Daniel "Dan" Owsen is an American video game translator at Nintendo of America (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'', '' Link's Awakening'' and '' Ocarina of Time''. 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'' – "The last Metroid 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 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)