Actually, I have one LAST thing to share on this because if feel i...
Lazy Nick@LazyNick5
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Apr 05, 2026
~5 min read
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Actually, I have one LAST thing to share on this because if feel i have something relevant to say. I see a lot of people heavily misinterpret Toby saying this as "my work's language is too complex for a translator" When that's not what he said at ALL (+)
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I've seen dozens of tweets from all around the world, including my home country, claiming this and then comparing it to stuff like the house of the leaves, the Odyssey or bilblical scrolls. Not only does that ignore that many of these ancient or otherwise complex
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works often have multiple different translation takes that can considerably change the text, with dozens of years of debate on which is the right one, but its also straight up incorrect as Toby isn't claiming a translator wouldn't be able to understand a supposedly "too complex"
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language. Sure, Undertale's writing style is very smart and unique, critically acclaimed and a HUGE part of its a charm, but professional translators would very much be able to translate all the play of words and references in Undertale's jokes and dialogues. What's Toby worried
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about is INTERPRETABILITY, not language. See, Undertale is an extremely interpretable game, all of it is. I have spent dozens upon dozens of hours and probably well over a hundred page discussing Undertale interpretations. Depending on whether you ask me or
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someone else who's equally invested in interpretating this game what its story is and what it truly says, you might get COMPLETELY different answers on every single part of its structure. Entire speeches, entire scenes (ex: Flowey TP, Sans geno, Chara 2 genos) can mean
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wildly different thing about the story, the world and its characters depending on how you look at it, who you think its adressed to, how the game's approach to adressing YOU is, etc. What Toby Fox loves doing is taking normal english words and then adding to them
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completely new symbolic meanings that are in no way present in their original language, meanings that you can only guess (i say guess, not know) through heavy investment in the game and not the words themselves. If we take Determination for example, its english meaning is
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pretty clear cut. Firmness in actions, persevering through.
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In Undertale however, "Determination" refers to and all at the same time:
-a fictional immortality substance
-a metaphysical incarnation of freedom and will to power
-What drives a videogame player to go beyond reward systems
-the power of fiction itself and the drive to create
-a fictional immortality substance
-a metaphysical incarnation of freedom and will to power
-What drives a videogame player to go beyond reward systems
-the power of fiction itself and the drive to create
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Obviously, none of these meanings are in the english language. Yet, they're absolutely crucial to Undertale, even more so than the word's actual signification. And that's exactly the problem that came with localizing Undertale that Legends of localization tells us about:
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the difficult part wasn't Undertale's language which is easy compared to ancient literary works, its how to treat this careful system of interpretation and symbolism it builds and that really only hands by a thread because the slightest shake would entirely blow it up instantly.
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And that's what Toby's role in the japanese localization was: help to maintain this vagueness as despite the long and thorough efforts of many passionate fans to get one, only he has a comprehensive answer to the entirety of Undertale's meaning.
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And if he can't help like he did just here because he doesn't speak, then he's taking the risk of releasing an official translation that completely nukes all discussion of the game bc of shit he purposefully has to hold off to keep the game interpretable enough. Determination
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is only ONE example, there are many, many other examples of stuff like that within UT/DR and i picked it because its the most straightforward one, but here's another one: Legends of Localization, a book about Undertale's jp translation written by somebody who DIRECTLY
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worked Toby had EXTREMELY discutable claims about the game's lore within it, peculiarly about the main character. Claims so very discutable that it caused a fandom outrage and that the author had to go on twitter to precise that everything lore-related in the book besides
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Toby's own words were only their own personal interpretation and not anything canonical nor necessarily Toby's intent. So if that's someone who directly worked with Toby in a language he already knows, its fair to be scared of doing the same without knowing
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the language at all. Not a fear that translators wouldn't be competent enough, but a fear their own interpretation might unknowingly impact anything. Which is pretty ironic considering the entire point of localization IS interpretating. The system he used for Japanese is
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inherently flawed for any other language, and that's why Toby wants to look for other ways to do it that wouldn't cause such issues once its logistically possible for him to do so. And that's also why he supports non-official translation: he knows pefectly well that
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anybody with knowledge and skill can translate his game, its mood, quirks and dialogues. But it not being "official" gives him the insurance that no choice of word will impact the game's constant discussion, analysing, and theorizing. In other words: the entirety of the
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extremely passionate and creative fandom this game has built over the years. And god knows Undertale fans are peculiarly passionate about discussing every single of its details to no end.
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interesting thread by a translator that worked in UT fan translations to read:
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Oh and btw, despite the claim that Toby and his entire translation team actually lied and that he knew no japanese whe he started working on the translation, he had infact already learned enough of it by then to be able to fool a translator into thinking he already mastered it,
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and improved so much during it he 100% was by the end of the process.
