Ico's original script has been translated
Two-thirds of its lines went unused.
Fumito Ueda's classic PS2 fantasy adventure Ico originally had significantly more dialogue prior to its release. Fans at The Cutting Room Floor data-mined the game's files to discover that 77 of the game's 115 lines of text went unused. Now, The Legend of Zelda: Hyrule Historia translator Aria Tanner has offered her own translation to this omitted dialogue.
On her blog, GlitterBerri's Game Translations, Tanner translates each and every line from Ico, going so far as to provide her own more literal interpretations of the already localised dialogue so we can get a better sense of how it was edited for a western audience.
Spoilers follow:
While the final script elegantly tells a full story, the original lines included some intriguing cut content. For one, Yorda tells the Queen "You are not my mother!" though it's unclear if this is figurative or not. And the original english translation omitted a line where the Queen specifies that Yorda is her "sole heir". Weird.
But the big reveal is a lengthy omitted conversation between Yorda and the Queen entering the game's third act (lines 52-74). In this scene the Queen reveals her true feelings for Yorda when she admits, "I do not wish to hurt you... You have always been at the forefront of my thoughts."
Yorda later responds, "I'm going to live the way I want to. Even if I have to pay for it with my life. It's far better than surviving on the sacrifices of an innocent people."
They bicker more about Yorda's life decisions and whether her new horned friend is a bad influence. Pretty typical mother/daughter issues, ya know?
As such, it's probably for the better this stuff was cut. Elsewhere, numerous other lines were more than a little superfluous. I mean, would we really want Ico saying, "That thing might come back again, so let's hurry", "It's okay! If it's those things you're worried about, I'll take care of them", or "Don't worry. I know we can escape. Let's keep going a little longer"?
For the entire unused script translation, check out Tanner's full breakdown. To see how the final product looked in-game, here's a compilation of all the cutscenes in english:
