Sometimes in the anime industry, when a distributor picks up a title that would usually have no potential in the west, they write a new, comedic script for the dub in a similar style to an abriged series. See Samurai Pizza Cats, Ghost Stories, Duel Masters, Shin Chan, and even Sgt. Frog to an extent. However, have you ever seen a JRPG recived such treatment. I always thought Atlus could pick up one of those throwaway Otaku RPG's and localize it as a straight up pardoy.
I can't immediately think of any RPGs, but I know it's been done for other genres, if you want to count games where a license was added/removed between regions, pretty much forcing a rewrite. Like Yo Noid originally wasn't based on a pizza mascot, at least. I'm not even sure if the original game was a licensed or original IP.
If we're allowed to mention unofficial localizations now, I can think of at least one that was kind of famous.
The old Tales of Phantasia fantrans had some.. interesting interpretations. There's heaps of fan translations which think they're hilarious and rewrite the script, although I tend to find those more annoying than funny.
As for legitimate translations, I can't really think of RPG's which fit that bill. Maybe Earthbound, to a degree, although I can't remember just how much they changed. Also Recettear had some comedic changes iirc
always thought I'd change to Gyarados after I turned 20 but hey, this is more fitting I guess. (also somebody registered under the original Magikarp name and I can't get back to it anymore orz)
In that case, Final Fantasy IV "HardType". I don't think it was meant to be a parody, though. I hear the translator was a pretty cool guy, though. It was the script editor who, perhaps was a teen then, felt it would be better with more pop culture and unwarranted swearing.
After looking at a few scenes, I start wonder about Breath of Fire II. While fans have commonly listed Breath of Fire II as a bad localization (the writing was kind of dull and kind of annoyingly it doesn't really care about punctuation), the unofficial one may have over-localized. (while it's clear Joker wanted to do more things to Nina, I'm doubting the original game had him speaking of doing things of the illegal X-rated variety )
I myself may have actually been guilty of that with Stargazers, a notoriously buggy/badly-designed Famicom RPG. It's been awhile since I looked but I wouldn't be surprised if I wrote YO DAWG somewhere in there. Pretty sure I also referenced the Folgers jingle at some point too.
I'm SURE I've played something official as described but I just can't think at the moment.
Working Designs was kind of known for putting bad jokes in their games, though I don't think I've played too much of them actually.
But I assume the topic is for full games.
EarthBound definitely had some stuff changed that just wouldn't have been as funny in English if it was unchanged (like the octopus statue).
In that case, Final Fantasy IV "HardType". I don't think it was meant to be a parody, though. I hear the translator was a pretty cool guy, though. It was the script editor who, perhaps was a teen then, felt it would be better with more pop culture and unwarranted swearing.
That might be the one I played. It was definitely the hard type version, and it definitely had some pop culture and unwarranted swearing…
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Topic: Have you heard of a gag dubbed JRPG?
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