billy coen's original last name was different

[nicksena17]

I was playin RE2 n64 port 2day and was goin through rebeccas report and billy coens last name they had spelled with a k so it was koen which I think is cool thats how it must of been spelled in Re0 its something diff so id thouht id bring it up since gamecube port spelled it with a c neat I think

[BLSR1]

interesting...

Is there a known reason for this?

[JcFFx]

interesting...

Is there a known reason for this?

Probably because the character is usually romanized as "ko" instead of "co" and the people translating the files didn't know the writers were gonna go with "Coen"

[Pikminister]

Yeah... Billy Coen is Jewish.

In Hebrew, Coen is written Kohen. So maybe that's one of the reasons as to why they originally wrote it with a K.

[REmaster]

Good eye, never noticed that before ;)

[Biokk]

From memory, Billy's surname was spelled differently in a lot of previews before the game's release too. I have seen variations of it to include Koen and Cohen (the latter being more common).

[Smiley]

This is something known to most fans before Zero's release.

There was EB boxes that had it spelled wrong. The Zero file. A site. We've seen Koen and Cohen, but yeah...by the final game it was Coen.

[News Bot]

It's just a translation error. Its Coen in the original file.

[Guest]

I wouldn't even call it an error. The Japanese コーエン (Kōen) can be taken as both Coen or Koen. The N64 translator (probably Takuya Shiraiwa, too) just decided to go with Koen, and it was later changed to Coen for unknown reason. Maybe the Japanese staff overruled him, maybe it was just because of different translators for RE0. We'll never know.

That one's fully tolerable at least, don't even let me think about Zinoviev <-> "Ginovaef" or Oswell <-> "Ozwell". Whoever did that deserves a whipping.

[Pikminister]

It was most likely suppose to be Coen from the start.

Not being familiar with such a surname (talking about Capcom of Japan here), they just got it wrong. Including the guy that localized the game for the West. He probably thought it was a Japanese name... and he probably didn't have a clue about Jewish surnames either.

[kevstah2004]

I may be wrong be I hear Rebecca call Billy as Tommy in the N64 beta

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TtO57gFflkY

3:49

[Alzaire]

I may be wrong be I hear Rebecca call Billy as Tommy in the N64 beta

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TtO57gFflkY

3:49

Yeah you're mistaken. She says "Tell me... what happened back there?". You're hearing the "Tell me" part as Tommy.

[Reston]

I would say it's a translation issue. Look at how they spell Ozwell Spencer in different games. Oswell Spencer. In the remake they refer to Progenitor as Primogenitor in the file you find on Wesker. But yeah, I have RE2 for N64 and it's funny that they get some small stuff wrong.