gosokkyu

エンド

  • 戦う人間発電所

owatte shimatta


felix
@felix asked:

I don't know who else I could really ask, but I've been wondering for years how Bangai-O's English translation being so intentionally broken came about. The effect is really incredible, and I don't recollect any other localization doing a similar kind of send-up - this is all even assuming it was intentional?? It's a large part of why its one of my favorite titles from Treasure's library.

I have no knowledge of how the English versions of Bangai-O came to be, but my suspicion has always been that the translation wasn't a conscious stylistic choice so much as something they were handed by ESP/Treasure and that they rationalised as being in the spirit of the original game, in part because they had limited time/resources to make alterations (which was quite common during that era, especially in Europe).

If you A/B the US/PAL versions, you can tell that someone on the US side tried to smooth things over where they could and was generally treating the game with a little more seriousness than was warranted, but given how much they didn't and probably couldn't change, ya have to wonder why they bothered.


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in reply to @gosokkyu's post:

probably significant that conspiracy was the US publisher, because they were also involved with the US release of a personal favorite, road trip/choro q HG2, and it's rife with translation of a similar caliber. please appreciate: the opening cutscene with the president. it's beautiful

i have to suspect it's just the result of a rushed job with little oversight, because there's a specific type of comically almost-correct that is borderline impossible to create intentionally

Thank you! All these years I thought it was a really creative extra touch, but even if it isn't (and your reasoning for it being the case is sound) it still adds so much to Bangai-O's presentation.