Mastering two languages is a commodity in a globalized world, especially if one of those languages is English. While poor translations can make for goodvideo game memes, with the number of high-quality multilingual translators in the present day standards for game localization should be higher than ever. It’s in this context that, on July 23, 2025,River City Girls Zerosaw its English-localized debut on Switch.
The original game,Shin Nekketsu Koha: Kunio-tachi no Banka,was a Japan-exclusive belt-scrolling action game released in 1994 on the Super Famicom as the fourth installment of theKunio-kunseries. The 2022 localized versionRiver City Girls Zerobrings a few modifications to the 1994 game, including a new theme song and voiced manga-style cutscenes to tie back with 2019’sRiver Girls City. However, this is still only a localization; it’s not a remaster, and it’s not a reboot. Yet whenRiver Girls City Zeroreleased, fans noticed that there were two different translated script options: a literal script, which is an in-house translation by WayForward, and a new script that does a full English localization for the West.
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Changes in River City Girls Zero
The issue with translating foreign works into English is it’s nearly impossible to please everyone. If the translation is too literal, Western fans might find it difficult to follow the story, but that doesn’t mean it’s necessarily better to completely change the script into something unrecognizable. Ultimately, thegoal of an English localizationis to offer fans as close an experience to the original game as possible while making it comprehensible for Western audiences - which is a delicate balance, especially dealing with cultural references.
Beyond the cultural gap is an even more difficult conversation about acceptability. Not every country in the world shares Western values like gender equality, let alone political correctness. Japan is still a very male-dominated country, and the reality of Japan in 1994 is reflected in the script ofShin Nekketsu Koha: Kunio-tachi no Banka.
Some changes from the JapaneseRiver City Girls Zeroscript include certain terms referring to women that would be construed as sexist by Western standards. The game also contains a lot of cussing, which was also toned down in the localized script.River City Girls Zeroisn’t the first Japanese game facing this issue.Mother 3,a Nintendo classic from 2006, still has no localization, which is likely in-part due to Nintendo’s concerns about adult themes such as drugs and LGBTQ+ characters.
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How Localizers Felt About River City Girls Zero
The dual translations forRiver City Girls Zeroled to many English localizers airing their grievances againstWayForwardon social media. The quality of an original text depends entirely on translators' performance, therefore if WayForward chose to add its own in-house English script, it must have had an exceptional reason to do so. That reason might have to do with lackluster English localization for games such asFire Emblem Fates,which has become somewhat of a lightning rod in this debate. With access to anglophones in its ranks, providing an arguably more accurate translation free of any Western influence may have become an attractive option for WayForward.
At the end of the day, the developers who made the game, those who localized it, and the company that published it all have a stake in the matter. After developers put the time and effort in to write a carefully crafted narrative, changing that game beyond recognition does a disservice to the script. Yet cultural elements are difficult to translate, and poor localizations aren’t necessarily done in bad faith. At their worst, some localizations simplycensor portions of a gameconsidered too problematic for a Western audience, which is its own issue.
The Dangers of Getting Political
If there is one topic sure to cause controversy, it’s politics. Most of the time, developers and publishers express a desire to stay as far away from political issues as possible. That said, it’s not unheard of for partisan political messages orpolitical themes to be featured in video games, implicitly or explicitly. Video games are part of human culture, so it’s only natural for politics to be present. Whether in original games or localizations, it’s important that the politics are an accessory to a game, and not the other way around. For example,Wolfensteinis a solid first-person shooter that happens to be about killing Nazis. For localizations, the original script is already there to be followed.
That said,localizers are known to take creative liberties. When taken to the extreme, localized dialogues can turn into the localizer’s personal message board. One notorious localization isDaikaiju Monogatari,where the English dialogue turned into a political rant and virtually erased the original Japanese dialogue. The script of the English localization is full of references to “Liberals;” “Supreme Soviets;” and rants about government intrusion, taxes, and healthcare.
In the end,game localization presents its own set of unique challenges. If everyone in this circle of gaming life can trust one another to do what they’re meant to do, localizations only needs to have a single, coherent script that everyone can appreciate, even if it’s not perfectly to their liking. At the end of the day, it’s not about one good or bad localization, but a wider industry issue that is worth discussing.
River City Girls Zerois now available on Nintendo Switch, and in development for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
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