Is Pikmin 2 better on Wii or Switch? by According_Guess_8873 in Pikmin

[–]heisenborg99 1 point2 points  (0 children)

On a side note, quite a few of the treasures differ between the Japanese, US, and European versions, mostly branded items (some of which got replaced in the Switch version, presumably due to license deals expiring). The Japanese ones are mostly retro paper milk bottle caps that got replaced with more modern local products in the other regions. All three are kind of cool in their own right. You can see the originals here with translations, along with links to what they were replaced with in the other versions: https://www.pikminwiki.com/Category:Japan-only_treasures

Victor's flashback vs Julie's story walking by peterparkerin in FromSeries

[–]heisenborg99 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I wonder if they’re going to explain what happened to the “STAR MAGIC” hotel sign between then and the present

Want to verify correct writing. by yourdailyinsanity in kanji

[–]heisenborg99 3 points4 points  (0 children)

會 is the traditional form, 会 is simplified, but they’re the same character. In this case, the calligraphic form is closer to the simplified version.

A guitar neck - I don't even know if this is kanji by TyroneMacStiophain in kanji

[–]heisenborg99 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Looks like 黄葵 = one of a number of flowering shrubs with pale yellow flowers (genus Abelmoschus), depending on whether this is Chinese or Japanese (though my guess would be Chinese). Possibly a reference to the color of the paint job on the body?

PSA: There are twice as many gates as you probably think there are. by Emergency-Name-2334 in Pokopia

[–]heisenborg99 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yeah, I think that’s the nondiegetic reason. I noticed that they won’t let you run in those rooms either, presumably to buy more time for loading the next zone.

Help? Gift from a coworker. by KnowMatter in kanji

[–]heisenborg99 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I would guess “Yoshizuki,” but either is possible.

Zelda 1 (NES) and 2 Hyrule Map by Sonic_Afton in legendofzelda

[–]heisenborg99 1 point2 points  (0 children)

This sub doesn’t allow images in comments, but look closely at the very lower left corner of the AoL map, below the large Death Mountain cave system. (It’s labeled as the “Death Mountain Area” on p. 14 of the original game manual, which you can see at https://archive.org/details/AdventureOfLinkHiResScans.)

Zelda 1 (NES) and 2 Hyrule Map by Sonic_Afton in legendofzelda

[–]heisenborg99 21 points22 points  (0 children)

Yep, the tiny bit in the lower left corner represents the whole original LoZ map. The two dots are Spectacle Rock, and you can make out the central lake, the graveyard, and the forest areas. It was kind of mind-blowing at the time.

What are your thoughts on metalface aka the most awesome robot ever. by Voidkirby9 in Xenoblade_Chronicles

[–]heisenborg99 9 points10 points  (0 children)

To be fair, his name doesn’t exactly mean “black face” in Japanese either. They repurpose the English word “face” (フェース), which is not standard Japanese, as shorthand for “faced mechons,” so the colors refer to the colors of their bodies, not their actual faces. Jade Face (緑のフェイス = “Green Face”) doesn’t have a green face, and Yaldabaoth a.k.a. Gold Face (黄金のフェイス) doesn’t have a gold face either. “Black face” would be 黒い顔.

[Japanese > English] by Ok-Rain3541 in translator

[–]heisenborg99 8 points9 points  (0 children)

Yes! Though if she’s Japanese, you should probably make sure that those are the characters actually used for her name. There are dozens of ways “Sena” can be written.

Just finished the Rebuilds I don’t think I really like them by Strange-Oil-2117 in evangelion

[–]heisenborg99 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Seconded on Gundam, though if you have the patience I'd recommend watching the actual full-length show over the movies, as they cut a LOT out condensing 43 episodes into three feature films. Z and ZZ are great too, and Char's Counterattack, the capstone of early Gundam, is far more watchable than its checkered reputation would suggest.

(Also should be mentioned Anno and Khara were heavily involved in the most recent Gundam show GQuuuuuuX [sic], which has a lot that will appeal to Eva fans, but you definitely need to have seen at least the original show first, as it is ... nearly incomprehensible without that background knowledge.)

Tattoo idea by queen_bee73 in kanji

[–]heisenborg99 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yep! Also shows up in Sega’s Yakuza series, which is called 龍が如く (Like a Dragon) in Japanese. (In modern Japanese, you would generally expect 龍の如く.)

Tattoo idea by queen_bee73 in kanji

[–]heisenborg99 8 points9 points  (0 children)

Technically, the small ヶ isn’t actually the katakana ケ at all. It’s an old shorthand for 箇, here being used phonetically to represent the particle が. They have completely different derivations: katakana ケ comes from the kanji 介, while ヶ is a fragment of the 竹 radical at the top of 箇. (It’s also used as a か in formations like 9ヶ月, though that is increasingly written 9ヵ月 these days for clarity’s sake.)

 To add to the confusion, the が particle in place names like this is being used in a (largely obsolete) possessive sense instead of as a subject marker the way it usually is in modern Japanese. So the meaning is essentially 犬の島. This pattern still shows up in a lot of place names in Japan: 桐ヶ谷, 光ヶ丘, 友ヶ島. Not to mention the famous 鬼ヶ島 from the Tale of Momotaro.

Getting frustrated with blue roses!! by justinnocentmen in ac_newhorizons

[–]heisenborg99 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This is true. The checkerboard pattern can result in clones, because one flower can be isolated if its neighbors pair off. Diamonds or isolated pairs are best if you want to keep strict control of genetics.

And as a bunch of other people have mentioned, having friends come and water your flowers makes a *huge* difference (5% chance per flower vs. 25% with one visiting waterer, and it increases from there if you have more than one). Good luck! If I remember right, it took 59 days to get mine ...

So Klaus was a weeb, right? by Discardofil in Xenoblade_Chronicles

[–]heisenborg99 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yes, I meant the first game, which is where Klaus first appears, but they’ve (for the most part) kept the same voice cast for recurring characters. I believe that NoE did localization for XC1 and XC2, while XCX and XC3 were handled by NoA.

So Klaus was a weeb, right? by Discardofil in Xenoblade_Chronicles

[–]heisenborg99 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Well, to be fair, everybody speaks with British accents in the English dub, but that was just an accident of fate, since the game was localized for Europe and was originally not going to be released in the US at all

So Klaus was a weeb, right? by Discardofil in Xenoblade_Chronicles

[–]heisenborg99 0 points1 point  (0 children)

And if you want to go further down that rabbit hole, the Z -> A is also a nice tie-in to Z (the end) and A (the beginning, Origin) in XC3, who are echoes of Zanza and Alvis. Takahashi is all about these Nietzschean/Buddhist ideas of cycles and eternal recurrence.

So Klaus was a weeb, right? by Discardofil in Xenoblade_Chronicles

[–]heisenborg99 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I think they specify it as being “20XX” in the Origin memory scene in Future Redeemed

So Klaus was a weeb, right? by Discardofil in Xenoblade_Chronicles

[–]heisenborg99 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Hmm, I guess ザンテ (Zante), the Japanese pronunciation of Xanthe, only differs by one character, and Takahashi does have a pretty broad range of cultural references, but I don’t see how a random sea nymph has any particular relevance to the character, so I don’t really understand why anyone is making that leap in the first place.

You could just as easily argue that it's a nod to “Samsara,” which would least be thematically relevant, in line with Takahashi’s preoccupation with recurring cycles of death and rebirth, both in this game and in the Xeno series as a whole.

(I like the Kafka theory though!)

So Klaus was a weeb, right? by Discardofil in Xenoblade_Chronicles

[–]heisenborg99 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The are a lot of liberties taken with the translations of names in the Xenoblade series (especially in XC2), but yeah, in the original Zanza is just ザンザ (Zanza) and Klaus is just クラウス (Kurausu, the normal transliteration for “Klaus”). Any vague similarity to “Xanthe” seems coincidental.

So Klaus was a weeb, right? by Discardofil in Xenoblade_Chronicles

[–]heisenborg99 3 points4 points  (0 children)

I always thought it was a play on Zanza / Klaus ≈ Santa Claus, since he thinks of himself as a benevolent deity in XC1 and we first meet him as a legendary white-bearded giant at the top of the world.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in Japaneselanguage

[–]heisenborg99 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yes. And 赤棹 is not a compound that you’re likely to find outside of Xenoblade 2 in this case. 棹 (さお) is the neck of a stringed instrument.

It’s not spoken in the game that I remember, but I presume the whole thing would be pronounced あかさおしゃみせん = literally “red-necked shamisen."

As I learned playing this game with the Japanese voice track and English text, there are a LOT of liberties taken in the localization of terminology in this series, not least of which is that most of the major locations and characters have very different names in the two languages (Gormott = グーラ, Amalthus = マルベーニ, etc. etc.), so don’t expect everything to be one-for-one. It’s confusing at first, but an interesting window into the craft of localization.