Japanese HeroQuest: Quest Translation

[HispaZargon]

Again, nice work translating over a picture--looks really tough. To keep with the UK 2nd ed. format, I'd suggest this change: "This quest book can only be read by the Demon King.. . . " > This Quest Book can only be read by the Demon King.. . .

Thanks, I will correct it in next revision.

[Kurgan]

Or "...read by the one who will be the Demon King"? Just thinking what would sound less repetitive.

[HispaZargon]

Or "...read by the one who will be the Demon King"? Just thinking what would sound less repetitive.

Yeah I thought to write it in that way in order to avoid the repeating feeling, but I discarded it since I understand that the original text of the covers draws the Demon King as some kind of thing outside the players. We all know that it is not true and somebody may have the role of Demon King but I think the original text does not intentionally suggest that a player is behind it in order to add some mistery when reading those words. Then, finally I prefered to keep the text as accurate as posible to the original in this case even if it does not look too correct.

[HispaZargon]

Hi. I am here again to share with you my progress with this task.

First of all I have been extracting all the quest maps from the available scans. I also prepared the first needed templates for all of them. The lower area of most of the quest maps have scanning defects which I am correcting and cleaning one by one. I know I could use HeroScribe or similar tools to create the maps from zero but I don't want to do it in order to preserve as much as posible the original looking of the scaned version. Aditionally I am correcting any blatant error in the maps. For the scroll text and rules I have prepared a template for all the quests, I think it has not too much sense to use the original scroll of each quest since all of them exactly have the same shape.

Then, here you can see a draft of how I have prepared the translated Quest 1. As said, I have tryed to be as much accurate as posible to the original style of the Japanese questbook:

Edited message: Content of the following attached picture has an updated version in this post.

HQ_Japanese_Questbook_in_English_Quest_01_DRAFT.jpg

Here you also have the original Japanese Quest 1 for comparion purposes:

HQ_Japanese_Questbook_in_Japanese_Quest_01.jpg

As translation basis, I am using the Bob Bob's one since I think it is the most accurate to the Japanese texts but of course I am also checking the rest of the already available translations here in the Inn, and the original Japanese texts, if some changes maybe performed. In case of Quest 1, you can see that I have called the villain as 'Verag' like the gargoyle of EU and NA versions of Hero Quest since, again, I think that was the intention of the Japanese creators, although I know many of us wanted to call this fimir different than the gargoyle but the aim of this translation is doing it as most accurate as posible to the original.

Of course I will compile all the quests in a final PDF file but this is a first advance of how they will look today.

[Kurgan]

I look forward to seeing the future installments! A big thing missing from the old translations were incorporating the in between conversations (which add to the story) into the quest notes.

As great as the adaptations are, preserving this for non-Japanese speakers is an awesome idea.

[HispaZargon]

I look forward to seeing the future installments! A big thing missing from the old translations were incorporating the in between conversations (which add to the story) into the quest notes.

Yeah, they will be there included of course, as the original.

As great as the adaptations are, preserving this for non-Japanese speakers is an awesome idea.

After EU and American, this was the third (and final) game system of original Hero Quest, I think it is part of Hero Quest history so it should be as much accesible as posible for all of us. Japanese rules were released later than the other game systems, so I think they had more time to include several improvements to the other versions which become this one quite interesting. I hope I could finish this translation in a reasonable time!!

[Daedalus]

Good call on using Verag as the leader's name. Staying true to the intent of original text is the wiser path.

[HispaZargon]

Hi, here I send you the draft of full Chapter 1 (first three quests):

HQ_Japanese_Questbook_in_English_Quests_Chapter_1_DRAFT.pdf
Edited message: Content of attached file HQ_Japanese_Questbook_in_English_Quests_Chapter_1_DRAFT.pdf has an updated version in this post.

My comments and changes to previous versions:

Quest 1, Test of Strength:

- Same text as previous draft. Only minor improvement of map's quality and parchment text editing have been added.

- I have decided to write in italics all the "told" texts in the quest rules in order to make some visual difference with the rest of the Evil Wizard texts as some kind of visual aid. Japanese original text has no italics but, well, I think it is too much text without different visual references, but comments are welcome.

Quest 2, Fort Digos:

- The scan quality of the original map has been improved, especially at the map's bottom area.

- I have preserved the quest title proposed by Bob Bob but, Digos seem to be like a village or town since it has 'residents' so, I guess better title could be "Digos' Fort" but, maybe current title is ok in order to distinguish it from the next quest title "Pain Fortress". anyway, what do you think matchs better? Remember I am not a native English speaker

- I think there was a misunderstanding in Bob Bob's translation of quest rule E so I have corrected it as far as I think is better. Bob Bob (and bluesun) said here "... Also, the hero who found this treasure chest takes the jewel. They should add 100 gold to their Character Sheet." I think it is quite confusing since 100 gold really corresponds to the equivalent price of the jewel, 100 gold is not a reward for each hero as I think Bob Bob trend to indicate. Translating the original Japanese text using Google Translator we have the following:

また、こごの宝箱を発見した勇者は宝石を手に入れた。キャラクターシートに100ゴールド加えるように。
Also, the brave who found the treasure chest of Kogo got a jewel. Add 100 gold to your character sheet.

I think mine or Google translations have more sense since otherwise, finding the jewel has none extra value for the hero who found it although the Japanese text tries to make some difference mentioning the hero who found it. Maybe the Bob Bob misunderstanding was motivated by the quest's parchment text where it is said that each hero will be rewarded by 100 gold at the beginning of the quest but that's a different topic so, I think the heroes do not obtain any reward except the jewel found which unique value is 100 gold instead of 100 gold each. I know Japanese language does not make many differences between plural or singular terms but in this case it seems to be a singular sentence, otherwise has not too much sense to mention the hero who finds the jewel and after that reward both him and the rest of heroes exactly will the same gold... Additionally, I have checked that Rise of the Chaos God fan quest book also defines the jewel value in the same way as I think, so everything seems to match That's my impression, what do you think?

- Minor change from Bob Bob's text: I changed "hidden door marker" to "hidden door tile" in order to match with the already translated Japanese rulebook which is intended to be translated to UK English (see Daedalus marker/tile issue old proposal here).

- Last comment: I see that Rise of the Chaos God quest book does not include the fimir (monolizard ) and the orc located in the botton left corner room of the map, maybe it was intentionally done there but I don't know why since Rise of Chaos I think tries to include the same monsters as the original Japanese quest book. Was it intentionally done or is a mistake?

Quest 3, Pain Fortress:

- The scan quality of the original map has been improved, especially at the map's bottom area.

- I changed the background colours of original non used rooms and corridors at the upper right corner to grey colour since they were white by mistake in the original Japanese booklet.

- I have preserved the name "Barah" in the quest texts. Bob Bob's suggested it maybe be as Balur but, what do you think would be more accurate?

- I preserved the name "Talisman of Lore" for this artifact, although this item is completly different to the Talisman of the EU and NA versions of the game. i.e. In Spanish version this artifact was called just "Talismán". Again, what do you think about calling it as Talisman of Lore from accuracy point of view?

- Top left room, circle with Japanese character: I though it would be better to write there "MEEK" since it only had 4 letters and there were not too much space but the Japanese character written inside the circle means "princess" so that's the reason I have written "PRIN CESS" there, in order to preserve the original translation as much as posible.


General last comment about naming: In my opinion I think Japanese creators tried to use names already existing in EU and NA versions of the game like Verag in Quest 1, although it was not a gargoyle there, but I have not investigated yet too much about the names so I now take the opportunity to ask you about it. What do you think should be the way forward with this?

[Kurgan]

My opinion is that you should be as faithful to the original Japanese edition as possible and still make it understandable. The other projects were about not just translation but converting it into NA rules... and when stuff was too similar (like Verag, not trying to make him into some other type of character) they changed it up to make it seem like a new adventure, instead of a localized edition (to Japanese fans, the other versions didn't exist, just like for EU the NA didn't exist, etc).

Preserving its uniqueness and being direct is good, I say keep that up if you ask me!

If someone wanted to use these 14 as extra quests after completing all the others, they can do that now, and if they wanted to sit down and play the way Japanese kids did in 1991, without needing fluency in the language, you will help them to do this. To that end, authenticity is a big plus. Zargons can modify and change things as they go if they want easily enough. It's your project of course, do what you like.

[HispaZargon]

Hi, here I send you the draft of the first six quests:

HQ_Japanese_Questbook_in_English_Quests_01-06_DRAFT.pdf
Edited message: Content of attached file HQ_Japanese_Questbook_in_English_Quests_01-06_DRAFT.pdf has an updated version in this post.

My comments and changes to previous versions:

Quest 1, Test of Strength:

- Minor visual improvement have been added to the chapter's scroll and parchment text. Minor improvements also performed to the grey areas of the quest map.

Quest 2, Fort Digos:

- Minor re-writting in order to clarify the jewel's 100 gold value according to previous post.

Quest 3, Pain Fortress:

- I have definitely renamed Barah as Balur since after checking some other translation tools and make several variations in the original text it seems that Japanese creators' intention was to re-use the name of Balur again for this fire mage as in EU & NA versions of the game. Bob Bob & bluesun already suggested it here and I think they were right. Daedalus also provided some good info about this topic here. As Verag in Quest 1, it has sense to also re-use the name of Balur by Japanese creators, in my opinion.

- I kept the name of Talisman of Lore for the amulet since after also checking in other translation tools it seems that Japanese creators tried to translate it to Japanese with a similar sound as Lor. Japanese characters used in the original quest book sounded like "lower", "low", "law", etc.

Quest 4, Ruins of Way:

- The scan quality of the original map has been improved, especially at the map's bottom area.

- Only minor style changes were added to the Bob Bob & bluesun translation.

Quest 5, Dread Castle:

- The scan quality of the original map has been improved, especially at the map's bottom area.

- Only minor style changes were added to the Bob Bob & bluesun translation.

Quest 6, Ghost Ship:

- The scan quality of the original map has been improved, especially at the map's bottom area.

- Only minor style changes were added to the Bob Bob & bluesun translation.

- I changed the background colour of original non-used small room at the lower left area to grey colour since it was white by mistake in the original Japanese booklet.

- The map symbol of Quest Note's A has been re-located inside the room where it applies in order to be consistent with the position of the rest of quest notes' symbols in the maps. Original Japanese booklet placed symbol A in an adjacent room with none apparent reason so, it has been corrected.