This isn't supposed to make sense, you twit - June 17th, 1999 - Allan Milligan
Disclaimer: The opinions expressed within this column are those of the participants and the moderator, and do not neccessarily reflect those of the GIA. There is coarse language and potentially offensive material afoot. Don't say I didn't warn you. :)
Oooooooh. Ooooooooooooooooooh. Oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooh. OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOH! I am eating the lotus. Crunch munch crunch. I ate the lotus. | The torch | If you want to just toss the letter section, I'll take it over for god's sake! |
I was actually referring to tossing the Closing Commentary section, for the record. Be that as it may, I'll have to decline your offer just the same. First off, I'm not going anywhere. Second, when I do leave Double Agent, I've got a perfectly excellent successor available in Drew Cosner. Tah and dah. As an aside, anyone know what the record-holder for daily letters guy at a gaming site is? How long did Jay Boor do PSMOnline? Can I retain my sanity long enough to spank the current leader? More to the point, do I want to? I dunno. We'll have to see how things go. | No changes, monsieur | Hey hey! I gots ajuicy FF Anthology question for ya. I noticed int he opening movie,Terra has blonde hair (like in Amano's art) but does she still have greenhair in the actual game :P? Or did they change it? Anyways, that's all Ineed to know --Andrew "I can't get the freakin nickname creator to work!" Ferguson |
Nope. Like in Lunar, it's simply that the character has different colored hair in the FMV than they do in the game itself. | A history of negativity | Y'see, the thing is, Square just doesn't seem to care anymore. Thequestion is, did they ever? This opinion was given light when they first released a game titledFinal Fantasy 2 over here...at the time, it was still like nothing we'dever seen, and quite simply the best console RPG ever released in NorthAmerica...but since then, we've learned that we got the short end of thestick, so to speak. We've learned that we got a crappily translated,choppily edited and censored, version of a game that was originally aversion of the game meant for "Children and First time RPG gamers.", sothat was the first bit of evidence that Square already thought we were acollective bunch of morons. In the interest of Brevity, I'll skip commentary on the plethora ofSquare games (More negativity there) released in North America betweenFF II/IVUSA and FFVII. Now, in Final Fantasy VII, I'm sure there's yetanother plethora of complaints I could address, but I'll stick to thefirst commentary...Square's opinion of US/Canadian/Any-non Japanesegamers. What did they do? They edited the swearing to protect ourlily-white, alter-boy sensabilities. No way around that, moving on...tothe latest, the greatest, FF Anthology/Collection. This is just the most blatant evidence of Square's apathy toward it'sNon-Japanese speaking audiences...they're refusing to release a gamethat was at least 90-95% translated with a collection that was alreadyconverted to PSX specs, simply because they're either too lazy to do theother 5%, or they simply don't give a rat's ass about us. Either way,this has interesting implications...will Square just get more and moreblatant in their disrespect for their Non-Japanese audience/customers,or will it undergo a plethora (gotta love that word, even if you'd neversee it in a Squaresoft game) of reforms and treat them with the samerespect as, say, oh, I don't know...Enix? Oh, wait...Dragon Warrior gamewithdrawl...refusal to release most of their games...Ah...there's your*$#&ing negativity...I hope you *$#&ing choke on it. (Taking a hint fromFF7) Mr. Negativity, not related to Mr. Claude. |
Well, that was certainly... heartwarming... I've reiterated time and again that I don't think Square is Evil, and never has been. They're just a company, out to make money, like any other. If you take business decisions as slaps in the face of the gaming public, well, that's your problem, now isn't it? | Knocking them down a peg | Hey Allan Just thought I'd pitch in my two cents as the recent discussion on your columnseems to be Working Design's music. Now, the person who did the Rayearth themeand the old Silver Star theme doesn't exactly have the best of vocals, but Mr.Strohmaier brings up another interesting tidbit. Victor Ireland sucks ass as a song writer. Now, I respect Vic as much as thenext person for all the work he's done at WD, but I'm going to have to analizewhat he's done with the song's here. His first mistake was that he builds offthe English translation of the song, now I know that he wants to keep as closeas humanly possible to the English translation while keeping the length of theJapanese vocals, but seriously, I don't think this can be done well. That might not sense to a lot of people, but I'm sure some other songwriters(or translators) can relate to what I'm talking about. Another thing Vic doesis that he puts too many lyrics into a verse. For, example, in the SSS oepningtheme, there's a line that goes: "Instantly we see it / the time to grow andbe it / when everything is pinned on a hope", now everything is all andrhythym and stuff before and beyond on this point, but during this verse,Jenny Stigile's voice speeds up really fast during the first two lines, thenslows down during the third. Maybe Vic meant to do this, but either way, itsounds rather horrible. Also, as one last semi-unrelated point, not all of Working Designs' voiceacting is excellent. Ever play Dragon Force? That game's voice acting made mewant to puke. =) -Sak |
I've noticed the overwriting aspect of Vic's songwriting before, but it's good to see that I'm not alone in thinking that way. As for basing the songs off the English translation, he says on the Making of Lunar CD that he's stopped trying to do a direct translation of the Japanese lyrics, that he pretty much rewrites from scratch these days. Gauging my reader response, my personal opinion, which is of course inviolate (that's a joke), is that Luna's boat song is by far the most successful of the songs in Lunar SSS, and perhaps in the whole of WD's song-writing history. I suspect the reason for that is using a good vocalist in Stigile, and also in that WD changed not just the words to the song, but the tone of the piece as well, to something a bit more mournful. Aside from a few awkward lines, I think it came off very well, and actually think it's stronger than the rather generic Japanese original. And yes, the voice acting in Dragon Force, which was thankfully minimal, was pretty poor. Great game, though. One of my personal favourites, which I'll be Vaulting by the summer's end, or AV will personally beat my ass. | I am the Beast | Double-Agent: It's all so obvious now. You are pure evil and must be destroyed. Please fill out the attached form, listing all your weaknesses and fatal flaws, so that we might more effectively wipe you off the face of the Earth. It's only right. Love, Mind-Numbed Anti-RPG Sentinals |
My weaknesses, hmm? Well, let's see. What can't I resist? - Creamsicle-flavored ice cream - Blonds in tight black dresses - Very large magnets - Bribes - The subtle and overpowering manipulations of Immortus, Master of Limbo, and his army of Space Phantoms, as they impersonate all I hold dear, and prevent me from having children who will have the power to conquer the known universe. - Jackie Chan could kick the hell out of me. Yeah, that about covers it. Best of luck wiping me off the face of the Earth. I assure you, you'll be needing it... | Tactics touchˇ | DA- Just to spice things up a bit, let me step forward and saythat _most_ of FFT's translation is not that bad. I'll be thefirst to admit that the tutorials, the online help and the sidemission translations are awful - obviously you've shown enoughscreenshots to prove that. The main story, however, was prettydamn good. None of the FAQs or translations I've seen on the nethave been vastly different from what was in the game. Some of thegame might have been a bit ambiguous, ("what did you get?") butI'm not sure that wasn't also in the original Japanese version.And by and large I'd rather have crap translations in unimportantsections than a mediocre translation all the way through the game.(Off course!) -coldjones |
A few people spoke up to say this, and I grudgingly condede the point. I still think much of FFT's translation was stilted and a long way from conversational, but it was primarily the tutorial and job report dialogue that was outright illegible. | Weird coincidences | Cherished agent. You are, of course, aware that the organization you belong to, the so called "GIA" (which stands, in actual fact, for Groupe Islamique Armee) is, in reality a militant revolutionary force responsible for the deaths of some 90 thousand. To quote the New Internationalist May 1999 Issue 312 pg. 36 "The GIA has engaged in seemingly random acts of mass carnage. Whole villages have been wiped out in the worst atrocities." You bastard. -MikMok |
Ye gods. I always thought there was something fishy about Glick and Vestal's private meetings, and the FBI investigators who've been shadowing me for months, but I never expected anything like this. | Translation woes, again | 1) X-Death? Is it just me, or do I sense another great Square game the victim of a FF Tactics translation? Do you think that the fan translation of FFV was the cause of any of these name changes? After all, why would Square want their translation to similar to a fan translation? |
A desire to differ from the fan translation may be a cause for the name changes. Or maybe they felt the names would be more memorable and roll off the tongue better if they were changed - that was the reason for the Tina/Terra switch in FF6, for example. Personally, I think the name changes announced thus far have been pretty poor, and am just praying that they leave Gilgamesh alone. | 2) Who is this famous translator/team that brings us quality translations, such as Final Fantasy Tactics, and the upcoming FFV, and VIII? Does this person have ANY knowledge of English? |
Last I checked, the primary localizer at Square was Michael Baskett, who seems to be quite literate and fluent in English from what I've seen. So what's going on? Your guess is as good as mine. I suspect that rushes to production are a major factor - Square EA realizes that, much as players might bitch about the translations, the quality thereof isn't going to affect the sales in any significant way, and a timely release is better than tweaking an aspect of the game that few people truly care about. 3) Is there any more info as to what is going to be included with the FF Anthology? I remeber an E3 report stating that there was going to be more included than just the CD soundtrack. I also heard that the soundtrack is only going to have 12 tracks with music from FFV and VI. Is there any truth to this? ~Mind Slayer~ P.S.- I have a gut feeling that the translation of FFV is going to suck. Square's gonna have quite a big dent in their reputation if a bunch of teenage kids can do a better translation in one summer, than a big company with at least 7 months on their hands. |
There will be four CDs included in the FF Anthology. There will be FFV, FFVI, the FFVI Omake (I believe this is a separate CD from the game itself), and a soundtrack CD exclusive to the US version, containing selected tracks from FFV and VI. There is no word as to the number of tracks on the CD, but they'd bloody well better include Gilgamesh, from FFV. Damn good music. As for Square losing face over the FFV thing, well, they're not exactly noted for having stunning translations as it stands. The only people who stand to have their faith in Square shaken are internet-savvy Square fanatics, and that's a rather small group. A "big dent" is overstating things. A dent, sure. But only in the eyes of a select group. | Flogging | Flog and Squee. Up the tree. See the army. Flee, flee, flee. That would be rather inappropriate without the last two lines, no? -Shaun...and Squee, sitting in a tree... |
Nah. I'd consider it inappropriate if it went as follows: Flog and Richard Simmons Up in a tree Performing illegal chemical tests on hamsters Giggling with glee. See now, that is foul and tasteless. It was a good try, though. Next time, try using the word "fellatio" in there someplace.
WARNING! If you don't wanna know anything about FF8, consider this the end of today's column. Go send me a letter and stuff. The one remaining letter contains some FF8 references, admittedly ones I don't understand in the least, but just in case, I figured I'd warn you guys. Okay? Good. Consider yourself duly warned.
| FF8 SPOILERS! EEEK! | Allan, First off, keep up the good work on the letters page. Its nice to beable to read the (occasionally) intelligent views of other gamers whoseem to have gotten through puberty relatively unscathed and dont walkaround with Mario T-shirts, wondering when the next Mortal Kombat iscoming out. With Uni finals over for the semester, I finally sat down over theweekend and finished FF8 (thank god for Gamesharks!). It seems to methat, with all the Square-bashing going on lately, a lot of 'old school'gamers seem to be prepared to bypass FF8 due to 'eye candy' and becausethey cant stand 'interactive movies.' Well, if any of your readers arethinking of doing so, they'd be doing themselves a great disservice. FF8 is, in a nutshell, fun. And it looks and plays really smoothly.Flying around in the Ragnarok, you really get the sense that you are inanother world, with trains rattling by below, and the sky turning darkabove. The FMV are nothing short of brilliant (especially the end creditsequence), and with the story's emphasis on the characters (as opposedto preventing the destruction of the planet, or what have you) youactually come to feel for many of the characters. Personally, I feelthat Quistis' persona could have been fleshed out a bit more, and Rinoaand Squalls relationship often seems a bit sentimantal without much meatto it (er.. no, I wont go there) but maybe thats just me.(Anyone elsehave an opinion on this?) As for 'old-school' play, Altemisia's Castle is a prime example ofold-school play translated into 3D. Beautiful, scary, yet awesome, withmultiple (albiet quite easy) puzzles with your party split into 2 groups(ala Wild Arms). Yes, its linear. But NO, you're not likely to forget itanytime soon. And in response to the criticisms I have heard levelled at FF8concerning the unbalanced nature of the Guardian Force.. well..Altemisia WILL kill any summon outright, and a certain summon getskilled PERMANENTLY (no, I wont spoil it for you here), so aquiringeveryones most powerful weapons becomes really important. Anyway, thats my rant. I'm just getting sick and tired of peoplepassing judgement on a game that they have yet to experience. If a gameIS bad, then thats fine, and FF8 does have its flaws, but dont bash ituntil you've played it. Crayon. PS: And I sympathise with all those of you out there in PAL-land .. aliving hell. Put it this way, down here in OZ, FFT was not releasedbecause Australians 'dont like strategy games, they like sports games.'What a load of #@**%#!! Similarly, we have yet to see Parasite Eve orXenogears, and we have a snowballs chance in Hell of getting Lunar.RPG's just dont exist down here. Luckily though, not all of us have towait for English translations. Well, I'm off to play FFIV from myFFCollection (hehe)..... |
Since I haven't played FF8 yet, and won't until it's released in North America, I really don't have anything to add here. I'm sure this means something to anyone who's familiar with the game, though.
Closing Comments AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH! MY EYES, MY EYES! THE SPOILERS ARE BURNING THEM! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH! Okay, so they weren't major spoilers at all, but hey, I figured I'd be hyperconscious of spoilers for once, instead of getting flamed for spoiling stuff after the fact. Of course, now I'll be flamed for blowing them out of proportion. Ah, the life of a letters columnist. How I love thee. - Allan Milligan
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