Chronicles

Translation

By far, the most divergent aspect of the Japanese and North American releases of Chrono Trigger was the translation of textual content, which impacted everything from linguistic meaning to user-interface design. Japanese expressions, puns, and culturally-specific articles did not translate well into English, and harsh censorship rules regulated by Nintendo of America revised contextual scenarios. Furthermore, processing capacity for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES) was limited, shackling much of the English text to shortened versions of former authentic merit. In order to make up for these discrepancies, North American idioms and references were added, embellishing large sections of the original Japanese script. Mistranslations and grammatical issues also found their way into the final product (most likely as a result of the short period time afforded to translator Ted Woolsey).

The following is a list of major censorship guidelines, cultural changes, and textual revisions that occurred during localization. There is also a comprehensive chart from Khwazit that displays the many name changes of creatures, places, and items.

 

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