How come...

[Lon611]

how come ff character's don't curse nemore?i thought when barret and other characters cursed it made the mood at times hilarious but also understandable. do you think square shud go back 2 this way?obviously they shouldn't turn it into a curse festival, but characters should curse when normal (sane) ppl woud curse. it would make the characters a little more believable with the arguable voice-acting

[-N-]

Do you mean like showing scrambled expletives, Barret and Cid style? Or like PG-13 words? Zell used a fair amount in FFVIII, and there was one "bastard" dropped in FFIX (Zidane, Disc III, Exiting Pandemonium). I don't think much was dropped in FFX. Expletives work well in voice acting if the actors are comfortable with saying it - Metal Gear Solid was a great example.

[Jolts]

Zidane also said "damn" once, but I can't remember when (I'll let you know next time I see it).

I wouldn't mind if they used the smaller words uncensored, but the bigger ones shouldn't be in there without censorship, or it might get an 'M' rating, and that's just not right for Final Fantasy.

[Estes]

I have the original FFIV translation patch and they swear in that, im not finished playing through it with this patch but i am enjoying the new non-censored feel :D

[Jolts]

The re-release in Chronicles has FFIV uncensored as well (unless they say some of the stronger words, but I noticed a couply "damn"s in the intro alone).

[Armisael]

Zidane also said "damn" once, but I can't remember when (I'll let you know next time I see it).
I think he said it when he was in BranBal.

[Super Christ]

Putting in profanity, for the sake of profanity alone, is immature and stupid.

Let the scriptwriters do their job, and if the characters swear, fine. Just don't stick it in there for no other reason than for it to be there.

[Jolts]

obviously they shouldn't turn it into a curse festival, but characters should curse when normal (sane) ppl woud curse.
Super Christ, either you didn't read all of it, or you chose to disregard that part. Either way, I agree with your statement.

[Lon611]

i agree superchrist, profanity shouldn't be added 4 the sake of just being there. i don't remember zidane swearing in ffix, but i'll check. and yes, the more vulgar curse words shouldn't be used cuz o lot of us woudn't be able 2 get our hands on it. wouldn't it be weird to hear some1 like rikku or dagger curse once in awhile??lol

[Super Christ]

Yeah, I've just been seeing a lot of these "d00d they shuld swear lotz so da game iz machur!" threads on various boads. Anyway, there *are* people who wouldn't swear, ever, under any circumstance. And then there's those that rearely do. It just depends on the person, really. I'm just saying that whenever the scriptwriters think it's appropriate, not just for the situation, but for the character themselves, is when there should be any swearing. Honestly, I can't imagine some of these characters swearing much (Zidane, Tidus, Auron) or even at all. (Rinoa, Yuna, Vivi)

[PhoenixAsh]

Didn't Tidus swear? I'd have thought being an emotional teenager with father issues swearing wouldn't be massively out of character, that's not a generalisation, but Tidus really wasn't someone who'd surprise me if they swore.

Some Brittish swearing would be good, when it's done by Americans trying to do it (Spike in Buffy etc.) it just works in a funny way rather than anything offensive.

Having a massive boss show up and someone just looks up and go "Oh... bollocks" would be quite funny if they did it right.

Anyway it isn't a massive deal, if you can put up with noone saying the main characters name for the entire game (now that something to swear about), then a few swear words aren't really missed.

[Trumpet Thief]

chaos: Zidane said "Persistant Bastards!" when Cleyra was being invaded by Brahne's troops...

Rubedo: Steiner said the same thing when Alexandria was being attacked by Kuja and Bahamut...

[UltimateSpamGrover]

attacked by Kuja and Bahamut...
wasn't it Kuja and Odin?

[Dragoon Kain]

tidus does curse. he says "damn you jecht"

[DJZen]

Such a double edged sword is profanity. On the one hand, you can use it to make a character seem more vulgar, less refined. On the other hand, many use it as a shortcut to try and instantly identify with the youth of today. When Quentin Tarrantino made every other word in Pulp Fiction unairable, he did it to shock you. Take that at face value, but those are basically the only reasons for using profanity. On the one hand, you could say it's unnecesarry to use because you can tell a story and give a full sense of character without using it. On the other hand, you can say that it IS necesarry to have it in order to make a character believable. Both and neither are true. Unfortunately, in video games, it's used pretty much entirely for the cool factor. Could we made Cid have seemed rough and gritty without having him swear? Yes. Easily. Would people have identified with that? It's hard to say, but probably not nearly as much.

However, this issue leads to a separate yet relevant issue. In the Japanese language, profanity is sort of.... how to put this...... non-existant? There are certainly impolite ways of saying things, but this only makes you seem like you have no class. There are offensive things you can say to someone, but it's the spirit of what you said that makes it offensive. For example, "I'm going to go f*** your mom" is pretty much on equal footing with "your mother is unfaithful to your father". There are also explatives, but there's are not really considered so horribly offensive. The word "kuso" for example, literally translates as s***. At least, that's what my dictionary says. However, the word is never censored. That's because it's considered about as rude as saying "drat". Now, because of this, any time a translator puts profanity in an English translation of something Japanese, he or she is doing it because litteral translations rarely make sense or carry the same meaning. Either that or they're just doing it to be cool. Because of THIS, most Final Fantasy characters aren't going to be very potty mouthed anyway. You know, since Final Fantasy is made in Japan and all.

What do *I* think though? I think if a FF character ever drops the F bomb, I'm going to really lose my faith in the series. I like surly characters, but I don't think they need to curse. We can stay with the basics like "oh damn" and maybe even toss in "away from me, you wench!" once in a while. It's fantasy. In fantasy, you're in another world. A world where scrawny white boys can weild swords bigger than they are, where clowns can destroy the world, and moogles can exist. I think I can handle having characters that don't swear.

P.S. Only reason I censored myself was 'cause this isn't the art/writing forum. I DO believe in free speech.