History LostInTranslation / VideoGames

** The English localization ''VideoGame/FireEmblemFates'' replaced all the dialogue in one of the Saizo and Beruka supports with VisibleSilence.

* ''VideoGame/FireEmblemTheBlazingBlade'' features several moments with its main villain Nergal that were almost completely garbled by the translation. Nergal's goal, as it turns out, is a badly {{Motive Decay}}ed attempt to [[spoiler:meet his wife Aenir again]], but as a result of meddling with the substance known as aegir to [[spoiler:reach her]], [[TheDarkSideWillMakeYouForget he no longer remembers this]]. In his final moments, he starts musing on what he was fighting for, and mutters something along the lines of of "Ae...ir?", which is meant to show how he has conflated "using aegir to [[spoiler:find my wife]]" and "using aegir as an end unto itself", and no longer remembers the difference. As it turns out, the translators mostly missed that, because the one scene in the story where [[spoiler:Aenir's name]] is mentioned talks about [[spoiler:Aenir]] as if it's the name of a place [[spoiler:rather than a person]], and aegir got a name change to "quintessence," so his last words are instead him simply saying "Quintessence?" for no apparent reason. Particularly annoying, given that the whole subplot can only be found through GuideDangIt methods.
* In ''VideoGame/FireEmblemRadiantDawn'', a few subtle implications about Stefan were lost in the transition from Japanese to English. Firstly he had a DubNameChange, his Japanese name was Soanvalke. Secondly, his [[RedBaron title]] in the epilogue was "Lion's Descendant." With the reveal that one of the Three Heroes in the backstory was a Lion Laguz named Soan, this implied Stefan was a distant descendant of his. The English version not only missed the reference in his name, but translated his title as "Lion-Blooded", making it sound metaphorical when it was supposed to be literal.

** At one point in ''VideoGame/PokemonSunAndMoon'', the protagonist is asked to pick between red, green, blue, and yellow. This is a clear reference to the original Generation I games. The NPC tells you a line based on your choice. When you pick blue, though, it's mentioned that it was an unpopular choice. While that might have made sense in Japan, as ''Blue'' was [[UpdatedRerelease the third game]] and thus not as popular as the first two, players outside of Japan instead received modified versions of ''Red'' and ''Green'' which had some improvements taken from ''Blue'', and as such had been renamed ''Red'' and ''Blue'', with Blue being a primary version (and thus very popular) and Green not being present -- this title issue causes that line to make no sense internationally, because independent of context, blue is generally the most popular colour.

** ''VideoGame/SonicLostWorld'': When Tails meets up with Classic Sonic again, he refers to him as "the Hedgehog from another world", using the more figurative meaning of the original Japanese word (sekai). When it was translated into english, it was interpreted literal to become "the Hegehog from another dimension", which lead many to think that Classic Sonic's backstory had been retconned.

* ''VideoGame/{{Yakuza}}'': The game's notorious tendency to claim Kiryu has [[ThouShaltNotKill never killed anybody]] despite him [[GameplayAndStorySegregation regularly doing things to enemies that would undoubtedly be fatal]] is a fair bit less inexplicable in the original Japanese, where the choice of verbage is more along the lines of "I have never committed ''murder''". It's more important a distinction than it sounds, as the original phrasing leaves open the possibility of him [[TechnicalPacifist being willing to kill in self defense or in defense of others]], something that ''is'' supported by the gameplay, whereas the phrasing in the English subtitles suggest he just doesn't kill period.

** In Japanese, Luigi's name is a PunnyName. "Luigi" is rendered as ルイージ ''ruiiji'', which is also a word that means "similar", befitting his original purpose as a MovesetClone and Palette swap of Mario. That the name could be transliterated to another common Italian name was a bit of IncidentalMultilingualWordplay.

** Princess Peach's name in Japanese is Piichi-Hime (ピーチ姫) which is a pun on the word Pichi Pichi (ピチピチ) meaning lively, spunky, energetic. Her English name has [[IncidentalMultilingualWordplay something similar though]], as being "peachy" refers to being happy and chipper.

** The move Aerial Ace is called Tsubame Gaeshi in Japanese, which is the name of a sword technique developed by UsefulNotes/SasakiKojiro, hence why virtually any Pokémon with claws or other parts to slash with can use the move, whether they're Flying-type or not. The move being Flying-type stems solely from the fact that the word "tsubame" means swallow, as in the bird. This is further confusing for English-speaking audiences because Ace is a term referring to fighter pilots with a certain number of confirmed kills. Hence, Aerial Ace takes on a whole different meaning.

** ''VideoGame/SuperMarioRPG'': The Magikoopa fought in Bowser's Keep is explicitly stated to be Kamek in the Japanese version, but is simply referred to as "Magikoopa" in English. However, his Psychopath thought ("That's... my child?") makes it clear that this is still Kamek.

** ''VideoGame/MetroidPrime3Corruption'': On a less serious and more amusing case, there's her status as a "BountyHunter" [[ThePiratesWhoDontDoAnything despite almost very rarely acting like one]] (rather than acting as an independent mercenary for hire, she seems to exclusively take orders from [[TheFederation the Galactic Federation]]). According to Creator/RetroStudios, during the time they were pitching concepts for ''Corruption'' to Nintendo, they presented ideas of her doing more actual bounty hunting -- namely tracking down criminals for upgrades -- à la [[Franchise/StarWars Boba Fett]]. This reportedly mortified the Japan-based officials, who were under the assumption that Samus was more of an altruistic, "motherly" hero who fought out of the goodness of her heart, not murdering for hire. It was then established that Nintendo had actually spent years interpreting Samus as a general "space adventurer with a heart of gold" (had it been localized more accurately, she would likely be instead called a "space hunter" or "space ranger"), and that despite calling her one for years, they didn't actually know what a "bounty hunter" was, or at least the specific connotations of the title in the west.

** In ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaALinkToThePast'', the last words of Link's uncle in the original were basically "Y-you are the princess's..." Considering the context, it's pretty clear that the next few words were going to be something like "last hope" or "savior." For some reason, the English translation wrote it as "Zelda is your...", which makes it sound like he's going to tell something important about Link's relationship to Zelda. This left many players very confused, since it never gets followed up on, and led to a very common rumor that he was going to say [[LongLostRelative "sister."]]

** ''VideoGame/MetroidOtherM'': Series producer Creator/YoshioSakamoto, despite barely speaking English, insisted on overseeing the English localization of the script. So in addition to the English version being ''littered'' with badly-rewritten artifacts of the original Japanese, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KTuMfsWwd0E several ideas were lost in translation]] due to oversimplification, exaggeration, and even just plain mistranslation of character motivations and behavior. One example is Adam calling Samus "Lady" back during her military days. In Japanese, Samus goes into detail about how she hated the nickname, even after she grew to respect Adam's leadership, since it felt like it was a veiled insult concerning her womanhood. Meanwhile, the English translation goes in the opposite direction, with her loving the nickname precisely because it meant Adam acknowledged her as a woman. In fact, the English script as a whole seems to portray Samus as a schoolgirl with a crush, muddling a character arc centered on her going through a quarter-life crisis following the events of ''Super'', all of which only worsened perception of what would have already been a divisive game in the West.

** The Dark type is called the Evil type in Japanese. This mistranslation actually makes more sense in some ways; Pokémon belonging to that type are more often than not good, but it left many people wondering why there is no Light type to complement it. Also, the majority of moves that involve [[CastingAShadow literal darkness]] are actually given to the Ghost type, rather than Dark, which tends toward CombatPragmatism.

*** During Link's first memory, two parts of Zelda's speech contain references to previous games where the Master Sword has appeared: "Whether skyward bound, adrift in time, or steeped in the glowing embers of twilight…", and "Over the seas of time and distance, when we need the golden power of the Goddess…" the references to ''Skyward Sword'', ''Ocarina Of Time'', ''Twilight Princess'', and ''Wind Waker'' are pretty obvious to catch. The last part gets lost on Western players, since while it's a reference to ''A Link to the Past'', it does so by way of invoking the Japanese title of the game (''Triforce Of The Gods''). As such, most fans just assume it's her referencing just the main 3D entries and closing with a prayer to Hyrule's deities. The German version managed to keep the reference intact by changing the sentence to "Ob der Held die Meere überquert oder eine Verbindung mit der Vergangenheit eingeht, du mögest stets an seiner Seite sein."[[labelnote:Translation]]"Whether the hero crosses the sea, or creates a link to the past, may you always be at his side."[[/labelnote]]

** The FinalBoss fight of ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaSkywardSword'' in the English version ends with Demon King Demise making a DyingCurse towards those who carry the [[DivineParentage blood of the Goddess]] and [[EternalHero spirit of the hero]], stating that he will "rise again" and that he will send an "incarnation of hatred" to forever torment their kind. [[https://youtu.be/S7DKEbLokCk?si=WePbJVF7BDq8d-Rg&t=810 This is significantly altered from the Japanese original]] which states that the "curse" is actually the Demon Tribe being cursed to hate the gods and their creations; here, Demise states that he won't necessarily rise again, but the war between the monsters and the gods' creations will [[EternalRecurrence repeat]].

** The FinalBoss fight of ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaSkywardSword'' in the English version ends with Demon King Demise making a DyingCurse towards those who carry the [[DivineParentage blood of the Goddess]] and [[EternalHero spirit of the hero]], stating that he will "rise again" and that he will send an "incarnation of hatred" to forever torment their kind. This is significantly altered from the Japanese original which states that the "curse" is actually the Demon Tribe being cursed to hate the gods and their creations; here, Demise states that he won't necessarily rise again, but the war between the monsters and the gods' creations will [[EternalRecurrence repeat]].

* ''VideoGame/ArmoredCoreLastRaven'' had a plot point made less apparent due [[SpellMyNameWithAnS the difficulties of romanization]]. Its story predecessor, ''VideoGame/ArmoredCoreNexus'', had a key character named Zinovie and ''Last Raven'' introduces a character who is implied to share a connection with Zinovie due to her interest in Mollycoodle (who pilots a copy of Zinovie's Armored Core) and her name, Zinaida. However, the English translation of ''Nexus'' renders Zinovie's name as "Genobee", making the link much less obvious.

** The Pokémon Politoed is based on a pun that they did not even attempt to translate. It's based on what is known as the "lord-frog" in Japanese. Its Japanese name includes the word "lord" (Nyoro'''tono''') and its Pokédex entries talk about it ruling over its pre-evos. Something like "Froaking" would have been an obvious [[{{Woolseyism}} way to preserve the pun, and would have even been a good portmanteau]], but for some reason they didn't do that; possibly because they may have wanted to preserve the "Poli" name all the members of its evolutionary line have (especially considering that Politoed's appearance is a radical deviation from the rest of the Poliwag family). This makes the fact that it evolves from Poliwhirl when traded while holding a King's Rock seem quite random.

** A good ActorAllusion joke in ''Metal Gear Solid 3'' is lost in English. If the player decides to kill the unconscious Ocelot in Rassvet, you get a NonStandardGameOver where Colonel Campbell from the original ''Metal Gear Solid'' yells at Snake for causing a [[TemporalParadox Time Paradox]]. In the English version, it's a non-sequitur. In the Japanese version, it's because Campbell's voiced by Creator/TakeshiAono, the same actor who dubbed Doc Brown in ''Film/BackToTheFuture''.

* In the ''VideoGame/CrashBandicoot'' franchise, anytime there is a pun on Crash's name (e.g. ''Crash Bandicoot 2'' levels like "Air Crash" or "Cold Hard Crash") will have this effect in other languages.

** ''VideoGame/EarthBound'' has one strange example regarding the Apple of Enlightenment. In the original Japanese version, it's revealed late in the game to be a machine which tells the future that the bad guys are using - in the English translation, the line explaining this was simply cut for no particular reason, leading English-speaking fans to speculate for years as to what the Apple actually was.

*** When visiting the video game store at Galaxy Toys, Sora sees Yozora (the character Rex thinks he's a toy of) for the first time and says, "Well, I never looked this good." And... Yozora looks exactly like Riku. Which Sora acknowledges himself in a [[https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DzkYkyaXgAAee8a.png social media post.]] As it turns out, in Japanese, Donald actually says [[https://docs.google.com/document/d/1LVLG-xP5Ch3-Tg6MAAGfj6Rqt6jARWTM3sqzkQNhkHU/edit?usp=sharing "Very good-looking, huh."]] after Goofy says Yozora looks like Riku. Given the context, he's basically teasing Sora about saying someone who looks like Riku is good-looking. But, once again, it seems to have been mistranslated that the subject is Sora in English.

** One of the two signals in the first ''VideoGame/Splatoon1'' ended up being this. In American English, it is translated as "C'mon!", but in British English, it is translated as "To me!" The signal is meant to be used when you want other teammates to come to the same spot as you. While "C'mon" is a direct translation of the Japanese version, Americans are just as often to use it as a phrase to express frustration and anger at an unfavorable situation, which naturally resulted in many American players spamming "C'mon" when a match is going poorly... which probably confused many a European player, who saw it as spamming "To me." ''VideoGame/{{Splatoon 2}}'' onwards fixes this by changing the wording to "This Way!", while giving players an alternative way to express frustration by having "Booyah!" become "Ouch" after one gets splatted.

** It's been mentisoned more than once (dating back to her original manual synopsis in ''VideoGame/SuperMarioBros2'') that Birdo prefers going by "Birdetta", yet the game's continuously call her "Birdo". This comes back to this trope: in Japanese, it's stated that she's named "Catherine" but prefers being called "Cathy". It's just about nicknames, not preferred names. As a result, Nintendo usually ignores the old [[TheArtifact artifact]] of Birdo preferring being called "Birdetta".

*** The final RDM email in the original Japanese script and most translations of the games has a special hidden section found by scrolling down for a long time, which mentions Chuck Quizmo from the first game as well as a recipe. For whatever reason, the English translation removed this section entirely but left in the statement alluding to its existence ("May we meet again... sooner than you think *wink *wink*"), confusing many players.

* ''VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog'':

* During the World of Light campaign in ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBrosUltimate'', you eventually come across the spirit of [[Franchise/StarFox Andross]], who is represented by [[Franchise/TheLegendOfZelda Ganondorf]] in battle. The connection makes more sense in Japanese, where the former is named "Andorf".

** It's been mentioned more than once (dating back to her original manual synopsis in ''VideoGame/SuperMarioBros2'') that Birdo prefers going by "Birdetta", yet the game's continuously call her "Birdo". This comes back to this trope: in Japanese, it's stated that she's named "Catherine" but prefers being called "Cathy". It's just about nicknames, not preferred names. As a result, Nintendo usually ignores the old [[TheArtifact artifact]] of Birdo preferring being called "Birdetta".