Like many games of the 1980s (and beyond), the English localisation of the original Legend of Zelda isn’t as word-perfect as it could have been. So translator GlitterBerri went back and did the job properly.
In doing so, she’s taken every item name and piece of dialogue from the classic action/RPG and cleaned it up noticeably. Purists may argue that in doing so much of the charm of the original translation is lost, but, well, that translation was wrong in the first place!
This means stuff like “EASTMOST PENNINSULA IS THE SECRET” and “SOUTH OF ARROW MARK HIDES A SECRET” now make a lot more sense, seeing as they’re just two of the lines that the original localisation got completely wrong.
Also changed is perhaps the game’s most notorious line, “IT’S DANGEROUS TO GO ALONE! TAKE THIS” (or “ヒトリデハキケンジャ コレヲ サズケヨウ”), which when cleaned up reads more like “It’s dangerous to go alone. I shall grant you this.”
You can check out the complete translation (and those for many other games ) at GlitterBerri’s site, below.
Retranslation Redux [GlitterBerri, via GameSetWatch]
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