Other Issues with the Portuguese translation

[MedK]

It's been a while lol. Like the title says, I'd like to point out some things. I looked through variant names, variant quotes and special move names for the most part. There might be things in the main story mode dialogue and variants' modifiers but I haven't actually gone and looked for those actively yet, so the ones here are just the ones I just happened to stumble onto. I hope this is easy enough to read, cause it's intended to be an exhaustive list. They're mostly small issues, though! The translation work y'all have done on this is SUPERB (I especially love "Vento Ventania"), so I really just wanna help out a little.

I'm starting out by chat messages and story modes; these take a little longer to explain I think lol.

There's a double space between "50" and "vitórias". Also, I don't think Prize Fight names are supposed to be in all caps? Or at least the other ones aren't. There are other minor capitalization issues like this sprinkled through text in general, this includes other modes too and even variants like Headstrong or Salty.


I marked the "uma" part there as well. That's because Portuguese has grammatical gender, and (I'm not sure how these text bits work) while "relíquia" (Portuguese for relics, the place you'd usually get your variants from) is feminine, "presente" (gift) is masculine, and so it should be "um PRESENTE" instead.

This is presuming it gets custom lines for gold gifts specifically. In case it's coded like "Player just got this.getVariantName(); from a this.getSourceName();", I recommend changing it to "de um(a)". Placing these things in parentheses is how we do it in Portuguese in cases like this. Especially when it comes to sending bills to my house.

Also, it's said "Presente de Ouro" (Literally "Gift of Gold"; Portuguese doesn't allow saying just "Gold Gift" the way English does.). Please add the "de" so that it becomes grammatically correct.


This is from the Under the Bridge act in Who's the Boss?. I wanna come back to these story messages and talk about them specifically someday, but the translation work for this one chat line stands out quite a bit. There are three sentences here. The first and last ones are grammatically correct, but both of them are kind of unnatural, the expressions used sound very English-like in nature; we don't literally say "lead for brains" in Portuguese. ...Also, the second sentence is straight up English.

"Medici" is plural (they're several people), so it should be "os Medici". "**** for brains" in Portuguese is "merda na cabeça" (literally "**** in the head"). And a good translation for "messing" would be "mexendo". So with that in mind I recommend something like "Mexendo com os Medici? Você tem chumbo na cabeça?" for the second paragraph. "Chumbo na cabeça" still isn't something that'd be said in normal conversation but oh well. I'm not sure about the first one; there are lots of possibilities, but something like "E essa turminha de malucos aí?" could work.


This is from the Medici tower. The only problem here is that "Dossélia" normally has a diacritic and here it's missing it.



I ran into this a while ago, too. I completely forgot where this was, but Tommy is talking to Big Band here and he's saying something like "Slow down there, big guy, if the boss wants to watch cartoons, let her watch 'em. I think you need a heavy lesson on good manners."

Anyway, the translation work here is great. The only nitpick I have is that it says "se o chefe" (if the boss) and "deixa ele assistir" (let him watch). Peacock is the boss; she's a girl. So it should be "se a chefe" and "deixa ela assistir".

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This is Beowulf's Marquee Ability. I actually come across the "sua%" thing fairly often in match modifiers too, so I hope y'all can take a look at them as well. Not only should it have a space between "sua" and "%", but "sua" is "your (feminine gender)" and when I read "%" in Portuguese, the only word that comes to mind is "percentual", which is masculine. So it should be "seu %" instead. Also, shouldn't "Vida" be in all caps there?


This is a modifier in Double's Daily Match. Yesterday I forgot to check how the text looked in English so I'm not sure if I'm actually correct here, but I thought I'd mention it just in case. "Tirar" means "to remove". I actively use the term "tirar dano" to mean "deal damage", so this would mean that the character deals extra damage. ...But the modifier is on my player character, so surely I can't be doing extra damage, right? Chances are I'm probably taking extra damage inst-- oh I see how the problem happened now lmao. ("to take" is also literally "tirar; not in this context though). Anyway, please change "tira" to "leva", "toma" ou "recebe". The game already uses "levar" in other cases so out of the three that's the one I'd recommend but all three work.

...Crap, there's a maximum of 10 images per post. I'll send a reply here with everything else I found. It's gonna take a little while...

 

[MedK]

There's a typo here. "Wall" in Portuguese is "parede" and someone forgot to add the "E" between the R and D.

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I'd like to talk a little about the phrases on the variants, too.

Especially That's All Folks!'. I actually spent quite a while researching that one (the TL;DR will be in yellow!), cause in English, it's an iconic sentence said by Bugs Bunny and a couple of important comedians (who I'd never heard of before looking into it) called the Marx Brothers. In Portuguese, the sentence isn't significant or well-known at all.

So I actually had to go look for episodes where Bugs Bunny said "Of course you know, this means war!" and then look for how they got dubbed over here. Turns out there were three different dubs (click here!) made for the old Looney Tunes show here in Brazil, and the only one who keeps it as an actual catchphrase that always gets repeated pretty much the same way was the first one.

The first dub seems to say, every time, without fail, "Eu dou um boi para não entrar numa briga...!". That one's actually an incomplete Portuguese proverb (that I hadn't heard about either, huh), which roughly states "I'll give a bull to not get into a fight, but I'll give a herd to not get out of one." He's basically saying it takes a lot to make him angry, but that now that he is angry, oh boy. Very fitting.

The second and third dubs treat it like they would any normal sentence; every time it's said, it's re-translated, so it ends up slightly different each time. There was a link above (here's it again!) comparing the three dubs, and here's another one w/ a different clip (click here!). The sentence is said different each time:
*Eu dou um boi pra não entrar numa briga...! (Portuguese proverb, it's explained above.)
*Esse sujeito tá começando a me irritar, rapaz... (This fellow is starting to get on my nerves, man...)
*Você já percebeu que isso significa guerra, não é? (You've already noticed this means war, haven't you?)
*Você sabe muito bem que isso quer dizer guerra! (You know very well this means war!)

As you can see, sentences 3 and 4 were both re-translated as the phrase isn't an actual catchphrase in Portuguese. This means that while the current sentence is fine, no Brazilian is going to get the reference. One could change it to sentence 1 (it'd become an actual reference someone would get, however niche) or to sentences 3 or 4 just to make the phrase a bit more "official"-like. I'd like to suggest either changing it to sentence 1 or changing it to "O que que há, velhinho?", which is the Portuguese version of "What's up, doc?" and is very iconic and recognizable just like the English saying. ...Although I wouldn't be surprised if that reference were already in the game somewhere.


There's no punctuation.


The D here probably shouldn't be capitalized.

Sketchy's phrase is "Why I oughta...". I only just now learnt that that's from cartoons and it's supposed to be taken as a threat of sorts. As in, it's "why" as an interjection and then "I oughta [do something]!" It got translated as "Pra quê eu deveria...", which does mean "Why I oughta", but with "why" as a question: "Why do I have to...". That's completely different from the original message. In Portuguese, the closest I can think of is the equivalent to "Why, you...!" ("Ora, seu...!") which carries the same energy and even tends to come with the same hand gesture in cartoons (click here!). Mônica from popular (in Brazil) cartoon Turma da Mônica says it very often, too. So I'd suggest changing it to "Ora, seu...!". Unless "Why, you...!" is already used by some other variant?


This is actually fine. ...But it's a bit wordy; it'd take quite a while to say that. It'd be nice if "serão forçados a" were changed to "terão que", "vão ter que" with an optional "ir" after the "que". That'd change the sentence's translation from "They will be forced to take a walk!" to "They will have to (go) take a walk!"

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As for the actual variant names, there aren't many I want to highlight.


Xenomorph (from the Alien series) is "Xenomorfo" in Portuguese. The prefix "xeno-" is still "xeno-" in Portuguese. It's not "xena". I've hung around in Portuguese-speaking chats and even they call this variant "Xenomorfa" with an O at the beginning.
Please change it to "Xenomorfa".


Djinn Frizz stayed unchanged from English. Granted, "frizz" and "djinn" are both words that aren't translated; I hear the word "frizz" often in my day-to-day life.
Do consider making it be "Frizz de Djinn" though so it matches up with Portuguese grammar. It's a similar thing with Pyro-Technique: ever since the Orthographic Agreement in 1990, Portuguese doesn't really like hyphens anymore.


This is a really charming name and it flows off the tongue well, but now that I'm writing this I can't help but wonder, why is it in German?

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Next are special moves. I feel like I'm dangerously close to reaching the limit for images per post so I'm changing up the formatting.

Widow's Peak: Pico de Viúva -> Bico de Viúva.
"Pico" means "peak" (among other things, I digress though), but as a literal peak. So "pico de viúva" means a widow who's at the peak of her life or something. The term for the actual hairline, other than "Vegeta's hair" (no, seriously. I'd actually say it like that in a real conversation), is "bico de viúva", literally "widow's beak".

I don't think a single Beowulf special move or blockbuster was translated. Hopefully that can be changed.

Gregor Samson is called "Die Verwandlung". It's German again. Just like with Wunderkind, maybe it's a reference of some kind and I'm just dumb and don't get it? Still though, maybe it shouldn't be in German so I'm talking about it here. I checked the German version of the game and it's "Gregor Samson" there too. Maybe a German translator just typed the name in the wrong spot?

Some of Double's moves weren't translated either, and most of the ones that did get translated still have half of their name be in English. It's kind of weird frankly and I hope that can get revised.

Hairball: Bola de Cabelo -> Bola de Pelo.
This one is actually fine as it means literally "hair ball", but the name in English matches up with hairballs spat by cats and stuff. That can't be a coincidence, right? Those are called "bolas de pelo" in Portuguese.

Breakdown: Indefeso -> Colapso
"Indefeso" means "defenseless" or "helpless" and it's an unusual name for a taunt attack. Since it's on the masculine, I guess it's saying the opponent is defenseless? I guess that's a taunt, but it makes no sense with the animation it has. I'm suggesting changing it to "colapso" as that's the translation for "breakdown", especially the mental kind, but it works for things physically breaking down as well.

Cat Slide: Deslisada Felina -> Deslizada Felina
There's a typo in the name of the attack. "Deslizada" is spelt with a Z.

Pinion Dash was translated as "Eixo de Corrida" or roughly "Running Shaft"/"Racing Axle". I can't help but feel like the joke ended up being lost in translation.

 

[MedK]

I forgot to mention a couple of things.


Resonant Evil's SA2. It's saying that he can stun the opponent for 4 seconds if he hits them. That's wrong, it should be if he gets hit. So please change "Ao GOLPEAR" to "Ao ser GOLPEADO".


"Está" is missing its diacritic here.

 

[Diony]

View attachment 19132
This is Beowulf's Marquee Ability. I actually come across the "sua%" thing fairly often in match modifiers too, so I hope y'all can take a look at them as well. Not only should it have a space between "sua" and "%", but "sua" is "your (feminine gender)" and when I read "%" in Portuguese, the only word that comes to mind is "percentual", which is masculine. So it should be "seu %" instead. Also, shouldn't "Vida" be in all caps there?

I disagree with this one. Porcentagem is feminine.

"Definição de Porcentagem
Classe gramatical: substantivo feminino"
https://www.dicio.com.br/porcentagem/

But besides that, great suggestions. They already changed "Salgada/SummerSalt"(Parasoul) and "A Salgada/Salty"(Umbrella) in the past because someone talked about it. Now it's "Pitada de Raiva"(Umbrella)

I really like the devs, even the small things they care about and they hear the fans.

 

[MedK]

I disagree with this one. Porcentagem is feminine.

"Definição de Porcentagem
Classe gramatical: substantivo feminino"
https://www.dicio.com.br/porcentagem/

But besides that, great suggestions. They already changed "Salgada/SummerSalt"(Parasoul) and "A Salgada/Salty"(Umbrella) in the past because someone talked about it. Now it's "Pitade de Raiva"(Umbrella)
I really like the devs, even the small things they care about and they hear the fans

Oh, you're right! I didn't think about "porcentagem". And yeah, I really like the devs too!

It's kinda funny how the Parasoul variant was the one that stayed as "salty" tbh. Although Pitada de Raiva is a banger of a name.

 

[evilgordo]

Sorry I can not properly contribute to this discussion, but I find it fascinating none the less.
I do not speak any Portuguese and have only tried to learn 2 other languages (French and Japanese).

Grammar, spelling, and formatting, I'm all for it, nothing more to say.

I know from my limited experience, that puns and word play are very difficult translate since there is usually a large cultural/contextual component as well.

I will say that in Diony's earlier post about Salty and SummerSalt names being translated (basically the same) in Portuguese, I did try to provide some insight as to the English meanings of both names, for which there might not be a clear translation that would make sense. Unfortunately, I feel the majority of SGM translations are done with 'machines' and are literal, word for word conversions. I'm not saying it's impossible, but I don't see SGM hiring either 8 translators or 1 that can speak 9+ languages fluently, so, for the most part, it gets the job done.

Let's take this for an example

So I actually had to go look for episodes where Bugs Bunny said "Of course you know, this means war!" and then look for how they got dubbed over here.

This is great, since this Looney Tune cartoon was dubbed waaay before SGM was a thing. I don't know in what order those dubs were created, but whoever used
"Eu dou um boi pra não entrar numa briga..."
understood the context and meaning of the English line and used the closest Portuguese equivalent (even if a bit obscure - but less obscure if the dub was done decades ago).
TBH, even the English line itself is a bit of an obscure reference in the US since both Marx Brothers and Bugs Bunny are products of the 1930s, but variations of that line are still used today, especially the "This means war" part, which, similar to the Portuguese proverb, means 'I'm slow to anger, but when pushed too far, I going to retaliate with force'. Popeye had a similar meaning catchphrase "I can standz all I can standz and I can't standz no more" and out came the Spinach!

That said, I don't know if the suggested alternate quote "What's Up, Doc?", while a Bugs Bunny catchphrase, would really work since I think "...This means war." quote, regardless of how it is phrased, also ties into TaF's aggressive SA.
BTW, Peacock's "That's All Folks" palette is a reference to all cartoons from the 1930s, not specifically Bugs Bunny. And "That's All Folks" was said by many Warner Bros. characters, the most well known being Porky Pig, at the end of each episode, telling audiences 'show's over'. So it being translated to "old times" speaks more for the palette and not the iconic catchphrase.

Djinn Frizz stayed unchanged from English. Granted, "frizz" and "djinn" are both words that aren't translated; I hear the word "frizz" often in my day-to-day life.
Do consider making it be "Frizz de Djinn" though so it matches up with Portuguese grammar

Some insight to on this variant name; The palette is a reference to Shantae video games series, where the main character is a genii (also known as djinn) This being Filia, of course there is a hair pun with frizz, when put together djinn frizz is a play on the drink Gin Fizz. I dunno how that drink name works in Portuguese grammar, much like other drink names like Bloody Mary or Fuzzy Navel.

I don't think a single Beowulf special move or blockbuster was translated. Hopefully that can be changed.

This leads to another thought, that it seems like "Proper or brand" names/title are not usually translated, like League of Legends or Candy Crush, I do not see those being translated, so are SGM variant names not considered 'proper' names? Should they even need to be translated? It would alleviate a lot of naming 'issues' like Salgada/A Salgada or It would even help within the SGM community/forums/chat where TaF means the same thing to everyone. Do SA/PA/MA and move names need to be translated, almost all of them are references to the character/variant, which are also references? (BTW, Beo's Burst is translated) So, like Wulfamania! is a play on Hulkamania and AirWulf is a play on AirWolf the TV series, do those need translating?

I understand it is difficult, there is a fine line between preserving the 'meaning' and having things make sense to outside audiences. Manga and Anime in America has had a long history with that same issue. That's why there's 'debate' between subs and dubs translations (the voice actors is whole other debate); most times the subs are more literal/faithful while the dubs are more 'localized'. (like why are 'donuts' in the Pokemon cartoons white triangles with black squares? Why Brock?) Thankfully, that kind of localization has been on the decline in English Anime dubs.

I'm hoping that maybe providing some context helps with translation/grammar decisions.

 

[MedK]

Indeed, this kind of translation is tough, especially since sometimes a thing that appears to be off is actually just a joke that went over one's head. I don't know how they went about doing the translating; it makes sense that they wouldn't hire several translators for this, but the lines are overall seriously good -- I'd hesitate to think it was just entirely done via Google Translate or something. Some of the references cut fairly deep into Brazilian culture.

I'm hoping that maybe providing some context helps with translation/grammar decisions.

Yeah, providing context *really* does help. I knew and could tell Djinn Frizz was a reference to Shantae, but I didn't ever make the connection between the name and the fizzy drink. It's still called "gin fizz" here, so I guess Djinn Frizz really needs no changes at all. I'll edit the original post.

As for That's All Folks!, I still really think "What's up, doc?" could work as the line. This is TaF we're talking about, not Ultraviolent -- her SAs aren't aggressive at all: SA2 reduces their crit rate and SA1 dodges people's attacks. That's not aggressive, but rather very annoying lmao. Just like Bugs when he's pestering people and saying the catchphrase. I get the variant's not exactly a reference to *just* Bugs Bunny; there are probably better phrases they could use out there (this was just one suggestion), and I agree: Old Times as the variant name is a good translation and way more concise than a direct translation of the variant name would've been.

Should they even need to be translated?

I'm pretty sure variant names indeed aren't considered "Proper Names" for the most part unless they're directly referencing one ("Resonant Evil" for example). And to that I say thank goodness -- if none of the variant/special move names were to be translated, one might as well not translate anything at all, no? I think the different variant names are the most charming part of the actual translation.

So, like Wulfamania! is a play on Hulkamania and AirWulf is a play on AirWolf the TV series, do those need translating?

When I asked for them to take another pass at Beowulf's moves, I didn't exactly mean "translate everything now!" just "translate more things" or "translate *something*"; I was especially thinking of Gigantic Arm and Lupine Pummel when saying that. It'd make sense for "Hurting Hurdle" to keep the "Hurting" in its translated name since that's the name of the chair. And fair point on "burst", but tbh does it *really* count? It's the same name for everyone lol. ...As for the ones you mentioned, though, yeah, I agree Wulfamania is perfectly fine as-is. AirWulf, on the other hand, well, the TV series' name *was* changed over here to "Águia de Fogo" (Fire Eagle), so I think translating it somehow would be a good idea.

 

[evilgordo]

but the lines are overall seriously good -- I'd hesitate to think it was just entirely done via Google Translate or something. Some of the references cut fairly deep into Brazilian culture.

That's reassuring. I'm curious, could you, in the future, share a couple these 'deep cuts' into Brazilian culture? If someone is going through the effort of that kind of translation, I think it should be acknowledged.

As for That's All Folks!, I still really think "What's up, doc?" could work as the line. This is TaF we're talking about, not Ultraviolent -- her SAs aren't aggressive at all: SA2 reduces their crit rate and SA1 dodges people's attacks. That's not aggressive, but rather very annoying lmao. Just like Bugs when he's pestering people and saying the catchphrase. I get the variant's not exactly a reference to *just* Bugs Bunny; there are probably better phrases they could use out there (this was just one suggestion)

My apologies, I agree TaF SA1 is more annoying than aggressive (in combat) and I was not clear about the connection of "...this means war." and the SA name of Slapstick, which in cartoons is what happens after that line is said. "What's up Doc?" is usually said as Bugs' initial greeting of another character. But after hearing your perspective, I'd agree with your reasoning that "What's up Doc?" would work better as a (cleaner) translation and recognizable reference.

if none of the variant/special move names were to be translated, one might as well not translate anything at all, no?

LOL. No, I wasn't implying that. But you're right, the variant/move/ability names are indeed part of the charm, but due to how close many of the names are so closely tied (collectively) to a (US) popculture reference, my though was if the effort to translate those names into Brazilian cultural reference that makes sense isn't possible, is translating into Portuguese beneficial at all?

When I asked for them to take another pass at Beowulf's moves, I didn't exactly mean "translate everything now!" just "translate more things" or "translate *something*";

Agreed, I certainly did not get that vibe from your request. Hmm, I was thinking that maybe Beo's moves didn't get translated 'on purpose' as to keep with bigger joke of Beo just adding "Wulf" to other recognizable references, seems to be 'in character', but I guess it could easily be that HVS Portuguese translations are more 'a work in progress' and they hadn't gotten to them yet.

And fair point on "burst", but tbh does it *really* count? It's the same name for everyone lol.

LOL. No, I guess not, I forgot that everyone 'has' burst as just burst.

AirWulf, on the other hand, well, the TV series' name *was* changed over here to "Águia de Fogo" (Fire Eagle), so I think translating it somehow would be a good idea.

No, I agree, as I did not know that 1. AirWolf was broadcasted in Brazil and 2. the name was changed. That one will be interesting to translate. I guess in this case, the "AirWolf" reference is not gonna work. Maybe something more representative of the move, like "FlyingWulf"..."Soaring Wulf"...again, not knowing Portuguese, I have no idea how those would translate. Anyway, I look forward to how it is handled.

Well, I'll leave the rest of the Portuguese translations to those more in the know. The amount of effort and research on your part to make posts of this nature is impressive and respected, thank you for taking the time. I hope your suggestions are considered and implemented in a future update. Keep up the good work!

 

[Bones]

thanks @MedK !

 

[MedK]

That's reassuring. I'm curious, could you, in the future, share a couple these 'deep cuts' into Brazilian culture? If someone is going through the effort of that kind of translation, I think it should be acknowledged.

I mentioned "Vento Ventania" (hard to translate, I guess "Windy Wind" would have the same overall vibe?) in my original post. That's how they translated Fresh Heir and the Portuguese name is most likely a reference to a song made all the way back in the 90s.

There's also "Frio Cortante" (literally "Cutting Cold") for Bad Ms Frosty. That's actually an expression I see somewhat often; when it's cold, you can somehow end up cutting yourself doing pretty much anything, it's kind of silly and I'm not sure why it happens, but it is what it is lol.

I'm actually not sure about this one; I could be wrong, but the way they translated Raining Champ to "Campeã dos Campeões" (roughly "Champion Among Champions") feels like a reference to this one Brazilian soccer team. As you're probably aware, soccer is a huge thing here and one of the biggest teams has the expression in its hymn. There's even a (pretty barebones) Portuguese Wikipedia page for it fsr lmao.

There are quite a few other cases like this besides just variant names; Peacock's Daily Match for example is called "Sábado Animado". It's the name of a show on TV. The translation's just chock full of clever wordplay to somehow make a pun work in both languages (like "Ronrominador" for Purrminator) and doing actual research (Lethal Weapon as "Máquina Mortífera" instead of something like "Arma Letal"); the translators definitely deserve acknowledgement for sure.

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While I'm here, I found a few more things. Hopefully I'm not just being annoying by nitpicking so hard.


These are Decrypted's SAs. Her SA1 says she inflicts 25% extra damage to all the opponent's allies that are alive. I'd been away for a while, and reading this actually made me think she got buffed to have an SA similar to Trigger Happy's until I switched the game language to English. To fix this, I suggest something like "Inflige 25% de dano extra por cada aliado vivo que o oponente possuir."


The SAs on the left belongs to Stage Fright and the ones on the right are Bio-Exorcist's. Stage Fright's SA2 says "derrotado" in the masculine implying Squigly is a man. She's a girl, though, so it should be "derrotada". It's the same thing for Bio-Exorcist, "CARREGADA" not "CARREGADO".


Nearly Departed's SA1 is missing a period at the end. Also, the verb tense of "ganhar" here is different from the tense normally used in these SAs. It's in the imperative when it's usually just simple present. It's not grammatically incorrect or anything, but for consistency, perhaps "ganha" would be better...


This is Squigly's prestige ability. In English, the first word after "ACTIVATION EFFECT:" is capitalized. Not here though fsr.


Adjectives in Portuguese tend to come after nouns rather than before them like in English. So seeing "Indizível Relíquia" as opposed to "Relíquia Indizível" feels a bit off.


Last one! This loading screen tip says "DEVELOP characters' maximum level in order to unlock their true potential!". Honestly it sounds a bit off. I mean, one doesn't develop the level of the character, one develops the characters themselves, no? I think it'd sound better if it were "DESENVOLVA seus personagens ao nível máximo para liberar [...]" (the rest of the sentence is fine). That'd change the translation to "DEVELOP your characters to the maximum level in order to unlock ..."

thanks @MedK !

No no, it's my pleasure! I greatly appreciate just having you see this, thank YOU!