{"id":84244,"date":"2019-02-22T10:45:00","date_gmt":"2019-02-22T10:45:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nintendolife.com\/news\/2019\/02\/the_english_translation_of_super_mario_rpg_cut_many_japanese_pop_references"},"modified":"2019-02-22T10:45:00","modified_gmt":"2019-02-22T10:45:00","slug":"the-english-translation-of-super-mario-rpg-cut-many-japanese-pop-references","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/2019\/02\/22\/the-english-translation-of-super-mario-rpg-cut-many-japanese-pop-references\/","title":{"rendered":"The English Translation of Super Mario RPG Cut Many Japanese Pop References"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"media_block\"><a href=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/0b90b95cbe0cf\/large.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/0b90b95cbe0cf\/small.jpg\" class=\"media_thumbnail\"><\/a><\/div>\n<aside class=\"picture embed right img-\">\n<div class=\"img\"><a title=\"Mallow\" href=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/f1ec1614e8615\/mallow.large.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/f1ec1614e8615\/mallow.300x.jpg\" alt=\"Mallow\" \/><\/a><\/div>\n<p>That&#8217;s Mallow<\/p>\n<\/aside>\n<p><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.nintendolife.com\/games\/snes\/super_mario_rpg_legend_of_the_seven_stars\">Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars<\/a><\/strong> was a grand departure from the Mario template when it launched back on Super Nintendo in 1996. Nowadays there&#8217;s nary a genre the precocious plumber <em>hasn&#8217;t<\/em> dipped his toe into, but his first foray with role-playing turned out to be a classic that still stands up today, filled with odd yet loveable characters and hilarious, if surreal, dialogue.<\/p>\n<p>It seems that much of the absurdity may come from the translation. Recently Legends of Localization ran <a href=\"https:\/\/legendsoflocalization.com\/the-pop-culture-obsessed-monsters-in-japanese-super-mario-rpg\/\">a fascinating article<\/a> detailing many of these differences in a specific part of the game. For those who skipped this classic (sacrilege!), one of the characters is a spellcaster named Mallow who has the ability to read enemy&#8217;s minds. When he does this, a quote pops up with a bespoke line of dialogue.<\/p>\n<p>There are many of these and, in truth, they&#8217;re a little scattershot &#8211; sometimes the line provides a clue to the monster&#8217;s weakness, but more often it&#8217;s some entertaining nonsense. It seems that the original Japanese dialogue contained many pop culture references which were altered or removed completely in the translation to English.<\/p>\n<p>For example, in the original Japanese an enemy called Pulsar states &#8220;Hit me and you will be punished when I go up in smoke!&#8221;, a veiled reference a <strong>Sailor Moon<\/strong> catchphrase \u201cIn the name of the Moon, you will be punished!\u201d<\/p>\n<aside class=\"gallery\">\n<div class=\"col\"><a title=\"&quot;Hit me and you will be punished when I go up in smoke!&quot;\" href=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/e7ebc5a7ad633\/hit-me-and-you-will-be-punished-when-i-go-up-in-smoke.original.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/e7ebc5a7ad633\/hit-me-and-you-will-be-punished-when-i-go-up-in-smoke.original.png\" alt=\"&quot;Hit me and you will be punished when I go up in smoke!&quot;\" \/><\/a><\/div>\n<div class=\"col\"><a title=\"&quot;I'm a mini-pulsar.&quot;\" href=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/c0cb537746fe9\/im-a-mini-pulsar.original.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/c0cb537746fe9\/im-a-mini-pulsar.original.png\" alt=\"&quot;I'm a mini-pulsar.&quot;\" \/><\/a><\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<p>In English, we get the accurate (and useless) &#8220;I&#8217;m a mini-pulsar.&#8221; <em>Quite<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>Elsewhere, Buzzer&#8217;s dialogue in Japanese references a famous line from the manga series-turned-anime <strong>Jojo\u2019s Bizarre Adventure<\/strong>, with some clever wordplay referencing the &#8216;beat&#8217; of the enemy&#8217;s Japanese name (Hachi B\u012bto). The English translation goes for a Madonna reference &#8211; something western players were <em>far<\/em> more likely to pick up on.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"gallery\">\n<div class=\"col\"><a title=\"&quot;My beat keeps the rhythm!&quot;\" href=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/80669cc1478c8\/my-beat-keeps-the-rhythm.original.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/80669cc1478c8\/my-beat-keeps-the-rhythm.original.png\" alt=\"&quot;My beat keeps the rhythm!&quot;\" \/><\/a><\/div>\n<div class=\"col\"><a title=\"&quot;Strike the pose!&quot;\" href=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/8e87b60fa1d9d\/strike-the-pose.original.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/8e87b60fa1d9d\/strike-the-pose.original.png\" alt=\"&quot;Strike the pose!&quot;\" \/><\/a><\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<p>These changes are understandable &#8211; especially in the mid-nineties when limited internet access meant the world was a lot smaller and pop culture in <em>all countries<\/em> tended to stay closer to home. Still, it&#8217;s fascinating to look back and see the alterations made when bringing the game to the west.<\/p>\n<p>The article details dozens of changes, and this is only the dialogue found when using Mallow&#8217;s &#8220;Whatcya Thinking?&#8221; ability. The game is chock full of text, so more information will undoubtedly be revealed in the future. Head over to Legends of Localization for <a href=\"https:\/\/legendsoflocalization.com\/the-pop-culture-obsessed-monsters-in-japanese-super-mario-rpg\/\">the full article<\/a> &#8211; it&#8217;s well worth a read.<\/p>\n<p><em>How many of the references would you pick up on today if they&#8217;d been translated more literally back in the day? Let us know below&#8230;<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>That&#8217;s Mallow Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars was a grand departure from the Mario template when it launched back on Super Nintendo in 1996. Nowadays there&#8217;s nary a genre the precocious plumber hasn&#8217;t dipped his toe into, but his first foray with role-playing turned out to be a classic that still stands [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-84244","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-nintendo-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84244","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=84244"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84244\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=84244"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=84244"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=84244"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}