Link’s Awakening Script Comparison: Mabe Village
The text that displays when attempting to lift a heavy object has been updated in both languages for the Switch version.
It’s got a bit more of a bounce to it now!
Mamasha’s line makes more sense now that the Switch version lends it a bit more context. (The Japanese remains the same.)
This one’s not really a comparison, but I always thought it was funny that Papahl planned on getting lost. (He says this in Japanese too!)
In retrospect, it fits the quirky tone of the game pretty well and plays into one of the game’s story revelations.
The text when checking a dresser/chest is more fun now! (It remains the same in Japanese, basically saying what the GB/C English says.)
In Japanese all of the kids say the same thing at the end of their lines:
でも おいら こどもだから
なんのことやら さっぱり わかんないや
Roughly, “But I’m a kid, so I haven’t the faintest clue what that means.”
The English refrain is generally “I’m just a kid!” but with varying sentences before it.
Punny names reign in the four-kid family! (Though the Japanese boy names are just cute, not punny, at least to my knowledge):
Mamasha – ママーシャ
Papahl – パパール
Lattie – テンテン (TenTen)
Suhni – ケンケン (KenKen)
Kidoh – トムトム (TomTom)
Joonya – タムタム (TamTam)
In Japanese Ulrira ends his phone calls with うるりらー (ururiraaa!) which kind of sounds like a fun sing-song thing, but doesn’t seem to mean anything. It sticks out as his catchphrase. In English he has no real catchphrase.
In Japanese Grandma Yahoo is named ヤッホー (yahoh), but yells イヤッホー (iyahoh!)
“Yahoh” is generally a greeting along the lines of “Howdie!”, but “iyahoh” is apparently yelled in celebration, like “Hooray!”
So she is in fact just an excited grandma yelling “Yahoo!”
Incidentally, her text was changed for the 3DS eShop version of Link’s Awakening, supposedly to avoid copyright issues. For more info on this see:
Apparently that must no longer be seen as a problem though, because Grandma Yahoo is yahoo-ing it up once more.
On J Switch using the phone in Ulrira’s house connects you to Nitendo Gallery (seemingly misspelled on purpose), but in English you get the Bucket Mouse. This was indeed バケットマウス (baketto mausu) in the J GB version, which may be better rendered as Bucket Mouth, a brand of tackle boxes named after a slang term for bass. Japanese doesn’t have a “th” sound, so both “mouse” and “mouth” are written as マウス. In any case, with how nonsensical and silly the game can be, “Bucket Mouse” fits right in in English.
The tiny bowwows are both named キャンキャン (kyan-kyan) in Japanese after the noise they make (YIP YIP!), but get actual names in English:
CiaoCiao and ChowChow.
In Japanese, the foxes have kinda weird/funny dialogue: first making the typical fox noise コーン (ko-n), but then saying カキクケコーン (kakikukeko-n), a kind of joke on the Japanese hiragana system which sorts syllables in that order: ka ki ku ke ko, ra ri ru re ro, etc.
In English, the foxes sound more aggressive on GB, growling at Link. But on Switch they just say “Yip yiiip!” Foxes don’t really have a standard noise in English, so the translators probably just went with whatever sounded most appropriate.
One of the boys playing catch tells you to go inside a house or cave when running low on hearts in the GB/C version, but in the Switch version he says to find a big fairy. This is true in Japanese as well. Although it isn’t immediately clear how running into a house or cave might help on GB/C, it’s apparently because the game will reset you back at the last door transition when you die, so you’ll at least spawn nearby where you were. (Credit to @RottenBlock for this observation.)
In the Japanese description of how to do the Whirling Sword technique, it doesn’t mention anything about a hero, only that it’s been passed down through a certain family/tribe. But we know from other entries in the series that this does indeed refer to Link’s family.
On E GB/C it says that you can use the shield to flip enemies. Whereas on E Switch it says you can use it to push enemies, a more useful tidbit that the player needs in the near future. (The line is the same in Japanese, using the verb はじく (hajiku) which can mean both to flip and to repel.)
In Japanese the explanation on warp points implies that if you’ve seen it, you can warp to it. (The GB/C version translated it this way also.) But the English Switch version clarifies that you have to have used it. The Japanese text is the same in both versions.
On Switch, the mysterious book has an additional hint that says that helping people might lead you to find the magnifying lens. The same is true in Japanese. (Also the English line is just cute and fun.)
The bookshelf line is perfectly silly in both English and Japanese. (J is literally “This is a bookshelf. Huh? You knew that? Oh, okay.”) The English and Japanese GB/C lines are the same except they start with “This is not a chest.”
And that’s it for the village! Next will be the lead up to the first dungeon.
