wish they had kept the reference and used “The Pink Terror” from Kirby Super Star Ultra. 🙁
Wow, a new update! Glad to see your still at it, Mato.
Anyway, i gotta admit that i never even noticed these things in the background while playing. That said, a lot of them were really funny. I do gotta agree with your disappointment on US not using Blue Bomber, though.
They could have gone with “Acrobat of the Jungle” for Diddy.
I love some of the puns in the EU version. “Gritty in Pink.” Teehee!
Smash Bros. has always been full of awesome little details, and this is one of the awesomeest. As soon as I discovered this feature on this stage, I immediately went through it with every single character to see what they all were! 😛
A lot of times with these type of things there’s one version that’s clearly the best but that’s really not the case here. And I can’t believe that the Japanese version referenced Super Mario RPG in Yoshi’s description. Why’d they remove that from the other versions? 🙁
I guess it is because of copyright issues.
How is that supposed to make sense? Why would “copyright issues” affect only one regional release of a game?
He must think that romantification is owned by Square Enix.
Actually, Yo’ster Isle (or, more accurately, “Yoster Island”) is the Japanese name of Yoshi’s Island (the island where the Yoshis live, not the game).
The fact that Super Mario RPG has the place called “Yo’ster Isle” is actually a mistranslation on the game’s translator’s part.
It’s not a Super Mario RPG reference. “Yoshi’s Island” in Super Mario World was indeed called “Yoster Island” in Japan. Whomever localized Super Mario RPG apparently didn’t catch this. Then again, Mario RPG is loaded with really weird localization inconsistencies (ex: Cheep-Cheeps are called “Goby”!).
Huh, I didn’t know that. I know that SMRPG did deviate from the regular Mario translations a lot, but I didn’t realize that that was another instance of it though. It’s Woolsy though and it’s the last game that he worked on for Squaresoft (I’m pretty sure)so I can’t complain too much about a poor translation. ; )
The translation isn’t “poor” scriptwise, but it’s very clear from it that Woolsey had absolutely zero familiarity with Japanese Mario terminology, which is why almost everything that’s not original to the game wasn’t recognized as something that already HAD an English name that should’ve been used. The only exceptions are super common stuff like “Goomba”
The game could really benefit from a brushed-up rerelease that corrects all the terminology issues.
What’s infuriating is that Nintendo does indeed alter text in their their VC releases, just simply for addressing copyright issues:
* Startropics : Tetromino > Puzzle
* Secret of Mana (German): Lindenstraße (stupid soap opera reference by incompetent SNES-era translation) > Fußball/Football (just as stupid replacement)
* Super Mario RPG: bugger > something else more acceptable in the UK (though they did restore the button colors from the JP version, I’ll give them that)
* Mother 2 (JP version only): toilet fly is no longer a toilet fly
“Yo’ster Isle” was a direct transliteration of the Japanese name for Yoshi’s Island, 「ヨスター島」. The Japanese name is the same in both Super Mario World: Super Mario Bros. 4 and Super Mario RPG. It is meant as a reference to Easter Island, so including an apostrophe may not have been the best choice.
Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars had a few cases where the Japanese name was directly transliterated instead of substituted with the official English name. For example, the name “Hangin’ Shy” is dummied out in the code, and we instead got “Chandeli-Ho” for the Shy Guys holding up the chandelier in the back room of Bowser’s Keep. Even characters that are of an established species got this treatment, like Hinopio (perhaps “Helioad” would have worked? “Helios” + “Toad”).
There was no Super Mario RPG reference in the Japanese version of Super Smash Bros. for Wii U.
I was ninja’d!
Only a little… one might say you were mini-ninja’d.
The Koopalings were all named by someone at NOA and allegedly never actually had Japanese names to begin with, so the JP names are the same as the English ones. For reference, all the names were based on celebrities and musicians of the day:
Iggy Koopa = Iggy Pop
Larry Koopa = Larry Mullen Jr. of U2
Lemmy Koopa = Lemmy Kilmister of Motorhead
Ludwig von Koopa = Ludwig von Beethoven
Morton Koopa Jr. = talkshow host Morton Downey Jr.
Roy Koopa = Roy Orbison
Wendy O. Koopa = Wendy O. Williams of Plasmatics
IIRC, they’re rarely referred as “(name} Koopa” in Japan and they’re no longer introduced as his children, just “minions” or something.
They’ve also normalised the names a little: they usually drop the “Jr.” from Morton’s name and the “O.” from Wendy’s name, for obvious reasons.
I’ve seen the Japanese Mario 3 manual. They don’t have names in it. The names NoA created would later be used in Japan starting with Super Mario World. This wouldn’t be the first time this happened, as Mario’s own name was coined by NoA!
I’m not sure if I know those obvious reasons.
It doesn’t make sense for Morton to have “Jr.” in his name if his father is named Bowser. The only reason it was in his name to begin with was to reference his namesake.
And Wendy O.?
I wonder how the Japanese fandom reacted to the names being ported over. Did anyone draw any Jojo comparisons with Araki’s infamous Western music obsession?
Hello, Mato. I’m a Japanese Wii U user and a big fan of your gameblog.
I checked now seven Koopalings’ Japanese aliases with my Japanese Super Smash Bros. for Wii U. Speaking from conclusion, their aliases are all the same as Bowser Jr’s one, “万能のチャリオット”!
You can see the screenshot on my Miiverse page.
https://miiverse.nintendo.net/posts/AYIHAAAEAAAFVHwgBXQeUA
Wow, thank you! I’ve updated the page with the new info and screenshot 😀
Does anyone else find it odd that the European version’s suggesting that Larry’s the leader of the Koopalings? Discounting Koopa Jr./Bowser Jr. himself, I always figured Ludwig to be the leader. Aside from the fact that he’s frequently implied to be the eldest amongst them, he’s also the last one to be fought in most of the games that they appear in (though granted, Larry did take on such a role himself in a few titles, like Super Mario World).
On a similar note, info on the Koopalings still seems pretty vague at this point, doesn’t it? I guess that can be attributed to the fact that they never even made a 3D appearance all the way until the latter part of the Wii’s lifespan. I know they have some hints to their personalities via this game’s trophy descriptions and whatever methods they use to fight in the New Super Mario games, but honestly, I’d say that the non-canon DiC cartoons were the most fleshed out they’d ever been (and with that said, I’m still trying to adjust to the fact that Iggy now has green hair, firmly establishing that he is NOT Lemmy’s twin).
Odd. I’m pretty sure I posted my comment at the bottom of the page, so why is it appearing as a reply to Kasuga?
Thanks for taking my request. I’m glad you took the time and effort to translate these!
I hope this article made it worthwhile. I also have a few requests for articles that Mato hadn’t fulfilled yet. For example, a cutscene in the japanese dub of Jak 2 that takes place in Mar’s Tomb actually uses the letters from the in-game alphabet in the subtitles and that particular article would also be a great place to discuss about other games thst might do the same. Note that there were no furigana involved in the Jak 2 example at all which also meant that the players apparently were expected to decipher it on their own. Well when playing without audio at any rate…
The funny thing is Blue Metal Hero is likely referencing Rockman 8’s subtitle: Metal Heroes. Weird considering we called him Blue Bomber all these years and then just went with the literal Japanese for it. Europe gets points for sticking to localized tradition.
I actually really like “Blue Metal Hero” in the NA version. There’s something adorably badly translated about it, especially in the context of an otherwise very well-localized game. I like to imagine the localizers looked at “Blue Metal Hero,” then chuckled and went “yeah, basically.”
Of course, it strays from the other subtitles which really show the localizers did their homework, but I quite like it in isolation.
Interesting! But wait, what’s the deal with 万能のチャリオット? What does that mean? I see Mato translated it as “the versatile chariot,” but is that a reference to something?
In all likelihood, “Chariot” is probably referencing the Clown Car they all use (Lemmy’s NoA description is a bit odd, calling him a “War Machine”, so my guess is that it was actually a translation leftover before they decided to localize all of them individually).
Side note: Personally, Mega Man should’ve been “Super Fighting Robot”, considering he’s the only third-party character who can change his base color. =p
Sonic started to being able to do so as of these games.
And before he did so, Snake from Brawl was able to TECHNICALLY change color (represented by his different camouflage suites).
Sonic’s still always a shade of blue, though, so it makes sense (probably Sega/Namco mandates regarding their character representation).
Sonic: Lost World has a red sonic and a green sonic racing in levels within the game’s VS multiplayer levels.
Granted, they’re implied to be the same Sonic bots as the ones that starred in Sonic Colors’ Game Land (due to them having robot-like antennas), but they’re still alternate color Sonics.
On a related note, said Sonic bots actually come in four favors: Red, Green, Pink or Black
I wouldn’t agree on Super Fighting Robot, because that would be referencing the not-so-well-received Mega Man cartoon. Really, the only reason people want to use that term is because an announcer shouted it out during the Invitational.
If anyone’s insterested, I translated everything from the French aliases! However, as the list is quite long, I’m not sure if I’m allowed to post it here as a comment… (I’m not fluent in English so there might be some mistakes).
I’d love to see those. Maybe post them on a blog?
There!
http://pastebin.com/60bMvY4x
If anything is unclear, feel free to ask and I’ll try to explain it better!
(I hope pastebin links are fine)
Thanks! Pretty good translations (I mean, your translation from French to English).
But: Oh. My. God. Sheik’s description. That is such an awful pun. Surely that one was approved very late at night when everyone was tired or drunk.
What is the pun in Sheik´s description? My understanding of French is 0, could you explain it?
“Qui c’est qu’a éteint la lumière ?” is gramatically incorrect, and it means “Who turned off the light?”, but they replaced “c’est qu’a” with “Sheikah” because of the similar pronunciation. It’s just a terribly bad pun that doesn’t really mean anything.
Ah, now I understand, it´s just because of how it sounds. Well, I think someone was trying too hard to make as many jokes as possibly in this localization XD
Thanks for the explanation.
Good stuff, thanks for sharing! It’s amusing how quite a few of the aliases are a play on words.
Little Mac’s alias as “the dentist” is a bit out of left field.
I know almost nothing about French culture, but I imagine the “dentist” thing could be related to a stereotype of boxers getting their teeth knocked out, much like hockey players being depicted with missing teeth. Yosh, can you confirm?
Or it could be that he’s called a dentist because the best way to get rid of bad teeth is to have them punched out of your mouth. XD
I confirm, it’s exactly that! It means if you face Little Mac, you’re gonna lose your teeth!
French Sonic is The Blue Bomb? What?
That’s… interesting.
In French, “bomb” is a slang word for something beautiful, or amazing, or…fast.
“This car is a bomb” – This car is damn fast.
There is even the verb “bomber” which mean “going fast” so it make perfect sense here for Sonic to be a “bomb” 😉
There are other puns in the French description left out by Yosh, such as Luigi’s
“Le grand vert semeur de bleus (The green tall bruise sower)”; where the French word “bleus” used here mean bruise, but is also the color blue, so you can read “the green tall blue sower”(which mean nothing, but sounds fun).
Also for Yoshi, “Le distributeur d’œufs au beurre noir (The black eggs dispenser)”; “œufs au beurre noir” sounds close to “œil au beurre noir” (black buttered eye = bruised eye).
Wendy is known as “The Queen of Headbutt,” which just makes it sound like she’s renowned for giving bad blowjobs.
And it’s interesting that male and female villagers have different titles, like the Wii Fit trainers do in the US version. Makes me wonder why that happened in the latter’s case; French Villager’s makes sense since they gave them gendered titles, but US Wii Fit Trainer just makes it seem like they couldn’t decide which joke to use.
I imported the British version of Tingle’s Rosy Rupeeland since NOA didn’t see fit to bring that game over. The script reads pretty good, just with a few britishisms here and there. (Mom is mum, color is coloueieaar, that sort of thing). I didn’t run into any particularly alien turns of phrase the translators used, so it’s perfectly understandable. (No one says “Queeny roundabout the lorry uptwaise the lillylander shat on a turtle!” even once!)
I am British and I can assure you nobody would do such a thing. But it’d be damn hilarious if they did.
I ran into the same deal with the UK import of Last Window (the sequel to Hotel Dusk). Being that it takes place in the US, the britishisms are VERY weird in that one.
“Queeny roundabout the lorry uptwaise the lillylander shat on a turtle!”
This is now my favorite sentence ever. Thank you. XD
Well, glad to see you submitted a new article at last. What were you doing all this time?
Nice article, Mato! I keep checking Legends of Localization because I know sometime I will see pearls like this. Thanks for the work.
Alright, how about an another FFX comparison? This time it’s about the Cactuar Sidequest. You remember that right? In FFX, returning to Bikanel after obtaining the airship would allow you to do a sidequest that tasked you to find 10 cactuar gatekeepers via rather cryptic clues. Each of the gatekeepers had an unique name. This sidequest also appeared in a way in the sequel where you once again had to search for 10 gatekeepers, this time spread out all over Spira. What is noticeable is that the names of the gatekeepers this time around were different from the ones featured in the prequel. Now at first glance it would appear that these are a different set of gatekeepers which I guess would make sense. However, these names are quite similar when compared to the prequel which would suggest that the names were localized differently between the games for no apparent reason.
So, here’s the deal. It’s time for you to start up the Japanese and English versions of FFX and FFX-2 and do a little comparison. I am sure you will find it interesting.
I’m sure you don’t mean anything by it, and maybe it’s a language barrier thing, but you often come off as a bit pushy in your comments and e-mails. For right now this site is just a hobby of mine, so I prefer to update when I’d like and with what I’d like. If other things come up (work, family, other projects) then I need to focus on those things instead. So if I don’t update for a while, it’s not because of a lack of content (I have over 500 topics from readers already 😯 ) but because other things have taken precedence.
I realize you’re enthusiastic about this sort of thing, so I hope you’ll understand.
Whoa there friend you might need to slow down. I’ll do the Cactuar thing for ya.
The Japanese online guide I’ve found for FFX and FFX2 at GAMERS EDEN indicates that they are indeed the exact same characters, though between the two games you apparently find them in different orders. Their names are:
トーメ (TOOME)
ロビビア (ROBIBIA)
チャパ (CHAPA)
アレク(AREKU)
アロヤ (AROYA)
バーチェラ(BAACHERA)
ロベイラ (ROBEIRA)
イスラヤ (ISURAYA)
エリオ (ERIO)
フライレ (FURAIRE)
Between FFX and FFX2 they’re referred to as this:
Tomay – Toumeya
Rovivia – Lobivia
Chava – Chiapa
Alek – Areq
Aloja – Arroja
Vachella – Bartschalla
Robeya – Lobeira
Isrra – Islaya
Elio – Erio
Flaile – Frailea
In regards to meanings, Aloja is Croation for Aloe, Robeira resembles “lobelia” and Baachera resembles “vachellia”. None of these plants are cacti, but all grow in warmer climates. Obviously Toome kinda sounds like it comes from “tomato”, but it and Areku also both sound like real given names (Tomé and Alec). If any of them actually do have an intentional meaning related to cacti, I can’t gather that from the resources and time I have available right now.
Gleaning the credits for each game, the translation teams seem to be organised differently and have slightly different rosters. Neither team pulled the localised names out of their arses; they’re just inconsistent.
Well, that’s certainly enlightening. Thank you. And my apologies if I’m sounding a bit impatient, Mato. There’s so much stuff I really would like to know more about.
Getting back to the topic at hand, the European Boxing Ring aliases are obviously the best. Call me biased though as that’s where I am from. But still, ‘He’s not yolking around’ anyone?
No offense, but you’re still coming across as impatient and pushy in this comment.
Being Dutch, this article inspired me to set my Wii U console to my own language and look up how they translated all of the aliases.
I was pleasantly surprised at how the localization team handled it. for those curious, here’s what they are in Dutch, translated back to English in parentheses, and personal notes in brackets;
Mario – Breekt blokken met zijn vuisten (Breaks blocks with his fists)
Luigi – Groen is goed voor je (Green is good for you)
Peach – Prinses van het Paddenstoelenrijk (Princess of the Mushroom Kingdom)
Bowser – Koning van de Koopa’s (King of the Koopas)
Yoshi – De grootste eter van het eiland (The biggest eater on the island)
Rosalina – Ruimtereizigers (Space travelers)
Bowser Jr. – Aardje naar z’n vaartje (Dutch saying that equates to “Chip off the old block”)
Wario – Boef waar een luchtje aan zit (Crook who smells funny) [The Dutch term “this smells funny” also means “something’s not right here”.]
Donkey Kong – Koning van de Jungle (King of the Jungle)
Diddy Kong – Schiet graag met zijn pindaschieter (Likes shooting his peanut shooter)
Mr. Game & Watch – Meester van twee dimensies (Master of 2 Dimensions)
Little Mac – Klein, maar pijnlijk (Small, but painful) [Pun on a Dutch saying that equates to “Good things come in small packages”]
Link – De held van Hyrule (The hero of Hyrule)
Zelda – De wijze prinses van Hyrule (The wise princess of Hyrule)
Sheik – Een Sheikah gehuld in mysterie (A Sheikah shrouded in mystery)
Ganondorf – Koning van het Kwaad (King of Evil)
Toon Link – Golvenrijder, windtemmer, krijger (Wave rider, wind tamer, warrior)
Samus – Buitengewone premiejager (Extraordinary bounty hunter)
Zero Suit Samus – Geen pak, toch gevaarlijk (No suit, still dangerous)
Pit – Kapitein van Palutena’s wacht (Captain of Palutena’s Guard)
Palutena – Godin van het licht (Goddess of Light)
Marth – De legendarische, heldhaftige koning (The legendary, heroic king)
Ike – De stralende held (The radiant hero)
Robin – Strategie volgens het boekje (Strategy by the book) [They managed to throw in a pun that the English team didn’t even think of!]
Duck Hunt – Vreemde eend in de bijt (Strange duck in the ice-hole) [Taken verbatim from a Dutch saying meaning “someone who is out of place”. Obviously a pun on Duck, but also the word “bijt” is a homonym for “bite” as well as “hole in the ice”.]
King Dedede – Koning, volgens hemzelf dan (King, according to himself anyway)
Kirby – Gevaarlijk roze is niet lelijk (Dangerously pink isn’t ugly) [A spin on a Dutch saying which is difficult to translate correctly. When something is an unusual colour (such as a person’s hair, for instance), we have a saying that goes “Pretty (x colour) isn’t ugly”, usually spoken somewhat ironically.]
Meta Knight – De gemaskerde zwaardvechter (The masked swordsman)
Fox – Voer een zijwaartse rol uit! (Do a sideways roll!) [Translated literally. I trust I needn’t quote the actual meme here.]
Falco – Trotse toppiloot (Proud ace pilot)
Pikachu – De elektrische muis-Pokémon (The electric mouse Pokémon)
Charizard – Vurige furie (Firey fury)
Lucario – Krachtig aura (Powerful aura)
Greninja – De onvoorspelbare Ninja-Pokemon (The unpredictable Ninja-Pokémon)
Jigglypuff – De lieflijke ballon-Pokemon (The charming Balloon-Pokémon)
ROB – Retro-Ogende Bondgenoot (Retro-Looking Ally) [Nice job of keeping the acronym working.]
Ness – Het PSI-wonderkind (The PSI-wunderkind)
Captain Falcon – Supersonische F-Zero piloot (Supersonic F-Zero pilot)
Villager – Burgemeester van Smashdorp (Mayor of Smashville)
Olimar – Ervaren astronaut (Experienced Astronaut)
Alph – Onervaren verkenner, ervaren mechanicus (Inexperienced explorer, experienced mechanic)
WF-Trainer -F – Voel je je spieren al branden? (Can you feel your muscles burn?)
WF-Trainer -M – Valt aan met kernoefeningen (Attacks with core-exercise) [Pun – “core exercise” in Dutch can also mean nuclear testing.]
Shulk – Visionaire vechter (Visionary fighter)
Dark Pit – Duistere dubbelganger (Dark doppelgänger)
Dr. Mario – Een bittere pil om te slikken (A bitter pill to swallow) [Ha!]
Pac-Man – Spokenslokker (Ghost gobbler)
Lucina – Vecht tegen het lot (Fighting against Destiny)
Sonic – snel, sneller, snelst (Fast, faster, fastest)
Mega Man – De blauwe beuker (The blue bruiser)
Mii – De (zwaardvechter/cyborg/bokser) met vele gezichten (The swordfighter/cyborg/boxer) with many faces
Larry – Leider van de bende (Leader of the gang)
Roy – Wat schuilt er achter z’n zonnebril? (What hides beneath his sunglasses?)
Wendy – Brutaal, bazig en arrogant (Rude, bossy and arrogant)
Iggy – De lachende lolbroek (The laughing funny-pants) [literal translation. “lolbroek” is a Dutch term for “jokester”.)
Morton – Laat je sterretjes zien (Lets you see stars)
Lemmy – Doe eens goed gek (Get good and crazy!)
Ludwig – Pompeus wonderkind (Pompous wünderkind)
So yeah, it’s fun to see how they managed to throw in a few jokes and puns that the English team even overlooked. Hope someone found these interesting to read. =)
Oh, I forgot to give the actual translation to Bowser Jr.’s alias. “Aardje naar z’n vaartje” translates to something along the lines of “A nature akin to his daddy”. So the saying pretty much equates to “Chip off the old block”.
>> Iggy – De lachende lolbroek (The laughing funny-pants) [literal translation. “lolbroek” is a Dutch term for “jokester”.)
I am so happy that you have a word that is basically “lol pants.”
“The BMI Bandit” looks like a reference to either the 1983 Australian film BMX Bandits, or the “Angel Summoner and BMX Bandit” skits from That Mitchell and Webb Look. BMI standing for Body Mass Index in this case.
I guess that makes Palutena the Angel Summoner?
Having never played Fire Emblem, why would Marth be “The Hero-King”? Thanks!
http://bit.ly/1Du6IEr
One thing I’ve always wondered about is the usage of “bowgun” to describe crossbows, especially in JRPGs. Is there any reason for that, like that’s how the Japanese term directly translates and game developers all around seem to think it adds some flair? Or is a bowgun actually something different, something that a cursory Google search fails to bring up? It’s always confused me, because it manages to pop up in both quality and modern translations.
Japanese Wikipedia offers that “bowgun” is a generic trademark used to refer to crossbows in Japan, derived from Japanese crossbow manufacturer Kabushiki-gaisha Bowgun. It would be similar in usage to Sellotape, which is used uncapitalised to refer to any sticky tape in the UK despite being a specific brand. It is also a Japanese-originating word according to the site, which marks it as an example of wasei-eigo,.
Meanwhile a user on the English talk page for “Crossbow” offers that a “bowgun” is a specific term for a type of bow, different to a crossbow, though he doesn’t offer any sources for that information, and the person they were responding to specifically cited its use as a common term for crossbows in Japanese media.
In either case, if you’re thinking about Monster Hunter specifically, “bowgun” is literally the word used in the Japanese version.
Well, Club Nintendo members got Mewtwo early. Time to investigate what its boxing ring alias is.
In case anyone is scrolling down the comments to check, even though he’s been out for almost a month, he’s “A Legend Re-awakens” in English countries and 覚醒する遺伝子 (Genetic Awakening, or something) in Japan.
With the Smash 4 DLC, we’ll be waiting a while for all the updates to this list…
Really should have used “The Blue Bomber” for Mega Man rather than the clunky “Blue Metal Hero”
“Pink Terror” would have been perfect for Kirby.
In Kirby games, you always get a description for the boss you’re fighting when you pause the game, as well as a description for The Arena and The True Arena. In the NA English version of Kirby Planet Robobot, the description for The Arena claims that the bosses therein are going to learn why Kirby is called “the Pink Demon”.
This makes me think that in the Japanese version of the game, they use the exact same title that they use in Smash Bros., but that it’s translated literally in Robobot. Admittedly, I love it; the first time I saw that line in Planet Robobot and thought about just how destructive and powerful Kirby is and and be, I couldn’t help but love that the game acknowledges that side of our main character.