Zacian LV.X · Sword & Shield Promos #SWSH135

3 comments

1. 

   Twylis

   (1 year ago)

   Precise wording of this card means that it likely would lose access to the basic Zacian’s Ability, if it had one. Irrelevant given there’s no basic Zacians with Abilities, but an interesting thing to note!

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2. 

   Ambassador

   (2 months ago)

   Something that essentially all of these cards¹ have in common is that they aren’t particularly interested in matching the language conventions of the EN TCG for the era they’re meant to fit into – I explained it pretty well in the comments of Greninja ☆, but the gist is that the text of the attacks are all ‘modern’. One thing that I’m mostly fond of is that it got rid of cards referring to themselves by their own name in favor of “this Pokémon”², but there was one missed with this card. The rulebox is referring to “Zacian LV.𝙓” by its own name – even worse, this isn’t even actually its real name, it should just be “Zacian”.

   All the English LV.𝙓 cards share this problem, and it’s partly a result of English language conventions of the time, and partly a just a quirky thing insofar the way LV.𝙓 cards read in either language. But, for example, the “LV.𝙓” in AR Salamence LV.𝙓 isn’t actually a part of its name any more than “LV.68” is a part of AR Salamence LV.68’s is. So when AR Salamence LV.𝙓 refers to itself as “Salamence LV.𝙓” in Poké-Power its rulebox, it’s breaking English language conventions. At this point in the JP TCG, [このポケモン 𝐊𝐎𝐍𝐎 𝐏𝐎𝐊𝐄𝐌𝐎𝐍 = THIS POKéMON] had been standard for a while, and that’s what you’ll see in the text of Salamence’s JP Power, but PUSA was continuing the convention that WOTC established to replace every instance of [このポケモン] with the name of the Pokémon in question. But it turns out PUSA didn’t really understand that “LV.𝙓” isn’t actually a part of the name of the cards in question, which is why Salamence’s EN Power says “Salamence LV.X”. Back to Zacian for a moment, its Poké-Body refers to itself as “this Pokémon” rather than “Zacian LV.X”, so the problem is averted here.

   Back to Salamence, there’s another part where the card refers to itself by its incorrect name that I’ve already mentioned; in the rulebox. You can sort of see why this might’ve done; “Put this card onto your Active Salamence. Salamence can use…” would’ve been a little bit confusing – but I think that’s giving a bit too much credit, I think PUSA genuinely didn’t understand the mechanic. Let’s look at the JP text of the rulebox and a suggested translation;

   JP: このカードは、バトル場のボーマンダに重ねてレベルアップさせる。レベルアップ前のワザ・ポケパワーも使うことができ、ポケボディーもはたらく。
   EN: This card can be placed onto your Active Salamence to Level Up. It can use the attacks and Poké-Powers it had before leveling up, and any Poké-Bodies also work.

   The text kind of sidesteps referring to itself in any way. In terms of “this card,” that wouldn’t have flown in the language conventions of the time – it was unusual for a Pokémon Card to refer to itself as “this card” in the EN TCG unless it was referring to some situation where it could/would act as something other than a Pokémon Card³, so some more tweaking of the text would’ve been necessary. For the DP+DPt era, suitable English text could’ve been some form of “You may play this Salamence from your hand onto your Active Salamence to Level Up” and people would’ve had have to live with it as a consequence of refusing to adopt the Japanese TCG’s “this Pokémon” language convention sooner. Contemporarily, something along the lines of “You may play this Pokémon from your hand to Level Up your Active Salamence.”

   So how about Zacian Lv.𝙓’s rulebox? I would’ve suggested something like this;

   You may play this Pokémon from your hand to Level Up your Active Zacian. This Pokémon can use any attack or Poké-Power from its previous Level, and any Poké-Bodies also work.

   This text would require the rulebox to be extended vertically to allow for a third line of text. However, if you compare the size of the ruleboxes of Lv.𝙓 cards to the amount of space used for Pokédex entries in the Gen 4 TCG, there was some give there that Lv.𝙓 ruleboxes didn’t take advantage of – the EN rulebox could’ve been extended upwards a little bit and they would have the same amount of space available to them (for attacks, Poké-Powers, and/or Poké-Bodies) as non-Lv.𝙓 cards had, and this had they done it for this card it could’ve had modern language vs. this awkward mix of retro and contemporary text.

   Incidentally, this means there are even *more* reprints in the Celebrations set with retro errors that can affect gameplay – after BS Charizard (Power is wrong), Cleffa (Baby Pokémon does not count as Basic Pokémon!), Shining Magikarp (Gold Scale should allow “up to 2 cards”), now it turns out that Luxray 𝙂𝙇 Lv.𝙓 and Garchomp 𝘾 Lv.𝙓 referring to themselves by the incorrect name means PUSA joins WOTC in getting to see their classic translation errors of days gone by show up again in the (relatively) current day. Boy, I hope someone got fired for this absolute 𝘣𝘭𝘶𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘳⁴!!

   ¹ By “these cards” I mean the ‘retroactive pseudo-reprints’ or whatever it is we might end up calling them. https://pkmncards.com/?s=set%3Asword-shield-promos+text%3A%22%28This+card+cannot+be+used+at+official+tournaments.%29%22
   ² e.g. had Light Toxtricity actually come out in Neo Destiny, its attack would’ve read “During your next turn, Light Toxtricity can’t use Beatdown Smash.” instead of ” During your next turn, this Pokémon can’t use Beatdown Smash.”
   ³ e.g. the Holon’s Pokémon referred to themselves as “this card” when discussing scenarios where they could act as Energy Cards, and some later cards refer to themselves like this when discussing scenarios where they can act as Tool Cards. (Incidentally, I think it’s weird that Pokémon Cards with the Δ Evolution Ancient Trait refer to themselves as “this card, but the JP cards did the same thing.) https://pkmncards.com/?s=%2Btext%3A%22this+card%22+type%3Apokemon&sort=date&ord=rev&display=images
   ⁴ The state of the Pokémon fandom is what it is nowadays so that I should clarify: this is a joke.

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   • 

     AmbassadorAmbassador

     (2 months ago)

     I spent 9000 hours in MS Paint making sure about the three lines thing, btw; https://imgur.com/Hts67a3

     You’ll find several instances of EN Lv.𝙓 cards where losing a line like this would’ve been fatal – even though they had more space than non-Lv.𝙓 cards of the era, or rather, 𝘣𝘦𝘤𝘢𝘶𝘴𝘦 of the extra space, these cards tended to have some of the most inventive, and wordy, mechanics of Pokémon. (And this, in an era where almost every single attack of almost every single Pokémon did something in addition to simple damage.) But, from previous discussions we’ve had (like in the comments of Dialga PL 5), it looks like the EN *and* JP team were more than cognizant of the fact that EN text was becoming problematically long, and also as previously discussed, I suspect the reason the EN DP+DPt cards fit in dex entries where they can is to basically ‘test’ to see what cards had give (I wonder if PCL tasked PUSA with this to give them a better idea of what cards ended up having and not having extra space in translation?)

     Given this, it might give some insight into what happened with HGSS’s chase cards (i.e. the block between DP and the start of BW, which was when en masse harmonization and complete revamp of EN language conventions, with an apparent focus on brevity, took place). Pokémon Prime are rulebox cards, 𝘦𝘹𝘤𝘦𝘱𝘵 𝘯𝘰𝘵 – the lack of a rulebox might’ve been to allow PCL to be even more creative with attack/Power/Body effects without having to worry about whether there would be enough space on the EN cards to fit it all. Pokémon LEGEND brazenly ignore any kind of text space limitations, so there’d be no worry about how the EN text would fit into cramped space either. When ‘normal’ chase/multiprizers returned to the TCG at the start of BW, the aforementioned language harmonization took effect and you’ll notice that none of the BW era Pokémon EX find themselves having to resort to tricks like reduced font sizes to fit in all the text of an attack or Ability, and XY era Mega Pokémon EX even *reduced* the space available. Lv.𝙓 cards – maybe even Dusknoir Lv.𝙓 in particular? – might even be what we have to thank for a scenario where PCL said enough is enough and demanded the EN translation team sort itself out.

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