This entry was originally posted on the AGM website on February 8th, 2010.

Rygar: The Undefeatable

After our “translation mysteries” trilogy (featuring no less than Castlevania II, Zelda I & Zelda II), we are opening a new series of articles with the theme of localization.

Whenever we are asked to talk about our jobs, one of the first questions that comes up is “what is the difference between localization and translation?”

Simply put, translation means transposing the meaning of a text in a source language to a target language, more or less literally depending on the type of text.

Localization is more about adapting a product to new markets. For games, it can include a rewriting of some parts of code as well as redisigning some graphical elements, adapting voice acting and sound effect, etc. Localization can include translation but is not limited to that. Moreover, a localized product is not necessarily translated.

This series of articles will help you undestand this definition with notable examples. We start today with the European version (important detail!) of Rygar on the NES.

For those who wouldn’t know this NES classic, Rygar is an action-platformer with some elements of adventure.

Although the game was already reknowned for its difficulty, for some reason Tecmo decided that it would be "better" for the European market to increase the challenge of the game a little bit as part of the localization. To achieve this, they tweaked the code slightly and reduced the max life bar from 5 blocks to only 3 blocks.

The story could have ended there, but it seems the developers forgot a small, but important, detail.

When you reach the final boss, you actually need to take 4 hits before you are able to defeat him (which itself is a questionable game design choice, but that is another matter). As we said earlier, the developers decided to reduce the life bar when they localized the game for Europe, but forgot to change the code of the final boss! The direct consequence of that mistake is that the game became literally impossible to beat, frustrating thousands of European gamers who were not aware of this glitch.

There are two lessons to learn from this example:

1. When you localize a game and adapt some elements of the gameplay, make sure it will not affect other parts of the game in a negative way

2. Debug teams should be extremely careful with ALL the versions of a game, even when they look absolutely alike

This is just one example of how game localization usually means more than just translation. In our next couple of articles we will see how graphical elements sometimes need to be adapted as well. Stay tuned!