#aw screencap

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The most important

Sometime ago, I was playing through the French version of Dual Strike when I came across this CO Power line from Colin:

"Money is important...But not as much as life and friends!"

Every character has six CO Power lines and I couldn't recall the English version of this very sweet line. So, I decided to check the other versions

Japanese

"Money is...second only to life and friendship!"

Italian

"Money is important, but life and friendship are more important."

German

"Money is important, almost as important as life and friendship!"

Spanish

"Life and friendship come first. Money comes second."

So, how did English translate this line?

It's such a completely different line that I had to reload and recheck to make sure this was the same in the other versions. I can't help but disappointed by whatever translation and editorial decisions they had back then: this totally removed Colin's characterization of prioritizing something more than money, which is his whole deal--and replaces it with a more generic vengeance line. It's not even a space issue that it would've been with the GBA versions; there was plenty of space to translate the same idea in English. I can't help but feel like this was along the same line as the John vs Jake rewrite; perhaps they felt the character had to be cooler and slightly edgier than the original lines. Again, very disappointed by this: Colin's a sweet and naive CO, and this is a cartoon war game, so a line emphasizing life and friends over money fits him so much better and gives him more depth to his "little rich boy" character.

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"Let's hit the clubs!"

One of the most memorable things about Dual Strike is the way Jake talks–super casual, lots of music and club references, and dropping slang like it’s 1999–circa 2005. One of the things you might pick up when looking up Dual Strike is this Jake mostly just exists in the English version–the Japanese version has the polite John who is “calm for his age” and likes to think before he speaks. As for the European versions, I remember he tends to be something between the two.

One of things I’ve wanted to do is catalog all of Jake’s music references from the English version and see how it’s translated in the other versions. If Jake/John doesn’t refer to music at all then what DOES he talk about instead?

Let’s find out.

Disclaimers as always, I’m using machine translators such as Google Translate and Deep L. All impressions and interpretations are mine. These same words could come off differently depending on the reader, especially ones fluent in these languages.

English

“Hey, Rachel, we rule! Let’s hit the clubs!” “You’re a fast learner! I can barely keep up.”

Japanese

“勝ちました、レイチェルさん!” “ぐんぐん成長してるわね。私も負けられないわ!”

"We won, Rachel!"* "You're growing up so fast. I can't lose either!"

French

“Rachel, nous les avons vaincus!” “Tu apprends vite! Tu veux me dépasser?”

"Rachel, we defeated them!" "You're a fast learner! Do you want to surpass me?"

Italian

“Rachel, abbiamo vinta!” “Stai imparando in fretta! Ti tengo testa a fatica!”

"Rachel, we won!" "You're learning fast! I'm barely keeping up with you!"

German

“Wir haben gewonnen, Kommandantin!” “Du lernst schnell! Ich komme kaum noch mit!”

"We won, Commander!" "You're a fast learner! I can hardly keep up!"

Spanish

“Rachel, ¡hemos ganado!” “¡Vas aprendiendo rápido, soldado!”

"Rachel, we won!" "You're learning fast, soldier!"

*John calls her Rachel-san. He uses the -san honorific with pretty much everybody but Colin. If I recall correctly, he’s the only character in the game (and series) who does this.

So pretty much the same idea...except Jake really wants to hit those clubs.

I gotta ask–what clubs, Jake?

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That reminds me: I wonder how easy it would be to play Re-Boot Camp in other languages. One of my favorite things is to compare the differing translations of the games.

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“We have to take back Green Earth, Drake.”

“I can free Green Earth by myself!!!”

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