Translation mistakes/adaptations in Grand Theft Auto games (in any language).

[Motorik]

Hello, people. I decided to start a topic with a subject I haven't seen covered here: translations mistakes and adaptation in GTA series. Well, I said it in the title, so no surprises. Considering that here, in this community, we are from different countries and we speak several different languages, it would be interesting to share the different versions of the different GTA games, to see how the translators solved some situations (or ruined them). I start. Since I'm from Argentina, my main language is spanish, so I'll share some translations that caught my attention (by the way, keep in mind that some of this translations were fixed in the mobile versions):

- In GTA 3, mission "Smack Down" was translated as "Heroína" ("Heroin"). This is the only reference to a real drug in GTA 3, although it wasn't intentional from Rockstar.

- The two famous words "Mission failed" have had different adaptations, but the one that calls my attention is in GTA 3, in which was translated as "Fracaso en la misión" (Failure in the mission). While technically correct, it sounds strange. In next games it was translated as "Misión fracasada" o "Misión fallida" (Both words "fracasada" and "fallida" means "failed". Is more accurate).

- As you spanish speakers may know, GTA 3's translation is terrible, but there's one phrase that really blows my mind because I don't know how did the translators come with it. In mission "Kingdom Come", the phrase "Spanked Up Madmen" was translated as "Te hemos pellado necio" ("We have caught you, fool"). Not only is impossible to understand why did they made that change but also they miswrote a word: "Pellado". It should be "Pillado" ("Caught").

- Another "glorious" translation is in Vice City. While this adaptation is far better than GTA 3's, it still has some unskippable moments. In mission "The Fastest Boat", Ricardo Diaz tells Tommy that the boat he wants is in the boatyard, but the spanish subtitles says "astillero de Holocausto" ("boatyard of Holocaust"). I love the capital letter in "Holocaust", as if this was the name of the boatyard. I have no idea where did this come from. I'm flabbergasted.

 

Now is your turn people. Post here your favourite translation mistakes from any GTA game in any language. Even some other spanish translations I didn't write here (There are lots, believe me).

[E Revere]

It's possible that your translated version was made by someone who had a very basic understanding of English using Google Translate, the early 2000's version of it which was a lot worse and weirder than the current version.

 

• The one I (tried to) play with translated "Back Alley Brawl" as "Alley Brawl is Back" which made young me assume that Alley Brawl is Leo Teal's name.
• The "Cam died" failure state in The Job was translated as "The glass broke" which always made me confused because I didn't know why I failed the mission.
• "Chopper" in TLAD which refers to a certain type of motorcycle but was translated as "helicopter".
• Coincidentally, "boatyard" was screwed up in this version too, translated as "madhouse/asylum" for some reason. I think this proves your version used Google Translate. The old version probably had a screwed up translation for "boatyard" and it hurt the translation efforts of both.

I'm sure there are far worse examples but I just started playing the game in English once I realised how bad the translations were. I swear some of it must've been made using google translate. I don't know how else you would screw it up so bad.

[sefus]

I always wondered why the localization never used "Wasted" but stuff like "You are dead" or "You have died"

[Mascaracan]

I remember when Tommy asks Lance about that Quentin alias of him and he answers: ' I dunno. I always kinda like it. Quentin Vance', in the Spanish version it was translated as 'No lo sé, siempre me cayó bien... Quentin Vance', which means: 'I don't know. I always like him... Quentin Vance', firstly I thought it was his brother, then I read his name was actually Victor, so I spent several replayings wondering who the hell was Quentin Vance, until I eventually understand it had been mistranslated and he was talking about the name itself, which had always sounded good to him.

Good memories about being 'pellado' or about Asuka's 'masajista', also about Lee Chong mission: 'Lee Chong 'el gordo' está dando palizas para una nueva banda de Colombia... o Colorado...' -Chunky Lee Chong is beating people up for some new gang from Colombia... or Colorado...-, when the original dialogue is: 'Chunky Lee Chong is pushing Spank for some new gang from Colombia... or Colorado...', and many other discredits to the noble art of translation in GTA 3, at least as far as the Spanish version is concerned as you've already stated.

Edited September 8, 2021 by Mascaracan

[Motorik]

Another translation that I remembered now from GTA 3 is in mission "Payday for Ray". There, Maria screams to Asuka "I know I've been a naughty girl, but I really need to pee", which in spanish was translated as "es que necesitaba mear" (I needed to pee), which changes the whole context. It sounds like Maria peed during... whatever she was doing with Asuka and that this is the reason why she's being punished, instead of the fact that Maria needs to go to the bathroom in that instant moment after whatever happened. You gotta love terrible translations.

[GhettoJesus]

While there was never an official Hungarian translations there were plenty of fanmade ones which all sucked ass.

 

The GTA III translation added a lot of unnecessary swearing to the game (so much so that even the menu has one swearing) and translated "Mission Passed" as "Cool".

The GTA VC translation translated the name of the Freeway (the bike) and the Xbox version says "You f*cked it up, you can't win!" instead of "Remaining time". It also has a lot of bad mission name translations like "Car party" instead of Jury Fury.

The GTA SA translation is pretty bad as well with a lot of slangs mistranslated (such as "You down?" getting translated literally) and unnecessary translations (like translating "Below the Belt Gym" or half-translating "Pirate's in Men's Pants"). It also translated a few vehicle names like Elegy or Majestic. My favorite mistranslation is when Catalina says "Here's your cut big man". It got translated as "Your haircut is ready pal"

Edited September 8, 2021 by GhettoJesus

[sefus]

This is why English should be the only spoken language worldwide. 

[bahraini_carguy]

I know this is not exactly related to GTA but I always wondered how good are the non English/Japanese translations of games in general? Because over here, majority of Arabic translation in AAA Games are so god damn awful that most players would rather just use English instead. 

 

I get that it's a complex language with plenty of dialects and variations but maybe hire an actual proper team (even a small one) to handle the translation instead of just pasting the dialogue text onto google translation without any regards for context, metaphors, literal translation, over translation, broken gibberish or  cultural aspects? Also some words are better kept in English since it makes things a lot less awkard.

 

For what i've see in this thread, looks like we aren't the only ones after all.

Edited September 8, 2021 by FalconKing

[Motorik]

More translation mistakes in spanish:

- GTA VCS's mission "Truck Stop" was translated as "Chorizando a los Cholos". I don't know what would be the exact english equivalent of the word "Chorizando" right now, but you don't need to be very fluent at spanish to see that the name of the mission mentions the Cholos, which don't make an appearance on this mission.

- In GTA San Andreas, in mission "New Model Army", when CJ says "Man, you take this sh*t serious", the subtitles say "Ese olor, ya conoces ese olor a ozono..." ("that smell, you know that smell of ozone"), which is the phrase Zero said at the end of the previous mission. This one is not that serious, since is a phrase used in the game by a character that appears in both missions. It may be due to a programming mistake. But is worth mentioning it.

- I mentioned this one in the "Cool Things You Didn't Know About Vice City" topic but, if Phil dies in "Boomshine Saigon", the text will say "¿Ahora quién va a suministrar armas en Liberty?" ("Now who's gonna supply arms in Liberty?") instead of "Vice". This was likely intentional, but is still worthy of attention.

- In GTA 3 (again. As I said, this game is full of translation mistakes), during "Uzi Rider", if you get out of the car for more than five seconds, the Yardies will say "Ha salido bajo fianza con nuestra pasta. Dispara a su culo amarillo" ("He got out on bail with our money. Shoot his yellow-coloured ass"). I can't remember how was the original phrase word by word, but this translation is totally literal.

- A similar case in  "Patriot Playground" and other similar side missions in GTA 3. If you get out of the car, the failed text will say "Saliste en libertad bajo fianza. ¿Demasiado duro para ti?" ("You got out on bail. Too tough for you?"). This text was better translated in GTA Vice City as "Te rajaste, ¿Demasiado duro para ti?" ("You escaped. Too tough for you?").

Edited September 8, 2021 by Motorik

[Motorik]

18 hours ago, E Revere said:

• Coincidentally, "boatyard" was screwed up in this version too, translated as "madhouse/asylum" for some reason. I think this proves your version used Google Translate. The old version probably had a screwed up translation for "boatyard" and it hurt the translation efforts of both.

 

This is the strange thing. They didn't use a wrong word to translate "boatyard". They used the right one ("astillero"). What really puzzles me is the "de Holocausto" ("of Holocaust") that follows that right word. Besides, the capital letter in "holocaust" makes it more confusing. Is like this was the name of the boatyard or the last name of its owner. If they had used a wrong word, at least I could understand where the mistake is. As it is, is impossible to understand the reason why they translated it this way. And sorry for answering late.

[Jeansowaty]

In the Polish translation of GTA3, during the mission Smack Down, "DEALER MINCED!!!" is translated as "DILER ROZJECHANY!!!" which means "DEALER HAS BEEN RUN OVER!!!". It's likely because they never expected you to kill them in any other way than running them over with a car.

[Ivan1997GTA]

I mostly remember in the bootleg Russian translations of the PS2-era GTA games, the vehicle names were sometimes literally translated, like Infernus, which was translated as "Адский" (meaning "Infernal" or "Hellish" in Russian), and Rancher being translated as "Большой Ранчо" (meaning "Big Rancho" in Russian), but my favorite one would have to be "Огненный грузовик" from GTA IV, a mistranslation of "Fire Truck" (it's supposed to be "Пожарная машина/Пожарный грузовик").

 

And, of course, nearly every Russian GTA fan will know the phrase "Потрачено", a literal translation of the term "Wasted", instead of saying "Мёртв" or "Убит".

[H-G]

The German version of LCS has a lot of weird mission names:

 

- "Bringing The House Down" is called "Fall auf Knall" which roughly translates to "fall on bang."

- "No Money, Mo' Problems" is for some reason called "Bastelzaster."

- "Driving Mr. Leone" is known as "Mr. Leone und sein Chauffeur" (Mr. Leone and his chauffeur).

 

There are obviously a lot more of these but they're way too many to list right now.

[joe1606]

In the french version of Vice City they choose to translate the 'Mesa Grande' vehicle name. When entering the vehicle we could see 'Grande Table' wich mean 'Large Table' or 'Large Desk'.

[GhettoJesus]

Once again, I am gonna list a few mistakes in fan translations.

In GTA 3 during the mission "Cipriani's Chauffeur" instead of saying "It's a triad ambush!" Tony says "The triad has climbed onto me"

The mission "Dead Skunk in the Trunk" was translated as "Dead Guido (racial slur for Italians for those who don't know, like Guinea) in the Car"

Mission Failed was translated as "You f*cked it up!"

The mission "Uzi Rider" was translated as "Uzi Buzi" (means Uzi fa**ot) which rhymes well but it's not like the phrase easy rider (which the original name is a play on) wasn't an already known term.

 

In GTA 4 Niko says "Like my cousin" (as in: "as my cousin does") in the intro. In the translation he says "I like my cousin"

In the mission where Niko first meets Brucie Roman says: "I promised Brucie I'd go out with him". In the translation he says "I promised Brucie I'd date with him"
In the same mission Roman says "Did you meet the girl who works there? Nice pair of titties on her no?". In the translation it's "Did you meet the nice girl who works there, with two pairs of beautiful tits?"
In the mission where you kill Vlad Roman says "...watch his fat, hairy, sweaty back going up and down." In the translation Roman says "...I'd see how his fat, hairy, cute ass goes up and down."

 

The profiles in the mission where you kill French Tom were very poorly translated (and they are hilarious) but I can't be bothered to translate them back, maybe another time.

Edited September 13, 2021 by Spider-Vice
edited out slur so people who quote you don't get their posts filtered in approval, thanks :)

[Motorik]

30 minutes ago, GhettoJesus said:

Once again, I am gonna list a few mistakes in fan translations.

In GTA 3 during the mission "Cipriani's Chauffeur" instead of saying "It's a triad ambush!" Tony says "The triad has climbed onto me"

The mission "Dead Skunk in the Trunk" was translated as "Dead Guido (racial slur for Italians for those who don't know, like Guinea) in the Car"

Mission Failed was translated as "You f*cked it up!"

The mission "Uzi Rider" was translated as "Uzi Buzi" (means Uzi fa**ot) which rhymes well but it's not like the phrase easy rider (which the original name is a play on) wasn't an already known term.

 

In GTA 4 Niko says "Like my cousin" (as in: "as my cousin does") in the intro. In the translation he says "I like my cousin"

In the mission where Niko first meets Brucie Roman says: "I promised Brucie I'd go out with him". In the translation he says "I promised Brucie I'd date with him"
In the same mission Roman says "Did you meet the girl who works there? Nice pair of titties on her no?". In the translation it's "Did you meet the nice girl who works there, with two pairs of beautiful tits?"
In the mission where you kill Vlad Roman says "...watch his fat, hairy, sweaty back going up and down." In the translation Roman says "...I'd see how his fat, hairy, cute ass goes up and down."

 

The profiles in the mission where you kill French Tom were very poorly translated (and they are hilarious) but I can't be bothered to translate them back, maybe another time.

I see. Honestly, while some of these translations might be mistakes, some others sound as they were translated the way they were translated on purpose. As a joke or as a way to confuse players. But, in any case, at least they have the excuse that they were made by fans. The spanish translation, for example, tends to be really bad and is an official work. At least the localization and translation work in GTA improved over the years. Is really hard to find a mistake in GTA 4, the episodes or GTA 5 (I didn't play Chinatown Wars, so I don't know about it. Maybe is a good translation too).

[GhettoJesus]

2 minutes ago, Motorik said:

some others sound as they were translated the way they were translated on purpose.

Honestly, I can only let the translation for Uzi Rider pass. The rest absolutely not. Putting unnecessary swearing in a game is absolutely pointless (and from a standpoint obviously a mistake).

[A6pukoc]

Something I noticed in russian version of GTAs

GTA Online

In Loud approach of Casino Heist Lester says "Open up your phone and fire and in the goddamn hole"(detonate the explosive). but "fire and in the goddamn hole" was translated as "threw a grenade"

In prep for Cayo Perico heist with fingerprint cloner Pavel might say - "This would never happen in russian government troll farm". But translation says This would never happen in russian  troll farm". I think translators removed that word because of political context

In Series A finale  Trevor says he could get killed 6 times, but in translated version he says 10

Russian description  for ACT 3 finale in the end says "save innocent civilians" even though original description does  not say it

Carbine Rifle MK2's name was poorly translated as "assault rifle-rifle mk2"

Russian version of Online does not let you customize fonts for your Organisation and Motorcycle Club

GTA V 

Those are somewhat mistakes, but it is still worth mentioning

Mission called "Meltdown" became "Сойти с катушек'' which can be translated as "Go crazy".

Option "Deathwish" in finale turned into ''Спасти обоих''(Save both of them)

Josef's russian swears are not shown in subtitles, but can be heard. 

GTA IV

Rascalov's  russian swears  from both endings are not shown in subtitles(

During cutscene from mission Easy as can be Niko says dick instead of balls

GTA San Andreas

Official (!)  translated did unnecessary changes for names of   central characters. Big Smoke turned into Паровоз (Steam locomotive; really). Sweet into Красавчик(Pretty boy) and Madd Dogg became Бешеный Кекс (Madd Cupcake, lol). And quality of translated game was generally mediocre 

 

Edited October 7, 2021 by A6pukoc