Okay, I've done an in-depth comparison of the official English Crystal Star descriptions as opposed to their more literal versions below. Here they are, grouped one star at a time: JP - ダイヤモンドスター：ノコタロウの父ノコキチがゴンババのお腹の中から持ってきた物 Literal - Diamond Star: Thing that Nokotaro's father Nokokichi brought out from inside Gonbaba's stomach. EN - Diamond Star: The object Koops's father/found in Hooktail's belly. JP - エメラルドスター：森の奥にある大樹の中に住んでいるプニ族のオババから授かった物 Literal - Emerald Star: Thing received as an award from the elder of the Puni tribe living in the great tree deep in the forest. EN - Emerald Star: The object you got from the/Puni elder in the Great Tree. JP - ゴールドスター：社長のガンスを倒したお礼に秘書のキノシコワから貰った物 Literal - Gold Star: Thing received from the secretary Kinoshikowa as thanks for defeating Gansu the company president. EN - Gold Star: The object Jolene gave you/after defeating Grubba. JP - ルビースター：マリオの姿を借りていたランペルを倒して手に入れた物 Literal - Ruby Star: Thing obtained after defeating Rumpel, who borrowed Mario's form. EN - The thing you got by beating/Doopliss, the body thief. JP - サファイアスター：海賊王コルテスを倒して貰ったというかやっつけてないけど貰った物 Literal - Sapphire Star: Thing you received after defeating, er, despite not actually beating Cortez, the Pirate King. EN - Sapphire Star: The object you got after not/really defeating Cortez. JP - ガーネットスター：ピカリーヒルズにあるピカリー神殿に隠されていたまっかな本物 Literal - Garnet Star: The bright red real thing hidden inside the Dazzlingly Shrine in Dazzlingly Hills. EN - The very un-red-herring real/thing from Poshley Sanctum. JP - クリスタルスター：バッテンダー・マーク２を倒して手に入れた物 Literal - Crystal Star: Thing obtained after defeating X-Tron Mk. II. EN - Crystal Star: The object you got out of/Magnus von Grapple 2.0 Seeing them all laid out like that, the first thing that actually strikes me is how much the localizing of various names for things works to make the game a lot more understandable and fun for a US audience, but to more directly answer your question about whether the Japanese is as funny as the English, I would say that this is one occasion where they're pretty much equal. I'm particularly impressed with the treatment of the Garnet Star's description, because as I mentioned back in your video that covered the end of Chapter 6, "まっかなうそ" (makkana uso/bright red lie) is a Japanese phrase indicating a straight-up falsehood. This makes "まっかな本物" (makkana honmono/bright red real thing) a play on that phrasing, so the English text referencing the "red herring" line as a callback is a great solution. That translation also explains why "thing" is the word used for the Garnet Star rather than "object", because it's part of the phrase "real thing". As for why the Ruby Star description uses "thing" instead of "object", I think GGCrono is right that character limits are the explanation. The longest lines all seem to be 28 characters long, with a possible extra character for a period ("Puni elder in the Great Tree." [29] "The thing you got by beating" [28] "The object you got after not" [28] "The very un-red-herring real" [28]). Since using the word "object" in the line "The thing you got by beating" would push it to 29 characters, that could potentially mean the translators would need to move "beating" to the next line. "Doopliss, the body thief." is 25 character long, so adding "beating" to it would put it way over the limit, and two lines is definitely the max for this menu. As for why "object/thing" is the term used in the first place, it seems to be an example of the translators going with a relatively literal wording for comedic effect. Yes, the Japanese phrases all end in "物", which means "thing", but using that term as a stand-in for a noun is more acceptable in Japanese as opposed to in English. Normally I'd think the localization team might want to come up with an alternative term, but since the overall effect fits with the lighthearted feel of the game and character space was clearly at a premium, maybe they decided to just leave it relatively literal. Anyway, let me know if you have any more questions based on the above translations! I found the Japanese poem text too, but have held off on commenting on it for now since 1. this comment is long enough and 2. I'm not sure if you're done working on the sentence order in English yet. I'll be looking forward to the real (?) final stream soon! References: JP Star Text: papermario-rpg.gorillawiki.jp/entry/25 Video with my last comment on "bright red lies": ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-rFNoiQx8SOs.html
