Cheng Sinzan
I don't know why he has so many special lines. I really don't.
He's also very close to Mai's record of new lines for Special. The only one that gets reused is his normal intro. Everything else, including the ending, is new.
Manual
Fighter title
| My translation | FF2 MVS | FF2 AES | FFS Arcade | SNES FFS |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Tai Chi Entrepreneur | The Muscular Master of Lump-Giving | The Muscular Merchant of Lump Giving | The Money-Grubbing Mauler | Tai-Kyoku-Ken Specialist |
Arcade translations from The Arcade Flyer Archive, home translation from RQ87, SNES translation from the manual on the Internet Archive.
Ultra-literally, it's like... "The Tai Chi user with a powerful commercial spirit" which was bad even for me so I just went with "entrepreneur".
Which FFS gets across pretty well, even if "money-grubbing" is somewhat insulting, and FF2 just goes off the rails...wait.
Yeah, for some reason Cheng just gets the normal translation mores completely reversed. I don't know why. I can't say where either translation came from, and I don't know why Special is closer to the Japanese. Very strange.
The AES FF2 goes back a bit to make him the "Muscular Merchant of Lump Giving", which is pretty good! It's got the alliteration, it's got a decent translation, I like it.
...and the SNES version just ignores everything and just gives him a fighting style. (yes, that is Tai Chi...directly transliterated from the Japanese. It suggests the translator wasn't up on their martial arts) Booo, Monolith, booo!
Quote
| My translation (FF2) | FF2 AES | FF2 CD | SNES FF2 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Don't you dare stand against my brilliant dream! | Money isn't everything, it's the only thing. No, seriously, money, I would say, is the third most important thing in life. Trouble is, I keep forgetting the first two. | Money, I would say, is the third most important thing in life. Trouble is, I keep forgetting the first two. | Get in the way of my brilliant dream and you'll be sorry! |
Home translations from RQ87, SNES translation from SNES manual on the Internet Archive.
Lordy.
So the only line here that attempts to be a translation of the Japanese is the SNES version. And that's just about the same, just with differences in phrasing. The Japanese is like a "genius" dream, but that sounds kind of weird in English. "Brilliant" is a good substitute, good enough that both I and the official translator went to it.
The AES version starts out as a reference to "Winning isn't everything; it's the only thing", a quote attributed to American football coach Henry Russel Sanders. (Thanks to fanboymaster for picking up on this) After that it goes into a bizarre ramble that doesn't trace back to any quote I know of, though it sounds like it should. I really have no idea what to make of it. It gets the basic point of Cheng's character, I guess?
The CD version cuts out the somewhat-recognizable quote and just keeps the ramble. You know what, sure.
| My translation (FFS) | SNES FFS | Sega CD FFS |
|---|---|---|
| I will graciously allow my defeated opponents to work for me. Without pay, of course! | Fat?! You tryin' to tell me I'm fat? That's 220 pounds of pure muscle, sucker -- come an' find out for yourself! | Here's a tip... Don't fight me. |
SNES manual from the Internet Archive, Sega CD from Sega Retro.
...what?
What?
Well, none of these have any relation to the Japanese. The original line is a joke in keeping with Cheng being a rich businessman. Then the SNES one is...fat jokes? And a weird bit of dialect I guess is trying to handle Cheng's accent. And I guess the Sega CD version is trying to play off tip as a bit of advice vs tip as a gratuity, but it's way too easy to just read straight.
Fatal Fury Special
Normal intro
| My translation | Official translation (FF2) | SNES (FF2) | Official translation (FFS) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Please wait until you’ve beaten my Tai Chi to call yourself the best in the world! | Wait until you beat my taichi before you announce you're no.1 in the world! | To be the best, first you have to beat the best! | If you can handle me you can beat anybody. Maybe. |
Translation provided by Upthorn! Thank you!
You know, maybe.
I can...sort of see where they were going in Special? It's "you have to beat me before you're the best" compared to "if you beat me, then you're the best".
Huh. Putting it like that makes the similarity much clearer. (when I first saw this line I was all "whoa!" but now I realise it's not even one of the weird ones)
Meanwhile FF2 is just kind of stilted, as usual. "announce you're no.1 in the world" is pretty Engrishy, I gotta say. Not incomprehensible, but it's kind of off. The "no.1" feels weird abbreviated like that for a line that's supposed to be someone speaking. I'd write it "number one", but I'm not sure if there's a standard.
"no.1" actually shows up in one of Laurence's Special lines in Japanese, so someone liked it. As you can see, it's not in the Japanese here.
Takara did their usuall smoothing-out for the home ports. What's interesting is that the Genesis version of the line has "first" capitalized. Evidence that the Genesis version was first and the SNES was slightly cleaned up? Then again, I've seen some weird slip-ups from the SNES version that aren't in the Genesis....
Normal win
| My translation | Official translation (FF2) | SNES (FF2) | Official translation (FFS) | SNES (FFS) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Whew... Using this much ki makes me hungry. | I'm hungry using so much spirit. | I must rest and recover my "spirit" power. | All this violence is giving me appetite. | All this fighting is giving me an appetite. |
Throwing fireballs really takes it out of you, huh.
Considering that it would take until Dragonball Z (1996-1998) to really introduce the concept of ki to Americans, Special makes a reasonable change. The same idea is there, that all the fighting really works up an appetite. Pretty good!
Needs an "an" in front of "appetite", though. Copyediting remains an issue.
FF2 is pretty standard. "Spirit" is a fine translation if you're not going to localize around it. It's...fine.
I should probably mention here that Cheng has a particular accent. I'm not entirely sure what stereotypical anime accent it's supposed to be (it's not the standard Chinese one) but he slurs all his verbs in a weird verbal tic I didn't bother to try and render in English. But it's there.
Takara completely changes this line to be about resting, not eating, and specifies it's about recovering spirit power instead of just having used it up in the fight. Overall, it's pretty extensive. It ends up with a big departure from the Japanese, but you can see how they got there.
Meanwhile Monolith subs fighting for violence and goes home.
Intro vs Joe
| My translation | Official translation |
|---|---|
| The fool who commands the storm meets his end here. | Tempest man? You're about to meet a high pressure zone! |
I...guess that works? It gets the idea across, even if it's super goofy.
I mean it's better than mine, sure. I actually kind of like 'Tempest Man' now. I re-used "man who commands the storm" for consistency (see Joe's page for notes), but it's definitely more awkward here.
It's just...I hate to rain on the official translator's parade, but it's a real weak front.
(I'm sorry)
I didn't see this line in the SNES version. Weird.
Win vs Joe
| My translation | Official translation |
|---|---|
| You're all talk and no talent. | As I thought, all talk, no talent. |
Yep. Would work better as two sentences, but whatever.
...but why Joe? They're still hanging out in FF3, do they know each other? What's going on here?
Strangely enough, this line is in the SNES version, even after the intro was cut. Huh? (it's exactly the same as the Neo Geo version)
Intro vs Cheng
| My translation | Official translation |
|---|---|
| I hate pirates. | I hate imitators. |
Super literally, "bad people who copy" or similar, but that sounded bad even for me.
The official translation is fine. "Imitators" feels kind of weak against the Japanese, though. One of the duller same character intros.
You can tell when the translators figured players would or would not like a character by how crazy their lines are translated. Sorry, B-listers!
Intro vs Tung
| My translation | Official translation |
|---|---|
| It's been a long time, Master Tung. Have a taste of my Tai Chi. | Master Tan! Long time, no fight. Come on Gramps! |
Oh hey, this is more like it.
'Master Tan' shows up again, see Terry's page for some theories about what was going on there.
I like "long time, no fight" a lot. It's fitting, it's a good translation of the intent of the Japanese, the only trick is that it sounds a bit more informal than Cheng is originally. Everyone that has special lines against Tung is very polite and respectful to him, which is lost in the English. "Come on Gramps" is in the same vein.
Also, needs a vocative comma in there.
I couldn't get this line on the SNES version either.
Intro vs Krauser
| My translation | Official translation | SNES |
|---|---|---|
| I'll defeat you and become the Dark Kaiser. | After I crush you, I will become the Lord of Black! | After I crush you, I will become the lord of darkness! |
Okay, so 'Dark Kaiser' sounds like kind of a weird thing for Cheng to be aiming for, but I wanted to be consistent. See Krauser's page for an explanation.
Other than the whole Dark Kaiser/Lord of Black/Emperor of Darkness thing, this is pretty straight.
Monolith actually changed something for reasons other than getting around Nintendo's content restrictions this time! "Lord of darkness" is a pretty good redo of "Lord of Black". I dig it.
Win vs Krauser
| My translation | Official translation | SNES |
|---|---|---|
| Now I'm the Dark Kaiser. | Just call me Lord of Black. | Just call me lord of darkness. |
Yeah yeah, Dark Kaiser, Lord of Black, see previous entry.
I'm not sure why this set of special lines exists either. I guess Cheng is out for crime? Then by FF3 he's just a goofy guy with a helicopter helping the FF1 guys out.
Monolith does the same substitution as in the previous line, but it sounds way worse without the article. You tried, Monolith. You tried.
Ending
| My translation | Official translation |
|---|---|
| With this, the world is mine! | The world is mine! |
....yep.
Guess he's the Dark Kaiser now.
Fatal Fury 2
Normal wins
| My translation | Official translation | SNES/Genesis |
|---|---|---|
| Hehehehe...no one can escape my circular movements. | No one can escape my circular motion. | No one can escape my whirlwind. |
| Are you all right? Sorry for getting serious. | Are you okay? I'm sorry I fought with such power. | Didn't mean to hurt you! |
| You sure are strong. But I'm stronger. | You're strong, but I'm stronger. | Not bad. Maybe next time you'll be more of a challenge! |
Yes, it's literally 'circular motion' and it might have an actual name in Tai Chi but I dunno what it is. Google ain't helping. (The kanji for 'circle' here is also the kanji for yen so...yeah no chance)
Other than that...these sure are some FF2 translations, yup.
Takara does a nice job cleaning everything up, again. It hard for me to forgive them after SNES FF1, but they did a good job here.
Win vs Cheng
| My translation | Official translation | SNES/Genesis |
|---|---|---|
| Watch out for bootlegs. | Be careful of copy goods. | Beware of imitations! |
I just like this line a lot. Watch out for knock-off Fatal Fury characters, everyone!
"Copy goods" is the very literal translation, I went with "bootlegs" because sometimes I care, dammit. Takara used "imitations", which is also good.
Ending
| My translation | Official translation | Genesis | SNES |
|---|---|---|---|
| With the reputation of being the world's strongest, my dojo will become huge! I'm thrilled! | With the legend of the world's dest, my school will be popular. | My school will become famous with the legend of the world's number one fighter. | My school will become famous with the legend of the world's number one. |
D and B aren't even that near each other, SNK. What are you doing.
He's specifically talking about a dojo, by the way. Not like...an education school. I'm not sure if this ever comes up again.
They dropped Cheng talking about how happy he is in English. Guess it's implied. (it's not super important anyway)
There's something interesting in the home ports. They both get about the same polishing, but the SNES version cuts the word "fighter" and ends up sounding really silly. It looks like a line length restriction, but it's kind of strange to see it hit the SNES instead of the Genesis.