SNK has a long and time-honoured tradition of "creative" translations and this is primarily concerned with their fighting games that were released during the nineties.
Often these translations would reference American pop-culture, contain strange slang and sound completely unlike the line that was in the original.
We will taking a look at the character Tachibana Ukyou, a haiku-composing fencer from the game Samurai Spirits (released in the west as Samurai Shodown [yes, Shodown]), how his lines are in the original first game, and how the staff at SNK translated/localised his specific way of talking.
Inspired by the site, Mad SNK Project, which chronicles the special brand of game localisation SNK had with rendering their games into English, I thought I might have a go at this.
"Stewed Peach" - Warrior-Poet:
His victory lines are as follows:
Against himself: ‥‥‥お、同じ顔‥‥‥‥ゆ、ゆるせん！ .... O, onaji kao.... Yu, yurusen! "...The same f-face... U-Unpardonable...!"
SNK: HEY! THAT'S MY FACE. YOU'RE MEAT, BEANHEAD
Thus Ukyou goes from speaking rather reticently and expressing indignation to sounding like an egocentric brat from a 90's-tastic family comedy.
Otherwise, Ukyou generally just treats the opponent in his generic victory quotes with ellipses which SNK "renders" (read: adds lines where there is mostly stoic silence) with:
CLEAR YOUR THOUGHTS AND MAYBE YOU WILL WIN. NOT!
STOP SHAKING! ONE SLASH AND IT'S ALL OVER!
Again, turning him into some manner of puerile blabbermouth, whilst in the original Ukyou rarely speaks, only when the moment requires it.
His other quotes are as follows:
げんげつに ぬれる我が骸も 美かんなり 右京 Gengetsu ni nureru waga mukuro mo bi kan nari "By the crescent moon, my own soaked corpse, becomes beautiful" SNK: EVEV IF YOU IMITATE ME, YOU STILL CAN'T GET A DATE!
斬勝利 ちりてのち のざらす者の 悲しさよ 右京 (THE MOMENT I DREW MY SWORD, THE FIGHT WAS OVER. HO-HUM.) 必殺技勝利 ほろよいの しらねの美酒に べにはがね 右京 (A PERFECT ATTACK AND DEADLY HANDSOME. I AM TOO MUCH!) その他勝利 あぶくよに つなぐ脈こそ かんろかな 右京 (YOU ALMOST SCRATCHED MY PERFECT FACE. OOOH, TO THINK OF IT!) エンディング 命脈が ありて我が剣 かがやけり 右京 (LIFE IS A STEWED PEACH IN A LOT OF SYRUP･･･ UKYO.)