Musashi: Samurai Legend Translations

Consumable Items
Tunnbrod's Bakery in the English release tries to evoke the goods you'd find in Jam's Fluffy Puffy Bakery in the first Musashiden game, going for more general baked goods and sweets. In the Japanese release, Tunnbrod serves more elaborate baked goods and entrees, which explains the cheeses you find on his shelves. In game, his goods restore health, instead of how the first game healed Bincho (magic) Points if you stocked up on bread items.

Steak Pan is a play on real life melon pan, which in Japan is a crisscrossed cookie dough-covered sweet roll eaten as a snack. In this case, it's practically like a hamburger or an open faced sandwich-like carb-loading snack in Musashiden II.

Steamed Bread may refer to all of the steampunk tech you see throughout the series, which is now used for culinary pursuits. Not uncommon as you'd think; China is known to eat steamed bread, which further exemplifies the cross cultural atmosphere Antheum has.

The last four items are named with royalty motifs and a bread entree presentation, to show how prestigious and filling they are. The monarchy themes also evoke classical European fantasy themes.

Instead of Burnt Biscuits, you eat Bread Crusts in the Japanese script, both which come free. A lot more palpable there!

In the English script, Hosomaki's Onigiri has more generic Japanese cuisine fillings for her onigiri, presumably to relate more with an English-speaking audience.

In Japan, her onigiri has flower theming and different names for her goods. This has a few explanations:

Flower names in Japanese cuisine refers to different kinds of meats, as a way of overcoming the bans on game and livestock based meat in the Edo Period. Rice balls in Japan have many names than just onigiri: they can be also known as omusubi or nigirimeshi.

In this case, they use meats that aren't disclosed but can be guaranteed to be quality and won't give you indigestion, probably as a way to not offend the Anthedon.

The best healing item uses a rose theme. This will be elaborated upon later.

Kiri's Creamery has the few distinctions of not having the most drastic alterations on its translations, though to an extent. Japanese script shows a lot more presentations than just plain ice cream, though they all are served in cones.

Mikan is a popular variety of Japanese tangerine. Persimmon Crunch is an appropriate replacement, named as the fruit is as to Japan as is the apple in the West.

While providing a fantasy feel with its flavor, herbs continue to be a central part in present day Asian medicine, and especially in Japan.

In real life, beni imo or ube is a vivid purple variety of sweet potato grown in Okinawa, and is traditionally used in sweets. Along with the Rose Musubi you find at Hosomaki's Onigiri, this is presented as an ice cream rose. It's strongly implied that Princess Mycella, the damsel in distress and main heroine of the game enjoys roses as her favorite kind of flower, and she is adored by her people as a celebrity enough for vendors and foodies to make foods themed after her.

If one wants to go further, this and the Rose Nigiri may also hint to the romance between her and Musashi; being worlds apart, purple roses being significant of enchantment and long lasting love at first sight, the rose known to slash with its thorns, etc.

Just like Tunnbrod's Bakery, Pepper's Grill in the English script tries to evoke the first game's Grillin' Restaurant's "queasy cuisine" menu, with entrees like Pork Pot Pie and Possum Burger. The Japanese script instead goes for an all out ala carte menu for Musashi, featuring a ton of Japanese dishes and entrees.

Kengo is a term to refer to a master of swordsmanship and weapons, but it doesn't exactly have the prestigious and responsible feel that the title Kensei has, a title that the real life Miyamoto Musashi held when he was alive. It's also a play on the dish that it is associated with, as the chopsticks can be seen as "swords" and is used to "slash" through the meal.

Mononofu is an ancient term from Japan to refer to warriors.

Leyden's Lounge in Japan goes for giving every drink a name akin to Japanese soft drinks like Pocari C and Calpico. They also have Japanese wordplays and puns. In English, they have more direct references and drink mixes for their boosts, making them also sound like recipes.

The first half of the drinks are named akin to vitamin supplement drinks, as evidenced by Nazo Vita A. They correlate as followed:

Muscle EX is pretty explanatory, but while there is no such thing (yet) as Vitamin EX, its feature contents can safely be guessed as protein, which helps to increase muscle strength.

Memory DAN-D will obviously make you a "memory dandy" and get your memory to "shoot like a bullet"; Vitamin D is important not just for bones but for muscle memory and development in contrast to Muscle EX, which is why it temporarily boosts defense.

Gekikara C means to gain an attack literally from (Vitamin) C, or in pun, "see"; while Vitamin C is obviously important in immune system health, it's also known to be a factor in brain health and concentration, which is why it boosts focus.

Nazo Vita A appears to be played as a "mystery experiment drink" with a mysterious purpose; while Vitamin A would be appropriate for a focus boosting drink, Vitamin A has greater purpose in overall body regeneration and growth, which would make you "luckier" by being prepared with better health (and sharper sight for details).

These drinks cannot be found at Leyden's Lounge; instead, they can only be found at Gandrake HQ, or in the case of the Genie Tonic, in Manglewood.

The drink names in Japanese have more mythological medicinal names to them than the soft drink names that Leyden comes up with. For Viper's Scale and Avis's Tears, they seem to be named akin to the Five Artifacts, with an animal theming to them.

If one wants to look further, Viper's Scale may be named in reference to the fighting game series Fighting Vipers, which also has a Pacific American West Coast setting, features its flagship character coming in from Japan, is famous for its armor mechanics, had a sponsorship with Pepsi in the first game, and had a story about fighting against the local despotic mayor ruling over the city with an iron fist.

秘薬 and 霊薬 both come to translate as elixir in English, but the former translates to "secret medicine", meaning to be well kept and veiled as a trump or reserve, while the latter translates as "spirit medicine", meaning a medicine that is much more miraculous and even magical in its usage.

In English, the names of the drinks have more mythological creatures to their themes, and of fearsome or powerful creatures, implying they came from powers of darkness more than any mortal's hands.

Inventor's Parts
Parts in Japan are known as ガラクタ (garakuta), or junk, essentially. Iron and Steel Parts remain the same, while Mythril Parts should be noted: Mythril Parts are known as 魔甲ガラクタ (mako garakuta), or simply Magical Junk, or Magic Shell Junk for a literal translation. 甲 is a very versatile word in Japanese, which can imply that the magic junk you get is either top of the line to be reused, or salvaged from a magical shelled creature as a very rare material.

Weapons and related
Musashi's katana like in the first game has a name like Fusion/Raikoumaru; while the English script merely labels it as a brandless and nameless Katana, in the Japanese script, Musashi's second katana is named Kaneshige (兼重). In real life, Kaneshige is the kun'yomi or original Japanese based pronunciation of Kinju, who is reputed to be one of Masamune's Ten Disciples.

While the English script states that Magic Alloys are used to improve his Katana, the upgrading catalysts are named カジノモト (Kajinomoto), which is a katakana spelling for 火事の元 (kaji no moto) or "a source of fire". This makes the upgrading process for his katana much different by translation; while in English, Magic Alloys would imply Mugwort, the local blacksmithy, would melt down and reforge Musashi's blade by whole and add in the Alloys, the Japanese sources imply that these are special kinds of tinder that are able to temper Kaneshige properly. The latter is a legitimate real life process, as higher temperatures are able to make the cutting edge of katana more resilient and tensile by proper reforging, while the former is just as appropriate as to the fantasy setting and the magical nature of the Mystics.

Accessories
There is not very much difference to Moderna's Emporium Accessories by the script, though the Japanese script has more fanciful accessories, while the English script has more utilitarian and clothing based accessories. There is also an emphasis on giving Musashi a tiger theme in the English script; this is to evoke Tiger Versus Dragon symbolism elements, as in East Asian martial arts philosophy, the tiger and dragon are symbolic of two equal but opposing forces, and is used to describe powerful rivalries, made more pronounced with Gandrake's dragon theming.

Latent Powers
Latent Powers in the Japanese version have robust artistic names for their attacks, befitting Musashi's samurai and martial arts themes to his character. To elaborate, their Japanese names use on'yomi or Chinese adapted pronunciation with grandiose naming, used to emphasize intellect and class, while being flamboyant and high-flying to showcase that they are extraordinary feats of skill.

Daichi is an honorific in Japanese used to refer to the Earth as its own entity, much like Gaia or Mother Earth.

Suiryu refers to the dragon that gave the Sword of Water to the Mystics, and as such the attack draws upon its magic through the sword.

空 can come to mean sky or void, dependent on the context. Considering that Kushin Zenha makes you invisible to be "at one with your surroundings", the latter would appear to be more appropriate, though its interchangeability may continued to be seen by its respective sword, the Sword of the Void, and its official art, hosting a cloudy mist to its appearance.

In English, they are given more bluntly put and apt names. It appears Maelstrom is named so to match the seafaring theme that the Great Oar inherently holds, than simply to just call the attack Great Magic Blade.