Terry Bogard
Evolved to his penultimate form: handsome anime trucker.
FF3 was translated into Spanish and that translation was included on the home version. It was based off the English translation with a whole host of new and exciting translation problems, but since I don't speak Spanish I can't really talk about them. I did ask a few friends that speak Spanish about certain lines, and will bring them up at the right time.
Fighter title
| My translation | Official translation |
|---|---|
| The Returning Legendary Man | The Noble Karate Homeboy |
English manual scans from Rage Quitter 87. Thank you!
So I got this wrong at first, but in my defense, my source wrote it down wrong.
To be fair to Tamura-san, Returning Legendary Wolf makes a lot more sense! But when I checked the actual Garou Densetsu 3 manual, it very clearly said "man". I was hoping it was different in Neo Geo Freak or Gamest, but I couldn't find fighter titles for FF3 in NGF and Japanese Game Magazine Scans hasn't gotten to 1995 in Gamest yet. The mystery continues!
...but either way, "noble" and "karate" don't appear. I'll let them have "homeboy".
Manual blurb
| My translation | Official translation |
|---|---|
| Lately, I've been bumming around America on a training journey - both to polish up my skills, and I've got a new move I've been working on. I came back to Southtown to celebrate the opening of Pao Pao Cafe 2, but turns out the town was in the middle of a vicious power struggle. I've got a bad feeling about this... | Hey, guys! I'm currently training in the United States. I feel in really good condition and have mastered a few new moves to surprise my opponents - and the chicks dig 'em, too. I've come ,back for the opening of Pao Pao Cafe West, but Southtown just isn't the same. I got a real bad feeling about this! |
This is pretty similar, though with a few differences. The editor was really consistent about turning Pao Pao Cafe 2 into Pao Pao Cafe West, which is fine by me even though SNK basically forgot about it after this game. It does sound much more like what an actual American restaurant would do, though (assuming they changed the name at all).
The chicks don't dig Japanese Terry's moves, only English Terry's. Too bad.
The idea that Southtown is in the middle of a power struggle is dropped in English in favor of just not being the same. It doesn't really explain what's going on in the way that the Japanese one does.
"I got" instead of "I've got" sounds rougher and more informal, which is fine. Also makes it sound less like a Star Wars quote. (I just went for it)
Note about move names: the English manual tries to pretend it's "Burning Knuckle" and "Crack Shot". They tried to do that a lot.
Intro vs Bob
| My translation | Official translation |
|---|---|
| This rookie is Bob. His capoeira is the real thing! | Call me...Bob. My fatal Cooperia fighting style will blow you away! |
New game, new romanization for capoeira. It's just expected by now.
The interesting thing is that in Japanese, Richard is introducing Bob to Terry. In English Bob introduces himself, and Richard is just hanging around in the background. ...which doesn't really work, because FF3 has those lovely animated portraits and it's clearly Richard's lips that are moving. I can understand, since Bob generally speaks for himself and the Japanese line isn't super clear who's talking, but it's still a little sloppy.
This line is also used for Andy and Joe.
Win vs Bob
| My translation | Official translation |
|---|---|
| Doesn't look like capoeira is much good against me. | What do you call a guy with broken arms and legs floating in a pool? Bob! |
Welcome to Fatal Fury 3.
There are times when there's nothing I can say because the translation is too literal, and there are times when it's because the translation just made shit up. The latter will happen frequently throughout FF3. Like...this is just completely different, you can see it, there's nothing I can add here.
The Spanish is clearly using the English as a base, but I don't know if the pun works in Spanish at all. I suspect not, if only because they mispelled Bob's name there. Bod!
Intro vs Franco
| My translation | Official translation |
|---|---|
| Authorized people only! Or are you looking to fight me? | My fight does not concern you. Leave, or I will be forced to kill. Deal? |
Not sure what to make of this one. It's...sort of similar? But not? It's not quite a mistranslation, it's not punched into another dimension, and I don't think it's not just made up, but it's too different to just call it straight.
It kind of makes Franco seem more active, when the Japanese just has him hanging around his job. I just don't know.
It's reused for Bob, Mary, and Mai, for whatever reason.
Win vs Franco
| My translation | Official translation |
|---|---|
| You seem to have your reasons, but that punch is wasted in a place like this. | "Bash?" More like "Poof" if you ask me. I wonder what surprise is up next. |
Translation from Kishi! Thank you!
Whelp.
They just made stuff up again, I don't know why.
Intro vs Joe
| My translation | Official translation |
|---|---|
| I heard from Cheng something was getting started around here. That means it's time for the great Joe to make his entrance! | I heard from Cheng something was up. Here I come to save the day! |
This is...actually good. It's the same idea, the player gets all of the relevant information, and it hits Joe's cheerful braggadocio pretty well.
FF3 is a land of contrasts.
"Here I come to save the day" sounds like it's referencing Mighty Mouse, which did have a revival in the early 90s. Given it's SNK...gonna say yeah, it's probably intentional.
Win vs Joe
| My translation | Official translation |
|---|---|
| Sorry about the great Joe's entrance. Now tell me everything you heard from Cheng. | Well, thanks for dropping by, Joe. You should know that Cheng is a raving loony. |
Well, it's more accurate than the other two (three) starter postfights. Sort of.
Intro vs Mary
| My translation | Official translation |
|---|---|
| Wow, this place really is filled with rough types! | Talk about a bad neighborhood! The cats are so tough, they wear brass paws. Thank you. |
There was a long note here, but I moved it to where it's needed more. Also I got better at translating, so I fixed the line.
Anyway, in Japanese it's a pretty straight-forward line about how Southtown is filled with crazy people getting into street fights on every corner. Then the English turns into a weird stand-up routine. It's entirely made up, for reasons I cannot fathom. Cute image...but I'm thinking Mary should keep her day job.
Like Franco, this line is reused for Bob, but no one else. Very strange.
Win vs Mary
| My translation | Official translation | Spanish translation |
|---|---|---|
| Even agents like you are in motion? This must be pretty serious. | Wow, you can still move! You were one tough cookie and I like that in a chick! | Oh! you can still move! You're very strong if you're really strong. |
Japanese translation from Upthorn, Spanish translation from Sensenic! Thank you both!
Japanese Terry cares about the plot, English Terry has the worst possible pick-up lines, and Spanish Terry just loves tautologies, man.
This is interesting, because it's one of the first times a Terry/Mary relationship comes up and it's entirely the invention of the English translator/editor. I feel like the editor probably liked the idea of giving Terry a girlfriend and pushed for it, which would explain the quick turn-around (the guy was in Japan with the devs) and how it happened. It all reminds me of Axel's win quote weirdness in FF2/Special, except this hung around. By Real Bout Special they're flirting with each other in their win quotes, even in Japanese. It's really weird!
Accident Intro
| My translation | Official translation |
|---|---|
| Piss off! Unless...you're the dumbass sniffing around for the secret scrolls? | What's with all this fussin' about? Are you the king of fighters or just a girlie? |
| I ain't gonna let a snot-nosed brat like you get in my way! | Okey, goldilocks! Get in my way and you're part of the bottom of the bay! |
Hoo boy.
Okay, so the first line is used for Terry, Andy, and Joe, while the second line is used for those three and then Bob for some reason. I have no idea why Bob shares so many of Terry's lines. Did they just run out of time for writing his dialog?
These are lines you can pretty easily reuse for Andy, but uh...it's damn weird to call Joe and Bob "goldilocks". Fatal Fury games were usually written and translated for Terry, and this is one of the more noticeable tells. Another is "are you the king of fighters or just a girlie". While you can say any of the three FF1 heroes could be the king of fighters, "just a girlie" is pretty obviously aimed at Terry. You can make a case for Andy, but it just doesn't make sense for Joe. (FF3 really loves to insult Terry's hair, it's bullshit. He's got great hair!)
So let's talk about the Japanese for a bit. What Yamazaki is saying first is something like "stop loitering around!", which the official translator put down as "fussin' about". I went with the idea that he's telling the player to stop hanging around while he's doing...whatever the fuck he's doing. Looking for Geese, I guess. It's amazing how no one can find Geese when he's always in the exact same spot.
The second line is pretty much the same in intention. I really like "part of the bottom of the bay" for bringing to mind stuff like concrete shoes from gangster movies. AoF2 shows there is a bay around Southtown, so...sure.
Incidentally, Yamazaki talks exactly how you'd expect him to talk, with tons of stereotypical yakuza slurring. Both the official translator and I added a bunch of contractions and tried to make him sound like a movie gangster compared to other characters. (I don't know if that's why "okay" is misspelled or if it's just a typo, though)
Accident Postfight
| My translation | Official translation |
|---|---|
| Yamazaki: Heheh...interestin'. So you're Terry Bogard? This's been real fun. Heheh... | Yamazaki: Heh ,heh. Terry Bogard. This is a real treat. |
| Terry: W-wait! | Terry: Just a minute! |
| Terry: Tch! A stranger who mentioned the secret scrolls... Looks like what Joe said was real after all. | Terry: Why, he mentioned the scrolls! Joe wasn't just wasn't whistling Dixie. |
The first two lines are pretty straight. The first one is chopped down a little, but it's not that bad, and the second is ultra-simple. The third line is not badly translated, but it's more interesting. The poor editing is obvious, and a bit different from most FF3 copyediting problems. Usually it's typos and such, which are pretty easy to miss if you're working fast. For this, I'm hypothesizing that the line break just fooled whoever was checking's eye into reading over the second "wasn't".
Which is kind of sad, because it's a good line! To be "whistling Dixie" is basically to make stuff up or fantasize in a conversation, so Terry's saying that Joe wasn't just bullshitting to sound cool...which is exactly what he's saying in Japanese. I'm not sure how much it's a regional idiom, but at least it's the right region for Southtown.
And I'd just like to mention I love this little cutscene. FF3 had so much in terms of production values and I love all of it. The gigantic talking sprites, the cutscenes, the different animations for running around the world map...it's all so good.
Intro vs Mai
| My translation | Official translation |
|---|---|
| Big brother! Could it be that the strongest fighter around is looking for the secret scrolls? | Terry, baby! Don't tell me a slab of beefcake like you holds the secret scrolls! |
Yeah, she's literally calling him "big brother" here. Oniichan, to be precise, which is cute/affectionate. I'd probably say something like "Terry! Could it be my favourite brother and strongest fighter..." if I was doing this for real. "Terry, baby!" isn't a bad way of writing around it, since the whole thing is Mai trying to butter Terry up by playing on their relationship.
Meanwhile Spanish Mai forgets which Bogard she's talking to. I guess it's not a bad assumption that Mai would only be calling Andy "baby", but it's wrong in this case.
"Strongest fighter" to "slab of beefcake" isn't bad, and I actually kind of like it. But a point is lost in translation: Mai doesn't think Terry has the scrolls, she thinks he's looking for them, just like everyone else.
Win vs Mai
| My translation | Official translation |
|---|---|
| Since when am I your brother? And how do you know about the secret scrolls? | First, don't call me goldilocks! Second, cover up that cleavage. Have you no shame, Mai? |
Well.
The first half is confused. Mai didn't call Terry "goldilocks", that was Yamazaki. But since Mai didn't call Terry "brother" in English, the translator jumped back to the last thing Terry got called and made him sound punch drunk instead. Or they just forgot. It's hard to tell.
The second half is just wrong.
Intro vs Andy
| My translation | Official translation |
|---|---|
| Terry, what are you doing here? You're the one that said not to get Mai involved in this! | You hair-spray hooligan! You're the guy who said not to get involved in this! |
This is pretty straight, only really losing that Terry was specifically trying to not get Mai involved, instead of keeping everyone out of it. ...this is kind of where the nature of FF3 works against it, because when the hell did Terry meet up with Andy to tell him not to let Mai get involved? Terry just confirmed that Joe wasn't just making shit up right before he met Mai.
I appreciate the ambition but the story is confusing sometimes okay
Of note here is that Andy has switched from 兄さん/niisan to 兄貴/aniki when talking to Terry. The latter is rougher, so I guess Andy's trying to sound cool now. This was rendered into English as "you hair-spray hooligan", which is great but uh...not quite right.
Win vs Andy
| My translation | Official translation |
|---|---|
| Aren't you the one who told little Mai about the secret scrolls? Speak up, Andykins. | Hey! You told Mai about the scrolls in the first place! Stop always getting on my case. |
Terry's calling her Mai-chan now. It's kind of cute. (he actually did in his win vs her, but there wasn't a good way to render that into English) He adds a -chan to Andy too, which I turned into "Andykins".
This...isn't bad either. It gets the point across, and "stop always getting on my case" sounds pretty good here. Terry's a bit grouchier in English, but compared to earlier...it's not bad.
Intro vs Hon Fu
| My translation | Official translation |
|---|---|
| Do you know a man named Yamazaki? It's better for you if you don't keep mum, you know? | I'm axin' ya if youse knows Yamazaki and his band of goons. Understand, blondie? |
Hon Fu has an accent and it's a pain in the butt. Actualfax translator Upthorn says it sounds old-timey to him, which...I'm not sure how that relates to Hon Fu's character, but maybe he's supposed to sound like a guy from a kung fu flick? This translation is thanks to Kishi and me putting our heads together and we think it's about right.
The English does give Hon Fu a goofy accent in this scene, but it's not consistent and makes Hon Fu sound like a mobster. Which is kind of weird. The other weird part is that the English tacks on that Yamazaki has a "band of goons", which is kind of misleading. He's using Franco, but I think the player is supposed to assume he's mostly a solo operator until the Jins are revealed.
And more of the translator's grudge against Terry's hair. It's nice hair! Leave him alone.
Win vs Hon Fu
| My translation | Official translation |
|---|---|
| I don't know if he's your prey or what, but that guy was looking down on me earlier. | I'm axin' you if you could do my the favor of stopping your bleeding over my new shoes. |
Translation from Upthorn! Thank you!
I got completely lost on the grammar for this one and had to ask for help.
Whenever that coincides with the official English being completely different I always wonder if it's because the translator had as much trouble as I did. It's really hard to tell.
Anyway this is completely changed, which is a rarity in the second half of the game. It includes a bit of wordplay that wasn't there in Japanese at all, as well as the return of Asshole Terry. I consider it another testament to SNK's character design and animation that everyone realised Terry's a sweetheart despite how he talks in English.
Intro vs Sokaku
| My translation | Official translation |
|---|---|
| It seems you too are searching for the secret scrolls. This is a sign of the shura. Fall prey the powers of darkness! | It looks like your searching for the secret files, too. I hate competition, so die! |
So Sokaku again talks like how you'd expect, with lots of archaic words. Since I'm not up on my archaic Japanese, there are more chances for errors here than normal. (and, again, error chance was already high) Please understand. "Shura" especially is a huge pain to translate, since it's also a religious term. I'm not sure of all the implications, but it literally means "carnage" and is a Buddhist term meaning, roughly, a set of spirits that are warlike and given to fighting. As I understand it, Sokaku has some of these spirits trapped and uses them to fight, which is what's up with the big demon spirit thing he's got.
So you put all that together and you get something I don't want to try and translate it succinctly and neither did the official translator. (not that a good translation doesn't exist, just...I can ramble on and I'm going to take advantage of that) The official translator just dropped the idea that Sokaku is using dark/violent spirits at all.
It is interesting that "secret scrolls" is rendered here as "secret files". Read literally, the Japanese term is roughly "secret documents" but the whole term means "secret scrolls handed down through the generations". So far the localization has been accurately calling them "secret scrolls", so this is weird. The slip-up and the more generally literal translations of the second half suggest that once again, SNK was concentrating their edits on parts they felt the players would be more interested in. Here, it's the first four fights, Geese, and the final boss, so Sokaku gets left out in the cold.
This line is shared with Andy and Joe.
Win vs Sokaku
| My translation | Official translation |
|---|---|
| I don't really get what your problem is, but aren't you making a mistake somewhere? | I don't know what the hell this bozo is talking about! Sure I'm the right guy? |
Meanwhile this is pretty straight. English Terry's more aggressive, as usual.
Intro vs Terry
| My translation | Official translation |
|---|---|
| That monkey-grade imitation is just no good! | Who's this monkey? |
And then this is pretty good! We've still got the monkeys, 2P Terry is still more or less saying that 1P's a bad imitation, and it sounds all right in English. Wow.
Win vs Terry
| My translation | Official translation |
|---|---|
| If you want to impersonate me right, you'd better start all over again. | A good fight, but, as I thought, a copy is never as good as the original! |
So this is...pretty much entirely different but it's not in an entirely inexplicable way and Terry's not wildly out of character so I'm not sure what to make of it.
Intro vs Geese
| My translation | Official translation |
|---|---|
| Heheh... What's with that face? I'm immortal! Let's finish what we started three years ago! | Heh, heh. It's time I pay you back for the boot out of the window, Terry baby! |
English drops Geese's explanation of how he came back. (he's bullshitting anyway) It adds a neat little FF1 reference and Geese calling Terry "baby" for some reason.
This line is shared with Andy, but not Joe. (Geese does correctly say "Andy baby", for the record)
Win vs Geese
| My translation | Official translation |
|---|---|
| Geese: Heheh... This seems to be the end. It was fun, Terry. | Geese: Well, bud. It looks like it's the end of the line for me! Had a blast! |
| It looks like I underestimated you. More than Jeff and Krauser, it's you I should have feared. | I guess I underestimated you. You're stronger than Jeff and Krauzer... |
| Farewell, Terry...heh...ahahahahahah..... | But you're still just a tiny little frog in a tiny little pond, Terry. |
| Terry: G...Geeeeeese! | Terry: Geese! |
Well, let's start from the top.
First line is basically the same if you completely ignore the concept of character voice. Which, uh...I mostly have. This is an especially nuts example, though!
The second line is interesting. It's not just that Terry is stronger, it's that Geese should have been afraid of him the whole time and just realised it. ...you know, after getting his ass kicked twice. And then they came up with a new and exciting romanization for Krauser, which is fun. Does this mean a different person did this and FFS, or that they just didn't check how they'd romanized Krauser's name previously? I'm inclined to assume the latter, but I can't rule anything out.
I have no goddamn idea what's up with the third line in English. Did they just make stuff up for no reason, like they keep doing? Is it hinting at the Jins? Set-up for a sequel? I don't even know.
Of slight note here is how they handled the Spanish diacritical marks. It looks like they only had the ability to put a mark above the already-existing character set, which means that the í looks kind of strange! It's interesting to get to see technical limitations in such a direct way.
Cheng appears!
| My translation | Official translation |
|---|---|
| Cheng: Heyyy! Over here! | Cheng(?): Hey, come back here! |
| Terry: Is that you, Cheng? | Terry: Why, by the hairs of my chengny, cheng, cheng... It's Cheng! |
| Cheng: Terry! Only you can beat Yamazaki. It'll all be over if he gets the scrolls. | Cheng: Terry! Let him go. You have to catch up with Yamazaki and the scrolls! |
| C'mon! Hurry and grab on! | If he passes them on... Hurry, my boy! |
Translation by Kishi! Thank you!
In-game, it looks like the translator missed a cue and translated Cheng's first line as Terry. Which is weird, because Cheng has a really distinctive speaking style that's nothing like Terry's. More likely it was a later edit after the script was already in English.
I'm not even gonna try and explain the second line. It's just the official translator's sense of humour again. At least it isn't a complete rewrite.
The verb Cheng uses about Yamazaki and the scrolls would probably make more sense if I was any good at this. It can mean to cross over, to extend, to span, etc, which is probably where the official translator got "if he passes them on". But we all know by now that Yamazaki doesn't have the scrolls and he's just looking for them, same as everyone else. So it might also mean "if he gets the scrolls".
Basically anyone that actually knows what they're talking about is welcome to chip in here. Please.
The official translator also throws in a line implying Geese survived, where the Japanese has no such thing. It's not a big stretch, since the ending movie is pretty much "oh yeah we put Geese in and forgot to wrap up the his plot oops", but it's an addition. I wonder if SNK was already planning for Real Bout when FF3 was being translated or if it's just a coincidence.
At the trainyard
| My translation | Official translation |
|---|---|
| Cheng: Tell me that's not Hon Fu wiped out over there. That fool, trying to do everything himself again... | Cheng: Oh, the gods! That's Hon Fu! That crazy fool! |
| Terry: Cheng, hurry and get Hon Fu to a hospital. I'll definitely beat Yamazaki. | Terry: Cheng! See Hon Fu gets to a hospital. I'm going after that Yamazaki clown! |
Kishi did the translation through the end of Terry's route because he's a hero.
This is all pretty accurate. It's a nice break for me.
"Oh, the gods!" is a damn weird exclamation on its own, though.
This line is shared with Andy and Joe. And like Geese, the names change correctly.
Intro vs Yamazaki
| My translation | Official translation |
|---|---|
| Heh heh... Terry Bogard. You were just saying? Hmmm...? Wake the hell up! | Terry Bogard. It's about time we met. This clown is going to show you his bag of tricks! |
Thank you, Kishi.
I think Japanese Yamazaki's saying Terry is dreaming if he thinks he can beat him.
From that perspective the English is weird, but not completely out there. It's actually a good follow-up from the previous scene, riffing on Terry's "clown" line in a way that works. I think it follows better than the Japanese.
No idea why English Yamazaki thinks this is the first time he and Terry met, though.
This line is also shared with Andy and Joe.
Ending A
| My translation | Official translation |
|---|---|
| So, ya got me... But after this, there ain't no way someone of your level can win. Give it up... | To be beaten by a ball-capped weeny like yourself! To die of shame! But next round... |
Kishi got the pics. Thank you.
Since only the first line of the ending is unique, I put the other parts over here.
This ending is reused for Andy, Joe, and Bob, which means this once again shows the American branch writing for Terry. Also note the extremely unusual spelling of "weenie", which is kind of weird considering how often SNK used it. Like, of all the words to misspell...
So I can see the connecting thread here, but unless you know what the Japanese says already it's confusing. It sounds like Yamazaki is threatening that he'll make a come back in the next round, not warning you that the real enemy is stronger than him and you aren't ready. Yamazaki telling the player to just give up is also dropped. All in all, the English version is unclear about the game information Yamazaki is supposed to be giving here.
Win vs Yamazaki
| My translation | Official translation |
|---|---|
| Terry: I don't know about these secret scrolls, and I don't care. Leave this town out of it. | Terry: I don't know what this scroll stuff is all about, so just get your sorry carcass out of here! |
| Yamazaki: Don't...care...? Hurgh... | Yamazaki: Why not drop by Delta Park if you want to know more about the scrolls. That is, if you dare! |
| Chonshu: Terry Bogard, is it? I don't believe we've met. | Chonshu: Terry Bogard. It is about time we met. I've heard so much about you.... |
| Terry: W-What the...?! | Terry: W-what the...! |
| Terry: W-What is this place...? | Terry: Just where the blazes am I? |
Kishi also got a lot of the images, since I was pretty lax my first time though. I thought since FF3 was so long I'd just get the obviously bizarre lines...and had no idea that they were all bizarre.
First line is good.
Second line...yeah. Yamazaki is not suddenly helpful for no reason. In Japanese, every time, he gurgles out something unhelpful and falls over, then Chonshu steps in. In English, every time I've seen so far, he directly tells the player to go to Delta Park. Which is weird, because Chonshu just takes you there on his own. It's why the main character is disorientated afterwards, they have no idea where they are. There's also the wrinkle that the Japanese version makes no claims as to where the scrolls are, while the English sets it up so the Jin brothers already have them.
The rest is pretty okay. I like "where in the blazes", it's another nicely idiomatic expression.
Intro vs Chonshu
| My translation | Official translation |
|---|---|
| Beating Yamazaki is no small feat. But after meeting me, you're going to wish you hadn't bothered. | Wow, you sure knocked Yamazaki senseless. But he was weak. I am not. |
| My name is Jin Chonshu. The secret scrolls I'm searching for were written by my father 2200 years ago. | Call me, Jin Chon Shu. Why? Cause that's my name, fool! |
| Since that time, I have been destined to return to life by possessing this body. | Hand me the scrolls! At last, the world and immortality are mine!!! |
| Once I gather all three scrolls, I will be revived in a perfect body capable of ruling the entire world. | Mine, after waiting in this body for 2,200 long years! |
| None of this concerns you, but you just had to stick your neck out... Come right this way, then... | The world will be mine, except for Oshkosh. But first, to take care of you! |
Kishi's been a huge help for this entire project.
Get used to most Chonshu exposition dumps being rife with problems. FF3 already has a confusing story and the English version mistranslates or leaves out multiple key points. And I'm not 100% sure we've got them all right either!
The frustrating part about this for me is that I can never be sure what's mistranslated or what they just decided to change for reasons unknown. Is it a joke or did they mess up? It is literally impossible to tell!
Okay, rant over. I really do love Fatal Fury 3, even more for all its flaws. So let's get going on this one.
To start off, I swear I remember the "Call me ____. Why? Cause that's my name!" formation from the 90s, but Google turns up nothing. Does anyone else remember this? I don't think I hallucinated it, but I absolutely definitely did not play this game in the 90s. Either way, the joke is pretty different from the actual plot info Japanese Chonshu is dropping.
A point is missed between English and Japanese: Japanese Chonshu is possessed by the spirit of his ancestor, while English Chonshu is...apparently already immortal? I'm not sure how else to read "after waiting in this body for 2,200 long years". A backstory I've seen for the Jins says that the spirits possessing them have completely different names, which helps differentiate them from the actual Jins. But then Chonshu's possessor just says he's Chonshu anyway. Thanks, that's not confusing at all.
The English also makes it sound like Terry picked up the scrolls somewhere. No mention is made of this in the Japanese. In fact, Japanese Terry doesn't seem to have ever actually found the scrolls, just blundered around beating the shit out of people until Chonshu summoned him.
Final line throws in a reference to Oshkosh for some reason. It's also referenced in Art of Fighting 2. The fact it's specifically referencing the town and not, say, the clothing store, makes me wonder if the translator/editor was from Wisconsin.
Oh, and English Chonshu is much, much more excitable. Japanese Chonshu speaks in a fairly polite, neutral manner. I think it's supposed to contrast with his villainy.
These lines are also shared with Andy and Joe.
Ending B
Ending B is also the same for all characters, so it's on a common page too.
Chonrei
Chonrei's intro is the same for everyone, so it's on a common page.
Ending C
There are enough similaries between the C endings I only put them in for characters with something interesting to say here. Terry's the template, so he ends up on the common page.
Terry's Ending
| My translation | Official translation |
|---|---|
| You're an orphan, same as me... All right! From now on, I'll take care of you! | Oh, enough of this senseless combat! Let's be friends. Call me, pop, son! |
Everyone, please take a few minutes to think about all the ways Terry and Rock are the same...and how many of those are directly Terry's fault.
And yes, the Japanese is ultra-literally "you have the same circumstances as me", which I edited into "an orphan" because otherwise it's hard to tell what Terry's talking about there. (yes yes Geese isn't dead and this kid isn't Geese's yet ssssh)
Anyway, these are pretty similar with Terry adopting a kid that looks nothing like Rock. The English is strange, where it makes it sound like Terry and Rock were fighting just previously. This isn't in the Japanese, though Rock fighting Terry does show up in his Mark of the Wolves backstory, which I'll get to when I finally get through every other Fatal Fury game.
This kid is confirmed to be Rock, by the way. Thanks, All About SNK Fighting Games 1991-2000. This was also one of the first lines I translated, back when this project was just me looking up playthroughs on Nico, taking screenshots, and posting on a messageboard. I had no idea a whim to fill up a Saturday afternoon would turn into all this.