View source for Gratuitous English/Video Games

{{trope}}
{{Video Game Examples Need Sorting}}

Examples of [[{{TOPLEVELPAGE}}]] in [[{{SUBPAGENAME}}]] include:

* As a rule of thumb, in almost ''every'' Japanese or East Asian fighting game, when your character is K.O'ed and the words "K.O" appears, it's ALWAYS spelled or announced as ''K.O.'' instead of ''Knock-out'', since it's impossible to pronounce that word in many Asian languages.
** Though, [[Truth in Television|"K.O." is a common abbreviation of the term]] even in English-speaking countries
* SNK may well be the kings of this trope, as ''any'' foreign character in their games will have Engrish in their quotes, with Terry Bogard of ''Fatal Fury'' being this trope incarnate ("R u OK? BUSTAAAAAAH WOLF!") To be fair, they also have examples of [[Surprisingly Good English]] as well, with Wolfgang Krauser (also of ''Fatal Fury'') being the best example.
** Iori Yagami of ''[[King of Fighters]]'' has an image song, "Kaze no Allegory", where he sings "Don't break my soul, woah oah tonight".
** Krauser, unlike other SNK characters, has been voiced by English-speaking actors in almost every game he's been (Michael Beard in ''Fatal Fury 2'' and ''Fatal Fury Special'', and B.J. Love in ''KOF'' and ''Real Bout'' games).
** [[Metal Slug|RAWKET LAWNCHAIR!]]
* On the subject of the ''Rockman.EXE'' series: in the original Japanese, Eleki Hakushaku (Count Zap) often spoke in gratuitous English. There, we got such gems as "Yeah! Rock and Roll!" and "God Damn." Of course, the dubs have no way of translating.
** In the [[Mega Man X|X series]], all the games after X5 use Gratuitous English in the names of the bosses. This ended up with atrocities like Metal Shark Player, Infinity Mijinion, and Tornado Tonion.
*** The boss names in the Japanese versions of Xs 1-5 use Gratuitous English as well—it's just they started translating the names more literally from X6 onwards.
** The names of X's weapons are also this trope. This became... interesting once he started [[Calling Your Attacks|calling his attacks]] in later games.
* ''[[Sonic the Hedgehog]]'''s most recent incarnation (as appearing in ''Sonic Adventure'' and ''[[Sonic X]]'') [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uJoOJFOWSJM&feature=related loves to use Engrish phrases] such as "OK," "All right," or "Don't mind!" whenever he beats Eggman or accomplishes some other important goal.
** When he beats Big Foot in ''Sonic Adventure 2'', he says "Hey guy, take care!" This was left unchanged in the English voice acting.
** Or when he ranks badly, he may say "Notmydaaay!" Not to mention Shadow's "Cah-ohs... CONTROL!" when executing his famous time-stopping move. And then there's the shuttle countdown... in ENGLISH, even with Japanese turned on.
** For a laugh, turn Sonic Adventure on to Japanese voices, and put Sonic as the narrator for the menus. You get things like "How to pray wiv Nakolz (Knuckles)!" "How to creer (clear) the game!" "Serectcha characturr!" "How to pray wiv E-Wah-Oh-Two Gammer!" and many more.
** When he said [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6S_MHBKgLWg "Shit"] in Sonic X. He does this a lot in Sonic X. His most commonly used phrases are "Don't mind!" (Wasei-Eigo for "Don't worry about it."), "All right!" and "Let's go!".
*** While Kanemaru Jun'ichi's pronunciation isn't that bad, it does sound quite hilarious, particularly when Sonic screams "I GOT THE LIZARD!" in one episode (he actually says "I can't believe it!"). Interestingly, this seems to be a character trait; in one episode, when Chris asks Amy where Sonic went, Amy says he went away, "but he told me to tell you 'See you later'." She says the "see you later" in English. Sonic's English phrase "Never give up!" became a kind of [[Determinator]] [[Catch Phrase]] for one episode, being used by Sonic and then later by Chris both when attempting something daring.
*** Knuckles's "SHABERU KUROO!" (Shovel Claw) in the anime.
** This best e is the horrible garbling of "You Made It!" / "YUU MEIREH!" Sonic spouts when you beat one of the Tails levels in ''Sonic Adventure 1.''
** There was an advert in Japan for ''Sonic Adventure'' which was narrated by one of the characters. Sonic's version began with Sonic yelling, in English, "Hallo, ebrybodayyy! Mah name is Sonic! Sonikku za Hejihoggu sa!" pronouncing his name as corresponding to the Japanese way. At the end, he closes with "Ore wa Sonic! * Makes strange clicking noise* Sonic the Hedgehowg!" pronouncing it in (mostly) the English way.
** And come to think of it, all the character names are in English. Sonikku za Hejjihoggu (Sonic the Hedgehog), Mairusu "Teirusu" Pauā<ref>Shouldn't it be ''Purawā''?</ref> (Miles "Tails" Prower), Nakkuruzu za Ekiduna (Knuckles the Echidna), Emī Rōzu (Amy Rose), Biggu za Kyatto (Big the Cat), Kurīmu za Rabitto (Cream the Rabbit), Dokutā Egguman (Doctor Eggman), Shadou za Hejjihoggu (Shadow the Hedgehog), Rūju za Batto (Rouge the Bat), Shirubā za Hejjihoggu (Silver the Hedgehog) and the list goes on and on and on and on... The only one that's any different in Japanese is Nack the Weasel, who was originally called Fangu za Sunaipā (Fang the Sniper).
* All the characters from ''Castle Shikigami 2'' speak in horribly butchered english and make so little sense that it falls into the [[So Bad It's Good]] category. Especially notable because the voice actors were native English speakers who had to read the Engrish(Though sometimes they would correct it).
* Chipp Zanuff from ''[[Guilty Gear]]'' is supposed to be an American who doesn't know Japanese, but due to the [[Translation Convention]] of the game he speaks it most of the time anyway. This is balanced by his large amount of gratuitous English, usually when swearing or surprised ("HOLY ZEN!"). The example here also points out his inversion in gratuitous ''Japanese''. Like in that example, on the rare occaisions he's actually using Japanese, rather than it being an effect of the [[Translation Convention]], it's random nonsense that makes no sense in context—he actually shouts "sushi" during one of his attacks, for another example.
** In addition, about 75% of the attacks in the games are [[Calling Your Attacks|called out]] in English. This ranges from the good (Chipp and Sol Badguy call their attacks with [[Surprisingly Good English]] for the most part) to the laughable (Venom's Double Head Morbid: "DOUBAH HEAD MORBIDOH!").
** The [[PlayStation 2]] version of ''Guilty Gear X'' had pretty terrible English, every single fight. "Are you ready? Let's go! Let's enjoy a great time!" And... "Heaben o' Hell. Doo wan. Lez rock." This was replaced by better a better English speaker in the English version of ''Guilty Gear XX''...at least until ''[[Capcom Sequel Stagnation|Accent Core]]'', where they replaced the old speaker with a worse one for some infathomable reason when the original/''#Reload''/''Slash'' speaker was perfect.
*** You also get a lot of this in Guilty Gear's spiritual successor ''[[BlazBlue]]''. Try performing Ragna's "Gauntlet Hades" and watch how the Japanese voice actor mangles the phrase. And don't get me started on "The Wheel Of Fate Is Turning". Of course, you can set the game to English voice actors as well.
*** GAUNTORETTO HAHDEHZ! GORILLA FATE IS TOINING!
*** IZOCHI SUPAA KURASH!
** The same developer gives us this in their ''[[Fist of the North Star]]'' fighting game: "The Time of Retribution. Battle (1,2,etc). Decide the Destiny!" Probably one of their better attempts.
* In a similar vein, Sodom from the ''[[Final Fight]]'' and ''[[Street Fighter (video game)|Street Fighter]]'' games is an American who's trying to be Japanese. He actually ''inverts'' the trope because he never speaks English, but instead speaks Gratuitous ''Japanese'' by mashing English words together that sound like Japanese phrases. For example, when trying to say "shoushi senban" (meaning "truly pathetic") he says "SHOW SEA SEND BANG!"
* One Japanese ''[[Kirby]] Super Star'' [[Strategy Guide]] featured a Great Cave Offensive comic (it read left-to-right a la a Western comic book) at one point, that featured a fedora-wearing Kirby with oddly masculine features in a nonsensical ''[[Indiana Jones]]'' spoof. The kicker? The people writing the guide apparently wrote it in Japanese first, then translated it into English themselves—as a result, we got gems like "More '''[[Bold Inflation|SKINNY]]''', less '''ATTRACTIVE''' to my baby!", "Gra'ma said, '''NO PICK''' up '''EVIL'''", and, best of all, "[[Narm|SHIT!]]".
* This often extends to names, too: in ''[[Final Fantasy VI]]'', the name Tina was considered exotic. If you don't recognise them, they were somewhat [[Woolseyism|thankfully re-translated]] into English when they were translated, so the character became Terra. And then there's the whole "Claude and Alice" [[Urban Legend of Zelda|rumour]].
** Then there's Siegfried, who abandons battle with some gratuitous ''Spanish''. "Adios Amigos!"
** The entire ''[[Final Fantasy]]'' franchise in general LOVES it self some [[Gratuitous Foreign Language]]. The names of almost everything- titles included- are pronounced the same way in Japanese as English. Example: "Barret Wallace" is pronounced roughly "Bayrlet Walrus."
* In an interesting gaming parallel, the ''SSX'' series of made-in-Canada snowboarding games features a Japanese character, Kaori, who speaks in a 50/50 mish-mash of fluent Japanese and extremely accented gratuitous English. Given the lack of other non-English-fluent characters, the makers were apparently trying to jointly appeal to trendy Japanese audiences and American fans of Japanese culture. Interestingly, this lack of fluency doesn't impede her interaction with the other snowboarders at all, even a romantic interest.
* The ''X-Men'' arcade game has many plainly spoken engrish phrases, including "Pyro will burn you to toast!", "I am Magneto, Master of Magnet!", "Magneto is in another place" and the (in)famous "[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IdAmkx8eAos X-Men, welcome to die!]" as spoken by Magneto. While not exactly engrish, he also makes the ridiculous insult of "X-chicken!"
** More X-Men engrish: the first Japanese theme song produced when [[X-Men (animation)|the 90's animated series]] was brought to Japan has a few random English phrases. The most obvious one is at the end where the singer practically screams with much gusto the line "[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I6hB33rUQTQ CRY FOR THE MOON!]"
* The Japanese version of ''[[Street Fighter III|Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike]]'' has the memorable "Let's Blocking" intro for the parry practice bonus stage. (Blocking is what parrying is called in Japanese, but the incongruous "let's" is what makes it [[TV Tropes Made of Win Archive]].
** The Japanese track of ''[[Street Fighter]] IV'' has a lot of this when calling attacks and giving introductions. Particularly amusing are Balrog (the boxer), who shouts nothing but Engrish in the Japanese track, and El Fuerte, who is ''Mexican''.
** Also of note is Rolento's victory phrase in ''Street Fighter Alpha 2/3'': MISSHON KONPURIITO.
* [[EarthBound|Ness]] and [[Vidoegame/F-Zero|Captain Falcon]] in ''[[Super Smash Bros.]]'' use gratuitous English when [[Calling Your Attacks|calling their attacks]]. ''Super Smash Bros Melee'' retained this, but also inverted it with Marth and Roy speaking [[Gratuitous Japanese]].
** In ''Brawl'', Lucas and Zero Suit Samus [[Surprisingly Good English|avoid]] this by having American voice actors—even in the Japanese version.
*** Ditto the narrator in all three games.
** Then again, Ness comes from [[Eagle Land]], so I suppose it's justfied...
* Inverted in ''[https://web.archive.org/web/20120508061729/http://kotaku.com/348202/gibberish-japanese-in-resident-evil-movie Resident Evil Extinction]'', where a Japanese subway sign sports nonsensical ''kanji''.
* [[media:pachirights.png|This warning]] from ''[[Do Don Pachi]]'' and other early Cave [[Shoot'Em Up]]s.
* ''[[Super Mario Sunshine]]'' has "SHINE GET!" (The "get" was wiped from the North America releases, though.)
** ''[[Super Mario Galaxy]]'' has "Star Get!" and "Grand Star Get!". The US release had it rewritten this time, however.
** In ''[[Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story]]'', Broque Monsieur originally used Gratuitous English, such as "Oh my dog! What's happen?". The English version [[Keep It Foreign|changed it into]] [[Gratuitous French]] instead.
** "[[Mario Kart|GOAL!]]"
* The opening [[Theme Song]] to ''the American release of'' Rune Factory: a Fantasy [[Harvest Moon]] contains ''nothing but'' [[Word Salad Title|word salad Engrish]]. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RRarXcOu5lQ&feature=related See for yourself.]
** The carries on into the sequels, of course.
* In the Japanese version of ''[[Tales of Vesperia]]'', villain Yeager speaks in a rather peculiar manner, randomly interjecting English words and phrases where Japanese would have sufficed, such as "Come on, boy!", and "Oh my god...". Naturally, his manner of speaking was completely changed in the English dub ...into [[Gratuitous German]]!
** Karol has a somewhat unusual case in that the names of his arts in the Japanese dub are half Japanese and half English in their pronunciation (Examples being Houshuu Thunder and Kasshin Heal Stamp), perhaps to reflect his childish nature.
* In the Japanese ''[[Tales of Symphonia]]'', two of the ''main characters'' were named in Gratuitous English: the [[White Mage|healer]] was named Refill, and [[Squishy Wizard|her brilliant little brother]] was named Genius. These were thankfully changed to Raine and Genis for the English translation, although [[Spell My Name with an "S"|some fans use them anyway.]]
{{quote|''There once was a young elf named Genius''
''Whose English name was God's gift to limerick writers...'' }}
* Any ''Tales Of'' game will feature this, for this reason: While most weapon techniques are three-to-five kanji compounds, spells are generally named in English. Now remember that the series has had voice acting since the beginning, and, well... ''faastueido!'' ''fiafurufurea!'' ''shirufu!'' And for the exceptions who have their tech names in Gratuitous English, this applies again. There are also a few examples of [[Gratuitous French]] and [[Gratuitous German]] techs, as well.
* The [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S6G3xKoswCE opening video] of the [[Utsuge|videogame]] ''[[Dote Up A Cat]]'' is totally Engrish.
* In Capcom's ''[[Sengoku Basara]]'' series, Date Masamune frequently uses heavily-accented English phrases whenever it's time to kick ass in the original Japanese version, [[Catch Phrase|you see?]]
** Also happens in the anime adaptation. [[Memetic Mutation|PUT YA GUNS ON!]] [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QfmijD2XaqM BURNING UP!!]
** The intro to the North American release of the third game has the same intro song from the original sung completely in English. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r4upHp9aCQU It's something to behold.]
* The ''Persona'' games have a weird relationship with this trope:
** ''[[Persona 2]]'' features the famous "LET'S POSITIVE THINKING!"
** ''[[Persona 3]]'' and ''[[Persona 4|4]]'' however, feature much gratuitious English in almost all their vocal songs, most notably the intro screens and battle music... except it's surprisingly good. There are plenty of parts where words are misemphasized or mispronounced, but if you know what they're trying to say, it actually makes sense.
* In the [[No Export for You|Japan-only]] ''[[Tetris the Grand Master]] 3'', if your game ends prematurely in Master or Shirase mode...
{{quote|"'''EXCELLENT''' -- but...let's go better next time"}}
* Arcade game ''[[Twinkle Star Sprites]]'' starts off with a shout of "TUWINKERU SUTAH SPURAITO".
** Which isn't all that bad, but there are characters named Load Ran and Really Till.
* A number of the songs from ''[[Katamari Damacy]]'' are loaded with Gratuitous English, including the [[Title Theme Tune]] "Katamari On the Rocks" ("Don't Worry, Do Your Best / Picnic kibun Feels So Good / Suteki na Afternoon / Furachi no Midnight, Yeah!") and "Song for the King of Kings" from ''We Love Katamari'' ("Everyday, Everynight / Kimi to ousama no Rainbow, Yes!")
** Although, since this is ''[[Widget Series|Katamari]]'' we're talking about, it sorta makes sense.
* The voice clips in the American versions of ''[[Cooking Mama]]'' are ''entirely'' this, ranging from simple stilted-sounding R/L inversion ("Look, a swarrowtail butterfry!" in ''Gardening Mama'') to more awkward sounding phrases ("DON-TUH WARRY, MAMA WILL FEEX EET" and "WUNDAFAH! EVEN BEDDAZEN MAMA!" in ''Dinner With Friends'')
** ''[[Cooking Mama 2]]'' has "Great! Yuu gayvid yua best effah!" ("Great! You gave it your best effort!") "Don warri, Mama will fix zis" and "Triffic! Even bettah zan Mama!"
** DO NOT MIND
* Averted by ''[[Knights in The Nightmare]]''. The Japanese version is fully voice acted in ''English'', and while the delivery is often highly enunciated for the Japanese audience, leading to alternate [[Large Ham|cheese and ham]], it's still good English with a good accent. Atlus even saw fit to leave it in during localization, probably for the occasional [[Narm Charm]].
** Sadly, this only holds true for the voice acting. The Japanese version of the game also featured a lot of English text, including such instant classics as "How to Reinforce Least Knight" and "Touch the Box to Be Defeated Enemy".
* The item shop in ''[[Tears to Tiara]]'' is called "[[The Fair Folk|The Good Folk]]" and is run by an [[Honest John]] of an Elf.
* "[[Mother 3|Welcome to MOTHER3 World]]." Also, the voice clip played when you name your characters is [[Shigesato Itoi|Itoi himself]] saying, "OK desu ka?" (Is this OK?) According to Itoi, he was tricked into saying it by Hirokazu Tanaka (who had a tape recorder behind his back).
* The attack names in ''[[Eternal Sonata]]'' are mostly in gratuitous English (Even on the English language track, which just has the English voice actors say the original phrase), with Chopin getting lines in gratuitous French and Italian. Fortunately they make a reasonable amount of sense.
* ''Gunbird'': "Ganbahdo!"
* In the PS game "Speed Power Gunbike," the game over screen happily informs you that "Anergy empty! You all over!"
* In the Japanese versions of ''[[Snatcher]]'', JUNKER was originally an acronym for "Judgement Uninfected Naked-Kind Execute Ranger".
* The MSX version of ''[[Metal Gear]]'' gave us such well named villains such as the "Shoot Gunner" and "Coward Duck". The sequel, ''Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake'', isn't much better with the likes of "Black Color", "Ultrabox"(named after the [[New Wave]] band Ultravox) and "Night Sight".
** "Black Color" was supposed to be "[[Blackcollar]]", after a novel about [[Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot|NASA ninjas (essentially)]]. He is one...supposedly.
*** But the point is that "Black Color" was how the name was spelled in the actual game itself. Many people assume its a [[Misblamed|misromanization]] by the fan-translators, but that's how it was spelled in the actual Japanese game (all the bosses had their names spelled in roman script).
* The Neo Geo shooter [[Blazing Star]], and it's [[Memetic Mutation|memetic]] "YOU FAIL IT! YOUR SKILL IS NOT ENOUGH" screen. Then there's the female announcer who yells English phrases such as "BONUS!" with hilarious results.
* [http://www.softnyx.com/Gunbound/Introduction.aspx tee hee]{{Dead link}}, over 1000 rules of game.
* This is more or less the mode of international communications in ''[[eRepublik]]''.
* EXEC_CUTYPUMP/. from ''[[Ar Tonelico 3]]'' is a strange mixture of Japanese and English.
* The ''[[Starry Sky]]'' series. [https://web.archive.org/web/20100707041908/http://blog.eientei.net/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/Engrish-640x480.png This is just a sample].
* Lampshaded in ''[[The Simpsons Game]]'', which features a level parodying Japanese [[RPG]]s entitled [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ccIft11y4IU Big Super Happy Fun Fun].
* The very name "[[Donkey Kong]]" is perhaps the most famous example of this trope.
* In the French version of "[[Team Fortress 2]]", one can hear the Spy scream, "Oh my God", in English as part of his Jarate responses. What makes this strange is that he says that phrase in French in the original English version and all of the other languages the game was dubbed in.
* From ''[[Do Don Pachi]] DaiFukkatsu Black Label'''s Arrange mode: "Just a couple more shots ''[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0NCVnX7EjSk&t=2m16s desu]!''"
* The [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vu3PDxoWj_E Japanese version] of the "Cheer Readers" game from ''[[Rhythm Heaven]] Fever'' includes such lines as "OK, don't mind!" and "Let's everybody go!"
* Very prevalent in the Japanese dub of ''[[Xenoblade Chronicles]]'' while the characters are [[Calling Your Attacks|calling their attacks]]. Only Dunban and Riki are exempt from this, due to having Japanese art names.
* Misha's "Bush Cheney 2004" shirt from ''[[Katawa Shoujo]]'' is probably meant to parody this trope.
* This is fairly common in the song lyrics in [[Deardrops]] and ''[[Kira Kira]]''. It's pointed out that some of the band members have no idea what they actually mean.

{{tropesubpagefooter}}