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Games with the worst translations
- Thread starter CrazyDude
- Start date
Just take it with you.
Member
Spelling your own company name wrong. D:!
Natsume
Maybe. They may have been using an alternate romanization for Natsume though.
Don't forget Karl Boss!
Final Fantasy Tactics
There's no such character in this game!
I just beat Legend of Dragoon, and while I don't know what the quality of the Japanese was, the English translation is all sorts of bad.
There are also tons of errors between addition attacks and what the characters actually say "Flower Storm written" vs "Blossom Storm (said)." or "Flurry of Styx" vs. "Ferry of Styx."
There are also tons of errors between addition attacks and what the characters actually say "Flower Storm written" vs "Blossom Storm (said)." or "Flurry of Styx" vs. "Ferry of Styx."
Most of the Harvest Moon games. There was an entire line in Friends of Mineral Town for GBA that was entirely in Japanese...in the English translation.
Breath of Fire II is pretty terrible too, but at least fans retranslated it...I wish they'd use that translation for the Wii U VC.
Breath of Fire II is pretty terrible too, but at least fans retranslated it...I wish they'd use that translation for the Wii U VC.
Um... No. That's how it is suppose to be. Different accents across different areas of the game instead of the same thing throughout makes for a great localization and translation.
Black Door
Banned
^ Half the game's dialogue wasn't translated. I think that'd qualify for a "bad translation."
I had absolutely zero idea what was going on in BoF II because of the "translation." Got pissed off when the GBA port came out and Crapcom just inserted the SNES script into the game instead of a proper localization.
I had absolutely zero idea what was going on in BoF II because of the "translation." Got pissed off when the GBA port came out and Crapcom just inserted the SNES script into the game instead of a proper localization.
Wild Arms 2 was very oddly worded. Especially the lizard characters Liz and Ard, whose diction may have been an attempt at humor, but I found it annoying more often than not. But it wasn't just those characters, the script was very awkward (and slightly confusing) the way they threw in game specific diction, such as "Pillars", quotes and all. Seemed redundant at times too, and it always seemed like everybody spoke more words than they needed to when getting a point across.
No. Each region has its own accent.
MyWhiteRequiem
Member
No one's mentioned Castle Shikigami 2 yet?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GVOZai8cFRI
A game with translation so bad it was actually hilariously good, and spurred Xseed to INTENTIONALLY butcher the sequel's localization in order to remain true to the original.
I played this game just to hear the dialogue.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GVOZai8cFRI
A game with translation so bad it was actually hilariously good, and spurred Xseed to INTENTIONALLY butcher the sequel's localization in order to remain true to the original.
I played this game just to hear the dialogue.
malboroking
Banned
The German translation of FF7 was based on the English translation... soooooo yeah, it went from bad to worse.
C.Olimar788
Member
Nicalis' translation should get a special mention. It's not an awful translation in and of itself, but it's vastly inferior to the pre-existing fan translation. Which was made by fans, for free, and there's evidence to suggest that the fan translation was used in early builds of Nicalis' Cave Story variations. So... why not just use the superior, original version? I sincerely doubt any of the fan translators would have had an issue with it.
No, your stupid!
Violence Jack
Member
Oh Crime City. How I love your Engrish.
I remember when you could connect the GBA and GameCube games to do stuff and the harvest goddess or whatever would ask if you want to link and the "yes" and "no" options were swapped. The instruction booklet said something like "The goddess loves to play tricks! Pick "no" if you mean "yes!""
KojiKnight
Member
You want to talk about messed up translations in Mineral town... There was actually a line by the priest (name escapes me) that was perfectly translated... into German... in the English translation. Don't even TRY to figure that one out.
Freaky Fred
Banned
I remember Final Fantasy Tactics having some hilarious dialog
Acquiescence
Member
may not be real
HiddenWings
Member
This wouldn't be so bad if it was consistently bad, but they couldn't even track the proper nouns in this game. "Mt. Dragon Tomb" and "The Mountain of Mortal Dragons" are the same damn place translated two different ways.
On a different note, the rose storm/blossom storm thing is odd. The first character to do it says blossom storm, and has cherry petals. The other character has roses and calls it correctly. I'm going to put that one down to engine limitations.
"Come on, nice guy! But your life is mine very soon."
What makes this game's bad translation so awesome is that they hired some guy
off the street?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BEtWrX5Jn1w
I'm pretty sure they are not translation errors. It's an elaborate way to make accents in a game with no speech. It's all over the place in that game.
Exotoro
Member
Garcia
Member
It varies from region to region. That screenshot is how the game greets you into its world plagued with foreign accents.
As a foreigner that wasn't used to "read" accents the entire process of translating those dialogues into speech proved to quite annoying throughout the whole game. For native english speakers it's not even close to being bad, but for all of us who aren't it was quite a bother.
Also, the game didn't really need any accents at all to be "good" (I found DQIV mediocre at best). I'm currently about to finish DQV and it is by far the most satisfying RPG I've had the chance to play in quite some time and it didn't have to rely on unnecessary accents scattered throughout the world just to be appealing or unique.
Meccanical
Member
I will now live out my life according to this mantra.
Darth_Caedus
No longer canonical
It is in the visual novel and it's not a mistake. If you listen/read the whole conversation it makes sense with context.
Edit: They also say it later in the game as well.
AlteredForms
Banned
I'm not sure if this is a mistranslation or a lack of understanding about the English language. Either way, it doesn't stop it from being absolutely hilarious.
CROKI STARE AH!
Gunstar Ikari
Unconfirmed Member
Mega Man Battle Network 4
may not be real
I've always loved this what is it supposedly from?
Shouta
Member
I laughed.
Anyway, WA2 was very awkward and could've been more interesting with a better translation. Legend of Dragoon and Breath of Fire 2 (1 as well to an extent) was also the same way. I used to keep a list of this but I don't know where I placed it. =(
AlteredForms
Banned
Final Fight.
Final Fantasy Tactics was half translated by the same translator as FF7 and half by some guys with their Japanese-English dictionary who didn't know the English they were translating into. Examples include every instance of the word "breath" (including being translated from the actual Japanese word for breath) in skill names being rendered as "bracelet" and rendering the job titles "Viscount", "Rune Knight", and "Wild Boar" as "Bi-count", "Lune Knight", and "Wildbow".
The Stig
Banned
The dialog in 1 is not bad, but the abbreviations in the equipment and item names are sooo bad. I think Woolsey did the best he could with the technical limitations he had though. You can tell 1 was translated by someone who actually speaks English, unlike 2 where it is so incredibly literal that it's obvious it was a Japanese person with a dictionary.
Garcia
Member
Mega Man Battle Network 4
That's so radical!
SolsticeZero
Banned
End screen of Ghostbusters on the NES:
MaximoffZero
Banned
Heck, I'm going to print out the pic and tape it to the door to my condo!
Garcia
Member
I bursted out laughing. "Come inchu my world"
PepsimanVsJoe
Member
Oh Crime City. How I love your Engrish.
Let's go for a kill time!
Best intro ever.
