How Pokemon Gold & Silver Were Changed Around The World - Did You Know Gaming? Ft. Dr. Lava

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In this video, Did You Know Gaming takes a look at how Pokemon Gold & Silver were changed around the world. To explore these Pokemon regional differences, we not only looked through the games themselves, but also interviewed the game's original localizers and translators for exclusive information.
Special thanks to Nob Ogasawara, Hiro Nakamura, Julien Bardakoff, Elena Fogazzaro, and SatoMew.
CORRECTION: When we discussed Pokémon Crystal's Mobile GBA add-ons in this video, we got a couple of things wrong about the pricing. Thanks to PushDustIn for digging up this information.
The actual mobile add on was originally 5,800 Yen. In order to add the GBA Mobile to your phone plan, a one time fee of 400 yen was collected by the carrier (Either AU or NTT Docomo). Other games were also offered through this service. Every minute the player was connected to the Internet was 10 yen. Pokémon News was a monthly fee of 100 Yen, and would update daily with new rankings and include information about upcoming events. Pokemon Stadium replays were 10-20 yen per battle, with the grand finale data costing slightly more. This was accessed by the Start Menu. The mystery eggs were included in the subscription service. As for trading and battling with friends, the only cost was the actual data transmission. If you wanted to trade and battle with people you didn't know then it cost 10 yen per session. These were accessed on the 2nd floor of the PokeCenter. Battle Tower, which pitted players against 7 other real trainers was also 10 yen per session. Most of these services started on January 27th, 2001 with the exception of the Stadium replays, which started on February 8th, 2001.
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Research/Writing by @DrLavaYT
Video Editing by TheCartoonGamer
Thumbnail art by @JetpackBraggin
Also thanks to SnorlaxMonster, Darkshade, Háčky, and @DeucalionBlaze , @Gnarfledarf , @FerrolanMaikel , @_IFeI__ , @Bisafans and @TehVilly on Twitter.
Sources/Further Reading:
www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm9654742
bulbanews.bulbagarden.net/wik...
• Mobile Adapter GB debu...
• Unused PokéCom Club wa...
daily.pokecommunity.com/2018/...
lavacutcontent.com/eevee-famil...
iimarckus.org/i/changed-designs/
• Localization of Buddhi...
tcrf.net/Pok%C3%A9mon_Red_and...
#Pokemon #Nintendo #DidYouKnowGaming

[@DidYouKnowGamin]

When we discussed Pokémon Crystal's Mobile GBA add-ons in this video, we got a couple of things wrong about the pricing. Thanks to PushDustIn for digging up this information. The actual mobile add on was originally 5,800 Yen. In order to add the GBA Mobile to your phone plan, a one time fee of 400 yen was collected by the carrier (Either AU or NTT Docomo). Other games were also offered through this service. Every minute the player was connected to the Internet was 10 yen. Pokémon News was a monthly fee of 100 Yen, and would update daily with new rankings and include information about upcoming events. Pokemon Stadium replays were 10-20 yen per battle, with the grand finale data costing slightly more. This was accessed by the Start Menu. The mystery eggs were included in the subscription service. As for trading and battling with friends, the only cost was the actual data transmission. If you wanted to trade and battle with people you didn't know then it cost 10 yen per session. These were accessed on the 2nd floor of the PokeCenter. Battle Tower, which pitted players against 7 other real trainers was also 10 yen per session. Most of these services started on January 27th, 2001 with the exception of the Stadium replays, which started on February 8th, 2001.

[@lifespanofafry1534]

My skin smells like...

[@pn8937]

the video is all fine and dandy until you assumed that without the bootleg translations the rest of the world could not play the games.I am from Greece but I think I speak on behalf of many other language speakers around the globe.We played the English (American ) versions without many issues.Greek, our mother tongue, hardly ever gets to be the language of the videogames we play...So we have the culture to play videogames ignoring the language barrier.

[@mythicalcreaturesfantasy]

This was my first ever Pokémon Journey

[@Kiirabu197]

@@pn8937 Would you have to import the games or where they sold in local stores in Greece? And is that any different from now with Sword and Shield?

[@pn8937]

@@Kiirabu197 videogames are sold here by major toy and gadget/smartphone retailers,even in the late 90's my hometown(which is as I just said a town) had a (now closed)toystore which was the official Nintendo retailer for my region and most of the toystores had videogame stock.We even had localised mini booklets by Nortec the distributor of Nintendo games here.But too few games to this day are localised in the Greek language themselves and only 3A titles for that matter.We just take the European or the US version and play it in English.On the other hand, nowdays with the advent of digital stores it is not that uncommon for some gamers to rush to exploit a sale on a game made by retailers in other EU countries with importing the game.But it is not a common practise in any case. As for sword and shied nothing have changed for us since Gen1 we get the english version without any efforts made to translate anything.

[@woofexe4050]

You're gonna just drop that Pikachu was supposed to be a tiger with big breasts and just leave? Bold move

[@CrystalGreymon]

He left the link in the video. It's your own fault if you didn't watch it.

[@MarioVSCulex]

Fun Fact: While "Giftblick" can obviously lead to confusion, it is actually the most literal translation for "Glare", since in German, we call an angry glare a "Giftblick".

[@thegaymingavenger]

MarioVSCulex this is accurate. I was never confused by paralysing and not poisoning when using that attack tho

[@nintendoloverin9567]

@@thegaymingavenger I was always wondering why it was a normal type instead of a poison type

[@TjocCreation]

Huh the more you know. I never knew that

[@esbendayo]

Giftblik can in certain cases lead to either paralisis, poisoning or confusion hah-hah-hah

[@ThrE3-GeS]

@@esbendayo in the game it’s only paralysing.

[@Orrphoiz]

German here. “Giftblick“ is a perfectly accurate translation for “glare“ since you're throwing a look at someone as if you'd want to poison them. That's just what we call it. This is how the German language works. I mean, we call lighters “fire things“ for gods sake. This is not a translation error in that the translation itself is wrong. It's an error in how it is interpreted in conjunction with the game's mechanics. I distinctly remember this tripping me up as a child. Edit: WAIT CYNDAQUIL ISN'T A HEDGEHOG?

[@Tustin2121]

American here. CYNDAQUIL DEFINITELY IS A HEDGEHOG! DON’T LIE TO US, GAME! Maybe it’s just me, but the “mouse” destination seemed more like “small rodent, but we have limited text display space”. I guess that’s what the translators thought too.

[@armaggedon390]

I'm reasonably sure that Fire Rat is a chinese creature that they're referencing. So, not a hedgehog (that's Shaymin). But now that I look at it, it sure looks like one.

[@Shigeru0508]

@@armaggedon390 it's a reference to both. The fire rat from that legend no one in the west knows and hedgehogs. They are called harinezumi in japanese which means needle mouse.

[@TailsClock]

Even in English we refer to glares as venemous or icy, so that makes sense. The Cyndaquil thing is very confusing, isn't it a porcupine? It's clearly not a mouse. Maybe a shrew? They got me to believe that Pikachu is a mouse, as far from one as it looks, but no-one is going to make me think a cyndaquil is a mouse. That would just be just too silly.

[@Shigeru0508]

@@TailsClock "but no-one is going to make me think a cyndaquil is a mouse" it´s a little more complicated than that, so let me try to explain 1: Cyndaquil's species is a direct translation from the japanese word: Hinezumi. Hi=Fire. Nezumi=mouse/rat. And, keep in mind, in japanese both mice and rats are called nezumi. And not just rats and mice are called nezumi. The term for hegehogs or porcupines in japanes is "harinezumi" which can be translated to "spiked rat/mouse". So, no, Cyndaquil is not a mouse from a western point of view but it is from the japanese creators. 2: May I tell you about the Legend of the bamboo cutter. Well, I´m not really going into that legend, only that it is alot more popular in the east, than it is in the west. Anyway, it features a mythycal creature called the *dun* *dun* *dun* HINEZUMI. A not described in detail animal with fur that is fire prooved and the coat of a character in this legend is made out of it. (btw. the red coat of Inuyasha from the popular Anime with the same name is pretty much the coat from that legend. It is even said multiple times in the anime (and manga) that it is made from the fire rat an it is also shown to be fire prooved.) Now, let´s take a look at one of Quilava´s dex entries: Quilava, the Volcano Pokémon, and the evolved form of Cyndaquil. Its body is covered with fire-proof fur and can withstand any Fire-type attack. Sound familiar? It´s line also has a hidden ability that makes it immune to fire type attacks. And Typhlosion was made a honey badger only in the west because of a kinda similar body shape and no one had a better idea even it´s origin has NOTHING to do what honey badgers should stand for. No claw attacks, no immunity to venom, no interest in honey or bees. No, again it is its firely fur that is mentioned. The designs of Pokemon, especially the starters, go much deeper that people give it to the creators. Many people, I guess most of them kids, just go there and say "Oh, this Pokemon looks like this real animal. Nothing more to it." and some times they´re right. But sometimes they miss the real mythology here. And the Cyndaquil line has an origin that goes deeper than most of the other fire starters. I wrote this comment a while ago under another video btw.

[@Viceroy_Sundercles_III]

“We’re a family friendly company. Now play with this old man’s balls.” Now I know why they’re called Game “Freak”.

[@whitehorizon2225]

You'll be surprised by what's family friendly in East Asian cultures lmao

[@ethanfrompkm237]

ngl the old man had big fat and large ones

[@masterofdoom5000]

I've been denied old man balls for years......how dare they.

[@SatoshiMatrix1]

Random trainer's original line: Let's battle! I gotta look cool in front of my girlfriend! Vietnamese Pocket Monsters Crystal: LET HER SEE THE GOODS.

[@SatoshiMatrix1]

@Uncle Ho As in other Asian countries, Vietnam has an active gray market of bootleg videogame piracy. I was referring to an infamously hilarious bootleg of Pocket Monsters Crystal that was sold in Vietnam that was the original Japanese version translated into English, by Vietnamese bootleggers who didn't have a strong grasp of either language. The result is one of the funniest mistranslation bootlegs ever. Pokemon are "elves". You put items away items by "fucking them", water attacks are called things like "flames" etc etc. Also there's so many one liner mistranslations and spelling errors left in. "Asses is 1000 dollars" "Don't do dangerous" "I am very disgusted with the trashy man" "Go ahead! Mom stand on you" "Can't nake? Solved by fist!" "You fight gymnasium curators to collect budges for its loveliness"

[@SatoshiMatrix1]

​@Uncle Ho Right, it wouldn't be for Vietnamese people. It was intended to be sold to western tourists in Vietnamese street shops, and could be sold to other vendors in other countries like China, Hong Kong, etc. The reason to go to all the trouble to translate it themselves is that they never entered copyright information, which in GBC games is compressed data. Bootleggers often think that they have less chance of getting into legal hot water if they simply remove copyright information.

[@AlexTenThousand]

"Everyone call me Elf Monster"

[@pass_]

ASS DRUG

[@thischannelisinactiveimsor9500]

"Dammit! He's noth-" Oh wait, that's Ketai Denjuu Telefang

[@Laughy-Flaaffy]

“These shorts are comfy and easy to- *ASS ARE 1,000!”*

[@ajfrommillay3766]

AlexTenThousand No... No, I don't think I will.

[@DaGameNerd]

I actually own a physical cartridge of Vietnamese Crystal along with its original manual, I never got the box for it but that's cause I got it as part of a trade. The person I got it from didn't know what it was and when I was getting it I had just assumed it was another random bootleg xD

[@HeroChao132]

"So, why'd you change the TV showing?" "it was funi haha :)"

[@TayoEXE]

My wife's from Japan, and she's played several mainline Pokemon games in Japanese. She didn't believe the nugget thing and said it was maybe just Americans overthinking it. Turns out we looked into it, and DYKG was right. It is a big joke in Japan with lines involving the "Golden Balls Guy" appearing several times in nearly every mainline game since Gold and Silver. She never noticed she said, but reading through all the lines together, it was pretty darn obvious that Gamefreak meant to make it sound creepy as a joke. XD

[@DJIVision]

The thing about Golden Balls was the last thing added to this video’s script. Nob Ogasawara mentioned it in passing after the script was already finished, so I added it in at the very last minute.

[@Cyntaria]

That explains the nugget guy in the mobile game magikarp jump. He always seems seedy and high as fuck and when you encounter him he says something like "I have a nugget of wisdom for you....well....it's a nugget"

French audiences may also believe the Cyndaquil line to be hedgehogs (as I did) because Quilava's translation (Feurisson) also means fire hedgehog. (However, Quilava is described in the Pokédex as a Volcano type, not a fire mouse)

[@lucasknox9694]

Feurisson is more of a portmanteau than a translation of fire hedgehog. That would be "hérisson de feu". But yeah, still misleading

[@RegeroTerra]

11:04 that right there is a Flammenwurfer: it wurfs flammen.

[@TheXnaut]

God I remember that one fisherman near the Lake or Rage with a Magikarp on their wall who tells you if you can beat his record size, he'd give you a prize. I thought it was something that happened arbitrarily, but I could never get it to work. Now I know it was cut Japanese content.

[@DarthVraak]

In the german translations they, to this day, call the move Pound "Pfund" which refers to the unit of weight measurement. It should be something like "Schlagen" or "Hämmern".

[@ShadowBuu44]

actually, they changed it in Gen 8 to "Klaps" ("Slap"), what is a little more accurate.

[@adrianobarile497]

same in italian, it's translated as "libbra", which is again the unit of weight. it's funny i've never actually thought how little sense it made

[@Jonathan-hd3hg]

there was another video about the translation process, where they said Nintendo just printed out a list of all the english words in the game, gave it to someone and said "translate this" with no context on what it was or how the words were going to be used. So the translators were just given the word "pound" by itself and told to translate it.

[@EvilApple567]

Between the Satellaview, N64DD internet connectivity, and especially these Japanese Crystal cellphone functions, it's crazy how far ahead of the game Japan has always been. That Stadium 2 tournament function is so ridiculously cool for 2001.

[@H2OVenom57]

"Did you also know, that Nintendo of America, almost changed Pikachu into a tiger with huge breasts during Gen 1's localization?" No. I didn't know this, but, now that I do, I'm sadly more than a little curious to know what that would've looked like.

[@baltakatei]

furaffinity probably has this covered.

[@carlosfer2201]

they talked about that in a previous video

[@H2OVenom57]

I see, I only heard about it from this video, I likely didn't see the previous one.

[@kimgkomg]

Just Google "Pikachu with boobs"

[@H2OVenom57]

That would likely just get me a bunch of fan-arts, I'm more interested to know what Nintendo/America had in mind. I know that's likely never going to happen, but, still can't help but be curious as to what they were thinking.

[@SgvSth]

12:37 - "But, at least South Korea got Gold and Silver." Because they will not be getting a new game until 2007.

[@evelin1006]

The company responsible for the localization,Daewon,did release Ruby and Sapphire,altough they did not translate the game at all.It's the Japanese versions.In rest,everything was translated.

[@mattwo7]

@@evelin1006 It's sort of like how they would get around the ban by subtitling Super Sentai and calling it Power Rangers.

[@taimaishu-nao1922]

mattwo7 except Super Sentai was never really banned in America. It’s just that people would be too familiar to Saban’s localized MMPR and would believe that Sentai was a cheap knockoff when in reality it was the basis for which Saban was able to localize the show.

[@NotcNorck]

@smwdkc 8594 Not too different. We pirated the shit out of them anyways.

[@mattwo7]

@@taimaishu-nao1922 Who said anything about America?

[@jit__]

I'm so happy you talked about the French translation for the first & second generation. The NPCs were SAVAGE back then. There were talking in 90s sreet slang, when I rediscovered these games I was baffled at how much more 'trash' were the dialogues before the Gen 3 sanitization. The characters told the then-equivalent of what today would be terms like 'sus' or 'mid' . And the games were also riddled with secret pop culture references

[@Dawg2005]

I love that lmao

[@zejalt8608]

Although the japanese language has a lot of characters, they kept it simple by using only phonetic characters in the game and keeping kanji out. Since the korean alphabet deals with permutations of smaller characters, it ends up occupying more memory than the simplified japanese.

[@ItsZorroDood]

I never questioned why the move Pound was localized as Pfund in German, until they changed it to Klaps (slap) in gen 8.

[@Tailstraw_xD]

HAHA they gave pokemon the KLAPS

[@thegaymingavenger]

ZorroDood I haven't played the last few gens in German (tho I did start a second playthrough of Sword in it) and WTH. BUT I love Pfund....

[@chocolixo]

Portuguese? Thats a good one

[@kuma977]

Fun fact: The 'contador' mistake in the spanish version was not fixed until the sixth generation.

[@LegendaryPokemon1221]

So glad Dr. Lava is narrating this one! Love his content and in- depth research!

[@eric.waffles]

I’ll always love Gen 2 the most

[@riotMikeV1]

I see you're a man of culture...

[@makeshift_battlefield_music]

Same!!! I love the gbc originals but I also love soul silver and heart gold. It would be cool if they did a gen2 update for switch or 3ds

[@jakethesnake5679]

Same

[@leithmcmillan5562]

Totally agree. I feel like it had the best mixture of not just adding new features but refining the existing ones. Also had my favorite battle sprites of any gen, the style was so cool

[@eliseoretro4407]

Same!

[@ZetsubouMar]

4:25 that's why Dragon Quest was a huge hit in Japan, the dialogue while childish it also has this kind of liberty.

[@MrTheMasterX]

The way Dr. Lava talks about how the trainer sprites were censored was so passive-aggressive, I love it.

[@agentepolaris4914]

How?

[@MrTheMasterX]

@@agentepolaris4914 What do you mean 'how' lol

[@agentepolaris4914]

@@MrTheMasterX how was it passive-agressive?

[@seveneyes77]

I didn't hear anything passive aggressive about it, are you projecting?

[@MrTheMasterX]

This comment has attracted some real retards, huh.

[@muuhnkin4611]

Dirty jokes are in all versions of pokemon. If I remember correctly one of the swimmer girls in the German version of I think Gen 3, said "this swimsuit has no pockets, where did I pull my pokeballs from"

[@RashaunEatOreos]

And gen 2

[@miffedmeff7302]

@@LivaLifeRight why is it exclusive to women though, men have prison pockets too!

[@1hyugaclan1]

@@miffedmeff7302 most swim trunks have pockets. So there is no need for that.

[@muuhnkin4611]

@@LivaLifeRight yes, you're right, it's been a while since I last played those xD

[@harenava1451]

Can't forget the young couple where the guy has an Onix and the girl has a Cloyster!

[@Tailstraw_xD]

Pronunciation of Quetzalcoatl is more like KET-ZAL-KO-AHH-TLL

[@generalgk]

Hey the guy can't even pronounce the word "mispronounce"

[@Tailstraw_xD]

@@generalgk I wasn't criticizing, I was informing ^^

[@123userthatsme]

I had to rewind the video because I was like "never heard of him", then saw the text lol

[@Poruasecas]

2:49 "GF ball" yeah, that legendary ball that lets you catch a girlfriend... I wish I had one...

[@DJIVision]

Lol I used a de-esser to cut back on harsh S sounds in the recording. Yeah it resulted in GS sounding like GF unfortunately.

[@Xenonuke]

*"Asses is $1000" - Vietnamese Pokemon*

[@Tailstraw_xD]

No wonder I never get laid

[@Dremag_Gaming]

@matt dang. Better look in the couch.

[@mattwo7]

@MultiTarded You DO know Vietnamese Crystal was a bootleg right?

[@waroftheworlds3173]

these weird bootlegs were common to be found in Brazil back in the day. Back when I was a kid piracy was rampant and you could get a 100% working and saving B/R/Y pirated game with original english text. then G/S was released and you also did get these pirated copies. Now about Crystal my sister which is older than I am gave me one of these Crystal ones and I almost cried of sadness when I saw Prof. OAK spelling ELF. Instantly I knew something was deeply wrong. I'm not sure about pirated copies of crystal with the original text back then. Pretty sure you can find them by now.

[@mattwo7]

@MultiTarded Only one getting wooshed here is the person who legitimately believes it was made in Vietnam when it was most likely made in China.

[@fireaza]

In case anyone was curious as to how Korean was too complicated to display on the original Game Boy, and yet Japanese (also notoriously complicated) was fine, this is due to the game omitting the use of kanji characters, those complex characters based on Chinese that there's thousands of. Instead, the game uses only hiragana and katakana characters, which are phonetic (like English) and there's only 46 each of them. Since very young Japanese kids don't know many kanji (if at all) this likely isn't 100% a technical issue.

[@ppaaccoojrf]

Agree with the explanation except for the part where you call English 'phonetic' lol

[@ppaaccoojrf]

@Miguel Flagstaff He didn't say that...

[@Tyler-sy7jo]

@Miguel Flagstaff He wasn't saying Korean characters are visually similar to Chinese ones. He was saying that both Chinese and Korean are far more complicated and have a lot more variance than Japanese that omits Kanji. From what little I know of Hiragana and Katakana, they use only a handful of brushstrokes per character where as in Chinese (especially when using the traditional script that China simplified but are still used in Japanese), you can have stroke numbers in the double digits, and two characters can look the same except for one stroke being different and mean a different word. From what I've seen of the Korean language, it doesn't seem like it gets as visually complex as traditional Chinese characters, but there are still enough strokes and variety of characters that I would understand needing extra visual memory to represent it.

[@LeSalonDeFlo]

I was today years old when I learned that Cyndaquil wasn't actually a hedgehog. Just as in the German version, the French version clearly suggests that Cyndaquil is in fact a hedgehog. Its French name is "Héricendre", which comes from "hérisson" ('hedgehog") and "cendre" ("ash").

[@kimgkomg]

It definitely looks like a hedgehog

[@garrettchandler1948]

I thought it was supposed to be a porcupine.

[@heroessquad2019]

@@garrettchandler1948 I think is a hedgepine or a porcuhog.

[@Mr-K-Money]

Cyndaquil is an echidna.

[@Tustin2121]

I always thought it was a hedgehog or porcupine (it honestly makes sense given Cyndaquil’s design) and that the “mouse” designation was just a category, as in “hedgehogs, porcupines, and mice are all types of small rodents”.

[@BewbsOP]

Classifying cyndaquill as a hedgehog really doesn't seem like a translation mistake to me. Hedgehog's aren't technically rodentia, but they are commonly referred to as needle mice, so it wouldn't be that out of the ordinary in universe for a mouse creature with fiery quills (hence english localization calling him cynda [cinder] quill) to be called a flaming hedgehog. Heck, in japan, a hedgehog is literally called "harinezumi," literally needle mouse. It makes sense to me that in the german version of a fantasy japan, a mouse with flaming quills/needles would end up called a fiery hedgehog.

[@GerikDT]

The mistranslation is the classification, not the other way around. Cyndaquil is for sure at least partially a hedgehog, and in my opinion possibly also a shrew (though not necessarily). Rattata (a rat), and Sandshew (an armadillo) are both also referred to as mice Pokémon. The classifications should be taken with a grain of salt.

[@alexbluecyndaquil]

GerikDT Well, from what I understand, Cyndaquil is more based on echidnas/shrews, rather than hedgehogs. But I guess your logic works, since they look a BIT like mice.

[@Shigeru0508]

@@alexbluecyndaquil it also fits with the fire starter - chinese zodiac theory, which is basicly confimed at this point

[@fernandobanda5734]

Not every culture or language associates mice with hedgehogs. I mean, you say maybe the Japanese did, but they never called it that, did they?

[@SethJV]

In French he's almost a hedgehog. "Héricendre", a pun between "Hérisson" (hedgehog) and "cendre" (ash).

[@Forever_Zero]

I can't believe they took from us a joke about balls, this is outrageous... I mean, if any game could make obvious jokes about balls is this one...

[@deepmind5318]

English speakers get offended by everything. It would have been a headache trying to create excuses for angry parents. Japan is far more open to sex jokes.

[@purpledawn2727]

I personally don't mind that they took out that joke. 10 year old me would probably not appreciate having some old dude talking about his testicles. Infact, at 30years old, I still prefer my games testicle free😅

[@Josuh]

Those golden balls are lost...

[@shalpp]

I don't think you understand the tenacity of mothers in the 90s

[@OrangeShanker]

I got to that part in the video and decided to see how far into the comments I would have to scroll to find someone genuinely upset that a testicle joke was removed. It was the third

[@Kendorable]

I knew about the golden ball joke, so I was pretty amused on ORAS when a man runs up to you, gives you a nugget and then says something like "there's nothing funny about nuggets!"

[@CrystalGreymon]

Where does that happen?

[@totodile4271]

Good to know that micro transactions have been around since 1999

[@dontmindme5879]

I always felt the original Nintendo had Macro transactions. Lol all the items you had to buy for all the games. They def got their money

[@virgobro2025]

You are using this to justify the current state of the game. You want to normalize it.

[@Mufflin]

@@virgobro2025 Can you elaborate your point?

[@BLUE2U]

Uh, does no one remember that arcades existed before home consoles much less handheld consoles?

[@toumabyakuya3498]

@@Mufflin I don't think he will.

[@mickeywng8013]

Can’t wait to see how Gen 3 got localized! I also wanna see how Pokemon got translated into Chinese, Portuguese, Arabic, etc in a future video. Thx Dr. Lava!

[@chahineboudemagh9596]

The Pokemon games were, as far as I am aware, never localized in Arabic. The anime was but for Pokemon names they just used the English names.

[@Teyzaum]

Pokémon never got translated into portuguese. Since gen 1, we got english versions(at least in Brazil). We have the anime localized, the TCG localized (officially), but never the games. Nintendo hates portuguese for some reason

[@fredericorivera7226]

@@Teyzaum the games have never been localized to portuguese in Portugal either. If something wasn't localized for Brazil, it most likely wasn't localized for Portugal either

[@Teyzaum]

@@fredericorivera7226 yeah, I just said that we've got Pokémon here since the beginning, but in english. Maybe the same happened in Portugal too. Anime localized, cards localized but not the games, unfortunatly. Portugual even got some trailers translated, but thats it. Idk why Nintendo and Game Freak have this resistance, seeing that a lot of their costumers are portuguese speakers.

[@Siphonay]

None of these languages except Chinese got Pokémon games localizations. First in Gen I was Japanese, English, French, German, Spanish and Italian Then Gen II added Korean, it didn’t come back for Gen III, but returned in Gen IV Then Gen VII added Traditional and Simplified Chinese, and that’s all the languages the mainline games are available in to this day.

[@Jamafly]

I'm really glad you're able to get ppl that worked on games to talk about what they did and the impact.

[@TsukiCondor]

Honestly its obscure trivia nuggets why I love Pokemon as a franchise. It's always neat to see what changes between Japan and international markets

[@dicapriodelorean2888]

I once got a Crowbat over the GTS in Heartgold, it was from France so it was "Nostenfer"

[@SethJV]

Ngl, we got some amazing localizations in France.

[@arieldamatto1908]

IMO, the best French localization (at least for the Pokémon names) is from Generation V. I remember learning the French names for some Pokémon before even their English names. (BTW, I was taking French courses as well by the time Gen. V came out).

[@SkunkStarlight]

I remember when I first got a Métamorph. I thought the previous trainer gave it a cool and clever nickname, but later realized that it was simply the French name for Ditto.

[@dicapriodelorean2888]

@@SkunkStarlight ngl thats also a really cool name

[@PhanelFTW]

Interesting to compare European translations of the games. Having only played on the French version, I thought every European country has a similarly good localization. But Julien really created a masterpiece with all the wordplays and the poetry of his translations. I'll always be grateful for playing such an important part of Pokémon magic!

[@CalicoElectronicoFEM]

It hurts how the only information we had about the spanish translation is that they made some mistakes. Fun fact: Gen 2 was the first gen to translate the human names, sadly Pokémon aren't translated besides Type Null.

[@marmato9332]

Same for the Italian version. There were a couple mistakes and pokemon names weren't translated, but it was a perfectly fine and playable game, and many people experienced it that way.

[@matthiasc.z8332]

At least Joven Chano (Youngster Joey) is a meme

[@CalicoElectronicoFEM]

@@marmato9332 yeah, I don't understand why they always say that the spanish and italian had a bad translation only because a few moves and maybe one or two lines mores, people is going to think that it's really bad as the FFVII translation when it's a pretty decent one.

[@calebb7012]

Finally Dr.Lava gets some recognition he deserves.

[@felphero]

Man, you guys just assume because something is not in our language we "never got to play it". Me and everyone I knew in my school in Brazil played the crap out of Pokemon, and tons of other Nintendo and Playstation stuff too. Games were a huge language learning tool for me

[@martianbeax]

eu tambem mas sou de portugal

[@aquasomnus]

8:58 Another fun fact about Quetzalcoatl is that it shares many physical similarities with Rayquaza.

[@Arcona]

Johto games were epic. None of them have come close to me since. And I had no idea they included Kanto too until I actually unlocked it. My little mind was blown.

[@septic-sauce]

Julien Bardakoff was the coolest of all translators. The French owe him one for such imaginary and well thought out names.

[@brettlarch8050]

I just started taking French classes and I am planning to play Pokémon sword in French. Excited to compare. I am fluent in Spanish and adding French in my belt.

[@septic-sauce]

@@brettlarch8050 Thats so cool. How long did it take you to learn French?

[@brettlarch8050]

Gaz J’apprends en école. Je viens de commencer. J'ai besoin d'aide pour prononcer les noms de Pokémon.

[@hawktalon7890]

This just makes me more excited to play Pokemon Crystal in French, downloaded the game on 3DS VC a few days ago. Let's see how 3 years of highschool French holds up...I'm well into college now and I forget things. Still pumped though. :D

[@mcj88]

0:18 - Fun fact of my own: the baseball player in that ad is Kazuhiro Sasaki, who at the time _Crystal_ came out in Japan was 1 year into a 4 season run with the Nintendo-owned Seattle Mariners that included a Rookie of the Year award in 2000 and two All-Star Game appearances, in 2001 and 2002. Back in Japan he'd been named the Central League's Most Valuable Player in 1998, and was inducted into Japan's Baseball Hall of Fame in 2014.

[@Ofallthings089]

And then Ichiro had to one-up him on the Mariners by winning Rookie of the Year and MVP in the same season the very next year.

[@floranuko2854]

I was one of the people who never got to play Gold and Silver in their language. As a Dutch kid, I hadn't learned English yet and at my school at the time, they didn't teach French or German. When I played pokemon as a kid it was just a guessing game of where to go or how to even use items or moves outside of battle. And TBH it was a lot of fun, because Pokemon is even fun when you don't understand what's going on exactly. Part of why these games are so great imo

[@HappyLight.]

I really like these videos, especially when they mention foreign things like German since I grew up with that. And yeah, I got annoyed after my Arbok used "Giftblick". Luckily they changed some names in Gen 8 to correct or make the names more comprehensible. It changed to "Schlangenblick" so "Snake Stare". Also like reading the French stuff a bit. Anyways, looking forward to the next videos. :)

[@heinokunzelmann8967]

Funny thing about that is that while "Gift" means poison the phrase "giftige Blicke werfen" (lit.: shooting poisonous glances, english analogue: shooting daggers out of your eyes) is a common phrase. Since meeting your eyes with these kinds of looks usually makes you freeze in your tracks, I feel like it's an apt translation going on text alone. It's just unfortunate that it creates room for misunderstanding in the context of an RPG

[@Lumpus]

I love Dr Lava! I’m glad you guys got him on!

[@BronzeEleven]

Can we all just take a moment to appreciate how beautiful of a pun "Gravelanch" is?

[@2WaterGuns]

While not as flashy as the other changes, one that's unique is that they switched the Phanpy and Teddiursa families being exclusive to Gold and Silver (respectively) in Japan and Korea, but Silver and Gold everywhere else. I guess they thought the bluish-silver Phanpy and the brownish-golden Teddiursa made more sense in the game that matched their colors?

[@Dawg2005]

That makes perfect sense to me

[@YayIloveAkatsuki]

That anime movie with the cats looks quite interesting. Maybe I'll check it out

[@Thollis1987]

Its really good. You will enjoy it.

[@_Katzenberg]

It's a trip, have you watched yet? (Your comment is from a year ago)

[@TKnHappyNess]

I'm surprised they didn't mention Phanpy, Donphan, Teddiursa, and Ursaring being switched in versions besides Japan and Korea. Phanpy and Donphan were exclusive to Gold while Teddiursa and Ursaring were exclusive to Silver in those regions, however it was changed in all other regions so that Teddiursa and Ursaring were exclusive to Gold, while Phanpy and Donphan were exclusive to Silver

[@ginokami475]

my first language is portuguese,i wasnt able to play pokemon until i learned english when i was around 11 years old,we never had an official portuguese translation,but at this point i feel like it would be too weird to suddenly play in my native language i know i would still choose to play in english but i guess it would be cool for kids just getting into the game

[@Heinz_Egbert]

I personally Just used a portuguese translation of fire red, and Emerald (Both are ROM HACKS) ,After that i just played the games in english

[@filipe2338]

At this point, they could translate the dialogues, but not the Pokemon moves' names (let alone the Pokemon themselves), as it would just confuse everyone already familiar with them

[@kimgkomg]

Is it true that Portuguese translations for things usually suck?

[@filipe2338]

@@kimgkomg Can't say. I play few games, most of them are from Nintendo, and Nintendo doesn't translate them. Regarding the others, even when there's a Portuguese option, I choose English out of habit

[@eduardocolgan]

@@filipe2338 Pokémon Go is officially translated, as is the TCG and anime. So, it became standard for those official translations to use the Pokémon, cities and character names in English, and translate the attacks. The anime skews slightly different, also translating some character names, but not all, and sometimes making some Pokémon names sound a little more Portuguese, like "Bulbassauro" and "Magikarpa", and also in Gen 1 the city of "Veridiana". Those translations aren't official and don't carry over to games like GO and the TCG. Type: Null ("Tipo: Nulo") is the first official Pokémon ever to get a specific official name translation in Portuguese (and also Spanish and Italian)

[@thegreatcalvinio]

4:23 old heads remember when the old man in Celadon City was a perv...

[@fernandobanda5734]

He still was in FRLG. Was it changed in Let's Go?

[@dowmad482]

Yup. They changed it on Let's Go. Now the old man talks about how good the trainers are battling...

[@ShadowSneak.]

@MultiTarded No lol only in the Lets GO! games.

[@bewearstar9462]

@@ShadowSneak. and hgss

[@naruciakk]

tbh, theoretically I live in a “neglected” region (in Europe though) and we just played German or English versions, depending on which one was easier to buy. Official reseller was selling the English version, but the German one was also very much available.

[@PrinceOfSaiyans01]

What is that region?

[@zero9112]

@@PrinceOfSaiyans01 I’m guessing Poland.

[@pikafeu]

11:13 Same can be said for the french translation. Cyndaquil in french is "Héricendre" (Hérisson + cendre / Hedgehog + cinder), same for Quilava, named "Feurisson" (Feu + Hérisson / Fire + Hedgehog). Though Typhlosion has the same name in french and english

[@pikafeu]

So yeah, I'm french, and now you ruined my day because I always though cydaquil was a fire hedgehog :(

[@MrPenetroso]

I mean, the word quill means sharp spines, hence why some translators thought it was a hedgehog.

[@SethJV]

@@MrPenetroso I mean, it literally look like a hedgehog

[@leofsgarage]

32yo Brazilian here. Back in the the late 90's/early 2000's the perspective of having a game translated into Portuguese was unimaginable, we'd never expect it to happen. So we just played the games in English anyway. 10 year old kids playing an RPG in a language they don't speak probably sounds bizarre, but that's exactly what we did. We usually had guides and magazines explaining what we needed to know and that was it. We played it and we had a lot of fun. lol Some of my favorite childhood games were the first 2 Gens of Pokemon and the Zeldas of the period. And it honestly even played a big part in me learning English, since I was very familiar with the words and some of the meanings thanks to the games.

[@CrystalGreymon]

The logical part of me wants to reason that you'd use familiar spelling of certain words as well as various loanwords to understand certain aspects but I've my suspicions that's not the case.

[@marinanicole5693]

Another mistake in the Italian version is the move "pound"... It was translated to "Libbra" which is actually the Italian word for the unit of measurement. It was later changed to "botta" in gen 3 (which is more appropriate)

[@NitroIndigo]

They mention that in the Gen 1 video.

[@otaking3582]

So that ended up getting fixed, but America still has mistakes such as Splash?

[@marinanicole5693]

@@NitroIndigo oh I haven't watched that sorry

[@MrEnte3000]

The German version made the EXACT same mistake by calling the move "Pfund" wich means the same as the Italian name and is also the German name for the British currency. But unlike the Italian version they didn't fix it until Gen. 8. It's also called "Pfund" in the Super Smash Bros. games, where it is one of Jigglypuff's moves.

[@blastq_]

I actually wonder how they ended up releasing the translation with so many obvious mistakes lol Thank god I don’t have to stick to Italian translations anymore to enjoy games like these

[@DumuziTheOriginalGod]

My Crobat in HeartGold’s nickname is Nosferatu.. huh didn’t know the French localisation actually named the Zubat line after Nosferatu as well. I actually first saw the name Nosferatu in Fire Emblem as a name of a tome so guess my Crobat in HeartGold has a double meaning now to his nickname!

[@klg9549]

I found out by complete chance when I got a French Zubat in a Wonder Trade!

[@Kaninchen9838]

Cyndaquill's french name Héricendre translates to "cinder hedgehog" so I'm wondering, did the french and german translators make the same mistake or is it possible that there were contacts between the translators to exchange ideas about their work?

[@acmiguens]

I can totally see them emailing each other like "what the heck did you do for this one?"

[@Rayito_]

It's because Cyndaquil's name in Japanese is based on the words fire and porcupine

[@M3rtyville]

hedgehogs are considered mouse if I recall correctly

[@SophiaLilithUwU]

@@M3rtyville No not at all actually.

[@STYLIX_]

I like the custom thumbnails and more interesting video topics.

[@drejuego]

I still think this format of video is still way ahead of its time, I love these videos.

[@Silverman160Zero]

So I lost power over in my home and was told it wouldn’t be until a few days that it’ll come back. So I though “Oh well, might as well play soul silver again.” And this pops up. The timeing is pure ironic.

[@DaShinyDragonMon]

Coincidence, not ironic.

[@Laughy-Flaaffy]

So basically the greatest video game sequel of all time is secretly even greater in the Japanese version.

[@Ails1234]

Me playing Crystal: They barely changed anything! What a scam Japanese playing Crystal: This is the greatest advancement in portable gaming of the last 10 years

[@brycevo]

This is so interesting to see the changes. This is really fun. Thank you

[@limelightmoon]

This is so well researched! Nice job!

[@cybernnic]

12:47 as a Brazilian, for a long time we would play those games anyway, and we would still love them (we only got frequent translations in games for our country in late 7th gen of consoles, yet we have huge nostalgia for NES, SNES, Genesis/Mega Drive, PS1, N64 and PS2 because we would play them anyway), so while I think the statement isn't 100% incorrect, it is not completely right. If brazilians managed to do that, I think other countries did the same thing as well.

[@Heinz_Egbert]

I am Also a Brazilian Lad,but like, when i started playing Pokemon i used rom hacks that were Translated into portuguese,thet were Emerald abd FireRed,i Just play the games in english now

[@cybernnic]

@@Heinz_Egbert well, almost every rule has an exception.

[@Sameeer_Saker]

I love this kind of videos. You guys really should look into 80's gaming in Brazil. We had off-brand Ataris, NES, Genesis... basically 30 years of iQue-esque things that prevented us from getting anything cool.

[@bewearstar9462]

Its the same in Russia

[@Dawg2005]

I've heard about y'all's black market. Sounds cool in hindsight, but must have been a burden back then!

[@lachaineakeli4682]

Julien Bardakoff is such a fun and wholesome guy, I wonder if there are subtitles for his interviews for you people to enjoy. As a French guy, I must admit his pokemon puns were actually very clever.

[@pokemonduck]

Just because a game isn't translated into a country's language doesn't mean it can't be sold there... Europe has like a bajillion languages and only like 1-5 of those receive official translations. My country was one that didn't get a native GSC localization, so I just played it in English.

[@T_Lorentzen]

12:46 Apparently i didn't play Pokemon Gold back in 2002 because the game was never translated to Norwegian. Weird because the cartridge clearly said "Pokemon Gold Version"...

[@Compucles]

They were referring specifically to those who don't know any of the localized languages, not all non-native speakers who may or may not have learned another language. For those who don't know any of them, it's very hard to play a text-heavy RPG in a language you can't read.

[@impmussa]

I'm from Brazil and I just wanted to say that I began playing pokémon on gen 1, even got my gambeboy color just for it. All the big toy and game stores sold original pokémon cartriges. I had pirated copies of all three gen 2 games and they were all in english. Never once I saw or heard about a portuguese version of these pirated games...

[@MrPenetroso]

Same in Portugal. Honestly, the game helped me to understand a new language.

[@rickster008]

I miss the classic look of pokemon done in sprites

[@thefuzzypickle8277]

Mmhmm it just has a certain charm to it, even the overworld

[@suppengroove]

me too. but mainly bc the vast majority in 3d looks pretty damn bad

[@timothygrieves8415]

Pokemon stadium 2 music takes me waaay back!!

[@ssjduelistDD]

Shout out to the Pokemon Stadium 2 music in this video

[@jowzeh]

12:45 Assuming people only play games that have been localised. I mean, here in brazil, localizing games only became a thing in the 2010's. Even so, most of the nintendo games coming nowadays aren't even translated to portuguese. People always played them anyway they could.

[@vo1ce3choed]

You're English seems great I can't see you having an issue playing, probably helped you learn English too.

[@matthiasc.z8332]

It happened something similar in Chile, since we get the American version we most likely won't get a Spanish release

[@ppaaccoojrf]

I'm from El Salvador and I absolutely consider my English abilities a result of being 'forced' to play old Nintendo games in English.

[@Compucles]

For many genres, sure, but it's very hard to play a text-heavy RPG in a language you can't read.

[@ppaaccoojrf]

@@Compucles It depends on the game. Given that Pokemon has been successfully beaten by hordes of people throwing commands to the void creating what amounts to semi-random input, and the fact that the story in these games is almost always notoriously lacklustre, you can be sure that doesn't apply to Pokémon.

[@AsheCraftingCorner]

Pokemon Gold and Silver were the best games they ever released

[@scarffoxandfriends9401]

Unless you count HG/SS

[@notscorchingsands9718]

LMFAO definitely not

[@CEDL0W]

If HGSS didn’t exist GSC would definitely be the best games for me.

[@Thollis1987]

Most definitely! Iwata helped build the game to squeeze more content in the game.

[@sentientricecake3125]

These videos make me so ridiculously happy

[@michaelgoodwin80]

Never paid attention, but I like the border on DYKG's videos. Dig the sprites as a border

[@joaosegan1820]

Pokémon would have their names translated in Brazil when the anime was dubbed, but that idea was canceled. Butterfree would be called 'Borbolivre', Pidgeotto would be called 'Pomboto'. The only 2 names that were translated in Brazil were Magikarp (Magikarpa, only in the first season) and Bulbssaur (Bulbassauro).

[@idk-ov9oh]

i can't stop laughing after "borbolivre" and "Pomboto"

[@senorlechuga8832]

13:23 Wild HEEHEE jump out

[@EctopicMike]

Almost no early Pokemon titles had a translation to Portuguese, but everyone still played it. We have a lot of english speakers. I had a cousin that got the game in Spain, so it had Spanish on default, that was his way of playing it.

[@GigaLem]

Dr.Lava has a brilliant way of wording said facts. The wording of each censored sprite feels very clever.

[@animeist72]

Being a kid and playing Gen 2 was a magical time.

[@kurochi185]

I, a German was always so confused on why Giftblick paralyzed the enemy instead of poisoning them. I was very confused but okay with it. Just as co confusing was that Feurigel is a mouse instead of a hedgehog but you have to admit that a hedgehog would really be more fitting.

[@Dawg2005]

We thought it in the English speaking world too lol

[@Worgen33]

I have doubts about how close NoA got to actually having a stacked tiger girl as the mascot. I wouldn't be surprised if someone suggested it but considering no concept art seems to exist, I seriously doubt it was really that close to being a thing.

[@2thezaza]

great video as always

[@nickolias7292]

every video in this series just makes me want to learn French

[@nobbie-san6152]

You should try indeed ! Yes, Julien's names for Pokémons, items, locations and even characters are sometimes Farfetch'd (Heh heh) but if you know what they mean, you'll discover some of them are top notch ^^

[@kieran8266]

Golden balls doesn't just mean testicles in Japanese slang. It's literally the word for testicles. Kintama. The slang word you're thinking of is just the same two characters in the opposite order -- tamakin.

[@lohto3]

No, the video is right. The medical term for testicles is 睾丸, or "kougan." The kanji 睾 is specifically used for testicles in formal contexts. 金玉, or kintama, is a slang for for testicles. The "tamakin" you mentioned is not a proper slang. It's just a result of a fad amongst the younger generations of speaking in something approximating pig latin, where they reverse how certain words are spoken. "Tamakin" is one example, but since it's a speaking habit, a lot of words get reversed. The same way you wouldn't classify words reversed in pig latin words as "slangs," this "tamakin" also wouldn't be considered one. Outside of that context, "tamakin" is practically never used as a slang. Kintama is.

[@ppaaccoojrf]

I guess this is a matter of defining what counts as slang and what doesn't. While it is absolutely mistaken to say they Kintama is the proper medical term, it is still by far the most used word (eufemism, if you will) for testicles in every day life. On the other hand, slang creation methods like pig latin or syllable reversal are usually considered a type of slang in the purest sense on the word, as they usually develop along a specific subculture and individual words just happen to grow popular beyond said culture (and hence the secondary association with the word 'slang' with informal general language).

[@kappadarwin9476]

It would have been better if it was a Kappa's treasure.

[@kieran8266]

@@lohto3 My understanding is that the slang "tamakin" came out of kintama being a bit of a mouthful, and not rendaku'd when it seems like it would be. If you look it up in a Japanese dictionary, kintama is listed as a colloquialism, and tamakin is listed as slang. As ppaaccoojrf said, you are correct that it isn't a medical term, but it is by far the most common way people refer to testicles in Japan. Calling it slang really isn't accurate because it is used by people who would otherwise not be speaking improperly.

[@Compucles]

@@kieran8266 Well, "balls" is the most commonly used word for them in English, yet it's still considered a slang term. Nothing says that slang can't also be the most common term. That's often the case with euphemisms in general.

[@braillynn4903]

These are amazing!

[@Cyntaria]

In the West, Crystal specifically had one odd egg in the daycare with high shiny chances but it was a 1 in 12 or 1 in 8 chance instead of the 50% chance in Japan. The Celebi event is also in the game files and was fully localised, it was just never "released" so if you have a save dumper like a GBX Cart, you can pop your save on your PC and use a save editor like PKHex to enable the event flag for the Celebi event.

[@gaminwatch8203]

“They added 12 inches to her skirt” LMFAOOO

[@PabloTheDinamic]

The game was hella bigger than what I knew. First time in a while.

[@ZerZeroMic]

Italy here: our localization was fixed in gen 6. Plus, Glare became Bagliore (a huge light, a nice translation for Flash). At least we didn't have our Pokemon names translated from Eng, so we kept a bit of exotic allure.

[@taimaishu-nao1922]

It’s funny because I knew all about the JDM Crystal differences because my cousin had it. Man, was I disappointed when I didn’t see the Global Trade Station in Goldenrod City… At least they made a direct reference to it by putting the GTS in Goldenrod City in the DS remasters. Also, being that I had the JDM Gold version, I’m aware of a lot of these localization changes. It’s really bizarre at first but unique in its own.

[@shinigamimiroku3723]

I actually remember people talking about Cyndaquil being more of a hedgehog than a mouse back when Gold/Silver were the newest games in the series, but I never knew it was a connection to the German translation.

[@KaiCyreus]

6:49 I just noticed how Rhydon's sprite is in a dancing pose, because it was the Kimono Girls' boss' Pokémon.

[@coleallen8425]

I know Cyndaquil is supposed to be the mouse talisman, but I always thought it looked more like a porcupine with its fire flamed up

[@PHiLLy2c]

Yay i love the did you know pokemon videos