Illusion of Gaia Translation Commentary Part 17: Undersea Palace and Mu

Ra Mu Ra Mu Red Pajamu

Disclaimers:

• I’m an amateur. My advantage over the original translation is that I have no deadline pressure, and I have the modern internet to help me. I’m assuredly wrong about some of my translations.

• Translation is hard. When I point out a mistranslation, it’s not a judgment of the original translators. They had a deadline and poor resources.

• Please no jokes in the comments about Karen being a Karen. I really hate that trend.

Notation reminder:
JP: Original Japanese
T: My translation
OE: Original English

JP: テム： 気がつくと　ぼくは　きみょうな きゅうでんの中に　たたずんでいた。
パラシュートが　着水してからの きおくが　まったくなかった．．． みんなは　無事だろうか。
T: Tim: When I came to, I was standing in a weird palace.
I couldn’t remember anything after the parachute hit the water. Is everyone ok?
OE: The next thing he knew, Will was standing in a huge palace.
Will: I couldn’t remember anything since my water landing…
Is everyone safe?

There are skeletons walking around, but touching them doesn’t hurt you. If you hit them, they stand still and their bodies blink. When you check the blinking body:

JP: テム：　何か　変だな。 さわっても　ダメージを受ける 気配もないし．．．
T: Tim: That’s weird. Even if I touch it, there’s no sign of any damage.
OE: Will: That’s odd. Even if I touch it no damage occurs…

I always thought this line was weird. Shouldn’t it say even if I attack it or something? But no, it says さわっても (sawatte mo - even if touch). You didn’t just “touch” it, Tim, you bonked it with your flute. There’s another meaning of さわる that’s more like interfere with or irritate but I don’t think that fits either.

I guess he could be astonished that the skeleton doesn’t cause any damage to him, since the game normally has contact damage and simply touching an enemy hurts Tim. It’s a possibility. But I think there’s no sign of damage is a weird way to say that. Instead, you’d say something like I don’t get injured. Or, if you’re feeling cheeky, I don’t lose any HP.

JP: テム：　おや？ 右の部屋から　人の気配がする．．．
T: Tim: Oh? I sense someone’s presence in the room on the right.
OE: Will: What? A sign of life from the right-hand room…

That presence turns out to be Karen, but she’s blinking/semi-transparent like the skeleton I hit earlier.

JP: カレン： テム．．．．　どこ？ どこにいるの．．．？？
T: Karen: Tim… where… Where are you?
OE: Kara: Will…Where… Where is it…??

That’s right, I kept the ellipses! All but one of Tim’s party that we’ll encounter will be shambling apparitions like this, and I think it’s appropriate for them to be speaking as if they’re dazed or dreaming.

As for where are you vs. where is it, Karen says どこにいる (doko ni iru) which means at/in where is [unspecified subject that must be a living organism]. There are no pronouns included, but she uses the word いる instead of ある. You use one for living organisms, and the other for inanimate objects. She realistically must be saying where are you or where is Tim because that’s the only available option in which it’s clear that she can’t tell Tim is right in front of her. If she were saying where am I, it would seem like she’s interacting with Tim, in which case she could follow him out of here. But she’s stuck and needs to be rescued.

As we progress through this place, we’ll be regularly interrupted. Tim will preface all of these interruptions with this, which I’ll only bother showing once:

JP: テム：　おや？ どこからか　かぼそい声が　聞こえる みたいだ．．．
T: Tim: Huh? I think I can hear a faint voice from somewhere.
OE: Will: What? I can hear a soft voice from somewhere…

JP: 不思議な声： ここは　キュウケツキの　住む きゅうでん．．．
このきゅうでんの　血の泉は まものを　次々と　作り出し．．．
T: Strange voice: This is the Palace of the Vampires.
The blood fountain in this palace produces monsters one after another.
OE: Strange Voice: This is the Palace of Vampires…
The fountain in this palace produces demons continuously…

血の泉 (chi no izumi): blood fountain. The game censors reference to blood, unsurprisingly. I have never figured out who this voice is supposed to be coming from.

JP: テム：　おや？ 左の部屋から　人の気配がする．．．
T: Tim: Oh? I sense someone's presence in the room on the left.
OE: Will: What? A sign of life from the left-hand room…

In that room we find Erik, who’s also a shambling apparition.

JP: エリック：　ここは　どこ？ くらいよ．．．　さみしいよ．．． おかあさん　たすけて．．．
T: Erik: Where is this? It’s dark… and lonely… mother, help…
OE: Erik: What is this place? Dark and lonely. Mother, save me…

Tim hears another voice:

JP: 不思議な声： きゅうでんの　一番下の階には 血の泉がある．．．
そこに　あの石を．．． はやく　は．や．．く．．．
T: Strange voice: The blood fountain is on the lowest floor of the palace.
Use the stone there… hurry… hu..rr…y…
OE: Strange Voice: In the basement of the castle is a strange fountain.
The stone is there… Hurry! Hurry!

Lots going on here. First, determiner choice: the voice already told us about the blood fountain, so I used the instead of a. Second, in the JP, the voice is faint and fading. It’s funny that OE chose to keep the ellipses in almost all instances in the game, but here where it actually indicates something relevant, they’ve been removed.

Third, OE tells us something false: that the stone is in the basement of the palace. It’s not. We’ll find it on the way to the fountain. The JP doesn’t have a verb. It says あの石を… (ano ishi o) which means that stone [direct object marker]. If the voice intended to say that stone is there, it would probably say あの石が: that stone [subject marker] . Since the stone is a direct object, and we have foresight that Tim has to put the stone into the fountain, the most likely intended verb is use or put.

You could also write it so the English leaves the verb out as well: The stone… hurry…

When you go into another room, there will be a dialogue box that appears and disappears very quickly:

JP: リリィ： わあっ！！！
T: Eek!
OE: Waaah!!

JP: リリィ：　もう．．． びっくり　させないでよっ！！
しんぞうが　のどから　飛び出したら テムのせいだからねっ！！
T: Lily: Geez. Don’t scare me like that!
You might give me a heart attack!
OE: Lilly: Hey… You scared me!!
I practically had a heart attack!

She actually says If my heart jumped out of my throat, it would be your fault! But the comparable idiom in English is give me a heart attack.

JP: リリィ： さっき　他の部屋で　エリックを 見かけたんだけど、　何か変でさ。
T + OE: Lily/Lilly: I saw Erik in the other room, but something’s strange.

JP: 体が　半分　とうめいで 向こうがわが　すけて見えるし、
それに　話しかけても たましいを　ぬきとられたみたいに まるで　意識がないの．．．
T: His body is half transparent. I can see right through it.
And when I talk to him, he’s unconscious, as if his soul has been sucked out.
OE: His body is half transparent. I can see through it.
And he seems to be unconscious, as if his spirit is lost…

ぬきとる (nukitoru) means to pull out/draw out. It doesn’t say his spirit is lost, but I wonder if this is censorship. Souls being stolen might have triggered the religion alarm in 90s American parents, and we can’t have that.

JP: とにかく　いっしょに行動しよ。 何がおこるか　わからないし。
リリィ： テムの　ポケットを　ちょっと かりるね。
T: Anyway, let’s stick together. We don’t know what’s going to happen.
Lily: I’ll borrow your pocket for a little while, ok?
OE: Let’s stick together. We don’t know what will happen.
Lilly: I’ll borrow Will’s pocket for a while.

JP: さ。　行こっ。
T: Lily: Come on, let’s go.
OE: Lilly: Well, let’s go.

The faint voice speaks again:

JP: 不思議な声： じょうか石は　かんおけの中に．．．
T: Strange voice: The Purification Stone in the coffin…
OE: Strange voice: The Purification Stone… in the castle…

We have to check some coffins to get an item necessary for progression. OE doesn’t tell you to do this at all. There’s no way かんおけ (kanoke - coffin) could be mistaken for any JP word for castle, so I imagine it’s a typo. They were going to type casket and their brain pulled out the wrong second half of the word.

JP: テム： かんおけの　ふたは　開きそうに ないな．．．
ポケットの中から リリィが　話しかけてきた。
T: Tim: I can’t open the lid on the coffin.
Lily spoke from inside the pocket.
OE: Will: I can’t seem to open the lid…
Lilly speaks from his pocket.

JP: リリィ：　ちょっと　まって。 この　かんおけって　穴があいてる じゃない？
あたしなら　穴から　中に 入れそうだよね。 見てこよっか？
T: Lily: Wait a minute. This coffin has a hole in it, right?
I think I can get in through the hole. Want me to take a look?
OE: Lilly: Wait a minute. Isn’t there a hole in the coffin?
I could get in through the hole. I better have a look.

The first coffin is empty.

JP: リリィ：　変なの．．． この　かんおけって　内側に　カギが ついてるよ。 どうりで　開かないわけだよね。
T: Lily: That’s weird. This coffin has a lock inside. No wonder it didn’t open.
OE: Lilly: Strange… There’s a key fastened inside this coffin. No wonder it didn’t open.

The word カギ (kagi) very often means key, but it can also mean lock. By context, it must mean lock in this instance. A key fastened inside wouldn’t prevent it from opening.

The second coffin has different text after Lily gets inside:

JP: リリィ： かんおけの中で　変な石を 見つけちゃった。
じょうか石を　手に入れた！
T: Lily: I found a strange stone in the coffin.
Got the Purification Stone!
OE: Lilly: I found a strange stone inside this coffin.
You’ve found the Purification Stone!

We run into the shambling apparitions of Rob and Neil as well.

JP: ニール/ロブ：　うーん　うーん。
T: Neil/Rob: Uuuuhhhh.
OE: Neil/Lance: Uhhhn. Uhhhn.

OE is a direct translation of the sounds they’re making. I take it to indicate they’re making zombie-like moans. How to capture this in English is a very subjective choice.

JP: リリィ： あっ！　血で　できた泉だ．．．
ここと　さっきの石が 何か　関係してるのかな．．．？
T: Lily: Oh! It’s a fountain made of blood.
Is there some connection to the rock we found earlier?
OE: Lilly: What! It’s a strange fountain…
Could there be a connection between this and the rock…?

The OE didn’t just censor mention of the word blood. It censored the blood itself:

In the JP, the liquid in the fountain is red. In the US version, they made it black/gray.

Before using the Purification Stone, here’s the menu description:

JP: じょうかせき
きゅうでんの　ち　の　いずみを じょうかする　いし。
T: Purification Stone
Stone that purifies the blood fountain in the palace.
OE: Purify Stone
Purifies fountain in palace.

JP: じょうか石を　かかげた！
石は　しだいに　かがやきをまし 泉の中へと　消えていった．．．
T: Raised the Purification Stone!
The stone gradually grew brighter and disappeared into the fountain.
OE: He raises the Purification Stone.
The stone began to glow, then disappeared into the spring.

After purifying the fountain, a few things happen. All of the skeletons and other monsters in the palace disappear. All of the apparitions of your companions disappear. And the palace becomes populated with a bunch of people. Here’s the first one you run into:

JP: 助かったぜ　ぼうずっ！ ありがとよっ！！
おれは　フリージアの町から このきゅうでんへ　連れてこられて まものに　変えられてたんだ．．．
T: Thanks for saving me, kid!
I was brought to this palace from the town of Freesia, and changed into a monster.
OE: Saved!! Thank you!!
I was brought to this palace from Freejia and changed to a demon…

JP: リリィが　ポケットの中から 話しかけてきた。
えーっ！ じゃ　さっきの　まものたちは みんな　人間だったわけ．．．？
T: Lily spoke from inside the pocket.
What!? So all of the monsters we saw earlier were human beings?
OE: Lilly speaks from his pocket.
What?! All the demons we saw before were human beings…?

The hallways of the palace are small and the text boxes block your view a lot, so you won’t be able to see who I’m talking to in most of these screenshots. I’ll say who they are instead. Next up is a young woman:

JP: さっき　殺される しゅんかんっていうのを味わったわ。 死ぬことが　あれほど おそろしい　ものだとは．．．
あなたは　何も　知らなかったん だから　罪は　ないけれど 私たちが　食料にしている動物たちも あんな気分を　味わってるのかしら。
T: I just got a taste of what it’s like to be killed. Death is so terrifying.
You didn’t know anything, so you’re not guilty, but I wonder if the animals we eat for food experience that kind of feeling.
OE: I know now what it feels like to be close to death. Death is terrifying!
I wonder if the animals we eat feel the same way I felt right before death.

Probably, lady!

I’m not sure what’s up with you didn’t know anything, so you’re not guilty. Is she talking about Tim attacking the monsters in the palace?

We run into several slavers, presumably from Freesia, wandering the palace. This is what the first one says:

JP: おれたちゃ　もと　ドレイ商人。 人身売買の罪で　つかまって．．．
でも　役人の連中は　おれたちを キュウケツキに売りとばしやがった！ もう　何も　信じられねえよ．．．
T: We were formerly slave traders, arrested for trafficking humans.
But the government officials had the nerve to sell us off to vampires! I still can’t believe it.
OE: We were labor traders, arrested for the crime of buying and selling human beings…
But the party officials sold us to a vampire! I can’t believe it…

There’s a man just to the right of the slaver:

JP: やれやれ．．． 美人の女の　さそいに　のって ついてきたら　このザマだ．．．
T: Good grief. This is what I get for accepting an invitation from a beautiful woman.
OE: Well, well. This is the result of being tempted by a beautiful woman…

And the woman just to his right:

JP: 素敵な男が　さそいを　かけるから ついてきたの．．． もう　男なんて　信じないっ！
T: A nice man invited me, so I went along with him. I’ll never trust another man again.
OE: A nice guy asked me, so I followed him… I don’t trust men!

Next to the coffins from before, there’s a slaver hanging about:

JP: このカンオケで　ねおきしてるのは まぎれもなく　キュウケツキ。 やつらは　とんでもねえことを たくらんでやがる．．．
T: The people who sleep in these coffins are obviously vampires. They’re plotting something terrible.
OE: The man sleeping in this coffin is surely a vampire. They’re plotting something…

JP doesn’t specify singular or plural in the first sentence, but it definitely doesn’t say the man. That’s an inference the translator made. The second sentence does specify plural—I assume that implication is supposed to carry back to the first sentence.

In JP it’s clear that he means a person who’s habitually sleeping in the coffin. In English, if you say the person who’s sleeping here, it could mean either that the person is sleeping there right this second, or it could be a shortened way of saying the person who has been sleeping here or the person who sleeps here. Yeesh, our language can be confusing sometimes. OE isn’t wrong to use sleeping, as that’s basically what the JP says, but I changed it due to this possible confusion.

We run into another wandering man in the halls:

JP: このきゅうでんに　住んでいるのは キュウケツキの　夫婦です。
いたるところから　人間をつれてきて まものに変え　労働力として 使っているんですよ．．．
T: A vampire couple lives in this palace.
They bring humans in from all over, turn them into monsters, and use them for labor.
OE: A vampire couple lives in the coffins.
They bring people here, turn them into demons, and use them for labor.

OE gets the second sentence spot on, but for some reason mixed up palace and coffin in the first. There’s no way you’d confuse the two words: きゅうでん (kyuuden - palace) vs カンオケ (kanoke - coffin). The translator must’ve had coffins on the brain and brought it over to this sentence.

The game specifically says that they’re a married couple. 夫婦 (fuufu - married couple / husband and wife). But it’s kind of awkward to shoehorn that into English. Who would say a married vampire couple lives in this palace? I and the OE exclude it.

A woman wandering the halls:

JP: このきゅうでんは　まぼろしの土地 ムー大陸へと　つながっているの。 キュウケツキの　夫婦は　そこで 何かを　さがしてるみたい．．．
T: This palace is connected to the legendary continent of Mu. Seems like the vampire couple are searching for something there.
OE: This palace is connected to the land of Mu. The vampires are looking for something there…

They’re searching for the Mystery Doll / Mystic Statue, turns out. Dunno what exactly they’d do with it. There’s another slaver up a floor from that woman:

JP: おれたちゃまものに　変わりかけの ところだったから　助かったが あんたが　くるのがあと一歩 おそかったらと思うと．．．
T: We were saved from the brink of being turned into monsters. But what if you had been just a little bit slower?
OE: We were almost changed into demons. I’m afraid of what might have happened if you had come later…

There’s another woman nearby:

JP: キュウケツキの　夫婦の話を　立聞き したんだけど　ムー大陸には ミステリードールとかいう　人形が ねむっているらしいわ．．．
T: I overheard the vampires saying something like, “There’s a statue called the Mystery Doll sleeping on the continent of Mu.”
OE: I overheard the vampires say something like the Mystic Statue can be found in Mu.

Downstairs from her is the only NPC in the area actually required to progress the story:

JP: キュウケツキの女から　カギを一個 かっぱらったんだ。 もっていきな。
海底きゅうでんのカギを手に入れた！
T: I stole a key off the vampire woman. Here, take it.
Got the Undersea Palace key!
OE: I stole a key from the vampire woman. Here, take it.
You received the key to the Seaside Palace!

I always thought it was weird that this place was called the Seaside Palace in OE. It’s not seaside at all. That word means that it’s on land near the shore of the sea. This place is deep underwater. JP uses the word 海底 (kaitei) which means undersea / bottom of the ocean / seabed. Seaside would be 海浜 (kaihen). They look pretty similar and I assume the translator misread.

If you speak to the man again, he says:

JP: きゅうでんの　最上階には　ムー大陸へつづく　通路が　あるらしいぜ。
T: There’s supposedly a passageway leading to Mu on the top floor of the palace.
OE: On the top floor of the palace is a passageway leading to Mu.

There’s one more slaver wandering around:

But he’s saying the exact same thing as the man previously.

There’s one more man upstairs from that:

JP: こんな　海のまんなかに おきざりになって　おれたちゃ　今後 どうすりゃいいんだ．．．
T: What should we do now that we’re stuck in the middle of the ocean?
OE: What will we do now, deserted in the middle of the ocean…

Yeah, these people are screwed, huh? Tim sure isn’t going to help them!

And finally, a woman right next to him:

JP: みんなで　このきゅうでんを のっとって　住んじゃうっていうのは どうかしら？
T: Maybe we could seize control of this palace and live here?
OE: Maybe we could seize the palace and live there together…

Yeah, good luck with that. After 3 weeks of eating nothing but fish, you’re all gonna get scurvy. Assuming you even have a way to catch fish.

Back where Tim first woke up in the palace, there’s a door, and of course we’re supposed to use the key on it. Here’s its menu description first:

JP: きゅうでんのカギ
ムーたいりくへの　つうろをひらく カギ。
T: Palace Key
Key that opens the passageway leading to Mu.
OE: Palace Key
Key to Mu tunnel.

The next part I had to savestate and take several tries to get a screenshot in Japanese. There’s a glitch in the JP version (or at least the ROM I’m using), where the second sentence auto-progresses as soon as it’s fully displayed on screen. The glitch is fixed in the English version.

JP: きゅうでんのカギを　使ってみる ことにした。
カギが　不気味な音をたてて まわった。
T: Tried using the Palace Key.
The key makes a strange sound as it turns.
OE: He tries using the key to the Seaside Palace.
The key turns, making a strange sound.

I don’t think the game ever calls the key the 海底 (kaitei - undersea) palace key again after you first collect it, so this instance is the translator pulling the previous name forward and replacing the generic Palace Key that the JP uses. Too bad it was translated incorrectly before being used here.

JP: ポケットのリリィが 話しかけてきた。
この先に　まぼろしの大陸　ムーが 広がっているんだね。
T: Lily spoke from inside the pocket.
The legendary continent of Mu stretches out ahead of us.
OE: Lilly spoke from his pocket.
The phantom land of Mu lies ahead.

In every instance I know of where Lily speaks from Tim’s pocket, it uses blue text—except for this one, which is yellow for no reason. They fixed it in the English version.

The game uses the word まぼろし (maboroshi) to describe Mu a couple of times. It can mean phantom or apparition. But it can also mean fabled/mythical/legendary, as I believe it’s supposed to here.

While walking through the passage, Lily pipes up once again:

JP: ポケットの中から リリィが　話しかけてきた。
リリィ：　長い通路だよね．．．． これ　ほんとに　ムー大陸に つづいてるのかな．．．
T: Lily spoke from inside the pocket.
Lily: This passage is long, huh? I wonder if this really goes to Mu?
OE: Lilly speaks from his pocket.
Lilly: A passageway… I wonder if it goes clear to Mu?

Indeed it does! We know because the game handily labels it for us:

JP: ムー大陸
T: Continent of Mu
OE: Mu

JP: テム： ぼくと　リリィは　ムー大陸へと 足をふみいれた。
数千年のねむりからさめた　大陸は ぼくらを　かんげいしてくれる だろうか．．．
T: Tim: Lily and I set foot onto Mu.
Will this continent that’s awakened after thousands of years welcome us?
OE: Will: Lilly and I set foot on Mu.
They will probably welcome us after waking from a sleep of thousands of years…

Will in the OE seems very sure that they will welcome guests. He’s quickly disabused of this notion, as the only they around are a bunch of monsters who attack on sight.

The thing doing the welcoming in JP is continent that awaked from sleep of thousands of years. It’s not wrong to translate it as they necessarily, but since every actual human on this continent is long dead, it comes off kind of weird. In JP Tim ends with だろうか (darouka) which turns the preceding words into a question, like don’t you think? He’s not so confident.

The difficulty changes made to the US version really come through here on Mu. In JP it’s a slightly-above-average-difficulty dungeon, but didn’t give me any worries. In the US version I had to backtrack to a save point to heal. I don’t know the exact HP values, but the enemies in the US version definitely do more damage per attack. And the boss, oh gosh, I’ll talk about that later. It’s maybe the hardest boss in the game. But only in the US version. It’s a laugh in JP.

This game’s instruction booklet had a guide in it, which calls out the difficulty spike here and in the later dungeon of Angkor Wat:

Anyway, we’ll soon run across a treasure chest:

JP: 中は　からっぽだった！
T + OE: It is empty!

There are two statue heads looking at the treasure chest, which is supposed to be a hint that, when we later find two statue heads staring at a blank spot, it will contain what should have been in this chest:

JP: いのりの像を　見つけた！ いのりの像・・・ どこかに　何じ名前の部屋が なかっただろうか．．．
T: Found the Statue of Prayer! Statue of Prayer… Wasn’t there a room somewhere that had the same name?
OE: You’ve found the Statue of Hope! The Statue of Hope… Was there a room with the same name…?

Whether or not you found the statue, when you double back, Lily will give you a hint about how to find it:

JP: リリィ：　ねえ　テム。 ちょっと　思ったんだけどさ、
この石像って　何かを　見つめてる ように見えない？
T: Lily: Hey, Tim. I’ve been thinking,
doesn’t it seem like these stone statues are looking at something?
OE: Lilly: Will. I’ve been thinking…
It appears as if the treasure chest is in the exact spot where

JP: ほら　そこにある　たからばこって ２つの石像の　視線が交わるところに あるよね。
だったら　他の石像も　何かを 見つめてるんじゃないかと思って。 あたしの　思いすごしなのかな。
T: Look! The treasure box is exactly where the gaze of the 2 statues intersects.
I wonder if the other statues are looking at something as well. Maybe I’m making too much of it.
OE: the line of vision between both the statues cross.
I wonder if this is suppose to mean something? Maybe not?

Wait, can Lily see from inside Tim’s pocket? As a dandelion seed? Does it have tiny little eyes? Is it poking its little seed body out all the time to see what’s going on?

Hey, now that I think of it, how is she talking? Does she speak through telepathy? Does she have a teensy little mouth on the dandelion seed? If so, how loud do you think the voice is? Whatever tiny little lungs are stuffed in that seed couldn’t hold much air.

Backtracking to the prayer room and checking out the item:

JP: いのりの部屋
いのりのぞう
ムーのひとびとの　いのりが こめられた　せきぞう。
T: Room of Prayer
Statue of Prayer
Stone statue that holds the prayers of the people of Mu.
OE: Room of hope
Statue of Hope
Statue containing hopes of Mu people.

It says the statue is こめられた (komerareta) with the prayers. This can mean loaded or charged, and while that’s not the definition I chose, I like to imagine this thing is loaded up with prayers, like a prayer gun. Or a prayer battery. Anyway, you have to put the statue on the altar:

JP: いのりの石像を　ささげた！
どこからか　低く　不気味な声が きこえてきた．．．
T: Offered the Statue of Prayer!
A strange whisper is heard from somewhere.
OE: He raises the Statue of Hope.
A strange whisper is heard from somewhere…

The screen will go black and 4 ghost-looking things will appear. These things show up as regular enemies in Mu, but here I guess they’re supposed to be good ghosts? Or something?

JP: 太陽のカミよ．．． ラ・ムーよ．．．
大いなる　海に　力を あたえたまえ．．．
T: Oh sun god, Ra Mu:
Bestow your power upon the great ocean.
OE: The Sun god… Rama…
The ocean holds a power…

A couple things are mixed up here in OE. First, Rama is not a sun god. That’s Ra. The Japanese says Ra Mu because it’s drawing on Mu lore created by James Churchward¹. He claimed that the king of Mu was named Ra Mu, and that this is the origin of the Egyptian sun god Ra. I’d guess most players aren’t familiar with Churchward, or with the lore surrounding the mythical continent of Mu, so it’s fair to translate this as Ra instead of Ra Mu. But I can’t get on board with Rama.

Second, あたえたまえ (ataetamae) is an imperative form of a word that means to bestow (esp. of a god). And it says to bestow power 海に (umi ni - at/in/on/to ocean). So it’s a supplication to Ra Mu, rather than a statement about what the ocean holds. Presumably this is the prayer of the Mu people that was in the statue.

Placing these statues causes the water in Mu to recede. In Japanese, everything makes sense. There’s a prayer room where you offer a prayer statue. The statue contains a prayer to the king/god of Mu, named Ra Mu. The prayer asks Ra Mu to use his power on the water. And when you leave the room, the water has moved.

In the OE, this is all cryptic babbling about Rama and the ocean and power, all having nothing to do with anything.

JP: リリィ：　あっ！ さっきより　水が少なくなってるっ！
どこからか　下の段へ　おりられ そうだねっ！！
T: Lily: Oh! There’s less water than there was before!
Now you can get down to the lower tier!
OE: Lilly: Ah! There’s less water than before!
It looks like we can now explore new areas.

When you explore the next tier, you’ll run into a Dark Space allowing you to change into Freedan. Gaia has some more advice there:

JP: ムー大陸は　そなたが　旅をはじめる と　同時に　海面へ　ふじょうした。
しかし　大陸の　多くの部分には まだ　海水がたまっている。
T: You started your journey in Mu at the same time it had just risen from the ocean.
There’s still seawater covering many places on the continent.
OE: When you started this journey, Mu began to rise from the sea.
Sea water still covers land in many places on the continent.

OE makes it sound like Mu popped out of the ocean when Tim left South Cape, or something. No, it’s risen very recently, presumably after the plane crash.

JP: この水が　すべて　なくなったとき そなたは　ムー大陸の王　ラ・ムーの ねむる場所へ　たどりつくだろう。
T: When the water has completely subsided, you’ll finally be able to reach the resting place of Ra Mu, the king of Mu.
OE: When the water is gone you will discover the location of Rama, King of Mu.

In the next Dark Space, we’re forced to turn back into Tim so we can get his most useful move, the Psycho Slider. Gaia explains it first:

JP: テムの力　サイコスライダーは 高さが低く　せまい通路を とおりぬけることができる。
とおれる　岩のすきまを 見落さないように　あたりに 気をくばって歩くがいい。
T: Tim’s Pyscho Slider power allows you to pass low through narrow pathways.
Pay attention so you don’t overlook passageways in the crevices of rocks.
OE: Will’s power is the Psycho Slider. Pass through narrow corridors using this power.
Be careful not to overlook the cracks in the cliff.

JP: ヤミの力　サイコスライダーが 使えるようになった！
サイコスライダーは　少年テムだけが 使うことのできる　ちから。
T: Gained the dark power Psycho Slider!
Only young Tim is able to use the Psycho Slider.
OE: Psycho Slider can now be used!
Only young Will can use the Psycho Slider.

JP: スライディングこうげきが　できる ようになる。 また　せまい通路も通れるであろう。
走っている最中に　こうげきボタンを おすがよい．．．
T: You can now perform a sliding attack. You can also use it to traverse narrow passages.
Press the Attack Button while dashing.
OE: You can now use the Sliding Attack to pass through small passageways.
Push the Attack Button when running.

The Psycho Slider will become my primary form of attacking as Tim. It has four really nice benefits. First, it gives you a ton of invincibility frames. Second, it does about twice the damage of a normal flute attack. Third, if you time it correctly, you can use the knockback to hit enemies a second time in the same sliding animation. Fourth, unlike Tim and Freedan’s other special attacks, this one doesn’t require a charging period. You just need a little bit of space to dash. It’s a game changer.

We find another statue and lower the water level again. The dialogue is the same as the last time. Next we find two Ra Mu statues:

JP: ラ・ムーの像を　見つけた！
T: Found a Ra Mu Statue!
OE: You found Rama’s Statue!

Here it is in the inventory. They’re both identical:

JP: ラムーのぞう
ラムーの　ふういんを　ときはなつ せきぞう。
T: Ra Mu Statue
Stone Statue that breaks the seal of Ra Mu.
OE: Rama Statue
Statue which breaks the seal of Rama.

After using the two statues on the two altars, Tim will teleport:

JP: そこは　ムーの人々の　墓場の ようだった．．．
T: This looks like a cemetery of the people of Mu.
OE: This looks like an ancient burial ground for the people of Mu.

There’s a statue near the top of the cemetery that looks different from the others. Apparently it’s Ra Mu, or channels Ra Mu, or something:

JP: 私は　ムー大陸の王　ラ・ムー。 肉体は　はるかむかしに　なくしたが 精神だけは　生きつづけている。
さあ　よく　目をこらしてみなさい。 さまよえる　たましいたちが 見えるはずだ。
T: I am Ra Mu, the king of Mu. I lost my body long ago; only my spirit lives on.
Look carefully. You should be able to see wandering spirits.
OE: I am Rama, King of Mu. My body passed on long ago, but my spirit lives on.
If you look closely, You can probably see wandering spirits.

If you talk to him again before you talk to the spirits:

JP: ねむりからさめた　たましいたちの 言葉を聞いてくるがよい。
T + OE: Hear the words of spirits awakened.

I really like the OE’s translation here. It’s perfect, I’m sticking with it.

The room is now full of spirits to talk to.

JP: あるとき　天空から　ひとすじの光が さしこんだ。 我々は　神の光だと思いひれふした。
T: Once, a single ray of light shone down from the sky. We thought it was the light of god and prostrated ourselves.
OE: Once a single ray of light came from the sky. People thought it was the light of the spirits.

JP: 神の光を見た日から　一年がすぎ 我々の体に　変化が起こりはじめた。
ある者は　やせほそり ある者は　岩のようになり また　あるものは　水のように　体が とけていったのだ．．．
T: One year after witnessing the light of god, our bodies began to change.
One person withered away, one’s body became hard as rock, and yet another’s melted like water.
OE: One year after that our bodies began to change.
One got very thin, one turned to stone, one’s body melted like water…

JP: 家族や　友人が　目前で　化け物の 姿に　変化し　おそいかかってくる。 我々は　なみだを流しながら 武器をふるう．．．
T: Family and friends turned into monsters before our very eyes and attacked us. Our tears poured forth as we struck them down.
OE: Family and friends turned to monsters before our eyes. We fought back the tears…

Yeesh, the JP is way darker on this one. I don’t know if it was censored, or if they cut it down because it was too many words, but yikes.

JP: おそろしさに　たえきれず ここから　にげ出そうと　考える者も 少なくない。
しかし　ムー大陸は　大海原の島。 生きて　他の場所へ　たどりつける 保障は　どこにもない．．．
T: Many couldn’t bear the horror, and thought of escaping from here.
However, Mu is an oceanic island. There was no guarantee of reaching another place alive.
OE: Some couldn’t take it, and thought we should flee from here.
But Mu is an island. We didn’t know if we’d find another place to live…

OE makes it sound like the people of Mu were unsure if other lands existed. I’m reading it more as the people of Mu being so far away from any other continent that there was no way they could have made it alive.

JP: この島には　船の材料がないのだ。 石で組み立てても　すぐに　しずんで しまう．．．
T: There were no materials for boats on this island. It would sink right away if it were made of stone.
OE: There were no materials for a boat. It would sink if made of stone…

These people are already long dead and their tragedy has already played out. So let’s not tell them about concrete ships, eh?

JP: こんなことが　続くなら 生きていることに　いったい　何の 意味があろう．．．
T: Many wondered what the point was of going on, if things continued like this.
OE: Many saw no point in living if this thing continued…

JP: 人々は　海底トンネルをほり始めた。 何百年　いや　何千年かかるか わからない計画に　のぞみをたくして ひたすら　ほり続ける．．．
T: People started digging an undersea tunnel. They kept digging, placing all their hopes in the plan, not knowing whether it would take hundreds or even thousands of years.
OE: They started building an undersea tunnel. They dug on, not knowing how long it would take…

After speaking to those spirits, Ra Mu will have new lines:

JP: 人々が　ほり進んだ　海底トンネルは この　おくにある。
そして　この　ミステリードールを もっていきなさい。
T: The underwater tunnel that the people dug is inside.
And finally, please take this Mystery Doll.
OE: The underwater tunnel dug by man is inside.
Please take this Mystic Statue.

We get the third Mystery Doll / Mystic Statue and continue through a passage that Ra Mu opened up.

Inside is… this:

JP: エリック： うわああああああん．．． だれか　助けてえっ！！
T: Erik: Waaaaaaaaah! Somebody help!
OE: Erik: Heeeeelp!! Someone save me! !

Oh, Erik has been tied to a cartoon bomb. This seems like a reasonable thing for a vampire to have done. Speaking of, the vampire couple will descend from the top of the screen.

JP: キュウケツキ男： よく　ミステリードールを 見つけ出してくれた！
変なヤツが　きゅうでんにやってきた と　思っていたが．．． ふっ。 およがせておいて　正解だったよ。
T: Male vampire: Great job finding the Mystery Doll!
I was thinking that a weirdo had turned up at the palace, but… huh. I was right to leave you alone.
OE: Vampire: You’ve found the Mystic Statue!
I thought that guy who came to the palace was strange….We were right to let him go.

JP: キュウケツキ女： なによ。 あんたは　えものが　やってきたとか よだれを　たらしてたくせにっ！
ちょっと　若い子が　くれば これだものっ！ あんたは　食べることしか　考えて ないのっ？
T: Female vampire: Ha! Despite the fact that you were slobbering as if some prey animal had shown up.
You’re always like that when someone even a little bit young turns up! Do you think about anything but food?
OE: Vampiress: What are you saying? You were drooling when he was here!
You’re always like that when young ones come! All you ever think about is food!

I like that OE differentiates her as the vampiress. I also like that these vampires are basically the Lockhorns.

JP: キュウケツキ男： そういう　お前だって！！
まあ　まて。 今は　ふうふげんかを　してる場合 じゃない。
T: Male vampire: You’re no different!
Hey, wait. Now’s not the time for a marital spat.
OE: Vampire: So do you!!
Wait. This is not the time or place for an argument.

JP: まずは　その　ミステリードールを いただくとしよう。 そこの　お前！　かくごしろっ！！！
T: First, let’s get that Mystery Doll. You there! Prepare yourself!
OE: First, let’s get that Mystic Statue! Get ready!!!

Ah, the vampires. These two are assholes.

A bunch of things make this arguably the hardest boss in the game in the US version.

• You’re very likely to be fighting this as Tim. You can get here as Freedan, but you effectively have to backtrack to the beginning of Mu to do so, then run all the way back. If it’s your first time through the game, you should probably do this, boring though it may be.

• In the JP version, herbs heal you to full. In the US version, they only restore 8 HP, which is paltry at this point in the game.

• The US vampires are much more aggressive than the JP vampires. For example, one of the vampires has an attack like Bomberman’s bombs, exploding outward in 4 directions. In the JP version he leaves a cute little skull bomb, giving you plenty of time to get away. In the US version, he uses it instantly, and you’ll only dodge it if you’re lucky or if you’re taking advantage of invincibility frames. They move faster, they attack faster, they attack more… it’s hilarious.

• As you fight them, a timer over the bomb ticks down. If it reaches 0 before the vampires are defeated, Tim dies. (After they’re defeated is a different story.) It’s not a huge deal, but adding a time limit on top of everything is funny.

It took me 2 herbs in the US version, fighting as Tim. I still have several, but after this I only want to use herbs in the optional dungeon and the Tower of Babel.

I also had to do the fight twice in each version, because there’s different dialogue depending on which vampire you kill first.

If you kill the female vampire first:

JP: キュウケツキ男： きさまっ！　よくも　わが妻をっ！！ ゆるさんっ！！！！
T: Male vampire: You bastard! How could you do that to my wife!? I won’t let you get away with this!
OE: Vampire: You! You did that to my wife! I’ll never forgive you!!

Ooh, he calls you きさま (kisama). This is a rude way to address someone. It doesn’t literally mean bastard, it’s just a mean thing to say. I’ve seen it translated as you bastard frequently, but for localizations that wanted to be more family friendly, I’ve even seen it translated as buster. I’m imagining that here: Hey buster, you killed my wife! Darn you to heck! The OE is stilted, but maybe we’re lucky it wasn’t worse.

He does literally say I won’t forgive you, but this tends to be overused in JP→Eng translation and localizers will often punch it up to something similar.

And if you kill the male vampire first:

JP: キュウケツキ女：　ふんっ。 あんな男　死んで　せいせいしたわっ さあ　次は　お前の番っ！！ かくご　おしっ！！
T: Female vampire: Hmph. I’m relieved for him to die. Now you’ll be the next! Prepare yourself!
OE: Vampiress: I’m glad he’s gone. It’s your turn next!! Get ready!

Oh wow. These vampires appear to have VERY different feelings about each other.

Once the vampires are down, it’s a race against the clock to defuse the bomb!

…By which I mean I’m going to sit here and let it count down to zero.

JP: ．．．．．．．．．．．．
不発だったんだ．．． 助かった．．．
T: ………
It was a dud. We’re saved.
OE: ………..
It was a dud. I’m saved…

Even if you let the timer run out, the game continues to pretend as if there’s some kind of emergency. Erik will still say the same thing:

JP: まずは　ばくだんを　とめてよおっ！ はやく　はやくっ！！
T: Take care of the bomb first! Hurry, hurry!
OE: First, defuse the bomb! Hurry! Hurry!

And you’ll have to defuse the bomb either way.

JP: ばくだんからは　赤い線と　青い線が ２本　出ているようだ．．．
どっちを　切りますか？
>赤いほう
>青いほう
T: There are 2 wires sticking out from the bomb: a red and a blue one.
Cut which one?
>Red one
>Blue one

Ooooh, tough choice. I’ll choose the red.

JP: 赤い線を　引きちぎった！
T + OE: The red wire is cut!

Wait, no, I changed my mind. Load state! Cut the blue wire instead!

JP: 青い線を　引きちぎった！
T + OE: The blue wire is cut!

Was that the right choice? Oh, I sure hope so…

JP: テム： どうやら　ばくだんは 止まった　みたいだった．．．
T: Tim: Seems like the bomb has been defused.
OE: Will: The bomb has been defused…

Huzzah! Good thing I made a save state before making that decision! Otherwise I’d have had to fight the vampires all over again.

…Oh, wait, I’m getting word that it makes no difference which wire you cut and this scene is thrown in here just to add a silly cliche. The game clearly didn’t have enough of those.

JP: エリック： たすかったあ．．．
T: Erik: We’re saved.
OE: Erik: Saved…

Lily pipes up from Tim’s pocket once more:

JP: リリィ：　ごめんね　テム．．． あたし　いっしょにいたのに 何にも　できなかった．．．
足がすくんで　ぜんぜん 動けないし　声も出ないし．．． テムは　やっぱり　男の子だよね。
T: Lily: I’m sorry, Tim. I was with you, but I couldn’t do anything.
I was frozen with fear; I couldn’t even speak. And in the end, you’re the boy.
OE: Lilly: Sorry, Will… There was nothing I could do…
My legs gave out from fear. I couldn’t move or make a sound.

JP says テムは　やっぱり　男の子だよね (temu wa yappari otokonoko dayone) which literally means as for Tim, is boy/man as expected, right? I think she’s trying to say that while she was frozen with fear, she told herself that Tim would take care of it, being a Big Strong Man and her being Weak Seed Girl. I’m not sure how else to interpret it.

JP: いままで　自分をしっかりしてるって 思ってたけど　いざとなると これだもん．．．
．．．．．．．．．。 ごめん　もう　しばらく ポケットの　中に　いさせて。
T: Until now I thought I was tough stuff, but when push comes to shove, I guess I’m not.
Sorry for staying in your pocket for so long.
OE: Up to now I thought I was strong, but in a crisis…
…………..
Sorry for staying in your pocket for so long.

She’s sorry, but she doesn’t now take the time to get the hell out of my pocket.

You can talk to Erik again:

JP: エリック： また　テムに　たすけられちゃった なあ．．．．
T: Erik: You saved me once again, huh.
OE: Erik: Once again Will has saved me.

When you finally try to leave by heading back towards Ra Mu, some friends show up:

JP: ニール： テムっ！　無事かっ？！
ロブ：　テムっ！ リリィの姿が　見あたらないけど リリィは　どうしたっ？！
リリィ： ここに　いるよっ。
T: Neil: Tim! Are you ok!?
Rob: Tim! There’s no sign of Lily. What happened to her?
Lily: I’m right here.
OE: Neil: Will! Are you OK?!
Lance: Will! I don’t see Lilly. Has something happened?
Lilly: I’m here.

Rob is really concerned about Lily, huh? Good on him. Lily fiiiiinally comes out of Tim’s pocket.

JP: リリィ：　心配　させてごめんね。 でも　テムが　守ってくれたから あたしは　平気っ。
ニール：　へえ。 テムも　なかなか　男らしいところが 出てきたじゃないか。
T: Lily: Sorry for worrying you. But Tim protected me, so I’m fine.
Neil: Oh yeah? Tim’s masculine side emerged, huh?
OE: Lilly: Sorry I worried you. Will was protecting me, so I was OK.
Neil: Well, Will seems to have really grown up.

All this talk about Tim being manly and protecting Lily makes Karen jealous, and she changes the subject:

JP: カレン： そんなの　どうでも　いいじゃない！
それより　ムー大陸から　どうやって 出るかを　考えましょっ！
T: Karen: What does that matter!?
More importantly, let’s think about how we get out of Mu!
OE: Kara: It doesn’t matter!
Let’s think about how to leave Mu!

JP: リリィ：　それなら　だいじょうぶ。 さっき　ラ・ムーとか　いう人から いいこと　聞いちゃったもの。
テムは　ムー大陸のことや 海底トンネルを　わたった人々の ことを　みんなに　話した．．．
Lily: Sure, fine. We heard something good a little while ago from someone named Ra Mu.
Tim told everyone about Mu and the people who crossed through an underwater tunnel.
OE: Lilly: That’s good. We heard some things from someone called Rama.
Will told everyone about Mu and the people who had come through the underwater tunnel…

JP: カレン： 悲しい話ね．．．
いっしょに　くらしてた人たちが はなればなれになって　しかも 片方は　海の底なんて．．．
T: Karen: What a sad story.
People who were living together were separated from each other. And moreover, to think that one side ended up at the bottom of the ocean.
OE: Kara: It’s such a sad story…
separated from those with whom they lived. Others remaining under water…

I thought this line was pretty weird as a kid. Why’s she describing people building an undersea tunnel as under water? But she’s talking about those who got left behind, when Mu sank into the ocean.

JP: ニール：　とにかく　その 海底トンネルを　通っていけば 近くの大陸へ　出られるってわけか。
ロブ：　よしっ！ そうと決まれば　さっそく出発だっ！
T: Neil: Anyway, if we go through the tunnel, maybe we can get out at the nearby continent.
Rob: All right! If it’s settled, let’s set off right away.
OE: Neil: If we go through the tunnel, maybe we can reach the mainland.
Lance: Good idea! Let’s get out of here!!

How do you suppose the people of Mu knew they were under a continent before they started to dig up? Seems like the entire effort would be ruined if you dug up and were still under the ocean. The water would flood the tunnel and you’d all die, right?

And what if, y’know, the ocean changed depths? You could still be on the continental shelf, and going straight would run you right into the ocean. How would you know?

Well, the game’s not going to answer such questions. In the next entry, we encounter an old friend! Sort of.

1. Churchward thought he was discovering the lore, rather than inventing it. He was… let’s say that he was not very good at deducing the most likely explanation for things. Anyway, we know it’s all false because plate tectonics.