This video is brought to you by NordVPN - get 75% off via the link below.
The channel recently made a video taking a look at all of the ways that Crash Team Racing
was changed over in Japan.
Like most other games in the franchise, Crash Team Racing had quite a few changes made to
it in Japan to try and better appeal to Japanese tastes.
In the video, I mentioned how the new remake version of the game Nitro-Fueled hadn’t
been released in Japan yet and so it wasn’t possible to fully compare the original game’s
changes to the new remake.
However, now that the game has been released, we can take a look at the Japanese version
of the remake too.
If you missed the original game’s video, you’ll be able to find a link in the description
below so you can check it out.
Like mentioned, there were a lot of changes made to the original, but in the Remake, not
many changes has been made to the game at all.
In fact, the overall Japanese localization job has actually been met with some controversy
over in Japan due to it being seen as low effort and quality.
As shown on the Japanese box art, the cover was, like the original game, redesigned so
that it uses the Japanese design of Crash.
However, the box art is pretty much where all changes end, aside from some language-related
matters.
Even on the game’s title screen, the game’s name and logo was left completely untranslated
despite being translated on the box.
You may also recall how the original game had a different name over in Japan and was
called “Crash Bandicoot Racing” rather than “Crash Team Racing”.
The official Japanese name for the remake is also Crash Bandicoot Racing, but this isn’t
reflected in-game.
One source of controversy relates to the game’s voice acting and that, despite being dubbed,
the decision was made to recast the original game’s voice actors.
In some cases, like for Nitros Oxide, this couldn’t be helped due to the previous actor
passing away.
However, the game uses different actors for other characters as well and this is despite
using the original actors for the Trilogy remake.
And so this has made the experience a little jarring for fans of the series.
Also, for a few characters like Crash and Ripper Roo, the English dubbing is kept rather
than being localized like the original.
It is speculated amongst Japanese fans that this may have been an attempt at trying to
cut costs on the localization and another complaint from some players is that the translation
can sometimes be very literal and that this can seem to make things either not make sense
or lose the charm from the original.
One thing that the Japanese version does is that it sometimes adds subtitles at the bottom
of the screen when English graphics are shown during scenes, like for this sign during the
intro, rather than changing the graphic itself.
However most other graphics are left both untranslated and without subtitles, like the
book that polar is seen reading titled “How To Drive”.
Like mentioned in the previous video, this was actually translated in the original game
like most other graphics.
For example, the TNT crates were changed to an image of a bomb, the Nitro crates were
translated to Japanese, and the CTR acronyms were replaced due to the different title in
Japan.
All of this was kept the same as the English versions in the new remake however.
One thing that the previous video didn’t mention was a few other instances of translation
differences that could be found in the Japanese version of the original – like in the endings,
which had some changes in Japan to presumably again better appeal to Japanese audiences.
For example, in Crash’s original English ending, it says that Crash went on to sell
his life story to a movie studio and the movie, called “The “Color Orange” will be released
for the Christmas holiday season.
In Japan though, to briefly translate, it talks about how thanks to everybody’s efforts,
peace was restored and Crash returned home to his regular happy life.
Relating back to how, like previously mentioned, the new translation is very literal, things
like this are now the same as in English for the first time.
But, to finish, here are a few brief examples of the Japanese voice acting.
First up is Nitros Oxide...
Then Aku Aku..
Then Uka Uka...
And then Coco...
And then lastly the four trophy girls as well as Tawna...
As always please let us know your thoughts in the comments below and consider subscribing
to see more videos on regional differences in video games.
Until next time, thank you for watching.