Yume Nikki:Translation Differences

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There exist some differences between the historic Uboachan fan translation, the current official translation in the English Steam version, and the translation used in the officially licensed mobile version.

The Steam version has all default RTP files added to the folders, while the Uboachan version only provides the files that the engine requires by default (without hacks to remove the files). Curiously, Uboachan also includes the default RTP sounds, despite the engine being able to run without error with missing sounds.

Effects

Effect names in the Steam version are generally more accurate to the original meaning. Uboachan's translations are sometimes given slightly different names, such as "kitchen knife" being translated to simply "Knife", and "blonde" translated to "Blonde hair" to be more consistent with the other two hair effects. Uboachan also failed to translate the "eyeball arm" and "squishy/flabby" effects, instead using romaji. The mobile version, while largely having direct translations with similarities to both of the versions mentioned above, has minor name differences, such as "severed head" being translated into "chopped head" and "little person" being translated into "dwarf" as opposed to the more commonly translated "midget". Additionally, the "eyeball arm" and "squishy/flabby" effects are given the original names "Evil Hand" and "Jelly Body", respectively.

Of the three effects originally named after yōkai, the Uboachan translation retains the Japanese terms for the Yuki-onna and Noppera-bō, but translates oni to an English equivalent, "Demon". The Steam version does the opposite: Yuki-onna and Noppera-bō are translated to "Snow Woman" and "Faceless Ghost" respectively, but oni is retained. In the mobile version, none of the yōkai names are kept, instead translating Yuki-onna, Noppera-bō, and oni into "Snow Woman", "Faceless", and "Demon", respectively.

Another difference is that Uboachan's translation only capitalizes the first word of effect names, unlike the Steam and mobile versions which use title case.

Effect names

Original	Literal meaning	Uboachan	Steam	Mobile
かえる	frog	Frog	Frog	Frog
かさ	umbrella	Umbrella	Umbrella	Umbrella
ぼうしとマフラー	hat and muffler	Hat and scarf	Hat & Scarf	Hat and Scarf
ゆきおんな	Yuki-onna	Yuki-onna	Snow Woman	Snow Woman
ほうちょう	kitchen knife	Knife	Kitchen Knife	Kitchen Knife
めだまうで	medama, eyeball + ude, arm	Medamaude	Eye Palm	Evil Hand
ふとる	肥る, get fat	Fat	Fatten	Get Fat
こびと	小人, little person	Midget	Midget	Dwarf
ふえ	flute	Flute	Flute	Flute
ネオン	neon	Neon	Neon	Neon Light
のっぺらぼう	Noppera-bō	Nopperabou	Faceless Ghost	Faceless
なまくび	生首, severed head	Severed head	Severed Head	Chopped Head
タオル	towel	Towel	Towel	Towel
ねこ	cat	Cat	Cat	Cat
でんとう	電灯, general term meaning electric light	Lamp	Lamp	Lamp
じてんしゃ	自転車, bicycle	Bicycle	Bicycle	Bicycle
ロングヘアー	long hair	Long hair	Long Hair	Long Hair
ウンコヘアー	poop hair	Poop hair	Poo Hair	Poop Hair
ブロンド	blonde	Blonde hair	Blonde	Blonde Hair
△ずきん	triangle hood	Triangle kerchief	Spirit Headband	Ghost Hair Band
まじょ	魔女, witch	Witch	Witch	Witch
おに	oni	Demon	Oni	Demon
ぶよぶよ	squishy/flabby	Buyo buyo	Squish-Squish	Jelly Body
しんごう	信号, traffic light/signal	Stoplight	Traffic Light	Traffic Light
ゲームのせつめい	game explanation	Instructions	Tutorial	Tutorial

Effect descriptions also have minor differences in translation. While the Uboachan translation reliably uses the word "become" and the mobile version uses similar words to describe equipping an effect (such as "transform", "get", and "equip"), the Steam version took some creative liberties and has a unique translation for most effects. The mobile version also notably contains some minor grammatical errors in its effect descriptions, using "faceless" as a noun rather than an adjective, using the singular "ear" instead of the plural "ears" for the Cat effect, and using "a" instead of "an" in the Evil Hand description. One notable description is Uboachan's Poop hair effect, which is not a translation of the original, but instead a joke made by the translator. The Uboachan translation also omits the period at the end of each description (though the mobile version does this erroneously in its Dwarf effect description).

Effect descriptions

Original	Uboachan	Steam	Mobile
「かえる」にへんしんする。	Become a frog	Transform into a frog.	Transform into a frog.
「かさ」をさす。	Open an umbrella	Use an umbrella.	Use an umbrella.
「ぼうしとマフラー」をつける。	Wear a hat and scarf	Don a hat & scarf.	Put on a hat and scarf.
「ゆきおんな」になる。	Become the snow woman	Morph into a Snow Woman.	Transform into a snow woman.
「ほうちょう」をもつ。	Wield a kitchen knife	Equip a kitchen knife.	Equip a kitchen knife.
「めだまうで」になる。	Become Medamaude	Warp into an Eye Palm.	Transform into a evil hand.
ふとる。	Get fat	Balloon in size.	Get fat.
ちいさくなる。	Become small	Shrink in size.	Transform into a dwarf
「ふえ」をもつ。	Play a flute	Brandish a flute.	Equip a flute.
「ネオン」にひかる。	Become a neon light	Glow like a neon sign.	Transform into a neon light.
「のっぺらぼう」になる。	Become the faceless ghost	Materialize as a faceless ghost.	Transform into a faceless.
「なまくび」になる。	Become a severed head	Be reduced to a severed head.	Transform into a chopped head.
「タオル」をかぶる。	Wrap up in a towel	Wrap yourself in a towel.	Equip a towel.
「ねこ」のみみとしっぽがつく。	Grow ears and a tail	Sprout cat-ears and a tail.	Equip a cat ear and tail.
「でんとう」になる。	Become a lamp	Change into a lamp.	Transform into a lamp.
「じてんしゃ」にのる。	Ride a bicycle	Mount a bicycle.	Ride a bicycle.
「ロングヘアー」になる。	Grow long hair	Grow long hair.	Get long hair.
「ウンコヘアー」になる。	I certainly hope it's hair	Grow poo hair.	Get poop hair.
きんいろのロングヘアーになる。	Grow long, golden hair	Glow long blonde hair.	Get blonde hair.
「△ずきん」をつける。	Wear triangle kerchief	Put on a Spirit Headband.	Equip a ghost hair band.
「まじょ」になる。	Become a witch	Become a witch incarnate.	Transform into a witch.
「おに」になる。	Become a demon	Reconstitute as an oni.	Transform into a demon.
からだが「ぶよぶよ」になる。	Body becomes soft and squishy	Change into a squishy blob.	Get a jelly body.
「しんごうき」になる。	Become a stoplight	Change into a traffic light.	Transform into a traffic light.
ゲームのせつめいをもういちどみる。	See the instructions again	Review the game's tutorial.	Open the tutorial.

Other Text

There exist changes to other text in the game, such as changing the menu theme in the Mall.

A notable change is that the Uboachan translation modified the chair riding event in Madotsuki's Dream Room to completely remove the message that usually appears.

History

When the English Steam release of Yume Nikki first came out, the translation used different names for the Fat, Flute, Severed Head, and Demon effects as well as the Instructions, respectively dubbing them "Get Fat", "Whistle", "Talking Head", "Devil", and "Game Info". This was changed 12 days after the original release; the update additionally touched up the descriptions for many effects, including those that were not renamed, ranging from minor grammatical fixes to changing the tone of the text.

Unique Issues

Besides the glitches and minor issues still present in the original game, there are numerous exclusive issues in each main translation of the game.

Uboachan Issues

• On older copies of the translation, or on any copy of the game installed using the installer as opposed to the portable folder, it is possible for the game to crash trying to access any of the FC worlds with all twenty-four effects, due to a misnamed file. To fix this, rename FCM2ALL.xyz in the folder "Picture" to FCM２ALL.xyz (with the full width ２ character), or redownload the game.
• The "Working... please wait..." picture that appears when starting the game and during saving does not have its transparent colour set correctly, causing it to have a black background visible each time it appears.
• Collecting the Severed Head effect from the Guillotine in the large version of Guillotine World shows mojibake as the string was not translated. The normal version of Guillotine World does not share this issue.
• Interacting with the menu change Toriningen in the Mall while the Stoplight is red shows an incorrect string with leading spaces removed. This causes the text to be anchored to the left of the screen instead of inside the text box.
• Common event 218, responsible for the sound of the flowers in the Crossover Garden, has its sound file name changed to "flower". As this file does not exist, no sound plays when interacting with the flowers. More strangely, the louder "pawn" sounds of the Spaceship music use the same sound, and are also handled by a common event, but the file name was unchanged, so the sound plays normally.
• The Picture folder has three unused duplicates of the Famicom Glitch event, each labelled with "FCH" instead of the original "FC？".
• There is a duplicate of the spotlight picture used when saving and opening Nexus doors, named "spot". This file is used instead of the original. It is the only renamed file in the translation that is used.
• Besides the RTP sounds, the Uboachan translation also adds a file named "足音７", which is an unused duplicate of the sound "足音_007". The name used for the duplicate is actually the old name of the file, used in all old versions prior to 0.10. It is unknown how or why this duplicate was added to the files.

Steam Issues

• Interacting with the menu change Toriningen in the Mall while the Stoplight is red shows an incorrect string that is untranslated. This causes the text to render as mojibake on most systems.
• Some effect names appear using their older names in the FC World menu and when picking up dropped effect eggs in the Nexus.
  • The Tutorial is named "Game Explanation" in the FC World menu.
  • The Fatten effect is named "Get Fat" in the FC World menu, and "Get fat" when picking up the effect egg in the Nexus.
  • The Midget effect is named "Miget" in the completed version of the FC World menu.
  • The Flute effect is named "Whistle" in the completed version of the FC World menu and when picking up the effect egg in the Nexus.
  • The Severed Head effect is named "Talking Head" in the completed version of the FC World menu and when picking up the effect egg in the Nexus.
  • The Oni effect is named "Devil" in the completed version of the FC World menu and when picking up the effect egg in the Nexus.
• The Spaceship's main room and room with the bed are both set to play the Mars BGM quietly after the Spaceship Crash event is over. However, this version tries to use a BGM file named 0020 while the actual Mars BGM is 0313. Due to the file not existing, no music plays.
• Sleeping in the bed in the Spaceship does not dim the screen, even if the crash event is activated. In addition, the siren does not dim the screen, and the crashing event has no fade in or out. These are all due to the purely black picture used in such events having its transparent color incorrectly set to black. This issue may have occurred when converting the names of the files. Although the same picture is used in other dimming events, such as opening the family game menu, these do not have any issue as none of the other events have the "Use Transparent Color" option on. Only the Spaceship events are set to use the transparent color, even in the original game where it makes no difference.
  • Interestingly, the CharSet file with the Fisherman correctly displays the character's black color despite that color also being used as the transparency. This is functional due to the two identical black colors being in separate color indices. The fact this remains working calls into question whether the Spaceship issue is really a conversion issue or not.
• Sounds in move events have many different issues, such as incorrect settings, referring to the wrong file name, or being deleted entirely. This includes:
  • The Umbrella effect making no sound when facing left in FC Worlds.
  • The Eye Palm effect has its speed and volume both set to 100% instead of 70% and 60%.
  • The Cat effect has its volume set to 100% instead of 20%.
  • The liquid sound Tokuto-kun makes when tipped over has the original Japanese file name, which causes no sound to play.
• There are two candles in Candle World that turn into flashing lights when stabbed. This is because their move events are the only two that use index 0 of the CharSet with the unlit candles instead of the proper index 3.
• At some point, the files "000000000005" and "000000000006" were renamed to "BBBBBBBBBBB1" and "BBBBBBBBBBB2" respectively. This causes issues in FC World:
  • The cursor sound of the FC World menu uses common event 193, which plays a file named "000000000005" at 50% volume. Since this file name does not exist, no sound plays.
  • The FC Pirori use file names "000000000006" then "000000000005". Since these files do not exist, no sound plays.
  • The Lizardmen use common event 202 for each number displayed, which plays a file named "BBBBBBBBBBB2" at 40% volume and 80% speed. This is the correct name of the file, so the sound plays.
• The terrain used for the Witch effect's broom flight tries to use a sound file named 0000000281. This file does not exist, so no sound plays when moving while on the broom. The correct file name for the broom sound is 0000000248.

Mobile Version Issues

• The game's music does not loop seamlessly, often having a very short but noticeable pause whenever the track loops. This is particularly noticeable in worlds with less quiet or ambient tracks, such as the Checkered Tile Path.
• Some warps are noticeably faster than they are in the original game, almost instantly taking the player to their destination. This can be particularly seen with waking up and going to sleep, the Pink Sea balloons, and using the Medamaude effect.
• Events do not play unless the player is close to them, which can cause some minor issues. Most notably, the footsteps of the Dwarf in Candle World can not be heard unless they are close to the player.
• Rotating images either do not work or do not resemble their appearance in the original game, likely due to the mobile version being made in a different game engine. Notably, the Severed Heads and Monoko do not rotate during their respective events while the Falling Men and Mars UFOs use automatic rotation instead of aliased rotation, causing their pixel art to misalign with their surroundings.
• The move routes of some characters do not work as intended.
  • The Maussan Bros will repeat their north-east-north movement pattern even at the edge of the Sky Garden cliff, where they should stop moving.
  • When moved with the Cat effect, Madotsuki's Ghost uses her walking sprites instead of standing completely still.
• The Sewer Drawings in the room with the Nopperabou Ghost have their transparent color set to black, causing them to appear as white outlines. This issue is not present in any of the other Sewer Drawings.
• The Neon effect causes the entire screen to be tinted in certain areas with a black background, which is not the case in other versions. This can be noticed in places such as Neon World or the Docks.
• Due to new pictures being used for the menu options in the FC World menu, the cursor overlaps with the text on both menus. Upon collecting all of the effects, the cursor will not overlap with the effect names, but will still overlap with "Effect" and "Quit Game" on the smaller menu above Madotsuki's profile.
• The "Get Fat" effect uses title case in the normal menu, although all other messages mentioning it in the game (the complete and incomplete FC menu, obtaining the effect, and picking up its effect egg in the Nexus) use "Get fat" in sentence case.