Talk: Link's Awakening Translations

About German names

• "Dodongo Schlangen" - or "Dodongo-Schlangen"? First seems to have a so called "Deppenleerzeichen" (i.e. the space) in it, but that (sadly) is pretty common in LA.
• "Arachnos-Zwillingen" - or "Arachnos-Zwillinge"? Might be an error from Nintendo or so again, might also be some case thing (Arachnos-Zwillinge is (e.g.) in nominative, Arachnos-Zwillingen in dative; nouns are usually mentioned in nominative)
• It might be that in Link's Awakening DX (Virtual Console) "Struppi" became "Komet" (most likely 'cause Struppi is the dog in "Tim & Struppi" aka "The Adventures of Tintin") and that "Geierwally" became "Trantrudi" (maybe cause of a historical woman known as "Geierwally") [might be = haven't played the VC version and thus don't know]

--Bernd 19:12, 21 May 2012 (EDT), e: 19:18, 21 May 2012 (EDT)

* Yes the magazine truly calls them with a space between the words

* The text says: "Dann erst kommt ihr zu den Arachnos-Zwillingen." So it seems to be the wrong case used.

* I do not own this version either, but I heared they changed the names, due to some copyright-issues, but the names of the VC-version are definitely noteworthy too. SkullJ 09:59, 22 May 2012 (EDT)

(1) ok; (2) yeah, sounds like wrong case in zw, thus changed; (3) of course, but "I heared" is no reliable source; "copyright-issues" more sounds like some guessing/rumor =/= fact + shouldn't count for Geierwally (e.g. see: de.wp(1), de.wp(2))

(4): zw name changes - both names should come from secondary literature (= aren't inside the game; the person who added the old names named sources), thus, if in fact both names come from official secondary literature, both names should be named, or?

(5): Shouldn't it somehow be noted that, if a name comes from a (official) secondary literature, it comes from (official) secondary literature (e.g. guides and everything else, which isn't inside the game)?

(6): just btw.: "Tal Tal" places should be with "Tal Tal" (engl.), "TalTal"/"Taltal" (Ger.) resp. "タルタル", TaruTaru/TalTal (jap.); well, maybe "TalTal" could be grammatically incorrect, but in the game it's also "MeowMeow"/"MiouMiou" & "BowWow". --Bernd 18:42, 22 May 2012 (EDT)

(3) I understand. (4) Yes, I don't really know from where the new names originate, but I'll let them stand there but also add the old names back and mention it from where they originate. (5) Yes, you can use this for example: . (6) If you know it, then add it. SkullJ 14:25, 23 May 2012 (EDT)

You make an interesting point on #5. The names of most enemies from earlier games aren't mentioned in-game and come only from guides. It might be a good idea to point this out on all the translations articles that make use of official guides.

I'm curious: which German guide is considered official? — Hylian King ^[*] 16:49, 23 May 2012 (EDT)

Well this will be some big explanation stuff... The boss-names I took weren't taken from a guide, but rather from the German "Club Nintendo Magazines" which would be the equivalent of the American "Nintendo Power" magazines. The magazine I used the most for the names was a special magazine for the Super Game Boy, which was published around the time, when this Gameboy Adapter for the SNES was released. The magazine showed numerous games for the Game Boy and mostly boss battles of the game and Link's Awakening happened to be one of them. The main writer of the Club Nintendo magazines was Claude M. Moyse, who also translated Link's Awakening into German. That's the main reason why I think these magazines, when concerning translations-names can be considered canon. Now this was a long story! SkullJ

The German names of all endbosses (maybe expect "Djinn" 'cause of the dungeon name) and all mini-bosses (maybe expect "Reptilfelsen", though that's usually the name for the dungeon itself) should come from sendorary literature and then it could be easier and look better if one single note is put under "Notes", something like "Most German names for the endbosses and mini-bosses (in a way all except "Djinn" and "Reptilfelsen") come from secondary sources", or when using some sign behind the names like "*" and putting the note under the table.

As I don't know about guides (never bought or really used one), I don't know which is/are official, but inofficial would e.g. be if a random person writes a guide and puts it into the internet (like zfans) or if a random computer magazin writes a guide. "Official" guides/magazins usually should have some "Nintendo" on it and most likely a "Official" somewhere.

Also (7): "いりえ" (Irie) (in Martha's Bay's japanese name) most likely stands "入（り）江" (means either written as "入江" or "入り江") ingame and "顔の神殿" (Kao no Shinden) (japanese Face Shrine) is ingame (at least on the map) only mentioned as "かおのしんでん" (Kao no Shinden). Thus should only Katakana/Hiragana be used (like ingame) or Kanji, but only if they come from some "official" japanese guides, or always Kanji,though sometimes it might be unclear which Kanji should be used? Another example: Cracy Tracy's house in the japanese version on the map is "きまぐれトレーシーの_くすりやさん" (_=line break), where "くすりや" most likely replaces "薬屋".

Just btw.: I wouldn't say that Moyse translated the Game into German even though he wrote the German text as it (at least sometimes) is no translation (e.g. # (romaji: Okarina) means "Okarina" (Ocarina) in German and not "Flöte" (Flute)). Secondly it might be that Moyse only "translated" the french version into German or something and not the Japanese one (so a "translation" of a "translation" which usually is inferior to a real translation out of the original). --Bernd 18:19, 23 May 2012 (EDT)

I remember that in an interview with Moyse I read, he told an anecdote about how translations of games in the past were and that he was one of the first German game translators and he also said that he translated only the English and not the Japanese script into German. Maybe I'll find this intervie again and can post a link. By the way, did you also knew of him before? SkullJ 18:30, 23 May 2012 (EDT)

The Name(s) of the Final Boss

According to this article, the Japanese name for each boss ends in "no Kage" and the final boss is intended to be Shadow rather than Dethl. However, in the Shadow Nightmares article, different names are listed that end in "Keitai" and the final boss is known as "Death Eye". I'm confused... Which is correct? LinkTheLefty 22:55, 9 September 2012 (EDT)

I haven't updated the Shadow Nightmares article yet, but I can confirm that the names here are DEFINITELY correct. They're from the official Shogakukan guide for the original Game Boy release, which I own (got it recently, hence the big update). I can even provide a small scan of the section in question if it's needed. Unfortunately, the fifth form doesn't get named... I'm not sure it's meant to be anything in particular, anyway, it's just called a shadow (but not called Shadow, like DethI). All other names I've seen appear to be Japanese translations of the English names, ironically. Anyway, I will fix up the names on the Shadow Nightmares page, thanks for pointing that out.

Also, this is a common mistake and I noticed you mentioned it, but it's DethI as in eye, not Dethl as in el. Annoyingly, both letters look identical in this font. User:Fizzle8094/sig 07:29, 10 September 2012 (EDT)