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Obligatory Spoiler Warning.



I've been playing a translated ROM of FFIV, Japanese Hardtype and when I came to the part where Palom and Porom sniff out Baigan. The funny thing though, is that they insult him by saying they bet William Shatner could act better than him.

Then, after beating up Cagnazzo, Cid bursts in and says he's going to get Medieval on somebody's a**. Pulp Fiction anybody?

And last but not least, in Mythril Town (Silvera), the pig, frog, and mini-man that dance are named the Mythril Boys. They quote a couple of lines from the Backstreet Boys' song Backstreet's Back.

I just wondered if the William Shatner reference was really in the original Japanese version, or if this is just a little joke thrown in by the translator. The latter theory was strengthed by the following jokes. Just thought I'd share this with everyone.

Translations are ALL fan-made, so the chances that you'd run into changes on the translator's part are anywhere between "definite" to "absolutely certain."

Let's be honest here, does the average japanese gamer know who William Shatner is? Or what "Pulp fiction" is? Or, better yet, who the Backstreet boys are? Unless you're an anime fanatic, you probably wouldn't know who Megumi Hayashibara (sp?) is anymore than they would know who Celine Dion is.

No. It's not in the original japanese version.

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"Judge not a man by his thoughts and words, but by
the quality and quantity of liquor in his possession
and the likelyhood of him sharing."

Pulp Fiction -- 1994
Backstreet Boys -- 1996
Final Fantasy 4 (Super Famicom) -- 1990

Your translation takes some interesting liberties with pop culture, it seems.

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Wasabi Viniagrette: Mix 1/3 C rice vinegar, 2 Tbsp sesame oil, and 2 tsp powdered wasabi. Excellent over cold udon noodles and shiitake mushrooms for a Japanese pasta salad.

I think my favourite quote from the FFIV translated rom has to be...

"Cabbage Patch meets the Manson Family"

in reference to Calcobrena.

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kame, tortue, tortuga, schildkröte, tartaruga, turtle

"Arthur Dent?"
"Yes."
"Arthur Philip Dent?"
"Yes."
"You're a total knee biter."

The translation he is playing, to the best of my knowledge (I'm thinking Tiddles would answer with certainty, because he and I were just discussing this last week) is the J2E 10th Anniversary release. Therefore, it would be from late 2000/early 2001.

It's important to note, as always, that there is no such thing as translation in a game. Or, at least, there shouldn't be. A literal translation from Japanese to English would probably be readable, but nuance, syntax, and outside references probably would not be familiar to the American gamer - and, each translator would likely find subtle differences in what was "literal" anyway. What has been done here is a localisation in which the translation was done but items that would be familiar to Japanese but not Americans were replaced with items that may or may not be the opposite.

And I can't speak for the Japanese, but I think saying that "they don't know who Shatner/Backstreet/etc. is/are" is off base by a long shot.

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"To create something great, you need the means to make a lot of really bad crap." - Kevin Kelly

Why aren't you shopping AmaCoN?

Quote (Rangers51 @ 7th June 2005 06:33)

And I can't speak for the Japanese, but I think saying that "they don't know who Shatner/Backstreet/etc. is/are" is off base by a long shot.

Unless the japanese have developped an uncanny ability to see in the future, I doubt they would have known who these people were. Much less felt they were known enough to be made into jokes for the casual time-seeing japanese gamer to read and draw amusement from.

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"Judge not a man by his thoughts and words, but by
the quality and quantity of liquor in his possession
and the likelyhood of him sharing."

Quote (Silverlance @ 7th June 2005 08:07)

Quote (Rangers51 @ 7th June 2005 06:33)

And I can't speak for the Japanese, but I think saying that "they don't know who Shatner/Backstreet/etc. is/are" is off base by a long shot.

Unless the japanese have developped an uncanny ability to see in the future, I doubt they would have known who these people were. Much less felt they were known enough to be made into jokes for the casual time-seeing japanese gamer to read and draw amusement from.

My answer is based upon the fact that the 10th Anniversary patch was released, as I say, in 2000/2001. Though they're not in the original, there could well be similar cultural references used in the original text that a localisation team would have updated for an American audience in that year. And to say that the Japanese would have been totally ignorant of the references J2E chose seems like a big leap - it's not as if Shatner and Backstreet exist only in the Western Hemisphere. I'm not saying it's likely that they would have USED them, were the original produced in 2000, just more possible than you think. Sorry to draw your ire over such a point.

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"To create something great, you need the means to make a lot of really bad crap." - Kevin Kelly

Why aren't you shopping AmaCoN?

Cultural referances? How do you people notice these things? What version do they crack the joke about WIlliam Shatner in anyway?

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- The problem isn't relgion, the problem is religious tolerance -

Quote (Dark_Kain_24 @ 17th June 2005 19:38)

Cultural referances? How do you people notice these things? What version do they crack the joke about WIlliam Shatner in anyway?

They're noticed through reading. Reading might have answered your second question, too - best recollection so far presented is that it's the J2E fantranslated ROM.

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"To create something great, you need the means to make a lot of really bad crap." - Kevin Kelly

Why aren't you shopping AmaCoN?

I always hate when the localization teams do things like this. Really, would Palom and Porom in their world, know who the hell William Shatner is? Definitely out-of-character for the two and the pop-culture reference needs shot in the face.

Much like all the pop-culture references in Lunar and Lunar 2 are totally inappropriate. It really takes away from the feel of any fantasy or newly created world when things like this are added.



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Now the story's played out like this. Just like a paperback novel. Let's rewrite an ending that fits.

That's a fair point, in the sense of detracting from a fantasy world. But given that there are cultural references in the original version of a game, would you rather localisation teams keep those intact even if they mean nothing to 90% of the audience the translation would reach? I'd say not: it's just baffling.

Replacing them with cultural references relevant to the target audience seems the only sensible response, to me. What else can you do? "I think Espolio IV is more convincing than you" fits into a fantasy world but doesn't mean anything to me, the humble player. "I think Espolio IV is more convincing than you. Espolio IV is a terrible actor!" gets the point across but is clumsy and weak. You could always remove all cultural references, but that isn't really being true to the original either.

(Not that there's necessarily an exact equivalent to the William Shatner line in the original FF4j. I wouldn't know. But you see what I'm driving at, I'm sure.)

Oh I'm aware that references as such are made in the original Japanese games. I think it's dumb but I suppose there's nothing I can do about it.

I think it's something that a good translator should have on mind though. William Shatner doesn't exist in the world of FFIV, and neither do the backstreet boys. Most of these things aren't even cute.

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Now the story's played out like this. Just like a paperback novel. Let's rewrite an ending that fits.