The Let's Play Archive

Spy Fiction

by supergreatfriend

Part 2: Analysis of the Japanese version

Excellent LP as always, SGF. Time to ride on your coattails.

Goons, we need to have a talk. Phocoena a phocoena.

Why no love for Spy Fiction? It’s no Deadly Premonition, but it has its charms. Sure, it can be confusing, but in some cases that’s the fault of the “translation”. So, I’m gonna do my best to try and share my (limited) knowledge with you. Grab yourselves a cup of coffee, ‘cause we’re in this for the long haul.



I want you to get you excited about your SWERY!


Spy Fiction: Wait, What Just Happened?
Attempting to Make Sense of the Nonsense by Examining the Japanese Script

Spoilers ahoy! Don’t read this article until you’ve reached the very end of the game (the true end)!
Direct quotes will be in italics
The vast majority of videos linked to are from Niconicodouga. To get rid of the annotations, press the little speech bubble in the lower right-hand corner of the video.

Why are you doing this? How can you complain about a translation so much? Your “precious” Japanese language isn’t automatically somehow more legitimate!

I understand this concern. Translation is very hard to get “right”. In addition to trying to stay faithful to the original, the translator has to work within the restraints of the voice-overs, in addition to trying to negotiate with the creators about changing things and a whole other myriad of problems. I’m sure our beloved members such as hirayuki and Doug Dinsdale can testify to the difficulty, and I automatically respect the efforts of all translators. I also understand that the Japanese version of any given thing isn’t by default the one true gospel children. The fact that Spy Fiction isn’t in glorious nihongo is not my issue with it.

What annoys me about the North American release of Spy Fiction is the simple fact that it is an adaptation masquerading itself as a translation.

Japanese Spy Fiction was already translated to English. I don’t speak Japanese. The translation for the voice-overs in a game no one was expected to understand them sounds like more natural English (as written, those voice actors can be atrocious [looking at you, Nick]) than the supposed English speaking release. That upsets me on some deep, North American patriot level.

I normally have little (legitimate) issues regarding works that can be more accurately described as adaptations. However, this adaptation is harmful to the work on the level that it makes it completely incomprehensible, completely changes its artistic meaning, is unnecessarily confusing and in certain places flat out illogically wrong about things.

That’s why I feel it’s important to have a comparison, because sometimes I think you guys are blaming SWERY for aspects of his work he never intended.

So, let’s begin, shall we?

Sheila has no blood?

She does. It’s B+. I have no idea why the NA removed that, but it clearly says it on the character selection screen. The Japanese website, however, says there is no data on her blood type, so feel free to form your own opinions.

Why did Dietrich get so mad that Billy called him a bastard/insane?

The “bastard” thing makes sense, because Dietrich has daddy issues (I also imagine he’d utterly flip his shit at “motherfucker”, but I digress). As for the “insane” thing, I’m not quite sure. I’m also not sure why he gets upset at two different lines in the NA, because he got miffed at the same line in the Japanese.

BILLY:
Dietrich!

DIETRICH:
(annoyed)
What is it? Whose name did you call?

It’s interesting to note that his delivery is more irritated than legitimately upset, unlike the NA. I personally interpreted it to mean something like: “Why are you calling my name? Shouldn’t you be crying over Nicklaus?”

I can’t tell the difference between Nicklaus and Michael! Bad characterization, SWERY.

Spy Fiction isn’t nearly as character orientated as Deadly Premonition. All in all, the characters can feel pretty same-y. However, NA Spy Fiction somehow managed to make this issue even worse than the Japanese. Nicklaus and Michael do sort of have separate personalities in the Japanese. Take the scene in Nanotechdyne where they tell you to go back for the retina scanner, for example. In the Japanese, Michael is panicked and rushing you, while Nicklaus is calm and apologetic for making you do something stupid, but still a bit forceful (but has terrible sense of where to pause when speaking. Poor dear, I think he has some kind of brain damage). In the NA, they’re both just yelling at you in the exact same way. It’s true that they’re a professional spy organization and its probably more realistic for them to be yelling at you to do your job, but the Japanese not only shows the subtle difference in characterization while getting the point across, it also shows SWERY is conscious of video game culture by apologizing for a fetch quest through Nicklaus. That’s touching.

Michael’s still a douchebag, though.

Electron microscopes don’t work that way!

I know, children. I know. It hurts me too. But some stupid things were always there. From the electron microscope being stored in an average room where dust can get to it, to Samuel expositioning for five minutes straight while dying. I can’t even try to defend that in good conscience. “Bad” translation or not, those are some of the few things one can legitimately blame on SWERY.

I hate these stupid accents and how everyone gets loses them when they get tired.

In the Japanese version, everyone simply has a standard American accent. No earsplitting gratuitous audio-multiculturalism here. Everyone is still getting tired, though.

Why is everyone so chill with the fact that Lahder has no vaccine?

They’re not. On the Metropolis, Kelly Wong merely says that “vaccines are prohibitively difficult to produce”, not “there is no cure or antidote”. The Japanese line implies that at the very least she is actively trying to make one. I presume this means that she had/was developing one, but she was making a show about how her customers’ enemies wouldn’t be able to obtain/afford it.

I have a wild theory that she was selling some kind of limited vaccine alongside Lahder, and Dr. Coleman simply expanded on that with the large scale effective Jacob/Jakob(as it’s known in the Japanese), which can counter entire attacks of Lahder instantaneously on site as opposed to only protecting one person. That still raises the question as to why Kaysen didn’t weasel his way into it, but it’s only a theory.

Why is Scarface so pissed off?

It’s true that he and his men were imprisoned, and I believe they may have also been incinerated but I can’t read the garbology to check. However, there’s a much more direct reason why he’s mad at the American government. During Operation Desert Falcon, they dropped bombs knowing full well that allied troops were in the area, most of which were secret agents (the Japanese version doesn’t abuse the word “disavowed” nearly as much as the NA). In the ultimatum video, Dietrich calls it a “betrayal of the world” which Enigma wants the U.S. to publicly acknowledge. It’s also a pretty good reason to kick the U.S. off the U.N. Security Council (for the next 50 years. NA Dietrich is more ambitious at the cost of his PSA flair).

Wait, “PSA flair”?

Yeah. In the Japanese version, Dietrich does his best impression of a public service announcer/elementary schoolteacher. It’s beautiful. This style of speech makes more sense and is clearly what SWERY intended. Remember when supergreatfriend showed off the manual for Spy Fiction? He forgot to mention that there were a couple scene-setting blurbs in there. One of them reads as follows:

The man on the television is speaking calmly about the heroes of justice and those who wish to destroy it--about reality and fiction.
He isn’t trying to insist his point of view is the only one. But what he says is the undeniable truth. It’s almost as if he is enjoying a conversation, as if he is kindly explaining the situation. But his eyes convey a malicious intent.
He concludes: “There is one way out of Hell. Repent! Confess your sins…and you shall live.”

Dietrich was quite angry in the NA, and if by “conversational” you mean “crazy homeless man yelling about Armageddon at the bus stop”, I suppose that’s an accurate descriptor. The translation of the blurb itself is fine, but it really makes no sense with that particular line at the end, does it? Let’s try replacing it with its Japanese equivalent.

The man on the television is speaking calmly about the heroes of justice and those who wish to destroy it--about reality and fiction.
He isn’t trying to insist his point of view is the only one. But what he says is the undeniable truth. It’s almost as if he is enjoying a conversation, as if he is kindly explaining the situation. But his eyes convey a malicious intent.
He concludes: “This is for real. It is not an action flick. There is no guarantee...of a happy ending.”

Better! That accurately describes the Japanese version. It also helps set up my argument about the artistic objective of Spy Fiction, which I’ll get to later.

What is Dietrich going on about on the train?

Please keep in mind that Dietrich is legally insane, so not everything he says makes complete sense. However, NA Dietrich is just batty and apparently has early onset Alzheimer’s. That “simultaneous attack on four nations” he said was happening while Phantom was messing around on the Träume? That already happened. That morning. That’s the entire reason Phantom was sent to Rodt Rose in the first place and why the ultimatum video was made (to take responsibility for it). Dietrich was just gloating that the attacks on four nations (in airports, by the way. I don’t know what the NA is going on about “ambassadors”, but thousands were killed) was little more than a lure to bring Phantom to the station to destroy them/have them on the Träume when it explodes over the city/kill Samuel in range of Scarface. There was none of this “Darwinism” business, either. Dietrich spends most of his time getting off on Samuel’s screams of pain. It’s actually pretty unsettling, unlike the NA, which is just straight up confusing. Watch for yourself near the end of this video.

That whole “city of chaos” is retarded.

Yep. It’s really not that much better in the Japanese version. The whole idea is pretty silly.

Why did Michael betray Phantom?

It’s only really explained in a garbology. I believe the Japanese is vague about it as well, but don’t quote me on that. I think it only appears on a second playthrough going through the parking garage route of Nanotechdyne. It was a poor design move not to include that earlier, but I suppose because Michael’s so insufferable there really was no way anyone would think he wasn’t the traitor. (I guess that garbology would be helpful to people playing through a second time like SWERY intended. On a special note, I got the true ending my first time through because I love taking pictures of everyone. The true ending doesn’t actually say what happened in the normal ending [with Nanotechdyne and stuff] and you don’t get the garbology establishing Michael’s motives. I was left even more confused than someone who got the normal ending.)

Why did Billy get angry with that DELTA guy?

That’s also something never adequately explained. In the Japanese, Billy said “Why’d you step on him?!”, not “Why’d you have to go and kill him?!”. At first, I thought the DELTA guys stepped on Dietrich’s corpse and Billy won’t put up with desecration of the dead, but no operatives ever really get near him. Then, I thought that maybe as the DELTA guys were rappelling down one of them might have used Nicklaus’ body for leverage, stepping on him, but examining the video that doesn’t seem to be the case as none of them get even close to Nick. So, the answer is that Billy will flat out make things up to try and provoke fights. What a stand up guy.

Why is Scarface’s arm glowing?

It didn’t in the Japanese release. For once, Japan resisted the urge to make something glowy. However, the NA version’s hardware was optimized much better than the Japanese (which has loading screens in the middle of cut scenes. I’ve seen a twenty second loading screen just for Sheila to say “Gotcha!”) so I don’t know if the glowy arm and the Christmas decorations in Rodt Rose were things SWERY originally wanted to add but couldn’t due to limitations or if this is someone else’s thing.

What’s up with Sheila and the Gospel Children?

To my knowledge, that is never fully explained. However, I am absolutely sure Sheila is not a robot. In the Japanese, Scarface simply asks her “How have you been? How is the amino acid uptake?” instead of “How are you functioning?” That also explains why amino tablets are Sheila’s favorite thing.

I think it mentions somewhere on the website that Sheila has just been genetically modified or something. It says something like :”she’s been enhanced to be more versatile”. Her backstory on the site might go into more detail about this, but I can’t read Japanese at that level so I can’t really comment. If any Japanese speakers can find the time or interest, I’d really appreciate it if someone could go to the website and translate her backstory/give a summary. Any light on Billy’s and/or Nick’s would be awesome too, because from what Google translate tells me they’re really cool.

On a tangent about the website, (feel free to skip to the next bolded section) Nicklaus’ codename is “Snowman”. That’s clearly his true reason for betrayal. Sheila’s is the surprisingly cool “Coyote”, and Billy is obviously “Falcon”. Also, Samuel was Canadian and Kaysen was a parasailing, mayonnaise-loving Australian. Who knew?

I noticed Nick’s favorite food is sarmale/cabbage rolls. Cabbage rolls are the kind of food Eastern European moms make and that you eat with your family, especially on Christmas. Did SWERY intend that? Before I knew Nick’s story, I saw that and thought family must be really important to him. Sometimes, random facts like favorite foods can really add a dimension to a character. Did other cabbage roll eaters get the same feeling?

Also, I saw that Nicklaus’ favorite thing is something called “TV Game”. I thought they meant “TV Game shows”, which would be totally in character for him seeing as he likes television enough to catch reruns of “Spies from the Sea”, but it turns out it’s just a Japanese-ism for “video games”. Gone are my visions of Dietrich filming episodes of “The Price is Right” with the prisoners at the B&C plant… The ultimate form of torture!

B&C plant? Does that make it a Bio AND Chemical plant?

The name is a holdover from the Japanese version where that is apparently the correct terminology.

What’s Nicklaus’ deal?

Basically the same. In short, he hated Scarface for being a backstabbing child-murdering prick and was jealous of Billy, who grew up with a mother. Because Nicklaus’ father tried to kill him, he decided the sweetest revenge on everyone would be to have Scarface’s other son kill his own father. The NA version missed out on some pretty awesome SWERY lines, though. There's also a huge difference in the sequence of events in Nick's story. Take a listen in the second half of this video.

NICKLAUS:
We weren’t wealthy, but there was warmth in that house.

…
NICKLAUS:
It was a perfect nightmare.
My mother’s mangled body,
Above her-
A man I thought was my father,
A gun pressed into my forehead.

NICKLAUS:
(screamed)
I desperately pushed him away
And struggled for my life!

But HE!

NICKLAUS:
(composed)
He hammered me on the forehead with his gun.
There was no sense of “reality”.
When I awoke in a pool of fresh, warm blood, he was gone.

NICKLAUS:
(giggle)
Even the legendary operative couldn’t kill and maim in cold blood!

SHEILA:
You’re wrong!
He couldn’t bear to kill you!

NICKLAUS:
What do you know?!
The first time I came into contact with him,
He didn’t…
(beat)
Even blink when he saw my scar.
To him both my mother and I were nothing more than “tools”!

SHEILA:
But…

NICKLAUS:
On the surface, I cooperated with Enigma, waiting for my revenge.

And then,
I met you.

(NICKLAUS points to BILLY)

NICKLAUS:
I couldn’t believe my eyes.
I never thought he might have had another son!

BILLY:
My father abandoned me…

NICKLAUS:
Shut up!
While I was freezing in the Eastern winter, you basked in the Western sun!

NICKLAUS:
(amused)
Ha… What a sight!
Fathers and sons killing each other!

Nick’s Japanese voice actor might have sucked at being nice, but the man is damn good at being crazy. I’m pretty sure that’s the only reason he was hired. The Japanese lines also explain Dietrich’s fixation with blood and show SWERY’s love for puns that don’t make a whole lot of sense in English but I love them anyway. It doesn’t explain how Nick got that hole in his hand if Scarface didn’t actually shoot him, but details.

Billy is Liquid Snake. BRRRROOOOTHHHERRRRRR!

That’s hilarious, but it wasn’t the case in the Japanese version. Nicklaus and Billy simply call each other ‘partner’. I guess it was cut because it makes them sound like life partners or something? It’s an okay change, but I didn’t like how they changed the intonation of Billy’s final line to Nicklaus.

BILLY:
(sadly)
Partner... "Back in the Hole"...

Billy is more angry and “cool” in the NA. I personally liked the sadder delivery better, but that’s just opinion.

“Nicklaus” or “Dietrich”?

This is a tough question and more a lesson on manners than any legitimate answer. My policy is to go with whatever the person introduces himself to you by. Over the entire course of the game, Dietrich never introduces himself as “Dietrich Troy” to anyone, and we only know that’s his name from what other people say. Nicklaus obviously had to introduce himself as “Nicklaus Nightwood” to Phantom, so until he says otherwise (which he never does) it’s best to assume that’s what he wants to be called (by Phantom, at the very least). It’s only polite to oblige. Besides, why would Nicklaus use his real name in front of his father and not bring that up when he was bitching about how Scarface saw Dietrich’s scars and didn’t recognize him? It’s more than likely that his real name is neither ‘Dietrich’ nor ‘Nicklaus’. Then again, the exact line was “he didn’t even blink when he saw my scars”, so that could be interpreted to mean that Scarface recognized him and simply didn’t care. Anyway, Billy is rude and ends up calling him “Dietrich”. The man has no sense of courtesy. But yeah, I personally call him “Nicklaus”.

Also, why would Nick suddenly get an accent in the NA when he was revealed to be Dietrich? He can obviously speak English just fine without one. In the Japanese, he speaks with Dietrich's slightly deeper voice. It just sounds like he's quit faking being the nice "best friend".

How many film references are there in Spy Fiction?

A lot. I’m not a big cinephile, so I doubt I’ve recognized all of them. The NA version cut out a bunch of them though. Going from the Japanese version, these are all I’ve recognized:

Spy Fiction is a straight up B-movie. SWERY really dropped the ball.

That’s sort of the case, but I think there’s a lot more to it. It's not a just a Metal Gear clone. Remember that excerpt from the manual? About ‘truth’ and ‘fiction’, ‘heroes’, ‘action flicks’ and ‘happy endings’? That’s basically the point of Spy Fiction as a work. Spy Fiction is a deconstruction of the common conventions of spy movies. The Japanese version is much clearer about that because of the constant references to ‘fiction’, but the NA cut out that entire line of thought, trying to play it straight and consequently turning it into a B-movie. Personally, I feel the NA is insulting in how it took the SWERY out of SWERY’s work just because it was a little crazy. “In heaven, everyone dreams of the S.E.A.”, anyone?

I could write an entire essay on the artistic values of Spy Fiction alone, and there are probably a million things I missed, but I’m sure everyone’s tuckered out from my giant block of text.

But anyway, Spy Fiction DOES show the beginnings of SWERY’s auteur style in its plot. Read it sort of like a satire. You’ll like it better.

So, why do you think this adaptation happened?

Well, the SWERY-isms were obviously taken out because the world wasn’t ready for his particular brand of crazy. By taking out the crazy, they happened to remove the entire message of his work. To try to make up for it, they blew the religious undercurrents out of proportion, but couldn’t piece together a coherent theme. I think the mistranslations and general silliness were the result of miscommunication with the original developers.

Here’s how I picture what happened: The NA team decided to throw out the entire original translation for some silly reason (probably because it was too “nonsensical” to the average viewer and they wanted to expand their target audience) and decided to do their own from the original Japanese script. Once they threw out the crazy, they didn’t have much to work with. So they made something up similar to the original script without consulting with the people who did the original translation. Apparently the NA translators weren’t the greatest at it, which is why Dietrich has Alzheimer’s and the little things like Nicklaus’ hair colour mistranslated as ‘silver’ even though the kanji used is clearly ‘ash blond’ and it’s translated correctly to English on the Japanese website. There is no way anyone could end up nonsense like the Träume if they had read the original translation first.

As for the more confusing stuff of the setting and how the characters were meant to act, clearly no one consulted with SWERY which is why Dietrich is being overtly malicious in a scene he’s meant to conversational. Don’t get me wrong, the vast majority of the Japanese voice acting is terrible (with the notable exceptions of Kelly Wong and Scarface, who vastly outshine their NA counterparts), but the NA didn’t improve it by that much.

But why would the company waste money to translate a part of a game that’s already been translated? It makes me sad to think that they wanted to take the SWERY out of SWERY’s first work that badly.

Why didn’t you explain […] more?

There’s always more to say, but just saying it won’t have much effect. If you want to really see Spy Fiction as SWERY intended it, be cheap and watch playthroughs on niconicodouga or buy the Japanese version and experience the crazy for yourself!