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Popular culture's intrusion into the RPG world varies from game to game,
naturally. Any popular culture reference runs the definite risk of removing
the player from the game and jarringly placing him or her back into the real
world, especially if the reference is utterly gratuitious. These mentions
also bear the onus of derailing the plot with an unrelated detour into
silliness. Having said this, I stand by my enjoyment of the fleeting titles
in which popular culture references show up, mainly because they tend to be
funny (to me) and represent a company's intent of giving a title extra
attention instead of a rush-job translation.
A big problem for many people lies in the fact that popular culture
references cannot be translated directly from the Japanese text. Well, they
COULD, but any topical Japanese game would probably reference Ayumi
Hamasaki's new album, Shonen Jump's latest mega-hit, Shinzo Abe's accession
to the Prime Minister status, or the horrors of traveling during Golden
Week. I picked these topics at random, and I know they are common knowledge
to anyone who pays some attention to Japan. To persons with no interest in
Japan whatsoever beyond the transliterated output, it is quite possible that
the list is completely unknown. I admit to some knowledge of Japan, but
anything of a truly parochial nature would make no sense to anyone outside
of Japan most likely. Whereas any attempts by the Japanese to reference
popular culture from other nations are frustrated by the pervasive dubbing of
everything entering Japan, meaning that the reference would be a Japanese
translation of a Japanese dub, which would have to be translated again once
entering the English-speaking world, and thus would wring the original
intent out completely. Of necessity, therefore, popular culture references
must either be inserted during the translation process or be arrived at via
the RPG's development outside of Japan.
Any discussion of inserting popular culture references into RPGs cannot be
considered without Working Designs being mentioned. For Working Designs,
this method was quite simple according to what is reputed as their standard
practice: NPCs typically had their entire dialogue scrapped and then
something new was written. This process allowed Working Designs to
construct some very funny dialogue (Albert Odyssey probably being the
pinnacle of this) at the expense of whatever the population in towns
originally had to say. How (un)acceptable this is depends upon the
individual; I never had a problem with the result because it guaranteed the
populace of a Working Designs-translated title would be interesting to
converse with, which is far from universal among other publishers. As I
simultaneously feel compelled to speak with the populace in most RPGs while
dreading the frequent banality of their responses, WD translations are for
me.
This style of translating a game is repellent to some, however. A friend
of mine greatly prefers Atlus's translations, which stick much closer to the
original Japanese dialogue. A prime example of how he reacts to Working
Designs is illustrated by me recollecting a scene from Popful Mail I showed
him - a character, Nuts Cracker, speaks in a flamboyant Cajun accent at all
times. I find the character at the very least interesting in this fashion,
he simply declaimed that this was obviously not what Nuts Cracker had
sounded like in Japanese (assuming he was even named Nuts Cracker
originally). It should be mentioned that I regard Atlus's translations very
highly, but do not guffaw quite as much at them as at Working Designs' work.
The discussion over what popular culture aspects could or should be
mentioned in RPGs can span for days - I'll just list a few highlights I've
noticed, along with a few avenues that might yet be explored. The
aforementioned Albert Odyssey featured a sequence wherein an enemy was
taunted out of his mind by a 'Yo' momma...' joke. In the context of the
game it was quite funny, because Albert Odyssey is littered with amusing
moments. In Lunar: Eternal Blue on Sega CD, a by-now-notorious NPC
disparages then-President Bill Clinton. Thanks to the Mighty Morphin' Power
Rangers being a Japanese phenomenon, we were granted the honor of seeing the
Axem Rangers in Super Mario RPG. Dragon Force features numerous asides
dealing with popular culture - the one that springs to mind now has a
general threatening her opponent with tickets to a Michael Boltonaveous
concert. A small line within Panzer Dragoon Saga references South Park, of
all things. Further lines of popular culture inclusion can be ascertained
by my title for this editorial - anyone who does not recognize the reference
is commanded to watch Seinfeld for a minimum of 10 episodes. Any number of
Goth bands are setting themselves up for a mention in the context of
anything undead - although the Cure has been dealt with in this context for
so long that some other band should get attention. Elvis is such a
universal icon that he has popped up in a games already, and it won't end
for a long time. The potential musical references are enormous.... Please
note that it is very probable some of these have already been utilized in
titles with which I am not familiar, so further information is to be
welcomed.
Hm. I really don't have much additional content to add. The insertion of
topical references into RPGs is very much a personal issue, and as my
friend's example illustrates, works poorly for some people. For me it adds
interest during stretches that frequently find me anxious for further
combat.
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