Jack Pearce et Rec Dragon :
Translating OFF
JP : Were there any gener-
al themes or character traits
(for example: the Judge/Pab-
lo being verbose) that you felt
were lost, added, or changed
when translating from French
to English? Which one(s)?
RD : Between version 1.0 to
2.0, the character who lost the
most nuance was Dedan. I end-
ed up changing his dialogue to
be far more crass than it was in
the original French text, based
entirely on a flawed (if not en-
tirely inaccurate) interpreta-
tion of his character, namely
that of a loud-mouthed, “bad
boss” type. Having re-read the
script while working on ver-
sion 3.0, I noticed that, in re-
ality, he is more of an entitled
aristocrat with a barely con-
cealed bad temper. I would
find out years after conclud-
ing work on version 2.0 that
inserting gratuitous swearing
into dialogue is a mistake that
many young and inexperi-
enced translators often make.
The Judge also lost quite
a bit of his original complexity.
Mortis Ghost actually recruit-
ed a French language student
to help write his verbose man-
ner of speech in the original
text, and it was painfully obvi-
ous in my first attempts at his
dialogue that a (at the time)
sixteen-year-old German na-
tive speaker like myself would
not be adequately equipped
for translating a character like
him into English. In the first
two versions, I often misused
antiquated English vocabulary
in his dialogue. Furthermore,
I had an idea to let the game’s
French roots shine through in
some of the words Pablo would
use - not knowing that, for in-
stance, the French word “lieu”,
when used verbatim in English,
has an entirely different seman-
tic content. Aside from these
two issues, I can remember
two specific instances where
my translation of his complex
French sentence structure re-
sulted in a garbled mess: One
was the introduction of save
cubes, the other his chastis-
ing of the Batter for failing to
understand the Flesh Maze.
One trait I added to the
game’s characters in an effort
to diversify their voices was
to make a distinction between
characters utilising British En-
glish [BE] or American English
[AE] in their written dialogue.
This most prominently affect-
ed one of the game’s most often
used words, “spectre”, in that
all the Elsens, speaking British
English, would say “spectre”,
whereas the Batter, being an
American baseball player, says
“specter”. The Elsens, Japhet,
the Judge and the Queen spoke
BE, whereas the Batter, Dedan,
Enoch and Zacharie spoke AE.
JP : Are any French cultural
references missed or removed
when translating to the English
version? If so, which and why?
RD : Surprisingly, not real-
ly! Mortis drew more inspi-
ration from Japanese video
games and media like Silent
Hill 2, Killer7 and Paranoia
Agent for OFF than any larger
French cultural icons. While
there was one reference I
missed when translating the
game - some song lyrics from
“We will become Silhouettes”
by The Postal Service, which
had been translated from En-
glish to French by Mortis, and
consequently ended up being
a translation of a translation
- there were no references to
French culture specifically I
know of. Although it should be
noted that Mortis Ghost is not
from France (where half of my
family is from), but from Bel-
gium, and that, as such, minor
references might be contained
within the game that I cannot
be aware of. However, if I had
missed such references, I prob-
ably would have found out by
now - the translation has been
out for 6 years now, and most
of my mistranslations have
been pointed out to me either
by fans or by Mortis himself.
JP : Were there any specif-
ic changes or additions to the
text to adapt it better for En-
glish? I’m not talking about
changing something indicative
of French culture, but rath-
er changing one generic word
to another, or to something
culturally tied to English?
RD : Oh, there were plenty.
The amount of French idi-
oms that cannot be translat-
ed literally is staggering. One
I accidentally missed before
I started work on version 3.0
was uttered by Japhet in zone
[two]: “Tu ne perds rien pour
attendre” is properly translated
to “Just you wait!” in English,
and was falsely translated lit-
erally in version 1.0 and 2.0.
Two more come to mind
that involve descriptive phrases
for people that I failed to recog-
nise at the beginning of the proj-
ect and initially mistranslated:
“bois-sans-soif ” really means
“drunkard”, and I - I’m not
kidding - mistranslated it as
“wood without thirst”, despite
[it] lacking any kind of dis-
cernible meaning. It’s terribly
embarrassing, but not as much
so as my most famous mis-
translation, which has become
somewhat memetic in the fan-
dom: “gros lard” is a phrase
meant to describe a morbidly
obese person, but, yet again,
I initially mistranslated it as
“big bacon”. It’s one of those
things the internet never lets
you live down - I have actual-
ly received some requests to
“bring it back” in version 3.0,
which I will not be honouring.
Therefore, most of the
changes to French expres-
sions are happening as I work
on version 3.0, which isn’t out
yet. I translated way too literal-
ly in both version 2.0 and 1.0.
JP : What writing style would
you attribute to the over-
all French writing in OFF?
Some writing style examples
are vague, descriptive, factual,
long or short sentences. When
translating, did you attempt to
keep that style consistent, and
if so do you think the [first two
versions] managed to express
that style? If not, what stylistic
changes did you make, and why?
RD : I feel like every character
in OFF has their own writing
style attached to them; what
OFF has more than a consis-
tent style is a unique tone, and
that tone is vague, taciturn and
cryptic. Things that another
story would clarify aren’t ex-
plained to the player, but are
simply stated as facts of the
world before the story moves
on (such as the four elements).
This leaves players confused,
but intrigued; it even horri-
fies some, and is one of the
major factors in the game’s
classification as “psychologi-
cal horror”. Another property
of the game’s writing is that,
oftentimes, meaning is not
conveyed through what is be-
ing said, but what is being left
out. A good example for this
would be returning to Zacha-
rie with Sucre’s final goodbye,
only for him to simply state
“I guess it’s better like that”.
That is actually a re-
curring phrase in the game:
“It’s better that way”, or vari-
ations thereof, lending the
proceedings a certain deject-
ed finality. It is uttered by El-
sens, by Zacharie, and, most
prominently, by the Batter
before he destroys the world.
The most stylised lines in
the game, written in verse, and
 choosing “hence” to convey
the meaning of “désormais”
(full line: “Il n’est reste désor-
mais rien sinon nos regrets.”).
These two lines are em-
blematic for the game’s mean-
ing as it is conveyed to the
player with its mechanics, so I
wanted to get them just right.
the ones I spent the most time
Throughout the game,
refining and improving before
there are also certain recur-
finishing the first version of my
ring words that I made sure
translation, are the game’s final
to keep consistent through-
lines before the credits: The
out the text even while work-
Batter’s “Escaping from your
ing on version 1.0, such as the
purpose is impossible”, and
lowercase nature of “zone”,
the Judge’s “Hence nothing re-
the repeated use of “purifica-
mains except for our regrets”.
tion” and “purify” as well as
The Batter’s line actu-
the game’s ectoplasmic ene-
ally used the word “raison
mies being referred to as either
d’être” (full line: “Echapper à
“spectres”, “phantoms” or “ec-
sa raison d’être est impossi-
toplasms”. “Queen” is also con-
ble.”) which I decided to trans-
sistently written in uppercase.
late as “purpose” rather than
literally, in order to retain
JP : When translating, which
the line’s gutpunch nature.
types of problems did you seem
As for the Judge, I had
to run into/have the most? For
a lot of trouble finding the
instance, not being able to find a
right words for his line to
specific French word’s meaning
keep it consistent with the
in English, trouble translating
text while retaining his man-
cultural references, abstract di-
ner of speech; I ended up
alogue leading to vagueness in
motivation or intent of words,
general sentence structure, etc.
RD : I had the most trouble
with idioms and metaphorical
phrases, as I mentioned above;
but every so often, especially
during the Judge’s lines, un-
furling French grammar was
a problem, too. Despite my fa-
ther being from France, I did
not grow up speaking French,
which means that I translat-
ed the game with Highschool
level knowledge of the lan-
guage I was translating from.
There were many lines
that I couldn’t get right for
years because of this, almost
all of which are attributed to
the Judge. Thinking about
it, he really was the biggest
roadblock to me. Version 3.0
is shaping up much better in
that regard, since I’ve both
practised and read a lot more
high-level French since then.
One particular line, and an-
other famous mistranslation,
is the Queen saying “I will
not let you lay a hand on the
son who we brought into the
world.” She actually says: “I
will not let you lay a hand on
the son who has brought US
into the world.” I misread a
“nous” in the original text as a
pronoun in the subjective case,
rather than the objective case.
This mistake completely al-
tered the meaning of the game
and spawned many inaccurate
theories, and I am Adventures of Boxxer” were this intentional? If so, why?
ashamed of it to this day. deliberately written in the
style of generic, run-of- RD : It was intentional, though
JP : I don’t remember if the the-mill superhero comics. Mortis has never told me what
game provides a reason for the these biblical references are
Batter being the Batter. Is there JP : Why are Competencies supposed to signify. I always
any reason for the Batter to be are called Competencies rather felt like it was an attempt to
called the Batter or be a base- than Skills, Magic, or Abilities? “mysticise” or “canonise” the
ball player? If so, is the reason Batter’s quest within the game’s
also in the English version? RD : This was quite simply a universe; make it seem like,
translation error; typical “these given that Pablo (which, by the
RD : There is no obvious rea- words are spelled the same way, is the spanish way of writ-
son provided; people have way, therefore they must mean ing “Paul”) survives the end
theorised that he is a creation the same thing” deal. How- of the world, he would write a
of Hugo, and an amalgama- ever, people seemed to quite holy scripture about what the
tion of his hurtful father fig- like the strangeness of calling Batter did. It might also be a
ure and the villain from the special attacks “competencies”, way to reinforce the religious
comic said father figure gave and so, it stuck, and I have no tone of the Batter’s less taciturn
to him, but that is just spec- plan to change it in version 3.0. moments. I can, however, not
ulation. The entire game is provide a non-speculative an-
purposefully vague, and this JP : The three Add-Ons seem swer, and really, that is what
fact didn’t change in the tran- to have some small references Mortis wants - he is very ada-
sition from French to English. to Biblical texts (three gold- mant about the game’s vague-
en circles and the Holy Trin- ness, and how much room for
JP : Are there any characters in ity, two of which are called personal interpretation and
either English or French OFF Alpha and Omega). Based meaning that leaves. Therefore,
whose dialogue is deliberately on reading the French ver- I say: Find your own interpre-
altered from the usual writing sion of their descriptions, was tation, trust me, it’ll be fun!
style of the writer, which is either
Mortis or yourself? If so, what
were the main points in styliz-
ing that character’s dialogue?

RD : Yes: Sucre/Sugar, the lady

living among piles of sugar in
the zone 0 basement, is writ-
ten in a style that’s strongly
based on the writing of the
character Suzie Summer from
the Suda51 game Killer7,
down to her use of emoticons.
Furthermore, Boxx-
er and Ballman from “The