I have a fun little thread for you all today.

We all know that a lot of older games have bad translation from Japanese to English. So, what are some such games?

 

A famous example from Final Fantasy VII.

 

Zero wing is probably a quintessential example:

 

Zero Wing absolutely.

 

Sword Art Online: Hollow Fragment comes to mind.

 

I played Legend of Dragoon awhile back in part due to its "cult classic" status, and was immediately struck by how bad its translation was.

Not as amateurish as the Zero Wing example above, but it's obviously a "by the book" translation. Overly literal, with zero attempt at colloquial language (the only attempt at "personalized" dialogue is Kongol's caveman speak. Otherwise, everybody, from rebel teen Dart, spunky teen Meru, or royal knight/king Albert speaks in stilted dialogue with zero contractions). A straight dictionary translation, essentially, and not proofed by anybody who actually speaks English fluently.

That's actually one of the least of the game's issues, however...

 

These two localizations annoyed me the most:

Megami Ibunroku Persona to Revelations Persona (and the original US Persona 2)



Sengoku Basara to Devil Kings

 

The Megaman Battle Network series has some really good fuckups.

 

Castlevania II: Simon's Quest, anyone?
The translation was so bad that many essential clues were useless. Nintendo Power even tried to cover for it by claiming the villagers were "lying" or giving you "red herrings."

One interesting thing: the phrase "you spoony bard!" from FFIV might sound like a bad translation, but spoony is an actual word that means close to the original intention. It's just no one told the translator that it's a word way out of usage.

 

Every digimon game sense the ps2

 

Metal Gear on the NES had the classic "I feel asleep!" and "The truck have started to move"

 

...the original Persona was rated (essentially) "Everyone"?!

 

anything Ted Woolsey touched.

 

definitely not old, but dragon ball: xenoverse 2 has some bad ones, including when it says "guru will grant a wish" when it means "guru will make mor wishes available"......i wasted hours trying to get a wish that way......

 

It was pretty neutered at that point.

 

Wasn't that just four though? I don't remember the others being that bad.

 

Battle Network 1 had some fun ones(Load Chaud), and 5 had a few issues as well.

 

Even though persona 1 was nutered.. It should have never been rated "E"

But yeah, even though I still have a soft spot for it.. US Persona 1 is.. bad in every sense of the word.

 

Breath of Fire II.

Example: "Equip Fishing Lod & Bait"