Differences between different language versions

[VampireNaomi]

I recently started playing GF in German and I was a little surprised to notice that Robert Frost (when you ask the clown to make you a balloon) has been changed into Sherlock Holmes in it. I guess Frost isn't very known in Germany, but it was still an interesting change.

 

Some jokes have also been translated into something different, but that's understandable because literal translations may not work very well. Anyway, I was interested in if you have noticed similar differences between other versions of GF, like Spanish or French.

[Huz]

Interesting that they'd exchange a reference to a real American poet for one to a fictional British character, though! Why not a German poet? Why Sherlock Holmes?! Perhaps there's some aspect of the joke I'm not getting myself...

 

I'm not in a position to have spotted anything else that changed in international versions - I played in English - but it'd be interesting to know. At least in Grim Fandango, I don't remember any jokes that required a knowledge of American terms or colloquialisms, as in the 'monkey wrench' gag in Monkey Island 2... still bitter about that one!

[VampireNaomi]

I think they wanted to pick someone who kind of looks like the balloon the clown gives you, so it had to be a character who smokes a pipe.

 

I'm not very far in the game yet, but it seems like they've changed random bits every now and then. For example, in the original Manny says something about fear of pigeons when you try to open Domino's window, but in the German version he talks about pigeon excrement -- he actually uses the s-word, but we seem to have profanity filters here on the boards, so I can't type it.

 

The gazpacho in the Land of the Living has also been turned into chili. It's really funny to play the game in a different language because they've slightly altered so many of the lines that it feels like playing a new game altogether.

[Huz]

Oh, I hadn't noticed that the balloon character was smoking a pipe.

 

I guess changing subtle things is quite common when translating games, movies and books, especially if the change makes the wording seem more natural in the target language, or it translates an idiom in one language into its equivilant in another.

 

I don't see why turning gazpacho into chili would fall into any of those categories, though...

[Iannu]

in the italian version we have Sigmun Freud instead of Robert Frost.. whom is next to unknown here.

[VampireNaomi]

Wow, that's interesting. I wonder if it was changed in even more versions.

[VampireNaomi]

If anyone is interested, I

a video of some dialogue from Year One in German.

 

I think Sallim posted a similar video clip a few years back, but it's probably been lost forever.