What's your favorite piece of localized RPG dialogue?

[LuckyStar]

I know they're often extremely controversial, but I love goofy and loose RPG localizations. Seeing older ones with dated references or modern ones with goofy slang terms added in is always entertaining to me and I think it adds a lot of character to games that can often be very dry. They're unfortunate for those that want a more "pure" experience with the game; however, I think that if one wants the most accurate version, you'd just have to learn Japanese. I know that's unfair to expect someone to do, but I've never really minded wild liberties taken with localizing.

I wanna know some of your favorite examples of an NPC in a localization, English or otherwise, saying something totally unexpected, wild, or funny. Or, just a vastly improved line over the original.

One of my favorites is a kid in Lunar: Silver Star Story Complete on the PS1 saying that he wants to grow up to be big and strong so he always eats his Wheaties, which is a very dated reference to an cereal ad from the time. Also from the same game, a character remarks how they hate chickens and wanna choke them, which made me roll my eyes in a good way. The entire game so far just has the silliest translation and I adore it, despite it being nothing like the original dialogue.

 

[fishboneKiller]

there's so many things wrong with revelations: persona but i can't in my heart bring myself to dislike it. it's got so many insane lines and is a total product of localization culture at the time, though i do wish that it got, you know, an actually good translation, because i like its aesthetics and music a lot more than the psp version...

 

[sannya]

ill never forgive the remake for toning down these gems

 

[Somnia]

This is tough because there are so few games where I'm aware of both the localized and original script to even appreciate the differences. I'll give a throwaway answer and say the Macarena reference in FFX always gets a giggle out of me. As a kid I didn't really appreciate it because it's such a "blink and you'll miss it" kind of moment despite Tidus' "Aye!" being so out of place. It is the rare example of something out-of-game being referenced that doesn't feel entirely corny. Even if you aren't familiar with the original song, you'll just chalk Tidus' mispronunciation up to being an honest mistake and since the game doesn't call attention to the "Aye" it is just this weird quirk you'll quickly forget about. If the joke lands it is cute and if it doesn't you aren't taken out of the game heavily. It is nice.

 

[prnzo x BOOZE-o ka-BEER-o]

I think I remember some version of the original Wanderers of Y's, some guy at the top-north of the town you start in says "I'm Dr. KraZe. what? you don't know me? who are you? Not Dr. KraZe - that's who!" xD that's how I remember it could've been slightly different than this verbatim

Edit: and who can forget the town of Rauru's ultimate citizen. "I am ERROR." man that says it aLL - I thought I had beaten the entire game right then n there. Nintendo at their most philosophically profound.

 

[fishboneKiller]

ill never forgive the remake for toning down these gems

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THEY REMOVED STUPEI ACE DEFECTIVE IN THE REMAKE?? that's a crime against humanity... that's like the only reason i like persona 3!!

 

[Yousef]

Another lucky star pfp

 

[LuckyStar]

Another lucky star pfp

I know, it's so generic these days, but I gotta rep my favorite. Konata profile pics have a bad rep online but I just like the series without any of the usual weird baggage. On twitter I got followed by a lot of weird guys and had to block em when I changed my pfp to Konata lol

 

[Yousef]

I know, it's so generic these days, but I gotta rep my favorite. Konata profile pics have a bad rep online but I just like the series without any of the usual weird baggage. On twitter I got followed by a lot of weird guys and had to block em when I changed my pfp to Konata lol

Not generic at all. We have a running gag whenever we see similar pfps. This is charming, don’t worry about it.
We’re currently awaiting the next berserk or FF black mage Pfp.

 

[Tonberry]

THEY REMOVED STUPEI ACE DEFECTIVE IN THE REMAKE?? that's a crime against humanity... that's like the only reason i like persona 3!!

They didn’t, it’s still there, but she’s not at hard on him in the other message boxes.

 

[Yousef]

THEY REMOVED STUPEI ACE DEFECTIVE IN THE REMAKE?? that's a crime against humanity... that's like the only reason i like persona 3!!

If they actually removed it, that’d improve the game.
Less junpei bullying is good thing.

 

[LuckyStar]

THEY REMOVED STUPEI ACE DEFECTIVE IN THE REMAKE?? that's a crime against humanity... that's like the only reason i like persona 3!!

Sadly, I feel like a lot of localization teams feel pressured these days to tone down their work.
And I'm not referring to "woke" commentators pressuring them have to be "less offensive", I mean pressured by the twitter reactionaries who don't actually watch most anime or play anime games, but hate when localizations are silly and use relevant US humor and terms.
Obviously there's still silly localizations, but they get dogpiled a lot by the same kinda guys over and over which I hate to see happen.

Post automatically merged: Jan 22, 2025

Not generic at all. We have a running gag whenever we see similar pfps. This is charming, don’t worry about it.
We’re currently awaiting the next berserk or FF black mage Pfp.

I wonder if CDRomance/RGT is the kinda site Konata would use, or if she'd pride herself on having official physical copies of all her games. I know emulation isn't nearly as popular in Japan as the US, but I'm not sure of otaku stances on it, either back in the 2000s or now.

Post automatically merged: Jan 22, 2025

This is tough because there are so few games where I'm aware of both the localized and original script to even appreciate the differences. I'll give a throwaway answer and say the Macarena reference in FFX always gets a giggle out of me. As a kid I didn't really appreciate it because it's such a "blink and you'll miss it" kind of moment despite Tidus' "Aye!" being so out of place. It is the rare example of something out-of-game being referenced that doesn't feel entirely corny. Even if you aren't familiar with the original song, you'll just chalk Tidus' mispronunciation up to being an honest mistake and since the game doesn't call attention to the "Aye" it is just this weird quirk you'll quickly forget about. If the joke lands it is cute and if it doesn't you aren't taken out of the game heavily. It is nice.

This one is packed with tons of goofy lines from Tidus, I love it. I need to get back to it one day.

Post automatically merged: Jan 22, 2025

I think I remember some version of the original Wanderers of Y's, some guy at the top-north of the town you start in says "I'm Dr. KraZe. what? you don't know me? who are you? Not Dr. KraZe - that's who!" xD that's how I remember it could've been slightly different than this verbatim

Edit: and who can forget the town of Rauru's ultimate citizen. "I am ERROR." man that says it aLL - I thought I had beaten the entire game right then n there. Nintendo at their most philosophically profound.

Ys is overflowing with the funniest translation work. I love talking to every NPC to uncover new nonsense.

 

[thanonyx]

This legendary piece of dialogue from Final Fantasy IV.

 

[MomoVT]

There's too many good ones. "MARK DANCED CRAZY" from Revelations: Persona, pretty much everything out of Cid's mouth in FF7 (SIT DOWN AND DRINK YOUR GODDAMN TEA comes to mind). It makes me wish there was a localization job like the anime Ghost Stories, where the localizers just went nuts and added whatever funny shit they could think of.

 

[sannya]

THEY REMOVED STUPEI ACE DEFECTIVE IN THE REMAKE?? that's a crime against humanity... that's like the only reason i like persona 3!!

yes, she says something like "you're so dumb" instead in general they removed soo many fun lines... i think it's because they made translation from japanese more accurate, still, the og localization was so fun. but they made shinjiro swear in remake so ig it's good : D

 

[freebie#47]

Dragon Warriors 7 PSX only(was removed in remake)

"I mean, what a slut!"

 

[Perseonn]

My Dude™ playthrough converts the most mundane dialogue to something memorable.

And also because this doesn't age well