Ryuuji Yamazaki
Gets harder to understand every game.
Copy
Believes in Nothing but His Own Strength
Ending
| My translation | Official translation |
|---|---|
| Yamazaki: Now there ain't anyone in Hong Kong who can stop me! | Yamazaki: Now no one can stop me in good ol' Hong Kong! |
| Cheng: Hold on! I'm still here! | Cheng: Guess again , melonhead! |
| Yamazaki: You bastard! Ya lookin' to get hurt?! | Yamazaki: Looking to be busted up again? |
| Cheng: How about we team up this time? | Cheng: No way. How 'bout working with me? |
| Yamazaki: Yer gonna be crocodile chow! Keeeeeeheheheh! | Yamazaki: With you? You're allightor meat ,fool! |
| Cheng: Eeeeeek! I knew it wouldn't woooooooork! | Cheng: Yeah . I knew it was a long shot! |
Most of this is pretty similar, right down to trying to make Yamazaki sound extra rough and tough. I went a little further, but the official translation isn't bad for the time. I especially like how Cheng's second line ("No way. How 'bout working with me?") plays off Yamazaki's previous line. It shows that someone was looking at these scene as a whole.
The Japanese word ワニ/wani means alligator or crocodile, so I picked one (for the alliteration, honestly) and the official translator picked the other. The "allightor" typo is kind of weird...you don't even type H with the same hand as A. Someone trying to spell phonetically? Though I'm not sure how you'd get gh out of that...
"Melonhead" has previously appeared in both Fatal Fury Special and Fatal Fury 3. Interesting that it seems to be a Fatal Fury-only word so far, but maybe it's in KoF and I just haven't gotten there yet.
Win Quotes
vs Terry
| My translation | Official translation |
|---|---|
| Heheheh....serves ya right. | Yes. You're one strong opponent! |
I think I know what happened here. The Japanese phrase Yamazaki uses is いい気味/ii kimi and means something like "serves you right". Read literally, it's more like "good sensation/feeling". It's possible the translator missed the idiomatic reading and tried to guess what a fighting game character would consider a "good feeling", which is usually a strong opponent. It's a bit of a stretch, but it's the best I can think of because this is a pretty straightforward line. Then again, maybe they just wanted to tone Yamazaki down a little? Because that happened too.
The line is also written in a fairly plain fashion, which makes me think the editor wasn't involved here. Odd, considering the rest of the lines.
vs Andy
| My translation | Official translation |
|---|---|
| That pretty face of yours is all messed up now! Heheheheh! | That fine face is gonna be a mess! |
Since it's a win quote, Andy's face is probably already messed up. It's unclear from the Japanese line in isolation, which explains that...except that there are only two kinds of lines in this game and it's clearly not part of the ending. Huh.
Other than that...the English version drops the laugh, which is pretty common for Yamazaki. As usual, it's probably space limitations.
vs Joe
| My translation | Official translation |
|---|---|
| Ya got the brains of a monkey too! Heheheh! | Your head looks like an ape , too! |
Again, the word in Japanese can be "head" or "brains/intelligence", which is similar to English. The odd bit is English Yamazaki saying Joe's head "looks like an ape", but I think that's another easy misreading. It's a bit complicated to explain in English, but the way it's written you could pretty easily be going fast and see "looks like" instead of "on the same level as" and there you go.
I'm just wondering what other parts of Joe are like a monkey. His arms?
vs Mai/Mary
| My translation | Official translation |
|---|---|
| Ghehehe...now what should I do...? Gheheheh... | Give it up . Yah ,hah , hah! |
Implications a bit strong for the American arcade. It's not hard to see why this got rewritten into something still threatening but less blatant about it. It's one of the rare times you get to see how the official translation handled Yamazaki's laugh, and it's about what you'd expect. A little less distinctive than the Japanese, but still clearly a creepy villain laugh.
vs Tung Fu Rue
| My translation | Official translation |
|---|---|
| Go find a casket, old man! Heheheh! | I hope you have a grave to go to. |
Put right next to each other, the English sounds toned down. There's not a lot of difference in meaning, but the tone is pretty off. Did the editor miss this one too? It could use a "wimp" or "melonhead".
vs Billy
| My translation | Official translation | Portuguese translation |
|---|---|---|
| You even lick Geese's ass! Heheheh! | You can just kiss Geese's toes! | You could even lick Geese's ass! |
Portuguese translation from Snowy
Again, can't get away with that in an American arcade. "Toes" feels like a pretty random substitution at first glance, but I guess it does have foot-kissing in there, which is a pretty...classic? image.
I dunno.
Snowy confirmed that the Portuguese line is a translation of the Japanese line, which it does sometimes. Other times, it translates the English version. The Latin American translations of SNK games are a whole 'nother rabbit hole, one I wish I had the time and skills to plumb.
vs Geese
| My translation | Official translation |
|---|---|
| Heheheh! Even you got old and soft! | Wow , you're really a weakling! |
The English drops that Geese specifically got weak in his old age, instead of secretly being a weakling all along. (His old age of...44) That's a pretty big shift in the insult, even if the end result is similar.
vs Krauser
| My translation | Official translation |
|---|---|
| Are you a monster or something?! Screw this, I'm outta here! | You're in human! I'm outta here! |
Yep.
I had a lot more space to play around with, so mine is longer. That's about it.
vs Laurence
| My translation | Official translation |
|---|---|
| I'll teach you how to really use a blade! | I'll show you how to use blades! |
Again, pretty much the same, but I abused my lack of space and formatting limitations.
vs the Jin brothers
| My translation | Official translation |
|---|---|
| I got no more use for ya, so I'll kill ya! Heh! | My use for you is done. So long. |
I guess this was also too rough for the American arcade. Man, they really had to tone Yamazaki down, didn't they?
This also doesn't sound like the editor had a hand in it. I wonder if it's possible someone else went through later and cleaned up the too-edgy lines and made them boring at the same time.
vs Hon Fu
| My translation | Official translation |
|---|---|
| Damn stray! Keep it up and you'll be sleeping with the fishes! | I'll snuff you like a stray puppy! |
Hyper-literally he says that he'll "sink (Hon Fu) into the ocean", so I gangstered it up.
The English drops it and also is pretty threatening...wonder if the issue with the Jins was that they're kids, or if there was another reason. This really sounds like the editor had a hand in it, so maybe Billy/the Jins were last minute changes.
Either way, this is different in specifics, but sounds good and gets the point across. I'm not sure this is quite a localization, but it's a good line. I dig it.
vs Yamazaki
| My translation | Official translation |
|---|---|
| Beating up a guy that looks like me feels pretty good...gheheh! | It's fun belting myself. Yah ,ha! |
In Japanese Yamazaki is specific that 2P is just a guy that looks like him, as is standard for SNK mirror matches. This is dropped in English, and makes it sound like Yamazaki got duplicated somehow. It kind of feels like there's an implication in Japanese that Yamazaki likes beating up imitators, while in English it feels more like masochism. (then again, I already know about EX Billy...)
Still, considering character limits, this is solid.
vs Franco
| My translation | Official translation |
|---|---|
| Soft as ever, big guy! | You're fat and dumb as ever! |
This is a bit more specific in Japanese - it's not that Franco is dumb in general, but that he's soft/naive/not a murderous thug. But calling him big is right there.
It feels like the English line is missing an "as", but I don't think it's strictly necessary.
vs Kim
| My translation | Official translation |
|---|---|
| Thought ya wouldn't permit evil? Hehehe! | Come on , stop this evil , wimp! |
This is good! It's a good taunt at Kim's ideals and neatly localizes Kim's famous line (which is always kind of a pain in English), and the SNK insult feels right after Kim just got his face bashed in. I dig it.
vs Cheng
| My translation | Official translation |
|---|---|
| I could eat you right up! Delicious! Heheheh! | You're sweet enough to eat! |
Technically correct, and a known phrase in English, but I dunno, this one feels kind of odd to me. Maybe it's that Cheng isn't really known for being sweet or for eating a lot of deserts specifically?
Still, it's a really good effort, and there's nothing really wrong with it. Someone put a lot of care into Yamazaki.
vs others
| My translation | Official translation |
|---|---|
| Ugghh....m-more... I want mooorrreee!! | Aww! I want to fight some more! |
A little less creepy in English, but the same idea and the portrait sells it.
Yamazaki got out all right.