The translator speaks the reverse side of scenario translation of masterpiece stealth action 'metal gear solid'

The stealth action game “ Metal Gear Solid ” released for Kobayashi from 1998 by Konami is not only a map composed of 3D and high action, but it feels as if it is an extension of reality while being set in the near future It has been highly regarded from all over the world for its worldview and hard story development. Jeremy Bleustein, who translated the PlayStation version scenario of such 'metal gear solid', speaks behind the scenes of the translation work with the game media Polygon.

The bizarre, true story of Metal Gear Solid's English translation-Polygon
https://www.polygon.com/2019/7/18/20696081/metal-gear-solid-translation-japanese-english-jeremy-blaustein

Metal Gear Solid is the third in a series following the stealth action game ' Metal Gear ' and ' Metal Gear 2 Solid Snake ' released for MSX. As with the previous two games, game designer Hideo Kojima leads the development. Metal Gear Solid is a game in which cinematic production has been actively incorporated, as in the case of Mr. Kojima's masterpiece ' Snatcher ' and ' Poly Snorts ', and the amount of serifs in the game is huge as at that time. did.

The following movie is the opening of Snatcher released on MSX2.

Snatcher (MSX2)-Opening-YouTube


Mr. Breustein originally came to Japan as Aon's English language teacher, but because he liked Konami's Soul Dora series and his brothers worked at Konami's Chicago branch, from 1993 to 1995 For two years at the headquarters of Konami in Tokyo. The department I was in was a small department with only about 15 people, and it was said that the sales department and the legal department were busy with paperwork. It was said that I met Mr. Hideo Kojima at that time.

Mr. Breustein had a break in his in-house smoking room during break time, meeting various people in other departments and talking. Mr. Breustein said that it is a strange Japanese culture that the implicit rule is that 'you will not chat or consult at another employee's desk without specific instructions or work'. It says. In fact, although the office itself did not have a synergy effect between the employees, the conversation in the smoking room triggered a request from the development department for an impression of the game, and asked for a translation of the game or animation. It seems so.

Mr. Bleustein, who was also in charge of narration supervision for ' Samudora the Hardcore ' released for Mega Drive in 1994, was in charge of translating Sega CD version of 'Snatcher' one day. Of. This work seems to be a great favorite for Mr. Breustein, and he corrected the translation he received, and went on a business trip to Chicago to oversee the recording.

After leaving Konami in 1995, Brostein moved to Massachusetts, where he lived with his family while translating games and animation. During this period, he was also involved in translating 'The Devil Castle Dracula X Moonlight nocturne ', and Mr. Bleustein learned that 'What is translation work?' At the same time, Mr. Kobayashi was asked by Mr. Blostein to ask that he be in charge of translating metal gear solids.

The screenplay of the metal gear solid received by Blostein is too huge. What's more, the contents are based on the mountain-like research and interviews conducted by Mr. Kojima, and the names of existing guns, locations where the United States stores nuclear weapons, the background of the Cold War, the history of indigenous Alaskans, etc. Yes.

The following is the movie that flows at the beginning of the English version of 'Metal Gear Solid' for PlayStation.

Metal Gear Solid (PS1) Start Up & Intro HD-YouTube


At that time, the Internet was not yet commonplace, and there were neither YouTube nor Wikipedia, and few Japanese books that Kojima would have read were translated into English. Mr. Breustein said that he did not have such knowledge at all even when translating in about six months, and that he had touched various documents and movies and learned about translation.

Translation work was done along the story. In a metal gear solid that uses a lot of movies and actively incorporates cinematographic effects, the voice actor actually blows up the lines, so it's not just to translate Japanese sentences into English, but to match the length of the cut scene It was necessary to adjust the length of serif. While reproducing the VHS tape of the movie sent from Japan, Mr. Blostein continued his translation work to rewrite the serif as much as possible without losing the nuances of the language with completely different grammar.

For example, Snake's line 'I'm a man who can only find his meaning on the battlefield' says in the PlayStation version 'I'm just a man who's good at what he does. Killing. I'm a good guy, I'm killed. However, in “ Metal Gear Solid the Twin Snakes ”, a remake of Metal Gear Solid released in 2004 at Gamecube , “I'm just a guy who can only find mean on the battlefield. He is a man who can only find meaning in the battlefield. '

In addition, even in the final line of the psychic Psycho Mantis's “It's the first time I used power for someone ... this is strange, nostalgic. There is a difference between the translation by Stein and the translation in the gamecube version. The battle and conversation with Psycho Mantis can be seen in the following movie:

Metal Gear Solid: Psycho Mantis Boss Fight-YouTube


In the PlayStation version, in which Broystein was in charge of the PlayStation version, Cycomantis' line of words was 'This is the first time ... I've ever used my power to help someone. It's strange ... it feels ... kind of ... nice. It is the first time I used it for this ... It's strange ... it's strange ... good ... good ... feeling ...). On the other hand, in the gamecube version, “This is the first time ... I've ever used my power to help someone. It's strange ... such a ... nostalgic feeling. (This is the first time I used power for someone. 'It's strange, nostalgic ... I feel it is ... ...' and '' is translated faithfully to the Japanese expression. According to Blostein, even though the word 'nostalgic feelings' is expressed in Japanese, it has never been expressed in English-speaking areas as 'feeling nostalgic' about his feelings, so it has been changed to the expression 'nice' Of.

In this way, Mr. Breustein is working on translating under the will of giving English-speaking players the character and attractiveness of the character without difficulty, to deepen the understanding of the background and character of the metal gear solid character. About. When I actually recorded the line in America, the response from Mr. Kojima was good.

About nine months after Metal Gear Solid was released, 'Metal Gear Solid Integral' was released, with some elements added, such as VR missions. With this Metal Gear Solid Integral, the audio of movies and radios has all been changed to English, and subtitles can now be selected in both Japanese and English. The ability to choose a language was an epoch-making game for the game at the time, but it was discovered that the difference between Japanese and English was made by this. At that time, it was common for Japanese and English sentences to be completely different in the game, but it was possible to check Japanese and English simultaneously, so the difference between words was highlighted It has become.

According to Mr. Breustein, Mr. Kojima's ear began to receive a reputation that 'the translation of metal gear solid is terrible' from that time. 'He might not have fully understood the need for 'localization' because he was not bilingual, but he seems unhappy that he did not translate faithfully,' he said. . As a result, all English translations of the 'Metal Gear' series released thereafter will be strictly checked whether they are true to the original Japanese script, and Mr. Blostein may be involved in translating the 'Metal Gear' series. It seems that it is gone.

Broystein cites the French critic Paul Valery 's words, 'It is a kind of betrayal to faithfully express only the meaning in translation,' 'Translation of metal gear solids is in the future. 'I think I must have done a pretty good job,' although I lost my job. '