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Darien asked a question recently about Pokémon X/Y . I haven’t played the game, but it’s such an interesting question that I HAVE to share it:

This one’s a little bit different, I think. In Pokémon X/Y, after beating the main game, there’s an optional set of quests you can do involving a detective agency in Lumiose City. One step of this quest involves a woman (described as a tourist) who comes to the agency seeking help, but she doesn’t speak English — all of her dialogue is in untranslated Japanese. I’ve taken shots of it and enclosed them; I’d be curious to know what she says, since the game never actually tells you, and I wouldn’t trust it even if it did — dialogue like this is notorious for being a spot to hide easter eggs. There’s quite a bit of it, so if it’s too much to ask, I dig that, but I thought I’d give it a whirl.

Wow! This is actually really cool! And I’m curious to see how it might’ve been handled in other languages – does the Japanese version have her speaking entirely in English, for example? I’d love to know!

Anyway, as I’m not aware of the full context and have no idea what the flow of these screenshots are or how they relate to each other, treat these translations only as crutches or as trivia tidbits!

So there you go! Hopefully it makes sense for people who’ve played through the game. If I’ve messed anything up (like, who is this Looker guy? Is he possibly the little girl’s uncle?) let me know in the comments! And definitely let me know if you know how this was handled in other languages!

Update: BB Gang Zombie has sent me screenshots from the Japanese version of the game. Apparently the Japanese version and every other non-English version has this tourist lady speaking in English. So here’s a look at this scene in English!

Neat! I wonder which was written first for this – the Japanese or the English. It’s also interesting to see the little differences that are hiding in the two versions, like singular/plural changes, plus the fact that they call him by his Japanese name “Handsome” while also using the English term “Poké Ball” rather than the Japanese term “Monster Ball”.

Thanks to everyone who’s commented with more info and sent me e-mails with more details!

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