/vp/ - Pokémon » Thread #58198340

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Only the Japanese Versions of the game are canon.

Anonymous Mon 01 Sep 2025 19:50:59 No.58198340 View View Reply Original Report

Quoted By: >>58198352 >>58198358 >>58198384 >>58198396 >>58198404 >>58198424 >>58198489 >>58198610 >>58198758 >>58198767 >>58198776 >>58198856 >>58199857 >>58199894 >>58199900 >>58199921 >>58205973 >>58207955

>"Mirror Move"
>Is actually "Parrot Mimicry" which is why only birds get it

>"Spooky Plate"
>Is actually "Vengeful Spirit Plate"

>"Sucker Punch"
>Is actually "Surprise Attack" which is why handless pokemon use it and it doesn't get Iron Fist Boost

>Fake Out
>Is actually sumo technique called "Fooling the Cat" which is why mostly felines get it

How do Westies cope with their game being horribly translated?

Anonymous

Anonymous Mon 01 Sep 2025 19:54:53 No.58198352 Report

Quoted By:

>>58198340
By speaking a language that will still exist in 100 years and forcing every ESL on this board to at least learn the basics of it

Anonymous

Anonymous Mon 01 Sep 2025 19:55:51 No.58198355 Report

Quoted By:

post jlpt certification

Anonymous

Anonymous Mon 01 Sep 2025 19:56:43 No.58198358 Report

Quoted By:

>>58198340
weeb

Anonymous

Anonymous Mon 01 Sep 2025 20:04:46 No.58198384 Report

Quoted By:

>>58198340
le JLPT 6 faec

Anonymous

Anonymous Mon 01 Sep 2025 20:05:26 No.58198388 Report

Quoted By:

Gonna try playing ZA in japanese because I'm tired of dealing with TPCI's localization bullshit.

Anonymous

Anonymous Mon 01 Sep 2025 20:06:49 No.58198396 Report

Quoted By: >>58198859

>>58198340
I guess some languages are closer than the others.
In french, we have "Mimique" for "Mirror Move", "Coup Bas" for "Sucker Punch" (which means more "unfair" than "surprise" but has nothing to do with punches). Unfortunately it isn't perfect either because we have "Bluff" for "Fake Out" and "Plaque Fantô" for "Sppoky Plate".
But we also have some pokemon names that are close to the japanese names. Swampert is "Laglarge" in jap, and we have "Laggron" which is the closest to japanese. Even our names for the treasures of ruins are pretty close to the japanese names.

Anonymous

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Anonymous Mon 01 Sep 2025 20:08:06 No.58198404 Report

Quoted By: >>58198853 >>58198854 >>58200052

>>58198340
A sucker punch isn't necessarily a literal punch, you dumbass. Also, 不意打ち doesn't just mean "surprise attack", it specifically means an underhanded, cheap one. In other words, a sucker punch. That's why its a Dark type move and not a Normal or Fighting type one.

Anonymous

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Anonymous Mon 01 Sep 2025 20:10:48 No.58198417 Report

Quoted By: >>58199839

>comet punch
>it's actually "consectutive punches"
>meteor mash
>it's actually "comet punch" but there was already a move with that name

Anonymous

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Anonymous Mon 01 Sep 2025 20:13:40 No.58198424 Report

Quoted By: >>58199848

>>58198340
why didn't LA go much into arceus' mythos or explain anything about regigigas?
https://pokemonbbs.com/post/read.cgi?no=2376410

Anonymous

Anonymous Mon 01 Sep 2025 20:15:23 No.58198429 Report

Quoted By:

>Thunder
>Thunders
>these are different pokemon

Anonymous

Anonymous Mon 01 Sep 2025 20:27:58 No.58198489 Report

Quoted By:

>>58198340
>How do Westies cope with their game being horribly translated?
Why can't you idiots just make a thread about a topic?

Anonymous

Anonymous Mon 01 Sep 2025 21:09:11 No.58198610 Report

Quoted By: >>58198722 >>58201168 >>58207955

>>58198340
I started playing them in Japanese and it's interesting how much more overt they are about certain things.
Like the Lake Trio outright being referred to as Gods akin to Dialga/Palkia (who they call Deities rather than the "G" word in English) but for some reason despite the Creation Trio and even Zekrom and Reshiram being called Deities in English the Lake Trio are just called Beings.

There are also some attack names that make a lot more sense in Japanese than English, like Night Slash originally being Tsujigiri or Return's original name "Ongaeshi". I suppose there isn't much they could do there though tbf other than extending it to "Return (the) favour" or something but I always felt simply calling it Return was a bit abrupt, especially since "return" is a command often used to have a Pokemon return to it's ball.

There's also some really minor name changes that makes my autism flare up, like the Xtranciever in BW originally being called the "Live Caster" which feels like a more fitting name considering it's successor in XY would be the Holo Caster.

The removal of references to the Elemental Giants that were born from the shards of Arceus' eggs in the English script which ties into the lore of Arceus/Aus that we got from the Teraleak was also a massive shame.
There are certain name changes that really fucking bother me too, like Charon's name originally being Pluto which fits much better with Mars, Jupiter and Saturn or Bianca's name being Belle which didn't feel like a necessary change.

Anonymous

Anonymous Mon 01 Sep 2025 21:31:09 No.58198722 Report

Quoted By:

>>58198610
>There's also some really minor name changes that makes my autism flare up, like the Xtranciever in BW originally being called the "Live Caster" which feels like a more fitting name considering it's successor in XY would be the Holo Caster.
BW in particular is really bad for changing names that were already in english, I remember Nitro Charge being one og the stand-out ones people were confused about because the original.name is so cool and 'Flame Charge' sounds basic. Same with Wild Bolt to Wild Charge, it is literally the same pun, why change it at all??

Anonymous

Anonymous Mon 01 Sep 2025 21:36:44 No.58198758 Report

Quoted By:

>>58198340
>>"Mirror Move"
>>Is actually "Parrot Mimicry" which is why only birds get it

honestly even before looking the JP name up I realized on my own it was a reference to parrots through noticing only birds had it. This didn't feel hidden or a surprise or anything compared to other stuff in the games even though the name translation maybe could've been more clear

When you realize that in Gen 1 and maybe 2 they only had like a 12-character limit for items/move names, some of the translation choices start making a lot more sense. In the localization glossaries from the league it's apparent they weren't changing some stuff just to be random but because a literal translation wouldn't fit in the limited space allotted for the name, and so they had to find some way of still making the effect of the move/item/whatever clear

now obviously there is still certain stuff that got translated badly or for no clear reason, but sometimes it really was just doing what they could with they had and not stupidity or maliciousness

Anonymous

Anonymous Mon 01 Sep 2025 21:39:16 No.58198767 Report

Quoted By: >>58198853

>>58198340
>>"Mirror Move"
>>Is actually "Parrot Mimicry" which is why only birds get it

honestly even before looking the JP name up I realized on my own it was a reference to parrots through noticing only birds had it. This didn't feel hidden or a surprise or anything compared to other stuff in the games even though the name translation maybe could've been more clear

When you realize that in Gen 1 and maybe 2 they only had like a 12-character limit for items/move names, some of the translation choices start making a lot more sense. In the localization glossaries from the leak it's apparent they weren't changing certain names just to be random but because a literal translation wouldn't fit in the limited space allotted for the name, and so they had to find some way of still making the effect of the move/item/whatever clear

now obviously there is still certain other stuff there's less of an excuse for that got translated badly or changed for no clear reason, but sometimes it really was just doing what they could with they had and not stupidity or maliciousness

Anonymous

Anonymous Mon 01 Sep 2025 21:41:25 No.58198776 Report

Quoted By: >>58198850 >>58202100

>>58198340
because naming shit "fooling the cat" to a bunch of western kids who know nothing of sumo other than it exists is a retarded idea. localization might screw up a bunch of shit but it isn't completely useless, sometimes its better to tweak the meaning of something that isn't well known in the west.

Anonymous

Anonymous Mon 01 Sep 2025 21:56:22 No.58198850 Report

Quoted By: >>58202100

>>58198776
>Call Move "Sumo Cat Slap" That easy.

Anonymous

Anonymous Mon 01 Sep 2025 21:57:32 No.58198853 Report

Quoted By: >>58198892 >>58201158

>>58198404
I feel like Sneak Attack would have been a best of both worlds solution
>>58198767
I honestly wish that the Pokémon Company went back and altered some stuff after they added more character space, especially Pokémon like Feraligator* and Victreebell*, but it is what it is. RageCandyBar/Cake or Rage will always bother me, though

Anonymous

Anonymous Mon 01 Sep 2025 21:57:33 No.58198854 Report

Quoted By:

>>58198404
Should have been called "Cheap Shot." NoA suck at their job.

Anonymous

Anonymous Mon 01 Sep 2025 21:58:08 No.58198856 Report

Quoted By:

>>58198340
I want to, but don't know where to start. Also, incorrect, Light That Burns the Sky is the cooler name

Anonymous

Anonymous Mon 01 Sep 2025 21:59:29 No.58198859 Report

Quoted By:

>>58198396
"Fléau" should never have become "Gigotage" even if it makes more sense

Anonymous

Anonymous Mon 01 Sep 2025 22:04:23 No.58198892 Report

Quoted By:

>>58198853
Sneak Attack is a weaker name.

Anonymous

Anonymous Tue 02 Sep 2025 01:03:16 No.58199755 Report

Quoted By:

The localization even messed up Seafoam Islands. In the Japanese, they were originally two islands that later became one, but the localization mixed it up and said they were originally one island but later became two, despite the fact that both sides are clearly connected by land. Why the localization team is so incompetent is beyond me.

Anonymous

Anonymous Tue 02 Sep 2025 01:22:43 No.58199839 Report

Quoted By:

>>58198417
It should have been "Combo Punch" how the fuck did they not see it?

Anonymous

Anonymous Tue 02 Sep 2025 01:24:23 No.58199848 Report

Quoted By:

>>58198424
The way people describe plass vs what it actually is and plays like is biziarro world shit

Anonymous

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Anonymous Tue 02 Sep 2025 01:27:54 No.58199857 Report

Quoted By: >>58204076

>>58198340
>"Sucker Punch"
>Is actually "Surprise Attack" which is why handless pokemon use it and it doesn't get Iron Fist Boost
Cool, now explain Gastly getting elemental punches

Anonymous

Anonymous Tue 02 Sep 2025 01:40:56 No.58199894 Report

Quoted By:

>>58198340
Sucker Punch works because the term never just referred to a punch, just a surprise attack.

Anonymous

Anonymous Tue 02 Sep 2025 01:42:27 No.58199900 Report

Quoted By:

>>58198340
ywnbj

Anonymous

Anonymous Tue 02 Sep 2025 01:45:06 No.58199905 Report

Quoted By: >>58200085

I'm not a sperg like OP but another thing he could add is that "Pure Power" is "Yoga Power" in japanese and is why only medicham gets it

Anonymous

Anonymous Tue 02 Sep 2025 01:48:27 No.58199921 Report

Quoted By:

>>58198340
Man, the western names sound much better in every case. Thank God localizers fix Jap dogshit writing. Shame they couldn't do anything about the series ruining lore of gen 4.

Anonymous

Anonymous Tue 02 Sep 2025 02:19:32 No.58200052 Report

Quoted By:

>>58198404
You're right, but there are still people who get baffled by Sucker Punch not being boosted by Iron Fist.
Just calling it Sneak Attack, Cheap Shot, or Ambush would've cleared that up.

Anonymous

Anonymous Tue 02 Sep 2025 02:27:31 No.58200085 Report

Quoted By:

>>58199905
Same goes for Huge Power, which is only given to rabbit Pokemon (and Mega Mawile whose mouths look like rabbit ears) because it's called Chikaramochi in Japanese and rabbits are associated with mochi in Japan.

Anonymous

Anonymous Tue 02 Sep 2025 09:48:05 No.58201092 Report

Quoted By: >>58201183 >>58202158 >>58206847

More associations that got less obvious due to odd translation

>Quick Attack
Lightning Speed

>Hyper Cutter
Monstrous Pincers

Anonymous

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Anonymous Tue 02 Sep 2025 10:10:33 No.58201158 Report

Quoted By:

>>58198853
>I honestly wish that the Pokémon Company went back and altered some stuff after they added more character space
Like changing Fire Blast (大文字 Daimonji) to Bonfire Blast?

(Game Freak should have doubled down in one of the later gens and made it super-effective against Ghost types)

Anonymous

Anonymous Tue 02 Sep 2025 10:14:48 No.58201168 Report

Quoted By:

>>58198610
>Bianca's name being Belle
It's "Bel". It's slavic for white.

Anonymous

Anonymous Tue 02 Sep 2025 10:21:50 No.58201183 Report

Quoted By:

>>58201092
>More associations that got less obvious due to odd translation
>Quick Attack
>Lightning Speed
No. Denko sekka literally means "flash of lightning and spark of stone" (with the implied meaning of "as fast as").

It's not associated with electricity more than it's associated with fire if that's what you were thinking, and it's really just a common idiom for "very quick".

Anonymous

Anonymous Tue 02 Sep 2025 16:32:35 No.58202100 Report

Quoted By:

>>58198776
>>58198850
WHAT DO YOU MEAN ALL THESE FIGHTING TYPE MOVES ARE BASED ON JAPANESE THINGS!?

Anonymous

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Anonymous Tue 02 Sep 2025 16:49:39 No.58202158 Report

Quoted By: >>58202189 >>58202199 >>58202261 >>58203508 >>58206847

>>58201092
>Swift
Speed Star, makes it obvious it shoots stars

>Psychic
Psychokinesis, much better than just repeating the type name

>Hyper Beam
Destruction Beam just sounds cooler

Anonymous

Anonymous Tue 02 Sep 2025 16:58:10 No.58202189 Report

Quoted By: >>58205177

>>58202158
"Destruction Beam" sounds edgy, and "Hyper Beam" rolls off the tongue better

Anonymous

Anonymous Tue 02 Sep 2025 17:02:48 No.58202199 Report

Quoted By:

>>58202158
>Hyper Beam
We have "Ultralaser" which I think is pretty cool but also weird because it is so different from pretty much every other language (most of them use "Hyper").

Anonymous

Anonymous Tue 02 Sep 2025 17:27:35 No.58202261 Report

Quoted By:

>>58202158
To be honest, I think the reason for some names is just because of character limitations.

Anonymous

Anonymous Wed 03 Sep 2025 00:07:34 No.58203508 Report

Quoted By:

>>58202158
>Speed Star
*Swift Star, which is how shooting stars are called in some languages (e.g. Estrella Fugaz in Spanish).

Anonymous

Anonymous Wed 03 Sep 2025 02:53:28 No.58204076 Report

Quoted By:

>>58199857
Gastly's hands are invisible.

Anonymous

Anonymous Wed 03 Sep 2025 12:10:07 No.58205177 Report

Quoted By:

>>58202189
Okay but what about Hyper Balls being renamed Ultra Balls when they literally have a H on them

Anonymous

Anonymous Wed 03 Sep 2025 12:12:53 No.58205179 Report

Quoted By:

>Jump Kick
>High Jump Kick
They're actually Dropkick and Knee Drop

Anonymous

Anonymous Wed 03 Sep 2025 16:00:17 No.58205749 Report

Quoted By:

Thuderbolt or 100,000 bolts?

Anonymous

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Anonymous Wed 03 Sep 2025 17:10:32 No.58205973 Report

Quoted By: >>58206753

>>58198340
Too much letters occupying data space in ROMs which can fit in a GB cart (the whole JP version of Pokemon Red occupies circa 370 out of 512kB). Meanwhile nips (through kanas or kanjis) use 2 or more syllables per space, in comparison with the Roman alphabet which occupies only 1 character per space:
>くそ (2 characters out of 10 which can fit for a move name)
>shit (4 characters out of 10 which can fit for a move name)
TL;DR: GB ROM size too small, and any Western language uses too much characters to express things.

Anonymous

Anonymous Wed 03 Sep 2025 20:32:26 No.58206753 Report

Quoted By:

>>58205973
>Meanwhile nips (through kanas or kanjis) use 2 or more syllables per space
You're not wrong, but Pokémon games didn't have kanji as an option until gen 5 I believe, and even then it was optional. It wasn't until PLA that kanji became the default (and they added furigana for illiterate children). So while kana inherently takes up less space than roman letters, they couldn't save additional space via kanji.
iirc, it was difficult to make kanji legible on GB games, so most games at the time used kana exclusively. No idea why it took them until gen 5 to add an option for kanji, though. And I assume furigana would be hard to read well on DS screens, but idk why LGPE and SWSH didn't get furi.
Also
>use 2 or more syllables per space
I get what you mean but your phrasing is a bit off. Each kana is one syllable/mora (kanji can be multiple, though), but western languages often need multiple letters to create a single sound.

Anonymous

Anonymous Wed 03 Sep 2025 20:52:16 No.58206847 Report

Quoted By: >>58209319

>>58202158
>>58201092

>Shore Up
Actually Sand Gather. Great pun for a sandcastle Pokémon. But its gonna seem a bit odd if other Pokémon eventually get it (Hippowdon, Wormadam-Sandy, etc)

Anonymous

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Anonymous Thu 04 Sep 2025 02:26:30 No.58207836 Report

Quoted By:

>Splash
Hop. Which is why non-aquatic species could learn it starting in Gen 2

Anonymous

Anonymous Thu 04 Sep 2025 03:15:55 No.58207955 Report

Quoted By: >>58209302

>>58198340
>>"Spooky Plate"
>>Is actually "Vengeful Spirit Plate"
that one's not THAT bad, spirit plate would be a better localized name though
also don't forget u-turn being a dragonfly pun iirc, hence its bug type
>>58198610
>Like the Lake Trio outright being referred to as Gods akin to Dialga/Palkia (who they call Deities rather than the "G" word in English)
i'd imagine that's just bc muh christitanity religion bullshit, nintendo's always been scrutinous with that shit on their consoles. but it's interesting that the gen 5 legends are deities in english, then

Anonymous

Anonymous Thu 04 Sep 2025 03:28:39 No.58207978 Report

Quoted By:

Won't matter soon, the games are now developed solely for the global(American) market now

Anonymous

Anonymous Thu 04 Sep 2025 14:52:39 No.58209302 Report

Quoted By: >>58209319

>>58207955
>also don't forget u-turn being a dragonfly pun iirc, hence its bug type
It's "Tonbogaeri", literally "Dragonfly return", a nip term for abruptly turning around and going back to where you started, referencing the way Dragonflies can fly backwards. It doesn't really translate into other languages since we don't have any such dragonfly-related term.

Anonymous

Anonymous Thu 04 Sep 2025 14:57:38 No.58209319 Report

Quoted By:

>>58209302
I always thought Bug Out could have worked
>>58206847
Eh, a shore still refers to sand so I think it’s fine

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Only the Japanese Versions of the game are canon.