for the purposes of IMGJ I would call a whole new translation an improvement

and now I shall proceed to ramble about translation highlights

the russian script is a whole thousand words shorter, 5k against 6k in english. Wanna see why?

"It's a bit late, the roads are dark, there's not a lot of people on the street."

"Поздновато, улицы тёмные, народу немного."

If I don't provide a literal translation, assume it's very close to english as is

Russian also doesn't have articles like 'a' and 'the', so lines like this -

"A truck?!"

"Грузовик?!"

- also shave off the word count here and there.

"There's black, for example, his name is Cherne."

"Есть чёрный, Чернет."

Cherne was supposed to be Chernet in the english version too until I completely forgot to add the 't' in the script. in russian fixing this was very necessary so I can pretend he isn't named after the russian word for 'black'

"Rodion is red and angry, Fiore is purple and friendly, they're both from Navatha."

"Родион красный хмурка, Фиоре фиолетовый душка, оба из Наваты."

I swear there are also russian lines that are longer than the english ones. anyway Fiore is named after the russian word for 'purple' and the way I mangled it just happens to be the italian word for 'flower'. you've been fooled

"As much as I would LOVE to, I really really need to figure out what month it is, at least..."

"Миледи желает, но миледи очень нужно выяснить сегодняшнюю дату. Вопрос жизни и смерти..."

lit. "Milady wishes, but milady has to figure out today's date. It's a life or death question..."

to avoid translating caps lock I decided to switch the protag into third person to maintain the funny

"Same voice again" "*i'm-so-done-with-you foreign language*"

"Still that voice" "*deal-with-it foreign language*"

"Опять этот голос" "*как-ты-меня-достал на иностранном языке*"

"Не опять, а снова" "*спасибо-я-стараюсь на иностранном языке*"

'deal with it' turned into 'thanks! I'm doing this on purpose'

f "Your princeness got a problem with that?"

f "Чё, вашество, проблемы?"

writing Fiore is very fun

if I had a nickel for every use of the word 'brain' that I couldn't directly translate into russian...

"I can't think. My brain is fur."

"Думать сложно. Вокруг головы мех. В голове мех."

lit. "It's hard to think. Fur around my head. Fur inside my head."

r "Catbrain, would it kill you to point her to the archives?"

r "Кошара, тебя прибъёт ей архивы показать?!"

the second one is pretty literal aside from substituting 'catbrain' with one of the dozen possible russian words for 'cat'

tragically, the 'jelly' dialogue had to be replaced with entirely different bickering, which resulted in an accidental reference to the karlsson cartoon, so I guess it's a net positive

v "Not the only weakness, but we don't have to share that one."

v "Впрочем, его проблемы - не мои проблемы. Не все, во всяком случае."

lit. "Well, his problems aren't mine. Not all of them, anyway."

m "Share?"

m "О чём ты говоришь?"

lit. "What are you talking about?"

v "Like this ice cream."

v "О мороженом. Будешь?"

lit "About ice cream. Want some?"

this exchange annoys me because I feel the english one flows way better.
'what are you talking about' is a super cheap topic transition line but oh well

r "Hm? We're not fighting."

r "Да мы вроде спокойные."

lit. "We're pretty calm."

l "I'd say we're getting along swimmingly."

l "Спокойные, как слоны."

lit. "Calm like elephants."

r "Can you even swim?"

r "Ты хоть знаешь, как выглядит слон?"

lit. "Do you know what an elephant even looks like?"

'calm like an elephant' is a very common turn of phrase around here. with lady knight this makes two unrelated conversations about whether or not someone has seen an elephant. I've seen them in a zoo a few times

g "Why, my heart couldn't take seeing you here all alone and so confused."

g "Моё сердце не вынесло этого вида - ты тут совсем одна, задумалась, бровки нахмурила."

lit. "My heart couldn't take this sight - you're all alone, lost in thought, brows furrowed."

... okay how do I translate back to english the way he uses a cutesy word for 'brows'

f "Ending? Like in a book?"

f "Концовка? Как в книжке?"

r "Maybe she meant 'evening'."

r "У всего бывает конец."

lit. "Everything has an end."

f "My ears work fine, thank you very much."

f "Не философствуй мне тут."

lit. "Don't go all philosophy on me."

Rodion is a smartass both in the 'correct everyone else' way and in 'saying profound-sounding stuff' way so this stays perfectly in-character

a "I'll cook something so delicious these two will forget how to speak, and then they won't be able to insult each other anymore."

a "Приготовлю что-нибудь настолько вкусное, что у них язык отнимется, и они физически не смогут ругаться."

lit. "I'll cook something so delicious their tongues will stop working, so they physically won't be able to insult each other"

l "Interesting idea. Has to work really well on Verderald and his seven languages."

l "Забавная идея. Не забудь, у Вердеральда семь языков. Я подозреваю, что буквально."

lit. "Fun idea. Don't forget, Verderald has seven tongues. I suspect literally."

'tongue' and 'language' are always the same word in russian so this exchange is way funnier in translation. english does have this with 'ancient tongue' but it seems less common

"The program did an oopsie"

"Мышка бежала, хвостиком махнула, программка упала и разбилась"

this one turned into a reference to the local version of the golden egg fairytale

and now the big thing. How does one translate 'VIBE:CHECK'? it's an extremely english acronym.

... well one does not translate it. one just has to make up a new one, duh.

the russian acronym is EVIL:RULES, ЗЛО:РУЛИТ.

I have ideas for a short story collection with these guys. If I get there I'm calling it VIBE:CHECK:PASSED