MGS Novels

Discussion related to the most well-known series by Kojima. News, debate and any related discussions are welcome. IMPORTANT Any topics related to MGS4 should temporarily go in the appropriate forum. Please keep spoilers out of signatures too.
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MGS Novels

Post by Marc »

In addition to the MGS1 novel by Raymond Benson to be released on May 25th, there's also going to be an MGS4 novel penned by Project Itoh released on June 12th.

http://www.kjp.konami.jp/gs/hideoblog/mgsbook.html
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Re: MGS Novels

Post by shidoni »

What does everyone uh... think of Raymond Benson?
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Re: MGS Novels

Post by 87th »

shidoni wrote:What does everyone uh... think of Raymond Benson?
I'm sure he's better than FX Nine. :lol:
It's cool to hear that Project Itoh's writing something official. I remember being a big fan of his fanart on MetalGear.net when I first got an internet connection.
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Re: MGS Novels

Post by The Prince II »

So this is just gonna be like the Star Wars novels?
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Re: MGS Novels

Post by JimboKudo »

shidoni wrote:What does everyone uh... think of Raymond Benson?
A guy who wrote a bunch of James Bond novels and also Splinter Cell? I think he could handle it. I kind of wish that a Japanese guy would write it though, because with an American as the writer, it might lose a lot of philosophical meaning.
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Re: MGS Novels

Post by Jim_Sensei »

JimboKudo wrote:
shidoni wrote:because with an American as the writer, it might lose a lot of philosophical meaning.
Ummm....what?
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Re: MGS Novels

Post by JimboKudo »

Jim_Sensei wrote:
JimboKudo wrote:
shidoni wrote:because with an American as the writer, it might lose a lot of philosophical meaning.
Ummm....what?
What's the question? Is it because I misspelled philosophical?
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Re: MGS Novels

Post by Johnny Undaunted »

This remind...

I never once manage to get ahold of the Metal Gear Gamebook released during the 80s based on the Famicom version. I haven't even seen a single cover scan yet.
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Re: MGS Novels

Post by 87th »

I've got the European Worlds of Power novel/guide, but it's at my parents' house, so I don't really have much evidence of it at the moment. I've also seen a guide based on the Japanese version with a fairly un-masculine looking illustration of Solid Snake on the cover.
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Re: MGS Novels

Post by lance »

I just bought the novel two days ago... I'm really no fan of reading novels but I'll make this an exemption...
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Re: MGS Novels

Post by 87th »

How is it so far, lance?
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Re: MGS Novels

Post by Marc »

In my opinion, the book is a waste of time. The best parts consist of the dialogue taken straight from MGS1. For his original dialogue the author relies on corny one-liners far too often. Example:

Snake could hear them muttering something about a storm. He surprised them by stepping out from behind the crate and standing directly in front of them. "Merry Christmas," Snake said as he delivered two powerhouse punches, left and then right, into the guards' faces. The soldiers plopped to the floor. "I forgot to tell you - Christmas is early this year."

He furthermore does not have a good feel for the characters: Liquid calling Snake "Solid"? Snake calling Baker "Mister Baker"? Otacon calling Snake "sir"?

My anticipation for Project-Itoh's MGS4 novel is much higher.
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Re: MGS Novels

Post by JimboKudo »

Marc wrote:He furthermore does not have a good feel for the characters: Liquid calling Snake "Solid"? Snake calling Baker "Mister Baker"? Otacon calling Snake "sir"?
Geez, that sounds horrible. I was gonna go out and buy it, but now I'm not so sure. How much of the games dialogue did the author end up using?
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Re: MGS Novels

Post by 87th »

Marc wrote:Snake could hear them muttering something about a storm. He surprised them by stepping out from behind the crate and standing directly in front of them. "Merry Christmas," Snake said as he delivered two powerhouse punches, left and then right, into the guards' faces. The soldiers plopped to the floor. "I forgot to tell you - Christmas is early this year."
Wow, that's weak!
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Re: MGS Novels

Post by Marc »

JimboKudo wrote:
Marc wrote:He furthermore does not have a good feel for the characters: Liquid calling Snake "Solid"? Snake calling Baker "Mister Baker"? Otacon calling Snake "sir"?
Geez, that sounds horrible. I was gonna go out and buy it, but now I'm not so sure. How much of the games dialogue did the author end up using?
At least half, I'd say. Thankfully it's the PS version dialogue, and not TTS version.
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Re: MGS Novels

Post by JimboKudo »

87th wrote:
Marc wrote:Snake could hear them muttering something about a storm. He surprised them by stepping out from behind the crate and standing directly in front of them. "Merry Christmas," Snake said as he delivered two powerhouse punches, left and then right, into the guards' faces. The soldiers plopped to the floor. "I forgot to tell you - Christmas is early this year."
Wow, that's weak!
It kind of reminds me of all those old spiderman cartoons. Yaknow, when Spiderman jumps off of the ceiling and kicks somebody, then he says, "Sorry to drop in on you!" There are a million of them, web-head, fish-tank face, and they are ALL lame. I had a feeling that this MGS novel would turn out poorly, but I didn't think this poorly. In any case, I think I'll go ahead and skip reading this novel. If half of the dialogue really is just ripped out of the game, then I'll just go and play the game.
By the way, Marc, you said at least it's not TTS MG dialogue. Is the dialogue in TTS not as good? (I haven't played it: I don't own a gamecube or a wii)
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Re: MGS Novels

Post by Marc »

JimboKudo wrote:By the way, Marc, you said at least it's not TTS MG dialogue. Is the dialogue in TTS not as good? (I haven't played it: I don't own a gamecube or a wii)
Well in TTS they changed the translation in places they must have felt Blaustein took liberties. Examples from the top of my head:

Mei Ling: "But I'm surprised. You're very frank" instead of "But I'm surprised. You're very frank for a trained killer." (the original was acceptable because it simply verbalizes the character's "ghost speech")

Snake: "You lose, you die a dog's death" instead of "You lose, you're worm food." (the original was acceptable because the Japanese is "die in vain")

There are more but those are the ones I remember without going back to the game. It gives you a peek at what the original would have been like with another translator.
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Re: MGS Novels

Post by Charlie Johnson »

Marc wrote:
JimboKudo wrote:By the way, Marc, you said at least it's not TTS MG dialogue. Is the dialogue in TTS not as good? (I haven't played it: I don't own a gamecube or a wii)
Well in TTS they changed the translation in places they must have felt Blaustein took liberties. Examples from the top of my head:

Mei Ling: "But I'm surprised. You're very frank" instead of "But I'm surprised. You're very frank for a trained killer." (the original was acceptable because it simply verbalizes the character's "ghost speech")

Snake: "You lose, you die a dog's death" instead of "You lose, you're worm food." (the original was acceptable because the Japanese is "die in vain")

There are more but those are the ones I remember without going back to the game. It gives you a peek at what the original would have been like with another translator.
What about this one from the briefing?

Original: Looks like a lovely bunch of folks, too bad we'll be meeting under these circumstances.

TTS: Looks like a bunch of cartoon characters.

I wonder which one is closer to the japanese version.

Oh, and when Naomi was talking about her past, in the Original she said her brother and Big Boss went back to Africa to continue the war, while in TTS she just said they went back to continue the war.

I guess Jeremy confused the fictional Zanzibarland with the real Zanzibar and therefore added Africa.
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Re: MGS Novels

Post by JimboKudo »

I know that a lot of people here would probably disagree with me, but I liked Blaustein's translation job on the first game, and I wish that he had been re-hired for MGS2. It seems like he did a better job than the team that worked on MGS2. I understand that the MGS2 team apparently did an excellent job keeping the exact same meanings as the original Japanese text (at least that's what I have read), but Blaustein's I thought, had more character. In many cases I would rather have a well thought out english version that doesn't just follow the original text, but also sounds good. Now, it could just be that I didn't like the dialogue in MGS2 as much as in MGS, but I didn't even like snake as much in that game. I'm not saying that the MGS2 team did a bad job, because it's important to keep to the original text in games like MG, but it took me a while to adjust to the different feel of the dialogue.
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Re: MGS Novels

Post by 87th »

JimboKudo wrote:I know that a lot of people here would probably disagree with me, but I liked Blaustein's translation job on the first game, and I wish that he had been re-hired for MGS2.
I don't think anyone would disagree with you. Jeremy Blaustein is pretty popular here, and I think the only people on the JUNKER HQ who aren't Blaustein fans are those who are quite unaware of him. MGS2 may have been authentically translated, but MGS1 had a very good English script. I don't think MGS2's plot would have seemed so confusing for so many if Jeremy had been there to write better dialogue.
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Re: MGS Novels

Post by Marc »

Charlie Johnson wrote:
Marc wrote:
JimboKudo wrote:By the way, Marc, you said at least it's not TTS MG dialogue. Is the dialogue in TTS not as good? (I haven't played it: I don't own a gamecube or a wii)
Well in TTS they changed the translation in places they must have felt Blaustein took liberties. Examples from the top of my head:

Mei Ling: "But I'm surprised. You're very frank" instead of "But I'm surprised. You're very frank for a trained killer." (the original was acceptable because it simply verbalizes the character's "ghost speech")

Snake: "You lose, you die a dog's death" instead of "You lose, you're worm food." (the original was acceptable because the Japanese is "die in vain")

There are more but those are the ones I remember without going back to the game. It gives you a peek at what the original would have been like with another translator.
What about this one from the briefing?

Original: Looks like a lovely bunch of folks, too bad we'll be meeting under these circumstances.

TTS: Looks like a bunch of cartoon characters.

I wonder which one is closer to the japanese version.

Oh, and when Naomi was talking about her past, in the Original she said her brother and Big Boss went back to Africa to continue the war, while in TTS she just said they went back to continue the war.

I guess Jeremy confused the fictional Zanzibarland with the real Zanzibar and therefore added Africa.
I've lent my copy of the MGS1 script book out to someone at the moment, so I can't refer to it to check. When I get it back I'll look at it.
JimboKudo wrote:I know that a lot of people here would probably disagree with me, but I liked Blaustein's translation job on the first game, and I wish that he had been re-hired for MGS2.
Yeah, no disagreement there.
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Re: MGS Novels

Post by JimboKudo »

Well, I guess Jeremy Blaustein's got a bigger fanbase than I expected. I was under the impression that most people thought that the translations done by the newer team were better. I guess that's not necessarily the case here.
Anyway, TTS' translation sounds a bit obnoxious. "They look like cartoon characters"? I think I liked it a bit more the PS1 way. I'd like to find out more of these differences.
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Spike
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Re: MGS Novels

Post by Spike »

Marc wrote:in TTS they changed the translation in places they must have felt Blaustein took liberties.
There are more
Mantis (PS1) : It feels... kind of... nice.
Mantis (TTS) : It feels... kind of... nostalgic.

There was also something chnaged in Liquid's dialogue when he's piloting the REX.
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Re: MGS Novels

Post by Charlie Johnson »

Spike wrote:
Marc wrote:in TTS they changed the translation in places they must have felt Blaustein took liberties.
There are more
Mantis (PS1) : It feels... kind of... nice.
Mantis (TTS) : It feels... kind of... nostalgic.

There was also something chnaged in Liquid's dialogue when he's piloting the REX.
They've also added some completly new dialogue in TTS.

In TTS, after Liquid jumped into Rex's cockpit, he shouts:"You missed your last change! You'll regret this forever!", before starting his speech about REX.

And if you're about to input the last PAL key and call Miller he'll rush you to do so. Snake then remarks that he never saw Miller this exited before. In the Original (English and Japanese.) Miller/Liquid then abruptly ends the conversation. In TTS he tries to explain himself instead.
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lance
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Re: MGS Novels

Post by lance »

87th wrote:How is it so far, lance?
Hardly have time to start reading it... :sad: :grin:

But I'll let you guys know...
Spoiler:
<<<POSSIBLE SPOILER ALERT HERE>>>

Started on Chapter One and it's a scene involving a certain female doctor named Dr. Clark, Gen. Jim Houseman and The President. They were in an enclosed facility with an operating theater looking at a woman giving birth... A product of an extensive cloning process...
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I gave into my fear! I gave into my pain! I sold your life to save my own. I'm a loser. I'm not the hero you thought I was! I'm nothing!
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