Cheng Sinzan
Someone had a lot of fun with the stretch and squash on this guy.
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The Fighting Businessman Rises Again
Ending
| My translation | Official translation |
|---|---|
| Cheng: Now I'll be able to make even more money! | Cheng: It's time to make some money! |
| Hon Fu: Go all the way and you'll regret it! | Hon Fu: Don't get carried away ,pal! |
| Cheng: You're still here? Annoying pest! | Cheng: Oh ,just lighten up! |
| Yamazaki: Hey fatty! It ain't goin' your way anymore! | Yamazaki: The jig is up , jellybelly! |
| Cheng: Oh nooooooooooo! | Cheng: Oh ,not this again! |
This is vague because the lines are vague, but I think you get the idea. Cheng wants to make money by hook or by crook, Hon Fu warns him to not get illegal, Yamazaki takes the more direct (and effective) approach.
There are a few nuances lost in the English: Cheng is going to make even more money than he did previously, he's a lot more direct in telling Hon Fu to lay off, and there's no real implication that Yamazaki's come down on him before. But mostly it's the same.
I have to appreciate the alliteration on "the jig is up, jellybelly".
Win Quotes
vs Terry
| My translation | Official translation |
|---|---|
| Strong guys sure are tough, even if they're poor! | Monkey and power. I'm in heaven! |
I'm...confused. For one thing, I can't tell if "monkey and power" is a weird reference to Terry's pet monkey or if it's just a typo (I suspect typo, but that's a hell of a coincidence), and for another, I can't figure out what relevance this has to the Japanese line. The Japanese is pretty straightforward: Cheng recognizes that Terry's strong, even though Terry's a bum. The English turns it into Cheng speaking (presumably) about himself in a way that seems to have no reference to the original. They just made something up, which is fairly rare for RBS. Very strange.
vs Andy
| My translation | Official translation |
|---|---|
| Taking yourself too seriously makes you look like an idiot! | You did well.But you stink! |
"Only acting seriously makes you seem like a fool", for an alternative. Either way, it doesn't have a lot to do with the English line, which I assume is Cheng making fun of Andy's hygiene. For both of these lines, I really don't know how they got from A to B and it's very odd.
You know, of the Bogards, Andy's the one I'd lay money on bathing regularly.
vs Joe
| My translation | Official translation |
|---|---|
| There's no cure for stupidity! | Too bad there's no cure for idiocy! |
This, on the other hand, is refreshingly straightforward. There's no cure for stupidity in English or in Japanese, though the official English says "idiocy" for reasons I don't entirely understand. They'd do it the usual way in KoF96, which came out first, so...
Maybe the editor didn't touch this one, and this the efforts of someone that didn't know the phrase in English?
vs Mai/Mary
| My translation | Official translation |
|---|---|
| That sure lifted my spirits. | I feel like new! |
Ultra-literally Cheng says he was able to be refreshed, which I interpreted as lifted spirits, but it could mean something more physical. The English translation here is pretty good.
vs Tung Fu Rue
| My translation | Official translation |
|---|---|
| You're as strong as ever, Master Tung. | Strong as ever , Master Tan! |
Yeah, they still can't spell the poor guy's name right. I really don't know what's up with that, since it seems that SNK did all their translations in-house. But other than that's it's very straight.
vs Billy
| My translation | Official translation |
|---|---|
| Thanks to your flames, I'm all sweaty now! Gross! | Your flames are snuffed , bonehead! |
Did they just not care about Cheng?
...okay yeah that sounds likely.
So "flames" is the same, but not anything around it. Japanese Cheng got all sweaty fighting Billy, while English Cheng is making fun of him for losing. Note the "bonehead", which tells me the editor got a hold of this one. Amusingly, the first time we saw it was Cheng talking to Joe back in FF3.
vs Geese
| My translation | Official translation |
|---|---|
| Looks like Southtown's pretty profitable, huh? | I could clean up in Southtown! |
This is also changed, but it feels like more of a basic mistranslation. There's not a lot of difference between もうかりそう/"looks to be profitable" and かりそう/"looks to be harvestable", especially since もう is a word on it's own. I think Cheng is noticing how well Geese is doing these days (except for being dead and all) instead of trying to move in himself, but it's pretty easy to see how the translator misread things.
vs Krauser
| My translation | Official translation |
|---|---|
| I knew it! Rich people are strong! | Rich people have the real power! |
Having money makes you good at martial arts, according to Cheng. (playing back to his line against Terry above) "[T]he real power" makes it sound less like being strong and more like having actual, real-world rich person power, which I don't think is what Cheng was going for. There's also a bit of a nuance difference between Cheng confirming what he already thought and what sounds like more of rich person solidarity in English.
vs Laurence
| My translation | Official translation |
|---|---|
| A matador? Do they even pay you for that? | How much can a matador earn? |
Same basic idea in English and Japanese here. Cheng doubts if matadors earn money (yeah, they do, and if they're popular they get big bucks like any other performer) because he's got about two character traits.
vs the Jin brothers
| My translation | Official translation |
|---|---|
| Go suck at your mama's tits! | Run home to mama , wimp! |
Okay, so there are some things you can't say in America, even in the arcade. Sorry. The same idea of the Jins running home to mama because they're little babies is still there, though. I guess that counts as a good localization?
"Wimp" is a pretty wussy SNK insult, but it kind of makes sense here.
vs Hon Fu
| My translation | Official translation |
|---|---|
| I hate cops! Get out of here! | I hate you! Now get lost! |
The big change here is Cheng hating cops in general vs Cheng hating Hon Fu in particular. The English makes it sound like the latter, but in Japanese it's not personal, he just doesn't want anyone looking at his books.
vs Yamazaki
| My translation | Official translation |
|---|---|
| Now Hong Kong is mine! | Hong Kong is mine forever! |
The English adds that Hong Kong now belongs to Cheng forever. Hey Cheng, I got bad news for you about that China handover...
vs Cheng
| My translation | Official translation |
|---|---|
| You're a little too fat, you know. | You could lose a few pounds! |
Yep. I like the English here, it sounds good and natural. SNK could do it!
vs others
| My translation | Official translation |
|---|---|
| I'm so hungry! I can't go on! | I can't go on! Food! Food! |
And here too. I'd prefer "I need food!" in there somewhere, but that's just nitpicking.
From the Bogard lines that were just making stuff up to these good ones, Cheng's route is truly a journey.