I’m playing Tales of Symphonia remastered (played the original on gamecube when it came out) right now and I’m having a hard time understanding this late game scene between the two characters Zelos and Llyod. If anyone is willing to / can help, I’d really appreciate it!
Context: Our group of heros has decided to no longer wait for the bad guy to just show up, but to actually go to his place and kick his butt. Lloyd is the main character (leader of the group) and Zelos is a close ally, who has been acting a bit suspicious.
For people who have played the game: It’s the very last bit of the doctor scene in Flanoir, after the other half of the group returns from Altessa.
Here’s the dialogue with my translation attempt + comments:
Zelos: いよいよだな。
ばっちり決めよーぜロイドくん！ Zelos: So you finally made a decision, Lloyd!
Lloyd: 。。。ゼロス。信じてるから Llyod: …Zelos. I believe in you.
(Maybe more literal: “Because I believe in you, Zelos”, but that sounds a bit odd considering the rest of the game. Lloyd did not decided anything because of Zelos)
Zelos: な、何いってんだよ～
まあ、俺さまをたよる気持ちわかるぜ。
泥船に乗ったつもりでど～んとまかせとけって Zelos: Wh- What are you talking about? I’m known to be trustworthy/reliable!
Leave the sinking ship to me!
(This is where I’m lost. I found the phrase 泥船に乗るつもりはない, which apparently means “to have no intention to go down with the sinking ship”. But instead of the negative はない, Zelos is saying “leave it to me”. Also: I don’t understand the use of つもりで here. I feel that a more literal translation would be either: “With the intention to ride the sinking ship, leave it to me!” OR maybe: “I intend sticking with the sinking ship, so leave it to me!”, maybe implying that we are the weaker group and challenging the bad guy is dangerous/stupid?)
Lloyd: : それをいうなら木の船だろ Lloyd: If you say that, it will be a (floating) ship made of wood.
(I’m also lost here: this seems to be a play on 大船に乗る, which means “to rest easy” or “to be in a safe condition”. I think Lloyd wants to say: If I can leave it to you, then we’ll be fine. But honestly, I’m not sure…)
Same dialogue in screenshots (*** spoilers ***) (without any comments)
I also had a look at the official English translation of this, which was… not helpful
Official English translation (*** spoilers ***)
Zelos: All right. Let’s go kick some Cruxis butt, Llyod!
Llyod: Zelos, I trust you.
Zelos: Wh-what are you talking about? Well, of course, I can understand that you’re counting on me. Just place your faith in me!
Llyod: Faith, huh, I hope so.
Zelos: Yeah, yeah, come on, let’s go!
It’s an inversion of this common phrase about feeling peace of mind, because a mud boat would immediately sink, so instead you’re feeling worried etc. Think of this つもり as more the conviction/belief than intention. I feel like I need to know more about these characters but I believe what is happening is that Zelos has misspoken, as a little bit of humor, and the 木の船 part is like, “In that case don’t you mean a wooden boat? (which would function).” Because Zelos’s そ、それそれ is sort of a stuttering agreement. So he was trying to say leave it to me and feel totally at ease, but instead said to feel like everything is going to go wrong and leave it to me.
I’d need to be actually playing the game but I think you’re taking the から too directly and it’s more like, because I believe in you, I’m going to go there with you, let you help, whatever the case is. Everything following the から is implied unstated context.
Oh also to clean up a little nuance here, the first part is good enough as a “What are you saying?” (it seems like the character is taken off guard by this sudden frank sincerity). But after that the followup is more like a “Well, it’s understandable to ask for my help.” Maybe you get that, just the tone of the way you have it written sort of feels like he’s arguing against what the other character said rather than going, ok yeah, I see why you’d say something like that anyway.
I first thought “why would a muddy ship immediately sink?” – then I realized that 泥船 is not just muddy – it’s made of mud!
As for translation, I’d roughly translate it like this:
Zelos: So, you’ve finally made a decision?
Lloyd: Yeah, I decided to trust you.
Zelos: What are you saying? Oh, well, I understand how you feel: “I’m on a sinking ship, I need to ask him for help”.
Lloyd: With your help, it’s no longer a sinking ship!
This is an extremely rough translation made by a small and extremely clumsy cat, but I hope it helps
That actually make total sense, considering what happens next! Zelos pretends to betray the group, obducts a party member and hands her over to the bad guy, just to retrieve an item which we need. He also saves the group from certain death. And when Zelos goes with the bad guys, Lloyd says: “are you betraying us?!”, to which Zelos replies: “Shut up! Did you forget what I told you in Flanoir? I side with strongest.”
looks like you’ve gotten some good help already! i’m just poking my head in to say, i have fond memories of ToS and i hope you’re having a great time experiencing it again in japanese c:
looks like the japanese and english are pretty different, that’s interesting :o
UHHHH thank you???
im scared of you know
don’t bring up my past please, if i get/got banned from something, its for a reason LMAO
probably did something i shouldn’t have
Yeah, it is It’s actually not the first time I look up the official English translation bc I hoped it would help me understand some nuance I wasn’t sure about, but nope… english was just always… so much shorter.
