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FFT War of the Lions translation sacrifices readability for pretentious prose
- Thread starter fvng
- Start date
Mentosrock
Member
You GET it. This is the same sort of horrible jank Square are using with anything loosely connected to a medieval setting. The writing is atrocious..Final Fantasy XIV suffers from the same problem. They even use the word mayhap in that game. Jesus. Just write more organically please, you don't need to latch on to George RR Martin-esque language. It works for him for a reason. Use modern english, please.
It doesn't for me. Not even a little bit. I have never once gotten more immersed by older versions of English. It doesn't "put me in the period" or "make me feel like I'm there" at all. It just takes me out of it and I find it annoying as hell. I'm not really sure how to articulate this, but it makes it sound like a bad dub. I want things translated into the language that I speak, not an old language that I have to parse.
Oh, and to the poster above - My god, Final Fantasy XIV is one of the WORST offenders when it comes to this. Man, I love that game, but hate the dialog so god damn much.
Pinko Marx
Banned
Hows the mobile version of FFT anyway?
I haven't played FFT beyond like the first few hours but I thought it was fine. Maybe not as varied as the dialogue in FFXII but still a good read.
It's always interesting seeing how writers handle dialogue in settings that are supposed to feel antiquated, because no matter what you do you have to take some creative choices to make the dialogue both understandable and acceptably "old" to the audience. What the Ivalice games are trying to do is some approximation of Early Modern English. Most fantasy settings just make do with various accents of modern British English.... even though the British pronunciation we hear today didn't exist in medieval times. I'd like to see more games and other media try to be more varied in this, like how XII mixes things up based on ethnicity and social class.
It's always interesting seeing how writers handle dialogue in settings that are supposed to feel antiquated, because no matter what you do you have to take some creative choices to make the dialogue both understandable and acceptably "old" to the audience. What the Ivalice games are trying to do is some approximation of Early Modern English. Most fantasy settings just make do with various accents of modern British English.... even though the British pronunciation we hear today didn't exist in medieval times. I'd like to see more games and other media try to be more varied in this, like how XII mixes things up based on ethnicity and social class.
fvng
Member
I am remind
Oh man i'm totally with you. XIV is an even bigger offender, i think I read the word mayhap hundreds of times in XIV. The writing is part of why I cancelled my sub. I like the plot, and even miss the game in some respects, but the writing is just insufferable. I don't want to be tempted to skip through important dialogue in a genre of game where story is king.
Steeped in a Sea of Games
Member
Honestly, a lot of FF text feels a little flowery. Try reading some of the stuff in the tail end of FF11. So much overly flowery, non-stop rambling wastes of time. I don't like to skip text, but sometimes it's too much. Same for FF14. It's not written poorly persay, but it's usually dense and really boring.
I heard there's no slowdown when it comes to magic. It's the best version to go for in that case.
Acerac
Banned
Surprisingly well done. The touch controls feel incredibly natural, and the translation is rather enjoyable even if you've played the original.
PataHikari
Banned
Fiction using stylized language to get across tone is nothing new
Pinko Marx
Banned
I've played the original and WotL. No slowdown sounds great.
Had you made this thread about XIV, parts of XI or even Tactics Ogre I would have been completely on board. XIV would have been much better off going for something closer to what Tactics A2 did.
Cameron122
Member
I love this kinda talk in fiction
PataHikari
Banned
I think OP only wants dull, utilitarian prose instead of something with style.
OP can play the rpgone final fantasy vi translation then
What, exactly, is the problem with "Still your tongue"? Not a native English speaker but this is not the first time I'm hearing it and it has never sounded pretentious.
People will praise it for no slow-down, but I'd take singe-digit framerates over touch-controls (as good a job as they've made the switch to touch controls, I still vastly prefer buttons), horrible portableness of lengthy-play-session mobile games (these games drain your battery like muthafucka) and lack of stability (FFT on Android crashed the first time after the second battle before I had time to save, forcing me to redo the battle, and it hasn't been the only time). Framerate REEEEEALLY doesn't matter in a slow-paced SRPG.
fvng
Member
It's great but the game has crashed on me a few times... the good part is, restarting the app returns you to where you were when the game crashed, the bad part is, there are tons of graphical glitches and unreadable text as a result.
Good luck finishing a battle if that happens to you! (not impossible since you'll likely memorized the order of menu options, but incredibly annoying). The game does eventually clean up visual glitches on its own.
Square is lazy, they should have fixed bugs like that, and they never bothered updating the game to take advantage of features like multi touch support. (Would have been nice to rotate the battlefield with two fingers, instead of having to push the 'rotate' button first).
Wait for a app store sale, that's what I did...... or buy the PS1 or PSP/Vita versions right now that is on sale right now for dirt cheap... if you don't have those options, go for the mobile version, no hesitation in recommending iOS/Android if that's your preferred platform.. despite issues.
I would have made a thread for XIV but it seems like there is acknowledgment about this issue in XIV amongst fans... still intend on playing Tactics Ogre despite translation issues because Akihiko.
Part of why I made this thread is because I'm taken aback by the love for this translation, and while there are times where I love the dialogue, there are times where I am rolling my eyes.
Spiral Insanity
Banned
Am I supposed to guess?
PataHikari
Banned
Lots of people think that intentionally affecting a more archaic phrasing in writing is "pretentious" because... reasons?
Spiral Insanity
Banned
There is nothing pretentious about it.
Pinko Marx
Banned
Framerate kind of always matters. I'm not going to complain about a menu based game running at 30FPS but the slowdown when casting spells in WotL is something that I dealt with, but was never able to completely accept. Its just annoying and is a mar on an otherwise near perfect game.
Rats Off To Ya
Banned
For people worried about slowdown, a fan patch exists for the PSP version to remove it. Of course, it only works on hacked hardware and emulators. But that's probably the best way to play the game.
Vital Tundra
Member
Some things are a bit odd, but I will take it over the original any day.
John Harker
Definitely doesn't make things up as he goes along.
Best translation I've experienced in a game to date
I'd follow A Smith anywhere
I'd follow A Smith anywhere
Honestly, War of the Lions is one of the least offensive games when it comes to stuff like this for me, despite all I've said against this type of language in this thread. But fuck, FFXIV and other stuff of its caliber have tainted my view of it all so much. Just thinking about the dialog in that game causes me real, physical revulsion. No hyperbole.
PataHikari
Banned
fvng
Member
Oh yeah I'm totally with you. XIV is bottom of the barrel for sure. Even if WOTL bugs me at times, it makes way more sense than XIV
I read books, I just don't read a lot of books with heavy handed attempts at archaic english. Reading more books doesn't change that this game goes overboard sometimes
FlutterPuffs
Member
It's pretentious in the same reason why some people get annoyed with me talking in English rather than my local language.
Few books (*worth reading) are as badly written as FFXIV dialog. So no, not usually.
Pinko Marx
Banned
Its time for you to accept that your opinion is wrong. I know its hard to admit that a belief you hold may be incorrect, but its for the best in this situation.
Megalosaro
Banned
FFT is one of my favorite games... of the two, I prefer the psp remake.
I don't love either localization. The PSX localization is terrible, so I can't agree with your premise there. It is incoherent at best. I'm not sure it was edited, and I'm not sure the script writers knew english. It has its charms, but fft's plot is dense so the terrible script has lead to confusion.
The PSP scriot definitely has problems. I think a lot of the problems you bring up have to deal with your own reading level... but that saI'd it's not really a knock on your skill. The PSP translation is needlessly self indulgent. The editors went full ego on a lot of the script. That said, if I had to pick between overwrought and incorherent, overwrought wins out.
Argath is a terrible name.
I don't love either localization. The PSX localization is terrible, so I can't agree with your premise there. It is incoherent at best. I'm not sure it was edited, and I'm not sure the script writers knew english. It has its charms, but fft's plot is dense so the terrible script has lead to confusion.
The PSP scriot definitely has problems. I think a lot of the problems you bring up have to deal with your own reading level... but that saI'd it's not really a knock on your skill. The PSP translation is needlessly self indulgent. The editors went full ego on a lot of the script. That said, if I had to pick between overwrought and incorherent, overwrought wins out.
Argath is a terrible name.
PataHikari
Banned
Being as "bad" as FFXIV's clever writing is a pretty good place to be.
FFT and FFXIV have some of the best writing of the entire Final Fantasy series.
fvng
Member
Nah son
PataHikari
Banned
The fact that you describe getting physical revulsion from a pulpy fantasy story using stylistic language is kind of a problem.
I have never disagreed with someone more in my life when it comes to a video game. FFXIV's dialog is atrocious, extremely poorly written garbage.
And I don't mean the writing as a whole. The story, lore, characters, plot, all fine. Some of it even pretty damned good. But the Dialog is offensively bad.
fvng
Member
It's not reading level, it's just insufferable. Like I said in my first post, it's not indecipherable, but having to parse what's being said because it's pseudo archaic english, gets annoying... and you said it best yourself, it gets pretty self indulgent more than a few times... so you clearly know what I'm referring to...
that self indulgence in the localization is what I'm referring to when saying it gets needlessly pretentious.
_/¯Pinko Marx
Banned
fvng
Member
Yes
I never once had a problem understanding what they said.
It's just...imeasurably better than the original translation that I don't even bother trying to compare them. The OG translation is just garbage. THere isn't single redeeming quality.