Square Enix’s newest JRPG hit on the Nintendo Switch, Octopath Traveler, has become an instant hit to the point that Enix has recently apologized for not supplying enough of the game to retailers. That said, there are some fans of the game who are having some trouble, particularly with Octopath Traveler Haanit’s use of Middle English. If you’re wondering how bad this problem is, just imagine yourself back in English class and your teacher just asked you to read a few lines from Othello. Yep, it’s that bad.
Haanit is a huntress and is one of Octopath’s eight protagonists who you can play as. She seems like a nice person, and she’s pretty great with a bow and arrow and it isn’t as though fans dislike her. It’s just that… She can be incredibly hard to understand and will cause you to snort a few times if you read her dialogue aloud, bonus points if you add dramatic hand gestures while you practice it.
What’s more, thanks to Polygon’s research into the matter, not only is Haanit’s dialogue ridiculous to native English speakers but non-natives too. In locations where the game wasn’t relocalized, such as China, non-native speakers are finding Haanit’s dialogue incredibly difficult to comprehend.
In fact, China-based Chinese Nintendo has reported that college kids have started calling Haanit the ‘TEM-8 Traveler’. For those who aren’t aware what that means, the joke is referencing a college-level Test for English Majors which is apparently incredibly hard to pass and can only be taken one time. What’s worse, if you fail the first time? You’re unable to take it again. So what we’re getting from this is that Haanit’s dialogue really is that painful for these poor fans.
Yet in spite of the difficulty, Haanit’s strange way of speaking has brought people together to laugh about it. So something good and wholesome has happened because of it. Aww.
