8 Video Game Characters Who Speak More Than One Language

Mastering one language is hard enough; learning more is iconic. When video game characters speak more than one language, it's exciting for a multitude of reasons: the addition of another language gives them more depth. They become something more than just a vehicle for absurdist gameplay feats or an avatar for us.

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It isn't just for their heroic deeds or righteous principles that you can admire video game characters for: if you're learning another language, knowing these characters did the same could give you some motivation. If not, you can just use this knowledge as a fun collection of trivia for your friends.

8 Tidus

Final Fantasy 10

Languages Spoken:

English/Japanese

Al Bhed

Disappointingly, Tidus doesn't speak multiple real languages, and his use of English or Japanese depends on the version of the game you have. However, if you collect all the Al Bhed primers in the game, Tidus becomes fluent in the fictional Al Bhed language and can translate Al Bhed text on the fly.

In-game, Al Bhed works as a simple cryptographic substitution puzzle, though it is spoken aloud as a language. Letters of the English alphabet are replaced by different ones, with the syntax and grammatical rules being exactly the same. This means that if you collect all the primers and fix the substitutions, you can learn Al Bhed too.

7 James Sunderland

Silent Hill 2

Languages Spoken:

English

Japanese (only one line)

This is a one-off joke for Silent Hill 2's ridiculous alternate ending, so we don't know for sure if James genuinely speaks Japanese. However, no one who's seen this scene can forget the moment where James Sunderland finds out that his entire misadventure in Silent Hill has been orchestrated by a dog.

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Collapsing to his knees, James accuses the dog of being the mastermind all along in fluent Japanese. Given that he spoke English the entire game - even in the Japanese version, as the 2001 iteration of Silent Hill 2 has only one dub - it's quite the surprise.

6 Agent 47

Hitman

Languages Spoken:

English

Spanish

French

Arabic

Thai

Urdu/Hindi

Italian

As a deadly assassin of ambiguous origin, Agent 47 likely has it in his job description to blend in. Not only does he hold citizenship in multiple countries, but he's had to gain fluency in their languages to mix in with the crowd.

Though everyone is voiced in English for gameplay, and his full extent of linguistic literacy hasn't been officially confirmed, we can judge this from the nationalities Agent 47 has adopted over the course of his series. Based on this information, we can conclude that he speaks at least seven languages, including one South Asian language, likely to be Urdu or Hindi due to their status as common tongues for the subcontinent.

5 Leon Kennedy

Resident Evil 4

Languages Spoken:

English

Spanish

One of the most oft-parodied aspects of the original Resident Evil 4 is its language accuracy. Despite the game being set in Spain, the Ganados speak Spanish in a Mexican dialect. It also tickled fans that Leon barged into a Spaniard's house and started asking questions in English without so much as an 'ola.'

This was one of the many things fixed in the acclaimed 2023 remake, where Leon is shown to be reasonably competent in Spanish when he questions the villager. It makes sense, as surely a special agent meant to guard America's top brass wouldn't be sent to Spain without at least speaking the local language.

4 Niko Bellic

Languages Spoken:

English

Serbian

Niko Bellic is an enigma and remains among the best-loved GTA protagonists. His country of origin is never confirmed, as it's only stated to be in Eastern Europe, but many fans have concluded from his language preferences that it's Serbia.

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Niko is fluent in English despite his heavy accent, but it's clear that Serbian is his native tongue. It's the inverse case with his cousin Roman: the latter has stayed in America for so long that he has forgotten how to speak his native language. Niko doesn't suffer from language barriers and can understand Jamaican dialects with ease. That said, it's clear that American culture leaves him bemused.

3 Lili Rochefort And Eddy Gordo

Tekken

Languages Spoken (Lili):

English

French

Languages Spoken (Eddy):

English

Portuguese

The world of Tekken is one of magical realism, where characters of different nationalities - and even different species - can understand each other easily despite speaking only in their native tongues. The only case where this was subverted was in Tekken 4, where the Japanese Jin Kazama and the South Korean Hwoarang communicate in English as a common tongue.

While it's clear that there are many polyglots in the Tekken world, the two most interesting cases are Lili and Eddy. Lili is from Monaco, while Eddy is from Brazil. Both speak perfect English in Tekken 5: Dark Resurrection and Tekken 6.

From Tekken Tag Tournament 2 onwards, though, the two switched to their native languages. There doesn't seem to be a reason for this except that they can, and good on them: being bilingual is always a bonus when you're participating in a worldwide martial arts tournament.

2 Big Boss

Metal Gear Solid

Languages Spoken:

English

Russian

Spanish

Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater is a cinematic masterpiece, but cultural conventions of the time forced one small compromise. There wasn't much call for games dubbed in foreign languages, so immersion was sacrificed for magical realism. It's implied in cutscenes that Big Boss, then known as Naked Snake, is speaking Russian to the Soviet characters, most notably when Sokolov compliments his proficiency in the language.

However, Snake clearly reports back to his bosses in English, and probably speaks in English to EVA when they're alone. Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker shows that Big Boss has picked up a smattering of Spanish as well.

Snake appears to have forgotten Russian in Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain. This discrepancy is deliberate, with characters theorizing that the language centre of his brain was affected by shrapnel.

1 Lara Croft

Tomb Raider

Languages Spoken:

English

Italian

Mongolian

Russian

Arabic

Yucatec Mayan

Japanese

Maori

German

Spanish

Mandarin Chinese

Greek

Languages Deciphered:

Latin

Old Norse

Ancient Egyptian

Khmer

Mam

Middle English

Quechua

Vedic Sanskrit

Lara Croft is the ultimate explorer, not just of tombs but of tongues. Over the course of various iterations and different media, she has shown speaking proficiency in no less than a dozen languages, and has displayed reading comprehension in even more, as with camcorder in hand, she can translate many ancient inscriptions on the fly.

In Rise of the Tomb Raider, you can help Lara learn Mongolian and Greek by collecting different documents. In Shadow of the Tomb Raider, she can hold conversations in Yucatec Mayan without an interpreter, so Survivor Lara is clearly multilingual.

However, the best multilingual iteration of the character comes in Tomb Raider: Legend. While caught in a firefight at a Kazakh military base, Lara comes across two soldiers discussing in Russian whether they should make her take a risky path that would help them. Assuming she can't understand them, they give her directions in English. Lara, ever subtle, thanks them in Russian to let them know she understood everything they said.

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