I like the statue names in the original. See, octopus would be “tako”, so the octopus eraser would be the “tako keshi”. “Takokeshi” contains the word “kokeshi”, so its a bit of a fun pun. And then you run into the kokeshi statues, which are just that pun turned into an object. The “kokeshi keshi” continues the pun while being amusingly redundant. With that in mind, I think the pencil and eraser statues were a very good way of localizing the joke. We get the bizarre first statue (pencil), and an item that removes it (pencil eraser), which is also a pun (instead of being an eraser for pencil marks, it erases pencils). And then we get a second statue that *is* the previous pun, and the item that erases it is amusingly redundant (eraser eraser). Really, great job to the localization team on that one. The idea of the joke translated perfectly.
Yeah I was a bit surprised Shesez didn't go into this a bit more. I think the localization for the statues is often overlooked. Huge credit to the localization team for creating a similar joke that resonated with western audiences.
@@PassTheSnails Ninten is 12 years old, and the game say outright in the Japanese version that it takes place in 1988. Ness is 13 years old and his game is stated to take place anywhere between 1990 and 1999(since it is listed at 199X), Even if it took place in 1999, Ness would have been born already at the time the events of Ninten's adventure took place.
That’s why there is a period of time where very little games had a red cross symbol or they had an altered one that just managed to get by the Red Cross’ legal team using things like a red H.
Imagine using charitable donations to sue people over video game sprites and anime drawings which used your red addition symbol to represent things like "health, healing, hospitals, healthcare"
My theory is that he considers the hat a part of him, of his identity, and probably wouldn't imagine himself without it, whereas his clothes were maybe used only in the events of the game, so they're not as memorable as the hat he had since he was a baby. It's a bit of a stretch, but hey.
7:50 the toned-down "spank" noise is the same sound effect that plays when an enemy insults you in the NA version, so you could argue that Mr. Minch is merely shouting at his kids as punishment.
Of course, if you see any instance in which europe gets disrespected or blatantly ignored shesez will be there to be part of it, Earthbound couldn’t be an exception on his personal crusade, just have to see the series logo
Also, the nakedness thing isn't a perverted thing either. In Japanese culture they often would take baths/hot springs/ etc etc. Together. It's a common way to socialize. But over in the west it's considered awkward.
@@MrRogerogerio A very interesting connection is that in Totoro the father of the girls, who is shown in that scene, is actually voiced by Shigesato Itoi, the creator of Earthbound.
I find it interesting that despite being a bee in the US pokey's mom calls it a dung beetle, mistaking a rino beetle for a dung beetle makes more sense then mistaking a bee for one
Definitely prefer the more "cute" clay model of Ness and friends compared to the more "cool" look they gave them for the US release. It better matches their actual sprites, too.
@@crust9889 Sonic too, though not as drastic a change. But Sonic on the Japanese box art definitely has a cuter more "round" look than how he appeared on US box art.
i like both, and I have to hand it to the artists that made that.. whether it was airbrushing or a brand new clay model, it looked dead on and cool. What's sad is the rest of the US marketing was completely opposite. Making it seem like a juvenile grossout gagfest, leading to poor sales.
@@crust9889 People in the US during the 80's to late 90's just couldn't understand Japanese culture back in the day, so the producers had to play god with content that was considered too Japanese for foreign audiences. I felt bad for the US marketing being too cynical about Japanese culture especially Nintendo of America playing god with video game content that was either too mature or too Japanese for us to understand back in the day. As BohepansTheThird said in one of his Final Fantasy IV playthroughs, "If anyone's that dense. Good god! Granted, there's no limit to human stupidity, but still..." And also, in one of my verses from 90's Paradise, I said: "They just forgot. No wonder why I didn't get nice things, dude!"
From what I understand, Nintendo of America repurposed Ness and his party into being middle schoolers (12 to 13 years old) when they were slightly younger in the Japanese version (9 to 10 years old).
An interesting note about the happy happy cult is that it’s also partially based on the Aum Shinrikyo cult which carried out two sarin attacks in 1994 and 1995
@@ludwiniiihernandez9873 I think it would make more sense if it was Aum Shinrikyo since they had been gaining a lot of notoriety in the years leading up to the gas attacks, and their marketing campaigns were overly cheerful which matches the whole Happy Happyism thing.
Thinking about it from a dev standpoint, why would it be? It's more likely based on something from Japan instead of a country far away from the creator.
@@kaitoudark1 Considering that this game is full of references to America, is essentially set in a fictionalized America ("Eagleland"), this comment comes off as completely oblivious lol
@@kaitoudark1 the first main villain of their very first super sentai series (what became power rangers here decades later with zyuranger) was a guy in a seemingly Klan-inspired white hood outfit in the 1970s. So using that imagery for fictional america while also invoking a cult fresh in people's memories for their target audience is absolutely plausible.
I prefer the change to Threed, which is literally 3D, y'know, like cheesy horror films, but uh... Threek just gives your 3K's... and I think you know where I'm going.
@@theravenpirate4744 yeah but you can also already easily run the fan translation of mother 3 on your phone or any hacked portable console that are far more easy to carry around than a switch
It just occurred to me when looking at the logo comparisons ... The title "Mother" sometimes gets poked fun at by us westerners because with the exception of the third game no mother character has a very big role in the game. But looking at the Mother logo with the Earth in it ... I realized just now that it could also be a play on the common term "Mother Earth". Which, if true, I rather like because it means the term "EarthBound" is actually somewhat connected to the original title, rather than just being pulled out of thin air.
A lot of people don’t realize that the overworlds textures in Japanese Pokémon red and green are completely different than in North American Pokémon red and blue. People tend to think they only changed the Pokémon sprites but they actually changed how the whole game looks like the grass, the water, and the building textures are totally different
@@Hollow_Tim well the US Red and Blue are not actually localizations of Japanese Red and Green. It's a weird mashup of red/green and the Japanese Blue version(yes really, it was like with Gold/Silver then Crystal... etc...). the Japanese Blue version had a LOt of art changes. The US version used that art instead of the original art.
I think it's funny that in the Japanese version Ness has no clothes because it's normal for them to not carry over clothes from the real world to the metaphysical ones, yet Ness still has his cap. Especially when they already have a Ness with no cap sprite to use.
Literally just realised that the Labo peripherals are probably from the Japanese/French abbreviation of Laboratory -- because the cardboard peripherals were experimental.
Fan translation actually does have a few region differences. The Kokeshi statue and octo statue in the hall of memories is once again replaced by the eraser and pencil. Lucas and Oj's voice when they play in luckys room is also replaced with an English voive clip
Ever since I learned about the "Threek" thing, I think they missed an opportunity not calling it "Threeka", because it sounds like "Topeka". Goes nicely with "Twoson". Also, it's ironic that they edited the cultists to remove a resemblance to real life stuff, because they were modeled after a real cult in Japan that had killed some people, not too long before the game was made even.
I am a little bit late but... They couldn't name it "Topeka" because the city's name needed to be consistent with the numerology of the other towns. One-tt, Two-son, Three-d, Four-side
@@nibyafternight1983 They said that there was an opportunity to name it "Threeka", because it sounds similiar to "Topeka" (I don't know what he is referencing). So it would not break the theme
Onomatopoeia between cultures is so funny. I dated a Korean girl last year and she let me know that for her, “dang” is the sound that a bell makes, she eventually told me that because I always reacted to things with “dang”
Ness has a Japanese accent in smash, which I think is a character fitting detail. As well as Lucas having an American accent. Both characters have their games released on complete other sides of the earth, Earthbound being released in the USA, and Mother 3 being released in Japan.
Heh, same. Going through the Legends of Localization site and the Cutting Room Floor articles on the game every once in a while will do that. ;( Cool video regardless, obviously.
It's a little odd, they were worried about the cult being confused for the KKK in US (despite them not really being prevelant at the time), but the original cult they were based on would a single year after the original release would commit one of the worst acts of terrorism in Japanese history and even before that were publically suspected of regularly making people disappear.
@@TheFawfulExpressMustardO-cx6mw Aum Shinrikyo and yes, the Tokyo subway sarin gas attack in 1995. Look up what their leader wore, he wore an entirely blue outfit. No hood though.
I work for the Red Cross. Absolutely true that they go after any depiction of it that isn't their own. I get it but it's kind of extreme IMO. There was a Transformers ambulance toy that had the red cross and Hasbro had to either recall and/or change the toy and remove it.
They're protective of the mark because they have to be. It's a major part of their identity and the traditional way they get recognized as noncombatants in war, and, as a trademark, it's at risk of genericization. If they didn't zealously protect it, they'd open themselves up to a court challenge that it no longer uniquely identified them and was therefore no longer protected by trademark law. (It's a bit more complicated than that, I gather, because it's not *just* trademark law that factors into this, since I believe the symbol is also covered by treaty law. But I don't imagine they want to tempt fate either way.) I remember when the first two Doom games were rereleased in the mid-2000s, and someone finally reached id Software and got them to replace the red cross on the stimpacks with a weird little Dr. Mario-looking pill.
@@stevethepocket Beats me. They used to be less concerned with (or possibly just less aware of) video games. It's possible TF2 just sort of grandfathered itself in, before the Red Cross noticed.
One thing that made me love the earthbound community even more is that in Mother 3, there's a octopus statue identical to the one in Mother 2 (as a little quick reference), but in the Fan-translation of the game, the team CHANGED THE SPRITE to the pencil statue from earthbound. That Just shows how much they put care on translating the game.
Im glad that Earthbound blew up, im glad that everyone got to experience a game that I bought when it came out. Beat it 10+ times before the internet was even a thing. Still own the box and everything, and my scratch and sniff cards still smell to this day. This game means soo much to me, and im really really happy other people get to experience it too.
@@jamesduncan6729 that's awesome! I remember my dad reading (what felt like) the entire book while I watched the intro scene play over and over in anticipation of playing. Man.. Soo much nostalgia.
Honestly, I think the pencil and eraser statues are great bits of humor. "Pencil eraser" is just great wordplay, but then you get to "eraser eraser" and it's a whole other level of wordplay.
The more I see someone holding an authentic cartridge of Earthbound, the more it makes me get jealous because dear lord the price is soooooo high for no reason. The game wasn’t even rare!!! I’m tempted to actually freakin’ learn Japanese so I can play and own the Japanese version.
I think the "Labo" title is even more fitting for me because I always assumed winters was in Canada so it would make sense to have some form of French on their signs :)
Not sure if this was noticed or mentioned by anyone, but on the Japanese town map, the indicator for the general store is “DRUG” while in the US it’s changed to “SHOP.” At the time there was a strong anti-drug movement aimed at children, spawning such programs as D.A.R.E. and I believe that to be the reason for the localization. Keep up the good work! Your channel is one of my favorites; your videos are well made, I always check for updates, and you seem like a genuinely nice person. Thanks for doing what you do
Lovin' the new show so far, and glad many else are, too!!! Also, I too would enjoy seeing some (if any) differences between PAL region and NTSC region versions of games on the show. How they differ in that region I've not seen much coverage of in my time watching content of this sort.
Fantastic Localization work by the team. I'm glad EarthBound and the Mother trilogy is loved by many. Nudity to represent purity in a metaphysical sense in Japanese media is so intriguing, reminds me of Sailor Moon.
If you enjoyed this video, that Legends of Localization book will be right up your alley. It’s filled with hundreds of pages explaining all the differences (like, ALL OF THEM) between the two games. Highly recommended!
Fun controversy note about the cultists: the cultists are based off of a real life cult in Japan that was responsible for a terrorist attack using sarin gas. I forget the details, but I believe the real life cult had a name having to do with the color blue, or something along those lines, hence the blue cultists in the game.
When I heard about the issues you were having, I rewatched a bunch of your old videos, in full screen, and gave them thumbs up. I also click the bell icon for your channel, and you're the only channel I've done that on. I've also manually been coming to your channel looking for new videos, instead of waiting for them to popup on my feed. I hope my efforts have helped.
Something that always bothered me about the "Pencil Eraser" or rather the "Octopus Eraser" is, from what I understand in the Japanese Help Text for the Picnic Lunch, rather than having "a Slice of your favorite cake" they contain "octopus wieners" meaning hot dogs cut into the shape of an octopus. The "Octopus Eraser" should erase the delicious octopus wieners from your Picnic Lunch!
@Hamann Djatmiko: Oddly enough, I learned of octopus-shaped weiners from the American dub of _Sailor Moon_ from Dic (now known as Cookie Jar Entertainment).
I wonder how this game would've looked like in Europe because it never came out here sadly. In japan and in most european countries being naked is something natural. It's not sexual unless you make it sexual by putting it into an perverted context or something. I can understand why they changed it for NA because nudity is a really sensitive subject there for some reason. Really dumb
I hope your youtube recommendation viewership issues have fixed itself, ive never been happier to see this video recommended to me. I absolutely love learning region differences, im bout to binge so much content today.
AAAAAAHHHHH!!!! PAAAAAIIIINNNN!!!!!! I broke my hand yesterday because of the hate comments I get on my amazing videos. I was so angry that I punched a hole in my computer. Please don't comment anything mean on my wonderful videos, dear sqe
@@AxxLAfriku let me get this straight-- you punched a hole in your computer. So you must be using your phone to type this. Most people instinctively punch with their dominant hand, so you would have to be typing this on a phone with your offhand. Somehow I doubt you would go through the effort to find a random video just to inform us of this. Not only do I think that this is a botted reply, I don't believe that you broke your hand.
@@-Teague- Just report him for spam, I do it all the time, and sometimes they dissapear, it's a completelly out of place comment made to drive attention to his own channel after all.
@@lh9591 RU-vid: I said you're going to watch this clip. And you are going to do what we told you before we do something to your channel. And I don't care what the counter arguments is because every user does what we say!
That or the three K thing especially given the fact that they already have a cult going on in the game...one of which already kind of looks like the "three K"
Why does "Threek" rhyming with "freak" make more sense? "Freak" isn't a Japanese word or anything, thus a Threek/freak rhyme wouldn't make sense to them. Beyond that, the town is temporarily inhabited by zombies, but before and after that, it's a pretty normal town.
It's interesting, I own a reproduction cart of Earthbound called Earthbound Uncut and it restores all the things left out in the American version you mentioned and I think even some saltier dialog. But they kept Ness with pajamas. Even those people were like "we're not touching that one."
One notable thing.It is insane how much effort Nintendo was putting in in the 90’s. How many games today have huge regional differences just for the sake of quality.
It's actually a japanese pun. I can't remember the exact pun for the octopus, but the dolls are called "kokeshi" and the word for eraser is "keshi" making the item that erases dolls a "kokeshi keshi"
I was there, and I can absolutely confirm that this stream series and video was absolutely OK-desuka~ You absolutely broke the boundaries of what you can do, and I'm glad that I was there for it! Thank you for making this! I don't really get why no one can use the Red Cross as something translating to health or a hospital; what does the Red Cross mean, then? Are they simply trying to make sure no one can use it? Why should they use it then? Wouldn't it get more flack for being a similar shape to the Christian Cross or anything of that nature? Man, I don't get it, but luckily I don't have to care either and I can just have a good time~
It's a bit more complicated than that. The red cross symbol isn't just copyrighted or trademarked. It's actually protected symbol under the Geneva Convention, because it exists to identify hospitals or medical personnel during war-time or natural disasters. That's why it's so fiercely protected. Its specifically a symbol used mostly in war situations, and diluting that symbol (or allowing anyone to use it) could potentially be dangerous or fatal in such situations.
Cool thing I noticed about the map, is that if Summers is supposed to sorta "Spain" and Scaraba is more or less "Morocco" it would make tons of sense that there's the boat between the two seeing as there's enormous cultural cross-over between Spain and Morocco as they're way closer than most maps properly depict.
Nowdays tough even Japan has become way more strict with nudity in media than they where before so a lot gets toned down to avoid higher ratings. So Im pretty sure Ness would have clothes on him if the game was released today.
True, this makes me wonder if the Wii U Virtual Console version that got released used the Ness sprite from the US version, i do know there was censorship on the Mother 1+2 collection (more specifically Mother 1)
Clyde Mandelin’s book is PHENOMENAL. I’ve read it twice now. You’ll really like it! Absolutely great purchase. He really knows his stuff. I recommend it to everyone interested in Earthbound and also localization!
"Labo" is a valid Japanese shorthand for "Laboratory" because the Japanese language consists of syllables that must always end with a vowel. So they kept to that, even though they used Latin letters.
In the context of this game where most building words were english though this explanation doesnt make sense. There are many words that dont adhere to the vowel rule such as "bar" "Department" and "hospital"
No idea how its phrased, but in Japanese, calling something "In the depths of the earth" is basically just calling it underground. So it's basically "The underground continent" which means it's not too far to call it the Underworld thematically. I like how everytime you go "He refers to her as his wife" and the Japanese version, you spend 90% the time holding on ウィヒック、ネスじゃないか?, which is literally just him saying "I'm Hick. If it isn't Ness" and has absolutely nothing to do with the line your pointing out。For those wondering about the Mrs vs Ms thing since another language. 夫人 or ふじん or Fujin absolutely implies she's still married in Japanese.
Except the word "underworld" has a different connotation in English besides just being underground. That would be a rare screw-up for the English localizer.
@@Compucles However, referring to a large society underground as the Underworld, is not unique in English. I swear I know multiple RPGs that have done it.
SHESEZ HOW ARE YOU SO CONSISTENTLY THE SHIT????? Love your channel, very fun to watch and listen to at work or when im having bad anxiety (I have a pretty bad anxiety disorder that I’ve worked on for a long time, and channels like yours help a whole bunch, thank you)
You noticed the Red Cross symbol found its way on the hospital in the background of the Onett stage in Super Smash Bros. Melee which was removed in later SSB games. Also the craft Jeff flew was called Sky Walker in Mother 2 which was changed to Sky Runner in Earthbound. Another cultural example is Trout Yogurt. In Mother 2, it was Strawberry Tofu and also appear in the other two Mother games.