CoN 25th Anniversary: 1997-2022
Translation Comparison

Posted: 19th September 2014 04:22
*
Behemoth
Posts: 2,835

Joined: 24/6/2001

Awards:
Celebrated the CoN 20th Anniversary at the forums. Contributed to the Final Fantasy VI section of CoN. Member of more than ten years. Member of more than five years. 
First place in the 2008  Has more than fifty fanarts in CoN galleries. Major involvement in the Final Fantasy I section of CoN. Major involvement in the Final Fantasy IV section of CoN. 
See More (Total 9)
So I found out a professional localizer is doing a complete run down of the various translations that have been done to FFIV.

You can find it here.

It's a pretty interesting read seeing what was changed and how much wasn't. Naturally, extensive attention is given to that one line...

user posted image

This post has been edited by Narratorway on 21st September 2014 16:08

--------------------
Post #207465
Top
Posted: 19th September 2014 22:21

Group Icon
Totes Adorbs
Posts: 9,222

Joined: 31/7/1997

Awards:
Second place in the CoN World Cup soccer competition, 2018. First place in CoNCAA, 2018. Celebrated the CoN 20th Anniversary at the forums. Vital involvement in the Final Fantasy IX section of CoN. 
First place in the CoN Euro Cup soccer competition, 2016. Voted for all the fanart in the CoNvent Calendar 2015. Voted for all the fanart in the CoNvent Calendar 2014. Third place in the CoN World Cup fantasy game for 2014. 
See More (Total 29)
I feel like I've seen part of this before, but I didn't look too closely at it until now. Of course, even then I can't look at it too closely, as it is a pretty massive body of work.

S/he does a pretty good job of avoiding the common "These idiots, I could have done such a better job and here's proof!" thing that seems to follow these topics. It's not completely missing, but, hey, it's probably not possible to excise it entirely due to the nature of the topic. It helps that there are things in there that the author actually likes better in English. smile.gif

Thanks for sharing, I can see myself digesting this a bit at a time.

--------------------
"To create something great, you need the means to make a lot of really bad crap." - Kevin Kelly

Why aren't you shopping AmaCoN?
Post #207467
Top
Posted: 24th September 2014 16:38

Group Icon
LOGO ZE SHOOPUF
Posts: 2,077

Joined: 9/6/2007

Awards:
Celebrated the CoN 20th Anniversary at the forums. Member of more than ten years. Vital involvement in the Final Fantasy IX section of CoN. Voted for all the fanart in the CoNvent Calendar 2015. 
Voted for all the fanart in the CoNvent Calendar 2014. User has rated 300 fanarts in the CoN galleries. Vital involvement in the Final Fantasy VI section of CoN. User has rated 150 fanarts in the CoN galleries. 
See More (Total 16)
This is excellent, thanks for sharing, NP! I've gotten really interested in translation issues in general in the last year or so - related, surely, to my current attempt to learn French - so seeing this as well as the one from FFVIII a while back has been quite entertaining. I agree with Josh, the tone of the page is a pleasant relief from the angry that can very easily accompany these articles.

--------------------
Currently Playing : Final Fantasy V
Most Recently Beat : Elder Scrolls: Skyrim
Favorite Game : Final Fantasy X


The newest CoNcast is up! Have a listen!
Post #207479
Top
Posted: 3rd November 2014 16:48

*
Engineer
Posts: 435

Joined: 28/5/2013

Awards:
Member of more than five years. Voted for all the fanart in the CoNvent Calendar 2014. User has rated 500 fanarts in the CoN galleries. User has rated 300 fanarts in the CoN galleries. 
User has rated 150 fanarts in the CoN galleries. User has rated 75 fanarts in the CoN galleries. User has rated 25 fanarts in the CoN galleries. 
Fascinating... I have always been interested in translation and its issues, and this article is extremely interesting to me. I knew some about the original conversation which produced this game's ultimate gag line, as my brother looked into it; but I enjoyed reading the original scene in full for myself. Part of makes this article enjoyable is not just the lack of arrogance, but the light-hearted poking fun at the more awkward translations. Thanks for sharing this with us!
Post #207632
Top
Posted: 5th November 2014 13:47

*
Chocobo Knight
Posts: 150

Joined: 18/3/2006

Awards:
Member of more than ten years. Member of more than five years. 
I've read this one before last time I was playing through FFIV. It's an interesting read.
Post #207637
Top
Posted: 15th November 2014 06:14

*
Black Waltz
Posts: 900

Joined: 12/7/2011

Awards:
Member of more than ten years. Celebrated the CoN 20th Anniversary at the forums. Member of more than five years. User has rated 25 fanarts in the CoN galleries. 
Huh. I hadn't any idea that J2E's Final Fantasy IV "Retranslation" made up so much stuff whole-cloth. And the pop culture references that made their way into the TOSE translations were utterly lost on me 9 times out of 10.

In addition, it's fascinating to see that the original US version ("Final Fantasy II") was actually fairly accurate for its time! Will wonders never cease?

And, as any FFIV player worth their salt knows, there is much well-documented research into the fact that the Bard is, in fact, spoony. biggrin.gif

--------------------
X is blue.
Post #207730
Top
0 User(s) are reading this topic (0 Guests and 0 Anonymous Users)
0 Members: