Soul Blazer Translation Notes

[Shiva Indis]

Still in progress but I wanted to share. It's been interesting. Since the game doesn't have a script doc I've been playing along with a Let's Play on Youtube. I'd say that the translation is pretty standard for its time - functional and low in errors, but frequently omits things, has unnecessary censorship, and doesn't have a lot of style.

A weird thing about this game - the Japanese script includes many, many instances of the word 'soul'... Very few of them made it to the English version though. Every time you free something, originally the script said you free its soul. Same for all the helper abilities, like the wizard at the beginning.

English version wrote:

Now I will join you. I am a magician so I can use all types of magic. I will use my skill to help you.

Japanese version wrote:

Now I will become a soul and accompany you, [name]. I am the soul of a magician who can use magic freely. I think I shall be a dependable ally to you.

An interesting thing is that the advice NPCs give in the English version tends to be very different than the original, with the apparent goal of making the game more challenging. The original hints are more instructions than hints.

English version wrote:

I wonder who placed the boundary between dreams and reality? Sometimes things that happen in dreams come true in reality.

Japanese version wrote:

You looked into the dreams of the girl named Lisa, right? Have to tried going to the place that appeared in her dream? Something may have changed.

[EverPhoenix]

0_0 i distinctly remember reading the 'soul of a magician' part, and the one about Lisa's dream. Did i have a direct translation rom, or is my head just messing with me?

[tay120n64]

EverPhoenix wrote:

0_0 i distinctly remember reading the 'soul of a magician' part, and the one about Lisa's dream. Did i have a direct translation rom, or is my head just messing with me?

It's not messing with you, I remember that too.

I distinctly remember the line "Have you gone to the place in the dream" or something to that effect.

As for the "Soul" thing, he didn't refer to himself as one in the English version, but on the "Select" menu it did say "Soul of Magician".

[Yet One More Idiot]

I think I have a directly translated ROM too then, 'cos I remember the soul of the magician and "have you gone to the place in Lisa's dream" too - in fact, I played it just yesterday, and that's distinctly what was written.

Obviously whoever ripped the ROM file for emulator play got fed up of the crappy English translation done by the dev team.

[Shiva Indis]

Hmm, the dream one is probably my lack of familiarity with Soul Blazer biting me in the ass. After reading everyone's posts I started looking to see if there's another English translation and I couldn't find anything (except people talking about how they'd like to re-translate it). That apparent dead end was bugging me so I started compiling a script dump of the game.

That's where I found this:

English version wrote:

You remember Lisa's dream right? Have you returned to the place you saw in her dream? Things may be different from when you saw her before.

This game has a lot of small variations in the flow of events so this Youtube video model I've been using seems to have failed me. I should keep working at this text dump thing, though. I almost feel like a programmer or something.

[Yet One More Idiot]

Shiva Indis wrote:

This game has a lot of small variations in the flow of events so this Youtube video model I've been using seems to have failed me. I should keep working at this text dump thing, though. I almost feel like a programmer or something.

Maybe that Youtube video was an earlier release of the ROM file, but it's been superceded by a second release with a better translation? (ie. the one you, Tay, I, and everybody else seems to have these days)

And you're more programmer than I am, by a long shot.

[Shiva Indis]

Yomi's Evil Twin Intern wrote:

Maybe that Youtube video was an earlier release of the ROM file, but it's been superceded by a second release with a better translation? (ie. the one you, Tay, I, and everybody else seems to have these days)

Seems unlikely, but I'll make my text dump available and you're welcome to check your stuff against it.

I missed my deadline for getting some basic data posted, but I have it now... The in-game text is all kana but there were kanji interpretations on Wikipedia that I included, so the entries are organized thusly:

Text as seen in-game (kanji version) - my translation - text from Soul Blazer

カミ - God - Master
マグリッドおう (マグリッド王) - King Magrid - King Magridd
まおうデストール (魔王デストール）Devil Deathtoll - Deathtoll
レオ - Leo - Dr.Leo
リーサ - Lisa - Lisa
ターボ - Turbo - Turbo
ルー - Lue - Lue
ノーム - Nome - Nome
マリー - Marie - Marie
マグリッドおうひ (マグリッド王妃) - Queen Magrid - Queen Magridd

A few items I thought were of particular interest - so, uh, yeah, God's your boss. Obvious, but I feel it's not mentioned as often as it is with Actraiser.

While Dr. Leo is practially always Dr. Leo in English, Dr. Leo is sometimes just Leo in Japanese.

こうさんまちグラスバレー (鉱山町グラスバレー) Mining Town Grass Valley - Grass Valley highlands
しれんのへや (試練の部屋) Trial Room - Trial room
さいくつじょう (採掘場) Mine - Underground Castle
レオのえ (レオの絵) Leo's Painting - Leo's Paintings
グリーンウッドのもり (グリーンウッドの森) Greenwood Forest - Woods of GreenWood
ロストサイドぬまち (ロストサイドの沼地) Lostside Swamp - Lostside, a marsh
みずのしんでん (水の神殿) Water Temple - Water Shrine
ひのしんでん (火の神殿) Fire Temple - Fire Shrine
ひかりのしんでん (光の神殿) Light Temple - Light Shrine
セントエルズのかいてい (セントエルズの海底) St. Elle's Seabed - The Seabed of St. Elles
かいていしんでん (海底神殿) Undersea Temple - The Seabed Sanctuary
みなみのしまサウザータ (南の島サウザータ) Southern Island Southerta - Southerta
ロックバードのがんしょう (ロックバードの岩礁) Rockbird Reef - Shore reef of Rockbird
かざんのしまドリューン (火山の島ドリューン) Volcanic Island Doryune - Durean
あらしのしまブレスター (嵐の島ブレスター) Island of Storms Blester - Blester
ゆうれいせん (幽霊船) Ghost Ship - A ghost ship
やまのせいれいのすみか (山の精霊の住家) - Dwelling of the Mountain Spirits - Soul of Mountain House
ゆきやまノーススロープ (雪山ノーススロープ) Snowy Peak, North Slope - Mountain, North-slope
オーロラおね (オーロラの尾根) Aurora Ridge - Aurora's Ridge
ゆきやまのさんちょう (雪山の山頂) Snowy Peak, Summit - The top of Snow Mountain
こおりのさかみち (氷の坂道) Icy Hill Path - An ice hill
レイノールひょうげん (レイノール氷原) Laynole Ice Field - Ice field of Laynole
ちていへとつづくみち (地底湖へと続く道) Path to the Underground Lake - A passage to Lune
ちていこルーン (地底湖ルーン) Underground Lake Lune - Underground lake,Lune
レオのけんきゅうしつ (レオの研究所) Leo's Laboratory - Leo's Laboratory
けんきゅうしつちか (研究所地下) Laboratory Substory - Basement of Laboratory
まちのもけい (町の模型) Town Model - Model of a town
どうりょくしつ (動力室）Engine Room - power plant
マグリッドおうのしろ (マグリッド王の城）King Magrid's Castle - Castle of King Magridd
ごうもんしつ (拷問室） Torture Chamber - The torture chamber
しろのちか (城の地下） Castle Basement - Basement of the castle
ひだりのとう (左の塔） Left Tower - The right tower
みぎのとう (右の塔） Right Tower -The left tower
ろうごくのま (牢獄の間） Prison - A prison
ひこうせんのドック (飛行船のドック）Airship Dock - The dock for an airship
ひこうせんのデッキ (飛行船のデッキ） Airship Deck - The deck of an airship
まかい (魔界）- Hell - World of Evil
げんわくのくうかん (幻惑の空間） Dazzling Space - Dazzling Space
デストールのしんでん (デストールの神殿）Deathtoll's Temple - Deathtoll's Shrine

A few items I thought were of particular interest - how did we get from Mining Town Grass Valley to Grass Valley Highlands? It's a misinterpretation because of the lack of kanji. Kouzan can mean 'high mountain' but that interpretation doesn't make sense as the context develops.

Why? Because saikutsujou means mine. Underground Castle is simply incorrect.

The little people in area 4 should have been called mountain spirits. Their town should have been called Home of the Mountain Spirits or something to that effect. 'Soul of Mountain House' is awkward-sounding, and in this game 'soul' seems an inapropriate translation of 精霊 (seirei). In Soul Blader, soul = ソウル.

[Limne]

I've actually been wondering about these region differences again... Is your text dump done? I'd love to see it if it is.

[Yet One More Idiot]

Yeah, God is your boss. But they felt that releasing the game in the west, where Christianity is most prevalent, with God as the hero's boss might be considered blasphemous, hence the change to the non-denominational "Master" instead.

Given that the Japanese version calls Blazer's/Honoo's/(whatever) master "God", I'm surprised that the game's Big Bad wasn't referred to in the Jap version as Satan/The Devil, instead of Deathtoll.

[Limne]

With this game it's pretty transparent that the master is really God. Not so much with Saro in 7th Saga. That one took me aback, but made a bit more sense. I think they left the main villain as God in Final Fantasy Legend, which is even more sacrilegious. 90's content policies were crazy in the 90s.

[Shiva Indis]

So. I am an epic flake. But I did finish the text dump and I think I'll start another thread for it.

But since I'm here, how about some off-color stuff?

ウッディートリオ - Woody Trio - Woodstin-Trio

Yep. The animal entertainers were originally the Woody Trio. Imagine how you would've have giggled about that in middle school. Hell, why not giggle about it now?

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Next up: toilet humor!

Quote:

There is an outhouse. Dog: Oh, this is our bathroom. Thank you for walking with me. I will tell you a secret.

"Thanks for checking out the animal outhouse?" What??? It flows a little better in Japanese, and it's more...frank?

Quote:

There is a spot that a dog peed on. Dog: I see, I see. I peed there a while ago, now that I think about it. It was wrong of me to have you follow along with me. I'll tell you something good to make up for it.

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Site policy question: how do we feel about nipples? Because Soul Blader has some. Seriously. The level 4 boss, Poseidon, was originally a topless she-Poseidon.

[inferiare]

Link to it with a nsfw warning. I think that should be ok. It's a part of the game, so I don't see why not.

[Shiva Indis]

Okay then, enjoy the bizarreness!

IZ NSFW. http://moonreading.lunarpages.com/Soul%20Blader%20boss.png

[Yet One More Idiot]

Shiva Indis wrote:

Okay then, enjoy the bizarreness! IZ NSFW. http://moonreading.lunarpages.com/Soul%20Blader%20boss.png

Really, a topless She-Poseidon demon showing her boobiez? lol.

I figured that the dog was thanking me for helping him to find his toilet. Although I'd rather not. :p

[denim]

Hello everyone!

I see that there are some experienced people here when the theme is Soul Blazer. I'm brazilian and I'm translating the SNES game to my language. My work is almost done.

Below, you can see some pictures of my work. I have changed the dialog boxes in order to make story clearer to the player, considering that sometimes the english translation is very confuse and you can't say who is the character that is talking. Thus, I have put the character's name in every dialog of the whole game. There are many other things that I have changed in my version, for example, the HUD. HP is not a lot of bars anymore, it is a single rectangle, as you can see in the images below.

xx xx

Unfortunately, I have used the english text as base for my translation and it is easy to notice that the game script is not very good. There are many translation errors and bugs.. And there is the censorship also, that makes the game's text even more difficult to understand.

I would like to know if someone here wants to make a re-translation of this game, from japanese to english, considering that I developed all the necessary tools. There is no need to know programmer skills. All the text can be edited using notepad. I would be grateful if someone here become interested.

Thanks