Russian narration in DQ prologue

Hello. I recently played Dragon Quarter. It was the most awesome experience with Breath of Fire of my entire life. The game sucked me in completely and didn't left time for anything else. Now i'm running for second time and I don't think i'll be bored with it quick. Anyways I wanted to ask, if any of you know what says Odjn in prologue scene - "This is tiny tale of time". I know the english script, but what are the words that can be heard? First time I thought they're japanese, but after few times watching it (yes, few times starting over) I realized that they sound kind of russian. I knew that dragon names are russian numbers (1, 2, 4) and heard something like "isgyedye smyert" when Odjn says about meeting mortality. "Smyert" would for sure mean death (like "shmyerch" in polish, those languages have some similar words), but I don't know the rest. So does anyone know what does Odjn gavarit*? :P (say)


tl,dr? Sorry for such long text, I highlighted what I'm asking for. You don't have to read all ^^" Sorry one more time.

I am really interested in this myself.
Hope someone knows more about it...

really?? well it DID really sound not-japanese-like!

caught my attention.....i have a russian friend ...maybe i should ask her...if she's around....

anyways,thanks for putting up this question! now i have something to get myself busy with again

I'm very grateful. I love knowing such meaningless trivia ,P I got so excited when I learned what ryu and nina are saying in opening of Bof IV! Seriously I was happy like a child, when I watched it again with text before my eyes xD. So thanks in advance :D Few days ago I got to know how you spell odjn and chetyre in russian. It's [a-deen] and [chye-tir-ye]. My parents were learning russian in school. But asking them about whole beginning sequence is somewhat silly ^^"

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Originally Posted by Raheth

I'm very grateful. I love knowing such meaningless trivia ,P I got so excited when I learned what ryu and nina are saying in opening of Bof IV! Seriously I was happy like a child, when I watched it again with text before my eyes xD. So thanks in advance :D Few days ago I got to know how you spell odjn and chetyre in russian. It's [a-deen] and [chye-tir-ye]. My parents were learning russian in school. But asking them about whole beginning sequence is somewhat silly ^^"

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I myself wish I could find an official script of this--and for similar reasons (dear gods, even with the mass Koreanisations in the non-Japanese localisation of BOF IV I went nuts with this, and have similarly done so with Dragon Quarter).

And per at least some notes and interviews with the staff (including a now-discontinued blog operated by Capcom), yes, the speech at the beginning of the game *IS* in Russian--so you're on the right track.

(It doesn't hurt that I did want to take Russian in school as a teenager--alas, it wasn't available in my school system at the time, what with it being in the dying days of the Cold War and whatnot. Why yes, I AM showing my age. :D)

(And yes, I will resist making bad Yakov Smirnoff jokes regarding Soviet Sheldar. Even if parts of the Regent quarters DO look like parts of St. Petersburg. :D)

Interesting thread! When I first heard the prologue voice I wondered what it was since it wasn't Japanese, then realized it was Russian. (Though I gotta admit, that voice kinda scares me. :sweatdrop)

It would be cool to see a transcript/translation of what is being said. I wonder if the BoF5 artbook has any more information on this? If there's any official stuff available, I'm guessing it'd be in there.

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Originally Posted by Lio

Interesting thread! When I first heard the prologue voice I wondered what it was since it wasn't Japanese, then realized it was Russian. (Though I gotta admit, that voice kinda scares me. :sweatdrop)

It would be cool to see a transcript/translation of what is being said. I wonder if the BoF5 artbook has any more information on this? If there's any official stuff available, I'm guessing it'd be in there.

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If it's documented anywhere anymore, I'd think it would be documented somewhere in the BOF5 artbook (I, alas, do not have a copy of this)--the translations of book notes from the BOF5 artbook available here DO confirm that the speech in the beginning is, in fact, in Russian (so there may be a transcript).

(And yes, I'd be tempted to find the artbook now, just from the bits that were included in the Breath of Fire Complete artbook (the compendium artbook)--both the Russian and the Kabbalistic bits are...intriguing (including a layout of a dragon's head--and placement of the various parties and factions--against the sephirot, no, it's not just the Elyon reference).

I can't find it anywhere on the internet, but if I could hear it, I'd probably be able to translate.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=klc2ue_yiec

From 1:15 onwards

Well, I did my best, but the bastard talks with a heavy Japanese accent, and the loud music doesn’t help. I put … where I couldn’t comprehend his words, and * near words I’m not certain about. What he says appears to mostly correspond with the English text.

In order of appearance:
“This is a little tale.” («Это маленькая история.»)
“A little tale… between* a friend and me” (« Маленькая история… между* мной и другом. »)
Okay, this one is just a blatant guess in the dark: “We suffer, perform magic, discuss and…” (« Мы страдаем, колдуем, обсуждаем и… »). I’m sort of sure only about the first two word, but don’t take my word for it.
“Decided* to destroy the world” (« Решили* разрушить мир ») (It should seem Odjn switches from present tense in the previous part to past tense in this, if indeed I understood correctly any of the words in the previous part, which is ambiguous.)
“In order to face inevitable death.” (« Чтобы встретить неизбежную смерть. »)
“However, we do not regret a thing**” (« Но мы не сожалеем об одном. »)
“Not a thing *some strange sound*.” (« Ничего/ни о чем. »)


** Actually, the way he says it, it sounds like he’s talking about some particular thing, but I believe it is a grammatical mistake. See, in Russian in order to say: “I regret nothing” you must use double negation (that is, “I don’t regret nothing”). I f you do not, as Odjn does here, you’re talking about a particular thing you do not regret.

I have to say it: Little Russian, you rock. ^_^

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Originally Posted by Thetis

I have to say it: Little Russian, you rock. ^_^

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Thanks :-). It's a shame, though, that I couldn't make a complete translation. But the accent really does make him incomprensible sometimes, at least to me.

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Originally Posted by Little Russian

Thanks :-). It's a shame, though, that I couldn't make a complete translation. But the accent really does make him incomprensible sometimes, at least to me.

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Eh, it's perfectly okay IMHO (if Odjn has a thick enough accent to cut with a chainsaw, he has a thick enough accent to cut with a chainsaw. :3)

THANK YOU for taking the effort at any rate (and thank you to the poster who found a clean-ish video to do audio off of).

erm i'd like to add something here aswell,....

if you realize, then you'd know that some letters of the bof5 alphapeth are a bit simmilar to the russian....
There are a lot of WARNING/ATTENTION things in freight to bio corp or in Lifeline so i figured to transilate what's written and that's what i did....

anyways, i wrote them down...but not completely sure if they are like this ,

http://www.dragon-tear.net/imgsend/u...44Bof5 ABC.JPG

i'm pretty sorry for double posting...but i thought this might be interresting for some of you...

i did a transilation for the thing that's written in the Ryu-Faces wallpaper thing....

(the * means i didn't know what letter that was)

after transilating it i didn't really understand what they meant by "observance of order order by oppression"...or maybe it's my lack of knowing english....well here it is ,

http://www.dragon-tear.net/imgsend/u...ofv-ryu2_N.jpg

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Originally Posted by dragontail

i'm pretty sorry for double posting...but i thought this might be interresting for some of you...

i did a transilation for the thing that's written in the Ryu-Faces wallpaper thing....

(the * means i didn't know what letter that was)

after transilating it i didn't really understand what they meant by "observance of order order by oppression"...or maybe it's my lack of knowing english....well here it is ,

http://www.dragon-tear.net/imgsend/u...ofv-ryu2_N.jpg

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Oh, INTERESTING easter egg there, indeed. :D

Basically it looks like they promote maintaining order by suppressing anything that could potentially interfere with that order (anything from killing rogue genics to the whole D-level system). Quite possibly meant as a snarky reference to military mottos or the "To Protect and Serve" motto common with US police departments in particular.

As for the full translation (based on notes in the BOF Complete Works artbook and previously posted on the now-defunct official BOF V blog, and also based on Nanpoo-Can's TrueType Dragon Quarter font--which I have confirmed to be complete, or at least as complete as was ever documented in the game--and of note, it does largely match your observations, I'll create a new proof sheet to post up here):

Line 1: 3RD RENGER (the "3" glyph seems to be deliberately obfuscated)

Line 2 and below do read as you noted.

Wow, thnx windigofer!! now i can transilate a bit more!!

i owe you one ,)

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Originally Posted by dragontail

Wow, thnx windigofer!! now i can transilate a bit more!!

i owe you one ,)

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Glad to help. :D (Actually, thank Nanpoo-can, I'd been pondering a Dragon Quarter font, but she beat me to it by several months. Apparently the Japanese BOF V community had been clamoring for one :D)

And getting back to some other stuff...

Found an interesting scan from the BOF V artbook that points out how some of the symbols are straight out of the Sephirot (and also includes a complete symbol map of the font used in the game).

So I decided to have some fun with transliterating bits...

Left section (dragon head bit), writing:

"land of blessing that it is pure" (Same text appears at right on the "sepirot half", separated as "Land of blessing" and "that it is pure")

Some of the rest is difficult to make out (even at maximum scanner resolution in 4800dpi, I scanned from the copy of these in "Breath Of Fire Complete Works" as I don't have the BOF V artbook proper), but what I can make out:

Above the section noted (at half light/half dark circle):

at left: "the day side" (the first part of this is iffy)

at right: "the night side"

Below this: "The blessed land that it is pure"

below this: "geo front"

Below this: Unfortunately mostly illegible. Three bits of writing around circle resembling Sierpinski triangle or radiation symbol. Final symbol on all three names seems to be "S" or possibly "N".

Below this: "Three (possibly 'consent') open the heaven's door"

Below this: POSSIBLY "old deep" (some text illegible)

Below this: "Odyn" and "Chetyre", rendered in Cyrillic (NOT in the Cyrillic-look alphabet invented for the game).

Below this: Five lines of illegible text.

Below this: Much of the text is unfortunately illegible, but (among others) "Upper Area" can be made out as can the words "kolon" (possibly "colony" as noted below--probably the ant colony, at that) and POSSIBLY "Trinity".

Below this: "High Area"

Below this: "Middle Area" (barely legible)

Below this: "Down Area" (barely legible).

Below this: "Under Area"

Yes, you're reading this right: In essence, the dragon's head is explicitly a map of where you go in the game. :D

Next post: We do the transliteration of what all is in the sephirot.


http://www.dragon-tear.net/imgsend/u...VSImage_12.jpg

And now the second bit:

The second bit (the black background, white decoration bit) is pretty much played off the real-life sephirot, which is a representation in the Jewish mystical system of Kaballah of the Tree of Life (as in the Garden of Eden) and (to make a very long story which I am not even remotely qualified to get into depth on--especially as I am not a rabbinical male student over the age of 40) is part of an esoteric system of which one works essentially to refine one's self to get closer to God. Traditionally the ten or eleven branches are supposed to represent different aspects of God (which fits in rather well with some of the other symbolism inherent in the game, the biggie being a character actually named Elyon which is one of the traditional names for God) .

(There's also another game company that took the name for its famous white-haired pretty boy with mommy issues, but we won't go there. :D)

Anyways, seeing as we're dealing with some symbolism inherent in this, I'll be making additional notes with the transliteration.

At the very top: "The Day" (left), "The Night" (right), "cloud" (upper left), "Moon" (upper right), "Stars" (lower right), "Sun" (lower left). This is at the level sometimes identified with YHWH but usually not charted, and on a mundane level would serve as a good atlas for people who've never seen the sky before.

At the link for Keter, traditionally symbolic of the Crown of God and of Mercy:

"Land of Bllessing", "Geo Front" (within Keter itself), "That It Is Pure"

Just below Keter, surrounding the circle with the Sierpinski triangle/radiation-symbol looking thing:

"A Dragon" (at bottom), "A human" (VERY iffy, upper left), "A wnig" (upper right, typo of "wing"). Probable same text as in similar bit at dragon's head, obviously representative of Ryu, Nina and Lin.

Line from Keter to Binah (lower left):

"Liner elv (or el7) System"

At the link for Binah symbolic of the left eye/left brain/heart and Innate Understanding:

In Binah itself: "Member" (aka the Japanese name for the Regents.)
To the left: "Mauabe aitencia vexsion" (Japanese renderings of Mebeth, Hortensia, and Vexacion respectively)

At the link between Binah and Chokhmah: "Headquarters"

At Chokhmah, representative of the right eye/brain and of Wisdom or Learned Understanding:

At Chokhmah itself: "Member" (as with Binah)
To the right: "Jazz-it, Cypito, Demonadi" (Jezuit, Cupid,and Daemoned respectively)


From Chokhman to Da'at: "Corridor"

At Da'at--which has some very interesting symbolism, seeing as it's technically a "hidden sephirah", and representative of all ten sepirot being one (the Fullmetal Alchemist fans may recognise the symbolism here: "All is one, One Are All") and thus the Divine Light, and in Hasidic traditions are also linked with Consciousness in and of itself (and here's where we get into some of the real symbolism, hehehe):

At Da'at itself: Trinity symbol, "High", "Area" (Unfortunately, text is difficult to read)

Right above Da'at, with three symbols: "Three (possibly 'consent') open the heaven's door". Possibly reference to Elyon?

Lower left side of Da'at: "It manges military law (possibly 'production')" (basically, martial law)

Lower right side of Da'at: "It manges goverment predazion concealment" (AKA, putting down the occasional feral/rabid/etc. genic that's gone amuck in Sheldar)

From Da'at to a spot technically not at a sephirah: "Trance port"

At a spot just below Da'at (and technically not on a sephirah itself): "Upper Area"

From the Unnamed Spot to Gevurah: "Life Line"

At Gevurah itself, symbolic of Judgement and Strength (and also Concealment):

At Gevurah itself: "Trinity". (Well, that would CERTAINLY count! :D)

On the other side of the Unnamed Spot is Chesed, which denotes "Kindness" (and is also, coincidentially, where the term "Hasidim" comes from).

At Chesed itself: "Colony".

Going back to stuff we have marked paths for :D, from Gevurah to Tiferet: "Commerce Zone" (beware of puppet girls!).

At Tiferet, symbolic of balance, miracles, compassion, inner beauty and so on:

At Tiferet itself: "Middle Area".

To left of Tiferet: Dragon sigil, "Observance of order, order by oppression" (same as the original that was noted on the thread)

To right of Tiferet: Gunsight (?), "Bionics public corpolation, aal from cradle to grave is created" (the creators of D-levels?)

Far right and far left of Tiferet in triangles: "Independence, Cooperation, Knowlege" (misspelling of "Knowledge")

From Tiferet to Netzach: "Industry Zone"

At Netzach, representing victory and interestingly on the side termed the "Pillar of Mercy":

At Netzach itself: F.P.C.

From Netzach to Yesod: "Adjacency"

On the other side is Hod, which has denotations of praise, splendor, submission, and the Naming Of Things (thus bringing them into existence):

At Hod itself: "Rengers Bese" (Ranger's Base). Appropriate, as this is where we meet Ryu (and Bosch) for the first time.

From Hod to Yesod: "Tenement" (aka, The Bunking Quarters).

Yes, all roads lead at first to Yesod which denotes the concept of translating spiritual concepts and learning into action:

At Yesod itself: "Down Area"

From Yesod to Malkuth: "Pail Way"

At Malkuth--the very bottom of the sephirot, and denoting the Created rather than the Creator:

At Malkuth itself: "Under Area".

All in all, surprising amounts of symbolism (where you know they've done their homework)--and more than a few easter eggs. :D

Since we're talking Easter Eggs, a while ago I tried to translate this wall paper but it didn't make much sense to me.

In particular, it says "Die ersten die" which means nothing in English but in German it says, "first those".

I'd appreciate the help.

http://www.dragon-tear.net/imgsend/u...v-wallpapa.jpg

In addition, there are some more screen shots that I was trying to figure out.

In the first, around the circle, I got "...sein die ersten werden..." which, in Germain means, "...will be the first".
In the same screenshot, the top hexagon it says, "ti", the on to the bottom left says, "ten" and the final on the bottom right says, "ku". Not sure if that has any significance.
On the outer layer, the top left says, "Dragon" but I can't make out what the rest says.

In the other with Ryu walking, the sign says, "Anti Toxin."

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Originally Posted by BlueTundra

Since we're talking Easter Eggs, a while ago I tried to translate this wall paper but it didn't make much sense to me.

In particular, it says "Die ersten die" which means nothing in English but in German it says, "first those".

I'd appreciate the help.

http://www.dragon-tear.net/imgsend/u...v-wallpapa.jpg

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Yeah i figured that much out aswell but here's the question, why did they use german and russian languages in bof5??? somehow it seems to be connected with the second world war....well to me it does (it was just a thought)

what i figured out aswell that Odjn means number one in russian and Chetyr number four....but what about number 2 and 3??? after looking up on all of this there are so many questions that i have inside my mind now....



Well, i guess what i say is not really that of importance..i just like to write what i think, that's all :P

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Originally Posted by dragontail

Yeah i figured that much out aswell but here's the question, why did they use german and russian languages in bof5??? somehow it seems to be connected with the second world war....well to me it does (it was just a thought)

what i figured out aswell that Odjn means number one in russian and Chetyr number four....but what about number 2 and 3??? after looking up on all of this there are so many questions that i have inside my mind now....



Well, i guess what i say is not really that of importance..i just like to write what i think, that's all :P

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Well, the German language tends to be thought of as "cool" by Japanese (along with French and English), as for the Russian bit, what I got out of it was that it was a comparison with the Soviet Union days (when Dragon Quarter was first released, it should be noted that the USSR had existed maybe a decade beforehand and was still fresh in the memories of its creators) or maybe even the Tsarist era. (I'd also say, IMHO, that quite possibly with the Regents' headquarters in particular they may have been inspired by the city of St. Petersburg, and Russia was seen as particularly exotic as well.)

Re 2--the final boss in Kokon Horay is 2 (Dva, though thanks to a mangling of transliteration this ended up as Dover in the internationalised version, do-ba may be the closest one could render "Dva" in Japanese, though).

There is no 3. :3 All numbers (including D-ratios and the names of dragons) are based on the powers of two or inverse powers of two. Yes, there are spoiler-ridden reasons for this:
» Spoilers Show/Hide

At the very end of the game, Odjn essentially admits to Ryu 1/8192 that the "dragon halves" are essentially sentient computer programs, and that Odjn had essentially been programmed (via what remained of his link with Elyon) to find Ryu to open the sky.

The powers of two come into play if you realise how modern computers work. In essence, all modern computers are based on binary code, and even stuff as varied as HTML coding for colours and "blah"-bit processors are all based on powers of two for this reason (usually in computer programming, especially assembler code, they use hexadecimal notation--base-16 numbers--as a shorthand for the binary code for a specific two-byte word length).

Hence, it'd be logical for the D-ratio to be based on inverse powers of two--and for the dragons themselves to be named for powers of two. Hence no "3" (as powers of two go 2^0=1, 2^1=2, 2^2=4, 2^3=8, and so on, yes, technically Oncotte *might* fit into this too, having a name resembling "Octo" or "eight").

And yes, I feel all of you giving me dirty looks as if to say "DAMNIT, YOU SAID THERE WOULD BE NO MATH". I never said any such thing. :3 Besides, I've been an engineering maths/computer-science student, I get it honest. :D

About the German bits:

"Die ersten die" and "...sein die ersten werden..." sounds a LOT like the saying "Die letzten werden die ersten sein", which means "The last will be the first", from the bible... possibly referring to the fact that low-standing people like Ryu, Nina and Lin are fighting against the higher-standing people and win in the end.

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Originally Posted by Antimatzist

About the German bits:

"Die ersten die" and "...sein die ersten werden..." sounds a LOT like the saying "Die letzten werden die ersten sein", which means "The last will be the first", from the bible... possibly referring to the fact that low-standing people like Ryu, Nina and Lin are fighting against the higher-standing people and win in the end.

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...by Jove, I think you got it: "The first shall be last and the last shall be first" (which, as you noted, is in the Bible, specifically a variant translation of Matthew 19:30 to be specific)--and yes, this WOULD fit in very well with that concept. (It'd also fit in frighteningly well with all the Judeo-Christian name references in the game, too.)