Japanese HeroQuest: Card Translations

[Daedalus]

All people involved will have a space there. You know this job in not just mine, I am only the last shackle of an old chain of fan works.

And I'm just polishing the the shackle.

Flame Axe: I'd simplify "The Flame Axe should be owned by the Dwarf." > The Dwarf gets the Flame Axe.

Wand of Recall: same change as Flame Axe

Silver Blade: same change as Flame Axe

Freeze Bow: same change as Flame Axe

Ok revising this.... What do you think if I better write "The Flame Axe should be taken by the Dwarf."

Yes, taken sounds the best.

Stick: Of stick, club, or cudgel I can see visually why you chose stick. The terms are basically interchangeable, though club is the most prevalent in translators I tried and as discussed in this JA article I found. My understanding is that "staff" seems to be a more utilitarian device, while "club" is used for a weapon.

Other key art references for the Japanese translator were the Magician Character Card and figure. I think the matching weapon is best described as a quarterstaff due to the ferrule and general size and length (though a bit short.) Problem is, Japanese lacks that word as it's an English weapon.

I suspect UK "Staff" was translated to JA "Club/Stick" because of the combat use in Hero Quest. If that combat nature is to be translated back into English while avoiding the awkward "Stick" or "Club", it may be desirable to use Quarterstaff instead.

I also like club... do you think it would be the better term to use?

I'm leaning towards Club because of Google Translate and the (JA) article I linked that describes a club as more worked than a stick. Fortunately, Club hasn't officially been defined as a weapon in Hero Quest, though some non-JA monsters clearly wield the more traditional sort. (I hope I'm not over-thinking this.)

Crossbow: I'd change ". . . You may only use it to attack enemies at a distance, so you cannot attack enemies on squares surrounding you.. . ." > You can use it to attack enemies that are at a distance, but you cannot attack enemies that are in contact with you.

[I chose closer to the original Japanese by sticking with "in contact with you." My feeling is the Rules of Play define "in contact" as 8 surrounding squares, so the Evil God player is meant to figure it out.]

If you don't agree, change ". . . so you cannot attack enemies on squares surrounding you.. . ." > . . . so you cannot attack enemies in squares surrounding you.. . .

Ok, I will change the wording but I will kept the term "surrounding" since that was the term used by bluesun in his Rulebook translation, he did not use "contact" word for it. Moreover if you check the Japanese characters in the card you will see they match better with "surrounding" translation than "adjacent" so I think we can avoid any ambiguity not using "in contact". Moreover (x2), the rulebook chapter where are explained how projectile weapons may be used it is also told by bluesun "surrounding" squares... Then, I don't see any reason to introduce in the card any ambiguity in this case by using "contact" squares term.

I will also adapt the Freeze Bow text in the same way if it applies.

Sounds good. Though I wasn't able to tease out the "surrounding" translation as you have, your reasoning is solid. I trust your translation efforts over the whole more, anyway.

[HispaZargon]

Hi, thank you again. I have already uploaded the new translated versions v.1.2 of Legendary Treasure and Equipment cards according to last discussions.

You can found them here and here.

Notice I have also added the following minor changes:

- Final updated note "May be used by anyone" has been also added to Club card in line with Potion of Healing cards.
- The final text included in Crossbow and Freeze Bow cards is the following one: You can use it to attack enemies that are at a distance, but you cannot attack enemies in squares surrounding you.
- Finally I have decided to change all the cards titles to Caslon Antique font as I did with monster cards. This change is cooler and it also fit with previous style criteria followed in Rules of Play and Quest Book translations.

[Kurgan]

So if I'm understanding this right, the Japanese Edition (like the EU but unlike the NA edition) Heroes have base attack/defense but no actual "starting weapons/armor" and so the Barbarian in this edition starts with 3 attack dice as his base attack... but once he buys a Broadsword, he then has 4 attack dice.

And then similarly, the Elf and Dwarf each would start with a base attack of 2, but they can still buy the Shortsword (finally, a good reason to buy it) to upgrade to 3 attack dice AND a diagonal attack ability.

Is that right?

The Club name sounds stronger than the Stick, but whatever is most accurate... can't wait to see the final pieces, maybe as a January gift? If you have time of course... have a safe Christmas!

[HispaZargon]

So if I'm understanding this right, the Japanese Edition (like the EU but unlike the NA edition) Heroes have base attack/defense but no actual "starting weapons/armor" and so the Barbarian in this edition starts with 3 attack dice as his base attack... but once he buys a Broadsword, he then has 4 attack dice.

And then similarly, the Elf and Dwarf each would start with a base attack of 2, but they can still buy the Shortsword (finally, a good reason to buy it) to upgrade to 3 attack dice AND a diagonal attack ability.

Is that right?

Yes, I think so.

The Club name sounds stronger than the Stick, but whatever is most accurate... can't wait to see the final pieces, maybe as a January gift? If you have time of course... have a safe Christmas!

I promised finishing it until end of year... You know many HeroQuest GREAT new topics have appeared since that which required much attention... but I will try it

[HispaZargon]

Hi, I have uploaded the new translated version v.1.3 of Equipment cards. You can found it here.

I have only addded a minor change: I noticed in both translated Japanese Rule Book and Quest Book that Potions of Healing were called everywhere as Heal Potions, so I changed their Equipment cards title and text to match with the books wording for consistency.

[HispaZargon]

Hi, again.

Continuing with the Japanese Edition cards translation, I am glad to share with the Inn members the translation of the twenty one TREASURE CARDS.

I took the raw scans of the original cards from this post but they were not too clean, so I firstly decided to make the following cleaned and printable PDF version of them, which I used as master version:

HQ_Japanese_Cards_Treasure_1991_[JAP]_[PRINT-VERSION].pdf

As previous ones, the PDF file is designed to be printed in adhesive paper, to fold each card pair of faces through the middle line, to stick both faces to a thin cardboard like a sandwich and finally to cut the boundaries of each card assembly using a paper-cutter or guillotine.

I took the work already performed by Malcadon in previous post as basis for the cards translation to English and I have also checked it with some online translation tools, but I would like to clarify and note the following:

- Like with the rest of game components, I tried to make the most accurate translation of the cards without adapting their rules to any other existing game systems like EU or NA.

- In Heal Potion cards the Malcadon's translation was not accurate since he indicated the potion may be used instead of performing an action, but the correct translation says it may be used instead of moving. It fits with what is also indicated in the Rule Book, page 18. Additionally, notice that the two included cards are different, one heals 3 BP and the other 4 BP.

- In Hero's Liquor card, prefered such title for this drink since literal translation is Hero's Sake and "sake" means in Japanese "alcoholic drink", so I thought "liquor" would be more correct than "brew" or "ale" which are more related with beer... in fact, in Japan "sake" is a liquor of rice, not a beer.

- In Potion of Power card, that seems to be the correct title from Japanese, not "Potion of Strength" so I decided to write it literal since it fits better with the description... I trend to link Strength term more with Resistance than with Fortitude or Power...

- Aesthetical topics: Again, I used the font Aldine721BT in most of the texts and Caslon Antique for the card titles instead of font Gaze. Font Gaze is used in EU cards titles but, trying to give a different look to the Japanese game components, it is a font I intentionally avoided to use in the already translated components, so I have followed the same criterion for the cards. And again, number of dice or gold coins are written in the cards by means of a number instead of a word, like in the original Japanese texts.

Well, according to all herein above, here you have the translated Treasure cards to English (Version 1.1 according to changes discussed up to this post):

HQ_Japanese_Cards_Treasure_in_English_v1.1_by_HispaZargon_[PRINT-VERSION].pdf

Of course if you find anything that you think should be corrected, please tell me.

[Kurgan]

Fantastic... an early Christmas gift under the tree from HispaZargon!

I shall drink the Hero's Sake (or Liquor) with relish...


PS: So only bad cards get returned to the deck here I'm assuming?

[HispaZargon]

PS: So only bad cards get returned to the deck here I'm assuming?

Yes... it is explained in Rules of Play's pages 13 and 14.

[Kurgan]

Sure, that's right. Many happy returns of the day!

[HispaZargon]

Dear all, (especially dedicated to Kurgan who has been patiently waiting for this Christmas gift )

Continuing with the Japanese Edition cards translation, I am glad to share with the Inn members the translation of the twelve SPELL CARDS.

I took the raw scans of the original cards from this post but they were not too clean, so I firstly decided to make the following cleaned and printable PDF version of them, which I used as master version:

HQ_Japanese_Cards_Spells_1991_[JAP]_[PRINT-VERSION].pdf

As previous ones, the PDF file is designed to be printed in adhesive paper, to fold each card pair of faces through the middle line, to stick both faces to a thin cardboard like a sandwich and finally to cut the boundaries of each card assembly using a paper-cutter or guillotine.

I took the work already performed by Malcadon in previous post as basis for the cards translation to English and I have also checked it with some online translation tools, so I would like to clarify and note the following:

- Like with the rest of game components, I tried to make the most accurate translation of the cards without adapting their rules to any other existing game systems like EU or NA.

- Japanese text transcriptions: Just for advisory purposes, I found a couple of mistakes in the Japanese texts ahown in this Malcadon's post. Malcadon's considered in several card texts the character 昧 instead of 味, which led to incorrectly translate "ally" as "enemy" in several cards... both characters are very similar, sure it was a mistake of the OCR converter tool he used. I found another minor mistakes with numbers but fortunately I think now I have considered all of those texts well corrected in my translations.

- Veil of Mist card: It has been added the sentence “…the next time he moves.” in Veil of Mist card text, because, although such sentence was missing in the original Japanese text, it seems to be a clear original misprint.

- Pass through Rock card: Due to in Japanese language the use of plural words is quite rare, it is not fully clear that this spell allows the player to pass through several walls or just thorugh only one. Most of the translations obtaibed by the common translate online tools talks about "the wall" instead of "the walls" but as seen in other Japanese cards, when original text is refering to only one thing, they use to write it with a number "1" and such is not he case of this Japanese card, so it suggests the original Japanese text is refering to several walls, no only one. Moreover, the EU and Na versions of HeroQuest also allow passing through more than one wall, so also allowing that by the Japanese card has been finally considered as the correct translation.

- Gust of Wind, Water of Restoration and Healing spell cards titles correspond to literal translations to Japanese. In case of Gust of Wind I think would not be any discussion since it is a fully different spell than in EU and NA versions of HeroQuest. In case of the two healing spells, well, the title literal translation did not exactly fit with the EU and NA ones but I prefered to leave them literaly.

- Aesthetical topics: Again, I used the font Aldine721BT in most of the texts and Caslon Antique for the card titles instead of font Gaze. Font Gaze is used in EU cards titles but, trying to give a different look to the Japanese game components, it is a font I intentionally avoided to use in the already translated components, so I have followed the same criterion for the cards. And again, number of dice, etc. are written in the cards by means of a number instead of a word, like in the original Japanese texts.

Well, according to all herein above, here you have the translated Spell cards to English (Version 1.2 according to changes discussed up to this post):

HQ_Japanese_Cards_Spells_in_English_v1.2_by_HispaZargon_[PRINT-VERSION].pdf

Finally, I would like to note that THIS IS THE LAST COMPONENT OF JAPANESE EDITION I HAD PLANNED TO TRANSLATE. This translation project started during Summer 2021 and I have finished it the 28th of December of 2021, just until the end of the year, as promised... I hope you would enjoy having all these staff translated to English.

Of course if you find anything that you think should be corrected, please tell me.