This article has a talk page!This is a sub-page of Pokémon Red and Blue.
The various iterations of Pokémon Red and Blue have had some content either mistranslated or just changed slightly.
Sub-Pages#
Lost/Changed in Translation#
Note that unless specified, these changes also apply to the subsequent European localizations.
Town Map#
In the rival's house, the player can find a Town Map lying around. Oddly enough, the English translation omitted the one and only mention of "Kanto" in the entire script (which was later amended in FireRed and LeafGreen).
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Drunk NPC#
In Viridian City, an old man will block access to Route 2 until the player delivers Oak's Parcel. Originally, he was really just passed out drunk, which was skirted around as best as one could in the international releases, by claiming he just needed his coffee (though his overworld sprite still has distinctive rosy cheeks).
Unlike what one might think, the old man is just as drunk in the Japanese version of FireRed and LeafGreen (where the international versions also went with the coffee excuse).
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Museum NPC#
In the Japanese version, an NPC in the Pewter Museum's fossil exhibit uses an extreme religious-like form of gratitude over seeing the remains of an Aerodactyl. The religious worship aspect was ditched, though FireRed and LeafGreen made an effort to stick closer to the original text.
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(Source: lusentoj)
Bike Shop#
The bike store in Cerulean City has the name 「ミラクルサイクル」 (Miracle Cycle) in the Japanese versions. However, it lacks a given name in any of the localized versions beside the French one, where it is known as "Cycles à Gogo" (lit. "Bikes Aplenty").
Hiker Dialogue#
On Route 10, one of the Hikers will claim that his laughing is due to "hay-fever". However, in the original Japanese releases the man is instead laughing maniacally, which he claims is the result of some wild mushrooms he ate earlier. A similar change was later made in Diamond and Pearl.
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Buddhist Altars#
These figures found in Celadon City are Buddhist altars (or "butsudan") in the Japanese versions. Obviously conflicting with Nintendo of America's policy on religious imagery, they were retrofitted into "Diglett sculptures", on account of their appearance. The international releases of the Generation II games took to calling them "incense burners", whereas FireRed and LeafGreen removed these objects in every version.
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Silph Co's Foreign Branch#
In the Japanese versions, a Scientist on the sixth floor of Silph Co. refers to a supposed branch of the company found in "Ponaya Tunguska" (「ポナヤツングスカ」), a possible reference to the Podkamennaya Tunguska river in Russia, the area most affected by the Tunguska event. In the English versions, this NPC instead refers to the branch as being in the real-life city of Tiksi, also set in Russia.
As later revealed by Nob Ogasawara, the game's translator, he decided to change the branch's location because of the name's length, preferring instead the much shorter "Tiksi".
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Lost Cameos#
In Fuchsia City, two NPCs called Erik and Sara can be found looking for each other because of a misunderstanding. These characters are actually called "Kōji" and "Atsuko" respectively in the Japanese versions, in reference to Game Freak staff members Kōji Nishino and Atsuko Nishida. Moreover, the localized versions not only removed this reference, but rewrote the two to be a couple on top of that (which was only removed in the Let’s Go! games).
Their original dialogue also made use of an untranslatable pun, and as such the "translation" below will be adapted to make somewhat more sense in English (a literal translation and explanation can be found here).
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Safari Zone Warden#
In the international releases, the Warden speaks incoherently prior to being given his Gold Teeth back. However, in the Japanese version, he actually speaks Japanese, only with broken phonemes. The Gold Teeth sequence was inspired by a quest from Mother, where the player can return dentures to an old man, who can't be understood without them (his dialogue being mangled Japanese, not gibberish).
But more than being an homage, here the Warden's dialogue actually references an earlier iteration of the game's story! It appears to date back to the time of Silph's Chief hiding in the Safari Zone, and seemingly allied with Team Rocket. Taking that into account, the sign in the Safari Zone which states that anyone who finds the Warden's lost teeth will be rewarded was likely a later addition (being a literal instance of story signposting).
Provided below is a proposed "restored" version of his dialogue set, taking into account that he speaks in Kansai dialect. The only unclear part is "Hoha houha" (ほは ほうは), with "hoha" (ほは) perhaps being an alternate corruption of "souka" (そうか)?
Japanese (Original) |
Japanese (Original - Romanization) |
Japanese (Restored) |
Japanese (Restored - Romanization) |
Translation |
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Intro Text |
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Replied Yes |
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Replied No |
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(Source: Legendary Starblob)
Pokémon Mansion Diaries#
In Japanese, the Cinnabar Mansion journals imply that one person was involved in the discovery and cloning of Mew, as well as the subsequent creation of Mewtwo. This is evidenced by the use of 「わたし」 (watashi), which means "I". Nowhere in the original dialogue is 「わたしたち」 (watashi-tachi), or "we". In the English Red and Blue, all the diary entries except the July 5 one use "we" instead.
It's possible this was changed to tie in with Pokémon: The First Movie, which had already come out in Japan by the time of the games' international release and depicts the above events as being the result of a team. However, this results in an inconsistency with Mewtwo's Pokédex entry, which is a direct translation of the one it had in the Japanese Blue, and still refers to it as the product of a scientist.
The last entry was also rewritten for the English releases, with the original one having its author sounding more distressed and emotional.
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Chief Trainer Class#
The Japanese name of the unused "Chief" Trainer class is 「シルフのチーフ」, or "Silph's Chief", implying that the player was originally meant to battle Silph Co.'s president (or at the very least a high-ranking member of the company). He is also mentioned by an NPC in the Safari Zone in the Japanese versions.
Translation Errors#
Celadon Mansion#
Game Freak's office in Celadon City was known as the "Celadon Mansion" for quite a while in English. However, this is an incorrect translation, as seen by the fact the building is clearly an apartment complex. While its name does use the word "mansion" (マンション), in Japanese this loanword is used to refer to condos. Starting in HeartGold and SoulSilver, this area was renamed to the "Celadon Condominiums", with all other localized versions following suit.
Do note that the "Pokémon Mansion" is known as "ポケモンやしき" in Japanese, where "やしき" does translate to "mansion".
Trading#
This dialogue is used by two NPCs, one in Cerulean City, and the other in Cinnabar Island's Pokémon Lab, after the player does in-game trades with them. These odd messages are the result of swapping one Pokémon's name in favor of another, not taking into account whether or not it actually makes sense gameplay-wise, as it's impossible to evolve either Pokémon via trading.
The Japanese version of Blue involved trading a Haunter for a Machoke in Cerulean City, and a Kadabra for a Graveler on Cinnabar Island. In regular gameplay, all of these Pokémon evolve when traded. However, the international Red and Blue reverted the trades to the ones from Red and Green, but forgot to grab the proper version of the trade dialogue.
The issue was later fixed in FireRed and LeafGreen, which used the Red and Green string as its basis.
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English Equivalent |
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Prof.Oak Dialogue#
Professor Oak has an obscure interaction in which he gifts the player 5 Poké Balls, but only if the following criteria have been met:
- The rival must have been defeated on Route 22 (prior to obtaining the first badge).
- The player must not have any Poké Balls on hand.
- The player must not have registered any Pokémon in the Pokédex, besides their starter.
This exchange is so out of the way, an error in its dialogue wasn't caught during testing. Indeed, in the message below the second instead of line should instead be a cont (to scroll the text down, rather than just print the second line in the dialogue box). To add insult to injury, the "y" in "try" also gets overwritten by the text box arrow. Pokémon Yellow fixed the line scroll issue, but didn't fix "try" getting partially erased. No version of the European localizations fixed this issue.
para "Just throw a #"
line "BALL at it and try"
line "to catch it!"Mimic Move Text#
When a Pokémon uses Mimic in the English versions, the second line of the dialogue box is not properly cleared, which can have unusual results. The box's display routine was handled differently in the Japanese version, so it doesn't have this problem.