Censored stuff

[DJZen]

I read in the wikipedia entry on FFVI that there was some nudity. Hmmm. Also apparently Relm "Swore like a sailor" until the censors got to her.

Yes, as I mentioned certain sprites were less covered in the original. It's nothing particularly exciting though. It's not like Terra and Celes start humping each others's faces.

As far as Relm's potty mouth is concerned, I wonder about that. People tend to base that claim on Skyrender's translation which seems very overblown. If someone can tell me what her ACTUAL lines translated to I'd be able to give you a real opinion on this, but until then all I can offer is doubts.

[Big D]

...The Japanese language has no native swear-words of its own. That might make a few things clearer.

Also, people often lambaste Woolsey's translation for being "unfaithful"; however, much of the censorship in FFVI was necessitated by Nintendo's policies. On the whole, FFVI's dialogue is reasonably intelligent and mature - unlike FFIX, where most of the characters speak like 9-year-olds.

I think that the English translation of FFVI dealt effectively with issues like Celes' impending execution and her thoughts of suicide, however it'd have been good to see more discussion of the story's numerous 'dark' or 'mature' themes. Since I've never seen the original Japanese script, though, I don't know how much more - if anything - there was in the original dialogue.

Edit: I've only ever played the PlayStation re-release of FFVI, not the original Japanese or English versions, or any ROMs.

[TheAbominatrix]

The Playstation re-release changed only two peices of dialogue, and both were useless NPC chatter. One adding a "*hic*" man who says "I saw some moogles walkin with a sasquatch", and I cant remember the other offhand, but I noticed it in the game right off (because Ive played FFVI too many times). They didnt even bother to fix any of the errors, like the "Terra, come one, we've got to stop Kefka."

[Masamune·1600]

The censoring imposed was nowhere near as extreme as what they did to FFIV when it was initially marketed as FFII in the US. That was excessive.

[Kawaii Ryûkishi]

The beef with Woolsey's translation isn't the censorship; it's the fact that he independently changed a million things that didn't need changing at all.

...The Japanese language has no native swear-words of its own. That might make a few things clearer.

What? Try kuso, for starters.

[Poopcannon]

What? Try kuso, for starters.

What? Swearing in the forum? And aren't you supposed to be a moderator? Well what does it mean anyway?

[DJZen]

It means the S word but it doesn't seem to have quite the same impact. I've also seen it translated as "damn!" I HAVE, however, seen translations that contain the word B****, but I don't know if that's accurate or not. I trust Ryukishi on this, his understanding of Japanese is much better than mine.

Fortunately, the things that Woolsey needlessly changed didn't alter the game really. All he really changed was the names of things. It has no real bearing on gameplay unless you forget that Potions are called Tonics in this translation. Honestly though the guys who translated Dawn of Souls are by far the best. I don't know how they managed to keep the name "Pudding Princess", but they did.

Basically you don't need to sweat the censorship or name changes too much in this game. It's nothing like the treatment FFIV got where items and skills were dummied out and the programmer's room was removed. Some people are still unhappy with the game's localization. I can understand that, they DID remove some very cool things such as controller customizing (who cares?) and the ability to rename Cyan's SwdTechs, but it really doesn't diminish the brilliance that is FFVI. Anyway, you could only give the SwdTechs names in kanji, doesn't work so well for english speakers.

[Squall of SeeD]

Fortunately, the things that Woolsey needlessly changed didn't alter the game really. All he really changed was the names of things. It has no real bearing on gameplay unless you forget that Potions are called Tonics in this translation.

He took Locke from being a calm-spoken fellow to a guy who had exclamation points after everything he said, and took the often overly-dramatic Cyan and made him the quiet one.

Sabin and Gau "dancing" when they met on the Veldt was actually a real fight through which the two gained respect for one another. Gau mocks Cyan at one point in that same scene and causes him to snap out of his depression over his family a bit after Gau begins reprimanding himself when Sabin tells him that Cyan had just lost his family. Cyan basically says something like "I shouldn't brood forever" followed by Cyan asking Gau if he would like to come with them, whereas Woolsey just had Cyan say that they couldn't have Gau and Sabin prancing about all day and that Gau should join them.

I personally feel that these are rather significant things. There's a lot of other things that might seem relatively minor, but add more to what was going on in some way, whether it be the manner in which troops speak to Kefka showing that they actually fear him intently, or the wording of "She torched Maranda!" (about Celes) meaning the surrounding countryside and not the town itself. Some of the changes that were made are understandable, and were Nintendo more than him, like the cursing, but Jesus God, he honestly did change a lot that didn't need to be changed or failed to clarify that which should have been. Granted, a good deal of it is likely part of his own understanding of the context and intent, and translation is about 50% interpretation after all, especially from Japanese to English, but some things could have used much better localization.

[Sasquatch]

I think it's better to make Locke the hyperactive one and Cyan the soft-spoken, thoughtful one. It fits their situation better.

[nirojan]

aww man wish i played the jappeneese version!!

[DJZen]

failed to clarify that which should have been. Granted, a good deal of it is likely part of his own understanding of the context and intent, and translation is about 50% interpretation after all, especially from Japanese to English, but some things could have used much better localization.

Well there's another big factor that gets overlooked a lot: size restrictions. Once the script has been actually translated, it almost always needs to be modified to fit the limitations of the ROM size. Because of that some things need to be rushed through in the english version. This limitation is usually overlooked these days since storage mediums have expanded to many times that of a ROM cartridge, and the people hacking these ROMs aren't usually trying to get them back onto a cartridge with said restrictions. There are several different sizes that ROM chips came in, but naturally, the more space, the more it cost, and money is ALWAYS a company's concern.

[KoShiatar]

I was able to play a somehow uncensored (or less censored) english version, but I don't remember where I found it.



As far as I realized it, these were the differences I noted:

-Pearl was Holy;
-Espers were called Phantom Beasts;
-There are a few rude words, expecially in the beginning (but not by Relm, actually by Lock if I remember correctly....)
-When you find again Cyan in the World of Destruction, his "Book of Secrets" in the chest actually is a Porno Magazine;
-In Moblitz Dean says that Katrina is pregnant and that's all his fault, and that's why she got away;
-Celes really says life has no sense anymore and jumps off the cliff with the evident will to die.


[Edit]: If anyone wants me to, I'll e-mail him with my ROM.

[Gwelenguchenkus]

When I first played the game, my innitial thought was 'wow, it kinda looks like she's[Celes] about to commit suicide! Like that would ever happen in a nintendo game. Haha! ... ...'

Then she walks up the climp and jumps. Suicide in a nintendo game!?

That was truly shocking. It would have been even more sad if there was the dialogue like in the japanese version. That has to be one of the saddest scenes in a nintendo game (when you let Cid die).

[Flying Mullet]

Don't forget the yaoi scene with Edgar and Setzer that they pulled.

[Gwelenguchenkus]

Don't forget the yaoi scene with Edgar and Setzer that they pulled.

Were we playing the same game? I don't remember anything even suggestive.. let alone YAOI.