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A reader named Dylan sent in a question about a line at the end of Metal Gear Solid 2 . It’s been a long time since I played it, but let’s take a look!

I have a question regarding a small detail in Metal Gear Solid 2’s localization. In the English version, there’s a line near the end in which the word “believe” is written as “beLIEve” in the subtitles, which naturally makes the word “LIE” stand out and ties into the themes of the game as a means to make the player question if this part of the story is actually legitimate or not. It’s a very small detail, but I’m curious as to how it’s handled in the Japanese version as I don’t think that’s something that translates easily.

As I recall, the end of the game gets really intense and all sorts of crazy truths are revealed… except it’s hard to tell what’s true and what’s not anymore. Things are meant to be very confusing. Here’s the full scene in English for reference and/or a refresher:



Luckily, Dylan kindy provided links to the Japanese and English lines in question. Here they are:

The English text clearly has the word “LIE” capitalized inside the word “believe”, but what is the Japanese text like?

Japanese Version (basic translation) English Version Of course, Jack! Of course I do, Jack! Believe me! You have to beLIEve me!

So it looks like the Japanese text and the English text are essentially the same. But the Japanese text doesn’t have anything unusual with the way it’s presented – it’s just a regular old line of text. The Japanese lines before and after don’t appear to have any unusual treatment, either. In short, it seems the capitalized “LIE” was added into the localization. Neat! I wonder who thought to do that, someone on the localization team or Hideo Kojima himself.

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