History Woolseyism / RolePlayingGame

** Solgaleo and Lunala's signature moves have the fairly prosaic Japanese names of "Meteor Drive" and "Shadow Ray", respectively; the localization turns them into the far more impressive-sounding "Sunsteel Strike" and "Moongeist Beam".

** The speech of H'aanit and her people is derived from [[https://www.reddit.com/r/octopathtraveler/comments/918roq/on_haanits_dialect_a_brief_analysis_of_its_noble/ a combination of]] [[UsefulNotes/HistoryOfEnglish Old, Middle, and Early Modern English]]. This is present solely in the English translation of the game, as all other versions (including the original Japanese VO tracks) have H'aanit and others from her village speak modernly. This change is one of the most divisive elements of the game, with vocal defenders and detractors. On one side, you have those who love the choice and believe it to be a charming way to illustrate how isolated H'aanit's small hunting village is from the rest of the continent, admiring the writing team for trying something so ambitious. On the other, you have those who think it is an unwarranted and unneeded decision on the part of the localization team that's annoying at best and a game-ruining experience at worst, with some hating H'aanit's character as a result and/or pointing to it as the reason they stopped playing. And then there's the subset of detractors who think that the localization team didn't lean into the idea hard ''enough'' (in practice, H'aanit's speech mostly boils down to adding a lot of extraneous "n"s to her verbs) and mostly think it comes across as a bit half-baked and pointlessly distracting.

* "VideoGame/PokemonRedBlueAndYellow": in the French version, Blue's [[EvilGloating Evil Gloat]] at the Pokémon Tower ends with the French version of "Hi-yah!", unlike English.

* "VideoGame/PokemonRedBlueAndYellow": in the French version, Blue's [[EvilGloat Evil Gloat]] at the Pokémon Tower ends with the French version of "Hi-yah!", unlike English.

* "VideoGame/PokemonRedBlueAndYellow": in the French version, Blue's Evil Gloat at the Pokémon Tower ends with "Hi-yah!", a generic oriental martial art battle cry.

** Instead of repeating a syllable in Dudunsparce's name like in the Japanese text or in the English localization, the French localization instead took the first syllable of Dunsparce's French name Insolourdo "In" which sounds similar to "Un" ("One") and replaced it with "Deux" ("Two"), giving us Deusolourdo. As a nice side effect, the recurring joke among the fandom of "I can't wait to meet Dunsparce's third evolution Dududunsparce" got a natural French equivalent with the hypothetical evolution being called "Troisolourdo".

** ''VideoGame/TalesOfSymphonia'': Genis and Raine's original names are "Genius" and "Refill" respectively. The English translators understood these names would sound incredibly stupid in English and changed their names to similar sounding, but not completely obvious, names instead. The English version of the Gamecube release, rather than translate the song, chose to use an orchestral score for the opening instead. Many people preferred the epic, cinematic feel of the English version's opening over the J-Pop, and some were upset the Japanese song was used in the re-release. In particular, the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wOKSxOxNY6E heroic version]] is considered a much better fit for the scene where [[spoiler: the rest of the party saves Lloyd from Yggdrasil]] than the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Xix1mfJmQ8 Japanese]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SNJdDvZ_rdY versions]]

** The French names for Muk and Grimer are Tadmorv and Grotadmorv ([[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Pile 'o snot and Big pile o' snot]] respectively).

** Komatana and Kirikizan were modeled after a mix of Japanese bandits known as ashigaru and movie villains known as kaijin and their names are blade-related puns[[note]]"Komatana" comes from "komagire" ("small pieces") and either "katana" ("sword") or "kogatana" ("knife"); "Kirikizan" is a combination of "kirikizamu" ("to slice/mince") and "zan" ("to cut/slay")[[/note]]. Naturally, the localization team knew that western audiences wouldn't be as familiar with this, so instead they gave them a ChessMotif and one that fit ''perfectly'' with the family's general behavior. Komatana, a small, weak Pokemon that [[ZergRush attacks opponents in large groups to make up for a lack of physical strength]], became ''Pawniard'', combining the words "pawn" and "poniard" to keep the blade pun from the original name. Kirikizan, the [[LargeAndInCharge larger, more strategic Pokemon]] who leads Komatana/Pawniard hordes and has the highest authority among them, became ''Bisharp'', with not only a fitting chess themed name but one that has an even ''better'' blade pun. This also fits the design motif of the BigBad of ''Black'' and ''White'', Ghetsis, who uses a Bisharp and has a cape modeled after the rook chess piece.

* ''VideoGame/DragonQuest'':

** This practice of puns and phonetic accents has been put into just about every DS Dragon Quest game (as well as the 3DS version of the seventh game).

** In the Japanese version, the name of the protagonist is "Battsu" (バッツ), but the first popular fan translation turned this into "Butz", which is how he was known for quite a while. This was changed to "Bartz'' in the English UsefulNotes/PlayStation version for [[CleanDubName obvious reasons]].

** The English version had many other changes made [[LipLock to fit the lip movement of the characters]] -- thanks to that, "shibito" (corpse -- though in context, more along the lines of "zombie" or "ghoul"; the ''VideoGame/{{Siren}}'' series uses the word in the same manner) became "unsent" (which is a very good word given the setting of the game), "inorigo" (Child of Prayer) became "fayth" and "shokanju" (summon beasts) became "aeons", among others. The words chosen by the English version were very well accepted though. The lip problem also led to many sentences ending with "You know?" in the English version, among other small line changes.

** The notorious swearing that was [[SeinfeldIsUnfunny shocking when the game first came out]] was [[SpiceUpTheSubtitles added by the localisers]].

** There's a negative side to this as well. Much of the Japanese script is in standard Japanese, with the exception of a few characters such as Yugiri and Urianger. Unfortunately many of the characters speak in a form of YeOldeButcheredeEnglishe. While for standard characters this just means using words such as "anon" far more than any normal English speaking person has used the word in the past one hundred years, characters such as the aforementioned Yugiri and Urianger can become close to incomprehensible with their already archaic Japanese speech patterns translated and made even more archaic to compensate for the already older English word choice being used. While this gives the game some class in its script, it makes the barrier to entry for non-native English speakers and the jobs of the voice actors that much more difficult.
** This was an especially big issue when the player talks to [[spoiler:Midgardsormr, the Father of All Dragons, close to the end of the original story in ''A Realm Reborn'']]. In the English voicework, his lines are short and vague, and you leave the cutscene not knowing whose side he's on. By contrast, the original Japanese is a lot more blunt and clear, and though he's still shady, he comes across as far more benevolent. According to Yoshi-P, this was intentional, since he wanted the character to come across as more imposing compared to how chatty he was in Japanese.

** Since most of the game is framed as Tidus recounting everything from the start of his journey up till Zanarkand, his character development is supposed to be seen slowly throughout the game in his attitude towards the world and setting. In the English version, James Arnold Taylor has Tidus narrate in a deeper sounding take on Tidus, which he did to contrast Tidus at the start to how he was at the point where his recounting ends. This results in Tidus' character development being far more notable in the English version, as we can hear James' performance slowly change still but with the frame of reference of his narration to go off of.

* ''VideoGame/SecretOfMana'' is rarely mentioned as a case against Woolsey's overall quality, because it was a pretty bad job. Not even the Sprite's gender was kept straight. The reason for this is, [[http://hg101.kontek.net/localization/localization.htm in Woolsey's words]], "that game nearly killed me", largely because he was given exactly ''thirty days'' to get the script from initial translation to completion. Not just, like, drafting, but ''inserted''. According to an interview, he had to "nuke" roughly 40% of the game's text just to get it to fit the cartridge.

** Mapo Tofu is given a KansaiRegionalAccent.

** Snowdrake speaks with heavy ''[[KansaiRegionalAccent Kansai-ben]]'' in the Japanese translation, due to the Kansai dialect's association with comedy acts.

* One for the series as a whole: The knightly job class noted for wielding [[BladeOnAStick Blades On Sticks]], doing a lot of [[DeathFromAbove jumping]], and having a prominent dragon motif is named in Japanese 竜騎士, ''Ryuukishi'' lit. Dragon Knight. This, however, does violence to the character limit, and thus translators opted for the PunnyName of Dragoon. Granted, ''real'' military dragoons were light cavalry who made extensive use of firearms and didn't come into play until long after the armoured lancers depicted by ''Final Fantasy'' Dragoons were obsolete, but even ''then'', it's fitting, as the Dragoon's main benefit is being able to deal the same damage from the back row and avoiding counterattacks by remaining out of reach from the enemy... very much like the ''idea'' behind firearms.

* The Italian translation of ''[[VideoGame/PokemonRubyAndSapphire Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire]]'' had a little too much fun with naming some trainers. Featuring people like Mysterious Sisters [[Anime/MajokkoMegChan Bia]][[note]]Italian name of Meg[[/note]] and [[Anime/SallyTheWitch Sally]], Ace Duo [[Anime/FutureBoyConan Lana and Conan]], and Worker [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gio._Ansaldo_%26_C Ansaldo]].

** Unlike every other main character, Papyrus's dialogue is written top to bottom, right to left, the "traditional" way Japanese is written, most likely to highlight his rather grandiose way of speaking.
** In Japanese, a common response to a bad joke is to say it's "cold" (''samui''), meaning the Japanese translation got to add a couple of extra gags in the snowy area before Snowdin, notably during Sans's bad jokes and the fights with the wannabe comedian Snowdrake.

* ''VideoGame/{{Undertale}}'':
** Whimsun gets a name change in the Japanese translation to "Nakimushi." ''Nakimushi'' idiomatically means "crybaby" in Japanese, but [[PunnyName literally translates to "crying bug".]]
** Snowdrake speaks with heavy ''[[KansaiRegionalAccent Kansai-ben]]'' in the Japanese translation, due to the Kansai dialect's association with comedy acts.
** Mettaton's "cooking show" ''Cooking With A Killer Robot'' gets the wonderful translation of ''さつじんロボのキラキラキッチン'', ''Satsujin Robo no Kira Kira Kitchen.'' Literally this would mean something like [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast "Homicidal Robot's Sparkling Kitchen,"]] but the word ''kirakira'' here pulls double meaning as the onomatopoeia for "sparkling" [[StealthPun and the homonym of "killer."]]
** Unlike every other main character, Papyrus's dialogue is written top to bottom, right to left, the "traditional" way Japanese is written, most likely to highlight his rather grandiose way of speaking.
** In Japanese, a common response to a bad joke is to say it's "cold" (''samui''), meaning the Japanese translation got to add a couple of extra gags in the snowy area before Snowdin, notably during Sans's bad jokes and the fights with the wannabe comedian Snowdrake.
** Japanese ''Undertale'' fans spent a lot of time [[SeriousBusiness debating]] as to whether Sans would use [[UsefulNotes/JapanesePronouns ''boku'' or ''ore'' as a personal pronoun]], only to be shocked when previews of the official translation [[TakeAThirdOption showed him using ''oira'']], a lesser known Japanese pronoun among English speakers that typically is associated with characters with rural roots or "country bumpkin" types. This caused waves in the Japanese fandom that came to be known as "''oira'' shock". It also helps that Snowdin, the area he lives in, is rural-ish itself. [[spoiler: It also is a clever way of showing how Sans tries to project a loser-ish, slacker image. During the "Lost Souls" fight and segments before he fights you on the worst route, he switches to ''ore.'']]

** The BigBad's name in Japanese is Furadari, derived from "fleur-de-lis," a symbol of France, which Kalos is based on. His English name, Lysandre, maintains the original etymology but also takes on a new second meaning. His name can be interpreted as being a combination of "lys," meaning "break or destroy," and "andros," meaning "man," together meaning "[[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast destroyer of man]]" and tying into his [[FinalSolution plans for genocide]].

** Similar to the ''FES'' example above, the extremely {{Engrish}}-y Junes jingle "Everyday Younglife Junes" was changed to "Every day's great at your Junes," containing the same number of syllables.[[labelnote:*]]"Junes" is three syllables in the original Japanese jingle, pronounced "Joo-neh-su"[[/labelnote]]

* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyIV'''s original English translation is usually remembered as being something of a fiasco.[[note]]Contrary to popular belief, Ted Woolsey was not involved with the game and was in fact hired by Square ''because'' of the shoddy translation.[[/note]] However, this translation did have a diamond in the rough that actually became a series mainstay: in the Japanese version, the recurring enemy/summon of the Magus Sisters were named Dogu, Magu, and Ragu. This was changed to Sandy, Cindy, and Mindy for the English version.

** ''VideoGame/XenobladeChronicles2'' uses this to preserve a dick joke, of all things. In the original Japanese, Nia calls Zeke "Turtle Head", which is an innuendo in Japan, but doesn't mean much to the English speaking audience. So in the translation, she calls Zeke (who wears an eyepatch) a "one-eyed monster."