{"id":1096584,"date":"2026-01-26T02:19:02","date_gmt":"2026-01-26T02:19:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.polygon.com\/?p=506820"},"modified":"2026-01-26T02:19:02","modified_gmt":"2026-01-26T02:19:02","slug":"castlevania-symphony-of-the-nights-notorious-english-translation-didnt-need-fixing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/castlevania-symphony-of-the-nights-notorious-english-translation-didnt-need-fixing\/","title":{"rendered":"Castlevania: Symphony of the Night\u2019s notorious English translation didn\u2019t need fixing"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure> <img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Castlevania: Symphony of the Night cover in green and pink, with a typewriter and pages of dialogue flying across the screen \" data-caption=\"\" data-portal-copyright=\"Graphic: Polygon | Source images: Konami; Getty Images\" data-has-syndication-rights=\"1\" src=\"https:\/\/arcader.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/castlevania-symphony-of-the-nights-notorious-english-translation-didnt-need-fixing.jpg\" \/><figcaption><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p class=\"has-drop-cap has-text-align-none\">Every year or two, I return to 1997\u2019s <em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.polygon.com\/game\/castlevania-symphony-of-the-night\/8576\">Castlevania: Symphony of the Night<\/a>.<\/em> The defining action RPG\u2019s pixel art, legendary score, and swift progression from groggy half-vamp to daddy-slaying demigod\u2026 To quote a <a href=\"https:\/\/knowyourmeme.com\/memes\/i-grew-up-on-these-streets\">popular meme<\/a>, I grew up on these streets. I know Dracula\u2019s castle right side up and upside down.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p class=\"has-text-align-none\">I also owe my many playthroughs to the game\u2019s playful, operatic English-language script, and for the deliciously mangled, never-boring voice acting that accompanies it. I return to <em>Symphony of the Night<\/em> to hear the alien emphases in lines like:<\/p>\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Richter: \u201c<em>Die<\/em>, monster!\u201d<\/li>\n<li>Dracula: \u201cI was called here by <em>hu<\/em>mans who wish to pay <em>me <\/em>tribute.\u201d&nbsp;<\/li>\n<li>Maria: \u201cWhat <em>do <\/em>you here?\u201d<\/li>\n<li>Alucard: \u201cI\u2019m <em>in<\/em>terested<em> <\/em>in this.\u201d<\/li>\n<li>Maria: \u201cDo you know the name [leaning <em>hard <\/em>into the German \u201cch\u201d] <em>Reech<\/em>ter Belmont?\u201d<\/li>\n<li>The boatman: \u201c<em>I\u2019ll<\/em> take you to a place which might be interesting for you.\u201d [<em>cackles<\/em>]<\/li>\n<li>Demon familiar: \u201cHmmm\u2026 a switch. Why don\u2019t I press it and <em>seeeee<\/em>!\u201d<\/li>\n<li>Succubus: \u201cWait! I beg of you! <em>Uuuuaaaagh<\/em>!\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<div class=\"wp-block-vox-media-highlight vox-media-highlight\">\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><\/h2>\n<p> <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/arcader.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/castlevania-symphony-of-the-nights-notorious-english-translation-didnt-need-fixing-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"\" data-has-syndication-rights=\"1\" data-caption=\"\" data-portal-copyright=\"\" \/> <\/p>\n<p class=\"has-text-align-none\"><em>This week on Polygon, we\u2019re looking at how cultural differences affect media in a special issue we\u2019re calling <a href=\"https:\/\/www.polygon.com\/special-issues\/505253\/culture-shock\">Culture Shock<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"has-text-align-none\">There\u2019s a musicality to this \u201calways at 11\u201d voice acting \u2014 what<em> <\/em>Game Informer on <em>Symphony of the Night<\/em>\u2019s release called \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/19990222132604\/http:\/\/www.gameinformer.com\/oct97\/cvania.html\">cheesy, yet sophisticated<\/a>\u201d \u2014 that lingers the way tasteful voice acting rarely does.<\/p>\n<p class=\"has-text-align-none\">I have played <em>Symphony of the Night<\/em> on the original PlayStation, with an emulator, and in two Xbox iterations, and it\u2019s remained functionally the same across platforms \u2014 until now. On PS5, I repurchased the game as part of <em>Castlevania: The Dracula X Chronicles<\/em>, a 2007 collection <a href=\"https:\/\/www.polygon.com\/2018\/10\/26\/18027418\/castlevania-requiem-symphony-of-the-night-ps4-psp\">originally released for PSP<\/a> that contains <em>Symphony of the Night <\/em>as well as two different versions of 1993\u2019s <em>Castlevania: Rondo of Blood<\/em>. Mostly, I wanted to play \u201cthe PSP version\u201d because Konami added the option to play as Maria, a feature scrapped from all but the game\u2019s laggy, long-lost Sega Saturn port.<\/p>\n<p class=\"has-text-align-none\">But in the <em>Dracula X Chronicles <\/em>port, all my favorite lines were gone, replaced by respectable and completely <em>hinged <\/em>performances. Turns out the PSP version boasts a different, new-to-me script and voice cast, one whose merits have been debated among fans ever since the 2007 rerelease. (Both versions have been available for purchase on parallel tracks ever since, the original on Xboxes and the revision on PlayStations.)&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p class=\"has-text-align-none\">The game was still great to play, but\u2026 was it still <em>Symphony of the Night<\/em>?&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">\u2018We\u2019ll shove it in the game\u2019<\/h2>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/arcader.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/castlevania-symphony-of-the-nights-notorious-english-translation-didnt-need-fixing-2.jpg\" alt=\"Richter saying \u201cI\u2019ve been waiting for you.\u201d in Castlevania: Symphony of the Night\" title=\"Richter saying \u201cI\u2019ve been waiting for you.\u201d in Castlevania: Symphony of the Night\" data-has-syndication-rights=\"1\" data-caption=\"\" data-portal-copyright=\"Image: Konami\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"has-text-align-none\">In the mid-1990s, American Jeremy Blaustein worked in the international business department at Konami\u2019s Japanese offices, awaiting a promotion to R&amp;D that he suspected was never coming. Unhappy as the lone foreigner clocking in at the \u201cbutton-down, suit-wearing office,\u201d and with a new baby to consider, Blaustein relocated his family to the United States, where he\u2019d be home enough to see his kid grow up.<\/p>\n<p class=\"has-text-align-none\">His post-Konami job was still a Konami job. Through his connections, Blaustein picked up a series of freelance gigs translating the company\u2019s games from Japanese to English. His first job was the tactical RPG<em> Vandal Hearts<\/em>.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p class=\"has-text-align-none\">The process was completely unsupervised. According to Blaustein, a development team\u2019s last step before their well-deserved two-to-four-week vacation was to hand the game\u2019s text off to the business department and say, \u201cGet this translated. And when we come back, we\u2019ll shove it in the game.\u201d Not only was nobody breathing down Blaustein\u2019s neck, nobody was even available to answer his questions. Even when it came time for him to translate <em>Castlevania: Symphony of the Night<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"has-text-align-none\">According to <em>Symphony of the Night<\/em> composer Michiru Yamane<strong> <\/strong>in a <a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20150605025939\/http:\/\/www.1up.com\/features\/catching-castlevania-composer-2\">2012 interview with 1Up<\/a>, translating the Castlevania game at all may have been a last-minute decision for Konami. \u201cWhen we first created the game,\u201d she said, \u201cwe were only planning to release it in Japan. [&#8230;] So we were able to complete and release the game, and then I took some time off. When I came back to the office, all of a sudden the company had already made the decision to translate it into English.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"has-text-align-none\"><em>Symphony of the Night<\/em>\u2019s assistant director, Koji Igarashi, was entirely removed from the translation process. \u201cI don\u2019t understand English at all,\u201d he said in his 2015 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=bqheYYeA4k4\">DoubleFine \u201cDevs Play\u201d interview<\/a>, \u201cso I just said, \u2018This is all in your hands!\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Have at you!<\/h2>\n<p class=\"has-text-align-none\">Konami gave Blaustein three months to translate <em>Symphony of the Night<\/em> into English \u2014 every voiced line, item, enemy name, and bit of on-screen text. There was already English language peppered into the game \u2014 the notorious \u201cGAMEOVER\u201d screen, complete with the immortal line \u201cLet us go out this evening for pleasure. The night is still young,\u201d as well as the song \u201cI Am the Wind\u201d \u2014 but it was a mountain of work. Paid per word, he was incentivized to move quickly. \u201cIt&#8217;s a really fast process,\u201d he told me via Zoom. \u201cYou have to go through 4 or 5 or 6,000 Japanese characters per day. When you&#8217;re done, you&#8217;re looking forward to the next day. You&#8217;re not going back and saying, \u2018Oh, how did I translate yesterday\u2019s lines?\u2019 Just always moving forward.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"has-text-align-none\">With no support, little time, and a mountain of made-up words to translate, Blaustein improvised, packing the game with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=zu2W7AHdHIc\">references<\/a>. Many were right in front of him: The game\u2019s first relic, the Cube of Zoe, is named after his daughter (not a 19th-century Russian empress, as many speculated). For others, he turned to his favorite works.&nbsp;J.R.R. Tolkien\u2019s influence was particularly pronounced. The translation includes the swords Glamdring and Crissaegrim, enemies called Wargs, the Rings of Varda and Feanor, and many more references to Middle-earth. \u201cI saw Castlevania as a big world,\u201d he told <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=4iJm5ZrkIxE\">Dongled<\/a> last year, \u201cand I wanted it to feel epic. So I reached into mythology and Tolkien to give things weight.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/arcader.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/castlevania-symphony-of-the-nights-notorious-english-translation-didnt-need-fixing-3.jpg\" alt=\"Richter fighting the Granfaloon in Castlevania: Symphony of the Night\" title=\"Richter fighting the Granfaloon in Castlevania: Symphony of the Night\" data-has-syndication-rights=\"1\" data-caption=\"\" data-portal-copyright=\"Image: Konami\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"has-text-align-none\">The <em>Symphony of the Night<\/em> boss Granfalloon was Blaustein\u2019s ode to Kurt Vonnegut\u2019s 1963 novel <em>Cat\u2019s Cradle<\/em>, in which the religion of Bokononism regards humans as either <em>karass<\/em>, those who \u201cdo God\u2019s Will without ever discovering what they are doing,&#8221; or <em>granfalloon<\/em>, people so desperate for community that they\u2019ll fall for anything. The boss, a fleshy sphere protected by zombies who value its survival over their own, brilliantly embodies the concept. Brought back in later games as well as the animated Netflix series, the Granfalloon is a fan favorite that was appropriately but boringly renamed Legion in all future incarnations.<\/p>\n<p class=\"has-text-align-none\">For voiced dialogue, Blaustein \u201ctried to write the script in a semi-archaic way,\u201d he said, giving characters\u2019 speech a bygone flavor impossible to pin down to a single time or place. He achieved meme glory in the game\u2019s<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=T2IhsPxJPdk\"> very first interaction<\/a>: a battle of barbs between Trevor Belmont and Count Dracula. The original Japanese dialogue was relatively standard. Before they fight, Dracula dramatically tosses his wine glass to the floor and says, \u201cNonsense. I\u2019ll let you know who\u2019s right\u2026 with death!\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"has-text-align-none\">Wanting something more suitably macabre, Blaustein turned to lines from the French novel <em>Man\u2019s Fate<\/em> by Andr\u00e9 Malraux. \u201cWhat is Man?\u201d says a character in the book. \u201cA miserable little pile of secrets.\u201d Blaustein imagined how arrogant the line would sound coming from Dracula \u2014 so dismissive of humans \u2014 and put it in the dark lord\u2019s mouth, followed by the taunt, \u201cBut enough talk. Have at you!\u201d The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.redbubble.com\/i\/t-shirt\/Castlevania-Miserable-little-pile-of-secrets-by-Mandriac\/22671975.IJ6L0\">rest<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/gamernostalgia.com\/products\/castlevania-symphony-of-the-night-what-is-a-man\">is<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/knowyourmeme.com\/memes\/die-monster-what-is-a-man\">history<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"has-text-align-none\">Despite the enduring popularity of his work, Blaustein laments how little support Konami gave the translation, which allowed for mistakes like the misspelled \u201cReverce Caverns.\u201d \u201cNo adequate time was given for it to be done right,\u201d he said, noting that a proper linguistic quality assurance process, in which a game\u2019s text is copy edited with fresh eyes, would have caught such errors.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p class=\"has-text-align-none\">When the job was finished, Blaustein handed in his translation \u2014 and he says that\u2019s what went into the game. He received no feedback and didn\u2019t hear another word about <em>Symphony of the Night <\/em>until months later, when he, along with the rest of us, picked up a copy.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Right there at the cusp<\/h2>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<div>\n<div><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Castlevania Symphony of the Night-Alucard Meets Death\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/kGoNjcodfls?rel=0\" width=\"720\" height=\"405\" allowfullscreen allow=\"accelerometer; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share;\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p class=\"has-text-align-none\"><em>Symphony of the Night <\/em>was cast and recorded entirely in Japan from a relatively small pool of English-speaking Americans living in Tokyo.<\/p>\n<p class=\"has-text-align-none\">Robert Belgrade, a working musician who attended university in Tokyo to maintain his visa, stumbled into voice acting when a professor suggested he give it a try. One demo later, he was performing in Konami\u2019s <em>Crypt Killer<\/em>, Project Soul\u2019s <em>Soul Blade<\/em>, and tri-Ace\u2019s <em>Star Ocean<\/em>. He landed the role of Castlevania\u2019s Alucard with remarkable nonchalance.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p class=\"has-text-align-none\">\u201cYou&#8217;re just reading these lines and you try to imagine what&#8217;s going on with the action as best you can,\u201d he said in a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=QYtl9JTAapU\">2012 interview with Caio Leandro<\/a>. And anyway, games weren\u2019t his thing. \u201cI never even saw the finished products of all those games that I was doing back then. [&#8230;] To be real honest with you, I\u2019ve never played a video game in my life.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"has-text-align-none\">Belgrade&#8217;s one and only day of recording dialogue for <em>Symphony of the Night <\/em>was typical of the era. At Konami, actors received few details about the characters and storyline. \u201cYou would walk in, you&#8217;d be given a script, and it was completely out of context,\u201d he recalled in a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=RCem3rzo9sA&amp;t=731s&amp;pp=ygUa4oCcVEhFIFZPSUNFIE9GIEFMVUNBUkTigJ0=\">2023 interview with Dongled<\/a>. \u201cYou&#8217;d have maybe 200 lines and two hours.\u201d But with no prep and little context, Belgrade developed a consistent voice different from his own \u2014 restrained, dignified, and aloof in a way that fit the character perfectly.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p class=\"has-text-align-none\">But even great actors can\u2019t save a performance if they\u2019re set up to fail. Much of the game\u2019s Japanese development team was blindsided by the news that Konami wanted an English translation. \u201cEverybody already put their all into it, and they were finished,\u201d Yamane said in her 1Up interview. \u201cWhen the company came back and said, \u2018We want an English version,\u2019 they were all like, \u2018&#8230;really?\u2019\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p class=\"has-text-align-none\">The biggest obstacle \u2014 and the likely reason that the performances sound so otherworldly \u2014 was that the actors were directed by a non-native English speaker. Haruhiko Inaba, a Konami employee with decent but imperfect English, according to Yamane, cast and directed the recordings in \u201ca very rushed process.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"has-text-align-none\">To Blaustein, Inaba encountered issues anyone faces when working in a language they don\u2019t speak fluently. \u201cIf I wrote the lines, I know exactly how I want them to sound,\u201d he said. \u201cI know what&#8217;s going on. I know the emotional content of the scene. When I hear a guy act, I can judge it pretty well because I&#8217;m a native speaker and I&#8217;ve got a good ear. But if I heard a guy in Japanese, I couldn&#8217;t reliably tell you whether or not he was being a great actor or whether he was true to the Japanese detective genre of the 1970s.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"has-text-align-none\">When he played the game for himself and heard his lines performed, Blaustein was incredibly disappointed. \u201cIt was clear that they were just <em>reading it<\/em>,\u201d he remembered. \u201cThey hadn&#8217;t read comic books and Tolkien as a kid like I did. [&#8230;] \u2018Mankind ill needs a savior such as you.\u2019 This is an old style of writing. And unless a director understands it, or the voice actors understand, then you&#8217;re gonna get garbage.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p class=\"has-text-align-none\">Imagining what might have been if the text was \u201cread correctly by an actor who gave it some time and thought,\u201d the performances struck Blaustein as a missed opportunity. Compounding the problem: The audio itself was poor. \u201cIt sounded like it was recorded in a bathroom.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"has-text-align-none\">Even the Japanese developers recognized the translation&#8217;s shortcomings. Discussing the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=bqheYYeA4k4\">voice acting in the Richter and Dracula opening scene<\/a>, Igarashi said flatly, \u201cThe Japanese sounds a lot cooler.\u201d<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">\u2018A thing called nuance\u2019<\/h2>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/arcader.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/castlevania-symphony-of-the-nights-notorious-english-translation-didnt-need-fixing-4.jpg\" alt=\"Alucard saying \u201cI\u2019m coming Mother! I\u2019ll save you!!\u201d\" title=\"Alucard saying \u201cI\u2019m coming Mother! I\u2019ll save you!!\u201d\" data-has-syndication-rights=\"1\" data-caption=\"\" data-portal-copyright=\"Image: Konami\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"has-text-align-none\">Blaustein maintains that you can\u2019t call his translation of <em>Symphony of the Night <\/em>\u201clocalization\u201d \u2014 a term nobody used back then anyway. True localization implies a level of resources, care, forethought, and infrastructure that did not yet exist when Konami started publishing its games for a non-Japanese market. \u201cThere was nobody specializing in games translation,\u201d he said. \u201cIt was just: Can you translate this?\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p class=\"has-text-align-none\">In the 1990s, a game was not a text but a product. Matters of translation were far from the minds of all but the most otaku of English-language gamers \u2014 and the internet was still nascent. At the time, a translated game was what Blaustein calls a \u201cblack box\u201d in which players would not know what decisions were made or how their translation differed from the original. \u201cThey only got what they got,\u201d he said. \u201cSo if a word was completely different than the word in Japanese, there was never any expectation that anybody would bring up the issue, let alone complain.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"has-text-align-none\">The attitude that \u201cthe English version and the Japanese version needed to be the same\u201d is reflected in the big swings made by many English-language translations of the era. <em>Chrono Trigger<\/em> translator Ted Woolsey named bosses after rock stars and made Frog speak in vaguely Shakespearean English. Working Designs added jokes, references, and fourth-wall breaks to <em>Lunar: Silver Star Story Complete<\/em>. Jason Leung referenced TLC\u2019s \u201cNo Scrubs\u201d in <em>The Legend of Zelda: Majora\u2019s Mask<\/em>.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"has-text-align-none\">With the ubiquity of tools like Google Translate, contemporary fans sometimes demand \u201cstraight\u201d translations \u2014 ignoring that no two languages are identical, words carry different meanings, and sentence structures vary dramatically. As translator Clyde Mandelin <a href=\"https:\/\/legendsoflocalization.com\/articles\/castlevania-sotn-miserable-pile-of-secrets\/\">pointed out in 2013<\/a>, a direct translation of Dracula\u2019s speech at the beginning of <em>Symphony of the Night <\/em>would lose impact in English because the \u201chamfisted use of love, respect, faith, and togetherness comes across a bit cornier when put into English.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"has-text-align-none\">\u201cThere\u2019s no way that a one-to-one translation is going to get you where you want to go,\u201d Blaustein argued. \u201cThere\u2019s a thing called nuance.\u201d Or, as the French writer Paul Val\u00e9ry put it in a line Blaustein quoted in a 2019 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.polygon.com\/2019\/7\/18\/20696081\/metal-gear-solid-translation-japanese-english-jeremy-blaustein\">essay for Polygon<\/a>, \u201cFidelity to meaning alone in translation is a kind of betrayal.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"has-text-align-none\">While some original meaning of <em>Symphony of the Night <\/em>was lost in Blaustein\u2019s off-the-cuff translation, his linguistic freedom offered an opportunity to build off the source text to create something new \u2014 translation as interpolation. There are artistic, cultural, and personal reasons to more closely adhere to source texts, but <em>nobody<\/em> in 1997 \u2014 not Koji Igarashi, Konami, or the gaming public \u2014 demanded strict fidelity. And why should they? True to Bram Stoker remixing Eastern European folklore to create <em>Dracula<\/em>, and the Konami team mashing up the novel with all their favorite American action and horror movies, Blaustein was taking his own textual liberties. Each set of hands that touches a project adds a new layer born of interpretation, creative license, and a sense of play.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Ha! Mankind<\/h2>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/arcader.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/castlevania-symphony-of-the-nights-notorious-english-translation-didnt-need-fixing-5.jpg\" alt=\"Richter telling Dracula: Die monster! in Castlevania: Symphony of the Night\" title=\"Richter telling Dracula: Die monster! in Castlevania: Symphony of the Night\" data-has-syndication-rights=\"1\" data-caption=\"\" data-portal-copyright=\"Image: Konami\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"has-text-align-none\">The Castlevania series has always embraced absurdity; remember, in its first installment, players fought Medusa, The Mummy, Frankenstein and Igor, and Death himself before <em>finally<\/em> getting to Dracula. And <em>Symphony of the Night <\/em>is suffused with a deliberate silliness that separates it from a mock-worthy so-bad-it\u2019s-good curio like <em>The Room<\/em>. Consider the Bloody Zombie whose defeat triggers a <em>Kill Bill<\/em>-style blood fountain and guttural death scream, or the Royal Chapel\u2019s mischievous ghost priest who randomly stabs you during confession.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p class=\"has-text-align-none\">Which brings me back to the tasteful buzzkill of the PSP script. Gamers eager to hear <em>Symphony of the Night<\/em>\u2019s iconic \u201cWhat is a man?\u201d line won\u2019t find it. \u201cHa! Mankind,\u201d Dracula says in the PSP version. \u201cA cesspit of hatred and lies.\u201d Yet even here, Dracula uses the occasion to reflect on the nature of humanity \u2014 something he never did in the Japanese original. Blaustein\u2019s decisions echo throughout the retranslation.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p class=\"has-text-align-none\">Sometimes the PSP version is not just less interesting, it\u2019s worse. Taking in Alucard for the first time, Maria says in the original translation, \u201cYou seem human and yet\u2026\u201d In the PSP version, she says, \u201cWait. Are you human?\u201d The elegant ellipsis that allowed our minds to fill in the gap has been bulldozed in favor of the bluntest translation possible.<\/p>\n<p class=\"has-text-align-none\">Like many remakes and remasters, the PSP version of <em>Symphony of the Night<\/em> is a polished echo of the original, at once better and worse. Iconic lines vanish. The shopkeeper sounds like the original shopkeeper on sleeping pills. (Unlike in the <em>Resident Evil 4<\/em> remake, which leaned into and even improved on the meme of the game\u2019s own campy shopkeeper.) At its worst, the PSP version is like George Lucas paving over his Star Wars trilogy with modern CGI.<\/p>\n<p class=\"has-text-align-none\">As Blaustein remarked in our conversation, sometimes we humans just don\u2019t know what we want. \u201cPeople like the corniness,\u201d he said. \u201cThey like the indie feel of it. But then they also want to fix it.\u201d We set out to map out a castle, turning all the red rooms blue, only to find at the end we feel nothing. As any Tolkien fan can tell you, it\u2019s more about the journey than the destination.<\/p>\n<p class=\"has-text-align-none\">Both publicly and in conversation with Blaustein, Igarashi has recognized that the badness and boldness of the original translation is part of its charm. \u201cWe were never expecting [<em>Symphony of the Night<\/em> to be a hit in the West],\u201d he said in a 2018 interview with USGamer (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.vg247.com\/koji-igarashi-is-begrudgingly-appreciative-of-the-die-monster-line-from-castlevania-symphony-of-the-night\">now on VG247<\/a>), admitting the studio lacked experience in localizing a game at that point. \u201cIt\u2019s interesting, because if [\u201cDie, monster!\u201d] had been a cooler line, maybe it wouldn&#8217;t have been as well-received. Personally, I wanted [Richter] to say something really cool. It&#8217;s an ongoing joke about his lines being weirdly phrased, but I guess that&#8217;s the reason it had a lot of impact on players. In a way, that&#8217;s good.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"has-text-align-none\">The original translation captures the chaotic vigor of creators still grappling with new technology. When <em>Symphony of the Night <\/em>was in development, the expanded storage space of the CD-ROM had only recently made voice acting in console games possible, and Japanese companies were still developing the tools and processes to make games sound good in their own language. While typical for the time, Konami\u2019s method for translation and voice acting lacked the quality control systems to keep disasters from happening\u2026 yet it didn&#8217;t matter. In a goofy game with plenty of intentional jokes, the cheese was all part of the fun.<\/p>\n<p class=\"has-text-align-none\">\u201cSometimes we just have to make our peace with being a little baffled,\u201d Blaustein put it to me. \u201cSometimes a game is just a collection of weird little bits \u2014 happy accidents. And when it all comes together, you accept it as a whole.\u201d <\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.polygon.com\/gaming\/506820\/castlevania-symphony-night-english-translation-mistakes-changes\">Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Every year or two, I return to 1997\u2019s Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. The defining action RPG\u2019s pixel art, legendary score, and swift progression from groggy half-vamp to daddy-slaying demigod\u2026 To quote a popular meme, I grew up on these streets. I know Dracula\u2019s castle right side up and upside down.&nbsp; I also owe my many playthroughs to the game\u2019s playful, operatic English-language script, and for the deliciously mangled, never-boring voice acting that accompanies it. I return to Symphony of the Night to hear the alien emphases in lines like: Richter: \u201cDie, monster!\u201d Dracula: \u201cI was called here by humans who wish to pay me tribute.\u201d&nbsp; Maria: \u201cWhat do you here?\u201d Alucard: \u201cI\u2019m interested in this.\u201d Maria: \u201cDo you know the name [leaning hard into&hellip;<\/p>\n<p class=\"excerpt-more\"><a class=\"blog-excerpt button\" href=\"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/castlevania-symphony-of-the-nights-notorious-english-translation-didnt-need-fixing\/\">Read More&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1096585,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1096584","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-polygon"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Castlevania: Symphony of the Night\u2019s notorious English translation didn\u2019t need fixing | Arcader News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Every year or two, I return to 1997\u2019s Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. 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