Surprising Swear Words in Game Translations

Posted on by ‧85 Comments

Swearing and profanity in video games is nothing new, but sometimes it pops up when you least expect it. And when it pops up in games translated from Japanese, the result can be unintentionally confusing and/or funny.

The topic comes up a lot, so I’ve started gathering examples of unexpected, surprising, or out-of-character swearing from official game translations.

Of course, what’s considered a swear word greatly varies from region to region and person to person. In general, this swear word list seems on par with what game publishers consider swearing. (ESRB example, PEGI example)

Ogre Battle 64: Person of Lordly Caliber

The Nintendo 64 was often derided as being a “kiddie system”, but this game was anything but kiddie. Swearing supposedly happened so often in Ogre Battle 64 that I dismissed it as an online rumor for years. But after just half an hour of playing, I encountered so many swears that I stopped counting. I’d love to see what other colorful phrases this translation includes!

"Even a buttload of heretics can't do shit!"
"Even a buttload of heretics can't do shit!"
"Damn those sons of bitches!!"
"Damn those sons of bitches!!"
"Who the hell are you...!?"
"Who the hell are you...!?"
"There is absolutely no need to listen to their bitching!"
"There is absolutely no need to listen to their bitching!"

Download (PC Engine)

Download was only released in Japan, but it featured a lot of English text anyway. The multiple game over screens are unintentionally funny for native English speakers! You can see the full list of bad English from Download here.

An early stage's game over screen
An early stage's game over screen
Each stage usually has two different game over screens
Each stage usually has two different game over screens

EarthBound (Super NES)

EarthBound uses the word “crap” a few times in the game, which was a little surprising for some players at the time. There’s long been argument over whether or not “crap” is actually a bad word, so a few years ago I asked Twitter followers for their opinions. As I expected, the poll results were divided, but I personally recall that it was considered the tamest of bad words at the time but there was still a lot of pushback from certain groups.

At the very least, these “craps” in EarthBound seemed very out of character for Nintendo of America to include, given the company’s strict content policies in the 1990s. Nowadays, it seems almost quaint to bring it up!

The sailor in Toto says "crap"
The sailor in Toto says "crap"
A monkey that speaks human language accidentally says "crap"
A monkey that speaks human language accidentally says "crap"

Mega Man series

I don’t know how common it is, but the Mega Man series has had at least two examples of unexpected swearing:

Mega Man VII (Super NES)
Mega Man VII (Super NES)
Mega Man X4 (Sega Saturn)
Mega Man X4 (Sega Saturn)

Other Surprise Swearing

Some games only have rare instances of unexpected swearing, so I’ve bundled them into the gallery below.

Bakutōshi Patton-kun (Famicom Disk System) gives instructions the drill sergeant way
Bakutōshi Patton-kun (Famicom Disk System) gives instructions the drill sergeant way
Lufia: The Legend Returns (Game Boy Color) - this game's entire translation is a wonderful mess worth checking out someday!
Lufia: The Legend Returns (Game Boy Color) - this game's entire translation is a wonderful mess worth checking out someday!
Sky Skipper (Arcade) - one of Nintendo's early arcade games had bad language
Sky Skipper (Arcade) - one of Nintendo's early arcade games had bad language
Breath of Fire II (Super NES) - "damn" was changed to "darn" in the Virtual Console release
Breath of Fire II (Super NES) - "damn" was changed to "darn" in the Virtual Console release
Dragon Warrior VII (PlayStation)
Dragon Warrior VII (PlayStation)
Pu-Li-Ru-La (Arcade) - the game's cute presentation and this main character's swearing don't quite match
Pu-Li-Ru-La (Arcade) - the game's cute presentation and this main character's swearing don't quite match
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (Wii U, Switch) - Is this the first example of swearing in a Zelda game?
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (Wii U, Switch) - Is this the first example of swearing in a Zelda game?

Know Any More?

I’d like to continue to add to this gallery over time, so let me know if you can think of anything else that belongs here. It especially helps if you can provide a nice-quality screenshot too, but not necessary. Thanks for your help, dammit!

If you enjoyed this, check out Legends of Localization Book 1: The Legend of Zelda, my book dedicated to the very first Zelda translation and how it has affected every Zelda game since! (free preview PDF )
85 Comments
  1. ReyVGM

    Gynoug (Genesis)
    http://www.vgmuseum.com/end/genesis/a/gynoug.htm

    Check the “Hyper, Second Run” image.

    1. Clyde Mandelin

      Haha that’s so great, if I post it here out of context it won’t be nearly as funny so I’ll definitely link to your page 😛

      1. ReyVGM

        By the way, this game is the predecessor to Cho Aniki. Nice little bit of trivia.

  2. ReyVGM

    I actually emailed you about this in 2014. I’ve found a lot of Japanese games with swear words in English (usually in the ending), unfortunately I don’t remember them all anymore.

    Here’s another one, for the MSX
    https://tcrf.net/D%27_%28MSX2%29

    CTRL+L and search for the F word. This one is not featured in-game though, but in a hidden document found inside the actual physical disc.

  3. Morgil

    Where the heck was that Zelda one? I put over 200 hours into that game and i definitely don’t remember that.

    1. ReyVGM

      Same here. Never noticed it.

    2. Clyde Mandelin

      I believe you can see it if you talk to him after landing on the bird temple but before completing it. I only played it in Japanese myself so I don’t recall the details of the conversation.

  4. Kahran042

    Breath of Fire II – When you go to Highfort and talk to the guard, Sten says “The hero of Goonheim is Trubo…….. He fought to the end at that battle field of hell.” I’m not sure if hell is a swear in this context, but it’s still not something most people would expect to get past Nintendo censorship.

    1. Thomas No

      Hell used in that context has nothing to do with profanity, but refer to an unpleasant place. But since “hell” other than a profane word often have religious connotations, Nintendo of America until 1994 (when its censorship policy ended) would have not allowed it.

  5. bruplex

    Bionic Commando on the NES, of course – http://elitecoder.com/bionic/damnfool.gif

    Given how super-conservative NES censors were, this is one of the most surprising.

    1. Clyde Mandelin

      Oh my god I can’t believe I forgot that one

      Thanks for the reminder, I’ll add it in the next round of pic updates!

  6. Minneyar

    I recall that in Phantasy Star Online Episodes 1 & 2 for the Gamecube, the game had a very restrictive profanity filter, but there was an online quest in which a random NPC would tell you to “Eat shit and die”.

    Unfortunately, I can’t find any screenshots of it, and I don’t know if it’s even possible to see that any more since it was in an online quest…

    1. Clyde Mandelin

      Oh man, that would be so good to get a pic of 🙁 Dang these cra*py online server games that go down for good!

      1. Yuki

        There’s lots of good private servers which you can play PSO1Ep1&2 Gamecube.

        1. Minneyar

          That’s a good point, it may be possible to still find this. I think the name of the quest was “Towards the Future” and it was just one of the random NPCs standing around on the ship who says it, but I don’t have access to my DC w/ PSOv2 or GC w/ Ep1&2 at the moment, and I’m not sure if that quest existed in later versions of the game… (and if it did, they may have censored it by that point)

      2. dj24

        It’s part of the online quest Gallon’s/Garon’s Treachery. The full line is:
        “Hmm. You hunters have it easy! Gadding around everywhere! Why do think I gave
        you that gate usage permit for anyway? If you’ve got time to loaf around in a
        place like this then… Get on back to Ragol and eat shit and die!”

        Here’s an ancient screenshot I found. http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e358/VanGarrett/PSO-Cussing-Soldier.jpg

        The quest should still be on servers like sylverant and ephinea.

  7. pulse

    there’s a lot of instances of “damn” here! actually, I’ve never known damn to be a swear word and maybe that’s why it shows up so many times? maybe back when these came out it would have felt more serious, haha

    1. Clyde Mandelin

      I dunno if there’s like some agreed on comparison chart or anything, but in my mind “damn” is like one of the core words that sort of acts as the foundation/keystone for all the other ones we know, probably because of the idea that swearing and religion are so connected.

      Or, like if you did that 9 grid chart of chaotic good, neutral good, etc., then “damn” would probably be right in the middle I feel. But as we’ve seen with “crap”, everyone has different tiers for different phrases it seems.

      1. pulse

        true enough, I am not religious in the slightest so for the majority of my life I actually had no idea it was a religious thing in the first place!

        I don’t know if this page is only talking about *licensed* game translations, but who could forget all the swearing in “Pokémon Diamond” (the Telefang bootleg). that sure was quite the shock to play as a kid!

        1. DaVince

          Shit! Remember it!

      2. bobbert

        Maybe I can give some context coming from a religious household.
        As an exclamation, eg. “Damn!” or “Damnation!”, it is fairly mild, though frowned upon.
        As a command, eg. “Damn you!”, it is deadly serious and near the top of the chart.
        If this seems strange to you, keep in mind you are effectively saying, “May the LORD God condemn you to burn in Hell for all eternity.” This is not only a very mean thing to say to someone, but also presuming to tell God what to do.

        I apologize for using such harsh language, but feel it was needed to be clear.

        You should an article on how Japanese characters swear.
        In English I can think of 5 basic categories of swearing (though mixing and matching is common):
        I. Blasphemy / other religious
        II. Bodily functions / anatomy / gross (“shit” etc)
        III. Family Honor (“Your mother/sister…” )
        IV. Illness (“Blind”, “Lame”, “Dumb”, etc)
        V. Diminutive words for foreigners (You can think of plenty without my help)
        I am almost sure the Japanese don’t have categories I. or V. and they may have others we don’t.
        Maybe a good benchmark would be how the famous line from ‘The Exorcist’ was translated there?

  8. Darien

    There is, of course, the infamous D.K. Rap, which kicked up a world of controversy with the line “this Kong’s one hell of a guy:” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=npuuTBlEb1U

    It was translated from the British. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

    1. Milo

      And of course, when they did that lame cover for Smash Bros. Melee, it was changed to “one heck of a guy”. Showing that they damn well gave a crap about mild cursing at some point.

      1. Cavery

        Sorry, but ‘Kongo Jungle’ isn’t as good as the ‘DK Rap’ or the ‘CG Rap’ says SilvaGunner. There isn’t even a clear acapella of it anywhere. Fuck ‘Kongo Jungle’. – SiivaGunner

        1. Reverend Hunt

          What in the world is a SiivaGunner?

          1. nee

            A Youtube artist group.

  9. Justin

    “Swearing happens so often in Ogre Battle 64 that I dismissed it as an online rumor for years.”

    What did you dismiss as an online rumor?

    1. Clyde Mandelin

      “Ogre Battle 64 is a rumor!!! It’s not real!!!”

      Actually good catch, I was hoping nobody would pick on my poor grammar there 😛

  10. Christian

    You’re right about BotW, Teba has the honor of being the first character to swear in a Zelda game. Pretty interesting for a 30 year old series, eh?

    1. Thomas No

      If a series that appeals to older gamers like The Legend of Zelda contain blood and suggestive themes (e.g. large breasted or scantly-clad females), then it should not be surprised that Breath of the Wind will have a character use mild profanity. Did the more recent Zelda games starring adult Link are rated “T” by the ESRB?

  11. Darien

    Ah, there is of course the infamous Metal Gear password “FUCKM E1111 11111 11111 11111” that brings you to the final boss with no gear. I’m given to understand this password was the reason why subsequent NES games never featured vowels in the password screens — I guess Nintendo got a complaint or two about it!

  12. John

    Its minor stuff, but you can find usage of curse words like “damn” and “hell” in the Mega Man Battle Network games, as well as some alcohol usage. Although those kind of curse words are rather tame, it was still somewhat surprising to me at the time given the games are rated E. Maybe Nintendo’s censorship had loosened up a bit by the early 2000’s.

    1. Thomas No

      Were the Battle Network games released before the ESRB introduced the E10+ rating? Mild language would fit in with the E10+ rating. As for Nintendo’s censorship, it was loosened up when the ESRB rating system debuted in 1994.

  13. Victor

    It’s mentioned already but I want to second the unusual swearing in Battle Network. I specifically remember the second game in the series having several instances of crap and damn.

  14. Axorm

    There’s Kefka of course but I’m pretty sure you’re already familiar with that one 😀

    https://legendsoflocalization.com/son-of-a-submariner-kefkas-famous-line-in-detail/

  15. ReverendHunt

    The one I loved the most, combined with broken English, is Cell’s “Holly shit!” in DragonBall Z 2.

    http://www.vgmuseum.com/end/arcade/d/dbz2goh.htm

    1. Error 52

      Cell says “oh shit” in the German dub of Z. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v55t5jnhz5s

      Also, at one point in the FUNimation dub of Kai, Goku calls the population of earth “dumbasses”. Not a surprise in itself since the dub had a lot of mild swearing like that, but it’s still kinda hilarious coming from Goku.

      1. Mystic Night

        Really? This I need to hear. XD

      2. Suzu Q

        To be fair, Goku said “Baka yarou!” in Japanese, so it’s a fair enough way to go, especially because the Earthlings were being major idiots.

  16. The Opponent

    There’s a few in Fire Emblem Heroes. I don’t know what it’s like in the regular games but I wasn’t expecting it in a phone game.

    1. shytende

      I don’t remember the specifics of every games, but in Blazing Sword, Hector says “damn” a lot.

    2. Thomas No

      Since the recent Fire Emblem games (such as Fire Emblem Heroes) contain content that are not appropriate for young children (blood, large breasted women, and homosexual and bisexual relationships between some characters), it should not be surprised that some characters will use profanity.

  18. ReyVGM

    I’m trying to post several images links, but my post doesn’t appear once I hit send?

      1. ReyVGM

        For some reason I can’t post more than one link or else the post will not appear.
        https://lparchive.org/Persona-2-Eternal-Punishment/Update%2021/21-Persona2-20-40.jpg

          1. Huh?

            How is EP surprising? It takes place in modern times, so it fits with the setting.

  21. joeymartin64

    The prologue of Simon’s Quest begins with “Step into the shadows of the hell house”.

    http://www.vgmuseum.com/mrp/intro-cv2.htm

    1. ReyVGM

      It’s not cursing, but I always found it odd that Nintendo let Konami write that.

      1. Thomas No

        It is not cursing and it not a religious reference, but it is surprising that Nintendo of America would allow “hell” be shown in the text knowing its censorship policy.

  22. shytende

    There was this Corpse Party article you made a while ago that showed some amonuts of swearing.

    Otherwise, are examples for other languages OK ? Because FFX ‘s French translation have a fair amount of swearing. Maybe more than the English one. I don’t have any clear example right now, but it stuck out to me.

  23. Bearorbust

    https://imgur.com/ZQZ1Nk8
    Magical Drop 3 for PS One. Strength’s Dad has a strange line in baby talk.

  24. Dredear

    Damn isn’t a swear word lol

    1. Eeyeeyai

      It is to Ned Flanders Christians, sadly lol.

    2. Thomas No

      Actually it is regardless of whether one is religious or not. The word is used to curse people and that makes it a swear word.

  25. Jeff Jacobson

    There’s a beta of Final Fight 3 that contains the word “bastards” in the intro. In the released version, “bastards” was replaced with “maniacs”.

  26. Luxinox

    I don’t know if this counts or not because on the one hand, it’s a T-rated game, but on the other hand, it’s a first-party Nintendo title, but Xenoblade Chronicles 2 had swear words, like “bitch,” “arse,” and “shit.”

    I’ve also read that the Fire Emblem games had used the word “damn” a couple times.

  27. Raivop

    Riveting stuff! Also, I must say that Klonoa 2: Lunatea’s Veil on PS2 had one particular scene during the late part of the game after defeating Leorina. During the cutscene, she actually says “Damn it, damn it all!”, which really caught me off guard first time when I played it, because I wasn’t expecting a swear word in a E+ rated game! Other than that, the English localization in that game was pretty good.

    Here’s a screenshot (sorry for crappy quality: I had to grab this from a longplay): https://i.imgur.com/09SxSlj.jpg

    1. Thomas No

      You mean “E10+” rated? In E10+ rated games, mild profanity can found in games. However, the profanity will be less common. The more restrictive the rating (E10+, T, M), the more profanity will be found.

  28. Sassysaido

    I can definitely say Lufia: The Legend Returns has one of the most awful alphabet soup messes for a translation ever. Natsume’s loser staff have clearly never attended a single English class in their lives.

  29. Brian Renadette

    When you mentioned the Mega Man series, I remembered that X drops a “damn” during the ending when he encounters that dead end when fleeing from the Sigma Virus. Right before the Zero/Doppler branching ending.

  30. Kevin

    It’s a T rated game, but Atelier Totori has a character named Cordelia who at one point in the game says: ”Don’t give me that crap! I keep telling you to stop acting like a frightened squirrel at work!” Sure, like most games in the Atelier series, Atelier Totori is a T rated game, but it’s a colorful T rated game, I mean…it’s an Atelier game, the graphics are colorful and the soundtrack is catchy and kiddy at times, that’s not all, Atelier Totori: Adventurer of Arland doesn’t even have a content descriptor that says ”Language” or ”Mild Language”, only the ”Plus” version on the PS Vita has ”Language” as one of its content descriptors. The ESRB says that there are more swear words in other Atelier games, supposedly the word ”shit” appears both in Atelier Rorona and Atelier Firis, and in Atelier Sophie the word ”bastard” appears in the dialogue.
    It should be mentioned that because of the fact that most Atelier games have an english dub, one should be able to clearly listen to some swear words in the game (if you play with english voices).

    1. Thomas No

      Do not assume that the ESRB content descriptor will provide everything objective about a game, as I have seen games that contain objective content that their content descriptor fails to mention. The descriptor only lists the objective content that are commonly found in a game, and leave out ones that are not. For example, in the M-rated game Dante’s Inferno, while the content descriptor mentions it contains violence and nudity, it fails to mention that the game did contain scenes where characters used mild curse words. Because the use of mild curse words were rarely used in Dante’s Inferno, “Mild Language” did not appear in the content descriptor.

  31. Jipo

    Tactics Ogre, a spin off on PS1 (also translated by Atlus, just like Ogre Battle 64), also have some swearing if you’re interested. Cant remember how many time Kachua’s called a bitch in this game since it happens quite often…

    https://youtu.be/63MpsYO0JWo?t=8m9s
    There’s also that berserker character who calls her a bitch and tells her he’s gonna bang her right off the bat. Pretty messed up for a a Teen ERSB game !

  32. 1Thunderfire

    In Luigi’s Mansion, Professor E. Gadd uses the word bugger as does Toadsworth in Mario Party 7. I’m guessing the word isn’t as big a deal in America but in the UK, it seems unusually strong, especially for Toadsworth who is essentially as British a Toad as you can get. I wonder if bugger is still used in Luigi’s Mansion 3DS?

    Another one which isn’t swearing but was seen as hugely offensive was the word spastic in Mario Party 8 which is absolutely not accepted in the UK. I wondered at first why the game got delayed by 2 weeks before finding out the reason. Oops.

    1. MasterMarkus

      “Bugger” is a super weird case in the North America, though younger people who are more exposed to British media tend to understand the problem with it.
      Despite “bugger” being an explicitly sexual word for quite a long time, it’s like it got dropped in most of NA and reconstituted: For instance, I grew up in Canada with my mom calling some things or people “buggers” as like, a very mild insult, particularly suggesting that the thing was bothersome, or “bugged” her, and I believe I’ve seen this sort of usage in other instances by U.S. Americans and Canadians.

    2. Thomas No

      I wondered as an American why the word “spastic” used in Mario Party 8 is offensive in the United Kingdom until I learned this month that it has to do being a slur for people suffering from cerebral palsy. Slurs and prejorative language like “spastic” have no place anywhere in the world.

  33. Axel Grease

    •Marine uses “bugger” in Sonic Rush Adventure, leading to the game being rated 12+ (basically T) in PAL regions
    •Hades says something along the lines of “How much hell are they planning on raising?” in Kid Icarus Uprising
    •One of the food item drops in Miitopia is a hot dog named the “Hell Dog”

  34. Torchickens

    According to:
    https://kotaku.com/inside-the-treehouse-the-people-who-help-make-nintendo-1301809672

    When Nintendo Treehouse were working on the localisation of the fifth Legendary Starfy game (known in Japanese as Densetsu no Stafy: Taiketsu! Daiiru Kaizokudan) there was a form of profanity inappropriate for the game that was quickly removed, and gave the team a shock.

    Unfortunately the details are vague but I have a suspicion (just a rumour). I covered EN/JP minigame text for the Dumpling Master minigame a long time ago (see https://www.starfywiki.org/wiki/Dumpling_Master ), and noticed if you score 0-9 dumplings in Dumpling Master you get ペッタンコ (Pettanko) in the Japanese version and “Dumpling Chumpling” in the English version. I only know elementary level Japanese, but I wonder if pettanko was the offending word. It could of course have been anything else, considering the series has a good amount of text in it.

    According to the article:

    “Starfy is a very, very benign sort of chubby little starfish thing that makes his way through relatively easy platforming levels,” Bihldorff said. “And we were playing through it and I remember all of a sudden one of the ancillary characters is like ‘Shit!’ That does not belong in this game!”

    1. a

      ペッタンコ isn’t profanity, but it is the kind of juvenile sexual humor that JP media has a lot of and approximately nobody else on Earth thinks is funny, so localizers do like dropping it. (it means “flat-chested”)

  35. Nanashi

    On out of place swearing: The Star Wars Expanded Universe books (several of which are quite good), and games avoid real swear words all the time EXCEPT for “hell” and “damn”, which are thrown around relatively frequently. Mild, but they stand out amongst the fakes (kirffing) and ones given by narration (“Sakhisakh bit out a Noghri curse.”). Why do these two get thrown around when even comparable ones are avoided? Han Solo used both in the original trilogy.

  36. David

    Blue Reflection has at least two instances of ”bitch”, the game also contains one instance of ”crap” (used by the main characher Hinako Shirai, no less), one instance of ”damn”, and two or three instances of ”hell”.

  37. mads_in_zero

    I’ll always be fond of Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories (GBA) having antagonist Axel promise “a hell of a show!”. It might not be the strongest swear, but it’s quite surprising to hear in a Disney game rated E for Everyone.

    It was tragically removed in the PS2 remake, Re:Chain of Memories.