Welcome to the Book Preview This preview showcases only a few samples of the 420+ pages found in the complete book. Although the book looks at EarthBound in great detail, it also covers many other topics and touches on many other games. Even if you're not familiar with EarthBound or much of an EarthBound fan, you'll fi nd a lot of fascinating information within these pages! *NOTE: The images in this preview have been compressed to make them more internet friendly, they are not representational of the quality of the fi n a l p r o d u c t . Contents 12 Special Features 18 Foreword 20 Introduction 86 A Look Ahead 87 Starting the Game 30 What Is Localization? 94 Onett Odyssey 128 Twoson in Trouble 44 History 146 Happy Happy Village 72 Technical Magic 158 Return to Twoson 167 Trapped in Threed 84 The Game 172 Leaving Winters 180 Rescue in Threed 312 Battle Changes 182 Saturn Valley 189 Threed Saved 320 Enemy Changes 191 Dusty Dunes Desert 334 Item Changes 195 Flabbergasted in Fourside 206 Mining for Gold 350 Hints 210 Return to Fourside 216 Welcome to Moonside 360 Newspapers 221 Monkey Caves 372 Unseen Text & 227 Skyscraper Raid Other Secrets 231 Revisiting Old Haunts 235 Summers Getaway 404 Final Thoughts 242 Dreaming of Dalaam 247 Heroes United 408 Further Reading 251 South to Scaraba 412 Update Patches 254 Exploring Dungeon Man 257 Deep Darkness 422 Special Thanks 261 Infi ltrating Stonehenge 265 Tending to Tenda Village 426 More Legends 270 The Lost Underworld of Localization 272 Meandering in Magicant 280 Counterattack Across Time 285 War Against Giygas 294 Triumphant Return Special Features Deeper examinations of Japanese culture, video game history, localization methods, developer interviews, trivia, and more The Basic Stages of Text Text Formatting: The Beatles in Japan - 112 Japanese Hostess Obscure Names on The Traumatic Localization - 32 EarthBound vs. Clubs - 162 Parade - 232 Inspiration Behind Giygas’ Star Fox 2 - 76 Red Cross Removals - 116 Dialogue - 290 Real Examples of Heavy An Overview of Japanese Japan Airlines’ Memorable Adaptation in Action - 33 Window Resizing: The Red Cross Emblem Dialects - 164 Reso’cha Campaign - 236 Super Famicom and Super A Localization Luxury - 77 and Video Games - 117 NES Game Piracy in the Localization Mishaps in Technical Tile Toshishun: The Tale of the 1990s - 293 Action - 35 Treasure Chest Game Japanese Wrestling’s Transformation - 168 Prodigal Young Man and Grammar 101 - 79 Infamous “Hell Hold” - 125 the Hermit - 246 The Trouble with Name Game Translation and A Road of Many Translation - 297 Native Speakers - 37 Mimicking MOTHER 2’s The History of Japan’s Names - 176 The Classic Comedy of Madness - 80 S-Rank System - 129 Igari Shopan - 253 Missing Dialogue and Meet EarthBound’s Japan’s Love of Labo - 179 Added Dialogue - 299 Localizers - 39 Expanded Names English Typos in The Many Names of Abound - 81 EarthBound - 131 The Voices of Makyō - 258 Spankety Some An Inside Look at EarthBound - 186 More - 311 Nintendo’s Certifi cation Testing the Limits of Battle of the Suits: Classic American Poetry: Process - 40 Readability the Video NOA vs. The Runaway MOTHER 2: A Japanese Casey at the Bat - 260 Rocket Weapons and the Game Way - 82 Five - 136 Time Capsule - 190 MOTHER Series - 348 Nintendo’s Family-Friendly Crazy for Kokeshi Policies in the 1990s - 41 The Power of The Mystery of the Katsuman, the Dolls - 261 The Multiple Meanings Presentation - 83 Musicians’ Names - 137 Real-Life Restaurant Behind Nintendo’s Examples of Cheap, from MOTHER 2 - 197 One Japanese Word, Two Name - 359 Easy, and Quick The Many Names of Christianity in Japanese Translations - 269 Localizations - 42 EarthBound - 87 Games - 140 Alcohol Changes in Other Shigesato Itoi’s Earliest Games - 201 Nakedness as Purity - 273 Plans for MOTHER 3 - 363 EarthBound, an The Japanese Language’s I Am a Cat - 143 Earth-Wide Endeavor - 43 Many Writing Systems - 89 Hips in Japan - 205 MOTHER Magicant vs. The Trouble with Japanese Putting the Eraser to MOTHER 2 Magicant - 274 Krakens - 371 The MOTHER Series and Ness and the Nintendo the Test - 145 Yes and No - 217 Capitalization - 49 Connection - 90 Crossing Out The Easy Listening Music Japanese Cults at a Those Pesky Devils and Crosses - 276 Club Recommends These A Close Look at Video Meet SMAP, Japan’s Glance - 147 Demons - 220 Musicians - 389 Game Text Grids - 74 Ultimate Pop Group - 93 Volatile Memories of the Religious Changes in Swearing in Nintendo Gutsy Bat - 279 Caught in the Crossfi re: Games with Wearisome Robots in Other Games - 149 Games - 225 Nintendo vs. Monospace Fonts - 75 Localization - 100 Gunma and Dakota Get Game Genie - 391 Family Bathing in Strawberry Tofu: Then and the Spotlight - 281 EarthBound Gets Plain Parents in Video Japan - 159 Now - 228 Tottori Prefecture Proportional - 75 Games - 102 When Penguins and Onomatopoeia in Lending a Helping vs. Chattanooga, Planets Collide - 282 Tennessee - 394 Stealing Fuzzy EarthBound - 161 Hand - 231 Pickles - 106 The Villain with the Shape-Shifting Name - 286 12 13 The Pieces of a Video Game Localization These three aspects intertwine to create a full game localization. If the quality of one aspect is lacking, it’ll drag the others down a bit too. On the Video game localization is much more than just translating a bunch of text other hand, improving the quality of one aspect will improve the others and and calling it a day. A complete game localization project consists of three result in a superior fi nal product. distinct parts. Throughout this book we’ll be looking at how EarthBound’s localization Content team handled these three key aspects. This is the most obvious piece of the localization puzzle. Game content includes things like written text, spoken dialogue, and graphics. The Localization Mishaps in Action localization work performed on the content is what will receive most of the audience’s attention. If a game localization is done well, most players will never notice the amount of work put into each piece of the project. Conversely, if a piece of a Game Programming localization is done poorly, it will easily pull players out of the experience. programmers A unique challenge to video game everywhere localization is the programming Content Mishaps aspect. Every language is differ- ent, which means that video games often need to be reprogrammed to accommodate the target language’s quirks. For example, it’s common for Japa- nese games to print text vertically, starting from the right side of the Content Mishaps Spanish Battle Rangers (Arcade) Magician Lord (Neo Geo) screen. To localize such a game into punctuation is "cool" English, the game would need to Programming Mishaps be reprogrammed to make the text print horizontally, starting from the left side of the screen. Or say you’re localizing a game from English into Spanish. If the game’s font doesn’t already include accented characters, like é or í, you’d need to modify the game’s programming to add support for them. Most players won’t notice the programming work put into a game’s localiza- tion, but even the slightest efforts can greatly benefi t the end experience. Lufi a II: Rise of the Sinistrals (SNES) Suikoden II (PlayStation) Today, digital Supplemental Materials Supplemental Mishaps manuals and A game’s localization involves more in-game tutori- than just the game itself. As a local- als mean more work than ever izer, you often need to translate for localizers things like internal design docu- ments, developer logs, and voice acting notes. And don’t forget about the game’s box and manual. Even things like websites and marketing materials can fall under the game Athena (NES) manual with game Resident Evil Revelations (3DS) localization umbrella. These things screens from a completely different box art, featuring the spelling error really add up! game, Spelunker (NES) “REVELAITONS” on the spine 34 What Is Localization? 35 Shigesato Itoi The Man Behind the Games during the height EarthBound is known for its unconventional ideas and creative gameplay of the copywriting boom in Japan mechanics, yet the game wasn’t designed by a normal game designer at all! The MOTHER series was created by Shigesato Itoi. Itoi has participated in so many different professions throughout his career that it’s hard to even begin to describe him. He’s primarily known for his famous copywriting work – his catchy slogans and inventive marketing phrases rocketed him to the top of the industry during Japan’s “copywriting boom” in the 1980s. Itoi’s creative success led to a wealth of other opportunities, including: Composing lyrics for hit musicians Writing articles for culture magazines Hosting educational television shows for children Acting in fi lms with popular celebrities Holding annual fi shing tournaments with popular comedians Co-hosting radio programs Searching for legendary lost gold on national television Voice-acting characters in popular animated fi lms Starring in famous commercials Writing and compiling short stories 12,000 women Itoi’s reputation as across Japan a copywriter led to Localizing American children’s books into Japanese entered a contest him becoming a cult to star with Itoi celebrity of sorts This is just the tip of the iceberg and doesn’t even cover all of the awards in a series of he’s won in different industries. Basically, Shigesato Itoi has the knack for famous television seeing things in interesting new ways, so it’s no wonder that his game-relat- commercials for ed side projects were fi lled with unique inventiveness too. Pocari Sweat EarthBound was Itoi’s unusual sense of humor and unique in a time his Japanese view of American when “Let’s Kill culture helped EarthBound stand Things” was the Itoi has starred out from its contemporaries.