Tanetane Speech Subtleties
TLDR:Ā There are subtleties with the Japanese language that give players more information about the Tanetane Island hallucination dialogues.Ā Read more for lots of info.
This is an update (and expansion) of an outdated post I made years ago, in case youāre getting a bit of deja vu reading this.
Itās been 7 years since I first wrote about this conversation.Ā Iām not sure if itās still a popular fandom opinion but at one point many people took this dialogue at face value, interpreting this as a sign that Flint beats Lucas.Ā Aside from the context clues suggesting otherwise (Lucas is drugged up during this conversation, Flint is canonically described as kind, there are no signs of abuse at home), Flintās Japanese speech mannerisms make it clear that Tanetane Flint doesnāt speak like the real one.Ā So how does the Japanese conversation read?
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 āstrikeā is ānaguruā which can mean strike/beat.Ā And the -te yaru conjugation of it does indirectly imply the speakerās desire to enact the action, meaning that Matoās translation is accurate.Ā However, what doesnāt come through is how strange this sounds.Ā Why?
Point 1:Ā Escalation
The first thing is that the sentences are being presented in a way thatās supposed to evoke a feeling of escalation.Ā The verb being conjugated the way it is only implies unverifiable information (āis dad saying HEās going to do that?), so the conversation is scaling up the emotional damage with each line.
Going to strike.Ā (Thatās not good.) Going to strike you.Ā (Thatās bad.) DAD is going to strike you.Ā (Thatās extremely bad.)
Point 2:Ā āOtousan gaā
This is the part of the final sentence that reads as āDAD.āĀ The usage of the āgaā particle places emphasis on ādadā (which is why Iāve 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 gaās emphasis):
So what?Ā Pronouns in Japanese have weird usage compared to English, so itās not unheard of for a father character to refer to himself as āotousan.āĀ But Flint never does.Ā Flint consistently uses āoreā when referring to himself, even when speaking to Lucas!Ā Thereās only one instance of Flint referring to himself as āfatherā in the game.Ā What does he use?
Ore wa chichioya toshite toutouĀ (I, as a father, finally)
Thatās right- he still uses āoreā as the pronoun (with āchichioyaā being āfather).Ā Meaning that the Flint in Tanetane is an imposter!Ā ą¶
Aside from the pronoun usage giving it away, the -te yaru conjugation comes across as too condescending.Ā Flint doesnāt get a whole lot of opportunities to talk during the game⦠but when he does, heās kind.Ā He has the typical speech patterns of an adult male (Japanese gets very specific with certain speech quirks) but heās never rude.
Point 3:Ā Language deterioration on the whole island
Thereās a certain flow to how the hallucinated conversations deteriorate on the island.Ā There are 3 screens on the island with enemy encounters (hallucinated dialogue), which flows like this:
Screen 1:Ā Flint_1
Screen 2:Ā Wess_1 (or Alec_1 if Duster is absent), Claus_1, Woman_1, Kumatora (as āVioletā), Claus_2, Woman_2, Wess_2, Claus_3, Wess_3, Flint_2, Flint_3
Screen 3:Ā 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.Ā The 3rd screen, which is adjacent to the āhotspingā (toxic cesspit), sees a slight decrease in the madness, with it improving the closer you get to Mixolydiaās house.
All of this is more apparent in the Japanese version, with everyoneās speech patterns and quirks, so Iāll provide mini explanations for everyone.Ā Feel free to skip through all that if you donāt care about the specifics.
Flint_1 is pretty normal, unless you say no to him (then heās 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 arenāt too far off (meaning that itās something close-ish to normal when he isnāt flipping out).Ā Much has been contested about how much of this conversation is actually real (especially since heās speaking fairly normal here) but the conversation ending is strange, regardless of how you answer.
Alec_1, which is the alternate encounter if Duster isnāt with you, is a strange case.Ā He speaks fairly normally for his last line⦠the screen grows darks and he turns to talk directly to the player (heās not talking to Lucas during that part).Ā 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 (thereās nothing stopping you from trying but you get curbstomped by enemies on your way to the island).Ā A notable thing here is that Alec isnāt speaking with his roujingo (old manās speak) speech quirks.
Claus_1 starts out normal unless you tell him no.Ā If you say yes, heāll get weird and repetitive after following you for a few seconds.
Woman_1 strange rando
Kumatora only gets 1 appearance, and itās as Violet.Ā But sheās weird⦠not just for her Kumatora speech patterns but for her Violet ones.Ā Sheās being sing-songy but not quite right to be Violet (it is more Violet than Kumatora, though).Ā At this point things are starting to turn.
Claus_2 Not using Lucasās name but instead using omae a lot in a short amount of text, which feels rude/distant.Ā No familiar love here.
Woman_2 strange rando
Wess_2 Same sentence over and over again.Ā I might be wrong but Iām pretty sure you can translate this as āYouāre not coming for food?ā
Claus_3 Repetitive, switches up pronoun usage for Lucas (kimi instead of omae)
Wess_3 Repetitive, words garbled.
Flint_2 Starts normal-ish.Ā Gets confrontational, then repetitive.
Flint_3 The conversation in question!Ā He sounds unlike himself, and the escalation of his sentences fits in with all the repetition going on.
Alec_2 (weāre onto the 3rd game screen now!)Ā Broken, jumbled, weird.Ā Doesnāt use roujingo.
Salsa_1 is speaking human speech instead of in the parenthesis.Ā Repeats āLucas gaā several times.
Flint&Claus the only dual hallucination.Ā Flint is confrontational, sharp, and rude.Ā Claus is bringing weird vibes.Ā Notably, their speech is not garbled.Ā 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 Lucasās thoughts just putting on the faces of the people he knows).Ā Still not using roujingo, though at least his speech isnāt repetitive/garbled.Ā The way he talks about Kumatora could probably be translated as āPrincess Kumatora is nothing like a princess.Ā The girl is like an unloveable stick.āĀ Whatās notable is that Lucasās stick weapons use the same pattern of [adjective] [word for stick] for their names⦠thereās a missed opportunity to give Lucas an āunloveable stickā equip that has terrible stats.
Pusher oh hey this dudeās here.Ā A bit repetitive but uses a pronoun thatās seemingly specific to him.
Alec_4 repetitive but finally uses his roujingo speech patterns again.
So now that Iām 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.
ā¦And with that, I think thatās all I have to say about this particular conversation.Ā If you found this interesting please be sure to let me know.Ā I hope this helps anyone out there!Ā And special thanks to @daegg123 for the incentive to rewrite a post on the topic. I've learned a lot about Japanese since I wrote that last post but still have much more to learn.













