Posted by kaijyuu
in Guest playable characters you'd like to see (Started by Loona March 12, 2010, 05:21:55 pmBoard: Gaming
Hrm, don't want to derail the thread too much but I think this warrents a reply.Gilgamesh is awesome. The GBA port translations sucked for the most part, but Gilgamesh's new style was a shining gem in a sea of somehow-worse-than-woosley translation blunders.
No way. The GBA translations are for the most part a huge improvement over Woolsey's rushed translations. They were much more closer to the original script and many lines were drastically improved upon. The lines for Aria di Mezzo Carattere for example have been revised to be more poetic and actually something you'd hear in an opera.
The people who refuse to acknowledge the improved translations are the ones with the nostalgia glasses who can't get past the fact that submarines don't exist in the FFVI universe and sandworms make so much sense.
On the other hand FFV's translation had so much modern pop culture references that it wasn't funny anymore.
Yes, nostalgia is a big factor in me (and many others) not liking the new translations. No one can truthfully deny that. The changes I dislike most, however, fall into two categories:
- Pop culture references, which you mentioned.
- Changes based on nostalgia/traditions from FF7+ games.
Biggest offender of #2: Japanese-y suffixes (curaga, ect). I despise these. They're not any more "accurate" than cure 1, 2, 3 ect. They were just implemented because that's what every localization since FF7 has done (except tactics, though that too has been changed in a port). Ugh.
Certain weapon/item/spell names fall into this category too.*
Ultimately I think these should be relics of the past, not "updated" to new standards set by later games. If they want to include cameos from later games (like 3 having ultros, the phantom train and some other stuff as hidden bosses) I'm fine with that. But don't change things for the sake of making them seem more like recent games. This is especially true for localization traditions (such as the japanese-y suffixes), which do not have the "accuracy" defense.
*Atma -> Ultima does not fall into this category, though. It was done due to text box size limits. I like Atma better but I recognize that it's an inaccurate translation of "arutema."
As for submariner -> sandworm and similar... I'm kinda on the fence about stuff like that. Sometimes there is no English equivalent of a Japanese pun/culture reference. Your choices are to replace it with something, or directly translate it and explain the joke in a footnote or something. If the "replacement" joke is funny, I'm generally fine with it. Otherwise I'd prefer the culture lesson.
Sandworm falls in the "unfunny" category (or lame insult if you take it seriously), and "submariner" falls in the "raise eyebrow and smirk for sheer ridiculousness" category. /shrug
). There's still a parry/riposte game there, but the "skill" has been completely distilled down to reading your opponent. Plus, since character balance is the only other thing that determines whether you win or lose, it comes into huge focus and small imbalances become grossly magnified.