Omnimaga

General Discussion => Technology and Development => Gaming Discussion => Topic started by: DJ Omnimaga on December 04, 2010, 08:22:43 pm

Title: I AM ERROR.
Post by: DJ Omnimaga on December 04, 2010, 08:22:43 pm
Sometimes, translation mistakes can lead to funny stuff in games. Two very popular mistranslations are in Zelda II and Zero Wing and a lot of you might already know one or both:





Does anyone have funny/interesting video game translation to share?
Title: Re: I AM ERROR.
Post by: Ashbad on December 04, 2010, 09:08:35 pm


yes you spoony bard!

0x5 yeah I remember ERROR from Adventure of link, always wondered what was up with that dude... ._.
Title: Re: I AM ERROR.
Post by: DJ Omnimaga on December 04, 2010, 09:13:42 pm
Lol strange. I wonder if it's in the Playstation version? I know that one was re-translated. For example, Nuke was changed to Meteo and some text changed too. Difficulty is way higher, too. I have a VHS recording of me beating the final boss around LV 55, which I put on Youtube as well.
Title: Re: I AM ERROR.
Post by: qazz42 on December 04, 2010, 10:04:52 pm


Secret Mysterious Wind? wow... if it is secret, then why is it mysterious too?  :crazy:
Title: Re: I AM ERROR.
Post by: DJ Omnimaga on December 04, 2010, 10:45:42 pm
Lol weird XD

I should post some Star Ocean: The Second Story final battle videos. The PSP version is awesome, but the voice acting in the PS1 version was so terribly translated. X.x
Title: Re: I AM ERROR.
Post by: JosJuice on December 05, 2010, 03:59:43 am
ERROR is not a mistranslation.
Title: Re: I AM ERROR.
Post by: DJ Omnimaga on December 05, 2010, 04:37:54 am
Are you sure? Maybe not a mistranslation as in a grammar or spelling mistake, but a poor choice in NPC name in the sentence. In a game, if my french version had a character called Cock, I would try to alter the name a bit when translating that game to English. For example, the name could become Kockle or Khocke.

If it's not a mistranslation, then could you try to find any proof?
Title: Re: I AM ERROR.
Post by: JosJuice on December 05, 2010, 04:40:26 am
I just remember reading it somewhere... The details (and the original Japanese text) are unclear to me.
Title: Re: I AM ERROR.
Post by: DJ Omnimaga on December 05, 2010, 04:51:28 am
I see. Well, it seems a lot of places talks about a character name misspelling. That said, he wasn't called "An Error". It would be bad... O.O

On the topic of game mistranslations, I really need to redo The Reign of Legends 2 english translation one day... I translated it when I was still new to writing large english text and it's really bad. X.x
Title: Re: I AM ERROR.
Post by: Ashbad on December 05, 2010, 07:25:53 am
Are you sure? Maybe not a mistranslation as in a grammar or spelling mistake, but a poor choice in NPC name in the sentence. In a game, if my french version had a character called Cock, I would try to alter the name a bit when translating that game to English. For example, the name could become Kockle or Khocke.

If it's not a mistranslation, then could you try to find any proof?

I AM COCK
Title: Re: I AM ERROR.
Post by: Munchor on December 05, 2010, 02:48:30 pm


I don't get what happened here :S
Title: Re: I AM ERROR.
Post by: jnesselr on December 05, 2010, 06:14:55 pm
Are you sure? Maybe not a mistranslation as in a grammar or spelling mistake, but a poor choice in NPC name in the sentence. In a game, if my french version had a character called Cock, I would try to alter the name a bit when translating that game to English. For example, the name could become Kockle or Khocke.

If it's not a mistranslation, then could you try to find any proof?

I AM COCK
So I definitely read this before reading the entire conversation.

I don't know about games, but some animes have a translator that just kinda fails at english, but thought he could translate, so you get some.. . interesting results. Or, the company that translates it doesn't have a good way to say it, because it revolves around a weird word having a double meaning, which isn't the same in english.  I remember one time in naruto having it say something along the lines of Naruto joining hinata's group, and in the japanese version, it used a TN, but in the english dubbed, it just said "will you be with me" which just sounded awkward.  But yeah, translating from japanese to english is kinda hard sometimes, especially with puns.
Title: Re: I AM ERROR.
Post by: Juju on December 05, 2010, 06:20:05 pm
Yeah, japanese is hard to translate sometimes, due to specificalities of the Japanese language, and puns are nearly always lost when translating to English.

And the guy is really named Error? O_o And that guy does nothing else than saying that he is Error?
Title: Re: I AM ERROR.
Post by: DJ Omnimaga on December 05, 2010, 09:05:38 pm
Sadly, when translating some things, it's inevitable it will not sound as good as in the original language. Some idioms are used in a language that can't be translated into another.

As for anime, I noticed translations mistakes or crappy ones. Sometimes in French they change the anime title completely as well as all character names. Saint Seiya in french is Knight of the Zodiac and SSX Arcadia/Captain Harlock is Albator '78 and '84. Often in french the opening is changed as well. Usually it's crappier, except maybe Robotech

As for Star Ocean 2 original PS1 version, here we go:


Listen to what the boss says when battle starts.


That alternate intro speech is also funny. And Rena seems to say "Women Study!" when casting her first spell. O.O

I'm glad the voice acting was remade in the PSP version.
Title: Re: I AM ERROR.
Post by: TravisE on December 08, 2010, 03:11:20 pm
The name “Error” in Zelda II seems to be intentional because there is another NPC in the game who also refers to Error, saying something like “Ask Error of Ruto about the palace.” The theory I often hear is that another NPC named Bagu in the English version was supposed to be “Bug”, to continue with the “Error” pun, but didn't get translated properly.

Here are a couple of sources where I found these explanations:
http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/i-am-error
http://zelda.wikia.com/wiki/Error
Title: Re: I AM ERROR.
Post by: DJ Omnimaga on December 08, 2010, 04:11:38 pm
Ah, maybe that's why. I guess it might be an inside joke, then.
Title: Re: I AM ERROR.
Post by: Yeong on December 13, 2010, 08:35:05 am
In Zelda Oracles, ringmaker says something about the ring losing power when not wearing it.
First I thought the effects of the ring deteriorates over time.... :crazy:
Title: Re: I AM ERROR.
Post by: DJ Omnimaga on December 13, 2010, 05:58:34 pm
Hmm strange, what does the ring do when not wearing it ? I never played Oracles
Title: Re: I AM ERROR.
Post by: Yeong on December 13, 2010, 06:38:16 pm
nothing happens. no effects get deteriorated either. It's just mistranslation
Title: Re: I AM ERROR.
Post by: guy6020665 on December 13, 2010, 06:47:12 pm
It just means that the ring power won't work if you aren't wearing it, right?
Title: Re: I AM ERROR.
Post by: Yeong on December 13, 2010, 06:48:09 pm
yup. sigh...There's so many japanese mistranslation..
Title: Re: I AM ERROR.
Post by: DJ Omnimaga on December 14, 2010, 02:07:39 pm
Indeed. Good games nonetheless. They're just better in their original language. That said, the same thing applies between english and french translations or vice-versa, though. An example of terrible translation is the original english dub of The Mysterious Cities of Gold. X.x

Some of my old calc games also got bad translations. I need to translate them again one day...
Title: Re: I AM ERROR.
Post by: qazz42 on December 18, 2010, 09:23:17 am
Yeah, perhaps it is pronounced Ee-ror
Title: Re: I AM ERROR.
Post by: Ashbad on December 18, 2010, 11:32:25 am
Ee-zor?
Title: Re: I AM ERROR.
Post by: DJ Omnimaga on December 18, 2010, 06:36:39 pm
Ee-Zor? ???
Title: Re: I AM ERROR.
Post by: Binder News on December 18, 2010, 06:37:30 pm
Made in Minecraft, took a LONG TIME (2.5 hrs). ;)
WARNING: EPIC SCREENSHOT:
Title: Re: I AM ERROR.
Post by: Raylin on December 18, 2010, 06:37:56 pm
o.O I don't get any of this at all, except the fact that this refers to the man in Zelda II.

EDIT: And the one above is Katz from Zero Wing.
Title: Re: I AM ERROR.
Post by: DJ Omnimaga on December 18, 2010, 06:41:29 pm
Haha Binder News! I tried building stuff in Minecraft but it takes so long when you have to grab blocks everywhere and keep dying, losing everything you grabbed...

As for the Zelda II one, I still don't get it either. I am sure it must be a mistranslation or something, but again I could be wrong.
Title: Re: I AM ERROR.
Post by: Raylin on December 18, 2010, 06:45:25 pm
My ongoing theory for that is that the NES game tries to access a string of data (the name of the man) that isn't there. thusly it returns an error. But, that's a WMG.
Title: Re: I AM ERROR.
Post by: DJ Omnimaga on December 18, 2010, 06:47:00 pm
Yeah it could be that. I remember some stuff like that in other games before. Kinda like MissingNo in Pokémon. It could be an easter egg as well. After all, in Metroid, there are weird codes letting you play the game without Samus suit or stuff like that.
Title: Re: I AM ERROR.
Post by: qazz42 on December 31, 2010, 01:44:53 pm
wasnt there a code to play as her in a swimsuit?
Title: Re: I AM ERROR.
Post by: DJ Omnimaga on December 31, 2010, 07:52:06 pm
I think so.
Title: Re: I AM ERROR.
Post by: qazz42 on December 31, 2010, 07:55:21 pm
O_O
/me wonders if it can go further
/me runs!
Title: Re: I AM ERROR.
Post by: DJ Omnimaga on December 31, 2010, 07:58:56 pm
What do you mean? ???
Title: Re: I AM ERROR.
Post by: qazz42 on December 31, 2010, 07:59:20 pm
err, nnootthhhiinggg
Title: Re: I AM ERROR.
Post by: Eeems on December 31, 2010, 08:03:58 pm
x.x bad qazz!
Title: Re: I AM ERROR.
Post by: DJ Omnimaga on December 31, 2010, 08:12:47 pm
Indeed :P

We all know he was looking for adult games. :P
Title: Re: I AM ERROR.
Post by: qazz42 on December 31, 2010, 08:13:38 pm
 :angel:

oh boy, now I have some images in my head that I would like to get out now, thanks alot dj and eeems  :mad: :mad: :mad: