DutyBound asks, extras, inspirations, and more!

Nagutte yaru. Omae wo nagutte yaru. Otousan ga omae wo nagutte yaru.

With the raw translation being:

Going to strike. Going to strike you. DAD is going to strike you.

The verb for “strike” is “naguru” which can mean strike/beat.  And the -te yaru conjugation of it does indirectly imply the speaker’s desire to enact the action, meaning that Mato’s translation is accurate.  However, what doesn’t come through is how strange this sounds.  Why?

Point 1:  Escalation

The first thing is that the sentences are being presented in a way that’s supposed to evoke a feeling of escalation.  The verb being conjugated the way it is only implies unverifiable information (“is dad saying HE’s going to do that?), so the conversation is scaling up the emotional damage with each line.

Going to strike.  (That’s not good.) Going to strike you.  (That’s bad.) DAD is going to strike you.  (That’s extremely bad.)

Point 2:  “Otousan ga”

This is the part of the final sentence that reads as “DAD.”  The usage of the “ga” particle places emphasis on “dad” (which is why I’ve chosen to write it in all caps), similar to this sentence later in the game where Flint states omae ga (where Mato capitalizes YOU because of ga’s emphasis):

So what?  Pronouns in Japanese have weird usage compared to English, so it’s not unheard of for a father character to refer to himself as “otousan.”  But Flint never does.  Flint consistently uses “ore” when referring to himself, even when speaking to Lucas!  There’s only one instance of Flint referring to himself as “father” in the game.  What does he use?

Ore wa chichioya toshite toutou  (I, as a father, finally)

That’s right- he still uses “ore” as the pronoun (with “chichioya” being “father).  Meaning that the Flint in Tanetane is an imposter!  ඞ

Aside from the pronoun usage giving it away, the -te yaru conjugation comes across as too condescending.  Flint doesn’t get a whole lot of opportunities to talk during the game… but when he does, he’s kind.  He has the typical speech patterns of an adult male (Japanese gets very specific with certain speech quirks) but he’s never rude.

Point 3:  Language deterioration on the whole island

There’s a certain flow to how the hallucinated conversations deteriorate on the island.  There are 3 screens on the island with enemy encounters (hallucinated dialogue), which flows like this:

Screen 1:  Flint_1

Screen 2:  Wess_1 (or Alec_1 if Duster is absent), Claus_1, Woman_1, Kumatora (as “Violet”), Claus_2, Woman_2, Wess_2, Claus_3, Wess_3, Flint_2, Flint_3

Screen 3:  Alec_2, Salsa_1, Flint&Claus, Woman_3, Alec_3, Pusher, Alec_4

As the player moves through screens 1 and 2, the dialogue worsens and becomes more garbled the further in you go.  The 3rd screen, which is adjacent to the “hotsping” (toxic cesspit), sees a slight decrease in the madness, with it improving the closer you get to Mixolydia’s house.

All of this is more apparent in the Japanese version, with everyone’s speech patterns and quirks, so I’ll provide mini explanations for everyone.  Feel free to skip through all that if you don’t care about the specifics.

Flint_1 is pretty normal, unless you say no to him (then he’s a bit forward).

Wess_1 actually seems strangely apologetic (you could argue it as polite-adjacent) but when you examine his dialogue before his meltdown in chapter 2 and after the timeskip you realize that his tone and speech during this dialogue aren’t too far off (meaning that it’s something close-ish to normal when he isn’t flipping out).  Much has been contested about how much of this conversation is actually real (especially since he’s speaking fairly normal here) but the conversation ending is strange, regardless of how you answer.

Alec_1, which is the alternate encounter if Duster isn’t with you, is a strange case.  He speaks fairly normally for his last line… the screen grows darks and he turns to talk directly to the player (he’s not talking to Lucas during that part).  I suspect that the devs threw this in as an easter egg since logically you have to go out of your way to get to the island without Duster (there’s nothing stopping you from trying but you get curbstomped by enemies on your way to the island).  A notable thing here is that Alec isn’t speaking with his roujingo (old man’s speak) speech quirks.

Claus_1 starts out normal unless you tell him no.  If you say yes, he’ll get weird and repetitive after following you for a few seconds.

Woman_1 strange rando

Kumatora only gets 1 appearance, and it’s as Violet.  But she’s weird… not just for her Kumatora speech patterns but for her Violet ones.  She’s being sing-songy but not quite right to be Violet (it is more Violet than Kumatora, though).  At this point things are starting to turn.

Claus_2 Not using Lucas’s name but instead using omae a lot in a short amount of text, which feels rude/distant.  No familiar love here.

Woman_2 strange rando

Wess_2 Same sentence over and over again.  I might be wrong but I’m pretty sure you can translate this as “You’re not coming for food?”

Claus_3 Repetitive, switches up pronoun usage for Lucas (kimi instead of omae)

Wess_3 Repetitive, words garbled.

Flint_2 Starts normal-ish.  Gets confrontational, then repetitive.

Flint_3 The conversation in question!  He sounds unlike himself, and the escalation of his sentences fits in with all the repetition going on.

Alec_2 (we’re onto the 3rd game screen now!)  Broken, jumbled, weird.  Doesn’t use roujingo.

Salsa_1 is speaking human speech instead of in the parenthesis.  Repeats “Lucas ga” several times.

Flint&Claus the only dual hallucination.  Flint is confrontational, sharp, and rude.  Claus is bringing weird vibes.  Notably, their speech is not garbled.  You can start to see some improvement from here.

Woman_3 strange rando.

Alec_3 Talking about Kumatora despite- to our knowledge- never meeting her (which further points to this all being Lucas’s thoughts just putting on the faces of the people he knows).  Still not using roujingo, though at least his speech isn’t repetitive/garbled.  The way he talks about Kumatora could probably be translated as “Princess Kumatora is nothing like a princess.  The girl is like an unloveable stick.”  What’s notable is that Lucas’s stick weapons use the same pattern of [adjective] [word for stick] for their names… there’s a missed opportunity to give Lucas an “unloveable stick” equip that has terrible stats.

Pusher oh hey this dude’s here.  A bit repetitive but uses a pronoun that’s seemingly specific to him.

Alec_4 repetitive but finally uses his roujingo speech patterns again.

So now that I’m finally through all that, you can see how the conversation that started all this fits nicely into the spot on the island where people are talking weird and repetitive.