Why Was the “Cane of Somaria” Eventually Renamed in Japan?

Is the rumor true? If so, why’d the name change? And is it only “Somasoa” in the Game Boy Advance version, or has it been “Somasoa” in Japan ever since? Surprisingly, my research into the matter led to a larger, weirder mystery than I originally expected.

In this article we’ll look at this Somasoa rumor, examine two common theories about the name change, check lots of Japanese re-releases and strategy guides for more info, and try to get to the bottom of the mystery.

The Cane of Somaria

Toward the end of A Link to the Past, Link finds an item called the “Cane of Somaria”. When used, it creates a block out of thin air that can be pushed or thrown.

Here’s how it appears in the English Super NES version:

Link finds the Cane of Somaria in a dungeon

The Cane of Somaria in the item menu

Link uses the Cane of Somaria to create a block that can be pushed or thrown. It can also be dispersed by using the cane once more

The cane goes by the same name in the Japanese Super Famicom version:

Item called the "Cane of Somaria" in the original Super Famicom version

The original Super Famicom version calls it the "Cane of Somaria" in the item menu too

So far there’s nothing out of the ordinary. But when we check the Japanese Game Boy Advance version, here’s what we get:

Item is called the "Cane of Somasoa" in the Japanese Game Boy Advance version

It's also called the "Cane of Somasoa" in the GBA item menu

And if you beat the secret GBA-only dungeon, the cane is called the "Cane of Somasoa" right there in English!

The “Cane of Somaria” has indeed become the “Cane of Somasoa” – in three different places and in two different languages, no less!

Name Change Theories

Nintendo has never officially commented on this name change, so fans have come up with two main theories about it.

Theory #1: The Name Was Changed to Avoid Referencing Somalia

Because of the infamous L and R problem in Japanese, the word ソマリア (somaria) can be written as “Somaria” and as “Somalia”. So some fans suggest the name was changed because unintentionally referencing the recently war-torn Somalia in a lighthearted video game would’ve been in bad taste.

ソマリア can refer to Somalia

The same word, ソマリア, appears in this game. It's always been translated as "Somaria" in English, however

Theory #2: “Somasoa” Is Actually a Typo That Got out of Hand

The original word ソマリア (somaria) and the new word ソマソア (somasoa) look pretty similar if you’re not paying attention. In fact, the difference between リ (ri) and ソ (so) is one of the first big challenges Japanese language students run into. The two characters look especially similar in the game’s font:

So this theory suggests that someone misread the name during the GBA game’s development and it just stuck. One mistake is understandable, but three different mistakes all in separate areas of the game’s programming is surprising.

Surely someone would’ve said something, between all the developers and the quality control guys, including the prestigious Super Mario Club. Or maybe someone did say something and it wasn’t considered important enough to fix?

Originally, I had only planned to discuss the theories in this article, but I decided to do some research of my own to help clear things up as much as possible. The first logical step was to check all the other Japanese versions of A Link to the Past.

Checking Other Versions

First, do any Japanese re-releases say “Cane of Somasoa” too, or is the Game Boy Advance version the only one? Finding out for sure will be tedious for a few reasons:

• Fan sites and wikis are reliably incorrect, so I try to confirm everything personally when possible
• Nintendo keeps changing games in tiny ways that most people never notice
• Modern ROM dumps aren’t very reliable
• Nintendo has made weird, illogical choices with other re-releases in the past

Because of all this, the only way to be 100% confident is to play every version up until Link gets the Cane of Somaria.

Wii Virtual Console

The Japanese version of A Link to the Past was re-released on the Wii Virtual Console in December 2006. After a few hours of playing, we see the item is back to being called the “Cane of Somaria”.

Checking the Wii Virtual Console version

It's "Cane of Somaria" in this version

And it's "Cane of Somaria" in the item menu too

Wii U Virtual Console

The game was re-released again on the Wii U Virtual Console in February 2014. After playing far enough into the game, we see the item is called the “Cane of Somaria”.

The Wii U Virtual Console version calls it the "Cane of Somaria"

And it's called the "Cane of Somaria" in the item menu

New 3DS Virtual Console

The game was re-released yet again in March 2016 on the New 3DS’ Virtual Console. I don’t own a Japanese New 3DS and can’t really justify spending $200 to import one for this article alone, so I can’t confirm anything with this version yet.

Super Famicom Classic Mini

The Japanese version of A Link to the Past saw a re-release in October 2017 on the Nintendo Classic Mini: Super Famicom. It was one of 21 games available for the standalone system. As expected, the cane item is still called the “Cane of Somaria”.

It's the "Cane of Somaria" in this miniature Super Famicom version (ps please pay no attention to my TV stands)

And it's the "Cane of Somaria" in the item menu too

Super Famicom Nintendo Power

I almost forgot that the game saw a re-release way back in 1997 via Japan’s Nintendo Power service, which is unrelated to the Nintendo Power elsewhere. Basically, you could download Super Famicom games onto blank cartridges at shops for a smaller fee than buying the full, normal release.

Here's what the Japanese Nintendo Power cartridges looked like. The Nintendo Power service was discontinued long ago, but I have a few of the cartridges with some old games still on them

I got this one specifically because it had the Zelda game I was looking for

The item was called "Cane of Somaria" in this 1997 version too, so the change wasn't made at this point between the original Super Famicom release and the GBA release

And it's "Cane of Somaria" in the item menu too

Version Summary

After personally checking every current version of the Japanese version of A Link to the Past that I could, it appears only the Game Boy Advance version uses the name “Cane of Somasoa”.

Checking Strategy Guides

It seems only the GBA version uses the “Cane of Somasoa” name… but the fact that it’s spelled that way in three separate parts of the game’s programming is still very odd. Normally I’d chalk it up to being a persistent typo, but this time feels different.

With that in mind, I imported the three main Japanese strategy guides for the GBA version of A Link to the Past.

Famitsu’s GBA Strategy Guide

Cover of Famitsu's strategy guide

The item is called the "Cane of Somaria" in Famitsu's guide

Nintendo Dream’s GBA Strategy Guide

The cover of Nintendo Dream's GBA strategy guide

The item is called the "Cane of Somaria" in this guide too

Official Nintendo GBA Strategy Guide

The cover of Nintendo's official GBA strategy guide

Whoa! The item is called the "Cane of Somasoa" here!

And it's the "Cane of Somasoa" here

And here! What the heck?!

From all this, we’ve learned that:

• The unofficial guides by Famitsu and Nintendo Dream use the old “Cane of Somaria” name
• The official Nintendo guide uses the mysterious new “Cane of Somasoa” name

Wow, I wasn’t expecting that at all. Did only the official guide team get a memo about the new name, or did the Famitsu and Nintendo Dream people purposely put “Cane of Somaria” back in after noticing the mistake? It’s clear the unofficial guide writers had access to the full GBA game, so they surely saw the “Somasoa” name too.

I picked up these guides to help solve the original mystery, but now there’s just a new one added to the pile!

Thoughts

Unless Nintendo makes any official comments on the Somaria/Somasoa name change, I don’t think the mystery will ever be fully solved. I feel like the Somalia theory is pretty weak, but it also seems weird for the “Somasoa” typo to happen in so many different places and only in Nintendo’s strategy guide.

When A Link to the Past was ported to the GBA, all sorts of little things got changed. Some changes were obvious: Link shouts every time he swings a sword, menus had to be compressed, etc.

Other changes were less obvious, like a room that got changed in the Ice Palace, or occasional lines of text getting revised:

I guess all this is to say that since the GBA developers clearly had no qualms with changing gameplay mechanics, dungeon layouts, audio clips, and even important and famous dialogue, it’s no surprise that a little old cane got changed too.

The question remains, though: why did the cane get its name changed? Who made the decision, and why? If it wasn’t an out-of-control typo, it seems like such a random thing to rename out of everything else. And why was it only changed in Nintendo’s official guide too?

So although there’s still no answer to these mysteries, it’s been a weird ride trying to solve it. At the very least, I hope it’s been an entertaining look at how detailed my professional work and my Legends of Localization research is behind the scenes. And if you have any ideas, theories, or leads of your own, definitely share them in the comments or on Twitter. Who knows, maybe someday I’ll get to update this article with the final answer!

If you enjoyed this inside look at my game research process, you'll like the time I used an old computer to confirm a rumor about kangaroos and the time I uncovered 32 secret endings in Japanese Zero Wing!