“How Deep Can I Go?”

Yeah, I’m not not posting that picture. This is a screen taken from the English version of ASB with Jolyne’s final line after her HHA courtesy of williamzeppeli tumblr. That certainly is an interesting decision for that line.

But to give this a little more weight, would you like to see some of the other translation decisions? Someone was nice enough to drop a huge list of changes gleaned from promo material on the localized version onto Pastebin. It’s pretty massive, so I’m only going to post the name changes then give the links at the end. Directly quoted:

Character names seen in-game:

Jonathan Joestar

Will A. Zeppeli (Will Anthonio Zeppeli seen in menu screenshots)

Dio Brando

Joseph Joestar

Caesar Anthonio Zeppeli

Wamuu

Esidisi

Kars

Jotaro Kujo (Star Platinum)

Muhammad Avdol/Mohammed Avdol (different spellings between builds)

Noriaki Kakyoin

Jean Pierre Polnareff/Jean Pierre Eiffel (different spellings between builds)

Hol Horse

DIO

Josuke Higashikata 4 (Shining Diamond)

Okuyasu Nijimura

Rohan Kishibe (Heaven’s Door)

Koichi Hirose

Shigekiyo Yangu (Harvest)

Akira Otoishi (Chili Pepper)

Yoshikage Kira (Killer Queen is mentioned by name on Namco websites)

Kosaku Kawajiri (Deadly Queen, Feral Cat, Bite the Dust) (Killer Queen is mentioned by name on Namco websites)

Giorno Giovanna (Golden Wind)

Bruno Bucciarati

Guido Mista (“Bullets” in a dialogue translation)

Narancia Ghirga

Diavolo

Jolyne Cujoh (Stone Ocean)

Ermes Costello

Father Pucchi (Enrico Pucci is seen in menu screenshots)

Johnny Joestar (“Tusks” appears in a move’s translation)

Gyro Zeppeli (Ball Breaker)

Funny Valentine

NPCs:

San Tan

Nukesaku

Guess

F.F

Jongalli A

Pesci (Fisher Man)

Lucy Steel

Diego Brando

Joshu Higashikata

MIA, not seen in any form yet:

Lisa Lisa

Old Joseph Joestar

Iggy

Vanilla Ice

Panacotta Fugo

Narciso Anasui

Josuke Higashikata (JoJoLion) (presumably Josuke Higashikata 8)

Ikuro Hashizawa/Baoh

I emphasize the Polnareff change to Eiffel because that’s just dumb. Might as well just name him Baguette Man with his stand Riposting Chevalier and be done with it.  “Stray Cat” to “Feral Cat” is also kind of odd considering that Stray Cat is a fairly normal term, but I’m not going to question copyright fears.

You can find the whole of this collection here for names and here for in fight dialogue.

(Thanks JoJo’s thread for posting both of these.)

All Star Battle English Version Physical Copies Now Available

And it is about that time. The English version of All Star Battle is now available for preorder directly from Namco-Bandai. It’s ~$50 flat out, probably not including shipping, and is supposed to be a limited physical run. I’m surprised there’s a physical run at all because I expected PSN only. If you want the box that probably comes with translated manual, it is available.

Unfortunately, based on the screen caps, the game is the vanilla edition, not some sort of Super ASB with all the DLC characters packed in. That’s not really surprising if disheartening, but at least we are in the post however many patches it’s been now. They do not indicated any name changes that I can see, though they are probably in there. Only a few names are shown, and they weren’t the kinds of names that would be changed. You’ll have to check it directly.

[Edit: Destructoid has an article with a bit more of the technical specs including mention of framerate, patches, and western additions including a new arcade mode.]

JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure All Star Battle English Release Date and PV 1

I’ve never been so pleased to see the English version of the JoJo’s logo. This is the PV for the English version of ASB. It’s nothing you haven’t seen before if you kept up with all the PVs before the Japanese release, and only goes up to Part 3 probably to link it with the anime. It does have a run down of each character in those parts, but not the DLC characters. That means that you’re probably going to have to buy them separately, which isn’t honestly surprising. It’s not so bad because now we can now buy the DLC much easier. I just hope they keep the reduced cost instead of bringing back the full cost as CC2 is getting ready to do in a few weeks. Even easier to get, $6 a pop is still a little nuts.

JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: All Star Battle will be released in the US, EU, and Australia in spring 2014.

Western ASB Name Changes Confirmed to Ensure “Consistency with the Western Anime”

I think we all knew this was coming. Silicon Era has posted that NamcoBandai has shared with them that there will be name changes in the US and EU versions of All Star Battle. It’s not surprising. Heritage for the Future had them. I’m pretty sure that some of the Viz licensed manga has had them. They are reportedly aiming “to make sure that the localized names for the characters fit with Hirohiko Araki’s intentions ‘while not offending any party,'” and that, “the localized names will be matched to the U.S. and European versions of the recent anime to ensure consistency.” So they are doing this with care, not that it won’t still infuriate some I know.

The key to this though, is how they phrased it. “Matched to the US and European versions of the recent anime.” We haven’t gotten any word on that one before. Might just be something you want to keep an eye out for as we move towards our new Part 3 anime.

(Thanks to the news from Silicon Era.)

JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure All Star Battle Official Western Launch in 2014!

Huh. I guess that petition went through after all.

This is basically all the information we have right now. The tweet says UK. NamcoBandai’s official site mentions the UK and Australia. IGN and Joystiq also picked up the story and have mentioned a North American release as well. The Joystiq one says that they mentioned the game will be released in the west as the fully updated version. Does that mean all the DLC characters included, the appropriate Super All Star Battle? Maybe. It’s at least the updated software version without infinites, and al the campaigns will probably be available from the start. Will it be dubbed? Will we finally get a dubbed version of JoJo’s? Who would do it? At the moment, we don’t know. It may just be an English language release for the text, though that would be a big help.

I don’t have to say it, right? Buy it. Support your western JoJo’s fandom and show NamcoBandai their decision to localize the game is the right one. Buy it. I’ll let you know anything else when it comes up. Buy it.

[Edit: And that dub thing is a no go. Shack News has picked up the story, and they’re calling for Japanese Audio with English subtitles.]