Clyde Mandelin of Legends of Localization has taken all of the main and important text of the Japanese version of Final Fantasy IV and ran it through Google Translate. He then placed all that text back into the game, and the results are hilarious.

Clyde wrote a custom program that extracted the Japanese text data from Final Fantasy IV, ran it through Google Translate, and places it back into the game after reformatting it. Clyde Mandelin was inspired to do this after spending years analyzing Final Fantasy IV's different official and fan translations. He wondered just how the script would turn out if it was machine translated in comparison and so the concept for "Funky Fantasy IV" was born.

Final Fantasy IV is far from the only subject matter at Legends of Localization, though. There are articles there concerning the various translations of The Legend of Zelda, Super Mario Bros, Earthbound, and Mother 3. They've even started a book series concerning particular game localizations. The first book on The Legend of Zelda, and the second book concerning Earthbound (Mother 2) are already out. A third book covering Super Mario Bros. is coming soon.

Funky Fantasy IV is hilarious, and the other info on Legends of Localization is fascinating as well. It's an oft-overlooked part of video game development, and it's amazing how much work goes into bringing a game from one language to another.