Edit Team
The biggest innovation...getting to make your own team.
Story
Rugal Post-Stage 3
| My translation | Official translation |
|---|---|
| Secretary: Lord Rugal...the new team has won four rounds so far. | Secretary: Monsieur Rugal. The new team has won 4 matches! |
| Rugal: Heheheheh...so, a new team has come to challenge me this time. Interesting. Let's see how far they get. Hahahahaha! | Rugal: Heh, heh. A new team. Interesting. Let's watch. Hah, hah, hah! |
Vice's line is standard. Since there's no way to tell what characters the player picked (well, there probably was, but SNK didn't go for it), she just generically says "the new team". Sure.
Rugal's line is similarly generic because he can't say anything specific. The English line is a pretty straight translation, just cut to the bone. "Let's watch" is supremely vague here. Let's watch...the Superbowl? Let's watch...a sunset? Come on, SNK. You couldn't add a "them"? You have room, I can see it!
This loses two screens in English, both from Rugal.
Rugal Post-Stage 6
Since this is the same for all characters, it's on the boss page
Before Saisyu
| My translation | Official translation |
|---|---|
| Team: W-what? | Team: What? |
| Team: What's this smoke-? It's gas! | Team: What's this smoke? Gas! |
| Team: Gh, my body... | Team: Ah--gasp! My body.... |
| Team: W-where...? | Team: What? Where is this? |
| Rugal: Good morning, gentlemen. | Rugal: Rise and shine, sleepyhead. |
| Team: Rugal! | Team: Rugal! |
| Rugal: Hehehe, that's correct. It's sudden, but I'd like you to assist me in my business. | Rugal: Yup, but now it's time for you to join me. |
| Team: What?! | Team: What? |
| Rugal: I'll remodel you to be human weapons, the strongest in the world! Then I'll send you into various countries, where you'll commit assassinations, general destruction, and widespread slaughter. Each one of you will be equivalent to several hundred regular soldiers! You'll all become wonderful products, courtesy of me. And the first step is fighting the prototype. | Rugal: I'm going to make you into cyborg warriors. You'll be terrors: assassinate, destroy, and massacre. Enough talk. I'll show you what I mean. |
| Saisyu: Heheheh.... It's an honor to meet you. My name is Kusanagi Saisyu. Will you give me the pleasure of a match? | Saishu: Saishu Kusanagi's the name. Let's have a little fun, eh? |
| Team: No way! | Team: I don't believe it. |
| Rugal: Hahahahah! Yes, that's right - this is the former successor of the Kusanagi clan, and Kyo's father. He was as good as dead until I gave him new life! If you lose here, you'd never be good products anyway! Now, fulfill my expectations! | Rugal: You're right! The Kusanagi clan leader and Kyo's father. I gave life to this corpse! Surrender or die like lemmings! |
Holy crap look at that Rugal speech. Settle down, dude.
Most of the team lines are so short they're not very interesting. Very few wild changes - the second and third lines are even surprisingly literal. And that "gasp!" in there just feels weird.
But then Rugal has the hand of the editor all over him. His first line is similar to the one for Kim Team, but with a strange lack of pluralization. I have no idea why that's so. Slipshod editing? Non-native speaker doing a first run by cribbing from previous routes? Plain old typo? No idea.
Rugal's next line is somewhat euphemistic in Japanese, but that's removed in English. It's more informal and straightforward, like most of Rugal's lines. "Yup" feels especially out there, which makes sense as it's the first time it's been used in KoF95.
The big exposition dump is sliced to ribbons. The broad idea is there, but the reiteration that the PCs will be products in Rugal's arm sales, that they'll be the same as several hundred soldiers, and that Saisyu is the prototype are all dropped.
One thing to point out is the word Rugal uses for "remodel" is 改造/kaizou, which immediately brings up images of Kamen Rider and Cyborg 009. It's the word pretty much always used for turning someone into a cyborg, which is why the English version just cuts to the chase. This plot point seems to have been dropped later, since the idea of a cyber-Saisyu never came up again. It does, however, fit in with him saying he's been reborn to Kyo and telling Takuma he has a new power. I had assumed that was Orochi power, but this makes me think it was supposed to be cybernetics.
I do think this whole idea is a neat way of bringing in Rugal's job as an arms dealer.
Saisyu's line is the same as always in Japanese, while in English he seems to have become Canadian. Rugal, you fiend!
The team's line here is fine being translated either way, but the English version doesn't fit in with the following English line. I tried to be more careful about it.
Rugal's final line drops the idea that if the PCs lose to Saishu they're not going to be good merchandise anyway in English, and that he has expectations to fulfill. Instead he...demands a surrender combined with a bizarre threat. I suppose the idea is that facing Saishu is suicide, like how lemmings were reputed to do before all us pedants corrected the issue.
Minor point: Rugal uses the same "old/former successor" phrase as Iori does over on the Rival route, and indeed, the official translation rewrites it to "Kusanagi clan leader". I did do that at first, but then I thought I should keep it consistent.
It is interesting that Rugal says Saisyu was like a corpse before he was resurrected as a cyborg. That fits in neatly with KoF94, though in 94 I had kind of assumed Kyo got his dad out somehow, since he didn't seem to be worried in the ending. I guess the actual implication was that Saisyu lost consciousness and was picked up by Rugal instead.
This loses five screens in English. One from Rugal's offer, two from his exposition, one from Saisyu, and one from Rugal's final line.
Before Rugal
| My translation | Official translation |
|---|---|
| Saisyu: Heh...well done. Now, at last, I whose disgraced name was made known, can... | Saishu: My fate was to lose. I'm impressed. |
| Rugal: Hahaha! Wonderful! Just what I expected from my products! That power! Let me add it to my own! Uohhhhhhhh... | Rugal: Heh, heh. You did well for a product. But now, you're going to give me your power! Woooooo..... |
Saishu's line is the same as usual.
Rugal's line is basically the same, but cut down and loses some nuance. "You did well for a product" is a backhanded compliment, but the Japanese line is the same phrasing as Rugal's previous line about having expectations/hopes for his products. Now those expectations have been fulfilled, just like he wanted. "[Y]ou're going to give me your power" is more or less correct, but to me sounds like Rugal is going to absorb the PCs power instead of them being part of his catalog. Not sure if I got that across either, though...
Ending
| My translation | Official translation |
|---|---|
| Rugal: Gh, so even with this power, I still lost...! | Rugal: Even with my new power, I lost. |
| Rugal ?!....What? My body is....! | Rugal: What? My body.....????? |
| Rugal: Ridiculous...that this should happen to me.... | |
| Rugal: Heheh...very well. As long as this world has need of me, I shall surely rise again... | Rugal: No...to meet such a fate! But I'll be back...you jerks! |
| Rugal: I'll see you then....gentlemen....! | |
| And so, the team handily defeated Rugal and won King of Fighters 95... | Rugal befeated, King of Fighters 95 ends. |
| Then each member set themselves on a path towards their own goals... | Using the prize money, each member retired happily. |
| It all happened in the year 1995... | At least until 1996, when... 「To be continued?」 |
Rugal exploding is mostly the same as usual. The Japanese changes his final line just for the edit team, which is cute. Since that line is just cut in English, there's no change there.
The first real ending line is more or less the same, though the team doesn't officially win King of Fighters 95 in the ending version. Sorry, guys! There is an extremely goofy typo I missed the first time around, my thanks to goorooschlum for pointing it out. They've been a great help in cleaning up all of my silly mistakes.
The next line is the big difference: in Japanese, each team member goes their separate ways. In English, they all retire. (none of them actually retire) I'm not sure why this change was made, but it has echos of some of the English endings in Fatal Fury 3.
The last line is changed to match the previous line in English. It admits no one is going to retire, and teases KoF96. It's a bit more flavorful than the kind of bland Japanese line. One thing that stands out...what's with the Japanese quote marks around that "To be continued"? They're otherwise entirely dropped in English, so why here? Very odd.