I have the power to decipher your message, Uncle!

People have moaned or bragged about how "hard' the original Legend of Zelda was because of how difficult it is to discover the locations of secret entrances and some dungeons. Yet, oddly enough, this was never meant to be. You see, I had some people who know Japanese and never touched a Zelda game play the original Zeruda no Densetsu: The Hyrule Fantasy for the GameBoy Advance (Famicom Mini Series). While they still found the game to be hard, they cited the enemies for the difficulty - they found the in-game clues to be very helpful.

What is that you say? The clues are…helpful? Yes, you read that correctly. So why are the hints by the old men in the English version of the game so bad? The answer, as you probably guessed, is the translation done by Nintendo of America. Let's go back to that quote "10th Enemy has the Bomb". I know fans have been trying to figure out what the heck this means for years. Even to myself - a person I consider a master of the game after working with Zelda Classic to understand the programming side, and knowing just about everything on the content side - couldn't figure it out. The reality is this; the quote is actually supposed to reveal the location of the Magical Key in Level 8 of the first quest. How is that translation so far off? I'll get to that in a moment.

Greatness.

"Zelda is your…"
To understand how Nintendo went about translating games back in the day, you have to know the history of Nintendo localization. In the beginning, the original Legend of Zelda was actually just translated into English by some staff at Nintendo of America who really didn't speak Japanese. A formal localization process wasn't adopted until the late 80s and into the early 90s, when Nintendo of America actually formed a localization unit headed by Daniel Owsen.

You see, I've spoken with Mr. Owsen on several occasions, as well as NOA Mike, a former game counselor during the SNES era of Nintendo. Apparently Mr. Owsen was not, and still is not, fluent in Japanese. I found it odd he asked me to "translate any Hylian I saw" on the Nintendo forums at the time of The Wind Waker being used in members' signature images. He revealed that he did not completely understand Japanese. How could the man responsible for the English Text of A Link to the Past, Link's Awakening and Ocarina of Time be from a man who didn't know Japanese that well?

The truth is, until around 2000, Nintendo's localization process worked something like this. A game would be sent over to NOA and a Japanese staff member from NCL would then literally translate the game into direct English. They then handed this over to the NOA localization staff, who then took it upon themselves to edit this text for English audiences. There was very little supervision in terms of ensuring its accuracy to the original content. In addition, Nintendo, under Hiroshi Yamauchi, had strict "censorship" protocols to prevent the American audiences from getting content deemed "too mature or controversial".

I've also spoken with the current webmaster of Zelda.com, and he admits some of the "content" that has gone up on official site has not been approved, in the past, by Shigeru Miyamoto, and Mr. Miyamoto has actually requested the content be removed for inaccuracies. From what I've seen from Mr. Owsen's remarks, it appears not just the web team was limited to "open interpretation", as I like to put it. It seems that throughout much of the 1980s until the late 1990s, Nintendo staff inserted "content" that was not officially endorsed by the NCL staff.

One such instance is the "Zelda is your…" quote found in A Link to the Past. There have been many rumors and theories behind this quote. Some said the Japanese or English text boxes ran out of space (false). Some say the Japanese version's phrase state "Zelda is your sister" (false). The real phrase roughly comes out to say "Zelda is your destiny" - which is what the re-released version states. I've seen rumors that subsequent versions of the Japanese version translate the phrase to "Zelda is your…" just like the English version, but I can't confirm this.

Not just the website and the game content suffered, but the manuals and guides by Nintendo of America were even worse. Nintendo Power staff wrote the guides, usually with very little supervision for the content that went into each one for accuracy. The manuals are even worse, as they were handled by the marketing and technical writing departments. Same with the box text, which has also lead to heated debates.

Much more content suffered the same butchering and censorship issues like the ones above. These blunders resulted in misconceptions about certain "facts" in the Zelda series which have lead to heated debates over the timeline, the game storylines, and the characters themselves. It also has cast a doubt over the authority of Nintendo of America, or any non-NCL staff, in regards to translated content in either the games, or the manuals.

"Lost in the Mists of Time"
Ocarina of Time is what I consider to be the first game that began the "modern" localization process for the series, although it still has some issues. The reason for this really was two fold; Nintendo wanted to improve its localization process going into the modern era of gaming, and also because Nintendo wanted to simultaneously release Ocarina of Time in both Japan and North America. Since then, Majora's Mask was headed up Jason Leung, who was the first fluent Japanese writer for Nintendo of America, Inc on a Zelda project. Majora's Mask has very few discrepancies in the dialogues of both games.

Even the manuals and packaging are becoming more coherent. If you open up an Ocarina of Time or Majora's Mask manual in both versions, you might be shocked to see how nearly the same they are. The only thing that needs more work, in my opinion is the Player's Guides, since they are written by Nintendo Power staff. But since the Oracles games, Nintendo Power has cut back on the excessive garbage found in previous games, making them more accurate. Yet, at the price of this accuracy comes the loss of some unique content some fans did enjoy (original artwork, and NOA's take on some events).

Still, all of this may sound like a bad dream for modern Zelda fans. With the help of Nate and Bill Trinnen, Nintendo's two most recognizable localizers right now, Zelda games are becoming more properly handled when they're brought overseas from Japan. In fact, Nate and Bill have both revealed that the localization process is much different nowadays. Today, they play through the game in Japanese to get a feel for its original meaning. They then, with the help of a cultural specialist, translate the game as faithfully as possible into English, only changing what would needed to be changed to properly translate into a specific culture.

Thus, for now, it seems the fears of older fans who dealt with the Yamauchi and Owsen days of Nintendo have subsided. But still, we're left in the aftermath of what happened. Sure, some games have been re-released to fix some localization issues (The Legend of Zelda, The Adventure of Link and A Link to the Past), but there are some they missed and there still exists the manuals and guides. How does one go about piecing together what really was the truth in each of the older games?

"Cast away you should know the truth!"
There are efforts by several fans and sites to seek the truth. Zelda Legends, under the direction of Davogones and Khuffie, brought forth numerous textual resources such as the translation comparisons. Using the help of several bi-lingual Zelda fans, Davogones compiled together many comparison tables for the older games, helping to shed some light on the translation mistakes.

These efforts, along with others by fans and sites, are helping to bridge the gap, but they are not enough. These are still done by fans, and thus their translation is not the final word of Nintendo. Yet, Nintendo translated these contents, and they are so mismatched. The purpose of the fan works is to show the literal translations of the Japanese contents, not necessarily reveal what is more official. I am sure that is their goal, but sadly this leads into another debate about canon and who the final authority on Zelda is. Many will tell you Miyamoto is the final authority, but it is not always that simple.

Zelda is created by many people. Everybody has input into the game, and thus it means Zelda is not controlled solely by one person. Miyamoto isn't even responsible for the stories of the games, so I find it odd people cite him so certainly. Aonuma also isn't the sole man responsible for the modern games, even though he seems to show more interest in the overall timeline and storylines of the games. The fact is, it's actually rather hard to understand who gets the say on what was "meant" to be official in the game, but we can figure out what turned out to be official.

The issue of canon, or what materials count as official, is just as hotly debated as the timeline. Due to the blunders of Nintendo of America in the past, some fans simply only accept Japanese materials. Some fans believe NOA materials are official. Some will argue about the manuals, the guides, even the interviews. But in reality, it comes down to your own personal beliefs. The products released are official in every way; they have the Nintendo Seal of Approval. The big wigs know the game is going out to gamers, it is not like A Link to the Past came out in America without Yamauchi or Miyamoto knowing. Yet, there are some who consider only the "creator intent" to be official, despite what the corporate juggernaut says.

In the end, the same answer presents itself to this problem as the timeline problem. You have to make up your own mind about the translations, and what is official or not. But, for the sake of this article, you should know that Nintendo, both in Japan, North America and Europe, are now enforcing more modern localization protocols and show genuine concern in faithfully translating games for fans to enjoy. Nintendo is not blind to the fans' concern over the translations of the Zelda series. They've done something about it. They can only do so much, though.

I'm sure some fans hold out the dim hope that Aonuma or Miyamoto will come forth and reveal all on the timeline, the game storylines, and everything Zelda, making it all "official". I doubt this will ever happen. And quite frankly, it never should. Yes, Nintendo has made mistakes, but they're doing a better job. Fans and the creators are working in their own ways to repair those mistakes, and hopefully someday, we'll have some sense made out of it so that fans can make their own, intelligent and informed decisions as to what is "official".