The The Legend of Zelda series has now set up a number of classics that have conquered the gaming world from its Japanese homeland. When translating the game titles into English, a few changes have crept in, some of which change the names of the respective offshoot quite a bit.
When comparing several titles, we are above all aboutStumped because the original anticipates the story twist at the end of the game much more clearly than the English variant that we all know. But there are also a few other examples.
Japanese Zelda fans knew the Twist before the start
Let's stay with Link's Awakening, which can be translated in German with “awakening links”. The original title Yume O Miru Shima is in Japanese. That can be rough„Trauminsel“Or translate directly with "visible island visible in the dream".
The development team basically anticipated the complete unveiling at the end of the adventure story before fans even started the game.
At the end of the adventure, it turns out that the island of Cocolint and thus the entire game world was a dream of the wind fish, freed the link in the course of the action of nightmares. With the awakening of the wind fish, the dream island also disappears and link wakes up again in the real world.
Although the English title also plays with the topics of sleep and waking up, Link's Awakening is still ambiguous. After all, this could also mean the flare of his heroicness or strands on the unknown island at the beginning. Only at the end shows the variant known to us, on which awakening is actually being played here.
Even more different Zelda titles
andare also exciting examples. While the two English titles work, like two offshoots, the Japanese original makes it clear that it is direct sequels.
In the original, the two games are called "Kamigami No Toraifôsu" and "Kamigami No Toraifôsu 2", so translate"Triforce of the gods" 1 and 2. The 2 to signal a classic sequel is completely out of the English variant.
Let's also take a look at. While the English title means "awakening of the wind", the game is called "Kaze No Takuto". Takuto is an Anglicism for clock or baton. In German the Japanese name means about"Tact/cycle floor of the wind". Very fitting, after all, Link uses exactly this baton in the game as an item.
Okay, okay, one more: The current oneAlso has an interesting difference. While it is called "Echos of Wisdom" for us, the Japanese original title Chie No Karimono is rather called"Borrowed/born wisdom".
In the two current main gamesBreath of the WildandTears of the KingdomIncidentally, there are no differences. Here Nintendo decided to take over the English titles directly.
