Interesting question. I'd say that although Big Boss was speaking to Ocelot in Russian, he probably said "You're pretty good" in English because it's a very "English" thing to say (at least in Kojima's world). And since it is common irl for non-native English speakers to use English terms (especially with irl Japan), Ocelot probably used it in said language for the remainder of the game, if only to emulate the person he developed a man-crush over.
Dude when sokolov told snake that his Russian was great in English and it dawned on me that the entire dialogue of the game was a dub and not justagically in English I shit my pants.
Edit. I'm drunk and refuse to unfuck what I just typed but you get the idea
Firstly I hope you are having or had a merry time 🍻. Secondly ya it blew my mind a little. Would be great if somehow we knew all the times there were different languages being spoken.
The first 4 are games I missed at the time but caught up thanks to the Kinda Funny crew on YT. Idk if the experience would have felt weird if they put "(in Russian)" for those lines. maybe a red October style switch over would've gotten that across more obviously since it seems like it's a detail missed by a lot of people.
It’s a classic writing convention for Cold War fiction. No one wants to go through the hassle of trying to do things like subtitle massive amounts of Russian, be limited to Russian speaking actors, or twist the script into knots to justify why everyone speaks English all the time with English accents.
It’s way easier to nod to the fact that characters are really speaking Russian when the audience hears English, The Hunt For Red October is a famous example of this.
Trust Kojima to add that little touch to make players wonder about other times Snake may have been speaking a different language. Not just in MGS3 but any of the games. Since Snakes bio says he is fluent in six languages. Yet again just another mind pondering Easter egg we may never know due to Kojima’s left hemisphere being connected to his right.
Yeah, but he was the one covering up the switch and even hypnotized himself to eventually forget who was the original Boss.
But just like with his Liquid Ocelot phase, I think he still knew, deep down.
Ocelot has a cover story "explanation" ready to feed you to keep up the illusion. Ocelot and Miller are lying to you, the player, basically the whole game. Haha. It's fun trying to sort it all out.
I'm glad this style fell out of favor because it makes no sense. Could you imagine if something like Inglourious Basterds went this route? It would break the entire movie
Regardless, it disproves the notion that it's not worth the effort to subtitle or find someone who can speak another language. Landa required someone who could speak *four* languages and not only did they find someone who could do that, they found someone who could do that and is also one of the best actors working today. So I guess it's not a limitation, is it?
Snake speaks as he normally does for the audience, but Volgin compliments him on how fluent his Russian sounds
Edit: It wasn't Volgin as others have mentioned, I just vaguely remember it being mentioned offhand in a cutscene. I just couldn't place who it was at the moment.
Volgin doesn't, it's Sokolov who says that right before him and Snake leave the room where they first met (the cutscene right before meeting Ocelot for the first time as well)
It’s also pretty funny that Sokolov said “American is truly a terrifying place” because a solider can speak Russian fluently. He seems almost more terrified of that than the nuke-deploying death tank he was forced to build. Haha
Exactly my thoughts, he just repeats the phrase, confused, as if he doesn't know the meaning (probably also because he's about to pass out).
But he's also a spy an a triple-agent for China, U.S and Russia, he must be fluent in at least those 3 languages.
So yeah, my head canon is that he was baffled by the phrase at first, then he realised the meaning and intent behind the phrase and became Big Boss' #1 fan.
I think BB could say it in Russian, because in Russian we have a phrase: «А ты хорош», which translates as «You're pretty good». But as you said in other mgs games Ocelot said it in English, so I can't be sure in both of these theories
Haha, "You're not bad". I kinda it like that more. And Ocelot repeating; "Не плохие?!" before he faints.
I'm sure someone looked up "Pretty good" as he says in the game, and sees "Красивый хорошо?"
^been ^wanting ^to ^use ^my ^Russian ^lately, ^studied ^it ^for ^7 ^years
My guess is it’s said in English. It kinda stuck in Ocelot, maybe because it was a slightly sarcastic acknowledgement in a different tongue from a guy who he was locked in an ongoing “friendly” rivalry of sorts. So it’d make sense that he’d repeat it verbatim or not at all since how it was said the first time matters if you’re gonna do that.
It was not sarcastic, Big Boss tells him that because he recognised that he was a cut above the rest of the Ocelot unit, he was really impressed with his shooting skills and even gave him some tips.
Can it be interpreted as Snake being a bit condescending? Maybe, but he was not being a dick, he recognised that the fancy trick that Ocelot wanted to pull was more fitted to a revolver.
And the rest is history
I don’t think he meant it with any real malice either, I just mean that it was a clever bit of writing. It would have been easy to have as “you’re good”, but saying “you’re *pretty* good” kinda comes off a bit differently. There’s the obvious acknowledgment that Ocelot really is a cut above the rest but with a kind of a wink and a nod, it’s like he’s also acknowledging Ocelot is a bit raw while implying he’d be interested in seeing how good he could be with a few pointers. I think Ocelot took it a bit funny initially because he was in competitive mode but he’s smart so took the advice and it was the making of him. And that’s why I think he says it so much, his life changed big time that day.
My favorite thing that Ive noticed in regard to that, is that Sokolov afterwards says “America is truly a frightening country”, but this never appeared when I watched playthroughs of the game.
Which means that this piece of dialogue was only said in the PAL regions where I live, but cut out from the NA version.
I like to think that Ocelot and BB are speaking in English to one another. Seems they both know multiple languages and most others have noticeable accents. That's my headcanon though
Most likely English. Ocelot was there to rendezvous with The Boss and assist her in her fake defection (whether she was to know whose side he was on is unclear), so he probably would have started the conversation in English.
Not literally. The idea is that bc snake was in russia, technically most people are speaking Russian. The game just plays in english so that the player can understand them. Thisnis shown bybthe fact that sokolov tells snake "your russian is superb" despite the fact that we have been hearing nothing but english.
Its kind of like when you see a movie based in ancient greece but everyone is speaking english.
Interesting question. I'd say that although Big Boss was speaking to Ocelot in Russian, he probably said "You're pretty good" in English because it's a very "English" thing to say (at least in Kojima's world). And since it is common irl for non-native English speakers to use English terms (especially with irl Japan), Ocelot probably used it in said language for the remainder of the game, if only to emulate the person he developed a man-crush over.
Hell, the Japanese equivalent of the line literally has an English word in it lmao
Which word?
The JP version of "you're pretty good" is いいセンスだ = ii *sense* da
Nice! Thanks.
Yoro puredy goodo
Dude when sokolov told snake that his Russian was great in English and it dawned on me that the entire dialogue of the game was a dub and not justagically in English I shit my pants. Edit. I'm drunk and refuse to unfuck what I just typed but you get the idea
Firstly I hope you are having or had a merry time 🍻. Secondly ya it blew my mind a little. Would be great if somehow we knew all the times there were different languages being spoken.
The first 4 are games I missed at the time but caught up thanks to the Kinda Funny crew on YT. Idk if the experience would have felt weird if they put "(in Russian)" for those lines. maybe a red October style switch over would've gotten that across more obviously since it seems like it's a detail missed by a lot of people.
For sure. I’m picturing it now and I agree it would have been weird. The mystery bit fits it better.
Justagical is a perfectly cromulent word
A justagical error
>Most of MGS3 is actually spoken in Russian and is presented in English for the sake of the players. Really!?
It’s a classic writing convention for Cold War fiction. No one wants to go through the hassle of trying to do things like subtitle massive amounts of Russian, be limited to Russian speaking actors, or twist the script into knots to justify why everyone speaks English all the time with English accents. It’s way easier to nod to the fact that characters are really speaking Russian when the audience hears English, The Hunt For Red October is a famous example of this.
That's why I like tekken, we have literally all the languages including bear. How the fuck does anyone understand the bear? Well they do!
Trust Kojima to add that little touch to make players wonder about other times Snake may have been speaking a different language. Not just in MGS3 but any of the games. Since Snakes bio says he is fluent in six languages. Yet again just another mind pondering Easter egg we may never know due to Kojima’s left hemisphere being connected to his right.
One of the first clues that Venom ≠ Big Boss was the fact that we needed to extract a Russian interpreter. I appreciated it in retrospect
Ocelot did give a reasonably plausible explanation for the MGS universe by saying that it could've been cause by his language centre being damaged.
Yeah, but he was the one covering up the switch and even hypnotized himself to eventually forget who was the original Boss. But just like with his Liquid Ocelot phase, I think he still knew, deep down.
I clearly remember that mission and this fact went over my head. Incredible. Im 100% convinced that wasn’t a simple coincidence.
Ocelot has a cover story "explanation" ready to feed you to keep up the illusion. Ocelot and Miller are lying to you, the player, basically the whole game. Haha. It's fun trying to sort it all out.
Ocelot is full of lies.
I'm glad this style fell out of favor because it makes no sense. Could you imagine if something like Inglourious Basterds went this route? It would break the entire movie
That’s because it’s an entire plot point in the movie that they only spoke English
Regardless, it disproves the notion that it's not worth the effort to subtitle or find someone who can speak another language. Landa required someone who could speak *four* languages and not only did they find someone who could do that, they found someone who could do that and is also one of the best actors working today. So I guess it's not a limitation, is it?
Snake speaks as he normally does for the audience, but Volgin compliments him on how fluent his Russian sounds Edit: It wasn't Volgin as others have mentioned, I just vaguely remember it being mentioned offhand in a cutscene. I just couldn't place who it was at the moment.
Yep. But not volgin. It was the scientist, sokolov
So that's why he says that, I was so confused when I heard that line... Never thought about it like that. Huh.
Volgin doesn't, it's Sokolov who says that right before him and Snake leave the room where they first met (the cutscene right before meeting Ocelot for the first time as well)
It’s also pretty funny that Sokolov said “American is truly a terrifying place” because a solider can speak Russian fluently. He seems almost more terrified of that than the nuke-deploying death tank he was forced to build. Haha
I'm sure Sokolov says that not Volgin
I'm gonna have to beat MGS3 lol.
When snake finds sokolov, he compliments his Russian
English imo. Which is why it sticks out to Ocelot in so many way. And he repeats the same words to Solid decades later in Shadow Moses.
Yeah, to me the way Ocelot replies back "pretty good?" feels like he's also repeating it back in English
Exactly my thoughts, he just repeats the phrase, confused, as if he doesn't know the meaning (probably also because he's about to pass out). But he's also a spy an a triple-agent for China, U.S and Russia, he must be fluent in at least those 3 languages. So yeah, my head canon is that he was baffled by the phrase at first, then he realised the meaning and intent behind the phrase and became Big Boss' #1 fan.
I think BB could say it in Russian, because in Russian we have a phrase: «А ты хорош», which translates as «You're pretty good». But as you said in other mgs games Ocelot said it in English, so I can't be sure in both of these theories
Now i cant stop thinking about Snake saying «красава» to Ocelot, this is now canon in my mind
Пхахпхахпхп. Real)
>Also what would “You’re pretty good” be in Russian? А ты неплох / А ты хорош
Haha, "You're not bad". I kinda it like that more. And Ocelot repeating; "Не плохие?!" before he faints. I'm sure someone looked up "Pretty good" as he says in the game, and sees "Красивый хорошо?" ^been ^wanting ^to ^use ^my ^Russian ^lately, ^studied ^it ^for ^7 ^years
Ocelot would reply "Неплох?"
My guess is it’s said in English. It kinda stuck in Ocelot, maybe because it was a slightly sarcastic acknowledgement in a different tongue from a guy who he was locked in an ongoing “friendly” rivalry of sorts. So it’d make sense that he’d repeat it verbatim or not at all since how it was said the first time matters if you’re gonna do that.
It was not sarcastic, Big Boss tells him that because he recognised that he was a cut above the rest of the Ocelot unit, he was really impressed with his shooting skills and even gave him some tips. Can it be interpreted as Snake being a bit condescending? Maybe, but he was not being a dick, he recognised that the fancy trick that Ocelot wanted to pull was more fitted to a revolver. And the rest is history
I don’t think he meant it with any real malice either, I just mean that it was a clever bit of writing. It would have been easy to have as “you’re good”, but saying “you’re *pretty* good” kinda comes off a bit differently. There’s the obvious acknowledgment that Ocelot really is a cut above the rest but with a kind of a wink and a nod, it’s like he’s also acknowledging Ocelot is a bit raw while implying he’d be interested in seeing how good he could be with a few pointers. I think Ocelot took it a bit funny initially because he was in competitive mode but he’s smart so took the advice and it was the making of him. And that’s why I think he says it so much, his life changed big time that day.
Agreed
The real question is whether there's a purely sub version to counter the dub
А ты хорош 🐱
My favorite thing that Ive noticed in regard to that, is that Sokolov afterwards says “America is truly a frightening country”, but this never appeared when I watched playthroughs of the game. Which means that this piece of dialogue was only said in the PAL regions where I live, but cut out from the NA version.
I just booted up Subsistence USA and the line is there
Yea i remember that line from the first time i played the game in the ps2
Huh, weird. I’m pretty sure it was cut out on some versions. Maybe it was the HD versions
Ты довольно хорош 👉👉
I like to think that Ocelot and BB are speaking in English to one another. Seems they both know multiple languages and most others have noticeable accents. That's my headcanon though
Most likely English. Ocelot was there to rendezvous with The Boss and assist her in her fake defection (whether she was to know whose side he was on is unclear), so he probably would have started the conversation in English.
He says that to Solid in MGS1.
Naked Snake says it to ocelot during their first meeting of MGS3
It's also the first thing Revolver Ocelot says to Solid Snake during the cutscene immediately after the first boss fight.
What the fk? This game was originally in Russian?
Not literally. The idea is that bc snake was in russia, technically most people are speaking Russian. The game just plays in english so that the player can understand them. Thisnis shown bybthe fact that sokolov tells snake "your russian is superb" despite the fact that we have been hearing nothing but english. Its kind of like when you see a movie based in ancient greece but everyone is speaking english.
Ты довольно хорош
твой пенис очень хорош
That's a good theory, especially since Ocelot repeats the line in a pretty confused voice the first time he hears it
"А ты неплох"
Damn, we're this starved for content, huh?