"One to be born from a dragon..." -- Let's Play Final Fantasy II

Every time someone utters the phrase "the original Japanese" or any variant thereof, 11-year-old me dies just a little bit inside. And he was a sickly child to begin with.

The original legend is perfect because in 1991 it was okay for games to be simple, crude and cheesy. Dumping charm in favor of "correctness" isn't worth it.

...sort of like insisting that Katt's name isn't Katt, if you catch my drift. =)

And modern me wants to start screaming "Translation is not the same as Localization! Understand the difference!"

Your inner 11-year-old is pretty sickly indeed if all it takes to kill it is mention of the fact that it's largely sustained by rose-tinted nostalgia based on zeitgeist ignorance. Take off the goggles and appreciate the silly for what it is, I say.

Yeah, I know that's a pretty cookie cutter declaration, but come on. Nostalgia's far more fun if you can dissect it and realize just how ludicrous it really is.

Oh yeah, Nostalgia is totally ludicrous, I didn't know there were airships in the 1800s.

It has nothing to do with nostalgia or ignorance, and everything to do with what Nich and Deptford mentioned upthread.

I need to plumb the depths of that ol' Rhapsody LP and make an image macro out of the WhiteSnow sign. It's particularly apt in this discussion.

Preferring "dragon's mouth" to "dragon" is not quite the same thing as "Welcome to WhiteSnow, a town filled with snow. Enjoy the world of snow."

I'm disappointed in you, Kishi. I expected you to come through with the actual screenshot, not just the quote!

...

...

... ... ...

See, that's why you're the man.

The script of the SNES version is functional and accurate but at times it's quite sparse. The DS version is downright tin-eared, though. It's nothing to do with accuracy, as they're both accurate. They're different in tone, and the SNES one's tone is more appropriate for the straightforward subject matter.

However, the GBA version has largely the same tone as the SNES version, but includes more detail that is directly pertinent to the one component of the subject matter that can comfortably support additional detail, viz. characterization.

Any FFIV translation that keeps the "Spoony Bard" translation is alright with me

So by the inverse property, I'm calling the original Japanese translation inadequate.

But it could have if the writers had decided to go in another direction. Not that I mind especially in FFT. It's FFXII that really breaks my heart.


Truer words have never been sporken.

What did FF12?

...also pancake pun

This localization discussion furthers my assertion that the PSOne version of FF4 is the best version of the game. It touches up the script without losing the charm or trying to make the story into something it isn't.

The awful localization for FF4DS shouldn't be a surprise since it's just another example of what happened with Sword of Mana. It's why I never bothered with After Years and have no hope for the PSP port: Square is literally incapable of making games like this anymore. They can still put out some great games but someone in the company is determined to make every game dead serious.

Yes, the Dragon Quest series is a testament to that.

Try 4 Heroes of Light if you haven't yet. I've got some issues with it, but it's not only a fine little game, but the mood, presentation, and sense of fun, whimsical, high adventure are unimpeachable.

I tried and failed to think of any sort of Square game that was fun and lighthearted in the FF2 style but completely forgot about 4 Heroes of Light. I really need to find a copy of that. I also wouldn't count Dragon Quest since it comes from and seems to stay with the Enix side. Even if you do, there have been way more Dissidias and Kingdom Hearts lately than Dragon Quests.

Yeah, I still need to beat that game...

There's too much grinding, and the grind/reward ratio is too low to keep me interested. Oh well.

Actually, there's no grinding whatsoever. More to the point, grinding makes the game more difficult since the bosses scale to your level.

All the useful skills are in the first couple of ranks of any given job class, so grinding for gems for that reason is optional and generally pretty useless (Magic Might is helpful until you get Desolation, I admit).

And you get vastly more money from the Shop minigame then you ever could by fighting monsters.

Unless your tolerance for grinding means that "it looks like I could, if I wanted too, I guess" is entirely too much, you should be in good standing.

What is this shop minigame of which you speak?

Yeah, I know it sounds hypocritical to fall back on the "accuracy defense", especially considering the last three lines have been chopped up for euphony: the original fifth line is stretched out over the fifth and sixth lines in the DS version, and the original sixth and seventh lines are crammed together into the seventh line. My point still stands: I personally like the DS version's crazy Shakespearean take, just like I love the new localization of Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions (and I'm willing to put up with the game's porting issues just for it). The old version is just boilerplate to me; this is poetry.

Its in the town with a great many shops, Urdus I think. You can easily use it to get many thousands of Gil for whatever crap gear you have on hand.

You can also get a secret Crown if you get a very high score on it.

Well, I'm still trying to recover from Aire's being turned into a cat. I just reunited with Brandt, IIRC.

You first get there shortly after that, I believe.

Octo is quite right about pretty much everything he said about the game. I loved the hell out of it until the final dungeon because noooooo

Y'see? And thats coming from Kalir.

He's a dude who knows whats up.

So ... anyone here a Chuck fan?

Wow.

Even for a Brick LP, that's an epic derail.

Man, 4WOL just didn't do it for me at all. It just felt needlessly archaic.

I think my biggest roadblock for a game is an annoying inventory system I have to constantly manage, and 4WOL had that in spades. I could totally have made the time to grind jobs and thought the art and the style was really charming, but I felt like I spent half the game rearranging my equipment.

... or is it?