Japanese Cards

I run around some message boards on the Internet, but I don't often post. In other words, I "lurk." Not for underhanded schemes; rather, just to see what's going on in the Yugioh environment. Often, there are others who can respond to questions that people have, which makes my response unnecessary.

One of the posts that seems to be making its appearance lately (within the last two weeks or so) are those who are vehemently against any Japanese cards being used at all.

The funny thing is, all of those posts start out as "People are getting the cheaper versions to play with."

No shit, goober! It's not rocket science!

The "translation" of all of those initial posts go something follows: "I bought this/these card(s) for $50.00. I don't want anyone else to use a cheaper one(s); I want everyone else to pay $50.00 as well."

And no one is stupid enough to pay $50.00 for a PIECE OF CARDBOARD. Well, maybe there are. But shouldn't you be using that money to buy several other cards, rather than just one?

So, it's a matter of money. Contrary to popular belief, the game is supposed to be based on skill, and not who has the fattest wallet. That being said, Yugioh is inherently a broken game, since there is very little resource management. If you have the money to spend, your chances of winning are much higher, since the top-winning deck in Yugioh (Beatdown) doesn't require a whole lot of intelligence to play (I should know; I played it, and I'm not a very intelligent guy). Then again, most who play Beatdown did not create the deck themselves; they saw others play it, or read it in a magazine, and simply copied it with very little change in the deck formula, if at all.

One of the arguments for not using Japanese cards is rather sound, which is that the cards are in Japanese, and usually cannot be read by either party. Many use this to their advantage to state that certain cards are overly broken. It's pleasing to know that some areas of the country that host tournaments with Japanese cards use my translations exclusively. However, it's not that my files are without errors. Then again, it's not that the English-language versions of the cards are without errors either (most-recently is Troop Dragon), so it sort of balances out.

Most agree that if you use Japanese cards that have already been released in English, there's no real problem. After all, when the card pool is the same, it levels the playing field. It makes it based on "Who can build the better deck?"

If you're for the argument because of cost, then your motto is this:

It's not how well you can play, it's how much you can pay.

The store that I run official tournaments at had a bit of a problem about a couple of weeks to a month ago. Normally, the weekly tournout is around 28 people or higher (not including holidays, when the population is, expectedly, lower). At the time of that trouble, the number of players dropped to 12 or less. Why? An individual, who had the money to spend, puchased multiple Lilly's and Crows, and proceeded to win on a weekly basis. People didn't have the money to compete on that level, so they forwent the competitive tournaments. Bear in mind that this was before the restricted list came out.

Here's a question: what are those players supposed to do who were playing BEFORE the game came out in the U.S.? Are they supposed to just trash all of their cards and buy the English ones, "because" it came out in the U.S.?

No. And you'd be stupid to even ask people to do so.

When I play decks at the store that I now run official tournaments at, I build my deck based on Japanese cards -- since those are the ones that I have -- but based on the English environment. I can't play in official tournaments, since they are foreign-language cards. It's not as if I could play in the tournaments anyway; I'm an Upper Deck Demoer/Coordinator as it is.

I'm just puzzled at the level of xenophobia that players exhibit. And uninformed people across the U.S. wonder why a number of other countries are spiteful toward the U.S.?

There IS a world outside of the U.S. Don't be so vain to think that there isn't one.

Restricted List Chronology

The Scariest Undead Of Them All

Graverobber: Oh, no! I've stumbled into the lair of the scariest undead creature of them all! It's...!
Undead: YES...I...AM...RICHIE!

I'm a relatively good translator, in my opinion. I'm not perfect, I'm not a "professional" translator, I'm not a fluent speaker of Japanese, and have no Japanese blood in me. I still have a long way to go.

I used to be an avid player of Dungeons and Dragons, but sort of got out of it as I got older, and areas didn't play the game as much. I use a lot of the information from that game, and other fantasy settings, to supplement the translations that I do. After all, fantasy settings in Japan are still popular. DND is probably the game that got the fantasy genre started in Japan, where even the Final Fantasy series of video games gets its roots from.

One of the examples of using that background is when I did the translation of two particular cards: Jackal Paladin and Amazoness Paladin. The literal text that I translated to Paladin from was "holy warrior." Ask experienced players who play DND what a "holy warrior" is, and they'll probably tell you a "paladin."

Often, there will be Kanji that is complicated to translate. As I said, I'm not a fluent speaker, so such text may be lost to me. And I'm not perfect. And I'm not a professional translator. And if you read any of my other articles, you know that I don't really care about the names of cards when translated to English, but...

...Richie?

Gradius

For those who are wondering, yes, there are a number of Gradius-related cards in the Duel Monsters card game. For those who want a list, it includes:

• Vic Viper (e. Gradius): Vic Viper is the actual name of the ship in the Gradius series.
• Option (e. Gradius' Option): Option is the little bubble that follows the Vic Viper around, mimicing its shots and missiles.
• Cyclone Laser: Cyclone Laser is one of the power-ups that the Vic Viper can get during the game.
• Koitsu: A little-known fact is that Koitsu appeared in a parody of Gradius, made by Konami: Sexy Parodius. One of his power-ups is that he threw around volleyballs. In good taste, I can't tell you what his version of the Shield power-up is...

Two other cards that are "related" to Gradius, but not actually based on the games are Forcefield (e. Riryoku Field) and Easter Island Statue.

Maybe it's time to make that fun Gradius deck...

(Some material from this section is from Valuable Vook 5.)

Pharaonic Guardian Errors

As with my previous two articles, here are the errors in my own work (if any) and errors in the English version (if any):

MY ERRORS:

• SAND SPECTER (e. Dark Dust Spirit): Should be "...Normal Summoned or Reversed..." I swear, I ran into so many problems with that card, it's not funny. And its a rather simple card to translate.
• DARK TUTOR (e. Dark Designator): Should, indeed, be Monster card.

ENGLISH ERRORS:

• GUESSING GAME (e. Reasoning): A bit of a line of text should be added. The second sentence should be:

  You then pick up (not draw) cards from the top of your Deck until a monster that can be Normal Summoned is picked up.

  This changes the card, as the English card currently means that you stop whenever you reach a Monster. The Japanese one would keep going...
• BUSTER RANCHER (e. Buster Launcher): It's LAUNCHER, not RANCHER!

There are probably a few more on my part, and/or even on the English version's part, but those are the ones I've picked out. Granted, number-crunching are typos, so those aren't much to consider. Some of the English cards include additional text to clarify it, such as Hellish Trap Door Gun (e. Barrel Behind The Door). And, yes, Barrel Behind The Door is correct.