This is a very well made and informative break down of the japanese/english translations and how we got such brilliant dialogue/lines in the english dub. It's a fascinating to see discover new reveals by such dedicated fans.
Thank you so much shimsham! I'm definitely planning on doing more translation analyses of the other REs, Metal Gear Solid, Final Fantasy and any other potentially poorly-translated games down the line... if you have any suggestions, throw them my way! Thank you for watching!!
@@tangomushi Quite welcome and all the best with future content you make for this channel. Another good genre of games to explore for poor translation are Arcade games from the 80s/90s, many that have humorous/terrible english translations, particularly Fighting games such as Street Fighter 2, Fatal Fury, King of Fighters are well known for their abysmal english translations. Resulting in some rather hilarious written dialogue and regional differences when compared to the original Japanese versions.
@@tangomushiTales of phantasia has had some bad translations. And not bad translations per se, but apparently the tone between English and Japanese dragon quest games are vastly different.
@@tangomushi I would love it if you made another one of these videos, I am also trying to learn Japanese and I just love language and I love the games you like so..
I fricking love the weird, awkward dialog. I don't think the game would be as enjoyable if it was translated properly - maybe a little more immersive, but not as enjoyable. 😅 Great job on this video!
Excellent video! Regarding Barry's "soldier's area" comment, I assumed it was an attempt at "barracks". Residential building - > barracks - > "soldier's area".
Interesting video. They actually updated the plant 42 report with the missing text in the remake. Also, I was reading Itchy, Tasty: the unofficial story of Resident Evil. And I think it was Shinji Mikami that said in the interview about RE1 development that some of the dialogue had to be translated in a certain way so the Japanese players could understand it easier. That's why there is stuff like "Stop it! Don't open THAT door". Even though there are subtitles in the japanese version, a player would still prefer listening to dialogue as opposed to reading text. Of course, a lot of the dialogue was mistranslated, and the translator definitely was not a native speaker because there are a lot of spelling and grammatical mistakes in the files. But still, pretty curious that they had to simplify some of the dialogue. I am pretty sure that the "master of unlocking" is a direct result of that)
i think the Nancy character only being in the NA version is crazy to me!! it’s such a minor change, but at the same time it’s such an interesting topic. fantastic video!!! 😄
Agreed, I wonder why the felt the need to add that Nancy passage in the western releases?! It's not like it adds that much extra to the lore! Thank you so much for watching!!
@@tangomushi I think they added nancy for this diary's author to have a reason to go outside, so that they could establish the info that the company didn't allow staff to leave, to control them and keep their sinister secrets. So nancy is just a contrivance, a stand-in. They could have also said"I wanted to go buy some cigarettes but they said no leaving the area" or something like that. That s just my theory though.
I would love more videos like this, describing translation differences. For example, I always thought bakemono was just "monster" really neat tidbit I learned through this today.
I'm frankly amazed this was your first video? The quality is through the roof! Great writing and it was seriously interesting hearing the differences and how they change the nuance of the character. I'd love to see this for all sort of PS1 games as I'm sure there is so many shoddy translations. FF7 is one that sticks out in my mind that is so egregious in places! Looking forward to what you put out next!
Thank you so much!! Your kind words absolutely warmed my heart to read 😊😊 People have given me great recommendations for games to look at next, Final Fantasy VII included! Alongside Parasite Eve, MGS1, and Zero Wing (AKA the "All your base are belong to us" game). I'll be sure to get around to all of them at some point, and I'm relieved other people find these translation quirks as fascinating as I do! Thank you so much and I dropped you a sub in return
@@tangomushi I'd love to see Parasite Eve. Its one of my all time favourite games but it's so dialogue heavy that there is bound to be some nonsense in there!
“Sleeping with the ultimate failure” made you think it was sexual? I just thought it was them being dead, but I see it in context of the escorting men, though I also didn’t see that as sexual either. But on the line of sexual lines that apparently I only hear, “you were almost a Jill sandwich” has never sounded like that to me. I usually hear “you were almost a jiggle sandwich”, which I know many will say that makes no sense, but in context of anime having big obsession with breasts, I assumed it was meaning something like Jill was basically going to get an inverted monogram.
I read that escorting men line a little different. Yeah, it does sound sexual in English but it would sound just fine if Wesker just said "I'm not used to escorting people". That would imply that Wesker would just come and go as he pleased and not the guy in charge of accompanying other umbrella employees. Like, if the boss showed up and wanted a peek at what was going on.
Tbh reading it as sexual makes it sound more like a bad translation to me because I’ve never really heard anyone use the verb form like that. “I’m not used to being an escort for men” would sound kinda dirty, but “I’m not used to escorting men” makes more sense literally. With the right tone it could mean he’s used to escorting women, which would make it a dig at Chris not being a “real man” for needing to be escorted somewhere. Idk what the translator intended, but that’s how I took it
10:24 This is a complete shot in the dark, but MAYBE the "soldiers area" is a weird way of saying he's going to stay where the battle just happened? As in hanging around and securing the battlefield?
I really enjoyed this (mis)translation analysis, you should definitely make more of those along the "roots" of horror titles. Great content overall, Tango
I heard another reason why the dub sounded so weird is because the sound editor cut together different takes in a way that they liked, so a take on its own that might've sounded okay, was mix matched together with different takes that didn't go together. Anyways, great video! Very cool to see what the original dialogue was supposed to be, I think people really underestimate how important a good translation/localization can be, tons of old Japanese games like this tend to be much better written than people give them credit for and it's largely due to how mishandled most translations were during this era.
@12:19 When Wesker used the words "I'm not used to escorting men" I took it as if "escorting someone of property", Only now do I see it as an unintentional double entendre. Either the smartest joke in the game (not that hard) or happy localisation overlook.
7:10 As a non-native English speaker, I was wondering what would've been a more reasonable translation for Richard's line. "It was a huge poisonous snake!", maybe?
i mean, it's common in general, both native and non-native english speakers, to say that a venomous animal is "poisonous". it's a common mix-up so i cant exactly fault any of the people involved, as even some native english speakers wouldnt catch it.
@@Personal_Chizo yeah. i have always thought it was a bit weird that english has different words for poisonous and venomous, since my native language just has one word for them both. like it's useful, absolutely, but its strange to see even native speakers not being sure what the difference is a lot of the time. im not sure if japanese has just one word for both poisonous and venomous, but i would probably guess so considering the translation being "poisonous" snake instead of "venomous" which would be more accurate for a majority of snakes and other reptiles
I absolutely love how they made the Jill Sandwich line canon. Not just the reference in Deadrising where there's an actual restaurant called "Jill's Sandwiches" but in RE Revelations...either 1 or 2, when playing as Jill, you meet some other girl and she says "Oh, Barry has told everyone about the time of-" and Jill cuts her off, saying "Yeah yeah, 'Jill Sandwich' right?"
This is really interesting and informative, I hope you do more translation videos at some point! I know they're more niche than review videos but I don't see much content like this and would be really curious to see other examples of localized dialog in 90s video games.
(It's Arta) this video is beyond amazing, the editing, the voice and your Japanese was so entertaining and encouraging to watch! RE1 is always a classic to me and very close to my heart. But this is so good! Very proud of you Tango and your TH-cam journey 👏 ❤
i hadn't even considered the translational aspect. i just figured resident evil had no budget left over for writing dialogue so they hired university interns or volunteers lol. makes a lot more sense now
I found your channel through the rule of rose video and i've been maratoning it, it's really good content and i hope you grow a lot, you make really good videos on horror games and structure them really good👍
As a veteran of the US Army, I can say with confidence that soldier's area makes no sense whatsoever. Only thing close to that may be one of those VFW areas in airports that let military personnel in for free drinks, food, and recreation(movies and video games).
10:20 Is it possible that Barry said something equivalent to, "I will stay here on this front line," and it was somehow mistranslated into "soldier's area."
This was a great video. Thank you for your insights into the nuance of the Japanese language and how some of the text was erroneously translated. I spent some time in Japan, but never got my Japanese level to the point that yours is. I'm really impressed. I'd love to see more videos like this, or on Japanese games.
I'd definitely love to delve into Japan-exclusive video games soon on the channel, but was afraid it'd be too niche or people wouldn't be interested! So your comment is quite reassuring haha. I really appreciate your kind comment ❤️
If I recall correctly, the note you mention at 9:00 with the researcher and Nancy is also mentioned in the S.D. Perry novel. I need to dust off that book series to fact check that.
Nice to see someone actually put this into video form. I remember going back and playing the NTSC-J version wayyyyy after playing the american version in order to practice my japanese. And a lot of these sentences when remembering the english lines were so poorly conveyed by the english acting, I eventually had to mute the game in order to really make sense of what was actually being said in the japanese subtitles since the acting was so distracting and inaccurate LOL
Haha it really is distracting isn’t it?! I’m glad we had REmake so we can see the true intended translations, but it just goes to show how a translation can really make or break a game’s worldwide release!! Thank you for watching! ❤️
I'd love to revisit all the early Resident Evils and examine them similarly! RE1 is definitely the game with the most glaringly obvious bad voice acting, but surely there's little details to be found in 2, 3, and other games from that era!! Thank you so much for watching
It's bad... with love! ❤️ Resi 1996 is my favourite of the lot, I live for the cheese! But "Fixing the Poorly-Written Dialogue in Resident Evil" just didn't roll off the tongue lmao
This is the such an incredible video. Seeing the differences side by side has my mind blown. I'm looking forward to more videos like this. I've always wondered about translation especially since the Japanese version still has English voice acting.
I'm very much looking forward to diving into other Japanese titles on the PS1 and beyond, hoping to cover RE2 at some point in the next few months! I really appreciate your comment Chris!
I think "soldier's area" might simply be a miscommunication of the term "guard house" or something similar? Could have even been something more like, "I'll guard this area," maybe? You know, now I'm just so curious about how that came about. XD
But ... why would you want to? The cheesiness added to the game’s charm! Sure the remake improved SO MUCH but the original will always be iconic both for setting the standard in horror gaming and hilariously bad English dubs 🤣🤣🤣
This is my tied favourite game in the franchise with CODE: Veronica, believe me, I *adore* the cheese lmao. It'll always be superior to the remake to me for that reason alone. But I can't deny it had a weak translation... oops!
Yo tango you outdid yourself on this one, I never thought to look back at the original Japanese text for the game. You should do one for SH1 and see what’s been lost in translation. 👍🏽
Thank you!! These videos take substantially more effort (lots of research and language cross-checking involved) but I'd LOVE to eventually dive into Resi 2-3, the Silent Hills, the Metal Gear games, and more from that era of gaming!! Thank you so much ❤❤
You outdid yourself with this one, Tango!! Its so fascinating to learn the actual Japanese dialogue and meanings! Makes the game more in depth! Ah, the good old days of PlayStation 1 games! I'd love for an analysis of Resident Evil 2 and Deep Fear!! So much is lost in translation and this was super informative! I'd also recommend White Day A Labyrinth Named School.
Ohhh baby hell yeah, I definitely will go back to the OG Resident Evil 2 and 3 (maybe CODE: Veronica too?!) to see any translation mishaps there too, but the first game definitely seems the most rife with errors. Thank you for watching!!!
@tangomushi Can't wait!! Imo I definitely think there were a lot of things in the originals they missed in the REmakes!! RE1 Remake is the best one imo. Thanks!!
I think the youtuber here has a fairly dirty mind :P ! With the "sleeping" in "sleeping with the ultimate failure" being short for "sleeping with the fishes" or "taking the big sleep", etc. Its clearly intended to refer to eternal sleep/death and not the "sexual sleep". Escorting is commonly used as "accompanying" or even "protecting" someone. maybe it's meaning is different and something specific to the youtuber's region? But "I'll escort you to X" is a fairly common phrase.
I'm perfectly aware the intended meaning of those words. My point was that it was a fairly careless choice by the translators to use words that could be so easily misconstrued. This isn't specific to me lol, most fans of Resident Evil make fun of these lines and how accidentally suggestive they are.
@@tangomushi aye, i guess its much easier for non native speakers to not fall into funny innuendo. I would never associate "escort" to "escort service/prostitute" like you implied. The word exists across multiple languages, specially latin based ones and it would correctly translate to what Wesker meant.
This video is fantastic and explains a lot of the reasons why the dialogue seemed just 'off' in the Western release. Thanks for translating and using your wonderful Japanese for us! 😊
I thiiiiink Resident Evil: Revelations was the first with a proper Japanese dub... I remember the HD re-release of the RE1 Remake had a dub too. But it seems the English dub will always come first in this franchise! (Thank you for watching!!)
But the acid rounds ARE especially effective against the Hunters (the lizard men), and the snake boss. Tho they could be necrotic, the snake and lizard creatures feel more on the bioweapon spectrum. Also, Barry gives the rounds to you near the east hall upper level .. Close to the snake boss. In the game cube remaster , it's fun to use the flame rounds on the zombies -as it one shots them , and negates the need to burn the body. Really interesting and informative video, also, I really like your accent. Thumbs up.
that's a great point! It's just that interesting he gives you the rounds so early in the game, a good bit before you even encounter a Hunter. It's certainly a fairly vague line in both languages, but in English it sticks out like a sore thumb considering all we had encountered so far into the game at that point was... well... the opposite of "living things". 🤣 Thank you so much for watching the video (and for complimenting my accent haha!) 😄❤
I'm glad I found your channel. Its great to see someone who delves into smaller aspects of the game that the world has glossed over for so long. Thanks for making 😊 I'm not sure if it's the translation or just the actors, but Deep Fear on the Sega Saturn has some of the worst voice acting I've ever heard, if you fancy checking that out sometime.
Oh, absolutely! Definitely the OG 1-3 and CODE: Veronica, these videos just take a good bit more research and language cross-checking so they take longer! Definitely hope to dive into RE2 in the next few months!
This is fascinating stuff, thanks! Regarding "Soldiers Area" - I always thought it was a mistranslation of "Guard House" which is I think how it's referred to in the REmake (which also features some restored text like the dogs escaping after not being fed, etc) - I figure there might be some disparity between the scrip for voice acting and the subtitles in game, we see a lot of that in English language games, where a line is altered at some point, but ends up audio one way and subs the other.
Wow... this has totally blown my mind. I never drew that connection between Soldier's Area/Guard House!! Thank you so much for commenting and clarifying that, and thank you so much for watching the video!!
@@tangomushi Absolutely my pleasure! Being an RE fan since the very beginning, it's a rare treat when something comes along that brings a new light or perspective to the games 😊
10:58 Now THIS is adaptation well done. I'm not surprised the unnatural sounding lined are translation errors or just minsterpretations. RERemake fixed everything thou and its considered the definitive edition of the first game.
I think the dialogue sounds bad in the Japanese version as well but it makes much more sense. I think it's obvious that Japanese people with limited knowledge of the English language are responsible for the terrible English translation. Anyway, good video.
That's it in a nutshell! There's certainly a cheesiness in both languages, but the Japanese script is at least written somewhat competently, and far less disjointed than the English! (Thank you for watching!)
@@tangomushi thank you for an amazing video. I’ve been a fan since RE1 and I always took the story semi serious. Even if there is cheese, the Japanese text sounds so much better
I wish someone would release a version of RE1 with retranslated subtitles, faithful to what's written in japanese. If that mod already exists, please tell me.
That line "it's powerful, especially against living things" I thought was meant to be a hint that those bullets worked better against creatures like the Hunters which weren't undead but were different. No. It's just a translation thing and not a very awkwardly worded hint at all lol
I definitely plan to cover more translations and also cover Japanese-only video games in the future! Lots of gems never get localised that desperately deserve a video!
This was so cool! I have a question that’s always bugged me. Before Jill fights the Tyrant for the first time she says, “It can’t control what it does!” As if she’s sympathetic towards it. Is this the same as in the Japanese?
That is... an excellent question! I totally forgot she says that, and it is a very janky sentence lmao. Next time I get the chance I'll zip through the game or find a playthrough online and follow up this comment!
It’s so much more bearable, if you imagine the VA sitting in a dark room, reading the lines of a script.
Enrico’s “Yeah” killed me
Honestly, it kind of fits though? He sounds unnerved and afraid to me.
This is a very well made and informative break down of the japanese/english translations and how we got such brilliant dialogue/lines in the english dub. It's a fascinating to see discover new reveals by such dedicated fans.
Thank you so much shimsham! I'm definitely planning on doing more translation analyses of the other REs, Metal Gear Solid, Final Fantasy and any other potentially poorly-translated games down the line... if you have any suggestions, throw them my way! Thank you for watching!!
@@tangomushi Quite welcome and all the best with future content you make for this channel.
Another good genre of games to explore for poor translation are Arcade games from the 80s/90s, many that have humorous/terrible english translations, particularly Fighting games such as Street Fighter 2, Fatal Fury, King of Fighters are well known for their abysmal english translations. Resulting in some rather hilarious written dialogue and regional differences when compared to the original Japanese versions.
@@tangomushiTales of phantasia has had some bad translations. And not bad translations per se, but apparently the tone between English and Japanese dragon quest games are vastly different.
@@tangomushi
I would love it if you made another one of these videos, I am also trying to learn Japanese and I just love language and I love the games you like so..
I fricking love the weird, awkward dialog. I don't think the game would be as enjoyable if it was translated properly - maybe a little more immersive, but not as enjoyable. 😅
Great job on this video!
I feel like this video was made to flex your japanese and im all for it. As we all know, being a weeb pays off eventually
Excellent video! Regarding Barry's "soldier's area" comment, I assumed it was an attempt at "barracks". Residential building - > barracks - > "soldier's area".
That's how I always understood it too. The "guardhouse" was supposed to be the barracks for the security staff.
This is a labor of love, you have a great voice as well.
That was really good learning all the translation differences. Your Japanese was great!
Thank you very much!!
Interesting video. They actually updated the plant 42 report with the missing text in the remake.
Also, I was reading Itchy, Tasty: the unofficial story of Resident Evil. And I think it was Shinji Mikami that said in the interview about RE1 development that some of the dialogue had to be translated in a certain way so the Japanese players could understand it easier. That's why there is stuff like "Stop it! Don't open THAT door". Even though there are subtitles in the japanese version, a player would still prefer listening to dialogue as opposed to reading text. Of course, a lot of the dialogue was mistranslated, and the translator definitely was not a native speaker because there are a lot of spelling and grammatical mistakes in the files. But still, pretty curious that they had to simplify some of the dialogue. I am pretty sure that the "master of unlocking" is a direct result of that)
i think the Nancy character only being in the NA version is crazy to me!! it’s such a minor change, but at the same time it’s such an interesting topic. fantastic video!!! 😄
Agreed, I wonder why the felt the need to add that Nancy passage in the western releases?! It's not like it adds that much extra to the lore! Thank you so much for watching!!
@@tangomushi I think they added nancy for this diary's author to have a reason to go outside, so that they could establish the info that the company didn't allow staff to leave, to control them and keep their sinister secrets. So nancy is just a contrivance, a stand-in. They could have also said"I wanted to go buy some cigarettes but they said no leaving the area" or something like that. That s just my theory though.
I would love more videos like this, describing translation differences. For example, I always thought bakemono was just "monster" really neat tidbit I learned through this today.
Really cool to see how things can get lost in translation. Excellent video!
Great video, very glad to see that Jill sandwich is the one true translation
I'm frankly amazed this was your first video? The quality is through the roof! Great writing and it was seriously interesting hearing the differences and how they change the nuance of the character.
I'd love to see this for all sort of PS1 games as I'm sure there is so many shoddy translations. FF7 is one that sticks out in my mind that is so egregious in places!
Looking forward to what you put out next!
Thank you so much!! Your kind words absolutely warmed my heart to read 😊😊 People have given me great recommendations for games to look at next, Final Fantasy VII included! Alongside Parasite Eve, MGS1, and Zero Wing (AKA the "All your base are belong to us" game).
I'll be sure to get around to all of them at some point, and I'm relieved other people find these translation quirks as fascinating as I do! Thank you so much and I dropped you a sub in return
@@tangomushi I'd love to see Parasite Eve. Its one of my all time favourite games but it's so dialogue heavy that there is bound to be some nonsense in there!
“Sleeping with the ultimate failure” made you think it was sexual? I just thought it was them being dead, but I see it in context of the escorting men, though I also didn’t see that as sexual either.
But on the line of sexual lines that apparently I only hear, “you were almost a Jill sandwich” has never sounded like that to me. I usually hear “you were almost a jiggle sandwich”, which I know many will say that makes no sense, but in context of anime having big obsession with breasts, I assumed it was meaning something like Jill was basically going to get an inverted monogram.
I read that escorting men line a little different. Yeah, it does sound sexual in English but it would sound just fine if Wesker just said "I'm not used to escorting people". That would imply that Wesker would just come and go as he pleased and not the guy in charge of accompanying other umbrella employees. Like, if the boss showed up and wanted a peek at what was going on.
Tbh reading it as sexual makes it sound more like a bad translation to me because I’ve never really heard anyone use the verb form like that. “I’m not used to being an escort for men” would sound kinda dirty, but “I’m not used to escorting men” makes more sense literally. With the right tone it could mean he’s used to escorting women, which would make it a dig at Chris not being a “real man” for needing to be escorted somewhere. Idk what the translator intended, but that’s how I took it
10:24
This is a complete shot in the dark, but MAYBE the "soldiers area" is a weird way of saying he's going to stay where the battle just happened? As in hanging around and securing the battlefield?
I really enjoyed this (mis)translation analysis, you should definitely make more of those along the "roots" of horror titles. Great content overall, Tango
I heard another reason why the dub sounded so weird is because the sound editor cut together different takes in a way that they liked, so a take on its own that might've sounded okay, was mix matched together with different takes that didn't go together.
Anyways, great video! Very cool to see what the original dialogue was supposed to be, I think people really underestimate how important a good translation/localization can be, tons of old Japanese games like this tend to be much better written than people give them credit for and it's largely due to how mishandled most translations were during this era.
This is so awesome and well made! I learned so much from this, looking forward to future vids!
@12:19 When Wesker used the words "I'm not used to escorting men" I took it as if "escorting someone of property", Only now do I see it as an unintentional double entendre. Either the smartest joke in the game (not that hard) or happy localisation overlook.
I'm more surprised the sandwich line is more or less faithful lmao
7:10 As a non-native English speaker, I was wondering what would've been a more reasonable translation for Richard's line. "It was a huge poisonous snake!", maybe?
i mean, it's common in general, both native and non-native english speakers, to say that a venomous animal is "poisonous". it's a common mix-up so i cant exactly fault any of the people involved, as even some native english speakers wouldnt catch it.
@@Bonkpunktexe Ah, thanks a lot! Yeah, think I read the difference while looking for the definition of "snake" some time ago, lol.
@@Personal_Chizo yeah. i have always thought it was a bit weird that english has different words for poisonous and venomous, since my native language just has one word for them both. like it's useful, absolutely, but its strange to see even native speakers not being sure what the difference is a lot of the time. im not sure if japanese has just one word for both poisonous and venomous, but i would probably guess so considering the translation being "poisonous" snake instead of "venomous" which would be more accurate for a majority of snakes and other reptiles
I absolutely love how they made the Jill Sandwich line canon. Not just the reference in Deadrising where there's an actual restaurant called "Jill's Sandwiches" but in RE Revelations...either 1 or 2, when playing as Jill, you meet some other girl and she says "Oh, Barry has told everyone about the time of-" and Jill cuts her off, saying "Yeah yeah, 'Jill Sandwich' right?"
This is really interesting and informative, I hope you do more translation videos at some point! I know they're more niche than review videos but I don't see much content like this and would be really curious to see other examples of localized dialog in 90s video games.
I think ”soldiers area” is supposed to be ”guardhouse”
Just found the channel, awesome video. Going through them all now!
I really liked this lost and found in translation format. I would love to see more!
"The living things" I always took it as acid rounds being effective against Hunters instead of zombies.
(It's Arta) this video is beyond amazing, the editing, the voice and your Japanese was so entertaining and encouraging to watch! RE1 is always a classic to me and very close to my heart. But this is so good! Very proud of you Tango and your TH-cam journey 👏 ❤
Loved the video! Definitely not sleeping with the biggest failure with this one
i hadn't even considered the translational aspect. i just figured resident evil had no budget left over for writing dialogue so they hired university interns or volunteers lol. makes a lot more sense now
5:28 I could be completely mistaken, but my understanding of ちょっとした弾 is more like "some ammo", as opposed to "powerful ammo"
So the wesker you're pitiful line has the same hilarious tone in the original version?
Omg your japanese sounds so accurate(not that i could judge that xD) also: never heard the original lines. Where do you find that kind of things?
I found your channel through the rule of rose video and i've been maratoning it, it's really good content and i hope you grow a lot, you make really good videos on horror games and structure them really good👍
Some nice insight into our classic
As a veteran of the US Army, I can say with confidence that soldier's area makes no sense whatsoever. Only thing close to that may be one of those VFW areas in airports that let military personnel in for free drinks, food, and recreation(movies and video games).
10:20 Is it possible that Barry said something equivalent to, "I will stay here on this front line," and it was somehow mistranslated into "soldier's area."
what a wonderful video! very cool aspect to look into!
Now I want to write a restaurant into one of my stories and call it The Itchy Horse. Lol
I love these, are there any other RE games with significant dialogue differences in the Japanese subtitles?
I'd love an analysis of Deep Fear aka Resident Evil: Underwater.
Same. It makes me curious about the other games as well!
I love your voice and how you narrate. Good while working and your videos playing on the side. Keep it up!
This was a great video.
Thank you for your insights into the nuance of the Japanese language and how some of the text was erroneously translated.
I spent some time in Japan, but never got my Japanese level to the point that yours is. I'm really impressed.
I'd love to see more videos like this, or on Japanese games.
I'd definitely love to delve into Japan-exclusive video games soon on the channel, but was afraid it'd be too niche or people wouldn't be interested! So your comment is quite reassuring haha. I really appreciate your kind comment ❤️
Thank you for this video. Love behind-the-scenes stuff like this.
This video was so thorough and interesting!
I'd love to play through the game yet again with some sort of re-translation fanmade patch out of curiosity, great video! 😁
If I recall correctly, the note you mention at 9:00 with the researcher and Nancy is also mentioned in the S.D. Perry novel. I need to dust off that book series to fact check that.
Less than 300 views?! Thought I'd watched everything there was on RE, this was excellent. Subbed.
Awesome video. Thanks for sharing!
Really good work here!!!!
Great video! When I though I'd seen everything about RE 1, this comes along. Brilliant!
The Plant 42 section is called the Guardhouse, right? Seems some wires got crossed and it got translated as "soldier's area".
Yeah, that must be it! That never crossed my mind when I was making this video tbh - totally threw me for a loop!
This is the best breakdown of how we ended up with the wacky dialogue here in North America. RE1 is the game that made me a horror gaming fanatic.
Wow your Japanese is extremely good
Just found out about your channel and are loving the content! Keep up the good work!
Great video!
Nice to see someone actually put this into video form. I remember going back and playing the NTSC-J version wayyyyy after playing the american version in order to practice my japanese. And a lot of these sentences when remembering the english lines were so poorly conveyed by the english acting, I eventually had to mute the game in order to really make sense of what was actually being said in the japanese subtitles since the acting was so distracting and inaccurate LOL
Haha it really is distracting isn’t it?! I’m glad we had REmake so we can see the true intended translations, but it just goes to show how a translation can really make or break a game’s worldwide release!!
Thank you for watching! ❤️
Thanks for this awesome video. First played RE in 1998 and never thought someone would make a comparison to the japanese version.
I'd love to revisit all the early Resident Evils and examine them similarly! RE1 is definitely the game with the most glaringly obvious bad voice acting, but surely there's little details to be found in 2, 3, and other games from that era!! Thank you so much for watching
@@tangomushi It would be great to see another video of that kind ❤️ As a new Follower I will check your other videos as well ✌️
What a cool video, thank you!
"Bad"? If we can quote the game to this day, then how could anyone call the dialogue bad! :P
It's bad... with love! ❤️ Resi 1996 is my favourite of the lot, I live for the cheese! But "Fixing the Poorly-Written Dialogue in Resident Evil" just didn't roll off the tongue lmao
This is the such an incredible video. Seeing the differences side by side has my mind blown. I'm looking forward to more videos like this. I've always wondered about translation especially since the Japanese version still has English voice acting.
I'm very much looking forward to diving into other Japanese titles on the PS1 and beyond, hoping to cover RE2 at some point in the next few months! I really appreciate your comment Chris!
I think "soldier's area" might simply be a miscommunication of the term "guard house" or something similar? Could have even been something more like, "I'll guard this area," maybe? You know, now I'm just so curious about how that came about. XD
But ... why would you want to? The cheesiness added to the game’s charm! Sure the remake improved SO MUCH but the original will always be iconic both for setting the standard in horror gaming and hilariously bad English dubs 🤣🤣🤣
This is my tied favourite game in the franchise with CODE: Veronica, believe me, I *adore* the cheese lmao. It'll always be superior to the remake to me for that reason alone. But I can't deny it had a weak translation... oops!
Yo tango you outdid yourself on this one, I never thought to look back at the original Japanese text for the game. You should do one for SH1 and see what’s been lost in translation. 👍🏽
Thank you!! These videos take substantially more effort (lots of research and language cross-checking involved) but I'd LOVE to eventually dive into Resi 2-3, the Silent Hills, the Metal Gear games, and more from that era of gaming!! Thank you so much ❤❤
You outdid yourself with this one, Tango!! Its so fascinating to learn the actual Japanese dialogue and meanings! Makes the game more in depth! Ah, the good old days of PlayStation 1 games! I'd love for an analysis of Resident Evil 2 and Deep Fear!! So much is lost in translation and this was super informative! I'd also recommend White Day A Labyrinth Named School.
Ohhh baby hell yeah, I definitely will go back to the OG Resident Evil 2 and 3 (maybe CODE: Veronica too?!) to see any translation mishaps there too, but the first game definitely seems the most rife with errors. Thank you for watching!!!
@tangomushi Can't wait!! Imo I definitely think there were a lot of things in the originals they missed in the REmakes!! RE1 Remake is the best one imo. Thanks!!
I love the save music. And "soldiering area" might mean staging or gathering area where soldiers "muster" or gather for role call or "toe the line"
I think the youtuber here has a fairly dirty mind :P ! With the "sleeping" in "sleeping with the ultimate failure" being short for "sleeping with the fishes" or "taking the big sleep", etc. Its clearly intended to refer to eternal sleep/death and not the "sexual sleep".
Escorting is commonly used as "accompanying" or even "protecting" someone. maybe it's meaning is different and something specific to the youtuber's region? But "I'll escort you to X" is a fairly common phrase.
I'm perfectly aware the intended meaning of those words. My point was that it was a fairly careless choice by the translators to use words that could be so easily misconstrued.
This isn't specific to me lol, most fans of Resident Evil make fun of these lines and how accidentally suggestive they are.
@@tangomushi aye, i guess its much easier for non native speakers to not fall into funny innuendo. I would never associate "escort" to "escort service/prostitute" like you implied. The word exists across multiple languages, specially latin based ones and it would correctly translate to what Wesker meant.
Thank you for this, it explains so much. Also...I actually like the bad lines and wouldn't change a thing :)
For years I always heard it as gerbil sandwich and never unhear it
This video is fantastic and explains a lot of the reasons why the dialogue seemed just 'off' in the Western release. Thanks for translating and using your wonderful Japanese for us! 😊
Very informative, i like it ... when are you gona do the voiceovers yourself? thats the vid we all want to see am i right guys? :)
What an excellent video! I wonder what the first Resident Evil game was to receive a Japanese dub?
I thiiiiink Resident Evil: Revelations was the first with a proper Japanese dub... I remember the HD re-release of the RE1 Remake had a dub too. But it seems the English dub will always come first in this franchise! (Thank you for watching!!)
But the acid rounds ARE especially effective against the Hunters (the lizard men), and the snake boss. Tho they could be necrotic, the snake and lizard creatures feel more on the bioweapon spectrum. Also, Barry gives the rounds to you near the east hall upper level .. Close to the snake boss. In the game cube remaster , it's fun to use the flame rounds on the zombies -as it one shots them , and negates the need to burn the body.
Really interesting and informative video, also, I really like your accent.
Thumbs up.
that's a great point! It's just that interesting he gives you the rounds so early in the game, a good bit before you even encounter a Hunter. It's certainly a fairly vague line in both languages, but in English it sticks out like a sore thumb considering all we had encountered so far into the game at that point was... well... the opposite of "living things". 🤣
Thank you so much for watching the video (and for complimenting my accent haha!) 😄❤
I'm glad I found your channel. Its great to see someone who delves into smaller aspects of the game that the world has glossed over for so long. Thanks for making 😊
I'm not sure if it's the translation or just the actors, but Deep Fear on the Sega Saturn has some of the worst voice acting I've ever heard, if you fancy checking that out sometime.
Deep Fear, awesome! I'll add this to my list of future video ideas, thank you very much, and appreciate your kind words!! ❤️
Enjoyed this one. Cheers!
Thank you so much!!!
Will you be translating more Resident Evil games?
Oh, absolutely! Definitely the OG 1-3 and CODE: Veronica, these videos just take a good bit more research and language cross-checking so they take longer! Definitely hope to dive into RE2 in the next few months!
@@tangomushiwill you still be making that RE2 video at some point?
In Japanese Wesker literally said "MUDA DA!" 🤣
HINJAKU HINJAKU!!
"Sleeping with the fishes" was meant I guess.
I liked this very much.
This is fascinating stuff, thanks! Regarding "Soldiers Area" - I always thought it was a mistranslation of "Guard House" which is I think how it's referred to in the REmake (which also features some restored text like the dogs escaping after not being fed, etc) - I figure there might be some disparity between the scrip for voice acting and the subtitles in game, we see a lot of that in English language games, where a line is altered at some point, but ends up audio one way and subs the other.
Wow... this has totally blown my mind. I never drew that connection between Soldier's Area/Guard House!! Thank you so much for commenting and clarifying that, and thank you so much for watching the video!!
@@tangomushi Absolutely my pleasure! Being an RE fan since the very beginning, it's a rare treat when something comes along that brings a new light or perspective to the games 😊
10:58 Now THIS is adaptation well done.
I'm not surprised the unnatural sounding lined are translation errors or just minsterpretations. RERemake fixed everything thou and its considered the definitive edition of the first game.
Ok who's here just for the funny dialogue? Well atleast i am
I think the dialogue sounds bad in the Japanese version as well but it makes much more sense. I think it's obvious that Japanese people with limited knowledge of the English language are responsible for the terrible English translation. Anyway, good video.
Nice one 🎉
So Capcom always had the RE game with a serious tone. Sadly the translation team didn’t take the story serious.
That's it in a nutshell! There's certainly a cheesiness in both languages, but the Japanese script is at least written somewhat competently, and far less disjointed than the English! (Thank you for watching!)
@@tangomushi thank you for an amazing video. I’ve been a fan since RE1 and I always took the story semi serious. Even if there is cheese, the Japanese text sounds so much better
I wish someone would release a version of RE1 with retranslated subtitles, faithful to what's written in japanese. If that mod already exists, please tell me.
why would you wanna fix something that's already perfect?
It's always been perfect to me
Barry, you're so optimistic
You're Ada voice !! 👍😊
The remake had good voice acting but the original version was just whack as shit.
That line "it's powerful, especially against living things" I thought was meant to be a hint that those bullets worked better against creatures like the Hunters which weren't undead but were different. No. It's just a translation thing and not a very awkwardly worded hint at all lol
I love this!
You should do a video on Symphony of the Night as well which is infamous for poor translations too. (Although it was solved on new releases)
12:55 - such a nice couple for 20+ years
You speak JAPANESE?! PLEASE do more content like this
I definitely plan to cover more translations and also cover Japanese-only video games in the future! Lots of gems never get localised that desperately deserve a video!
@@tangomushi I know the gamingmuse has done some localization videos but a Collab between you two on silent hill would be tops!
banger video
10:36, I think it's meant to be Surrounding
This was so cool! I have a question that’s always bugged me. Before Jill fights the Tyrant for the first time she says, “It can’t control what it does!” As if she’s sympathetic towards it. Is this the same as in the Japanese?
That is... an excellent question!
I totally forgot she says that, and it is a very janky sentence lmao. Next time I get the chance I'll zip through the game or find a playthrough online and follow up this comment!
It's so bad it couldn't even say Jill Sandwich right, I always heard it as jibble sandwich... WTF is a jibble sandwich I wondered as a kid.