iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Mato @clydemandelin.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

Impressive qualifications, but what are your thoughts on the JENOVA project

Mato @clydemandelin.bsky.social · 16/04/2026

I don't think it was ever released in Japan, ever It makes me think there must be some political/historical/something-related reason, but I never really looked into it

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Mato @clydemandelin.bsky.social · 16/04/2026

The Christmas Story that's in the pic is actually just a copy of the movie in Beta format, I forgot I put it in here, sorry for the confusion

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Mato @clydemandelin.bsky.social · 16/04/2026

Incidentally, I couldn't actually find any Japanese versions of A Christmas Story back when I bought all these movies, I wonder if there was a cultural/historical issue in the way I hope not because it's one of my earliest movie theater memories and it's such an iconic piece of American culture

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Mato @clydemandelin.bsky.social · 15/04/2026

Hey, out of this pile of movies, which ones should I do translation comparison articles about next? I've only done these two so far: legendsoflocalization.com/movies/

I got a huge pile of English-language movies translated into Japanese, I want to go through them all someday just because it's fun as a professional translator to see other professional translators do their own magic, and in this case it's extra fun to revisit some of my old childhood favorite movies in a new language

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Mato @clydemandelin.bsky.social · 15/04/2026

Oh, I go into the changing-of-first-person pronouns idea in a few places in the article - in real life & in fiction, people will indeed change their personal pronouns depending on who they're with, much like how you might dress differently around different people

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Mato @clydemandelin.bsky.social · 15/04/2026

I'd rather date the Easy Type version I guess

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Mato @clydemandelin.bsky.social · 14/04/2026

I re-read this article of mine the other day and forgot how much more I could still add: legendsoflocalization.com/articles/per... Someday I'd like to write about Japanese second-person pronouns (words for "you") but it'll be a bit tougher due to needing pairs of characters rather than individuals

legendsoflocalization.com

Legends of Localization: Tricky Translations #4: “I” & “Me” in Japanese

With dozens of ways to say "I" and "me" in Japanese, a lot can get lost in translation.

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Mato @clydemandelin.bsky.social · 14/04/2026

Whoa, that's surprising and neat to see, thanks for the pic and explanation!

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Mato @clydemandelin.bsky.social · 14/04/2026

@sanewonko.bsky.social Say, do you know what happens if your inventory is completely full and Golbez gives you the crystal to defeat Golbez? I thought I read something about it a long time ago but I'm not really sure what happens - does it maybe just get forced into some item slot regardless?

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Mato @clydemandelin.bsky.social · 09/04/2026

Man I gotta get this game, I keep forgetting it exists

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Mato @clydemandelin.bsky.social · 08/04/2026

I've only played FF7 a few times when it first came out so I'm way behind when it comes to being an expert on the game, but maybe someday when I learn how to do PS1 programming I'll look into it I also really, really want to play the Spanish, German, etc. translations, they were very wacky I hear

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Mato @clydemandelin.bsky.social · 08/04/2026

That's definitely one consistent problem, but the main, most pressing problem is that Namingway uses FF2 SNES as its base, meaning it has all the same ROM space restrictions that FF2 does, so they both have to trim their scripts down a LOT to fit

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Mato @clydemandelin.bsky.social · 07/04/2026

Gonna take today off again I think, sorry for the delays like this I still hope to finish this game this week (Also if you're curious, J2e is at such a negative score due to the amount of 100% made-up content)

We can see how this simple line of text in Japanese "...Heh." was handled in a couple different translations, with one of the fan translations just famously making up fanfic stuff everywhere

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Mato @clydemandelin.bsky.social · 07/04/2026

Correction: this funny line was just a thing from *during* the patch's development and not from the final patch mother3.fobby.net/blog/2008/05... I rate this trivia piece 5 Negative Men out of 6

mother3.fobby.net

MOTHER 3 Fan Translation » Blog Archive » Sneaky Bug Squished, Script Draft #2 Info

Official website of The MOTHER 3 Fan Translation project.

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Mato @clydemandelin.bsky.social · 07/04/2026

Here is 弁当 in a few different dictionaries - we can see how it has many different entries/translations based on different situations and circumstances, and how it can refer to the "box" or to the food

"bento" can be handled many ways in translation, here are some examples

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Mato @clydemandelin.bsky.social · 06/04/2026

I'm not streaming a FFIV translation comparison today, but I'm still planning on finishing it up this week! If you're curious, the scores currently are SNES: -1097 J2e fan translation: -1317 Namingway fan translation: -1100 For more details, see legendsoflocalization.com/videos/final...

legendsoflocalization.com

Legends of Localization: Final Fantasy IV Translation Comparison Stream Series

Two fan translations vs. the official Super NES translation - how do they compare with each other?

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Mato @clydemandelin.bsky.social · 06/04/2026

If it conveys what is being intended, then it can be a valid translation

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Mato @clydemandelin.bsky.social · 03/04/2026

I thought it was the Shin-chan game at first and was like "???? Oh yeah, I guess I can see Shin-chan wacky like that"

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Mato @clydemandelin.bsky.social · 03/04/2026

Is that top left one from Crayon Shin-chan? I couldn't find it among the games you listed

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Mato @clydemandelin.bsky.social · 02/04/2026

Ooh yeah, very likely indeed, thanks! I'll update the article with that at some point

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Mato @clydemandelin.bsky.social · 02/04/2026

These photos all remind me of the chapter pages in the EarthBound Legends of Localization book, it's weird to have nostalgia about nostalgia

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Mato @clydemandelin.bsky.social · 01/04/2026

Oh for April Fools then my silly joke post is officially here: I compare the English and Japanese versions of 2800's Missile Command to find the obscure lore differences legendsoflocalization.com/thisisafakel...

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Mato @clydemandelin.bsky.social · 01/04/2026

I wrote this article many years ago, just bringing it back up for relevance

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Mato @clydemandelin.bsky.social · 01/04/2026

legendsoflocalization.com/articles/mov... I've been seeing posts about The Wizard, that Nintendo-centric movie from like 35 years ago So here's a look at the Japanese translation of the movie!

legendsoflocalization.com

Legends of Localization: Movies in Japanese #01: The Wizard

How did this classic video game movie change when it was translated into Japanese? Let's find out!

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Mato @clydemandelin.bsky.social · 27/03/2026

Here's a good resource for more of this FFIV/FFV stuff in Japanese incidentally note.com/subeaki/n/n3...

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Mato @clydemandelin.bsky.social · 26/03/2026

That's very cool to see, especially on older systems like that Someday I hope to learn the language so these are gonna be right up my alley

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Mato @clydemandelin.bsky.social · 24/03/2026

Oh here's something else I have, it's when Square sent an announcement (via fax) to the people at Marukatsu Famicom magazine, stating that FFIV for Famicom was going to be cancelled after quite a bit of development, and that the FFV for Super Famicom was henceforth officially renamed FFIV

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Mato @clydemandelin.bsky.social · 24/03/2026

Thanks, I'll try to put something together to show that scene

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Mato @clydemandelin.bsky.social · 23/03/2026

Halito! I came across this book today and thought I'd mention it to you: www.amazon.com/Cloud-Artist... It's got Choctaw text and also includes English translations on every page, it's probably the best book of this type I've seen so far

amazon.com

The Cloud Artist--A Choctaw Tale (Told in English & Choctaw) (English and Choctaw Edition)

Amazon.com: The Cloud Artist-A Choctaw Tale (Told in English & Choctaw) (English and Choctaw Edition): 9781937054748: Sherri Maret, Merisha Sequoia Clark, Merisha Sequoia Clark: Books

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Mato @clydemandelin.bsky.social · 23/03/2026

I used to live right near there for many years, my best friend also lived there, so weird to see it just showing up like this though

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Reposted by Mato

Carl Sciacchitano @csciacchitano.bsky.social · 20/03/2026

@clydemandelin.bsky.social Just saw this pop up on Instagram, I'm probably the 100th person to send it to you but thought it was pretty funny

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Mato @clydemandelin.bsky.social · 19/03/2026

I don't remember March being this harsh when I was growing up here but I just hope June/July will have mercy

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Reposted by Mato

Liz Bushouse @lizbushouse.bsky.social · 19/03/2026

My #WomensHistoryMonth edition of Localization Lore is up! Check it out to learn more about some of the ladies who were active in the J>E video game localization industry during the early 90s, including the origins behind "You spoony bard!"

lizbushouse.com

Localization Lore: Women's History Month 2026 - Elizabeth Bushouse

Welcome to the Women's History Month edition of my Localization Lore series, where I highlight some of the women who have worked in the Japanese to English

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Mato @clydemandelin.bsky.social · 19/03/2026

This could almost be a 5-7-5 screenshot haiku just need to find a good 7 for the middle

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Mato @clydemandelin.bsky.social · 18/03/2026

Dang, I was hoping there might be some stuff related to triggers that I don't know about Anyway, I went and added a few more things for the enemies' stats after all

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Mato @clydemandelin.bsky.social · 18/03/2026

I dunno if you know this sort of stuff, but while fixing the Namingway dev room stuff, I noticed that there's one extra unused line of text in this room in FFIV JPN, but I don't know how to find or access it, but it's in the data at least I first noticed it in my script dumps but I see it here too:

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Mato @clydemandelin.bsky.social · 17/03/2026

I feel more and more these days that N1 is best viewed as the true starting point and not the final destination, kind of like when you finally get off the plateau in Breath of the Wild

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Mato @clydemandelin.bsky.social · 17/03/2026

Oh, yeah, I can pull that info out easily now that I have stuff set up, I just wasn't sure how helpful it is for the average gameplay I probably won't touch the enemy stats stuff this week but I might update it this weekend, so if there are any particular stats you're interested in I can add them

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Reposted by Mato

Chris Warriner @kingdarian.bsky.social · 17/03/2026

Hey! Fangamer is hiring a Physical Publishing Manager to help oversee our growing physical video game publishing department. The position is remote-friendly if you're not in the Tucson, AZ area. Check out the details: www.fangamer.com/pages/job-li...

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Mato @clydemandelin.bsky.social · 15/03/2026

I'm finding these resources more stressful than helpful, is there a ROM map or a document that explains how the weakness, etc. bits are stored in the data?

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Mato @clydemandelin.bsky.social · 14/03/2026

You are one of the chosen ones! Go forth and be as cool as a tomato

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Mato @clydemandelin.bsky.social · 12/03/2026

Something similar happened to me, but across 20+ years, luckily I was able to ask for a "raise" every so often, just to kinda sorta keep up but in general it wasn't fun to do more and more work every year for less and less

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Mato @clydemandelin.bsky.social · 11/03/2026

I have some never-published game translations that I want to write about in future articles, where English-to-Japanese goes so wacky off the rails that it boggles the mind Also I wonder what'd happen if I did the reverse of Funky Fantasy IV by Google-translating StarTropics etc. into Japanese

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Mato @clydemandelin.bsky.social · 11/03/2026

The cool thing is that 余 is already built into Japanese, hooray!

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Mato @clydemandelin.bsky.social · 11/03/2026

RE: those Japanese game industry quotes about English being "simplistic" due to pronouns, here's some related info: ● I / Me in Japanese legendsoflocalization.com/articles/per... ● Translations as "paintings" legendsoflocalization.com/media/misc/a... ●日本語版 legendsoflocalization.com/media/misc/a...

There are MANY Japanese pronouns for "I/me", but we mostly just have "I/me", so a translation into English will naturally "flatten" everything down and lose all of the unique traits found in the original Japanese

This is just how translation is, so it's sometimes helpful to "re-inflate" the translation with those lost traits in some other way, otherwise the translation will be a shadow of the original, and the author's intent might not shine through fully

Translating "I / me" from English INTO Japanese is another obstacle that translators have to deal with, and while using "watashi" is the safe default, it leaves everything feeling clinical and "translation-ese" feeling, this is why it's helpful to give translators lots of extra info about characters rather than just throw a ton of .doc files at someone and saying "here, translate."

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Mato @clydemandelin.bsky.social · 10/03/2026

Also, in honor of Mario day, please enjoy my Super Mario RPG translation comparison streams from back in 2017-ish: www.youtube.com/watch?v=zxo9...

youtube.com

Super Mario RPG English/Japanese Comparison, Part 1/13 [Legends of Localization stream]

YouTube video by Clyde Mandelin

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