Franco Bash
Having completely run out of ideas, SNK makes him into a goofy guy who speaks entirely in broken English.
Ending
| My translation | Official translation |
|---|---|
| Franco: I'm coming home now, Junior! | Franco: I'm coming home , Junior! |
| Bob: Mr. Bash, please pay your bill! | Bob: Not yet , Bash! We got a some business! |
| Franco: Waooooo! I can't go home! | Franco: I'll never get home! |
They started having Franco make weird yells/moans it's hard to render in English, and you'll notice that the official translators didn't bother. I struggled to not have him just shouting "WHOAAAAAAAAAA" a lot.
Bob is more threatening in English. He just wants Franco to pay his tab. I'm not sure why Franco doesn't have the money to just pay up, though...he's not Terry, he has a real job down at the airport and everything.
Besides Bob, the translation is pretty straight and dull.
Win Quotes
vs Terry
| My translation | Official translation |
|---|---|
| One more, Terry!! | One more time , Terry! |
So the big thing for Franco in this game is that in his win quotes, he speaks entirely in English (in katakana), making him sound like a big, wacky foreigner who doesn't speak the language all that well. This means that translation is pretty quick, since it's just cleaning up lines already in English. The official translators did a good job of that, so in order to show off the contrast I chose to leave mine as transliterations. Otherwise they'd all pretty much be the same lines on both sides, and that's no fun.
This also means there's not going to be a lot for me to say here. Everything's really straight. So...enjoy that, I guess.
I vaguely recall reading an interview with one of the producers (can't remember who), who said he regretted making Franco Bash into this wacky gorilla of a character. But I can't remember anything else about it, so I can't provide a link.
vs Andy
| My translation | Official translation |
|---|---|
| Nice guy! Nice fight! | A nice guy. A nice fight! |
Like I was saying....
vs Joe
| My translation | Official translation |
|---|---|
| Oh! Crazy monkey! | Oh , you crazy monkey-man , you! |
This feels like the editor got a hold of it. In general, it feels like the editor might've just done all of Franco's lines directly. They're not wacky like the editor's usual style, but they have the feeling a native was the one who smoothed them out.
This one's pretty good. I like it.
vs Mai/Mary
| My translation | Official translation |
|---|---|
| Sorry, cute girl! | Sorry, cutey! |
We've got another pretty good smoothing of the Engrishy original here.
vs Billy
| My translation | Official translation |
|---|---|
| Billy, you dangerous! | Billy, you'll eat that coudge! |
That is a spectacular misspelling of "cudgel". I'm honestly impressed.
This is also a big departure for one of Franco's lines. It's completely changed so that Franco is threatening Billy, instead of making a bland statement of fact. This feels like it's probably the editor deciding to spice things up, as usual.
vs Geese
| My translation | Official translation | Portuguese translation |
|---|---|---|
| Fuck you, Geese! | You're mine, Geese! | Go plant potatoes, Geese! |
Portuguese translation from Snowy
...but not even the editor was willing to risk this one.
So this was changed for hopefully obvious reasons, but imagine if they'd gone for it. Imagine being the kid who found out. Incredible.
Snowy later emailed me with the Portuguese translation, which is...bizarre, to say the least. I really have no idea what's up with that one. Sassfaras says that "go plant potatoes" is the equivalent of Franco telling Geese to go jump in a lake, or less colliqually to get out/leave him alone, which is the roughly kiddie-friendly version of "fuck you", which makes this a good translation after all. Sounds plausible to me!
vs Krauser
| My translation | Official translation |
|---|---|
| You're...perfect... | You're...perfect! |
All jokes aside, can't really argue with Krauser being great. Bring him back, SNK!
vs Laurence
| My translation | Official translation |
|---|---|
| Great matador! Laurence! | Ole , Lawrence! |
This is another nice clean up of a pretty darn Engrishy line.
vs the Jin brothers
| My translation | Official translation |
|---|---|
| Ha ha! Pretty boy! | What a cute little guy! |
So this is interesting. This sounds like a rare punching down out of the editor/official translator, where Japanese Franco sounds like he's mocking the Jin boys, but English Franco sounds affectionate. Why? Hard to tell, though I'd doubt they consulted with the devs to find out what was intended first. Just...a hunch.
vs Yamazaki
| My translation | Official translation |
|---|---|
| Yamazakiiiiiii!! Kill you!! | Yamazaki! You're a dead man! |
And yep, another solid English line. Did the editor just not care enough about Franco to bring his A-game?
vs Franco
| My translation | Official translation |
|---|---|
| Oh! You nice body.... | Wow, you're durably built! |
"Nice body" usually means an attractive or well-built body. For women, it especially means they're voluptuous. Basically, Franco is complimenting his own muscles here. "[D]urably built" is...not quite right. I'd probably go with "What a handsome fellow!" or something.
vs others
| My translation | Official translation |
|---|---|
| Whooooooah! Junioooooooooor!! | Whaaaa! Junior! |
Juniooooooooooooooooooooor!