Mizuki
Cheap bosses get even cheaper.
Challenge
| My translation | Official translation |
|---|---|
| Oh cannibal gods and those who depend on them, I call upon you in fear and awe. | Welcome to devil's world. You'll never find yourself alive again. |
Originally, I guessed the Japanese line was in Sanskrit, but it was Ricky Khoury who told me it was specifically written in Siddhaṃ script, a way of writing Sanskrit that by now only survives in Japan and Korea for liturgical purposes. Thanks!
Knowing that, I spent a couple hours trying to puzzle out what it said. And, well... Siddhaṃ is really hard. The first character seems to be "om", which suggests to me this is a mantra. Mizuki repeats the line after she loses, which reinforces that this is a mantra or some other kind of ritualistic chant. But I couldn't figure out what the heck the rest of the line is supposed to say and it didn't seem to match up to any of the mantras I could find, so the exact words are still mystery. I'll see if there's a Buddhist temple willing to help me with this but I'm not going to hold out hope. Still, if anyone has any further leads, please, let me know!
Addition: A person who wishes to remain anonymous pointed me to a Bluesky thread by K.N.O. Industries where it's revealed to be a miswritten mantra stolen from a 90s yaoi light novel and put into Siddham. I have to admit, I never would've gotten that one in a million years. Given I now have what SNK claimed they wanted it to say in Japanese, I have translated that and added it to the table. But please, look at that thread. It is a journey.
Given all that, we can clearly see English line is completely made up. It's goofy and it's bad English, but I have to admit I'm charmed by "you'll never find yourself alive again".
Win Quotes
win with killing blow
| My translation | Official translation |
|---|---|
| Behold, the destruction of that which you wished to protect. Behold, the truth behind the many lies you believed in. Now is the ending of all dreams. | Now that the world is just for me, and you have gone to destraction. |
| Behold, the futile weeping of your women. Behold, the corpses of your youths. There is no peace, no solace from the gods any more. |
I went back and forth on if the English line even was attempting to be a translation and if so, which of the three lines it's a translation of. I settled on the first line here, but I'm still not completely convinced. It does seem to be about the destruction of the world, so there's a connection, but...it's pretty vague.
But hey, look at the cool lines she gets in Japanese.
win otherwise
| My translation |
|---|
| Behold, the hatred spreading from us. Behold, the ever-heightened terror we bring. Outside the flow of time, the battle shall continue for all eternity. |
Yeah, they were never getting this into the box in English.
The constant repetition of "behold" across all her lines gives them all a nice rhythm.
Story
Stage 3
| My translation | Official translation |
|---|---|
| That damned seal has vanished. Now, by the power of the great one...I have awakened! | My damned seal has disappeared. Now, I return to them again! |
Yeah, this doesn't have Mizuki in it, but I have to put these somewhere and it felt better to have them all here than to put two under Misc and stage 11 here.
Anyway, these are very similar, just with slightly different phrasing. I swear "damned seal" is just coincidence.
Stage 6
| My translation | Official translation |
|---|---|
| At first, the disaster was small and contained. But in the blink of an eye, it expanded to cover the entire world. While many sank into despair, some stood and headed to the center of the calamity. | The disaster that had been on a small scale at first, rapidly spread all over the world. Then a few people left for the center of that disaster. |
The English is massively cut down here, as expected. But really, the only detail that's lost is the masses sinking into despair to contrast with the heroes heading out to fight with each other take care of the calamity.
The English isn't even all that stilted (by comparison). It's not bad.
Stage 11
| My translation | Official translation |
|---|---|
| Amakusa: My humanity has awakened! I will not allow your evil to deceive people any longer! | Amakusa: I have changed... I can't allow evil. |
| Fool who aids those opposing the mad demon king, now behold the destruction of your world! | You now aid people... You betrayer! Watch them perish! |
More literally, Amakusa says he has awakened as a human, but that sounds kind of silly in English. There's also a bit of nuance where he says he will not allow Mizuki/Ambrosia to deceive/mislead people any more, while in English he just can't allow evil.
Mizuki is also a bit more specific in Japanese: Amakusa is not aiding people in general, but the people that are opposing Ambrosia. This obviously refers to how he saves (some) characters from Mizuki eating them earlier. And yes, Ambrosia gets to be the "mad" demon king now. Huh. She also adds calling him a "betrayer" in English, which isn't really in the Japanese. (it feels like a tell that the translator didn't know the word "traitor"...)