Haohmaru
Still drunk, but now secretly a romantic. Cute!
Challenges
vs self
| My translation | Official translation |
|---|---|
| Oh, an imitator appears. That's great, you should put up a fight! | What? My imitation? You have guts! |
It's hard to get across in English, but Haohmaru calls the other player Imitator-san, which is sarcastic and kind of cute. Anyway, in Japanese he's looking forward to the match because he thinks anyone who can imitate him is going to be able to fight him on equal footing. The English sounds more like he's upset that he's getting imitated. There's shades of other times this has happened in SNK: both Terry and Geese used it in Fatal Fury Special. The difference being, those were also in Japanese. Not so much here.
vs others
| My translation | Official translation |
|---|---|
| My name is Haohmaru. Take that with you on your way to hell! | Woow! I am a champion, I will kill all enemies with my sword! |
...um. Well, that's different. And not in the normal way, either.
Haohmaru sounds pretty cool in Japanese here! It's hard to translate into English, but he specifically says that his name will be "a good memory in the afterlife" to his unlucky opponent. This was the closest English equivalent I could come up with. Either way, it makes him sound very confident and samurai-ish.
Then the English makes him sound like a crazy murderer or a child. No idea what's going on there.
Win Quotes
vs self
| My translation | Official translation |
|---|---|
| What, that's all? I overestimated you, imitator! | I slay my imitation with my sword together with Mt.Fuji! |
The Japanese follows off the intro line, where Haohmaru thought his imitation could put up a real fight and was then disappointed. It's a common SNK trick, but I always like to see it.
Then, the English...I have no idea. Is he slaying Mt. Fuji with his sword? Is he using Mt. Fuji to slay his imitator? It's so unclear!
What is clear is that it has nothing to do with the Japanese.
win with killing blow
| My translation |
|---|
| Graaaaaah! I'm damn strong, I am! |
| All right! Was that magnificent, or what?! Times like this, I could fall in love with myself! |
Kishi got the second one for me.
Sadly, Samurai Shodown 2 got lines cut in the English version, as will happen with increasing frequency going forward. Win quotes were especially chopped down. So while every character has four lines in Japanese (one vs self, two with killing blow, one without killing), it's cut down to just two in English: vs self and one other. Very sad to see.
There's no indication which line got picked for translation (if any of them were at all...), so I made a guess. None of Haohmaru's killing blow wins felt like it, so they're alone here.
Anyway, these all sound like Haohmaru. His second line sounds a bit like his clear quote in the previous game, which is a nice touch. Haohmaru's strong, and he loves to fight. All is well.
win otherwise
| My translation | Official translation |
|---|---|
| The longer you hang around here, the less chance you have of living! Clear off! | How weak you are! I might kill you as well as "tofu" with my sword! |
...????
Like I said, it's a guess, but at least this has him talking to his opponent instead of himself/the player. But it's still bizarre and there's not a lot of connection here. The English is extra stilted too, which is...sadly common in SamSho2.
...do you "kill" tofu...?
Story
Opening
| My translation | Official translation |
|---|---|
| Time flowed on after the disaster at Shimabara, but the storm clouds once more begin to gather... | Time had passed since the last trouble. New battles are going to start, now again. |
| Haohmaru: Ch...something's not right. Got a bad feeling about this. | Haohmaru: What's this wind? I feel something bad. |
The first line is the same for all character, only the second line changes. I'll comment on the first line here and just link to it for everyone else.
First thing is that the location of the previous game is decided: it's Shimabara Peninsula, the site of the real Amakusa's revolt in 1637-1638. That's completely cut from the English line, with no mention of Shimabara and "disaster" turned into "trouble". At least that matches the intro. The grammar is...confused, at best. But it's broadly accurate, just not written very well.
Haohmaru doesn't mention any sort of "wind" in Japanese, so I have no idea where that came from. He does have a bad feeling, though the English makes it sound a bit like he's sensing evil when he's just got an ominous feeling.
Stage 3
On Mizuki's page.
Stage 6
On Mizuki's page.
Stage 8
| My translation | Official translation |
|---|---|
| Haohmaru: There's a bad feeling in the air...I don't like it one bit. | Haohmaru: I don't like this ominous feelings. |
| Raki, raki, rakikikiki... Wonderful, bearer of a soul I have chosen! Ambition shines around you! Now, offer that soul to the demon king! The end is nigh! | Ha ha ha ha ha! How great the "shining soul" carriers are! When their souls come together, the world will become mine! |
| Waste no time with futile struggle; such a soul is not for you to begin with. Now, lay quietly. You won't suffer any longer after I eat you. | Don't offer useless resistence to me! Your souls are too precious for you! Go to hell! |
| Amakusa: I will not allow this! | Amakusa: Stop! |
| Amakusa: Halt, you hellspawn! Though I once offered my soul to it, no longer shall I obey the demon king! The old me practiced sorcery and took human lives. Then it was a human who saved my soul. Now, I will lend my hand, as a human! | Amakusa: Stop, you evil king. I never have you kill them. Once I was under the evil king. But I don't want to let him do that way anymore! Run away! |
| Haohmaru: That guy... His eyes looked clear; I'll give him that. | Haohmaru: I can't believe he saved us.... |
Kishi got Amakusa's line and Haohmaru's final line.
Now Haohmaru has ominous feelings in English. "Ominous" feels a bit high-brow for Haohmaru, but I'll allow it.
I did a transliteration of Mizuki's rakiraki-ing because it's so strange and unique it felt like that should be there in English too. I thought it was a kind of chanting to go along with her religious thing, but the English renders it as laughter. I guess that makes sense too, but I don't trust the English in SamSho2 at all, so.
Mizuki does specify that Haohmaru is one of the souls she has chosen, so the English is correct in using "carriers" here. I futzed around with "bearer of one of the souls" but that was just getting way too long. Point is, she's chosen more than one.
Also in Japanese, she wants to offer the souls to the demon king, specifcally using 魔王/maou instead of Amakusa's 暗黒神/ankoku kami. The difference is that 魔王 is like, dark lord/demon king, often used in video games for the main supernatural bad guy, while 暗黒神 is very literally "dark god". I suppose it shows a difference in how Amakusa and Mizuki view Ambrosia. This doesn't come across at all in English, and actually the English makes it sound like Mizuki is taking all the souls for herself - there's no mention of a superior. It also adds a specific reason for her to be collecting the souls (world domination, somehow), while the Japanese leaves it unsaid.
The next line does have a fairly literal translation of the first part, the "don't struggle" and "your souls are too precious for you" parts. But in Japanese Mizuki says she's going to eat the soul, where as in English she tells Haohmaru to go to hell, once more proving you can say anything in the arcade. (Except "Fuck you, Geese")
Amakusa's first line is wildly cut down, as is normal.
His next lines are also cut down, and confuses Mizuki and Ambrosia. Mizuki's not the evil king! The English also drops that the reason he's doing this is because a human saved his soul in the last game. It sounds more like Amakusa decided for himself, but he got inspired.
Haohmaru's final line is just completely different. In Japanese he's commenting on Amakusa's new attitude and clarity, in English he just can't believe Akamusa saved them. There's a small nuance where in Japanese he's rough and a bit disapproving, even though his words are complimentary. This is totally lost in English.
Stage 11
On Mizuki's page.
Stage 12
| My translation | Official translation |
|---|---|
| Haohmaru: So this is the demon world. Well, king, prepare yourself! | I reached the evil world! |
| Rakiki-useless! Useless!-kikiki! Nkikira-I'll eat you all! | You, impertinent small fry, I'll eat, eat you all! |
| Haohmaru: Don't underestimate me! Let's go! | Haohmaru: I'll show you the soul of samurai! |
In Japanese Haohmaru specifies "demon king", using 魔王/maou, but repeating "demon" so close together sounds silly in English. But I also wanted to keep consistency with the Stage 8 cutscene. "Evil world" is fine, I guess, but the English loses that Haohmaru is challenging the demon king. Character limits are harsh.
Mizuki's words are mixing in with her rakiki-ing in a weird way that I wanted to try to preserve. This is the part that makes me think it's more chanting than laughter. It feels like the English version wanted to make her sound strange as well, but it's hard to tell with how weird SamSho2 gets normally.
Haohmaru's final line is completely changed. His Japanese line is pretty standard and "punky", his English line is more samurai-like. Feels like a weird change to make, but all right.
Ending
| My translation | Official translation |
|---|---|
| Genjuro: Had a hard time with that monster, eh, Haohmaru? I'll kill you now. | Genjuro: You had a hard fight, Haohmaru. Now, I'll kill you. |
| Haohmaru: Gh... | Haohmaru: You, bas... |
| Oshizu: Please, wait! | Oshizu: Stop it! |
| Oshizu: Haohmaru-sama is injured. You should challenge him after he has healed! | Oshizu: He is wounded. You should challenge him when he's better. |
| Genjuro: ...I didn't expect such a spirited young lady. Hmph...very well. | Genjuro: ...you are quite right. All right, I will overlook you this time. |
| Haohmaru: Oshizu... | Haohmaru: Oshizu... |
| Oshizu: Please forgive me, Haohmaru-sama. But...but I couldn't... | Oshizu: Forgive me, Haohmaru. But I wanted you to live. |
| Haohmaru: Don't say anything more... I'm a man who lives by the sword, and I will die by the sword. ...I'm sorry, Oshizu... | Haohmaru: Don't say. More...I dedicate myself to the sword world. I'm sorry Oshizu.... |
| Genan: .....I'm crying, ke. | Genan: Your words move me to tears... |
This is mostly similar, just kind of poorly done in English. A lot of the cuts feel more like character limits than misunderstandings, like how Genjuro doesn't specify that Haohmaru had a hard time with Mizuki in English. It's implied from context and they didn't have room anyway.
Haohmaru's reply getting kicked up to cussing is pretty strong, though. More stuff you could only get away with in the arcade.
Oshizu is much more polite and proper in Japanese. She is a noble girl, after all. But there's no real difference in meaning, just phrasing.
Genjuro, on the other hand, is much more polite in English. His motivation for holding back also changes from being impressed with Oshizu's dedication to admitting she's right.
Oshizu doesn't technically say she wanted Haohmaru to live in Japanese, it's just implied. But it's a reasonable expansion of her Japanese line for English. I think in this case it would be all right to leave it off, but I can understand wanting to be explicit.
Haohmaru's line is...basically similar, just with somewhat mangled phrasing. He does actually say "live by the sword and die by the sword" in Japanese, though. That's not me being idiomatic, he really does say that.
Genan's final line feels like more of a joke in Japanese. In English it really sounds like he's touched.