Daniel "Dan" Owsen is an American video game translator at

Nintendo of America is a Japanese multinational video game company headquartered in Kyoto. It develops, publishes, and releases both video games and video game consoles. The history of Nintendo began when craftsman Fusajiro Yamauchi founded the company to p ...

(NOA), best known for his role in the translation and localization of many Nintendo video games, playing a large role in the translation of ''

The Legend of Zelda is a media franchise, video game series created by the Japanese game designers Shigeru Miyamoto and Takashi Tezuka. It is primarily developed and published by Nintendo; some portable installments and re-releases have been outsourced to Flags ...

'' series. He is also known for his now-discontinued "Ask Dan" column on Nintendo's official website. As of 2015, Owsen lives in

Seattle, Washington Seattle ( ) is the List of municipalities in Washington, most populous city in the U.S. state of Washington (state), Washington and in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. With a population of 780,995 in 2024, it is the List of Unit ...

Career

Owsen started at NOA in 1989. He started in Consumer Service during the days of the

Nintendo Entertainment System The Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) is an 8-bit home video game console developed and marketed by Nintendo. It was first released in Japan on 15 July 1983 as the and was later released as the redesigned NES in several test markets in the ...

, and has since moved from department to department, first going to Publications, then to Product Development, then back to Publications as the

on-line In computer technology and telecommunications, online indicates a state of connectivity, and offline indicates a disconnected state. In modern terminology, this usually refers to an Internet connection, but (especially when expressed as "on li ...

manager. He has worked with

Shigeru Miyamoto is a Japanese video game designer, video game producer, producer and Creative director#Video games, game director at Nintendo, where he has served as one of its representative directors as an executive since 2002. Widely regarded as one o ...

's R&D team, writing screen texts for ''Legend of Zelda'' titles ''

A Link to the Past is a 1991 action-adventure game developed and published by Nintendo for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. It is the third game in ''The Legend of Zelda'' series and was released in 1991 in Japan and 1992 in North America and Europe. The ...

'', ''

Link's Awakening ''The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening'' is a 1993 action-adventure game developed and published by Nintendo for the Game Boy. It is the first installment in ''The Legend of Zelda'' series to be released on a handheld game console. ''Link's A ...

'' and ''

Ocarina of Time is a 1998 action-adventure game developed and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo 64. The game was the first in the '' Legend of Zelda'' series with 3D graphics. It was released in Japan and North America in November 1998 and in PAL regi ...

''. Owsen is one of the first English-language voices used in any Nintendo console, as his voice can be heard at the beginning of ''

Super Metroid is a 1994 action-adventure game developed by Nintendo and Intelligent Systems and published by Nintendo for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. It is the third installment in the ''Metroid'' series, following the events of the Game Boy g ...

'' – "The last

Metroid is an action-adventure game franchise created by Nintendo. The player controls the bounty hunter Samus Aran, who protects the galaxy from Space Pirates and other malevolent forces and their attempts to harness the power of the parasitic M ...

is in captivity... the galaxy is at peace." Owsen had translated around 10 percent of the script of ''

EarthBound ''EarthBound'', originally released in Japan as is a 1994 role-playing video game, role-playing video game developed by Ape, Inc., Ape Inc. and HAL Laboratory and published by Nintendo for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System as the second e ...

'', including some of the game's "most iconic phrases", before handing over the project to

Marcus Lindblom Marcus Lindblom is an American video game developer known for his English localization of the 1994 video game ''EarthBound''. Lindblom spent his youth in the United States, and dropped out of college to move to Japan with his wife. After four ...

and moving on to a different project.

Credited games

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Owsen, Daniel 20th-century American translators Japanese–English translators Living people Nintendo people Video game localization Year of birth missing (living people)