Where in the world is "JAPAN"?

[Artificity]

I'm pretty sure that this has been discussed before, but I haven't seen a thread for it within the two pages so I'm gonna ask it anyway.

During the cookoff minigame in Suikoden II, Fu Tan Chen will give you varying clues on as to what foods a specific SoD would like. Sometimes, he says that they like "Spicy" or "Sweet" food, but more often than not he'll mention that they like "Chinese" or "Japanese" food. This boggles me as in order for there to be food of said nationality, people need to have knowledge of it. And by having knowledge of it, that country has to exist somewhere within the Suiko universe. It's only logical.

I never got the chance to play the other Suikoden games so I don't know if they've ever mentioned real countries outside of the cookoff. Would someone tell me if they did and if this is just something that a lot of people on the creative team simply didn't notice?

[ShardStar]

I think they did it more for us so we would know what kind of food they meant. Outside the mini-game they don't talk about cuisne too much. Though if they really wanted to challenge us they could have had these cuisnes assigned to different Suiko countries. However they decided to give real world references to help understand the likes of different judges.

[Jowy Atreides]

This odd trend continues in Suikoden III when there is an item known as 'Asian Herbs'. It's just something they decided to do, although I personally wish they hadn't.

There are some people that like foods from certain in-game regions, such as Valeria (Toran). The listing of Fu Tan Chen's quotes doesn't seem to list Valeria, so I can't check this, unfortunately.

[Artificity]

Valeria is actually the only character I can remember to have a location in the suikoverse specified as for a cooking style. (Western seafood seems to do fine for her mostly. I don't know if there's some other culinary quality that I didn't notice there though.)

It would've been nice if they just mentioned that, say... Freed likes Yoshino's cooking, which you would assume was learned in her hometown of Radat which is an oriental-based town so you'd cook him something oriental. Or something.

Of course, I ask too much and enjoy too little.

[Futch]

In S4 it is possible to collect the "Japanese room set" to decorate the spare room on the ship. It seems like I've heard other mentions of real world countries in the other games, but I can't remember where. I geuss it is possible that the Suiko world is the future or past of our world, but it is unlikely.

[warmaster670]

In S4 it is possible to collect the "Japanese room set" to decorate the spare room on the ship. It seems like I've heard other mentions of real world countries in the other games, but I can't remember where. I geuss it is possible that the Suiko world is the future or past of our world, but it is unlikely.

its also possible that these names are only in teh english translations, and arnt countries like that in japanese.
suikoden, and most older rpgs, do have a history of half assed translations

[Futch]

That is quite possible, considering that in the Japanese version, there would no need to call it "Japanese Noodles" or something like that. They could simply call the "Japanese room set" the "tradinal room set" or the "Japanese noodles" "RAMEN" (Japanese for "noodles")
It would be like in the english virsion calling it the "American noodles." The tansaltors probably did it for the players' sakes, not realizing that we'd rather have it be more reaalistic by not referencing countries that don't actually exist in suikoden.

[Kobold]

Asking this is like asking

"Why are Huan and Tuta wearing chinese clothes? There're no chinese in Suikoden!"

"Why is Yoshino wearing japanese clothes? There're no Japanese in Suikoden!"

"Why is Teresa dressed like a caucasian woman?! That's not right!!"

"Why is Shin a friggin Arabian! That's WRONG!"

"WHY THE HELL IS HAUSER AN AFRICAN!"

"Why does a western name like Teresa and a Japanese name like Yoshino coexist in Suikoden! This is the Suikoden world! Not the real world! Teresa should have a Greenhill name! Not a western name! And Yoshino should have a Radat name! Not a Japanese name!!! And Yoshino should wear Radat clothes! Not Japanese clothes!! What is wrong with Suikoden!!!?"

Yeah... It's like, the Suikoden world is afterall a created world. And the creators are real people. They gotta get ideas from the real world. It's not really possible to create an entirely new culture, a new pattern, new clothes, new cuisine entirely for this created world. Real world references has to be made. Calling it Chinese food or western food or japanese food just makes us the players have an easier time relating to the game elements...

[Belle]

Asking this is like asking

"Why are Huan and Tuta wearing chinese clothes? There're no chinese in Suikoden!"

*snipped questions that follow the same train of thought*

I disagree. It isn't that people are wearing something that has an obvious Chinese influence, or eating something that has an obvious Chinese reference, and so on. But to call it Chinese makes it seem out of place, no matter how much players can relate to it.

[Vextor]

It's more of a translation issue.

For example, the recipe "Japanese Stew" was called "Nabemono" in the Japabese version. Because Nabemono is not a common word outside Japan, I suppose the translators decided to call it "Japanese stew."

In terms of food preference, the Japanese version often used the term "wafuu" to describe how characters liked Japanese food, but the term "wafuu" means "domestic cuisine." For that reason, this was translated as "they like Japanese food." The opposite of this is "yofuu" which means "from across the sea" but specifically refers to western stuff. So characters who like "yofuu" food were translated as liking french food, etc.

[Jorge Prima]

"WHY THE HELL IS HAUSER AN AFRICAN!"

Where in suikoden does it say that Hauser is African?

[Hxc Flavor]

This has also bugged me. The fact that the game creators used names with "Chinese" and "Japanese" does sort of take away from the element that this is a completely different world outside of our own. It would not have been hard to call the food and "Chinese Dish" something else.

[Raww Le Klueze]

This has also bugged me. The fact that the game creators used names with "Chinese" and "Japanese" does sort of take away from the element that this is a completely different world outside of our own. It would not have been hard to call the food and "Chinese Dish" something else.

You might want to read the whole topic. Particulary Vextor's post.