I remember when I played Twin Snakes, I came across a line where Otacon says that he intentionally built a weakness into Metal Gear. He says, "It's not a weak point -- more like a weakness." That makes zero sense. I looked it up and in the original version he says, "It's not a weak point -- I like to think of it as more of a character flaw." This is a much better line, so in this instance I'd have to give the point to the original MGS English translation.
If the former line is what he says in the Japanese version, then that's just a dumb line. Maybe the difference is significant in Japanese, but in English, weakness and weak point are the same things.
@@casualvanilla If the original line was indeed the dumber sounding one, it would fit a lot better to Otacon's original intended character. He was supposed to be a spoiled douchebag blinded by science, giving no shit about anything. You can see remnants of that if you go in 1st person view in front of the door leading to his lab, in the same room with electric floor and gaz. This was removed from The Twin Snakes remake.
There's actually an interview floating around somewhere where Blaustein explains this one. It's hard to explain but it's basically a form of rhetoric that compares the japanese word to its english form for dramatic effect The example he gave was something like "It's not an INU, it's a DOGGO" Otacon apparantely says something similar and it gets completely lost in translation. Which is why Blaustein made that particular change in order to get something with a similar effect in english.
@@nicholasnicholson5555 That's fascinating. I confess myself closer to the "purist" end of the spectrum when it comes to my stance on creative localization, but that's a perfect example of when literal translation just *doesn't* work. Blaustein's solution was perfect
Yep that kojima is a complicated man. Or maybe he's just weirdly controlling about stuff. He loved it just fine until he started nitpicking over it then he was like "wait a second, I hate this translation."
@@MordethKai Hey I won't deny his greatness, however he does have some irritating tendencies and quirks the other side of a genius is always the OCD behavior which often goes way overboard.
@@JohnDoe-yf9wk Or is just often misunderstood. Other posts here have alluded to lesser known changes that are more egregious (like a scene where a lady says something along the lines of 'do me' which wasn't in the original jp version) than the ones in this video, so it may be prudent to withhold judgement until all the facts are known.
Wow this guy really went above and beyond with the translation. I can only imagine doing such a good job under stressful situations, that the original writer praised you before changing it all back, of course. Also it's funny to see how much of an influence he was in the future games, so much so that Kojima probably had little choice but to keep some of the jargon in future installments.
Maybe they should have paid the guy better or given him a suitable work space... Anyway, some changes are good, like the military terms instead of regular way of speaking, but that part with Psycho Mantis completely changes the meaning. So, as the localization dude said himself, there were some good ones and some bad ones.
AndresLionheart I liked the lines between Liquid and Cyborg Ninja, when Liquid pins Cyborg against the wall with Metal Gear and Cyborg tells Liquid: “A cornered fox is more dangerous than aJackal”, in reference to Liquids line about hunting jackals when he was young. And also the line from Liquid to Snake after Liquid kills Cyborg, “The man prayed for death, and it found him.” These lines were changed in the English GC remake, and though more faithful, they were not as impactful.
Paulafan5 he’s not a native English speaker, so maybe he used a word w/ a similar meaning to nostalgia in Japanese, but not exactly the same in English. We might not even have a exact word for what he meant in English, so the translator creates a line of dialogue trying to capture the original meaning as best they can.
I can only assume that there's a word in Japanese that means "a sense of fond familiarity" and nostalgic is the closest translation. The line, "It feels nice." Is hot garbage though. I could see why Kojima wouldn't be happy with considering that the last words are probably supposed to give some insight into Mantis's character. That said, using military acronyms and a Hollywoodesque turn of phrase for the colonol seem like good choices. The translator did publish the article so I think we can assume that the mistakes were downplayed and the improvements highlighted. A comprehensive list of all the changes between the PS1 and GC versions might be cool.
Blaustein's changes and localization choices were all done in good faith and with the intent of getting to preserve Kojima's vision while keeping the dialogue sounding natural. I can't especially blame him for the issues that cropped up, especially considering he was under far less than ideal working conditions. His work isn't as drastic as, say, Ted Woolsey. Blaustein, from what I can gather, put a lot of work in trying to keep MGS' script faithful. It's just that some of his work didn't quite match Kojima's intent. For what it's worth, MGS was far above the work of many other games releasing at the time in terms of fidelity and professionalism. Mind you, only one year prior, we got the localization of Final Fantasy VII, which was a pretty rough localization job overall.
There's an old fan translated interview with Kojima that was originally done for Integral's release, where Kojima actually talks about some script differences and that you can't translate 1:1 between japanese and english, so it's not the fact that Blaustein changed some stuff alone that got Kojima mad. There are older interviews with Blaustein where he says the issue started when localisation managers (It's heavily implied that he's talking about Scott Dolph who also got a character named after himself.) went to Kojima and specifically told him that his script was being butchered. Not speaking english, all Kojima can do is trust other people on this, so I can't blame him too much on this. Funnily enough, the script translations and especially the english voice direction only got worse from then on.
The casting of these games' dubs is also strange and makes total sense why Kojima recast a couple of the characters. Kiefer actually sounds like Japanese Snake. David Hayter just lacks the depth entirely. All forced.
I checked the Japanese version on the GameCube. The part where Gray Fox lost his arm, the blood turn black. There might be more things that we don't know for censorship and regional difference.
@ElJoJos Xdxdxd No, they leave suggestive scenes uncensored, they can't show nudes nor gore on console games because of restrictions of the calification board CERO
So, went back to faithful translations after the first game. The series also truly started to get batshit crazy at the exact same time. Just gonna point that out.
A popular video game magazine in Germany dedicated a whole page to describing how terrible the German localisation was. After that they didn't receive any review samples from the publisher for a year or so.
I wonder then how translators work in places such as the UN General Assembly or translators that work for politicians. Do they use direct translation or do they use a different approach?
@@DiegoCanizo Since translators deal with texts only (me being a translator myself), I'll always support the tendency of literal translation and then clarifying at the pages footer for those type of documents.
I like the MGS1 localization (Jeremy blaustein), and I like MGS2 (Agness kaku) localization as well. Both seem to receive some criticism, but those are the versions that more people experienced, and most of them seems to love them. I don't think we should be too hard on locators. As for Kojima ... I don't put the guy on a pedestal, but I can understand the frustration of seeing your vision altered. Anyway, thanks for the video. I'll go to read the article.
Although Blaustein took a little artistic license here and there, I still really appreciated the effort he put into localizing the game for English speaking audiences. He definitely did the original game justice.
Blaustein did fantastic work on Snatcher and MGS1. I think he worked wonders localising MGS1, especially the way he gave the dialog an authentic military feel
What sucks and I say this with all due respect to the GameCube, twin snakes would have sold like absolute hot cakes on the PS2. Now I'm saying that and I have at least two copies of the GameCube version but why has that game not been re-released/remastered at this point?! Of all the games Konami could put out that one would do quite well.
@@JohnDoe-yf9wk i just wish Twin Snakes had fully used the MGS2 engine. a lot of the game feels janky and somewhat looks it too, but maybe the Gamecube couldnt handle that? and then Rex and its boss room are WAY too small compared to the original and it sounded sproingy for some reason when it moved, like what the hell was wrong with the sound design for that remake?
@@ArcRay20 Yeah I know that silicon knights were heavily involved with that game. And most people said the ability to use first-person view really broke the game as it made it too easy to shoot enemies. Essentially they kind of remade the game but in a lazy way that made it far easier than the original in a number of ways. Again they could take the basic framework and a lot of the work they did on it improve it, enhance it you'd have a really great game.
I hope more people give props to Metal Gear Mondays. They didnt discover this by any measure, but they very much brought this information into the wider mainstream.
This is nothing but an example of Kojima being a Prima Dona, which is fine. He is an artist of great merit and so he is allowed eccentricities. But this translator did absolutely nothing wrong and I actually appreciate his contribution to my childhood.
Blaustein also said if he could, he would have changed the names. Thinking the name Solid Snake was too similar to a viagra slogan. Don't give him too much credit
Wow, this is the first time I see Nord being advertised and a clear statement about it's no log policy. Which is surprising, cuz that would be one feature that should be front and center.
I understand that Kojima was a bit upset that they "tampered" with his masterpiece but he should understand too that not everything translates exactly to English. I think the Metal Gear Solid GC remake was utter garbage :) Played it through not long ago and sold my copy not long after it. I just couldn't bear the cutscenes, the PS1 original is the best! And the translator guy did nothing wrong.
@azazazazazazazazaaa Kojima knows jack his about English tho. You cant fucking expect jargon and idioms to be successfully translated from one language to another. Also Japanese is so wastly different from English that i doubt it is even hardly to accomplish to translate 1:1 between those two languages. Even sentence composition would make no sense when you would try 1:1 translate it let alone key words Kojima used that made sense in Japan but not anywhere else. And those words may have stronger or different value when translated to another language all together.
@@markoerakovic9899 No-FUCKING-body wants a 1:1 translation, Kojima said it himself. The problem is when you start to make shit up, like non-existent military terms or phrases "I like killing" out of nowhere. There's got to be a middle ground between 1:1 and "let's get creative".
There is a middle ground and Blaustein landed right in the middle of it. Blaustein used his creativity to present Kojima's vision of his work to English-speaking audiences in the most effective way possible. That's what a translation of a creative work should achieve. Blaustein's translation neither subverted Kojima's vision nor neutered its impact to foreign audiences with an emotionless dictionary translation.
Why Kojima Hated MGS1's English Translation? because it was better than his original source dialogue, ever since mgs3 the dialogue has been stilted and literal for the worse
I think he did a really good job, there's a big issue with translations where if you make it too literal it doesn't make sense. For example with the psycho mantis line, while he was saying it I instantly thought he would say it felt nice. If he said nostalgic then I'd be so confused since he never did that before. It's a shame he got fired for it. Another game I think has a great translation is Plants Vs Zombies in Spanish, you can usually tell with Spanish translations that they're translated but pvz legit feels like a Spanish game because they changed the names of the plants/zombies to make them feel more native and also changed a lot of the text to more colloquial stuff
this was an interesting article that made me beginning thinking. I haven't played the OG PS1 version in quite a while, and Twin Snakes as well. I might have to give them another run through to see if I notice these things. Good video!
I will always prefer the original localiztion over the translation. It flows better narritively. Yeah there are some spots where it loses a bit of story (Mantis' line... but i'd like to point out almot no players would understand the reference. So while it adds to Mantis' hidden backstory. it does not add to the gameplay experience of the user. Great world buildiing. Less great storytelling so to speak to me)
@@zwordsman I remember when I played through Twin Snakes being mildly unimpressed with the dialogue when compared to the original. I'm not sure if it was because of translation changes that messed with the cadence of the words or if the voice actors just weren't into it. It always sounded like they were just reading a script though. So I'm on the side of a lot of others. The original MGS always felt like the superior version as far as delivery went.
@@zwordsman Yeah, when he said "nostalgic" in Twin Snakes I was like "the hell is he talking about?" and not because the line was different either. #JeremyDidNothingWrong
Kojima was being a prick. If ya ask me, MGS1 had the best dialogue of any Metal Gear title. After Kojima made sure everything was as close to the original Japanese as possible, it all started sounding REAL weird.
That is really strange, I interpreted PM final words as a life lesson in that despite his inhuman abilities he still found a way to benefit someone other than himself or people like Liquid. The game focuses on what he's saying just long enough to make you wonder what his next words will be, considering his nihilism you'd think it'd be "bad" or "wrong" but he leaves with a positive message, honestly I think Blaustein did a pretty fantastic job all things considered, there will language barriers especially so with English and Japanese so that he took the time to consider what made more sense or what sounded dull in English is worthy of praise.
@@Abdega The people hating on him making that up make no sense. If Snake and others like him usually don't come in with weapons you'd think logically there would be some kind of jargon for it and the translator knew it. OSP 1000% fits
As an old lady, I can remember those times and feel the need to remark that it was just different back then. Companies actively avoided letting people know that they were releasing a translated Japanese product... there was no such concept as "artist's vision" back in the 3rd/4th-generation of video games. (later 8-bit/16-bit). Things WERE starting to change around the time of the 5th-generation game systems (PlayStation) but it was still definitely the norm for localizers to change and even rip out huge swaths of the games they were localizing. I don't think the original translator here did a bad job. His style just wasn't a good fit for Kojima's auteur-like vision. Basically, his work would have been praised (or more likely, never noticed) on any other developer's game. WITH THAT SAID, in 2019, I am very strongly against this kind of localization. The idea that you need to change up the property to patch over any cultural differences is horrible in the era of the internet. If a game makes a reference you don't get, or has a concept that makes you uncomfortable due to culture shock, that's a chance for you to broaden your horizons and learn something about a foreign culture. You only need look at what was done to the Ace Attorney games to see why this kind of localization is ridiculous these days, although they are hardly the worst example. Anyway, enjoyable video. I would have enjoyed a line-by-line analysis of the changed lines more, personally, but I'm that kind of autismal. Keep up the good work. ^^
I mean from what was shown there was nothing particular bad about what was done. For certain things it worked out well and honestly sounded better. While maintaining the intent. While obviously some did not but nothing ever works out perfectly.
6:49 Exactly! Translation isn't a science, and us translators can suffer quite a lot to convey the meaning of the sentence while balancing the differences in language and keeping within the boundaries the client set (in the case of freelancer work, like mine). And then, there comes the deadline to make everything worse! This guy did a wonderful job in localizing the original title, but I'm glad the redubbing exists. I prefer 100% of the time the localization to be as close as possible to the original script, especially because of how much meaning a seemingly random word can come packed with.
Kojima didnt like it was a word for word translation? He does realise that when most languages translated into another, not just English, can come out vague or even nonsensical, especially when some languages dont even have direct translations for particular words or phrases. Kojima is a twat.
No, he's a comical genius. Whatever he creates, it makes us laugh. "I wouldn't call it a weak point - I like to think of it as more of a character flaw."
That makes a lot of sense. After MGS and even Twin Snakes it was much harder to understand what the hell the characters were talking about and now we know why. This was a silly thing to do from Hideo Kojima. The original translation was the best
As a huge MGS nerd, I knew this video would be fishy after seeing the clickbaity title. Kojima liked the English translation (again, as stated in the video here enough to have it in the Japanese-only Integral version, and to have complemented it for the past two decades in various interviews), but he didn't like having to translate it back into Japanese and noticing 8% of the lines had been (now read this carefully) translated and not transLITERATED.
I definitely prefer some of the translations made in the original PS1 version. "I'm just a man who's good at what he does: killing." sounds way cooler and more iconic than "I'm just a guy who can only find meaning on the battlefield" which, yes is more serious, but the PS1 version just sounds so cool and like an action movie without missing the meaning. But I will concede in that some of the changes weren't the great, like cutting "nostalgiac" from Psycho Mantis's dialogue.
Literal translations are rarely a good thing, especially in Japanese to English. It just doesn't work. (I know. I worked as a Japanese->English translator for over six years in Japan.) It sounds like all things considered, the translator did a great job. I can understand Kojima being critical, but instead of tearing the guy a new one years later when Kojima finally took the time to actually analyze the translation, he should have calmly sat down with the guy and said, "Overall, you did a great job, especially considering the circumstances, but there are these 4-5 places in the translation I'd like to talk about and maybe revise for the remake on the GameCube." I love the first few MGS games, and I think Kojima is amazing, but I could also imagine him being overly sensitive about he's works being "changed" without his consent. Now I'm really curious what the original "nostalgic" line in Japanese was, as it does sound weird, given the context.
Mantis' line in the original:「力を誰かのために使ったのは…これが初めてだ。妙だ…懐かしい…感覚が…する…」 I'm sure you can immediately see that 'it feels... kind of nice...' is a gross mistranslation. It's not even good writing. The original is enigmatic and impactful (and was appreciated as such by Japanese players), while the translated line is noticeably cliche and seems utterly devoid of any deeper implications.
Judging from the sounds of it, he didn't wanna bother doing extra work on a translation of something he personally cultivated and wanted the rest of the world to hear through his own words and not through a long game of "telephone." So on that level, I get it. He'd rather it be done and shipped off and not have to worry about it anymore instead of worry about it every single time.
@@VVayVVard >I'm sure you can immediately see that 'it feels... kind of nice...' is a gross mistranslation. Not really, since I've no clue what the japanese you wrote means.
He hated MGS2's translation not MGS1, though he was upset when he heard there were changes in the 98 releases script. That said Kojima didn't understand that you couldn't make a translation 100% 1:1. Peacewalkers translation deviates from the original from localization and benefited from it outside of just removing censorship.
i'm glad the game even got a translation, as many games are too text heavy to be translated. that said, i'd appreciate the localizers to provide a direct (not literal) translation of their source material along with whatever they localized.
I've always preferred the script in the original MGS1. Some small tweaks here and there like the issue with Mantis' dialogue could have made it perfect. All that requires is the occasional note from the writer about important dialogue and meanings, specifying places where loose adaptation isn't an option. Instead we got The Twin Snakes, where more of the dialogue came off as awkward and strange, falling flat in some places. Kojima is a talented writer, I'm sure, but it seems like he struggles to make characters sound natural when they speak and this becomes even more apparent when you try to do a literal translation of his writing. Blaustein managed to add a sincere and human quality to the dialogue while still maintaining Kojima's signature quirkiness in MGS1. I think those adjustments really spoke to the voice actors because it definitely came through in their delivery much more than in The Twin Snakes (or maybe they were all just old and tired at that point, who knows). It's a shame that they cut ties with him over all of that. After all, some of the adjustments he made are now iconic to the series (OSP, Codec, etc). Why throw the baby out with the bath water? I really would've liked to know how his input might have changed the way MGS4 in particular was received.
I always wondered about mantis’s use of nostalgic in TTS. I remember even then thinking it was an awkward use of the word when something like “euphoric” may have been more appropriate.
Wait, if the game was originally in Japanese, why did Kojima re-translate for the Integral version? Why not just use the original Japanese text instead of retransling the English back to Japanese?
That's a good question, seeing as Kingdom Hearts did that when the Final Mix versions were kept in Japan. All the text used the original Japanese scripts, yet the dialogue used the English dub.
The original translation feels much better to me. "Feels kind of nostalgic "?! But you just said it's the first time you'd used your powers to help someone!
I think mgs1 is a masterpiece of gaming and how far you can push a system to its limits but I do find the English translation better like the words snake says I'm just a man who's good at what he does killing I feel he doesn't get any joy out of killing but that's what trained to do making his characters progression more important to the story later on he makes decisions for him self proving he is a human being with feelings and trying to do the best he can.
I can understand how Kojima felt. Imagine if this was the other way around, that MSG1 was made in America and when it came out in Japan, the new voice over was heavily rewritten. The American dev would be just as pissed and rightfully so. but then again, this kind of thing happens in tv and film all the time. Scripts are written and then rewritten by other writers and by the time it shows up on tv or film, often bares little resemblance to the original scriptwriter's creative vision. Getting upset about this is only natural, but it's just the nature of things.
I think the translation was ok. I mean , sure one always tries to keep as faithfull as posible to the original work , but occidental language is actually pretty diferent to japanese , and i'm not speaking of words ,but more about the terms , the... "style" if you would say so... is diferent. It's not like spanish or english , were some sentences are imperative. Japanese speech is full of politeness and subtle manners
Poor Blaustein. Dude put his soul into the translation but was not recognized for it. He did what he could alone on what should have be done by an entire team. Although many of the changes were questionable, he did a good job.
Sachs MGS1 voice acting was beautiful I didnt really like twin snakes voices, Best comparison is when you fight ocelot for the 1st time compare that whole scene to the twin snakes its literally night and day You can hear it in his voice when Gray Fox cuts his arm compared to the twin snakes there is no Passion there lol
The more i hear about "legendary" game developers like Kojima (also Shigeru Miyamoto, David Cage, Cliff Blesinski, etc), the more i loath them. Can't put their egos aside for one moment to appreciate anyone elses' contributions and efforts.
I don't know how the Nioh translations was altered, but unlike Jeremy here, a lot of localized nowadays change the meaning of sentences because it would go against their morals
I have been watching the Japanese Versions of the Metal Gear franchise for sometime. I remember the subject about the translation in your last Video about Metal Gear Solid. I've noticed the Japanese dialog was different compared to his interpretation.
You should hear the optional codec call, where otacon take about the character flaw of rex. The GameCube version has am awful translation of it. I suggest you find it The original snake says something like "you added a weakness?" Otacon: "i like to think of it as a character flaw" But the GameCube he says "It's not a weakness. It's a weak point"
I have been seeing a lot of comments saying that Kojima is a terrible writer and that his series was only made good by Jeremy, and this makes me wonder if these people ever played Snatcher or Policenauts. He wrote those games, and they are masterpieces of writing. It wasn't the translation of those games that made them good. The story and writing in those games are top notch
Kojima should be kissing the translators ass for giving such an amazing translation given the work conditions and at the time in '98 is amazing that it turned out so well. Kojima just being Kojima I guess. Ass.
Blaustein did a hell of a job, especially given his circumstances. MGS1 remains to this day one of the strongest localizations I can think of, and easily the standout for the series as a whole. The dialog never feels stilted and is full of character without detracting from the intended messages. It's funny that the military jargon would be looked at as problematic, considering Kojima had actual military advisors involved from MGS2 onward to help with authenticity. As for the Mantis thing? "Nostalgic" sounds dumb in the context. It doesn't make sense.
I give Kojima credit for creating the series and the stories and bringing Solid Snake, Big Boss and the rest of the gang out to the world. However, his dislike of David Hayter just makes me dislike Kojima even more. I see him as a mere rich brilliant man is all.
When i played twin snakes and realized that all the dialogue had been rerecorded it ruined it for me so much. The original recording just had so much feeling and was so believable. But the rerelease just fell so flat I couldn't finish it.
Kojima has a lot of genius inside him He’s also the guy who created quiet and claimed we would feel guilty for pointing out she’s just his fetishes manifest, and legitimately thinks voice actors dont actually amount to anything resulting in MGSV not actually being that great, and the only mgs game i couldnt be bothered to finish.
While I don't agree with his treatment of Hayer, Kiefer did an amazing job and though upsetting, I can assure you that the change in VA isn't a huge problem.
Kojima hasn't taken his original games and buried them away for eternity with changes he made up on the fly years later to be the "standard" versions, what the hell are you talking about. It's easier to find a copy of the original PS1 MGS in fact than Twin Snakes.
@@jahrfuhlnehmNo, but Kojima can't be fecked to take back his franchise from Konami, so I guess, Kojima is exactly like George Lucas. By the way, there was So much blood effects in the Vanilla version of MGS2 on PS2, but then Kojima cut it out or toned way down while adding in extra things in MGS2: Substance, like a Skateboarding minigame to take center stage over Actual censorship. So yeah, Kojima is Lucas, and Hideo is George. My MEMEs end here.
@@gerardmontgomery280 How does he translate the meaning and feeling by making up new dialogue that wasn't there in the original, like with the colonel's line, or adding in military jargon that he thought sounded cool?
@@Gorgod69 Eh, language is a fickle thing. Translating word for word will often make things less clear or make no sense. And sometimes a line can be enhanced by changing it.
Turns out Kojima is also a nerd. Who knew? I'm not a fan of the English voices. In MGS1 unfortunately, it shows that they're rough in many areas. If you are familiar enough with Japanese, or have access to an undub or something, SEE MGS1 IN JAPANESE! I promise you, even if you don't change your mind about which voices are superior, it's simply worth the experience.
A lot of Japanese developers actually understand the necessity of not being slavish to the original text, and the need to modify it to fit the target audience. Square-Enix, for example, has greatly improved their localization process over the years to account for western sensibilities. Those that want a more "authentic" experience, would be better served by learning Japanese and playing the game in its original language. There will ALWAYS be something lost in translation. As a Japanese translator / interpreter myself, I can 100% guarantee it. As long as the meaning and intent are properly conveyed, there shouldn't be an issue. Naturally, if the intent hasn't been conveyed, that's a different matter; but Blaustein himself admits that mistakes were made. Even at that, given his working environment and lack of an editor, I fully believe some of those mistakes were unavoidable. The idea of a "word-for-word" translation is not only terrible in terms of getting your point across; but is also, quite frankly, impossible in certain situations. Kojima's saving grace on Metal Gear is that most of his writing is based on his own memories of watching Western films with Japanese subtitles, which subsequently means his writing is closer to English than typical Japanese prose. I've always felt that his disassociation with Blaustein after MGS was unjustified. At the very least, he should have discussed it with him and allowed him the opportunity to adjust his methods on the next project based on whatever concerns he had (regardless of how misplaced I think most of those concerns were). Generally in Japan, people do not cut all ties with someone after one mistake if they've had a good working relationship with them up to that point. Now, it's possible that Jeremy wasn't willing to play ball based on Kojima's requests, and if that was the case then I could understand it a bit better. Still, I can't help but feel like Kojima overreacted. Jeremy did a fine job, and I doubt MGS would have been as successful overseas had it not been for his work. One needs only look at the localization on games like Final Fantasy VII or the original Resident Evil to see how badly it might have otherwise turned out.
If I recall correctly, in an Push To Talk podcast interview in 2007 (that can be found here in parts, in fact: th-cam.com/play/PLW_kLI30Nv-H7iNdN6GFgAvtICz8kZkKG.html ), Mr. Blaustien said that he was not given a chance to speak up and defend himself in the internal squabbles between Kojima's own staff and himself concerning the alleged "changes" in the script. IIRC, he referred them as "his flunkies" that he claims were essentially telling Kojima that he was "disrespecting [Kojima's] work." So whatever way they could have tried to make up, it sounded like (from his point of view) that ship sunk as soon as it began to sail. Its too bad really, because IMHO MGS1 has the strongest, best delivered VA in the franchise.
"The last time I saw Hideo Kojima, we were both naked"
*hol'up*
@
The God Emperor of Mankind
Hence the name, Solid Snake.
Hence the phrase, "Well greased chamber".
Hence the nickname, Hideo "Ass-Man" Kojima.
I was surprised that they didn't even bring that up, they just tried to pretend that wasn't there!
*Full Homo*
w o t. I’m trying to rap my head around that.
But was it in a sauna?
I remember when I played Twin Snakes, I came across a line where Otacon says that he intentionally built a weakness into Metal Gear. He says, "It's not a weak point -- more like a weakness." That makes zero sense. I looked it up and in the original version he says, "It's not a weak point -- I like to think of it as more of a character flaw." This is a much better line, so in this instance I'd have to give the point to the original MGS English translation.
If the former line is what he says in the Japanese version, then that's just a dumb line. Maybe the difference is significant in Japanese, but in English, weakness and weak point are the same things.
@@casualvanilla If the original line was indeed the dumber sounding one, it would fit a lot better to Otacon's original intended character. He was supposed to be a spoiled douchebag blinded by science, giving no shit about anything. You can see remnants of that if you go in 1st person view in front of the door leading to his lab, in the same room with electric floor and gaz. This was removed from The Twin Snakes remake.
There's actually an interview floating around somewhere where Blaustein explains this one. It's hard to explain but it's basically a form of rhetoric that compares the japanese word to its english form for dramatic effect
The example he gave was something like "It's not an INU, it's a DOGGO"
Otacon apparantely says something similar and it gets completely lost in translation. Which is why Blaustein made that particular change in order to get something with a similar effect in english.
@@nicholasnicholson5555 That's fascinating. I confess myself closer to the "purist" end of the spectrum when it comes to my stance on creative localization, but that's a perfect example of when literal translation just *doesn't* work. Blaustein's solution was perfect
Yep. The Japanese translation doesn't make sense in English.
short answer: kojima liked the work done, but hated having to re-translate the text back to japanese.
Nice thanks he gave him
What does that even mean? That Blaustein wrote the game for him or something?
Blaustein: Did you like my localization of your game?
Kojima: Yes, but actually no...
Yep that kojima is a complicated
man. Or maybe he's just weirdly controlling about stuff. He loved it just fine until he started nitpicking over it then he was like "wait a second, I hate this translation."
@@JohnDoe-yf9wk
He's a diva, news at 11.
@@JohnDoe-yf9wk Perfectionist. Often the mark of a great artist.
@@MordethKai
Hey I won't deny his greatness,
however he does have some irritating tendencies and quirks the other side of a genius is always the OCD behavior which often goes way overboard.
@@JohnDoe-yf9wk Or is just often misunderstood. Other posts here have alluded to lesser known changes that are more egregious (like a scene where a lady says something along the lines of 'do me' which wasn't in the original jp version) than the ones in this video, so it may be prudent to withhold judgement until all the facts are known.
Wow this guy really went above and beyond with the translation. I can only imagine doing such a good job under stressful situations, that the original writer praised you before changing it all back, of course. Also it's funny to see how much of an influence he was in the future games, so much so that Kojima probably had little choice but to keep some of the jargon in future installments.
Common occurrence in games series.
@Hot Diamond what are you referring to if i may ask?
Hot Diamond yes I’d like to know what you are alluding to with that too
*me too*
*Me three*
Maybe they should have paid the guy better or given him a suitable work space...
Anyway, some changes are good, like the military terms instead of regular way of speaking, but that part with Psycho Mantis completely changes the meaning. So, as the localization dude said himself, there were some good ones and some bad ones.
AndresLionheart I liked the lines between Liquid and Cyborg Ninja, when Liquid pins Cyborg against the wall with Metal Gear and Cyborg tells Liquid: “A cornered fox is more dangerous than aJackal”, in reference to Liquids line about hunting jackals when he was young. And also the line from Liquid to Snake after Liquid kills Cyborg, “The man prayed for death, and it found him.”
These lines were changed in the English GC remake, and though more faithful, they were not as impactful.
AndresLionheart Konami treated Kojima like the plague and it’s a shame.
Hows that glue taste?
made up military terms are good? Maybe only if you think that the MGS saga is militaristic (which it isn't)
@@souljastation5463 oh, then I guess all that stuff about war, nuclear weapons, special agents and terrorism had nothing to do with the military.
So he’s “nostalgic” because his mother died giving him life, & he’ died saving a life?
Don't think Kojima understands what Nostalgic means in English.
He isn’t even dying because he saved a life, just while he was dying he used his power to help snake. Saying it’s nostalgic really doesn’t make sense
@@allenfallenex7003 - i wonder if it made any more sense in Japanese? I doubt it. I suspect this is just "kojima being weird" not a translation issue
Paulafan5 he’s not a native English speaker, so maybe he used a word w/ a similar meaning to nostalgia in Japanese, but not exactly the same in English. We might not even have a exact word for what he meant in English, so the translator creates a line of dialogue trying to capture the original meaning as best they can.
I can only assume that there's a word in Japanese that means "a sense of fond familiarity" and nostalgic is the closest translation. The line, "It feels nice." Is hot garbage though. I could see why Kojima wouldn't be happy with considering that the last words are probably supposed to give some insight into Mantis's character.
That said, using military acronyms and a Hollywoodesque turn of phrase for the colonol seem like good choices. The translator did publish the article so I think we can assume that the mistakes were downplayed and the improvements highlighted. A comprehensive list of all the changes between the PS1 and GC versions might be cool.
Blaustein's changes and localization choices were all done in good faith and with the intent of getting to preserve Kojima's vision while keeping the dialogue sounding natural. I can't especially blame him for the issues that cropped up, especially considering he was under far less than ideal working conditions.
His work isn't as drastic as, say, Ted Woolsey. Blaustein, from what I can gather, put a lot of work in trying to keep MGS' script faithful. It's just that some of his work didn't quite match Kojima's intent.
For what it's worth, MGS was far above the work of many other games releasing at the time in terms of fidelity and professionalism. Mind you, only one year prior, we got the localization of Final Fantasy VII, which was a pretty rough localization job overall.
"What is a Metal Gear?? A miserable pile of nanomachines! But enough talk. Have at you, Snake!"
Armstrong: "Damn... MUTT!!"
*kicks Liquid down the Metal Gear*
Hahaha
Castlevania references
There's an old fan translated interview with Kojima that was originally done for Integral's release, where Kojima actually talks about some script differences and that you can't translate 1:1 between japanese and english, so it's not the fact that Blaustein changed some stuff alone that got Kojima mad. There are older interviews with Blaustein where he says the issue started when localisation managers (It's heavily implied that he's talking about Scott Dolph who also got a character named after himself.) went to Kojima and specifically told him that his script was being butchered. Not speaking english, all Kojima can do is trust other people on this, so I can't blame him too much on this.
Funnily enough, the script translations and especially the english voice direction only got worse from then on.
I don't know... MGS3 had some of the best codec conversations in the series.
Scott Dolph got a character named after himself alright. A gay character who dies. Not the most flattering thing in the early 00's.
@@Vkat696 It was the last MG game where Kojima had anything really left to say.
The casting of these games' dubs is also strange and makes total sense why Kojima recast a couple of the characters. Kiefer actually sounds like Japanese Snake. David Hayter just lacks the depth entirely. All forced.
I checked the Japanese version on the GameCube. The part where Gray Fox lost his arm, the blood turn black. There might be more things that we don't know for censorship and regional difference.
Japan usually censors graphic violence, so that's nothing new.
@ElJoJos Xdxdxd but their porn is censored so thats weird
@ElJoJos Xdxdxd
No, they leave suggestive scenes uncensored, they can't show nudes nor gore on console games because of restrictions of the calification board CERO
@@gv2212 The censor things that are for distribution in their own county, but not for distribution in the West.
the japanese people are really cute.
I'm still mad about David Hayter being replaced by Keithfer Sutherland while Japan got to keep Snakes' original voice
I agree but, in a way, it makes sense given it wasn't actually Snake.
SnipingIsFun I'd think that's a genius move, if Big Boss wasn't also voiced by Keithfer
@@jonnysac77 .......oh yeah
@DarkSonic180 MGS3?
DarkSonic180 go get slapped, ya walking silly stick
At that time Kojima didn’t speak any English , and he thought that they changed all the original script , actually was a good adaptation.
So, went back to faithful translations after the first game. The series also truly started to get batshit crazy at the exact same time. Just gonna point that out.
A popular video game magazine in Germany dedicated a whole page to describing how terrible the German localisation was. After that they didn't receive any review samples from the publisher for a year or so.
I am bilingual, and I can tell U that word for word translation is not always the best thing
I wonder then how translators work in places such as the UN General Assembly or translators that work for politicians.
Do they use direct translation or do they use a different approach?
Thank you!
@@DiegoCanizo Since translators deal with texts only (me being a translator myself), I'll always support the tendency of literal translation and then clarifying at the pages footer for those type of documents.
Indeed. But what can you do when your contractor tells you he wants it literal even after you try to explain them what it seriously means?
@@IERServer Tell him that he's wrong and it's a bad idea.
I like the MGS1 localization (Jeremy blaustein), and I like MGS2 (Agness kaku) localization as well. Both seem to receive some criticism, but those are the versions that more people experienced, and most of them seems to love them. I don't think we should be too hard on locators.
As for Kojima ... I don't put the guy on a pedestal, but I can understand the frustration of seeing your vision altered.
Anyway, thanks for the video. I'll go to read the article.
“I’m just a man who’s good at what he does...killing.” - This line perfectly captures Snake and his mindset throughout the series.
Although Blaustein took a little artistic license here and there, I still really appreciated the effort he put into localizing the game for English speaking audiences. He definitely did the original game justice.
They don't give translators enough credit. They just scorn them, for anything they do, even little things.
If they try to get creative and take artistic license, absolutely.
I salute the guys who translate Gaki no Tsukai, that show is more difficult than MGS scripts
I remember that Big Boss was in a coma was something introduced in the English translation, in Japanese it was said that Big Boss was sterile.
Blaustein did fantastic work on Snatcher and MGS1.
I think he worked wonders localising MGS1, especially the way he gave the dialog an authentic military feel
Considering the series wasn't big before MGS1 I think Kojima is/was just nitpicking
I liked both translations tbh. I'm a little more nostalgic for the PS1 version, but Twin Snakes was really well done too.
What sucks and I say this with all due respect to the GameCube, twin snakes would have sold like absolute hot cakes on the PS2.
Now I'm saying that and I have at least two copies of the GameCube version but why has that game not been re-released/remastered at this point?! Of all the games Konami could put out that one would do quite well.
@@JohnDoe-yf9wk i just wish Twin Snakes had fully used the MGS2 engine. a lot of the game feels janky and somewhat looks it too, but maybe the Gamecube couldnt handle that? and then Rex and its boss room are WAY too small compared to the original and it sounded sproingy for some reason when it moved, like what the hell was wrong with the sound design for that remake?
@@ArcRay20
Yeah I know that silicon knights were heavily involved with that game. And most people said the ability to use first-person view really broke the game as it made it too easy to shoot enemies.
Essentially they kind of remade the game but in a lazy way that made it far easier than the original in a number of ways.
Again they could take the basic framework and a lot of the work they did on it improve it, enhance it you'd have a really great game.
“I’m more nostalgic for the PS1 version”
The PS1 version was kinda… nice…
@@Abdega
Agreed. However the GameCube version is way more graphically impressive. Any HD version should be based off the GC version.
Regards to Blaustein's localization
"You're pretty good"
I hope more people give props to Metal Gear Mondays. They didnt discover this by any measure, but they very much brought this information into the wider mainstream.
Clicked so fast when I saw Metal Gear in the title.
This is nothing but an example of Kojima being a Prima Dona, which is fine. He is an artist of great merit and so he is allowed eccentricities. But this translator did absolutely nothing wrong and I actually appreciate his contribution to my childhood.
"Did nothing wrong" lets to get to crazy. He himself admitted that there were many mistakes. Which are understandable.
Blaustein also said if he could, he would have changed the names. Thinking the name Solid Snake was too similar to a viagra slogan. Don't give him too much credit
@@ZetaReticuli1. “if he could”
Kojima is Nothing without his staff.
Wow, this is the first time I see Nord being advertised and a clear statement about it's no log policy. Which is surprising, cuz that would be one feature that should be front and center.
I understand that Kojima was a bit upset that they "tampered" with his masterpiece but he should understand too that not everything translates exactly to English. I think the Metal Gear Solid GC remake was utter garbage :) Played it through not long ago and sold my copy not long after it. I just couldn't bear the cutscenes, the PS1 original is the best! And the translator guy did nothing wrong.
Jeremy did a hell of a job. Kojima really screwed the pooch when not hiring Jeremy to do the other Metal Gear localizations.
The english localization is fantastic, no questions about that.
@azazazazazazazazaaa Kojima knows jack his about English tho. You cant fucking expect jargon and idioms to be successfully translated from one language to another. Also Japanese is so wastly different from English that i doubt it is even hardly to accomplish to translate 1:1 between those two languages. Even sentence composition would make no sense when you would try 1:1 translate it let alone key words Kojima used that made sense in Japan but not anywhere else. And those words may have stronger or different value when translated to another language all together.
@@markoerakovic9899 No-FUCKING-body wants a 1:1 translation, Kojima said it himself.
The problem is when you start to make shit up, like non-existent military terms or phrases "I like killing" out of nowhere.
There's got to be a middle ground between 1:1 and "let's get creative".
There is a middle ground and Blaustein landed right in the middle of it. Blaustein used his creativity to present Kojima's vision of his work to English-speaking audiences in the most effective way possible. That's what a translation of a creative work should achieve. Blaustein's translation neither subverted Kojima's vision nor neutered its impact to foreign audiences with an emotionless dictionary translation.
Just watching this footage, i'm grateful a game as ambition as MGS even got made. A childhood defining experience for me.
Why Kojima Hated MGS1's English Translation? because it was better than his original source dialogue, ever since mgs3 the dialogue has been stilted and literal for the worse
@azazazazazazazazaaa have you even played it?
@@minhnhatmai8282Who hasn't played MGS in this comment section?
He did a damn good job honestly. More and more reasons to not give Kojima all the credit.
I think he did a really good job, there's a big issue with translations where if you make it too literal it doesn't make sense. For example with the psycho mantis line, while he was saying it I instantly thought he would say it felt nice. If he said nostalgic then I'd be so confused since he never did that before. It's a shame he got fired for it.
Another game I think has a great translation is Plants Vs Zombies in Spanish, you can usually tell with Spanish translations that they're translated but pvz legit feels like a Spanish game because they changed the names of the plants/zombies to make them feel more native and also changed a lot of the text to more colloquial stuff
this was an interesting article that made me beginning thinking. I haven't played the OG PS1 version in quite a while, and Twin Snakes as well. I might have to give them another run through to see if I notice these things. Good video!
I will always prefer the original localiztion over the translation.
It flows better narritively. Yeah there are some spots where it loses a bit of story (Mantis' line... but i'd like to point out almot no players would understand the reference. So while it adds to Mantis' hidden backstory. it does not add to the gameplay experience of the user.
Great world buildiing. Less great storytelling so to speak to me)
@@zwordsman I remember when I played through Twin Snakes being mildly unimpressed with the dialogue when compared to the original. I'm not sure if it was because of translation changes that messed with the cadence of the words or if the voice actors just weren't into it. It always sounded like they were just reading a script though. So I'm on the side of a lot of others. The original MGS always felt like the superior version as far as delivery went.
@@zwordsman Yeah, when he said "nostalgic" in Twin Snakes I was like "the hell is he talking about?" and not because the line was different either. #JeremyDidNothingWrong
Kojima was being a prick. If ya ask me, MGS1 had the best dialogue of any Metal Gear title. After Kojima made sure everything was as close to the original Japanese as possible, it all started sounding REAL weird.
Not weird at all, just badly translated.
@@ninjasniperproductions4476Which equals sounding weird.
@@notpsx well, it goes without saying
Kojima shoulda thanked him. That dude made it better. It was more powerful and went well with the movie feel of the game.
That is really strange, I interpreted PM final words as a life lesson in that despite his inhuman abilities he still found a way to benefit someone other than himself or people like Liquid. The game focuses on what he's saying just long enough to make you wonder what his next words will be, considering his nihilism you'd think it'd be "bad" or "wrong" but he leaves with a positive message, honestly I think Blaustein did a pretty fantastic job all things considered, there will language barriers especially so with English and Japanese so that he took the time to consider what made more sense or what sounded dull in English is worthy of praise.
The jargon sounds dope though, codec just has a nice ring to it
I can’t imag metal gear without calling them “codec calls”
Also “On Site Procurement” sounds legit
@@Abdega yeah, I know right? 😂 I 100% agree
@@Abdega The people hating on him making that up make no sense. If Snake and others like him usually don't come in with weapons you'd think logically there would be some kind of jargon for it and the translator knew it. OSP 1000% fits
He did an awesome job and it will always be my favorite out of the series
The dialogue in MGS1 feels much more natural compared to the games afterwards where they do feel more stilted.
0:48 to Skip ad
You're our Mumen Rider.
Thank you kindly
I am kinda surprised, i expected people to be mad.
@@asra-5180 well you were wrong, lol
@@topnotchcupoftea welp, if my timezone doesn't make me miss the videos, i will continue doing it.
I have played the PS1 version and Twin Snakes multiple times and never noticed those differences until now.
As an old lady, I can remember those times and feel the need to remark that it was just different back then. Companies actively avoided letting people know that they were releasing a translated Japanese product... there was no such concept as "artist's vision" back in the 3rd/4th-generation of video games. (later 8-bit/16-bit). Things WERE starting to change around the time of the 5th-generation game systems (PlayStation) but it was still definitely the norm for localizers to change and even rip out huge swaths of the games they were localizing. I don't think the original translator here did a bad job. His style just wasn't a good fit for Kojima's auteur-like vision. Basically, his work would have been praised (or more likely, never noticed) on any other developer's game.
WITH THAT SAID, in 2019, I am very strongly against this kind of localization. The idea that you need to change up the property to patch over any cultural differences is horrible in the era of the internet. If a game makes a reference you don't get, or has a concept that makes you uncomfortable due to culture shock, that's a chance for you to broaden your horizons and learn something about a foreign culture. You only need look at what was done to the Ace Attorney games to see why this kind of localization is ridiculous these days, although they are hardly the worst example.
Anyway, enjoyable video. I would have enjoyed a line-by-line analysis of the changed lines more, personally, but I'm that kind of autismal. Keep up the good work. ^^
I mean from what was shown there was nothing particular bad about what was done. For certain things it worked out well and honestly sounded better. While maintaining the intent. While obviously some did not but nothing ever works out perfectly.
These are some words of wisdom alright, befitting an old lady.
At least it wasn't "our Grey Fox".
6:49 Exactly! Translation isn't a science, and us translators can suffer quite a lot to convey the meaning of the sentence while balancing the differences in language and keeping within the boundaries the client set (in the case of freelancer work, like mine). And then, there comes the deadline to make everything worse!
This guy did a wonderful job in localizing the original title, but I'm glad the redubbing exists. I prefer 100% of the time the localization to be as close as possible to the original script, especially because of how much meaning a seemingly random word can come packed with.
Kojima didnt like it was a word for word translation? He does realise that when most languages translated into another, not just English, can come out vague or even nonsensical, especially when some languages dont even have direct translations for particular words or phrases. Kojima is a twat.
No, he's a comical genius. Whatever he creates, it makes us laugh.
"I wouldn't call it a weak point - I like to think of it as more of a character flaw."
That makes a lot of sense. After MGS and even Twin Snakes it was much harder to understand what the hell the characters were talking about and now we know why. This was a silly thing to do from Hideo Kojima. The original translation was the best
As a huge MGS nerd, I knew this video would be fishy after seeing the clickbaity title. Kojima liked the English translation (again, as stated in the video here enough to have it in the Japanese-only Integral version, and to have complemented it for the past two decades in various interviews), but he didn't like having to translate it back into Japanese and noticing 8% of the lines had been (now read this carefully) translated and not transLITERATED.
The translation was not solid then.
Ba dum tss
LIQUUUUUIIIIIIIIDDDDD!
It was better. Later games had such dreary dialog and text that it should have been adapted, not translated.
@@Paulafan5 whoosh
I definitely prefer some of the translations made in the original PS1 version. "I'm just a man who's good at what he does: killing." sounds way cooler and more iconic than "I'm just a guy who can only find meaning on the battlefield" which, yes is more serious, but the PS1 version just sounds so cool and like an action movie without missing the meaning. But I will concede in that some of the changes weren't the great, like cutting "nostalgiac" from Psycho Mantis's dialogue.
Literal translations are rarely a good thing, especially in Japanese to English. It just doesn't work. (I know. I worked as a Japanese->English translator for over six years in Japan.) It sounds like all things considered, the translator did a great job. I can understand Kojima being critical, but instead of tearing the guy a new one years later when Kojima finally took the time to actually analyze the translation, he should have calmly sat down with the guy and said, "Overall, you did a great job, especially considering the circumstances, but there are these 4-5 places in the translation I'd like to talk about and maybe revise for the remake on the GameCube." I love the first few MGS games, and I think Kojima is amazing, but I could also imagine him being overly sensitive about he's works being "changed" without his consent. Now I'm really curious what the original "nostalgic" line in Japanese was, as it does sound weird, given the context.
Mantis' line in the original:「力を誰かのために使ったのは…これが初めてだ。妙だ…懐かしい…感覚が…する…」
I'm sure you can immediately see that 'it feels... kind of nice...' is a gross mistranslation. It's not even good writing. The original is enigmatic and impactful (and was appreciated as such by Japanese players), while the translated line is noticeably cliche and seems utterly devoid of any deeper implications.
Judging from the sounds of it, he didn't wanna bother doing extra work on a translation of something he personally cultivated and wanted the rest of the world to hear through his own words and not through a long game of "telephone."
So on that level, I get it. He'd rather it be done and shipped off and not have to worry about it anymore instead of worry about it every single time.
@@VVayVVard >I'm sure you can immediately see that 'it feels... kind of nice...' is a gross mistranslation.
Not really, since I've no clue what the japanese you wrote means.
@@KieranHarris44 The relevant sentence says "Strange... ... it feels... nostalgic..."
I thought it was mentioned in the video.
@@VVayVVard it was
He hated MGS2's translation not MGS1, though he was upset when he heard there were changes in the 98 releases script. That said Kojima didn't understand that you couldn't make a translation 100% 1:1.
Peacewalkers translation deviates from the original from localization and benefited from it outside of just removing censorship.
Its funny to think he apparently liked it only to get annoyed with it when he tried to combine the 2 thinking it would fit perfectly.
i'm glad the game even got a translation, as many games are too text heavy to be translated. that said, i'd appreciate the localizers to provide a direct (not literal) translation of their source material along with whatever they localized.
I've always preferred the script in the original MGS1. Some small tweaks here and there like the issue with Mantis' dialogue could have made it perfect. All that requires is the occasional note from the writer about important dialogue and meanings, specifying places where loose adaptation isn't an option. Instead we got The Twin Snakes, where more of the dialogue came off as awkward and strange, falling flat in some places. Kojima is a talented writer, I'm sure, but it seems like he struggles to make characters sound natural when they speak and this becomes even more apparent when you try to do a literal translation of his writing. Blaustein managed to add a sincere and human quality to the dialogue while still maintaining Kojima's signature quirkiness in MGS1. I think those adjustments really spoke to the voice actors because it definitely came through in their delivery much more than in The Twin Snakes (or maybe they were all just old and tired at that point, who knows).
It's a shame that they cut ties with him over all of that. After all, some of the adjustments he made are now iconic to the series (OSP, Codec, etc). Why throw the baby out with the bath water? I really would've liked to know how his input might have changed the way MGS4 in particular was received.
I always wondered about mantis’s use of nostalgic in TTS. I remember even then thinking it was an awkward use of the word when something like “euphoric” may have been more appropriate.
well this explains why some dialogue was different in the GC version.
Wait, if the game was originally in Japanese, why did Kojima re-translate for the Integral version? Why not just use the original Japanese text instead of retransling the English back to Japanese?
That's a good question, seeing as Kingdom Hearts did that when the Final Mix versions were kept in Japan. All the text used the original Japanese scripts, yet the dialogue used the English dub.
because he did not wan't to use incorrect translation and do it properly instead.
Sounds like a lot of people helped make MGS what it is.
MGS1's English translation is superb. Wtffff
Like Otacon's built in MG Rex character flaw. That's a nice touch.
The original translation feels much better to me. "Feels kind of nostalgic "?! But you just said it's the first time you'd used your powers to help someone!
"It's strange.. such a..nostalgic feeling"
Something tells me that the Japanese players didn't all understand this part of the game either.
I think mgs1 is a masterpiece of gaming and how far you can push a system to its limits but I do find the English translation better like the words snake says I'm just a man who's good at what he does killing I feel he doesn't get any joy out of killing but that's what trained to do making his characters progression more important to the story later on he makes decisions for him self proving he is a human being with feelings and trying to do the best he can.
I can understand how Kojima felt. Imagine if this was the other way around, that MSG1 was made in America and when it came out in Japan, the new voice over was heavily rewritten. The American dev would be just as pissed and rightfully so. but then again, this kind of thing happens in tv and film all the time. Scripts are written and then rewritten by other writers and by the time it shows up on tv or film, often bares little resemblance to the original scriptwriter's creative vision. Getting upset about this is only natural, but it's just the nature of things.
I think the translation was ok. I mean , sure one always tries to keep as faithfull as posible to the original work , but occidental language is actually pretty diferent to japanese , and i'm not speaking of words ,but more about the terms , the... "style" if you would say so... is diferent. It's not like spanish or english , were some sentences are imperative. Japanese speech is full of politeness and subtle manners
He did Do a great job, why did kojima hate it?
But it's the first time, so he can't be nostalgic for that....the line makes no fucking sense...
I came here for localization, not a 48 second VPN ad.
Poor Blaustein. Dude put his soul into the translation but was not recognized for it. He did what he could alone on what should have be done by an entire team. Although many of the changes were questionable, he did a good job.
video starts at 0:48
Sachs MGS1 voice acting was beautiful I didnt really like twin snakes voices, Best comparison is when you fight ocelot for the 1st time compare that whole scene to the twin snakes its literally night and day You can hear it in his voice when Gray Fox cuts his arm compared to the twin snakes there is no Passion there lol
Sponsor skip: 0:48
Jackass
Aside from some grammatical errors, I was really impressed with the translation and thought it was better than Kojima's vision.
The more i hear about "legendary" game developers like Kojima (also Shigeru Miyamoto, David Cage, Cliff Blesinski, etc), the more i loath them. Can't put their egos aside for one moment to appreciate anyone elses' contributions and efforts.
I wish more japanese devs were like Kojima in that sense and actually cared about what the translators fabricate *coughNihonFalcomcough*
I don't know how the Nioh translations was altered, but unlike Jeremy here, a lot of localized nowadays change the meaning of sentences because it would go against their morals
Kojima is a hack, that's what I think. I've always felt that the characters in Mgs1 felt more real than any other game. Now I know why.
I have been watching the Japanese Versions of the Metal Gear franchise for sometime.
I remember the subject about the translation in your last Video about Metal Gear Solid.
I've noticed the Japanese dialog was different compared to his interpretation.
So interesting! These kind of topics infatuate me as I want to become a localizer myself
You should hear the optional codec call, where otacon take about the character flaw of rex.
The GameCube version has am awful translation of it. I suggest you find it
The original snake says something like "you added a weakness?"
Otacon: "i like to think of it as a character flaw"
But the GameCube he says
"It's not a weakness. It's a weak point"
I have been seeing a lot of comments saying that Kojima is a terrible writer and that his series was only made good by Jeremy, and this makes me wonder if these people ever played Snatcher or Policenauts. He wrote those games, and they are masterpieces of writing. It wasn't the translation of those games that made them good. The story and writing in those games are top notch
The original English is wonderful! Kojima is on crack, but at least he feels that he did a good job. Indeed he did! MGS1 is a masterpiece.
Kojima should be kissing the translators ass for giving such an amazing translation given the work conditions and at the time in '98 is amazing that it turned out so well. Kojima just being Kojima I guess. Ass.
It's hard to not hear David Hayter's voice when not seeing Solid Snake.
Blaustein did a hell of a job, especially given his circumstances. MGS1 remains to this day one of the strongest localizations I can think of, and easily the standout for the series as a whole. The dialog never feels stilted and is full of character without detracting from the intended messages. It's funny that the military jargon would be looked at as problematic, considering Kojima had actual military advisors involved from MGS2 onward to help with authenticity. As for the Mantis thing? "Nostalgic" sounds dumb in the context. It doesn't make sense.
I give Kojima credit for creating the series and the stories and bringing Solid Snake, Big Boss and the rest of the gang out to the world. However, his dislike of David Hayter just makes me dislike Kojima even more. I see him as a mere rich brilliant man is all.
Kojima, the hero we need!
Kojima should translate his own fucking shit tbh. It's becoming clear why Konami threw that guy in the bushes
I think MGS is the best in the whole saga because it feels the closer to home
When i played twin snakes and realized that all the dialogue had been rerecorded it ruined it for me so much. The original recording just had so much feeling and was so believable. But the rerelease just fell so flat I couldn't finish it.
You should have given it a fair chance instead of throwing it away because it’s different.
@@donkeykongisytpooping3002If people have the choice of throwing out their manifestation of a Nickelback CD, let them make that choice.
psycho mantis: helping someone...it feels nostalgic..
well duh, that's eli's brother.
Kojima has a lot of genius inside him
He’s also the guy who created quiet and claimed we would feel guilty for pointing out she’s just his fetishes manifest, and legitimately thinks voice actors dont actually amount to anything resulting in MGSV not actually being that great, and the only mgs game i couldnt be bothered to finish.
While I don't agree with his treatment of Hayer, Kiefer did an amazing job and though upsetting, I can assure you that the change in VA isn't a huge problem.
To be fair, Kojima couldn't be bothered to finish it either
Kojima is like George Lucas for video games
@@DaidarabotchiBro ???? What
It's like poetry, they rhyme.
Kojima hasn't taken his original games and buried them away for eternity with changes he made up on the fly years later to be the "standard" versions, what the hell are you talking about. It's easier to find a copy of the original PS1 MGS in fact than Twin Snakes.
@@jahrfuhlnehmNo, but Kojima can't be fecked to take back his franchise from Konami, so I guess, Kojima is exactly like George Lucas.
By the way, there was So much blood effects in the Vanilla version of MGS2 on PS2, but then Kojima cut it out or toned way down while adding in extra things in MGS2: Substance, like a Skateboarding minigame to take center stage over Actual censorship.
So yeah, Kojima is Lucas, and Hideo is George. My MEMEs end here.
A translator's job is to know how people actually talk in the language being translated into. #JeremyDidNothingWrong
Exactally. Don't translate word for word, translate the meaning and feeling.
@@gerardmontgomery280 How does he translate the meaning and feeling by making up new dialogue that wasn't there in the original, like with the colonel's line, or adding in military jargon that he thought sounded cool?
@@Gorgod69 He was right on the military stuff though. Operators talking operationally beat things like "acquire locally".
@@MoreEvilThanYahweh You liking that dialogue more doesn't make it a good translation.
@@Gorgod69 Eh, language is a fickle thing. Translating word for word will often make things less clear or make no sense. And sometimes a line can be enhanced by changing it.
Well its all interpretation and tbh I prefer the english version
Turns out Kojima is also a nerd. Who knew?
I'm not a fan of the English voices. In MGS1 unfortunately, it shows that they're rough in many areas. If you are familiar enough with Japanese, or have access to an undub or something, SEE MGS1 IN JAPANESE! I promise you, even if you don't change your mind about which voices are superior, it's simply worth the experience.
2:33 "see the job frough"
Wait, so everything I experienced as a kid playing MGS1 was a lie⁉️
Noooo 😭
Hippo Pilot and the plot IS the experience
It was the lalilulelo
A lot of Japanese developers actually understand the necessity of not being slavish to the original text, and the need to modify it to fit the target audience. Square-Enix, for example, has greatly improved their localization process over the years to account for western sensibilities. Those that want a more "authentic" experience, would be better served by learning Japanese and playing the game in its original language. There will ALWAYS be something lost in translation. As a Japanese translator / interpreter myself, I can 100% guarantee it.
As long as the meaning and intent are properly conveyed, there shouldn't be an issue. Naturally, if the intent hasn't been conveyed, that's a different matter; but Blaustein himself admits that mistakes were made. Even at that, given his working environment and lack of an editor, I fully believe some of those mistakes were unavoidable.
The idea of a "word-for-word" translation is not only terrible in terms of getting your point across; but is also, quite frankly, impossible in certain situations. Kojima's saving grace on Metal Gear is that most of his writing is based on his own memories of watching Western films with Japanese subtitles, which subsequently means his writing is closer to English than typical Japanese prose.
I've always felt that his disassociation with Blaustein after MGS was unjustified. At the very least, he should have discussed it with him and allowed him the opportunity to adjust his methods on the next project based on whatever concerns he had (regardless of how misplaced I think most of those concerns were). Generally in Japan, people do not cut all ties with someone after one mistake if they've had a good working relationship with them up to that point.
Now, it's possible that Jeremy wasn't willing to play ball based on Kojima's requests, and if that was the case then I could understand it a bit better. Still, I can't help but feel like Kojima overreacted. Jeremy did a fine job, and I doubt MGS would have been as successful overseas had it not been for his work. One needs only look at the localization on games like Final Fantasy VII or the original Resident Evil to see how badly it might have otherwise turned out.
If I recall correctly, in an Push To Talk podcast interview in 2007 (that can be found here in parts, in fact: th-cam.com/play/PLW_kLI30Nv-H7iNdN6GFgAvtICz8kZkKG.html ), Mr. Blaustien said that he was not given a chance to speak up and defend himself in the internal squabbles between Kojima's own staff and himself concerning the alleged "changes" in the script. IIRC, he referred them as "his flunkies" that he claims were essentially telling Kojima that he was "disrespecting [Kojima's] work."
So whatever way they could have tried to make up, it sounded like (from his point of view) that ship sunk as soon as it began to sail. Its too bad really, because IMHO MGS1 has the strongest, best delivered VA in the franchise.
Codec sounds cooler.
Hey censored gaming it's been a while
He literally just uploaded "Va va voom" for a Dragon Quest video.
What do you mean "it's been a while?"
@@ObnoxiousArtist maybe he meant that he's the one who has just watched CG's video again. As if we'd give a f. XD