Pokemongames have been enjoyed the world over for almost three decades which means they have been made available in a variety of different languages. However, Irish isn’t among them, so one fan took it into their own hands and translated Red & Blue with a patch that others will soon be able to use.
Highlighted byCD Projekt Red’s Cian Maher, formerly of TheGamer,Eireannnorudeigintook to Ireland’s subreddit to share their work, revealing it has taken them six months to translate the games. “My first attempt at an Irish translation rom patch of Pokemon is done. Just doing some clean up. Need to fully playtest this to make sure it all flows ok".
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Eireannnorudeigin goes on to share some screenshots showing off their work, including the translated title screen, an early interaction with Oak, and also a shot with the menu open showing the translated list of options. The patch’s creator admits there will be grammatical mistakes throughout and is eager for other Irish speakers to take a look at their work and help them iron out any wrinkles.
You’ll notice even the Pokemon names have been translated into Irish. They have different names in Japanese and English, so Eireannnorudeigin looked at those differences in order to give the original 151 ‘mons their Irish names. It wasn’t until that monumental task was done that someone pointed out that particular part of translating the original games had already been done.
Nathan Fox translated the names of every gen one Pokemon a few years ago, explaining why they took on the project toEurogamer. Turns out most of Eireannnorudeigin’s translations are similar to Fox’s. But they didn’t stop at ‘mons, they went a step further and translated the names of Kanto’s towns, the game’s items, and all of the other trainers you meet along your way to becoming the very best, making their patch as authentic an Irish Pokemon experience as you’re ever going to find.
Not only is translating games as iconic as Red & Blue into as many languages as possible incredibly important, but there’s a chance doing so adds more meaning to them and even uncovers hidden details. Someone has already questioned whether Oak saying “dia duit”, which directly translates to “God be with you”, implies he is referring to Arceus.
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