Cloud: やっと会えたな (At last we meet)
Sephiroth: 俺も探していた (I'm been looking for you, too)
This is wrong. There are, in fact, two things* wrong with Kingdom Hearts, and this is the other one. Sephiroth is poetic, and overly decorates his speech. Notably, he uses 私 as his first person pronoun. Here, he has fallen to the standard video game convention of everyone being a brash youngster.
It's ok, though. The fight scene that follows makes up for this faux pas.
* The first thing that's wrong is that Sephiroth is voiced by Lance Bass.
Wednesday, July 9, 2008
Thursday, June 19, 2008
Not Interested
"How about a rematch sometime? Fair and square, no dark powers involved." asked Sora.
"I think I'll pass" says Cloud, brushing his hair back.
Edit: It strikes me that mentioning this is said in Kingdom Hearts would be useful information.
This...is not Cloud. It's a very polite, friendly way to pass on a fight. As originally written, it better mirrored Cloud's style from Final Fantasy VII. What he actually said was:
"興味ないね"
Which means, simply, "Not interested" This is the option you're given almost any time Cloud can refuse something in FFVII. It's a rather abrupt way to refuse, and the phrase very adequately sums up Cloud's indifference to the rest of the world. It should also be accompanied by a non-committal shrug, for maximum effectiveness.
"I think I'll pass" says Cloud, brushing his hair back.
Edit: It strikes me that mentioning this is said in Kingdom Hearts would be useful information.
This...is not Cloud. It's a very polite, friendly way to pass on a fight. As originally written, it better mirrored Cloud's style from Final Fantasy VII. What he actually said was:
"興味ないね"
Which means, simply, "Not interested" This is the option you're given almost any time Cloud can refuse something in FFVII. It's a rather abrupt way to refuse, and the phrase very adequately sums up Cloud's indifference to the rest of the world. It should also be accompanied by a non-committal shrug, for maximum effectiveness.
Monday, April 28, 2008
The Man in the Black Cape
It was a decade ago... Cartridges were being replaced by optical technologies for game media. The Playstation made it's debut with the pinnacle of RPGs: Final Fantasy VII.
Final Fantasy VII was different. It completely redefined the series. The graphics were the most inconsistent and unfinished of any game in the series, and it didn't matter. It was truly a testament to what good writing and character design could do for a game; a game that stands the test of time even today.
But that's not important.
The Playstation brings a new challenge for 日本語 games. With actual memory comes room for fonts, and therefore...Kanji. Nintendo and Super Nintendo games used only Kana, which made playing the games with a dictionary a bit easier for us 外人. Now, I've already been exposed to a fair amount of Kanji via Manga and other sources, but Final Fantasy VII offers a special challenge for 2 reasons:
1. No Furigana. You have to be able to look up Kanji, which is a talent in itself.
2. The pixels are the size of coconuts. This makes complicated Kanji like 興 rather difficult to make out.
Even so, armed with my three 辞書(dictionaries), I was ready to take it on.
It's really interesting to play in the original language. I'm still progressing throught the first CD, but I've already encountered a lot of dialog that suddenly makes more sense. Sephiroth's surprise at the relationship of The Jenova Project and his mother makes much more sense: The project's name is written: "JENOVA" and his mother is named "ジェノバ" Although they are still pronounced the same, this does have the effect of making the fact that they are the same less immediately apparent.
As for the man in the black cape... As you follow him around, people keep referring to him as "黒いマントルのやつ" or "Guy with a black mantle" I'm guessing the reason they translated this as "cape" instead of "coat" is that they wanted to emphasize the fact that Sephiroth was a bit eccentrically dressed.
Wall Market also makes far more sense; all the dialog is either puns or poetry. More on that in a future post.
Finally, the most important thing: In Japan, Chocobos say "クエっ", or "Kweh."
Final Fantasy VII was different. It completely redefined the series. The graphics were the most inconsistent and unfinished of any game in the series, and it didn't matter. It was truly a testament to what good writing and character design could do for a game; a game that stands the test of time even today.
But that's not important.
The Playstation brings a new challenge for 日本語 games. With actual memory comes room for fonts, and therefore...Kanji. Nintendo and Super Nintendo games used only Kana, which made playing the games with a dictionary a bit easier for us 外人. Now, I've already been exposed to a fair amount of Kanji via Manga and other sources, but Final Fantasy VII offers a special challenge for 2 reasons:
1. No Furigana. You have to be able to look up Kanji, which is a talent in itself.
2. The pixels are the size of coconuts. This makes complicated Kanji like 興 rather difficult to make out.
Even so, armed with my three 辞書(dictionaries), I was ready to take it on.
It's really interesting to play in the original language. I'm still progressing throught the first CD, but I've already encountered a lot of dialog that suddenly makes more sense. Sephiroth's surprise at the relationship of The Jenova Project and his mother makes much more sense: The project's name is written: "JENOVA" and his mother is named "ジェノバ" Although they are still pronounced the same, this does have the effect of making the fact that they are the same less immediately apparent.
As for the man in the black cape... As you follow him around, people keep referring to him as "黒いマントルのやつ" or "Guy with a black mantle" I'm guessing the reason they translated this as "cape" instead of "coat" is that they wanted to emphasize the fact that Sephiroth was a bit eccentrically dressed.
Wall Market also makes far more sense; all the dialog is either puns or poetry. More on that in a future post.
Finally, the most important thing: In Japan, Chocobos say "クエっ", or "Kweh."
Wednesday, April 23, 2008
Here there be Dragons
Square has recently announced that they are publishing a complete remake of Final Fantasy IV (that's Final Fantasy II for us 外人). I'm waiting for someone to send me a link to it, so I can smugly reply, "Oh, yeah... I finished that a couple months ago. They did a really good job with it! Some of the story gets lost in the translation, but I'm glad you can play it now, too."
My friends totally love me; but that's not important.
What is important is the Lunar Path. Anyone who has beaten Final Fantasy IV should remember leveling up in the area just before the Lunar Core. Here were a wealth of enemies that gave good experience, and could be killed rather quickly. Particularly, there was a pair of dragons: King Ryu, and Ging Ryu. Good experience, easily killed by Odin, nice guys for you to relentlessly slaughter. Their names always kind of vexed me, though... King Ryu, fair enough. He's strong, of course he's a king. Ging, though... Why ging? My guess was that it was like the Jimera in Final Fantasy, where they needed an alternate name for a stronger version of a Chimera, so they just changed the first letter.
As it turns out, they are similar to kyzoku: they've been named phonetically. The ん sound in Japanese is occasionally translated as "ng," which is what happened here. They are originally called 金竜(kin ryuu) and 銀竜(gin ryuu), Gold Dragon and Silver Dragon respectively. The GBA translation actually used the literal translation as their names.
Final Fantasy V and Final Fantasy X both have an optional boss that follows this naming convention: 神龍(shinryuu) In both, 神龍 is one of the strongest enemies in the game, which fits the meaning of the name: God Dragon.
Thursday, April 17, 2008
On portable games.
No shit, there I was...
It was a fine fall day, and I had just finished browsing 紀伊国屋店: a fine bookstore in San Jose that has a wealth of Japanese books available. As I was leaving, I decided on a whim to step into the small computer store nearby, and see what they had. I was not prepared for what awaited me...
They had Crisis Core, Reventant Wings, and Tactics Advance 2. All of them months before they would be available in English.
This left me with in a very difficult position. I love Final Fantasy, and it's important to me to understand every nuance of dialog. However, I could have three new Final Fantasies Right Now(tm). So, I sat there for a while doing some soul searching, and finally reminded myself: as much as I wanted to, I could not yet read Japanese. So, with a heavy heart, I left...
Now, we'll step forward about a month. Revenant Wings was released in the US. I picked it up, and played through it. It was a good game; much more enjoyable than Final Fantasy XII had been. Most of the fun came from the solid gameplay, however. It struck me that I really would not have minded if I had missed some of the storyline. I then thought back to Final Fantasy Tactics Advance, and recalled that it too was light on storyline. Thus, I made up my mind, and did it.
I bought Final Fantasy Tactics Advance 2 in Japanese.
It was the first Japanese game I would play that I didn't know already know intimately. I was rather excited, and I prepared for the standard Final Fantasy opening. A grand cinematic would play, epic music would sound, and the credits would roll. Afterwards, some brief dialog would roll, and the first tutorial battle would start! I'd name my character, and---
It opened with white text on a black background. "ーーもうすぐ夏休みだ。" (already soon it will be summer vacation)
That's alright. Simple text, easy to understand, I'll just work my way through this. Another page, I can understand some of this... Another page... Another... Aha! "忘れないうちに名前だけでも書いておこう。" "Don't forget, just write your name..." They're going to ask for my name! I can understand this! I proceed to put in my name, ready to move on, and...another page of white text on black background. I vainly try to translate a couple pages, and finally give up and start skipping pages. I figure I'll just get to the proper game, and go from there. Six pages of text pass, and I'm done! I move on to...
A quiz. A multiple choice quiz.
I'm still not sure what the point of this quiz was. Does it affect your stats? Is it storyline only? Does it change your final weapon? I don't think so. No, I'm pretty sure I know what this is for... It's a message. It's saying, "We're on to you, gaijin. Do you really think you're ready for this?"
Sadly, I was not... But soon. Then, we shall match blows again, Tactics Advance 2. We shall match blows, and I damn well will be able to tell you what I'm doing on my summer vacation!
Until then, stay tuned for Dragons from Final Fantasy IV...
It was a fine fall day, and I had just finished browsing 紀伊国屋店: a fine bookstore in San Jose that has a wealth of Japanese books available. As I was leaving, I decided on a whim to step into the small computer store nearby, and see what they had. I was not prepared for what awaited me...
They had Crisis Core, Reventant Wings, and Tactics Advance 2. All of them months before they would be available in English.
This left me with in a very difficult position. I love Final Fantasy, and it's important to me to understand every nuance of dialog. However, I could have three new Final Fantasies Right Now(tm). So, I sat there for a while doing some soul searching, and finally reminded myself: as much as I wanted to, I could not yet read Japanese. So, with a heavy heart, I left...
Now, we'll step forward about a month. Revenant Wings was released in the US. I picked it up, and played through it. It was a good game; much more enjoyable than Final Fantasy XII had been. Most of the fun came from the solid gameplay, however. It struck me that I really would not have minded if I had missed some of the storyline. I then thought back to Final Fantasy Tactics Advance, and recalled that it too was light on storyline. Thus, I made up my mind, and did it.
I bought Final Fantasy Tactics Advance 2 in Japanese.
It was the first Japanese game I would play that I didn't know already know intimately. I was rather excited, and I prepared for the standard Final Fantasy opening. A grand cinematic would play, epic music would sound, and the credits would roll. Afterwards, some brief dialog would roll, and the first tutorial battle would start! I'd name my character, and---
It opened with white text on a black background. "ーーもうすぐ夏休みだ。" (already soon it will be summer vacation)
That's alright. Simple text, easy to understand, I'll just work my way through this. Another page, I can understand some of this... Another page... Another... Aha! "忘れないうちに名前だけでも書いておこう。" "Don't forget, just write your name..." They're going to ask for my name! I can understand this! I proceed to put in my name, ready to move on, and...another page of white text on black background. I vainly try to translate a couple pages, and finally give up and start skipping pages. I figure I'll just get to the proper game, and go from there. Six pages of text pass, and I'm done! I move on to...
A quiz. A multiple choice quiz.
I'm still not sure what the point of this quiz was. Does it affect your stats? Is it storyline only? Does it change your final weapon? I don't think so. No, I'm pretty sure I know what this is for... It's a message. It's saying, "We're on to you, gaijin. Do you really think you're ready for this?"
Sadly, I was not... But soon. Then, we shall match blows again, Tactics Advance 2. We shall match blows, and I damn well will be able to tell you what I'm doing on my summer vacation!
Until then, stay tuned for Dragons from Final Fantasy IV...
Sunday, April 13, 2008
この ガーランド
"No one touches my Princess!! LIGHT WARRIORS?? You impertinent fools. I, Garland, will knock you all down!!"
You can tell he means it, because he doubles all punctuation! This is an interesting speech, particularly considering the original dialog:
「おうじょは おれのものだ！ だれにも わたさん！ ひかりのせんしだと。 こさかしいやつらよ！ この ガランドが けちらしてくれよう！」
This statement is designed to be hard for gaijin to read. It also tells you a bit about Garland's character that is lost in the translation. He's extremely casual, which is marked by his use of "おれ" as a first person pronoun, and shortening of "わたさない" to "わたさん". Using this style of conversation upon his first encounter conveys a strong contempt for the player that's hard to convey in English without voice acting and facial expressions.
The change in emphasis is also a bit interesting. "ひかりのせんし” (Light Warriors) is the only statement in the original that didn't end in a "!", yet it's the one that gets the emphasis in the English! I would guess that this is an attempt to imply the contempt lost with the aforementioned style of speech.
Of course, the bit that makes everyone love this speech: "I, Garland, will knock you all down!" They tried to correct this in the Playstation version to: "Blasted pawns of the King! No one can stop me now. Very well, I shall take on all of you!" Proving unpopular, they reverted this in the GBA and PSP versions. But, "what would provoke the original text?" you may ask... Fortunately, that's just the question I'm here to answer! "この ガランドが けちらしてくれよう！" The verb here is "けちらす", which means "to scatter" or "to knock away." Thus, the whole phrase means, "This Garland will knock (you) away!" There is also a verb, "倒す" which means either "to defeat" or "to knock over." Combine these two facts, and you can make a reasonable guess why they translated it as they did.
You can tell he means it, because he doubles all punctuation! This is an interesting speech, particularly considering the original dialog:
「おうじょは おれのものだ！ だれにも わたさん！ ひかりのせんしだと。 こさかしいやつらよ！ この ガランドが けちらしてくれよう！」
This statement is designed to be hard for gaijin to read. It also tells you a bit about Garland's character that is lost in the translation. He's extremely casual, which is marked by his use of "おれ" as a first person pronoun, and shortening of "わたさない" to "わたさん". Using this style of conversation upon his first encounter conveys a strong contempt for the player that's hard to convey in English without voice acting and facial expressions.
The change in emphasis is also a bit interesting. "ひかりのせんし” (Light Warriors) is the only statement in the original that didn't end in a "!", yet it's the one that gets the emphasis in the English! I would guess that this is an attempt to imply the contempt lost with the aforementioned style of speech.
Of course, the bit that makes everyone love this speech: "I, Garland, will knock you all down!" They tried to correct this in the Playstation version to: "Blasted pawns of the King! No one can stop me now. Very well, I shall take on all of you!" Proving unpopular, they reverted this in the GBA and PSP versions. But, "what would provoke the original text?" you may ask... Fortunately, that's just the question I'm here to answer! "この ガランドが けちらしてくれよう！" The verb here is "けちらす", which means "to scatter" or "to knock away." Thus, the whole phrase means, "This Garland will knock (you) away!" There is also a verb, "倒す" which means either "to defeat" or "to knock over." Combine these two facts, and you can make a reasonable guess why they translated it as they did.
Thursday, April 10, 2008
海賊
In the original Final Fantasy, you could get a ship and sail the ocean. Getting the ship wasn't hard, as there was a man named Bikke was happy to let you borrow his...once you butchered his crew. His crew consisted of 9 pirates, who seemed to be made of tissue paper. Once you had the ship, there were of course endless creatures in the sea that were more than happy to engage you in combat.
One of these was named. "Kyzoku"
This always kind of confused me. They looked exactly like the pirates, only blue. They seemed be named characters, but they came 4 and 5 at a time. I eventually stopped wondering about it, and didn't give it any more thought until I started replaying Final Fantasy in 日本語. Again, I made my way to Pravoka, and met with Bikke.
9 かいぞく (kaizoku) attacked me.
Suddenly, the long unanswered question re-asserted itself! For some odd reason, this word was not in my dictionary... So, I went to the internet, searching out the meaning(and ordering a better dictionary). I then found it meant...Pirate. Apparently while translating the game, they couldn't think of a synonym for Pirate, so they just used the Japanese word.
Oddly enough, when I fought a Kyzoku in the Japanese version, they were called パイレット (pairetto). Apparently they had the same problem thinking of creature names in Japan.
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