Woolseyism/Video Games: Difference between revisions
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{{trope}}
[[File:findthis_woolsey_4984.png|link=Chrono Trigger
A subset of [[Woolseyism]]; named for a video game translator, it's only natural that there'd be a whole lot of examples!
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== ''[[Final Fantasy]]'' ==
* In ''[[Final Fantasy IV:
* ''[[
{{quote|
** There is also a nameless NPC scholar who comments, "[[Reading Rainbow|Take a look, it's in this book!]]" And then there's Homer's "I Am So Smart" song from [[The Simpsons]] being paid homage to by one of Bartz/Butz's childhood friend. There's also the Gladiator's special attack, which "when successful, [[Attack Its Weak Point|hits [enemies'] weak points]] [[For Massive Damage
* The most famous example of Woolsey's handiwork is probably ''[[Final Fantasy VI]]'', from which the main [[Woolseyism]] page takes its image. It's also his most effective example. Unlike the GBA re-releases of ''[[Final Fantasy IV]]'' and ''[[Final Fantasy V]]'', Square-Enix chose not to redo the English script from the ground up, but rather expand upon Woolsey's work.
** Terra Branford was originally named "Tina" in the Japanese version. While "Tina" no doubt sounds sufficiently exotic to Japanese speakers, it's not very evocative to English speakers, so Woolsey changed it. The earth connotations of her new name also unintentionally created a parallel between the other heroine, Celes.
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** The ''[[Final Fantasy VI]] Advance'' remake for the game, released twelve years later, contains an [[NPC]] [[Take That|who takes a shot]] at a [[Fan Translation]] of the game which was far more literal -- and not nearly as entertaining. It also changed a lot of Kefka's lines, such as (among others), Kefka's line in the picture on [[Woolseyism]] to "son of a sandworm". Both work in the context, but there are no submarines in the game. There's also Kefka's "HATE HATE HATE" speech, which oddly enough, was referenced in the English translation of ''[[Dissidia Final Fantasy]]'' several years later, since in the Japanese version he says "dammit dammit dammit" instead of "hate hate hate", making the leap pretty easy.
** Perhaps even more well known than the 'Son of a submariner!' quote was {{spoiler|Darryl's grave, in the World of Ruin.}} Viewed backwards, the headstone read, 'The World Is Square,' which was Square's advertising slogan at the time.
** The Woolseyisms to Kefka's dialogue made his lines, in addition to more hilarious, also a lot more horrifying and creepy. For instance, in the scene where he kills General Leo, due to [[Never Say "Die"|obvious restrictions at the time]], Kefka remarks that, when reporting to Gestahl about the success, he'll also mention that he merely had to "exterminate a traitor", making the delivery a lot more creepy than simply saying dispose. Similarly, when the Esper reinforcements arrive at Thalmasa shortly thereafter, Kefka remarks when they arrive "I'd say you're all charged up, boys and girls...or whatever... Say, remind me to show you my [[Powered
** The name of "Espers" for the summoned beasts was another Woolseyism--in Japanese, they were called ''genjū'' (幻獣), which roughly means "phantom beast"<ref>("phantom" as in "imaginary" or "a figment")</ref>, a term used in many other games in the series. You wouldn't generally find this word in a Japanese dictionary, even though it is used in several other fantasy/sci-fi contexts; it may have ''itself'' been a Woolseyism coined for [[Jorge Luis Borges]]' ''Book of Imaginary Beings''. Though the actual reason for the name change was to get around the six-character limit (five for menus), the new name was appreciated for being unique. Later FF localizations have similarly deviated from the Japanese term to great effect on the script (Eidolon in particular) and ''[[Final Fantasy XII]]'' re-used it as a homage.
** When attempting to fit spells into the six-character limit the game had, some solutions were inelegant (ANTDOT = Antidote) while others were so well done its hard to believe: "Merton" is "Meltdown."
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** Incidentally, his name became Djidane in France to avoid the confusion. Probably because djinns are not far from gypsies in the French imagination.
** The Spanish translation also changed it to "Yitán". If we keep in mind that Zidenin Zidane was playing in Spain during the time the game was released in Europe and that Spanish people are arguably even bigger football nuts, Eduardo López (the game's Spanish translator) probably thought it was better not to distract the players imagination.
* Tida to [[Final Fantasy X|Tidus]]. Tida is Okinawan for "sun", contrasting with Yuna, which means "night" in the same language. But "Tida" doesn't sound masculine to the Western ear, (let's face it, the kid needs all the help he can get,) and the ocean connotations of "Tidus" are hardly inappropriate. The English version had many other changes made [[Lip Lock|to fit the lip-movement of the characters]] -- thanks to that, "shibito" (corpse -- though in context, more along the lines of "zombie" or "ghoul"; the ''[[Siren (
** Amusingly, {{spoiler|the lip movement for "Thank You" is virtually identical to the Japanese "I love you", Aishiteru.}}
* In ''[[Final Fantasy XIII]]'', the names for the classes in the Paradigm shift are a described from more of a Gameplay term in Japan. In Japanese, they translate to Attacker, Blaster, Defender, Enhancer, Jammer, and Healer. In English at least, they're translated to appear more like military roles, so they're Commando, Ravager, Sentinel, Synergist, Saboteur, and Medic (respectively). The French version use both literal translation and Woolseyism for the Paradigm : Attaquant(Attacker), Ravageur(Destroyer), Défenseur (Defender), Tacticien (Tactician), Saboteur and Soigneur (Healer). A lot of the character's lines are also Woolseyied in order to make the characters sound closer to each other (dropping a pronoun, using a French pun or expression...). German translators decided to do.... something completely different! You get to choose a 'Brecher' (Breaker), 'Verheerer' (Devastator), 'Verteidiger' (Defender), 'Heiler' (Healer, both close to the original for once), 'Augmentor' (something nobody ever uses, comes from the english "augment", germans love english) and 'Manipulator' (means pretty much what the English word means). Oh and for the record, the thing with Orphan being a... well, orphan? The translators made him Orphanus because germans hate speaking names.
* Twice now, [[Square Enix]] has used the word "éclair", French for lightning, as the name for something. And in both instances it was changed to something that wouldn't bring to mind pastries for the English version. In ''[[Kingdom Hearts: 358/2 Days
* A Kefka-related woolseyism also occurred in ''[[Dissidia Final Fantasy]]''. After Zidane beats Kefka and demands to know where Bartz is, he originally states in the Japanese version that "the mouse [Bartz] is in the... [face closeup] PAWS [face zoom back] ...of the enemy!" The dub makes the line a lot more hilarious by having Kefka say "I'm afraid the mouse is [face closeup] '''SMACK!''' [face zoom back] ...dab-in-the-middle-of-enemy-territory!"
* In Final Fantasy 4's initial US release, the Earth fiend was named "Milon." In subsequent releases, his name was returned to its true form, "Scarmiglione." This change is not immediately obvious, but... "scar MI g L i ON e" it actually makes perfect sense.
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== ''[[Metal Gear]]'' Series ==
* The manual for the NES version of ''[[Metal Gear]]'' calls the [[Big Bad]] Colonel Vermon Cataffy (a [[Take That]] at Moammar Gadaffi), and the wind-cheating suit is called the "Bomb Blast Suit".
** Of course, most people were quite put off with it, along with most of the other stuff about changing most of the story. For instance, the Commanding Officer for Snake was called Commander South (presumably as a [[Shout
** You can thank Konami USA's localization team for that. As noted under [[They Just Didn't Care]], whoever was in charge of punching up instruction manual copies for all of Konami's NES titles thought himself ''much'' funnier than he actually was.
* In ''[[Metal Gear Solid]]'', Mei Ling, a character responsible for saving the game, would read out a Chinese proverb, and then read out the same characters with a coherent Japanese reading to relate to Snake's current situation. Since it was completely untranslatable, the localiser Jeremy Blaustein rewrote Mei Ling's dialogue from whole cloth, with the result that her sphere broadened--she now quoted Western literature and various thinkers as well as Chinese proverbs.
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*** Unless you take it out of context as him [[Fridge Brilliance|experiencing nostalgic deja vu]].
** Revolver Ocelot merely says "Hiding won't help you!" in the original script for ''[[Metal Gear Solid]].'' He follows it up with the added line, "I understand the bullets, you see...I make them go where I want to!" in reference to his uncanny talent with ricochets.
** The [[Fan Translation]] of ''[[Metal Gear 2
** There's a [[Double Entendre]] one during the Kaz date in ''[[Metal Gear Solid Peace Walker]]'', which is a [[Gay Option]] with a character who's supposed to be a massive [[Casanova]] towards women. When interrogating him in the Japanese version, he'll say something along the lines of "I'm not hiding anything!" - but in the English version, he says "No skeletons in my... [[Armored Closet Gay|closet]]." Tee hee.
*** Similarly, because of the various Real Life products being removed for copyright issues in the North American versions, most of the model viewer descriptions were changed, with Narc Soda and the Les Enfants Terribles children making cameos as a result, and it also added in that Curry was Kazuhira Miller's favorite dish, and it also referred to Drebin's drink in ''[[Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots]]'' (as they gave Pepsi Nex's replacement, zero-calorie soda, the design of Narc Soda).
** In ''[[Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty]]'', Rose recalls mistakenly saying that the building that [[King Kong]] climbed was the [[Too Soon|Twin Towers]], mixing it up with ''[[The Towering Inferno]]''. The game was mastered literally ''days'' after 9/11, so in the English translation it was changed to the Chrysler Building, mixing it up with the building in the American ''[[Godzilla]]''. This is somewhat more appropriate, first because ''Gozilla'' and ''King Kong'' are both giant monster movies (rather than a giant monster movie and a disaster movie like in the original), and secondly because [[Hideo Kojima]] compared Raiden and Snake to King Kong (a romantic monster who came from nature and gets to return there) and Godzilla (a noble monster created by humans) respectively in [[Word of God]].
== ''[[Chrono Trigger]]'' Series ==
* The [[Goldfish Poop Gang]] in ''[[
** This created something of a problem when the Japanese version of ''[[
* Gaspar's message is simple: "talk to your party members for sidequest clues." But for some reason, this appears in the English version as, "One of you is close to someone who needs help...Find this person...fast." Consequently, American gamers searched high and low for some sort of lead, many of them [[Urban Legend of Zelda|assuming that the person in question was Princess Schala]]. This confusion probably contributed to Square adding a new quest explaining Schala's fate to the DS remake.
* The ''[[
* ''[[
* The gurus in ''[[
* The way Frog [[Ye Olde Butcherede Englishe|speaketh]]. In the original, he spoke in normal Japanese, and in a rather blunt manner. In the DS version, he lost his accent, but remained quite polite. It was quite baffling that no one else in 600A.D. talked like this, and that he used to speak normally before his transformation. However, many old school fans mourned the loss of the accent.
** The sudden accent could be interpreted as Frog overdoing things slightly in his attempts to [[Take Up My Sword|become a great knight to avenge Cyrus]].
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* "Masamune," indeed. Which brings up the peculiar notion of a famous Japanese swordsmith crafting a distinctly European broadsword. The change of the sword's name from "Grandleon" mystifies to this day.
** The sequel establishes that the Masamune is such a powerful weapon of destiny that it's in fact a [[Swiss Army Weapon]] that adepts itself to the style of its chosen user, hence why the "Mastermune" is such a radically different kind of weapon from the original Masamune/Grandleon.
* According to ''[[
== Pokemon ==
* The translator of ''[[
** And a [[Shout
*** Ironically, half the memes that made it into the games will probably get you probated or banned if you actually attempt to use them on the forums themselves.
*** The same bloke, in a ''Let's Horribly Break Pokémon Blue'' thread, said that translating ''mori no yōkan'' <ref>''yōkan is a jellied dessert, and also a homophone for the Japanese word for "Manor"''</ref> to "Old Chateau"/"Old Gateau" was his doing, and, that if he was localizing [[Pokémon Gold Silver and Crystal|Gold/Silver/Crystal]], he'd call the RageCandyBar (literal translation) "Cake of Rage" (the latter being mentioned after about half a page of making fun of said item, calling it the "angersnack").
** In ''[[
** And again with ''[[Pokémon Diamond Pearl and Platinum|Diamond/Pearl/Platinum]]'', there is the case of Fantina/Melissa. Once again, like the ''[[Final Fantasy VI]]'' example above, is a textbook case of [[Appeal Dissonance]] (Westerner's names sounding exotic to Easterner's ears). It's stated that Fantina is not from the Sinnoh region, or for that matter, whatever country the Pokémon games are set in. So, in the original Japanese, she's given a Western sounding name: Melissa, and uses [[Gratuitous English]] in her speech. When localized, they kept the "foreigner" aspect of her personality, but changed it so that she now drops French phrases and expressions in her speech (e.g. "Très bien!" and "___ how you say, "___").
** Heck, the names of about 3/4 the Pokémon themselves are Woolseyisms, translated to all sorts of [[Punny Name|punny names]] in every language that the games are released in. The exceptions are most legendaries (who the creators try to fit as many languages as possible), and other Pokémon with multilingual puns (such as Pikachu). Another good example is Rhydon, who was named Saidon in Japan: "sai" means rhinoceros, and "don" is a suffix for most dinosaurs. Therefore, the translators could make a name with the same vowel sounds and pun.
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** In ''[[Pokémon Black and White]]'', the Pokemon Audino is derived from "audio" (it uses its earlobes as stethoscopes) as well as "I dunno". This is pretty much the same thing in its Japanese name, Tabunne -- "Tabun ne" means "maybe", but is also derived from "tabun", meaning "many are heard" (or "mimitabu", meaning "earlobe"). Other translations use similar wordplay, based on an expression along the lines of "maybe" (or in German, "Oh, yes!"; in French, "no but yes", a common expression too) while containing a hearing-related pun.
** A couple more examples: Ononokusu became Haxorus in the English version, which retains ax- and dinosaur-related puns while inserting [[Leet Lingo]]. And in the French version, Desumasu/Yamask was translated as "Tutafeh", which not only contains "Tut-" as in Tutankhamun but is also a play on "tout à fait", which means "indeed". Its evolution, "Tutankafer" (Cofagrigus), managed to keep the same syllables and add another pun: Tutankhamun + "tant qu'à faire", a colloquial expression meaning something along the lines of "might as well".
** Another example from ''[[Pokémon Black and White]]'': while the names for most trainers in Nimbasa's sports grounds seem rather random in Japanese and English, German players can encounter Smashers [
** And the reference to the hilarious Canadian soap opera/téléroman [
** The Japanese version of ''Black'' and ''White'' and their sequels has a female character named ベル. While the European Spanish, German, and Italian releases translate her name literally as variations of Bel, the English and French versions change it to Bianca, which is more obviously a name and happens to have the same meaning (Bel is Slavic for "white", Bianca is feminine Italian for the same).
== Others ==
* In ''[[Super Mario Bros.]]'' games since the 1980s (notably with the exception of the ''[[Super Mario Bros Super Show]]'' and the ''[[Super Mario Bros. (
** In fact, ''every'' name coined by translators has been retained once Nintendo started paying more attention to what their Western branches were doing, with the exception of Princess Toadstool, whose name was changed back to Peach in ''Yoshi's Safari''.
*** Even in Peach's case, they tied the issue up neatly. In ''[[
** "Bowser" has been given a nod ''once'' in the Japanese games: in Mario Kart Wii, one of the motorcycles, shaped like Bowser's head, is called the '''Super Bowser''' (changed to Bowser Bike or Flame Runner for other regions).
** At end of ''[[
* ''[[Secret of Mana]]'' is rarely mentioned as a case against Woolsey's overall quality, but it was a pretty bad job. Not even the Sprite's gender was kept straight.
** Even so, if [[The Other Wiki]] is to be trusted, it's hard not to love meeting a robotic enemy named "[[Shout
*** To be fair, this was more due to lack of hardware space. [http://hg101.kontek.net/localization/localization.htm In Woolsey's words], "that game nearly killed me."
* The ''[[Paper Mario (
** And who could forget the hilarious Internet speak employed by the mind-controlled Hammer Brothers in ''[[Mario
*** Though, it is worth noting that katakana are often used in Japanese for spelling out foreign words and Japanese words spoken in a foreign accent; also, early computers used katakana exclusively due to memory limitations, so there is a certain degree of similarity.
** Unsurprisingly, ''[[
** Another notable example is Fawful from ''[[Mario
** In ''[[
*** In the same game, the Japanese names of Hemogurobin, Enajī and Shinapun (Hemoglobin, Energy and a play on Shinapusu (Synapse) respectively) were changed to the much more clever-sounding Emoglobin, PEP and Napse. Changing "Metakoro Byou" (literally "Very Rolling Disease") to "The Blorbs" is a good example too... okay, let's just say there are millions of examples in this game and be done with it.
** The parrot underneath Creepy Steeple in TTYD says "Good morning, good morning", "Good day, good day", and "Go away, go away!" in Japanese. In English, it says "Good day! Good day!", "Pretty bird! Pretty bird!", and [[Super Mario Sunshine
** ''[[
** It's very acceptable that these games where changed. Much of the dialogue is comedy. Jokes that are funny in Japan likely would have been lost in translation.
* The characters in the ''[[Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney]]'' series all had their names Americanized in the localization, but the writers took great care to retain the subtle wordplay and puns of the original. "Kamen Mask", for example, was translated as "Mask* DeMasque", since ''kamen'' is Japanese for ''mask''. The English version's references to pop culture and [[Memetic Mutation|Internet memes]] also easily replace similar jokes in the Japanese script while endearing the games to the fanbase.
** The main character's name needs to be mentioned too. In Japanese, his surname is Naruhodō, a pun on the phrase "naruhodo", meaning "I see" (as in "I understand"). In the English version, his surname is Wright, [[Captain Obvious|which sounds like "right"]].
** In a truly mind-bending example from the third-game, the Judge protests that he's "no [[Final Fantasy IV|spoony]] [[Spoony Bard|bard]]." This may be the first example of a ''recursive'' Woolseyism.
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** Steel Samurai might actually be explainable as a fad, though. Given that in western culture the samurai is considered one of the top tier of... "older" solider types, being overshadowed only by the ninja in Asian warrior popularity in the U.S., it's very possible that the Steel Samurai and the female followup were born of a stroke of sudden inspiration, and because the idea was so catchy, and possibly pretty original for what one can do with "good guy has great morals and beats the bad guys with bad morals" in terms of American television, the producers agreed and decided to let it go on.
*** Speaking of, Steel Samurai got a pretty good one himself. His Japanese name, Tonosaman, is a "hero-fied" version of ''tonosama'', which means, roughly, "feudal lord." Combining his affluence with his metallic appearance gave a genuinely awesome sounding name for Western Audiences.
** Changing Franziska von Karma (Karuma Mei in the Japanese version) from being American to being German might count as this too.
* Opinions on the translations of the late [[Working Designs]] are split -- fans of the company insist their changes are Woolseyisms, but others consider them [[Macekre|Macekres]].
** While we're on the topic of Working Designs, their work with ''[[Thunder Force]] V'' involved taking the on-screen boss descriptions, which were already in [[Gratuitous English]] in the Japanese version, and rewriting them to read more smoothly. The boss of Stage 2, [[Iron Maiden
{{quote|
'''North American version:''' "Alive but dead, it fears nothing and decimates all." ''(Your ship's computer still reads the Japanese version text, however.)'' }}
* One excellent Woolseyism occurs in the first two ''[[Shadow Hearts]]'' games, where, for the US and EU releases, the [[But Not Too Foreign|Half-Japanese, Half-Russian]] male lead's name is changed from pseudo-Russian [[Foreign Sounding Gibberish]] to "Yuri", a name that's authentically both Russian and Japanese...even if it's normally used for differing genders in the countries (male in Russia, female in Japan).
** For the record, Yuri's original name was the awkward-as-hell Urmnauf. Yeah.
* Planet names in the European version of ''[[Meteos]]'' were heavily Woolseyised compared to their American counterparts (often straight transliterations from the Japanese planet names), giving them a more Greek or Latin feel. Example substitutions include "Gigantis" for "Yooj", "Aetheria" for "Brabbit" and "Insomnis" for "Dawndus".
* An early, minor Woolseyism took place in the translation of ''[[Castlevania III:
** The name ''[[Castlevania]]'' itself is a Woolseyism; the series is called ''Akumajou Dracula'' (literally "Demon Castle Dracula") in Japan.
*** Except... for the three games that were named ''Castlevania'', even in Japan: ''[[Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance|Harmony of Dissonance]]'', ''Aria of Sorrow'', and ''[[Castlevania: Lament of Innocence|Lament of Innocence]]''.
** In the ''[[Castlevania: Chronicles of Sorrow|Sorrow]]'' games, native Japanese student "Souma Kurusu" became a foreign transfer student named "Soma Cruz".
** "Johnny Morris" from ''[[Castlevania Bloodlines]]'' had his name changed to the non-diminutive form "John Morris" in the English versions.
** Many enemy names have this treatment in later ''Castlevania'' titles. For example: A skeleton enemy that kicks its own head around as an attack, introduced in ''[[Castlevania: Symphony of the Night]]'', is given the incredibly unimaginative name "Soccer Boy" in the original Japanese game, while in the English translation is instead cleverly called "[[Hamlet|Yorick]]".
** One of the few aversions until recently was with the whip-using skeleton, whose Japanese name was a pun of Simon Belmont's first name. It's English name went from the [[Blind Idiot Translation]] of "Gates of Death" in ''[[Castlevania III]]'' to the much more suitable localization of "Hellmont" in ''[[Castlevania: Harmony of Despair]]''.
* Despite the terrible translations of ''[[
** The sequel series, ''[[Mega Man Star Force]]'', also has its share of good localization points, the foremost being changing "Ox" and "Harp" to "Taurus" and "Lyra" to reflect the [[Theme Naming|constellation-based naming scheme]] of the alien characters. For some reason, however, Lyra and Sonia still combine to form [[Dub
** There's another one from ''[[Mega Man Star Force]]'' that concerns the name of Aaron Boreal's lab. In the Japanese, AMAKEN was an abbreviated shorthand for "Amachi's Laboratory". The localization team turned it into [[Fun
* A Woolseyism appears in the ''[[Mega Man Zero]]'' series with the name Dr. Weil. In Japan, he is known as Dr. Vile, [[One Steve Limit|which is awfully close to the name of]] [[Mega Man X
** Note that in the Japanese version of ''[[
* ''[[Mega Man (
* Several Woolseyisms in ''[[Valkyrie Profile]]''. Most notable was the change of "Ahly"'s name to "Hrist", as the latter is a valkyrie in Norse mythology.
** Valkyrie Profile: Covenant of the Plume actually translated the original, modern Japanese into dated English. The result was that the localized version had a very great deal more immersion and atmosphere than the original.
** Some of the Woolseyisms in ''[[Valkyrie Profile]]'' were actually ''correcting'' a few mistakes. Such as switching Freya and Frey around (Even though Frey was based off of Freyr and was obviously male but [[She's a Man In Japan|no way to fix that]]) and changing a few enemies names. Such as Azuratosa to Akhetamen, which sounds a little more Egyptian, and Jdwallace to Genevieve, the latter of which actually ''means'' something.
*** For those who are curious, Genevieve is the patron saint of Paris in Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Christianity. Still not quite...accurate (Genevieve is a vampire seductress in the game) But it at least beats ''Jdwallace''.
* The head of the ''[[
** A lot of the enemy names were made into puns, in keeping with the comedic feel of the Mother series. A short list: Einswine (a brain-augmented pig), Navy SQUEAL (an aquatic Pigmask), and the Squawking [[Army of Darkness|Boomstick]] (an exploding chicken head on a stick)
** As well, his choice to change Yokuba, a rather major villain figure in the game, to Fassad, is considered by many to be a Woolseyism. Yokuba came from yokubari, meaning greed, something most players wouldn't get. Fassad comes from facade and fits remarkably well with the character.
*** [[Bilingual Bonus|'Fassad' is also Arabic for 'corruption', which makes it fit even better.]]
* In the US version of the SNES ports of ''[[Final Fight]]'' and ''[[Street Fighter]] Alpha 2'', the character Sodom has his name changed to Katana. Considering that his character is a Japan-ophile, the [[As Long
** Woolseyism could also be seen as the reason for the boss name shift in the ''[[Street Fighter]] II'' games. The names Balrog, Vega and M. Bison were shifted around (what with the whole [[You Wanna Get Sued?|"Mike Tyson might sue us!"]] mentality at the time) so that the boxer was named Balrog, the claw-wielder was named Vega, and the final boss/"dictator" became M. Bison.
*** There is a subtle touch here: Vega the character is Spanish, and 'Vega' is a common Spanish surname.
* The ''[[Advance Wars]]'' series has had a long history of doing this: For instance, the villain of the first two games was called "Herr Böse" -- meaning "Mr. Evil/Angry/Nasty" in German -- in the Japanese game. While undoubtedly exotic to the Japanese ear, it was slightly less impressive to the American/European markets and the villain was renamed "Sturm" (meaning "storm/tempest" in German) in the English script. Many of the other CO names were similarly reworked.
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*** And that's not even counting that whacked-out IDS agent in mission 24. In Dark Conflict, IDS Agent = Boring and Bland. In Days of Ruin: well, it can be summed up with "Screw this, I'm getting a parachute."
* Through the magic of the Woolseyism, a decidedly average Famicom platformer titled ''Magic John'' became a hilarious sendup of [[Totally Radical|'80s surfer dudes]] called ''Totally Rad''. [http://www.flammie.net/vse/things/rad/ Check out all the gnarly differences, dude!] Oddly enough, this example also involves a boring, generic John becoming a [[Totally Radical]] Jake.
* So many American and European ''[[Sonic the Hedgehog]]'' fans still prefer "Robotnik" over the Japanese "Eggman", even after the name Eggman got transplanted into the Western continuity in ''[[
** So much so that as of ''[[
*** In most games, he is now refered to as Dr. Eggman, but there are a few references here and there. In ''[[
*** [[Word of God|Yuji Naka himself]] [
** Also in ''[[Sonic the Hedgehog]]'', Fang the Sniper's name was toned down to Nack the Weasal in America and Europe.
* In ''[[Persona 3]]: FES'', the two game modes, called "Episode Yourself" and "Episode Aegis" was changed respectively to "The Journey" and "The Answer" in the localized version. Considering the theme of the story, this a much welcomed change compared to the rather Engrish names the original version used. Furthermore, the ultimate Persona, Orpheus Kai, which means "Reborn" or "Custom", was changed to Orpheus Telos. Telos is the Greek word for "goal" or "purpose." Similarly, Lucifel, the Angelic form of the demon Lucifer, had his name changed to "Helel" (the Hebrew name of the fallen angel) out of necessity to differentiate it from the demonic form of Lucifer.
** Additionally, in the original game, the period of time during which the team fought the Shadows was originally called "[[Exactly What It Says
** One of the social links is related to playing an MMO. In the Japanese version, the MMO was based off the original two ''Megami Tensei'' games for the Famicom, which were never released outside Japan. In the English version, all of these references were changed to refer to the earlier ''Persona'' games (or in one case, [[Shin Megami Tensei Nocturne|Nocturne]]), all but one of which were released in America.
** The soft drinks in vending machines. What was a Japanese-only drink turns into Starvicks (An unusual blend of coffee and cough syrup), 1up, Fountain Dew (an unusually yellow drink), Dr. Salt, Etc.
*** Don't forget the [[
** The archaic words used in the [[Arc Words]] "Nanji wa ware, ware wa nanji" gets changed into the similarly archaic [[Ye Olde Butcherede Englishe|"Thou art I, and I am thou"]]
* Alexander O. Smith's work on ''[[Vagrant Story]]'', the first ''[[Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney|Phoenix Wright]]'' game, ''[[Final Fantasy X]]'', and ''[[Final Fantasy XII]]'' (alongside Joseph Reeder) is rarely passed over in reviews of said games, usually being held up as hugely successful Japanese-to-English translations (at least when they're not being criticized for [[Purple Prose]] pretension).
** Apparently this sentiment is echoed in Japan as well--he was asked to provide the English lyrics for the two vocal songs on ''The Skies Above'', the second album by Nobuo Uematsu's band The Black Mages.
* A special case for ''[[Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan]]'': an [[Elite Beat Agents|entire sequel]] was made that transplanted the gameplay concepts to a setting (and soundtrack) that could be appreciated outside of Japan while still retaining the quirky appeal of the game that spawned it.
** And interestingly, the result was also a success in Japan.
* The English translation patch of ''[[
* ''[[
** Impolite speech in Japanese is ''very'' hard to translate into English, because the polite and impolite versions literally mean the same thing; however, using the impolite version in an appropriate setting connotes familiarity or intimate friendship (depending on how impolite you go), while in an inappropriate setting, it connotes disrespect, disgust, or hatred. Thus, "gangsta" speech is actually a really good analogue.
** The ''entire game'' was saturated with slang, which may or may not be a good thing for you. Even a certain button labeled simply "run from battle" in Japanese was edited to say "Gotta bounce!"
* Speaking of [[Square Enix]], Xion's attack the ends of ''[[Kingdom Hearts: 358/2 Days
** And speaking of ''[[Kingdom Hearts]]'', the original Japanese version of the first game had the battle with [[Fantasia|Chernabog]] set to the same music all the other heartless boss battles were set to. In the West? [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H1AJjZEWBcI Take a wild guess].
* As the creator of ''[[Katamari Damacy]]'' decided to leave the project when ''Me and My Katamari'' was being made, the Japanese script was therefore very dry and empty. The American translator was given the task to ghost-write the script entirely from scratch, and did so brilliantly. The King's dialogue was full of obscure literary and cultural allusions and his campness was played up to new, hilarious heights.
* In ''[[Super Robot Wars]] Original Generation'', one of the original character, Giado Verendi, was originally supposed to be Italian. When translating the game, Atlus took one look at his portrait, a dark-skinned man with dreadlocks, and took the obvious route, mon.
** Likewise, in the second game, when [[Robot Girl|Lamia Loveless]] comes in, Atlus changed her stitch into [[Speech Impediment]], because seriously... directly translating her messed up grammars in English would be really messy to the audience. It still works.
** And while Sanger's [[Mid-Season Upgrade]] is subject to endless debate due to the [[Spell My Name
{{quote|
* In ''[[Fire Emblem Tellius
** Also in ''[[Fire Emblem]]'', many names are completely changed in translation, the fandom is mixed on these, but the one that is generally accepted is Maji and Saji to Cord and Bord.
* ''[[Persona 4]]'' continues the tradition of P3's translation by retaining important Japanese honorifics and certain cultural concepts (though the manual includes a handy glossary), while taking their own spin on certain other things that aren't as essential to plot or characterization, such as:
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** IIRC, the "insulting" ones only arrive if you run through enough of the numerical ones. Of course, if you want the secret characters, you ''have'' to keep your unit count low, so it's a tough balance.
* Jeremy Blaustein's localisation of ''[[Snatcher]]'' tightened up some of the more egregious plot-holes, and contained the most delicious Woolseyism ever - Neo Kobe Pizza. A comedy sequence in the game involved Gillian attempting to buy a dumpling-based food from a vendor, but Blaustein changed it to a dish consisting of a pizza dropped into soup. Fans, naturally, tried doing this with their own pizza, to universally tasty results. A recipe even got onto Kotaku.
* The "form" Wii Remote poses in ''[[
* The [[No Export for You|Japanese-exclusive]] original release of ''[[
** The absurdity that comes from the [[De Jap]] translation is that they proclaimed it to be 'totally accurate in every way', which led a lot of people who played it to despise the GBA port's translation for the perception (due to the rather poor [[De Jap]] translation) that it severely censored the dialogue. Also, [[De Jap]]'s translation was a result of the people working on it not knowing enough Japanese to do an accurate translation, so they just fudged what they could with innuendo and jokes. [[Your Mileage May Vary]] whether it's worth it.
** It also should be mentioned that DeJap never bothered trying to Woolsey the names, instead taking them directly from Japanese materials, leading to a [[Fan Dumb|maddening]] amount of [[Base Breaker|base-breaking]] [[Spell My Name
** In the case of Refill's name, however, only the most hardcore purists would use it. Refirru might work in Japanese, but Refill is a verb in English. Raine, on the other hand, credibly sounds like a person's name in the language.
* The ''[[The Wonderful Wizard of Oz]]'' RPG for the DS, ''RIZ-ZOAWD'', was recently licensed by XSEED under the ''much'' more pronouncable ''The Wizard of Oz: Beyond The Yellow Brick Road''.
** And it threw in an [[Elton John]] reference! Yay!
* ''[[Brave Fencer Musashi]]'' has several moments of this, especially [[Ye Olde Butcherede Englishe|any time Steward Ribson talks.]] Many of his lines have added voiceovers, so you actually get to listen to him say things like "Thou art beeth correcteth!"
* In ''[[Ristar]]'', one of the bosses was changed from a cat into a snowman thing. In Japan, a ''nekojita'' (猫舌, lit. ''cat tongue'') is someone who can't eat hot or spicy foods. This would be lost on the average American, who wouldn't quite understand why a (blue, somewhat robotic) cat needs to be fed spicy stuff to be defeated, so they changed him into an ice creature to convey that same logic overseas.
** They also changed the Planet names to make them more indicative of their themes: [[Jungle Japes|Planet Neer]] became Planet Flora, [[Under the Sea|Planet Leatow]] became Planet Undertow, [[Lethal Lava Land|Planet Onaclove]] became Planet Scorch, [[Band Land|Planet Neuos]] became Planet Sonata, [[Slippy
* ''[[Syphon Filter]]'': The manual spells Anton Girdeux's last name "Girdeaux".
* ''[[
** Hero's boomerang skill increased! Hero is now a [[Incredibly Lame Pun|baby boomer]]!
** The DS translation of ''[[
** Way back in ''[[
* An in-universe example can be found in ''[[
* At one point in ''[[Okami]]'', you have to sneak into the Emperor's palace by using the Lucky Mallet to shrink yourself to [[Mouse World]] size. They translated the "Are you sure you want to do this?" warning as "[[Crowning Moment of Funny|Ready to get hammered]]?"
* A non-script example. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6zhWmDrF3Ew Here's] the original intro to ''[[Wild
* In ''[[Gradius]] IV'', the series' name is pronounced "grad-ius", but in ''V'', it's pronounced "gray-dius", as most fans pronounce it. The title itself is a [[Japanese Ranguage|Japanization]] of "gladius".
** Yu-Gi-Oh! had a card for Gradius, and was pronounced "Gray-dius" in the Anime.
** Many sources refer to the [[Giant Spider]] boss (Shadow Gear) as "Club", a mistransliteration of "Crab" Doesn't look like a [[Giant Enemy Crab]], though.
* The box and manual of ''[[Adventure Island]]'' name the [[
* In ''[[Riviera:
* ''[[
* In-universe example with [[Free Space]]; when first-contact between terrans and vasudans leads to war, the terrans classify vasudan ships with an Egyptian theme. Later, after hostilities cool, the vasudans decide that being compared to Ancient Egypt is flattering and officially adopt the Egyptian names for their gear as the proper-noun equivilents when translated. Some Vasudans even adopt Egyptian names for ''themselves'', including the Emperor!
* The same thing happens in ''[[Mass Effect]]'', where translators are constantly kept updated to reflect changing linguistic patterns and many languages are impossible for some species to actually speak unassisted. The obvious example are the Spectres, which functions as an acronym that makes perfect sense in English, which would mean someone working on the translations put effort into figuring out a proper equivalent based on the meaning the actual, alien word carries in its own culture.
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** While we're on the subject of ''Mass Effect'', the Russian version calls [[Heal Thyself|medi-gel]] "panatselin", a portmanteau of "penicillin" and "panacea" that invokes the Russian verb "tselit'", an archaic word for "to heal".
* Another in-universe example with ''[[Iji]]'', where the scientists tried not to translate the names of Tasen and Komato weapons, but gave them names so that Iji could get the gist of them. It's not perfect, but it largely works. Sometimes, with weapons that don't have an Earth equivalent, they gave the guns menacing-sounding names; one of the [[BFG|BFGs]], a fusion-powered coilgun that fires ''thousands'' of rounds per second, is called the "Velocithor".
* The English versions of ''[[
{{quote|
'''[[Mad Scientist|Kokonoe]]''': "I love the smell of explosions in the morning!"<br />
'''Jubei''': "The 13th Hierarchical City of Kagutsuchi. [[Star Wars|You will never find a more]] [[Wretched Hive
'''Arakune''': Tha{{spoiler|t}} {{spoiler|i}}s rel{{spoiler|ev}}ent to my in{{spoiler|ter}}ests!<br />
'''Hazama''': "Protip" "[[The Dark Knight Saga|Why so serious?]]" "[[The Shining|Heeeeeere's Terumi!]]" }}
* The [[Mushroom Samba|infamous]] "Touch Fuzzy, Get Dizzy" level from ''[[
* Ganondorf and Ganon's full names in the [[All There in the Manual|A Link To The Past Manual]], Ganondorf Dragmire and Mandrag Ganon, were actually added into the english translation: In the original Japanese version, he was identified simply as Ganondorf and Ganon.
** In the game itself, the contents of the Book of Mudora were itself the result of Woolseyism (in the Japanese version, it was treated more like an instruction booklet than a book containing various lore).
** A minor example, but one that stirred a bit of discussion in the fandom over the characters involved: in the English version of ''Twilight Princess'', Midna's dialogue to Link {{spoiler|right before she breaks the Mirror of Twilight is "Link, I...see you later." Some translations of the Japanese imply that the drifting "I..." wasn't in the original version. Considering that a lot of fans have interpreted the evocative statement to mean she was going to say or confess something very emotional and heartwarming (the most obvious being "I love you" or something similar), it can mildly alter a player's view of Midna and her relationship to Link.}} With or without the change, the scene is one of the most emotionally charged in the game, though.
*** There's another layer to this: In Japanese, Midna just says "bye" before {{spoiler|breaking the mirror}}. In English, it's turned into a [[Meaningful Echo]] of her [[Catch Phrase]].
* [[Recettear]] became a surprise hit and sold over a hundred thousand copies in America (the translators were expecting ten thousand at best) partially due to the high quality of the translation, which was [[Recettear:
** This is pretty much Carpe Fulgur's MO, according to their FAQ. They aim to work closely with the creators to capture the feeling and humor of the games.
* In the manual for ''Iron Tank'', the boss tanks are called "[[Incredibly Lame Pun|Think Tanks]]". Maybe because they're autonomous robotic tanks? Or maybe it's just due to [[Blind Idiot Translation]].
* The Hungarian [[Fan Translation]] of ''[[
{{quote|
Translation: "Guess the rubber doll doesn't [[Double Entendre|shoot back]], huh?!" }}
* The NES version of ''[[Double Dragon]] III'' underwent a complete script rewrite from its Japanese Famicom counterpart. The [[MacGuffin|MacGuffins]] of the game, the Rosetta Stones, were renamed into the Sacred Stones (since [[Did Not Do the Research|the real life Rosetta Stone was something else entirely]]) and the plot now involves saving Marian (err [[Spell My Name
* In ''Shockman'' for the [[
* The [[Fan Translation|Fan Translations]] of the ''[[Touhou]]'' games toss a few out here and there. Most notably, in ''Imperishable Night's'' Extra Stage, a lot of wordplay is based on two Japanese terms meaning "liver" and "test of courage", which sound similar. The translation kept most of it by referring to the "test of courage" as "Trial of Guts". They even threw in some [[Breaking the Fourth Wall]] in ''Perfect Cherry Blossom'', where Reimu refers to Chen as "just a Stage 2 boss."
* In ''[[Golden Sun: Dark Dawn]]'', the villains have [[Theme Naming]] based on playing cards (Spade, Heart, and Ace) in the Japanese version. In Western translations, this didn't seem foreign enough, so the villains are instead named after the Tarot (Blade, Chalice, and the Arcana). This caused a second set of renames, as one of the heroes was named "Crown" in the Japanese version, and had to be renamed to avoid confusion, since Crowns are a name for the Tarot suit of Coins.
* The Japanese version of ''[[Yggdra Union]]'' has a female character named Emilio. While most Japanese players [[As Long
* Not as much of a ''change'', but the main character of ''[[Space Channel 5]]'' is named "Ulala". It is the official pronunciation for the name "Urara", which is a common name in Japan, but in English, most characters pronounce it as "Ooh-La-La"...which is often what people say about attractive women. Conveniently enough, that's quite a part of the game, too! [[Fridge Brilliance]] on the part of the developers?
* In later [[Dynasty Warriors]] games as well as the [[Samurai Warriors]] games, upon defeating enemy officers characters will say something unique and specific rather than simply saying "Enemy Officer Defeated".
{{reflist}}
[[Category:Woolseyism]]
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