Miscellaneous
AoF2 has a lot of text that doesn't neatly fit into the various story modes, so here it is. This will be updated as I go.
Intro
| My translation | Official translation |
|---|---|
| A year ago... | One year before... |
| Yuri: Stop it, Ryo! That man...that man is our... | Yuri: Stop, Ryo. That guy with the big nose is... |
| The invincible fighter, Mr. Karate, turned out to be Ryo's father Takuma. He had run afoul of Southtown's crime syndicate, who had seen Takuma's strength and wanted to use him, but that plan ended in failure. | Yes. The guy with the big beak was Ryo and Yuri's father! Takuma Sakazaki who fled the dreaded Southtown syndicate and the powerful figure who led this dreaded bunch of thugs. |
| But in the syndicate there was a shadowy figure aiming at Takuma: Mr Big. In order to force Takuma to his side, he had his subordinates hold Yuri hostage... | For his breaking of the group code, Mr.Big kidnapped Yuri, holding her hostage to lure the unsuspecting Mr.Karate, into a trap involving Robert and Ryo. |
So there's more weird stuff in this intro than the pure text comparison reveals. See, Art of Fighting 2 had voice acting. Not a big surprise, since many SNK titles at the time did, but AoF2 is special. See, it was dubbed. Whereas Art of Fighting and Fatal Fury 2/Special/3 all kept the same voice acting regardless of the region, Art of Fighting 2 had Japanese for Japan and English for America. Dedicated readers might remember that back in Fatal Fury Special, English voice acting was a match for the English text, which was an early hint that SNK was translating as they went.
That's not true here.
Yuri's line is voice acted, and while the Japanese is a perfect match for what she's saying, the English is a literal translation of the Japanese. That means it does not match the displayed English text. Her voice acted line is "Don't do it, brother! That man is- that man is our...!"
So what does that mean? I think this backs up my feeling that SNK's unique flavor was the result of a particular editor. The line got translated by a translator doing a literal translation, which then was used as the script for the VA. After that, the text got touched up later by an editor who wasn't concerned about matching the voice acting. But honestly, this is a wild guess.
This text does betray a lot of editing, given the number of straight up plot points changed between the English and Japanese. The English has Takuma joining Geese's organization, then leaving, while in Japanese Geese both doesn't run the organization and he was the one to reach out to Takuma and got rebuffed. The English also has Mr. Big kidnapping Yuri to get back at Takuma, which is implied to be on Geese's orders, and it was all to lure Ryo and Robert into fighting Takuma. In Japanese Mr. Big acted on his own, implied to be part of his and Geese's power struggle, and Ryo and Robert don't come up at all.
Whew! That's a lot to pack into a couple lines. One final thing that stands out: there's a clear break in the English where it looks like someone got tripped up by a screen change. The second line is very awkward in English when it's all written out like this, but it reads much better in the actual arcade. Screen changes: serious business. I'll be keeping an eye out for what happens in King of Fighters...
Geese migrates to Japan
| My translation | Official translation |
|---|---|
| Butler: Mr. Geese, we'll be entering Japanese airspace soon. | Butler: Mr. Geese. We are entering Japanese air space. |
| Geese: I see. How goes South Town? | Geese: I see. How goes Southtown? |
| Butler: Yes, sir. Everything is going as planned. However... | Butler: Everything is going as planned. Just f-a-b,b-i-g g-u-y. |
| Geese: However what? Let's hear it. | Geese: Tell me more. Don't spell it out. |
| Butler: Yes, sir! Regarding the matter of Jeff Bogard... It appears he's been nosing around in Mr. Geese's affairs. | Butler: O.K. Whoops. Sorry. Anyway, it seems that Jeff Bogard is checking up on your and your actions. We don't know who this guy is. |
| Geese: I see. Mark his movements until I return. | Geese: Take care of him. Rub him out. |
| Butler: As you wish. | Butler: Rub him off. Got it. |
| Geese: The time has come for South Town to become mine. Once my training in Japan renders me the strongest man, I'll have nothing left to fear. Ha ha ha ha ha! | Geese: Out! Twit. Kill him and get me control of Southtown. I have invested too much in this to see my plans ended. The city will be mine. All mine. Wah hah haaaah. |
Translated by Kishi! Thank you!
Well, uh...yeah.
I'm really sad that the SNES port of Art of Fighting 2 stayed in Japan, because I would kill to see how they'd rewrite to get the "rub him out"/"rub him off" joke past Nintendo.
One thing that's really interesting: This set of lines doesn't have any big, noticeable typos or grammar errors. In other words, it got the editing pass most of the rest of the game didn't. It's also clearly punched way, way up. Someone really cared about this scene. And as usual, the amount someone cared is directly proportional to how weird it gets.
I don't have the slightest idea why they went with that voice for the butler, but it's distinctive and consistent in a way other character voices aren't. Another point for this scene getting a lot of attention. Geese is a bit more generic baddie, but he's also consistent. (incidentally, the butler is just very polite and respectful in Japanese, as you'd expect)
The big change that seems to have confused English SNK fandom for awhile is the connection to Fatal Fury. For those who haven't memorized exactly how all these titles relate to each other: both Art of Fighting and Fatal Fury take place in Southtown, but AoF takes place in the late 70s and FF takes place in the early-mid 90s. The main plot driver of the Fatal Fury series is the Bogard brothers taking revenge against Geese for the murder of their father, Jeff. (More details on the Fatal Fury page) So what we're seeing here is a young Geese planning to murder Jeff and kick off the whole Fatal Fury plot. Just...take a minute and think about the fact that SNK was not just writing fairly elaborate (for fighting games) stories in the mid-90s, they were doing straight up plot-relevant crossovers in 1994. Goddamn.
So anyway, Fatal Fury is very clear on the point that Geese murdered Jeff personally and the English AoF2 establishes that he sent some goons to do it. English AoF2 also says that Jeff got murdered right after AoF2, while the Japanese says it's after an unspecified amount time Geese spent training. Both these contradictions seem to have caused some confusion in the past, though by now everything's been ironed out without me.
There's also some minor stuff where in Japanese the butler already knows about Jeff, showing he's already on Geese's radar, and in English the butler has no idea who Jeff is. It's a weird thing to change. The Japanese also says why Geese is running off to Japan, so he can train and get stronger (and not get his ass kicked again). In English he's just going there because he wants a vacation, I guess.