Chibi-Robo!/Regional Differences

This is a sub-page of Chibi-Robo!.

Despite the fact that the Sanderson family seems very much modeled after a dysfunctional American family, Chibi-Robo! has a definite "Japanese" feel to it. Heck, it even includes a Primopuel doll as a character! Because of this, the localization team made several small changes to make it more familiar to overseas audiences.

Graphical Changes

The New Play Control! version of the game, despite only being released in Japan, mostly uses the international versions' textures. NPCs in the Wii version, however, tend to use their Japanese designs.

Health and Safety Warning

Japan	US	Europe

Similarly to the Wii's Health and Safety screen, the US version of this screen is completely black and white instead of coloring the warning symbol and URL.

Title Screen

Japanese	International

The Japanese title screen is made of black Japanese characters surrounded by orange, yellow, and green rhombuses, with a small image of Chibi-Robo himself in the middle. The international title screen is made of two blue rectangles with yellow letters inside of them and no image of Chibi-Robo. The Japanese version of the game uses a file named title.tpl, which contains some unused graphics. The US version uses title_en.tpl, which contains only the used international logo. The European version contains a different title_(language).tpl file for each language, but the logo is identical in all of them.

Loading Screens

Japanese	International

The loading screen text was changed from "reading" to "loading", and the font size was also increased.

Yes/No Responses

Japanese	International

The models used in the Yes or No prompts were changed between versions, as well as Chibi-Robo's sign for responding. "Yes" and "No" were also added to the international versions under the respective model. The Japanese sign model is "maru_batu.dat" while the international sign model is "us_maru_batu.dat". Both exist in the international versions, with marubatu.dat going unused.

Drake Redcrest

Japanese	International

Drake Redcrest received a slight redesign - his visor is now yellow. Oddly enough, this change was not retained in the international versions of Chibi-Robo! Photo Finder and Chibi-Robo! Zip Lash. Most items with images of Drake on them were changed to recolor the visor and remove his Japanese name, Giccoman. Often, the symbol found on Drake Redcrest's belt was used as a replacement for this name on textures.

Drake Redcrest Suit

Japanese	International

Mug

Japanese	International

Toothbrush

Japanese	International

Oddly, the Japanese visor texture is longer than other visor textures, and the icons' visors were not changed between versions.

Living Room Books

Japanese	International

The images of Drake in the middle of the covers have been extended vertically to take up space left by removing the SUPER HERO text. The SUPER HERO text on the spine remains in the international versions. Despite being illegible, the red text on the TOY COLLECTION books has been altered. The Japanese version of books1.dat contains an unused texture, while the international version does not.

Bedroom Merchandise

Japanese	International

The box under the bed had the color of Drake's visor and the circle background he is on switched to maintain contrast, and one of the Drake posters had its background changed to be nearly identical to the box under the bed. Additionally, the Japanese texture of the can containing the welding tools reveals that it once contained milk.

Sleeping Bag

Japanese	International

Drake's Television Show

Japanese	International

The logo that was changed is modeled with flat colors, rather than using textures.

Drake Redcrest Album

Japanese	International

The text was not removed from the international version of the Drake Redcrest record.

Free Rangers

Japanese	International

The Free Rangers were given noses, and their guns were changed from black to a wooden texture.

Hot Rod Driver

Japanese	International

Space Scrambler Pilots

Japanese	International

The Wii version of the game, despite not having noses on the Free Rangers' models, uses the US version's Space Scrambler face graphics.

Pirate Crew

Japanese	International

Jenny

Japanese	International

In the Japanese version, Jenny's underwear has a yellow, diaper-like texture. In the international versions, it is dark pink, no longer appears textured, and is longer, effectively making it shorts. (The clothing texture used for her model being tied up by the Spydorz uses the Japanese texture, as her underwear is not visible and it would be pointless to change it.) The Wii version of the game uses a yellow recolor of the international underwear texture.

Foyer Photographs

Japanese	International

Most photographs depicting Jenny have resolutions that are too small for edits to make a difference, but two larger photos in the Foyer have been edited to reflect this design change.

Birthday Party Drink

Japanese	International

The fizzy drink on the table is yellow like champagne in the Japanese version, and green in the international versions.

Space Scrambler

Japanese	International

The Space Scramber (called the N-Wing in Japan) is shaped like the letter N in the Japanese version, but was renamed and changed to a more generic shape in the international versions. The minigame is not otherwise affected by this. The textures of the Japanese and international Space Scrambler models are identical. The international Space Scrambler Sticker's silhouette has an erroneous white spot near the top. Additionally, the tiny graphic of the Space Scrambler that moves along a line to indicate how far along you are in the course was unchanged.

Tamagotchi

Japanese	International

In the Japanese version, the Tamagotchi is modeled after a real shell of the Keitai Kaitsuu Tamagotchi Plus, which was only released in Japan. (The character sprites for the Tamagotchi in Chibi-Robo are also from the Keitai.) The international version changes this to a blue shell that does not match any particular real shell, however the antenna being the same plastic as the main body does make it more closely resemble the Tamagotchi Connection V3, the international counterpart to the Keitai. The international icons for the item and sticker do not reflect the removed "TMGC" text.

Special Text Symbols

Japanese	International

The special characters that can be displayed with control codes in messages have additional symbols in the international version: A Moolah symbol, and the Yes and No symbols. Additionally, the Z button graphic is more rounded in the international versions.

Chibi-PC Interface

Japanese	International

The Japanese Chibi-PC has a graphic reading "ちびパソ" that appears when the PC turns on and at the top of the screen. In the international versions, the ちびパソ graphic does not display, but remains unused. The symbol displayed after the price of each item was replaced with a Moolah symbol, and the symbol displayed after the amount of scrap was replaced with a small scrap icon. These go unused in the international version as they are simply not displayed in that version, but they are used in the Wii version. Additionally, the A and B button icons are square in the Japanese version, but round in the international versions.

Removed Text

Nearly all text found on textures in the game were removed from the international versions. Some were touched up slightly to get rid of the now apparent empty space.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JENNY Sign

Japanese	International

The HAPPY BIRTHDAY JENNY signs at Jenny's birthday party had their text replaced with a more elaborate image of the Sandersons. The textures between the two versions are identical- the designs of both are made using 3D modeling instead.

Birthday Cake

Japanese	International

The text on the birthday cake was removed for the international versions, as is standard. However, in the process, the texture for the candles was accidentally replaced with the texture of the inside of the mostly-eaten cake (which is a separate model.) This is silly enough on its own, but bizarrely, the Wii version of the game, rather than using the original candle texture to fix this error, remaps the incorrect texture to look less strange... and uses a blue recolor of the mostly-eaten cake texture for the blue candles!

COOL Drink

Japanese	International

The drink bottle present at Jenny's birthday party has the word COOL on it in the Japanese version. Some other Japanese objects also have the word COOL on them, implying that they are merchandise related to this drink.

COOL Living Room Decoration

Japanese	International

COOL Basement Clock

Japanese	International

The design of the woman on the clock was also altered.

Television News

Japanese	International

The intro animation was completely replaced to make up for the removal of text. Rather than text appearing over a blue gradient background of the world map, the same world map spins over a background of blue circles before landing upside down. The rest of the text was removed entirely from the international versions of the game.

Chibi-Manual

Japanese	International

In the Living Room, the Chibi-Manual spine text is removed. In the Chibi-Manual room, the spine text remains, since it can't be seen anyway. The blank table of contents pages with "Chibi-Robo" repeated were replaced with diagrams of Chibi-Robo, with the blank pages only being used during the page turning animations. Evidently, keymashing didn't count as text to the localization team, as some random letters were added to the diagrams and the pre-existing gibberish was left unchanged for the rest of the manual. The chapter images had their text removed, but despite these textures being changed, the visor of the Drake Redcrest mug is left unchanged. The text on the Chibi-Battery was also not removed, like in its icon.

Living Room Artwork

Japanese	International

The large piece of art in the Living Room has a small square with characters inside in the lower left corner in the Japanese version, while the international versions don't. The textures are identical between versions- the texture is actually a set of colored rectangles and the square with the characters in it, and the model just assigns the different colors to different parts of the artwork. This means that, in this instance of the texture, part of it goes unused in the international versions.

Photo Album

Japanese	International

In a shining example of exemplary localization, the texture for the pages was replaced with the Japanese cover texture.

JMART Receipts

Japanese	International

The Japanese receipts on the refrigerator reveal that the Sandersons shop at JMART, they buy FOOD1 - FOOD4, and FOOD4 alone takes up half of their grocery budget- enough for a whole Giga-Robo recharge! No wonder Mrs. Sanderson is so concerned about the budget!

Tao's Doghouse

Japanese	International

The model of Tao's doghouse was changed from a rectangular plate for Tao's name to a dog bone shape for a dog bone image.

COOKING Books

Japanese	International

In the Japanese version of counter1.dat, one of the red books uses an orange spine. The international version of this model makes the spine red. The orange cover texture in counter1.dat is obscured by a wall, so this instance of that texture goes unseen and unedited. Similarly, in shelf_l_obj.dat, the red cover is mostly obscured, so it goes unchanged. The spine portion of the red cover texture goes unused in both versions (with a separate spine texture being used), which may be why it's been only partially erased in the international texture.

COOKIE BIG Box

Japanese	International

Dog Food

Japanese	International

Pink Bag

Japanese	International

SHUE Shoe Polish

Japanese	International

Space Scrambler Minigame

Japanese	International

The English text was removed from the HUD assets, and the international versions instead display text over this part of the screen depending on the language set. The text TOMPY and ENEMY are removed entirely.

Light Box

Japanese	International

HEIGHT MOTOR OIL Cans

Japanese	International

The Sandersons must really like motor oil, because that's what all those white metal canisters in the Basement contain.

HEIGHT MOTOR OIL Poster

Japanese	International

In fact, they love motor oil SO much, they own merchandise of it! The MOTOR OIL and HEIGHT text was removed, but the text on the... dancing cans with human legs(?) was left unchanged.

OxyDol and papa_memory Boxes

Japanese	International

Despite these boxes being in completely different parts of the Basement, they share a texture sheet. While the OxyDol box looks more or less how it appears on the texture sheet, the papa_memory box is mirrored and ends up looking closer to "baba wauoui" than anything legible. papa_memory is written in the same format as the game's file names, making it possible that, for some reason, the name of a file that is not present in the game was written on this box.

KING Box

Japanese	International

Bedroom Records

Japanese	International

The lips behind the word funk have been redrawn due to the word being removed. Additionally, despite the jazz record being almost completely obscured, the book has been moved in front of the "jazz"es and saxophone.

Shoe Boxes

Japanese	International

With the text removed, it's not clear that the smaller box is a shoebox. Players outside of Japan will also miss the tidbit of one of the shoes apparently having been in production for centuries.

ROBOT LOVE Magazines

Japanese	International

SKIP BOX

Japanese	International

Apparently, in the world of Chibi-Robo, Skip is in the business of making cardboard boxes.

Jenny's Books

Japanese	International

Dog Dog also appears to be the name of one of the boxes of dog food in the kitchen. It's possible it's related to this book, but why there would be a picture book about dog food (or vice versa) isn't clear.

HONEY Pot

Japanese	International

Sunshine eating from a pot of honey is most likely a reference to Winnie the Pooh.

Jenny's Television Shows

Japanese	International

Although the Japanese version of the game depicts Sunshine as eating from a pot labeled "Honey", he is addicted to nectar and finds honey lackluster in comparison.

LOVE Block Puzzle

Japanese	International

Every block (and the box the blocks are in) contains a copy of the main block puzzle texture sheet. The box and the bear, red, yellow, green, and blue blocks all have their texture replaced with the international texture while the flower block contains the Japanese sheet in all regions. The part of the international texture for the bear and flower blocks is a lighter color than in the Japanese texture, but since the flower uses the Japanese texture, this alternate flower texture goes unused.

candy Box

Japanese	International

The international texture is twice as wide as the Japanese texture.

candy Jar

Japanese	International

Castle Drawer Boxes

Japanese	International

Sophie's Diary

Japanese	International

The Japanese cover texture is still present in the international versions. In the Wii version, the original cover is mapped to some small parts of the diary, so it's plausible this is why it's still in the international versions as well.

Ticket Stub

Japanese	International

The Japanese texture reveals that the movie Mort is from is called THE MUMMY. Not only is this English text, but The Mummy was already the name of a (Mortless) movie, so it's unsurprising it was removed. The icon was not changed.

Chibi-Battery

Japanese	International

The CHIBIROBO text was removed, and the word Orange was... made a little bit harder to read. The words corp and Electronics were left unchanged. This change doesn't really make a difference in-game, since you can't normally view the Chibi-Battery at an angle where you can make out the text on it. It's possible the localization team realized this, and stopped removing the text partway through. The icon was not changed.

Pitts' Castle Batteries

Japanese	International

The main model for the castle contains an unused texture of the red battery, which was not changed. The icons were also not changed.

Love Letter

Japanese	International

The letters BB on the Japanese texture are short for Sophie's Japanese name, Bebe.

Toy Receipt

Japanese	International

...I mean, I guess the Japanese receipt had text on it. The icon wasn't changed, which hardly matters as it's unlikely anyone would notice it's not using the international texture.

Spoon

Japanese	International

The text on the Japanese version, sanpooh, is a possible English spelling of Sunshine's Japanese name (typically spelled in English as Sanpoo or Sampoo.) According to the Happy Book, Sanpooh's name was based on Winnie the Pooh (Pooh-san). In addition to the text being removed, the blue bear heads were replaced with a heart pattern. The icons were not changed, but this would most likely make less of a difference than with most item icons.

(Source: Chibi-Robo! Happy Book (Sunshine's name origin))

Chip Icons

Japanese	International

Each of the three icons was replaced with identical copies of a blank icon.

Garbage

Cookie Boxes

Japanese	International

The text Very Sweet was left unchanged, along with the icon.

Candy Bags

Japanese	International

Guess how changed the icon was? That's right, not!

Empty Cans

Japanese	International

They were really betting on no one looking too closely at the item icons.

Audio Changes

Japanese	International

Japanese	International

Jenny's "ribbiting" voice clips were replaced for the international versions to sound more like the English onomatopoeia for "ribbit". Her non-ribbiting voice was unchanged.

Japanese	International

Japanese	International

Two of Sarge's voice clips were replaced in the international versions. It's unknown exactly why, but it could have something to do with his original voice (including his unchanged voice clips) being taken from a scene from Monty Python's The Meaning of Life.

Japanese	International

After completing Funky Phil's sidequest and getting the Telly Vision Sticker, you can have Telly finally have his chance to sing his signature song Teriyaki Blues. Even though it's barely intelligible in either version, it was still changed to feature the new lyrics. Which file is used to play the song depends on the region.

Japanese	International

After giving Funky Phil the Drake Redcrest record, a cutscene plays in which he dances to it. As it has actual sung lyrics, it was changed between versions. The Japanese versions of the game only contain the Japanese song, gicco.hps. The international versions still have this file unused, but play the English version from gicco_us.hps instead.

Video Changes

None of the pre-recorded videos maintain the other graphical localization changes.

Giga-Robo's Memories

Japanese	International

The Japanese version of this video is dekarobo_trip, and the international version is dekarobo_trip_us. The international version of this video removes the text on the electrical bill. The video as a whole is also greener, possibly a result of accidentally adding the green filter twice. The shortened version of this scene, dekarobo_kidou, is identical in all versions.

Teriyaki Blues Overlay

Japanese	International

The Japanese version of Teriyaki Blues has a karaoke-style overlay showing the song's name, and filling in the lyrics with green as Telly sings them. This file, karaoke_teriyaki.thp, exists in all versions but is only used in the Japanese version. In the international versions, the song instead plays through teriyaki.hps, and cue points in this file determine when the cutscene's text displays and changes camera angles.

Staff Roll

Japanese	US

The Japanese version of the credits has animations of the toys scrolling alongside the credits text. The international versions remove this. The Japanese file is staff_roll, the US version is staff_roll_us, and the European version is staff_roll_eu. The only difference between the US and EU versions is that the European version credits the European localization team.

Miscellaneous Changes

• Much of the data for rooms inaccessible during normal gameplay is changed between regions. In short, the debug rooms have been altered and several unused rooms are exclusive to the Japanese version, along with two unused rooms being exclusive to the international versions.
• In the Japanese version, scripts are located in qp.bin in the folder called bin. In the US version, the scripts are located in the directory bin/e (e standing for English). In the European version, each language has its own scripts located in similar one-letter-named folders depending on the language. This is done due to the game's text being loaded directly from the scripts, rather than being in their own dedicated text files.
• Additional unused text exists in the Japanese version.
• In the international versions, the game will wait for Chibi-Robo to hit the ground if the day ends while he's gliding. In the Japanese version, the day will end while Chibi-Robo still falls.
• A folder named "gssdk" containing Mario Party microphone data only exists in the Japanese version.
• When Chibi-Robo is looking at the oil in the Living Room with Chibi-Vision during a cutscene, Telly will ask him if it's oil. In the Japanese version, you are given a yes or no prompt, but in the international versions this is removed and the game just uses the "yes" dialog. An earlier version of this English script still has this yes or no prompt.
• The Japanese version often uses control codes during messages, for effects such as changing text speed, color, and size. The English script rarely uses control codes anywhere except at the very beginning and end of messages.
• The Japanese receipt for Chibi-Robo says that he costs "XXXXXX MANE" implying a six-digit price, while the English receipt simply says he costs "Crazy Moolah".
• The requirements for obtaining the Tamagotchi and Primopuel Stickers were changed between the Japanese and international versions. In the Japanese version the Tamagotchi Sticker is obtained after correctly answering its calls three times, and the Primopuel Sticker is obtained after shaking hands with it in toy form on two different days. In the international versions, the player must simply respond to the Tamagotchi once (correctly or incorrectly) and interact with Primopuel in toy form once.

Telly warning that the Tamagotchi will die if not taken care of when it is first interacted with on the table. His face is briefly blue while the message displays, like in his reaction to Funky Phil's death.

The death screen, featuring Obaketchi like on most Japanese Tamagotchi death screens.

Mr. Sanderson about to revive the Tamagotchi.

• In the Japanese version, if the Tamagotchi is not interacted with for a few days, it will die and remain dead until the player talks to Mr. Sanderson when he plays with it at night. This does not appear to happen in the international versions, and most references to it dying are removed entirely (with the closest reference to its death being Mr. Sanderson warning Chibi-Robo to take care of it "or else"). This could be simple censorship or a game design choice, but it's worth noting that on the Tamagotchi Connection V3 (rather than the Keitai) the death screen does not match the screen in Chibi-Robo. If a save file with a dead Tamagotchi is loaded in the US version, all messages relating to it will be blank and it will never reset to be alive again due to the messages for talking to Mr. Sanderson when it's dead not existing in the English script.

Localization Oversights

stpole2

Object	Texture

stpole2.dat, the object that Giga-Robo stands on for support during his arm wrestling match in the past, is not altered for the international versions. (The visor color being unchanged is unlikely to be noticed during gameplay, since a sepia filter is over the screen and Giga-Robo is standing on it.)

Jenny's Drawing

Gamecube	Wii

The Drake Redcrest Suit's visor in Jenny's drawing was not changed to yellow for the international versions... but it was for the Wii version, despite Drake's visor being changed back to blue! The texture was most likely made for the international versions and simply not added to the game, while the Wii version appears to use the international textures as a base with some being manually replaced with the Japanese textures.

Toy Medicine Book

Object	Texture

The image of Drake Redcrest in the book about the biology of toys was not altered for the international versions.

Tied-Up Free Ranger

Help! I can't smell my unique gloves!

The model for the Free Rangers tied up in the Foyer when the Spydorz have taken over does not have a nose added in the international versions. Bizarrely, this model has white hands, while every other Free Ranger in the game has orange hands to match the skin. Free Rangers in the Wii version of the game all have white hands.

Queen Spydor Room

How could they have missed the barely-visible wall decorations?! Completely unplayable!

The "COOL" object's text was not removed for the version of the room used during the Queen Spydor fight, and the artwork on the wall does not have its character removed.

Orange Logo

Chibi-House	Giga-Charger

In the English translation, the company Orange was renamed to Citrusoft Robotics. This seems to have been a late decision, as a slightly earlier version of the Living Room's English script uses the name Orange Inc. This may be why any Orange logos go unchanged in the international versions, still having the name Orange on them. It's also possible that this text was simply not noticed, or deemed unnecessary to remove since the logo is, after all, an orange.