To add to my previous ask:
Yaldabaoth says "welcome to my Velvet Room" in the English version, as opposed to Igor's "welcome to the Velvet Room." Is that a thing that happens in the Japanese version, too?
Hi, thanks for your ask, which I am brushing the dust off! This is a very widely noticed detail, and you won't be surprised to hear there's a little more going on in Japanese.
In short: in the Japanese original, both Fake Igor and Igor say "welcome to my Velvet Room". However, the way they say it differs—as the whole way the two of them speak differs.
igors, what the heck
The place most people notice this is in this cinematic, where we first meet Fake Igor.
Igor [Yaldabaoth] ようこそ、私のベルベットルウムへ。 youkoso... watakushi no berubetto ruumu e Welcome to my Velvet Room.
First of all, in case you know kanji, yes, that's the more decrepit and more formal-sounding watakushi that Yaldygor is using, not the everyday watashi which is written the same way—the same pronoun Igor used in earlier games.
For comparison, in P3P:
Igor ようこそ、ベルベットルームへ。 youkoso, berubetto ruumu e Welcome to the Velvet Room.
... while P4G Igor welcomes you that first time simply with youkoso.
a comparison: yaldabaoth vs igor
greetings in cutscenes
Yaldy and Igor both have cutscenes where you walk in and they greet you. Yaldy's is at the start of Kamoshida's Palace; Igor's is when (if you aren't on NG+) Lavenza tells you that you can no longer summon Satanael. And these two lines are identical:
Igor [Yaldabaoth] ようこそ、ベルベットルームへ。 youkoso, berubetto ruumu e Welcome to the Velvet Room. Igor ようこそ、ベルベットルームへ。 youkoso, berubetto ruumu e Welcome to the Velvet Room.
Short and sweet: "welcome to the Velvet Room". No possessives. In fact, they're both identical to that initial greeting from P3P that we looked at.
igor's additional greeting
But True Igor has a second one of these, when you arrive to find your cell door open:
Igor ようこそ、我がベルベットルームへ。 youkoso, waga berubetto ruumu e Welcome to the Velvet Room. Welcome to my Velvet Room.
waga is a possessive. This is True Igor saying "my Velvet Room"! Per Wiktionary, waga is "a fossilized phrase... that carries old-fashioned connotations, and suggests a favorable view of the following noun". Wikipedia further calls it "faux-archaic" and points out that it retains its grammar from Old Japanese, with ga serving as a possessive in wa-ga. Let's keep looking.
when you walk in
Now, both Fake Igor and True Igor have a default line that they use when you walk in. And these lines are profoundly different:
Igor [Yaldabaoth] ようこそ…私のベルベットルームへ。今日は、何をして欲しいのだ? youkoso… watakushi no berubetto ruumu e. kyou wa, nani o shite hoshii no da? Welcome to my Velvet Room… What do you need today? [lit. welcome to my Velvet Room. what is it you want me to do today?] Igor ようこそ…我がベルベットルームへ。ご用件をお聞き致しましょう… youkoso… waga berubetto ruumu e. go-youken o o-kiki itashimashou… Welcome to the Velvet Room. Let me hear your business. [lit. welcome to my Velvet Room. I will humbly listen to your honourable business.]
In Japanese, the difference between them is screamingly obvious. True Igor is using humble language (kenjougo, a form of keigo) to talk about his own actions, with that o-kiki itashimasu ("I will humbly listen") and that beautified go-youken ("your honourable business"). Even his possessive, waga, honours its object to a degree—"my/our honoured Velvet Room". Again, P3 and P4 Igor spoke in just this way—humble and formalised.
But Fake Igor, the God of Control? Well... he's not using any form of keigo. In fact, he's not even using polite forms. He asks you what you want with no da!—which, on a question, is an interrogative construct that demands an answer! "Why are you even here?" "What do you want this time?"
True Igor sounds like an old retainer on a dusty estate somewhere: you are the guest, the customer, and he is the servant. Fake Igor addresses you as if he's your superior. In fact, the way he's addressing you is rude. Like he's the important one here. Like a guard with a prisoner.
And, if you were used to the ritualised humility P3 and P4 Igor spoke with, Fake Igor's blunt language style must have come as quite a shock.
pronouns generally
While Real Igor also uses watakushi as his pronoun, Fake Igor also sometimes uses that honorific, formalised waga possessive:
Igor [Yaldabaoth] 我が試みは水泡に帰し…全ては終わったのだ。 waga kokoromi wa suihou ni kishi... subete wa owatta no da My experiment has come to naught… Everything is over. [lit. know that my efforts have been in vain... that it has all ended.] Igor 私の名は、イゴール。 watakushi no na wa, igooru My name is Igor.
True Igor uses waga to honour the Velvet Room. But Yaldygor reserves waga for his own grand plan—"my efforts", or "my game", as he says in that same scene—and uses watakushi no as his possessive at all other times.
Note that the word for a scientific experiment is not kokoromi, but 実験 jikken—which makes Fake Igor's statement something more like "all my efforts have been in vain". That suihou ni kisuru is literally something like "ended in foam"—we might say "melted before my eyes", or "like foam on the ocean".
conclusion
So what can we learn from all this? Well, given that English lacks a formalised honorific system such as Japanese has, English Yaldygor's "my Velvet Room" is a good way of conveying something unsavoury about the character.
But it also means the characters are slightly different. English Yaldygor is marked by that possessiveness over the Velvet Room itself—the position and place that he stole from Igor. Japanese Yaldygor, on the other hand, is marked by how he treats you, the protagonist. He talks down to you, which True Igor never does. He disrespects you. He clearly believes that he is the centre of the Velvet Room, the important part of it—not its guest, as Igor does.
And sure, that leads to a feeling of ownership of the Room, but that's not all it is—or even the most important thing, because True Igor also expresses possession of the Room. Japanese Yaldygor talks, in every way, like someone who would lock you in a prison cell in chains and torture you. Like someone who thinks he's a bigshot, and you are dirt.
And that's the difference between them—which their language so clearly conveys.
revision history
click here for the latest version.
v1.2 (2024/05/21)—clarified true igor's use of waga.
v1.1 (2024/05/21)—clarified an unclear mention of fake igor.
v1.0 (2024/05/21)—first posted.
