Steppin' in the brown stuff: Polishing up the game text!

[Silent Warrior]

So, uh, at the risk of alienating the whole of EoFF...
For a while now, I've been tweaking the in-game conversations (not menu items) - I'm going into a little more detail here (do take a look at the FF7 retranslation project while you're there) - and thought I'd just... well, say so. I realize this game is sort of old, but is anyone else interested in this, when it's finished?

(Feel free not to bother registering at Qhimm on my account, and commenting here instead. I don't check these forums often; but I've subscribed to this topic, so I'll know when people comment on this.)

[Jessweeee♪]

Yeah, I would probably check it out when it's finished. Something new to try anyway! The only problem I had with the original script is that they would say "Ok" or use numerals instead of words, such as "Those 2 guys." "Ok" is not a word. "OK" is an abbreviation. When someone is speaking, it should be "Okay" or "'kay" And numerals should only be used if it's a large number. But if it's an important number I'll just wave it off as tutorial dialogue.

[chionos]

Actually OK is not an abbreviation of Okay. OK was the way the word was spelled originally, before Okay/okay/O.K. ever existed. Ok with a lowercase 'k' is not correct, however, even as an abbreviation--it's simply nothing. But OK and okay are used interchangeably even in somewhat more scholarly works--NY Times, etc.
We are agreed on numerals vs. numbers spelled out. IIRC, I think we were taught in school that 1-12 you spell out, anything higher you can use the numeral? I tend to spell out anything less than a 3 digit number, though.

Silent Warrior, do you have any examples yet of your progress?

[Mo-Nercy]

I've always found Seifer's calling Zell a "chicken-wuss" was a lame attempt at an insult. Perhaps that could be changed to something else.

[Jessweeee♪]

I always thought it was supposed to be chicken trout. Except not chicken tit like the censor says.

[Depression Moon]

What the heck's a chicken tit. Chicken breast?

[Jessweeee♪]

When you try to say that four letter word for fecal matter (not poop) it translates to "tit" because we thought that would be funny.

[Silent Warrior]

Regarding not-'chicken-wuss': Aaah, right! I pretty much overlooked that, but I'll see if I can have teenage Seifer use the... more colourful version. It kinda makes sense that he'd use the 'canon' version at the orphanage, though. Now you've caused a delay!

chionos: By example, do you mean something like in-game screenshot? I could probably rig some screenshots from the editor, but I've never used places like Photobucket. I suppose I can go for it, though... As for the game, I'm fighting with Aali's custom OpenGL-driver... I think. Anyway, I haven't got around to actually starting the game yet - can't find some driver or other, apparently. CRASH. For the next few days, I'll be busy with something else and won't have time to sort this out, but I'll have it sorted at SOME point.
And I'll keep 'OK' and the numerals in mind. I don't know if there are space constraints, though. I also think the numerals look out of place, but we'll just have to see whether the long version works.

[Mo-Nercy]

Oh. Two more suggestions.

There's that scene in the Timber TV Station where Edea convinces Seifer to join her.

Edea: "Don't be ashamed to ask for help. Besides, you're only a little boy."
Seifer: "I'm not...Stop calling me a boy."
Edea: "You don't want to be a boy anymore?"
Seifer: "I am not a BOY!"

If they'd be saying "child", the 1999 version of me probably wouldn't have collapsed in a fit of giggles.


And Fujin in general. In the Japanese version, she spoke only in kanji and to some extent, they carried over that same effect of limited speech in the English releases, but I don't see why it had to be all-capitals. She's not even yelling most of the time.

[Silent Warrior]

Mo-Nercy: Ah, yes, that one. THAT was up for some revision, I tell you. Maybe I should just take care of that right now, while I remember... (The Timber-screens are a long way down the list, being listed alphabetically and all.) As for Fujin... I don't know what to do, I really don't. Sure, all caps is over the top, but it does give her a bit of character. Of course, it does cause confusion in Lunatic Pandora when she starts speaking all normal like. (I first thought it was Raijin ranting away...) I'll see how it looks in the editor, then decide.

[Hans]

This is awesome! I'm chiming in as someone who would love to see this. Is this basically another editing pass on the script?

[Hans]

double post.

[Roogle]

Is this only polishing up existing dialogue and text found in the game right now? I would be very happy to see the results of a retranslation or relocalization project. Do you have the assistance of someone who is familiar with the original script?

[Silent Warrior]

Hans: Pretty much a re-edit, yes. I do interfere a bit, but the story in general is left alone. No message is added or removed.

Roogle: I have no such help, and my ambitions don't stretch to a full translation. (I don't really have the time to follow through with that in a timely fashion, either.) I have a nagging feeling my version is often a bit closer to the original, even so... The editing smells like a bit of a rush job, now that I see it from an editor's perspective. The text is quite good originally, but not perfect - like a one-pass edit. They weren't obsessively thorough; and some phrases seem like literal translations, looking out of whack in English.
I welcome opinions, of course, and suggestions from those who know the original Japanese text, but I only intend this to be a more polished version of what is already there. I actually have a problem where my edits don't seem to persist - the files/directories have been set to not be read-only, but that doesn't behave as I thought it would, either...

Haha! It works! What I can tell you right now, then, is that this will, when it's finished, likely be a 308 Mb payload uncompressed, replacing Square's original files. No estimation of a release date, but I would like to have this finished ASAP. Now to figure out how to work with screenshots...

[Roogle]

Even a cleanup of the grammar and punctuation of the localization would improve the experience.