Translation

[Forsaken Lover]

So there's the topic about which FF was the best written but we have to remember that these games are from glorious Nippon. Our Asian Masters have merely shared their genius with us unworthy gaijin. As such, we're not necessarily truly reading their writing, we're reading a translation of their writing, and not all translations are good.

I have been rambling about FFVIII on multiple forums during my playthrough and one topic that was broached was the translation. It apparently wasn't the best.

"Edea's" Speech for example:


We witches have lived in your fantasies for generations--foolish fantasies of your own creation. Witches garbed in terrible apparel, who curse and kill innocents with cruel rituals. They use merciless spells to burn green fields and freeze your warm hometowns... How boring."

Do you breathe sighs of relief, because the fearsome witch of your imagination is on your side? Which of us is the one that dreams, fantasy upon fantasy?

Reality is not so sweet. Reality is never so sweet. So run, fools, into your fantasies. In the fevered world of your imagination will I dance for you! The witch of terror shall dance through all of eternity. You and I, together, will create the final fantasy. In it even life and death are but an exquisite dream. Eternal be the witch and the fantasy! Eternal be Galbadia, her slave! ... Oh yes, an evil witch needs a sacrifice and a cruel ritual.

And Griever being born of Squall's mind was more explicit in the Japanese too it seems, as opposed to the English where she just says he's the strongest GF.

These aren't huge things to me but they're there.

So this topic is about which Final Fantasy had the best translation and what are some notable translation flubs you know of?

[Wolf Kanno]

From what I've read, FFXII and most of the games released around the time of it up until now have the best translations. The NES/SNES Generation's terrible translations are well documented as well as FFVII and Tactics. VIII-X are all said to have been rushed as well or dropping meanings that were important such as Witches being turned to Sorceress in VIII as well as Edea/Ultimecia's speech being different, IX was terribly rushed and Kuja apparently had a unique poetic speech pattern that was lost in translation, and FFX had to deal with syncing the voice clips which according to interviews was a nightmare. Apparently Auron was everyone's favorite character in the FFX English translation dub because his outfit covered his mouth and thus his dialogue could often be translated without butchering the dialogue to make it fit.

[Colonel Angus]

The syncing never seemed too off to me in X. I just assumed they were chewing gum while talking.

[Forsaken Lover]

They aren't actually called Witches in Japanese VIII. It's some weird word that literally means "magic woman" so it's dependent on the translator's preference if he wants to use Witch or Sorceress.

[Bolivar]

My favorite way to play FFVI is the literal translation from ChtisRPG and Skyrender. All the profanity and explicit mature content makes for a much more interesting experience.

I went to a panel at PAX East with Smith and Reeder and it was awesome to see all their techniques for making it work. I definitely recommend checking it out it if you ever have the chance.

Despite the Lost content I felt the PlayStation era games weren't all that bad and when I replay FFVII I'm always surprised how few and far between the glaring errors are, given how notorious it is for that.

[Mirage]

FFXI actually has a pretty good translation. Not having voice acting probably helps in that regard, as there's no issues with having to force people's speech into fitting with the lip movements and stuff. The localization has actually gotten progressively better over the course of the game. Some of the newer content actually has really good writing, and some good humor as well. It's particularly impressive because there is so much writing in the game. There's probably more dialogue in the optional quest than there is in the main story of a normal FF.