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Japanese enemy names.

PostPosted: July 22nd, 2009, 3:44 pm
by Blaziken257
So I was playing the Japanese version of this game (as well as DKL2, more on this below) to see if there were any gameplay differences at all. While I hardly found any gameplay differences, I noticed that a few enemies in the cast list were different. Even though the Japanese version of DKC2 has the enemy names in Japanese, they are in katakana and they actually spell out English words. (Yes, one of the times when katakana is used is spelling out words from foreign languages like English.) Over the past year, I have been trying to learn katakana just to be able to read stuff like this (though I don't know anything else about Japanese).

I know enough katakana to be able to read enemies' names in the Japanese version of DKC2. (Though, even if I didn't, the Japanese version of DKL2 actually has the names in English -- despite the names being in English, they were changed to match DKC2 JP's names. You'll see what I mean in just a second.)

First, here's Click-Clack:

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You'll see that it's called... Beetle. Yep. How creative. And yes, in DKC2, that Japanese text actually says "Beetle."

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Next, Cat O' 9 Tails:

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(Cat O' 9 Tails doesn't appear in DKL2.) This is one that's somewhat confusing. I know the first two kana (symbols), ネコ, say "Neko" (is this the Japanese word for cat?), the third kana, の, is actually hiragana (which is used for Japanese words) and says "no" (not the English "no", but the Japanese "no", which has a different meaning -- I don't know what it means, unfortunately), and the rest, ナインテール, well, literally says "9 Tail" (from what I understand, there are no plural words in Japanese, which explains the lack of an "s"). So basically it's Neko no 9 Tails or something like that -- probably just Cat O' 9 Tails in Japanese. If anybody knows enough Japanese to fully translate this, then be my guest.

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Next, we have Mini-Necky:

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Sigh... this one is actually different in DKL2 JP. Thankfully this is the only one that has a different name in DKL2 JP. In both versions of DKL2, it's called Necky. But that's not what it's called in DKC2 JP. Rather, it's called... Zocky. Yes, that's right. Zocky. And you know what else? That's what Krow is called in Japan!

I'd also like to mention that I once beat the Japanese version of DKC, and if I recall correctly, the cast list (and credits) were in English, like in DKL2. And I don't recall any of the names being different. I could be wrong, though. But if I'm right, then DKL2 isn't the only Japanese game to refer to Necky as, well, Necky.

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Now let's look at Krow:

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See? I told you it's called Zocky! And if you compare this to the DKC2 JP Mini-Necky shot, you'll see it's the same name. Almost. Except for those two kana at the beginning, ボス. What does that say? Well, it says "Boss." Thing is, every boss in DKC2 JP except for K. Rool has the word "Boss" (ボス) at the beginning of their name (you'll see this more later on). Though this isn't the case for DKL2, as you can see. So I guess Mini-Necky is called Zocky and Krow is called Boss Zocky? But wait, in DKL2 JP, Krow is called Zocky, which is what Mini-Necky is called in DKC2 JP! So... I'm confused here? How do you tell them apart?!

By the way, what does "Zocky" mean anyway? It's a cool name, but it sure is weird... O_o

Anyway, let's move on.

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Kudgel!

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Wait... it's not called Kudgel in this game! So what is it called? Well, this one is hard to figure out, since he never appeared in DKL2. グラッバ is most likely supposed to be "Glubba", since it rhymes with Klubba (and yes, it's still called Klubba -- Klubba's Japanese name is クラッバ, which literally says Klubba, and notice how it's similar to Kudgel's Japanese name). However, グラッバ could also possibly be "Grubba" (possible, but I doubt it), "Glabba" (this is the least likely one, since it doesn't make sense), or "Grabba" (not likely, since it doesn't grab anything). Let's just stick with Glubba for now. Besides, this page calls it Glubba too... (see footnote #5 at the bottom of the page)

As for reference, here's Klubba:

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Similar, isn't it?

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Now let's look at King Zing:

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This one was pretty simple for me to figure out (even before I saw his name in DKL2 I was able to figure it out). And this one is really interesting too. King B.? That means that he's related to Queen B. in Donkey Kong Country! I KNEW IT! I'm not surprised, considering that they're similar...

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And finally, while I'm on the subject of talking about the Japanese versions of DKC2 and DKL2, I noticed that the level names are different in the Japanese version (which is not surprising at all, as lots of games have different names for locations in different languages). Though I wasn't able to figure out a lot of Japanese names for levels (as many of them have hiragana and/or kanji in it), I was able to figure out some of them. One that stood out to me was Jungle Jinx's Japanese name:

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The level is called Tire Jungle (タイヤ = Tire, ジャングル = Jungle). This level name makes sense in DKC2, as the level centers around large tires that you must bounce on to progress through the level.

But to those of you who have played DKL2, you probably know that almost every level name is the same as DKC2's. This is true even in the Japanese version. And guess what? It's called Tire Jungle even in DKL2!

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What's wrong with this? The level has no tires in it!!! So this level name no longer makes sense. Why couldn't Rare have changed the level name like they did with Haunted Hall (Krazy Koaster) and Castle Crush (Dungeon Danger)? That would have made more sense. (And on a side note, they should have come up with a new name for Glimmer's Galleon as well, since it doesn't have Glimmer in it! Though I have no idea what Glimmer's Galleon is called in the Japanese version... anyways, I'm getting off topic here.)

Whew -- this was a long post! (It took me over an hour to write!) Anyways, I hope this was interesting what some of these differences are from the Japanese and English versions.

Re: Japanese enemy names.

PostPosted: July 22nd, 2009, 6:48 pm
by Sockpuppet
I may be able to translate a few names and such. I've been doing Japanese at school for 3 and a half years, so I can read Hiragana, Katakana, and some Kanji. I know all/most the basic grammar rules too, and I may be able to recognize some words.

By the way...

Blaziken257 wrote:(Cat O' 9 Tails doesn't appear in DKL2.) This is one that's somewhat confusing. I know the first two kana (symbols), ネコ, say "Neko" (is this the Japanese word for cat?), the third kana, の, is actually hiragana (which is used for Japanese words) and says "no" (not the English "no", but the Japanese "no", which has a different meaning -- I don't know what it means, unfortunately), and the rest, ナインテール, well, literally says "9 Tail" (from what I understand, there are no plural words in Japanese, which explains the lack of an "s"). So basically it's Neko no 9 Tails or something like that -- probably just Cat O' 9 Tails in Japanese. If anybody knows enough Japanese to fully translate this, then be my guest.

の (no, pronounced "noh") in this case is a "particle." This could be hard to explain... but a particle is a single Japanese Hiragana character used to help make sentences. の is often used to join 2 words.

Neko is indeed the word for cat, although it's usually spelt with Hiragana. I always thought that when you wanted to spell an English word in Japanese, and part of the word had a Japanese, you just used the English word (In other words, I thought it would have been "Catto" instead of "Neko"). Apparently I was wrong, or there are exceptions.

In short, it's just "Cat-O-Nine-Tails."