Papo and Yo: I didn’t know that was Spanish

A game about a boy and a monster. At least that’s how I remember it

I believe it had to be around 2013 when I was still in the mood for always discovering new games, big or small. I was mostly on my ps3 back then, before the ps4 kicked in. I was searching the Playstation Store for more indie games to play. And there was something that stood out as something that might’ve been a hit, probably because of its nuance. Anyway, that game was Papo and Yo.

Not how you think it is pronounced (I’ll get to that later), the game tells the story of a child running away from his alcoholic father or something like that. To cope with his harsh reality, he invented an imaginary friend he calls Monster, a…real monster. The game was mostly a puzzle-platformer of sorts, often requiring the protagonist to coordinate with Monster to overcome whatever obstacle is in their way. It wasn’t a long game, and frankly, I have yet to try it out in its entirety, but I have played the demo. I have yet to check out the whole game, which probably won’t be any time soon. But from what impression I have of the demo, I should’ve definitely checked it out when it was still relevant.

I don’t remember the details of the story to their fullest, but what I do know is that the story happens in Spanish.

“Papo” and “Yo” are not names… apparently

Naturally, having a game in a setting that’s not “Anglo-Saxon”, so to say, is completely fine, as it adds diversity to ideas and what games can accomplish. But… it turns out that “Papo” is not the name of the kid and “Yo” is not the name of the monster, as I was initially led to believe. It turns out that it actually means “Father and I” in Spanish, and the “and” in the title is not pronounced like how they do in English but instead pronounced as “y” (at least that’s how they write it in Spanish). So the game is actually called “Papo y Yo”.

Now, this is a problem because I am not supposed to know that the game is specifically pronounced that way when it is written entirely different in English, especially when the game appealed to a global audience. Even more so, the promotional images would lead me to believe that the title refers to the main characters, those being the kid and the monster. I could not have known that the title was referring to the kid’s father. I actually had to look that up to get that information.

So, you have a combination containing misleading promotional images, which, combined with the fact that the title is Spanish, makes it all the more Yoyo-like. It was English as to how it’s supposed to be. But it wasn’t English… but Spanish. I don’t speak that, and I could not have understood that.

An interesting case of cross-cultural misunderstanding

First of all, I don’t think that it’s my place, nor anyone’s place, to decide for someone else how to do their work, better or worse. But from an English-speaking player’s perspective, the name of the game was really confusing to me since I wouldn’t have known how to pronounce it like how they do in Spanish. Maybe if the title was “Father and I”, then it would be more obvious, and to me, it wouldn’t make a difference about the game’s impression since, in the end, it’s the gameplay that counts. At least this way, I’d know that those aren’t the names of the main characters.

Speaking of which, I also think that from the impression I had of the game before I played it (the demo, that is), I thought that “Papo” and “Yo” were the names of the kid and the monster respectively. There were just some out of context implications in promotional art since those aren’t their names. But the fact that I failed to understand that indicates a problem with proper translation.

By the way, I think the game is told mostly, if not all, in Spanish. I don’t even remember if they spoke in that game.

So somebody, help me understand this better!

So I’m caught in a situation where the game requires me to understand Spanish, not because the game doesn’t have subtitles, but I won’t understand the title if I don’t know Spanish.

Anyway, enough repeating that. I need someone to translate Spanish for me. Spanish is one of the most spoken languages in the United States (so I’m told), probably even second-place. I understood that many people in California are studying Spanish nowadays because of the Latin-American demographic. Of course, not that I would know about it.

But don’t take it from me; take it from someone who speaks Spanish.

In Conclusion…

If you’re into indie games with emotional “deep” stories, then you’d probably want to check it out. But just remember that the game is from the early 2010s, so the game might not have “aged well” (as they say on the Internet).

Confusion about titles aside, the game might not be for everyone, especially since it’s Spanish-based. I would prefer titles that I can relate to, but every developer can choose what they want with it in the end.

And find a Spanish teacher or translator, because you don’t want to be caught in a situation where you think that “Papo” is actually a character’s name, or even “Yo” for that matter, because when you think about it, they don’t really sound like names at all.