List of changes between ON and Meets

[Mimitchi06]

I’ve compiled a work-in-progress list of changes made between the ON and the Meets tamas. Contributions from ON owners are appreciated, and the list will update. The list will only include major/semi-major changes made, including character/land names and functionality changes.

Here’s what I have so far...

- English language (most obvious change)

-Screw instead of push-button (again, obvious change)

-No M!x connection

-Livings being renamed to Rooms

-Friendship meter horizontal and shows stars instead of words (needs clarification)

-Gourmet Street renamed to Food Town (needs clarification)

-Tama Depa renamed to Store/Shop or something similar (although the sprite still reads “tama depa” on the sign)

This is all I have so far, but if you have an ON and can tell me more changes, that would be greatly appreciated. (Asking since I don’t have one of my own yet, and cannot check myself.)

 

[Save_Tamagotchis]

Here for clarifying the things you asked about!

Yes Friendship Meter's are horizontal now and have stars and the amount of starts you see changes with the color level. 1 Star for Blue, 2 Stars for Green, 3 Stars for Orange and 4 Hearts for Red. The 4 Red heart level is the highest your Tama's relationship can go with another Tama. The Tama's name, gender and location are also shown on their page along with their Friendship level.

Yes Gourmet Street is renamed Food Town.

Also something else the engagement rings! While the 500gotchi ring is still called "Heart Ring" the 5000gotchi ring has been renamed from the "Gorgeous Ring" to "Gem Ring".

 

[hwd45]

The congratulations screen has been changed from the vertical banner we're familiar with on Japanese versions to a horizontal banner with "CONGRATS!" written on it.

The hidden horoscope screen has changed too - it's a lot simpler, simply displaying the name of the star sign instead of "my star sign is ___". Like always, the character shown on this screen changes between versions too - Magical Meets has Mametchi (a Sagittarius) and Magical On has Kuchipatchi (a Taurus). Not sure about the Fairytale versions yet.

On the more technical side of things the version number screen changed between releases too (obviously) with the Meets having versions 30 and 31 for Fairytale and Magical respectively, while the On occupies versions 57 and 58. The build dates are about 7 months apart. The test mode also has an odd quirk in that it actually didn't get translated to English for the On - the "battery check" screen is still in Japanese. I guess that's the opposite of a difference but it's a funny little footnote in all the things that changed in translation.

 

[Mimitchi06]

I’ve found some character name changes, most of them shortened to fit the English character limit.

-Cherrycherrytchi shortened to Cherrytchi

-Pizzarinatchi > Pizzalinatchi 

-Omuchaputchi > Omechuptchi

-Oyogoggletchi shortened to Goggletchi

-Chuchurinatchi > Tuturinatchi

-Kiminanizatchi shortened to Nanizatchi

-Korobattotchi shortened to Korobatchi

-Unipegasatchi shortened to Unipegatchi

 

[Penguin-keeper]

These ones are interesting, since they all just change the existing romanisations in various ways;

-Pizzarinatchi > Pizzalinatchi 

Pizzarinatchi to Pizzalinatchi seems like a bit of a pointless change to me, since it's just swapping one way of romanising one of the sounds for another... Of course, that's assuming that they ever officially romanised it as Pizzarinatchi to begin with. Incidentally, I prefer the "r" spelling, since it brings to mind the word "pizzeria", and it rolls off the tongue more easily.

-Chuchurinatchi > Tuturinatchi

In the case of Chu/Tu, the sound is actually meant to be the same. This is because there are two ways of romanising Japanese words - you can learn more about that here.

This is why "chan" is sometimes written as "tan", and why you'll occasionally see "chip" mistranslated as "tip", for example. (And the vintage non-Bandai virtual pet, Dragotti, is probably not meant to be pronounced as it looks, but rather as "Dragotchi".)

-Korobattotchi shortened to Korobatchi

The "batto" part of Korobattotchi  is meant to be read as the English word "bat" anyway, so this is totally logical.

 

[Hoky]

Pizzarinatchi to Pizzalinatchi seems like a bit of a pointless change to me, since it's just swapping one way of romanising one of the sounds for another... Of course, that's assuming that they ever officially romanised it as Pizzarinatchi to begin with. Incidentally, I prefer the "r" spelling, since it brings to mind the word "pizzeria", and it rolls off the tongue more easily.

It's especially weird because Pizzarinatchi always struck me as a portmanteau of pizza and ballerina (since she kinda has that look), and romanising it with an L screws that up even more. XD

 

[Penguin-keeper]

It's especially weird because Pizzarinatchi always struck me as a portmanteau of pizza and ballerina (since she kinda has that look), and romanising it with an L screws that up even more. XD

It wouldn't be the first case of iffy translation choices that I've heard of with the Tamagotchi On. If memory serves, there's also that thing with the hotel where they used "Leave" instead of "Drop Off", which has been confusing people into thinking that "Leave" means to leave that place, not to leave the Tamagotchi there.

 

[kuchikid]

It wouldn't be the first case of iffy translation choices that I've heard of with the Tamagotchi On. If memory serves, there's also that thing with the hotel where they used "Leave" instead of "Drop Off", which has been confusing people into thinking that "Leave" means to leave that place, not to leave the Tamagotchi there.

He~ey! I was the guy that made the "leave/drop off" mistake! 

Also, there are tons of misspellings and cases of poor grammar, although I can't remember any specifically off the top of my head. I feel like they didn't get a native English speaker to approve these before they were released.

 

[Penguin-keeper]

He~ey! I was the guy that made the "leave/drop off" mistake! 

Yep! As far as I've seen, you were the first person here to mention it.

Also, there are tons of misspellings and cases of poor grammar, although I can't remember any specifically off the top of my head. I feel like they didn't get a native English speaker to approve these before they were released.

A comment from the proprietor of the fantastic translation-related website, Legends of Localization, notes what typically causes this sort of thing;

It was very common, well into the 90s. Even now it’s not unheard of. Game translation used to be a case of the developers saying, “Okay, we got this game done, maybe we should release it in English. Who do we know who knows English?” And then maybe someone at the office, like the secretary, might know some basic English.





Nowadays there are lots of companies + freelancers that developers/publishers can outsource that same translation work to.

It wouldn't be too surprising if this long-lived practise had popped up here.

 

[kuchikid]

Yep! As far as I've seen, you were the first person here to mention it.

A comment from the proprietor of the fantastic translation-related website, Legends of Localization, notes what typically causes this sort of thing;

It wouldn't be too surprising if this long-lived practise had popped up here.

Well, yeah. That's exactly what I said I'd expected. Even just giving it over to a native English speaker with a firm grasp of English would have been worth the investment.

For example, I can translate, roughly, from English to French, but I would certainly never release something I translated into French until I got the seal of approval from someone who speaks it daily and who I know has excellent French grammar, punctuation, and spelling.

 

[Penguin-keeper]

Well, yeah. That's exactly what I said I'd expected.

Oh, I know. I just felt that it was worth the quote and the reference because a surprising amount of people don't realise that this is a thing that still happens nowadays, so it makes for interesting conversation.

For example, I can translate, roughly, from English to French, but I would certainly never release something I translated into French until I got the seal of approval from someone who speaks it daily and who I know has excellent French grammar, punctuation, and spelling.

Exactly! That's why it boggles the mind that a large company would do exactly this, in 2019.

I suppose that it's a miracle that we even got a colour version in English at all, isn't it? Given the translation thing, it makes me wonder if they didn't want to take too much of a risk of on it.

 

[assbread]

A little sad that Gourmet Street was changed to Food Town rather than say Gourmet St or Flavor Town.

• Tama Sports Resort -> Gym
  

Sharing these two room backgrounds name changes, since they're needed for unlocking lands.

• Dreamy Living -> Carousel 
  
• Magical Living -> Magical Room
  
• Starry Sky -> Star Room
  

 

[assbread]

Item changes for character likes:

• (Magic?) Mirror -> Fortune
  
• Magic Hat -> Magic Set
  
• Magic Carpet -> Fly Carpet
  
• Toy Train -> Train Set
  
• Vegetable Seeds -> Plant Tools
  
• Hoe -> Garden Kit
  

Location name changes:

• Magical Land -> Magic Land
  
• Fairytale Land -> Fairy Land
  
• Starry Sky Lab -> Star Lab
  

The third options in Magic & Fairy Land changed:

• Magic Ride -> Festival
  
• Fairy Ride -> Fair
  

These are all the name changes I could think of looking for.