The Strange English Translations of Puyo Puyo
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- Опубликовано: 20 дек 2023
- Puyo Puyo as a series has had an unusual time trying to break into the English market. Today I'll be looking at all of the English versions of the first game, as well as their respective console ports.
Twitter: / glassjoetm
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0:00 Brief look at Puyo Puyo
9:07 Chapter 1: Arcade Bootleg?
14:27 Chapter 2: Mega Drive & Sonification
27:12 Chapter 3: Handheld Idiocy
29:43 Chapter 4: Super Avalanche
39:14 Conclusion 
Игры
Well made video. You deserve more views.
I do wanna say that Puyo Puyo wasn't made cute from Madoi Monogatari. Long story short:
- Jun 15 1990: Madou Monogatari 1-2-3 [MSX2]
- Oct 25 1991: Puyo Puyo (1991) [MSX2]
- Nov 23 1991: Madou Monogatari 1-2-3 [MSX2]
- Oct 1992: Puyo Puyo (1992) [Hey it's the subject of the video.]
So the basic gist is that the MSX2 Madou 1-2-3 has a cute artstyle like Puyo Puyo, and the PC98 one that came later it was dolled-up to be needlessly gory and grotesque. But because these two versions share the same name, the PC98 version is often mistaken for the very first Madou Monogatari.
But in reality the series always looked cute from day 1 on MSX2 and they all look like they were from Puyo Puyo from the start (in fairness cutscenes everyone's closer to our proportions but aside from Arle's hands bleeding from frostbite nothing out of the ordinary visually). PC98 is the outlier. It's an understandable misconception but nothing was actually sanitized. Quite the opposite actually.
An easy short hand for how the PC98 version is needlessly gory is that in the MSX2 version Arle doesn't kill, she explicitly knocks people out this becomes a plot point in Madou 3 and is how she's allowed to escape a forest that hates humans. In PC98 Arle does stuff all the time to kill, and yet the creature that lets her go still says she doesn't kill.
So safe to say PC98 wasn't the original vision in the slightest.
Some other things of note:
- Dark Prince is an actual title he has in the Japanese version as well. This goes as far back as the manual for MSX2 MM123. Nowadays I think it's partially kept because Satan doesn't have the same connotations to Japanese people as it does in the west, yet they know what it means. And in that sense "Dark Prince" sticking is a great localization.
- I do think SEGA owns the rights to AoSTH. I don't think concepts for it would be allowed in the Archie Comics if they weren't.
Good work though. It shows you've done your research everywhere else. Like with MegaDrive/SNES aspect ratios. Don't take all these paragraphs as an insult. I don't expect most people to know all of that (even if I wish Madou not being dark originally was more known.)
You deserve more views for the work you put into here. I'll give your vid a bump later.
Kind of weird how they changed so much of the game's tone for the PC98 version. Looks like I got that completely backwards in the video. And as for Sonic, I think SEGA does own the characters and concepts introduced in AOSTH, but I was talking about the actual distribution rights to the show, because in any release of those cartoons, Sega themselves are pretty much never involved. This also goes for a lot of other video game cartoons from the time, like Sony Pictures having the rights to the DKC cartoon. I guess with the way the original agreements went, the studios themselves became the owner of the cartoons, while the license holders still get to use the original concepts introduced, which is how we got stuff like Mean Bean Machine or the Super Mario Bros Super Show rap in the Illumination Mario movie.
@@ToastyMann Ah, that makes sense.
@@ToastyMann Oh yeah, forgot to link it. But all of this had me make a video on clearing this misconception up as concise and precise as I could: ruclips.net/video/B9-rL0tIOn4/видео.html
Do you appear every Puyo video fact checking everything
Only the two times and only if RUclips randomly recommends a video like this to me.
I take no pleasure in it.@@TheStarBot
Dr Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine's legacy continues to live on in the Sonic movie franchise, as a humble cafe/secret hideout run by Agent Stone, named The Mean Bean Coffee Cafe.
Hmmmm i wonder if stone makes the coffee with poyos 🤔
I had a dumb smile on my face when I first saw that upon watching the movie in theaters. Apparently there was supposed to be a MBM reference in the first film but it got cut.
Since I actively dislike the Sonic movies, i'm gonna say the game's most recent actual contribution was as the boss of Chemical Plant Zone in Sonic Mania
@@the-NightStarHeavily confused
Average Sonic fan
every time you say poyo i die a little inside and kirby gets a little bit stronger.
Ah, Satan, the Dark Prince of Puyo Hell. That guy REALLY let himself go in the later entries...
The fact that you called the in-fight portraits 'live reaction" and "facecam" just makes me realize the meme potential
That said, definitely an underrated video, talking way better about the subject than certain other videos I've seen
It's visible that you're a Puyo fan, or that you at least like the games
America did this with Panel de Pon as well, reskinning it with Yoshi's Island characters because they thought a game with a bunch of cute magical girls wouldn't sell well here.
And we can’t forget the Pokémon reskins for N64 and GBC.
Thats not the reason with puyo tho
The game is a collab between compile and sega
Came here from Mamono’s recommendation and I just have to say what an absolutely incredible job you did with this video!
Very well researched, very entertaining and informative script and just overall great production value. Even as a veteran of the series I still learned a couple of neat tid bits. Thoroughly enjoyed the full 44 minute watch!
Yeppers - Carbuncle 1987
I actually really like The Adventures Of Sonic The Hedgehog...
*Puts hand on your shoulder*
Me too buddy, me too…
It’s certainly entertaining, I’ll give it that lol
Ditto.
same in my opinion it isn't as bad as people say it is
It is actually good. Not perfect, but decent. OP is also misinformed in assuming it was made as a localized cash grab, when in reality, SEGA gave the west nothing to work with for the cartoons and comics at the time.
Never knew these existed.
(Except for that one time i played Mean Bean Machine through Sonic Mega Collection on my Gamecube but we don't talk about that anymore).
I mean, at least i saw who carbuncle was..
Have you ever heard of squishy splat?
@@JaxTheEpic nah..
@@SlyHikari03 It was a western release that replaced the characters with the ones from the Kitsy Cat cartoons.
@@JaxTheEpic interesting
32:31 the super famicom's sound chip actually had a massive problem, it's sample ram
miserable 64kb, and on top of that, note and driver data occupied that said RAM leaving barely any room for samples
it didn't help that devs didn't know how to optimize it, cartridge space was still limited, BRR compression didn't exist, and they didn't know about the gaussian bypass trick that consists on adding hard pass on the samples before importing
And when it comes to fm -> pcm conversions, messing with the fm sound chip in itself is essential
👍The FM stuff was always so much richer than the SNES samples; I know the fights are mostly over but everyone who said the SNES sounded better than the Genesis on average must've only played on terrible emulators. I feel like the only companies that got the SNES sound right was limited to just Nintendo, Square, and Enix, who figured out how to compose around the muddy low-res samples, perhaps through the trick you mentioned here.
@@Pepperly tbh I think the correct contenders would be stuff made nowadays since tools are more advanced now
compare BlueEletric SPC700's stuff with Abstract64's YM2612 Stuff
@@Pepperly And tbh the reason why people argued that the spc700 was better because there would be certain sounds you can get there at higher extents, vocal voices were an example, however it was still held back by the RAM
As for the YM2612, 4 operators with Sine Waveform might not be enough to replicate every sound possible, but generally sounds cleaner than SPC700
@@ssg-eggunner Yeah, that's basically what I was trying to say, you just worded it better.
I have a handful of Deflemask/Furnace/Genny instruments that do a pretty good job running a gamut of orchestral sounds; it's no Square/Enix sound library but it's still pretty impressive what the little chip can do.
14:36 PINGAS & SNOW BROS = SNOW PINGAS BROS
fun fact: in the puyo puyo crossover event for sonic runners, eggman interacts with satan and drops the iconic line "mwahaha! i'm very grateful for your help, satan"
Runners was a fever dream. It's also better than any of the other Sonic mobile games yet it's the only one to get shut down.
I liked the direct talking to the player from mean bean machine. Made it feel like i was the main character and on my way to destroy all the cocky badniks. The conversations between characters is always better of course. Puyo puyo tetris was fun just to see the silly characters interact.
yeah i couldn't even understand any english at the time, but the robots talking to my eyes along with the menacing music made them super intimidating at the time. specially from stage 9 onwards. i respected and feared those robots.
this was a pretty good video, and even if I have already known all of the info in this video for over 10 years, it's pretty nice to recap some of it after a long time, I'm a long time Puyo Puyo fan, but I gotta admit when it comes to the first Puyo Puyo, I preffer to play the Mean Bean Machine version, my favourite entry in the franchise being Puyo Pop Fever (yes, with the english voice cast and everything) because it has a certain feel that I think the games thate came after it couldn't replicate
I'm surprised you didn't bring up the Danger!!! music from Mean Bean Machine, not only is it very fitting for a Sonic title and goes incredibly hard, I believe it's also somewhat of a remix of another track from Puyo Puyo itself if I recall correctly
Right you are. It's a variation on the final boss theme
7:29 I'd say time trax & streets or rage are better representations of the capabilities of the ym2612 during the mega drive's lifespan
Actually, Mean Bean has you playing as Carb- sorry, *Has Bean.*
An English translation you forgot to bring up are two for the PC: Qwirks and Timon ans Pumbaa's Bug Drop. They are both Puyo Puyo done under license from COMPILE themselves. Interestingly, Qwirks was introduced by the creator of Tetris, which Puyo and Tetris won't crossover until decades later.
I avoided Bug Drop because it was technically a rebuild from scratch and wasn't actually based on Puyo Puyo's source code like Avalanche and Mean Bean Machine were. I initially ignored Qwirks since I assumed it was the same story, but later found out that it's actually a reskin.
If I ever revisit the topic, I'll be sure to include Qwirks.
Nice video, hope to see your progress little by little
Quirks was also an official reskin using the source code from compile for windows and Mac, and it's the most bizzarre of them all ... I'd love to see it covered
Well, that's my fault. I assumed it was another rebuild from scratch like Timon & Pumbaa's Jungle games. Maybe I'll consider a follow-up video sometime down the line to cover that and a few other translations like Puyo Puyo Fever.
Qwirks had nothing to do with compile west at all.
@@ToastyMann Would that follow-up video also talk about squishy splat????
@@JaxTheEpic That's the same story with Quirks
But hey, it has some weird Sci-Fi lore... And a new gimmick... And it was introduced by the guy behind Tetris! Apparently...
Ever since i first played mean bean machine in sonic mega collection plus, i've been a big fan of Puyo puyo. Thanks for making a great video for a great franchise.
The funniest thing about Kirby's Avalanche is some of the minor details which seem to suggest the sound engine in the game is taken from Super Puyo Puyo Tsu, rather than the first game.
- The sound of Puyos popping are identical to Tsu's, which is different from Super Puyo Puyo's.
- The game has a full set of voices, all the way up to 7 chain. That's a Tsu thing, not an OPP thing.
- The Warning music's instruments matches Super Puyo Puyo Tsu's version much more than Super Puyo Puyo's version.
- Super Puyo Puyo already released later than the other ports, to the point that some hidden options (accessible through Game Genie codes) actually has some Tsu changes that exist, most notably the Offsetting feature.
At that point I'm surprised they didn't just reskin Tsu into Avalanche considering the gameplay improvements introduced.
Very entertaining and informative video! Keep it up, dude.
Hey, awesome video, I really liked it. What you said about the English arcade version is actually totally true. In 2022 I saw a working board of this being sold on eBay Italy with the Sega official sticker as usually seen on cabinets so it likely was a test launch in countries like Italy, Spain, Portugal etc.
What I’m still unsure on though is how the actual cabinet looks but I guess time will tell.
(I also appreciate how you mentioned Super Puyo Puyo Tsu because that game has one of the best tracks in any snes game I’ve ever heard)
i have just noticed you have only 561 subs and this video only has 284 views?? what the hell!! you deserve much more
I remember there’s a theory in Dr. R’s mean bean machine of you playing as Carbuncle rather than it being a self insert story. The game’s page on Puyo Nexus says that Carbuncle is the protagonist of the story. Until there’s an official source claiming that Carbuncle is not the protagonist that’s what I am going to believe because I like Carbuncle.
The fish man is based on a obscure european legend.
That foot thing is based on a romanian/english monster known as sciapod which if your a fan of harry potter you might know of.
Same as that eggplant also known as QUICKESY
Also panotty was changed to johnny due to some flute singer from the medieval times who vaguely resembles a elf
@@JaxTheEpic Similar to that, Panotty's name is derived from a mythical race of people that have large ears, called "Panotti".
AOSTH is actually pretty good I don't get the hate. It's supposed to be stupid and it does it well.
Fun fact: Popful Mail almost never happened because SEGA was still in the mindset that all we ever wanted was more Sonic. Thanks to enough American fan outcry, its reskin in progress, Sister Sonic was thrown to the wayside.
Basically, its a sonix x puyo crossover game, The game is a collab between compile and sega
The aosth designs aren't that bad tough
Only ~8 minutes in but I just want to comment (yay algo) to say I am SO glad Mean Bean Machine kept Sparkle and the final boss theme in its localization. Especially the final boss theme. No reason for it to go that hard, but hard it went.
ETA I wouldn't have gotten into Puyo if it weren't for Robotnik, too. I ended up grabbing one of the Puyo games on Dreamcast and later DS in Japanese because I wanted (then) modern versions. Also Pokemon Puzzle Challenge got me into the Puzzle League/Panel de Pon series (as short lived as it was; RIP). Nothing wrong with reskins for the fans if it helps them get introduced into something that wouldn't be on their radar otherwise.
i really loved the video, the scripting and the pacing was good (but didn't liked the ear rape tho) really reminded me like old avgn or smthn.
liked and subscribed
I dunno why so many people pronounce Puyos as "Poyos"
Even the designer of them "Nicholas Rodrigo" pronounces them like that but he often calls them the jellies and the squishies which was the name of them in the west.
@@JaxTheEpic I was also expecting Qwirks to come into place
@@frannielmartinez Also nicholas is the designer of carbuncle but his design gives him big shiny teeth and cartoony eyes though he can still have those beebee eyes.
OMG IT'S YOU!
@@SalvadoreJQ865 Yes it's me, Mr. "Puyo Puyo Spanish Translation" Guy
Dude, these games made me crave candy...
Pretty good video. I really enjoyed it.
Bro, you're planning to fish out Suketoudara
12:57
39:06 I’m pretty sure when we finally got Kirby no Kira Kira Kizzu (a original Kirby puzzle game that never left Japan) Japan got avalanche but I’m too lazy to check my switch
Sonic the hedgehog got his dues in this holy crap!
26:30 AND I BUY I IT EVERY TIME! :D I have the wiiware, plug and play, xbox, switch, steam etc.
The eternal debt to Dr. Robotnik.
great video 👍
Your profile picture is hellhole teethless no big cartoon eyed carbuncle 💀
19:02 this is also the character we contain the king of RUclips meme for example in a certain episode of sonic the hedgehog you will probably hear, robotic saying snooping as usual but then some lousy RUclipsr probably cut that line out and turn it into an inappropriate word which somehow turns it into a meme that you may see in various RUclips poop videos are videos of various properties, but made them into weird remixes that turns them into inappropriate and appropriate jokes and involve memes funny some not
pingas
Could we use Kirby's Avalanche and Sonic in Puyo Puyo Tetris 2 and Sonic Mania (And Mean Bean Machine I guess) to argue that Puyo Puyo, Sonic and Kirby share the same universe?
I'm not gonna lie the moment I saw the Crank Dat Soulja Boy bit that broke me.
That specific SNES instrument has been ruined for me thanks to memes
@@ToastyMann No like I literally I wasn’t thinking about it then the walls started crumbling once I saw the visual switch up. Holy moly great editing.
What are your thoughts about Puyo Puyo Tetris 2 if you played it? I'm interested in Puyo Puyo after watching this video.
It's currently on sale on Steam for 7 bucks which is a great price. It's definitely content-rich HOWEVER, there's no traditional arcade mode like the classic games. There's a story mode but it talks your ear off with text and it's not very well paced. It's good for multiplayer but keep that in mind if you're looking for single player content.
@@ToastyMannI can see by what you mean by "not well paced", but the story really hits its strides in later chapters and is one of my favorites in the series, so I wouldn't completely discount it either. Like, if you're not a fan of visual-novel type stories, that's one thing, of course, but as someone who doesn't mind that style, I replay that story mode a lot!
Squishy Splat is better!!!
@@JaxTheEpic If almost nobody knows it, how could it be better? The Sega-era games are muuuuuuuuuuuuuch better.
1:02 If I was Knuckles, I’d instantly approve that.
I've been playing puyo since I opened my eye balls for the first time in my life and I'm 30 now, used to bother the shit out of me that they never just released puyo normally in English
I always knew this as Kirby's Avalanche.
Pingus
13:25 anime dates be like!
14:27
30:38
bean
I love how your video starts out pretty decent, afterall PuyoPuyo is a fun franchise!
And then when we get to chapter 1 it's a very hard spiral into mostly just you complaining about sound quality and late 90s localization that smells insanely of "old game bad"
Hell, the amount of slander towards Dr. Robotnik's Peak Bean Machine is unessecary, you make it look like SEGA murdered PuyoPuyo at every avenue that I lost interest faster and faster the more you whined about it. I was genuinely hoping for a documentary on PuyoPuyo's localization.
At least you agree the soundtrack is peak. v( :/ )v
She just made 3:39
Neat video!
...wish you would drop less f-bombs though
Correction: Puyo Puyo actually first released on the amiga as "Squishy Splat"
me when i spread misinformation on the internet
I'm not lying.
Let me say a fact
Carbuncle originated from a old comic known as "Un murciélago y una serpiente"
Puyo Puyo is based off of Tetris and Dr. Mario.
29:41 ...yikes man...
Ok, yeah I left and stopped watching this video when you insulted Adventures Of Sonic The Hedgehog. Enjoy the dislike.
Scratch and Grounder are never coming back, please order something else from the McDonalds Value Menu
Why is there no mention of Kitsy Cat in a video about a Kitsy Cat game?
You literally forgot about squishy splat and batflight n' snake-eyes which was the origin of the puyo puyo franchise and also it is the western equivalent of it.
No, it wasn't.
You missed like 13 English games
SNOOPINGAS USUAL I SEE 😩😩😩😩
Arle is actually pronounced "Ar-lee"
no she's not. アルル is her name, aruru, which is the Japanese for Arle pronounce Ah-rl
@@Saetta06 It could be my european accent I don't know.
@@JaxTheEpic They only pronounced Arle like that in Puyo Puyo Fever.
sucks that you put politics and references to current events.. otherwise your content would have been good. people dont want to watch youtube videos to hear about you complain about the damn patriarchy 😂😂
Eh its fine in this case since its related to the topic of the video. That topic being localization and why the west weirdly changes stuff unnecessarily
Video was great until the end where you suddenly start get political and using a hate website to push a obnoxiously flase negative narrative about localization 42:37
I like how you even joked that Japan dose it sometimes to our art beforehand so why try to cry, it's not that deep and this talking point tend to infantitze Japanese creators instead of protect them (and also it tends send hate angist people who are just trying to do their job)
Not sure how you call it a "false narrative" when it's literally true, and there's countless examples of it happening. This isn't just about the Japanese either, it's about artistic integrity in general. I'm not saying all localizers are like this, I'm saying that it's still a sizable issue that needs to be addressed. Artists everywhere have to deal with corpos and censors breathing down their necks and altering whatever they see fit. I want to experience the original work, not someone else's interpretation of it.
Also, Niche Gamer isn't a "hate website" and I seriously don't see how anyone could come to that conclusion. They're not instructing their readers to harass anyone, and news outlets in general cite individual people all the time. It's nothing new, it's journalism.
@@ToastyMann Niche Gamer has unnecessary targeted people and straight up lie about marglized people, like black and trans voices
Don't get me started on them constantly defending pedophila
Kinda agree on @TheStarBot here. It isn't that big of a deal. Some of them do look ugly, but for the most part a lot of that is stuck in the past with only a few bits surviving to the present day.
Plus to be honest, I'm surprised that some American versions of 90s British games DIDN'T change a lot of the ingame graphics because British games back in those days tend to have HIDEOUS artwork complete with tons of overly bright colors that could make your eyes bleed(not even charmingly ugly like with Psychonauts, just ABSOLUTE ugliness). Top Banana is a perfect example of just how abysmal those British games of ol' can look. Thankfully, there are a handful of British games from that time period like most of Codemasters' stuff & Glider Rider that don't suffer from the Beano ugliness influence.
@@ExtremeWreckThat's understandable. I'm just of the opinion that all these visual overhauls for other markets are unnecessary to begin with. I might've come off as a bit preachy near the end of the video as well. I'm not gonna deny that we've certainly made progress with keeping some kind of authenticity in foreign imports, but I think there's still work to be done.
And as for the examples like Top Banana and Psychonauts, I think it's different there because those were intended to look that way to begin with. Ugliness can have its charm at times. Hell, older cartoons like Ed, Edd, N Eddy, Invader Zim, and The Oblongs are great examples of that. I just think doing it to an existing property for the sake of localization is dumb, and 9 times out of 10, the "localized" interpretations like Pocky and Rocky, Mega Man, Japanese Gex, and others just look infinitely worse.
@@ExtremeWreckit's crazy how back then the British made very appealing Cartoony Artstyles
But that as well...
I have no interest in "Puyo Puyo" IMO but Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine is a certified hood classic, despite that it has no Sonic, it is better than DIC[K]'s weird AoStH cartoon [though Dr. "PINGAS" Robotnik is the best character there is].
And I have to agree to those face expressions the badniks and Dr. Robotnik make in the mugshots, they are so MEMETIC.
22:22 Coconuts' screaming face had me fckin dying.
14:36 PINGAS & SNOW BROS = SNOW PINGAS BROS
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