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Ramidel Since: Jan, 2001
#2901: Sep 7th 2023 at 3:08:58 AM

I think the change in Kefka is because Ted Woolsey figured that American audiences would have a different idea of "funny" than Japanese audiences. A pure Manchild character is popular in Japan, but goes over like a lead balloon in America, so he grabbed some Joker comics and sprinkled them into Kefka's dialogue. The result is the Kefka we Americans know - a nihilistic fountain of mockery.

Prescient of him, I think.

RedHunter543 Crimson Paladin Since: Jul, 2016 Relationship Status: Barbecuing
Crimson Paladin
#2902: Sep 7th 2023 at 3:10:27 AM

Heck, even his English dub actor goes for a Mark Hamill Joker while adding his own style.

"The Black Rage makes us strong, because we must resist its temptations every day of our lives or be forever damned!"
Zendervai Since: Oct, 2009
#2903: Sep 7th 2023 at 3:17:30 AM

Super Mario RPG has an...unusual translation too.

It's very obvious the Square translators had no idea how different the official enemy names were in English. Combine that with shit like Yo'ster Isle and it can be a lot more surreal than intended.

RedHunter543 Crimson Paladin Since: Jul, 2016 Relationship Status: Barbecuing
Crimson Paladin
#2904: Sep 7th 2023 at 3:18:32 AM

Yeah, Culex is an entirely different character in English.

I’m very curious if the remake will keep the old script or change it to be more faithful.

"The Black Rage makes us strong, because we must resist its temptations every day of our lives or be forever damned!"
Mizerous Pet Owner from Hell Since: Oct, 2013 Relationship Status: Brewing the love potion
Pet Owner
#2905: Sep 7th 2023 at 4:28:32 AM

I hope the Power Rangers errr Axem Rangers remain funny.

Just Makima.
RedHunter543 Crimson Paladin Since: Jul, 2016 Relationship Status: Barbecuing
Crimson Paladin
#2906: Sep 7th 2023 at 4:43:29 AM

I'm just glad they kept Bowser as a name.

"The Black Rage makes us strong, because we must resist its temptations every day of our lives or be forever damned!"
Zendervai Since: Oct, 2009
#2907: Sep 7th 2023 at 4:49:42 AM

[up][up][up] Oh, I don't even mean Culex. The thing about the Mario games is that a lot of the incidental enemies have totally different names in English and Japanese. The translation for Super Mario RPG got the really, really iconic ones (like the goombas), but a lot of the ones where the names don't really come up anywhere outside of the manuals (and sometimes not even then), the names are radically different.

Square did that before too. They got contracted to translate the first Breath of Fire and changed a bunch of the names there too, but that seems to be related mostly to character limits. And then of course, Capcom did the translation of Breath of Fire II in house and...well, that one's infamous for a reason.

RedHunter543 Crimson Paladin Since: Jul, 2016 Relationship Status: Barbecuing
Crimson Paladin
#2908: Sep 7th 2023 at 4:52:20 AM

Yeah I was just commenting on the change to Culex.

The Nok Nok shell is a good example of what you are talking about. Kid me was confused on why a Koopa shell was called that.

Edited by RedHunter543 on Sep 7th 2023 at 7:52:43 PM

"The Black Rage makes us strong, because we must resist its temptations every day of our lives or be forever damned!"
ObligatorySarcasm Since: Aug, 2016
#2909: Sep 7th 2023 at 5:14:00 AM

I wish Square would just stick with a translated term for an enemy/item/ability that recurs in the series instead of giving it a new name each game. It's weird going to a FF Wiki and seeing an entry for an ability and the opening paragraph is "-ability-, also known as X, also known as Y, also known as Z, also known as A, also known as B, also known as C," etc.

-Witty line-
Zendervai Since: Oct, 2009
#2910: Sep 7th 2023 at 5:16:11 AM

I think at this point, it's mostly settled with the exceptions being cases where the setting has distinct terminology rules. It's just a lot of older translations that didn't pay much attention to consistency. It even took a bit for the various magic spell levels to settle down.

ObligatorySarcasm Since: Aug, 2016
#2911: Sep 7th 2023 at 5:25:52 AM

Even recent games get hit with this. Despite being a standard ability for many games, KHIII inexplicably decides to drop Once More and call it Withstand Combo instead. And that series' constantly flip flop with high magic levels.

-Witty line-
Zendervai Since: Oct, 2009
#2912: Sep 7th 2023 at 5:32:52 AM

The Tales series has that problem too, but there, it sounds like Namco Bandai goes with different translation companies for different games lately and doesn't give them a full terminology sheet. So when someone who is familiar with the series is involved, they can look at older games and match the terms, but when that isn't the case, you get a bunch of attack names kind of drifting around that all sorta mean the same thing but have different names depending on the game.

It sounds like Zestiria was the worst for this.

I guess some degree of drift is to be expected, especially when the English term isn't actually a translation and is more of a replacement and no one told the translation team that, but it does feel weird when there's a really iconic attack name that's just...wrong.

Granted, with Final Fantasy, some of the attacks kinda drift in general. Like, what Ultima actually is tends to change from game to game. Holy has this issue too.

Edited by Zendervai on Sep 7th 2023 at 8:42:43 AM

ObligatorySarcasm Since: Aug, 2016
#2913: Sep 7th 2023 at 5:50:08 AM

Like in FFXIII with Hope's Last Resort limit break, and I'm thinking "Wait....isn't that just Holy?"

At least in early games, it's explained because of censorship, so we get Fade, White and Pearl instead of Holy. Although, I'm surprised they just didn't go with Light instead.

-Witty line-
Steven (Edited uphill both ways) Relationship Status: YOU'RE TEARING ME APART LISA
#2914: Sep 7th 2023 at 7:46:45 AM

Speaking of inconsistent naming, Final Fantasy XIV has their iconic spells (Fire, Blizzard, Thunder, and Cure) named differently depending on which language the game is set to. In English, the spells get numbers added to their names (Fire, Fire II, Fire III, Fire IV for example), which brings to mind how the spells were named (or numbered in this case) in the older Final Fantasy games. In Japanese (and I think in other languages too?), the spells use the -ra, -aga, -aja suffixes (Cure, Cura, Curaga, Curaja), which are based on more "recent" Final Fantasy titles (everything from Final Fantasy VIII and beyond).

The devs even explained why the English version of XIV got numbers for some of its spells; they believed players would find it easier to understand. However, we still get cases where some players think that a spell with a 2 is "better" than spell 1 because in the old games, spell 2 was stronger than spell 1. In this case, only Cure II is actually stronger than Cure while Thunder II, Fire II, and Blizzard II are weaker than the base spells because they're AOE instead of single target. This also extends to Cure III, which is not better than Cure II and restores slightly less HP than it because Cure III is an AOE heal spell.

...just reading this confuses me and I been playing the game for 10 years![lol]

Remember, these idiots drive, fuck, and vote. Not always in that order.
ObligatorySarcasm Since: Aug, 2016
#2915: Sep 7th 2023 at 8:13:50 AM

I think its time we revolutionize the magic spells tiers. It's time for......decimals.

Fire 2.3 is stronger than Ice 3.1 but average damage to Thunder 0.4 and advantageously disadvantaged to Water -3.14.

-Witty line-
Steven (Edited uphill both ways) Relationship Status: YOU'RE TEARING ME APART LISA
#2916: Sep 7th 2023 at 8:40:59 AM

Fuck that, let's use decimals AND percentages.

Remember, these idiots drive, fuck, and vote. Not always in that order.
KuroBaraHime ☆♥☆ Since: Jan, 2011
☆♥☆
#2917: Sep 7th 2023 at 12:12:14 PM

In English, the spells get numbers added to their names (Fire, Fire II, Fire III, Fire IV for example), which brings to mind how the spells were named (or numbered in this case) in the older Final Fantasy games. In Japanese (and I think in other languages too?), the spells use the -ra, -aga, -aja suffixes (Cure, Cura, Curaga, Curaja), which are based on more "recent" Final Fantasy titles (everything from Final Fantasy VIII and beyond).
Just to add in case it's unclear, adding numbers to the ends of spell names was only a thing the English versions of old FF games (I, IV, VI, and VII). Adding the -ra and -ga suffixes has always been for spell names in Japanese since the very beginning.

And even once the English names started being more faithful with VIII, there's a lot of weirdness and inconsistencies with the localization of spells across FF games. Like it took a few games for them to actually the Gravity spells that instead of changing it to Demi, or Libra would still sometimes get changed to Scan. And the uses of suffixes would be different, a big being the -ja suffix and especially the Cure line. The -ja suffix was first a thing in Tactics as a higher level over -ga. Mainline games started using it, but it doesn't fit well with the "rule" that spells name be 4 kana characters long (because ja ジャ is two characters, while ra ラ and ga ガ are one) so it's usually only used in enemy attack names not available to the player.

But the English versions started using it for the Cure line in some games. In I, III, IV, and XII there's four levels of Cure, which in Japanese are Cure, Cura, Curada, and Curaga. For some reason instead of leaving it as is, the English localizers wanted to keep it "consistent" with Tactics on having -ja be the strongest level, so they renamed Curada and Curaga into Curaga and Curaja. And then there's XIII, which has four levels of Cure available to the player and a higher level only available to summon. In Japanese these are Cure, Cura, Cura, Curada, and Curaga. I said Cura twice because of one of them uses a different kana spelling only previously used back in I (ケアルア kearua) while the other uses the standard spelling from III onward (ケアルラ kearura). The English version decided to rename these into Cure, Cura, Curasa, Curaja, and Curaga.

And then there's also the Kingdom Hearts games with it's own weirdness, where they sometimes have spells at a higher level than -ga, but instead of using -ja the Japanese version uses -gan/-gun. But for some reason the English localization has decided to change this to -za.

ObligatorySarcasm Since: Aug, 2016
#2918: Sep 7th 2023 at 12:18:37 PM

I can see why with the Cure change, as it would be weird that -ga is tier 3 for the black magic but then tier 4 for the white magic.

-Witty line-
Ayumi-chan 3rd happiest man in Connecticut from Iacon City (Experienced Trainee) Relationship Status: I like big bots and I can not lie
3rd happiest man in Connecticut
#2919: Sep 7th 2023 at 9:26:07 PM

So I’ve been wanting to play Rhapsody: A Musical Adventure since the Marl Kingdom Chronicles are now out. But a question, is it necessary to play the first game before the others? Because I can’t find the prinny classics versions where I live (at least at a cheap price).

She/Her | Currently cleaning: N/A
Nofix from Over there Since: Jan, 2015
#2920: Sep 8th 2023 at 12:25:28 AM

I've finished The Last Story on Wii.

It's pretty good. The best point of comparison I can think of is fellow Operation Rainfall game Xenoblade Chronicles 1. The combat is fast, energetic, and has just enough mechanics to be deep and involved without making it impossible to remember everything. I say this as someone who prefers turn based RPGs to action ones. In fact, I was a bit afraid going into it there was going to be a whole lot of mechanics to keep track of, and min-maxing, and grinding, and all manner of thing to drive the experience into the ground, but nope.

The story isn't nearly as novel and unique as XBC1, but it's still mostly fun to go through. It helps that the characters are entertaining and charming, if predictable at times. The middle third did drag...a lot, and was the bad, uninteresting kind of cliché (as opposed to the rest of the story, which is mostly the good kind of cliché, at least in my eyes). There was a few plot twists that were reasonably hinted at, hidden between the others that had giant klaxon sirens blaring.

One of the best things about game is how it is very reasonably paced and fair to the player. Even with me exploring a lot of the town, doing the side chapters, upgrading my gear, and listening to the character's optional dialogue, I still beat the game in under 30 hours. That's nuts for a JRPG. Mistwalker cut a lot of the fat that the genre it known for, which helps smooth over a lot of the small issues with the game that might drag over a longer period.

It also helps that there is basically no grinding. There's set enemy locations in each chapter, but enemies don't give you EXP when you go back to explore beaten areas, only loot. The game is designed to be of a very reasonably difficulty. You can and will die to some bosses if you're not engaging with the mechanics, haven't upgraded your equipment in a while, or don't fully pick up on what they want from you, but it's rarely ever just a pure numbers game.

The rare grinding spot (and they are much rarer than I anticipated) is one where you push a button, a single wave of enemies spawn, you kill them, and collect a good chunk of EXP. Since and repeat until you get bored or they stop giving EXP. The level curve is also very particular in how it works. Characters that are behind, sometimes by dozens of levels, are basically guaranteed to rocket up to meet with their companions in just as many fights. Is Rubber Band EXP Curve a trope? Either way, it helps keep characters who are gone for long periods of time relevant. And yes, every character is relevant in one way or another.

Oh yeah, another thing I love, the partner AI. You'll be fighting with up to 5 AI partners at any given time, and they can actually hold their own. While you're off in one corner killing some enemies, they're running around the room killing others, healing themselves, casting magic for you to utilize, just generally being useful. You can actually expect your 5 party members to pull their weight. After playing a game like the original Ni no Kuni, where you have to do 95% of the work despite having 2 AI partners to """"help"""" you, it's a really noticeable and appreciated design choice.

This game has a lot of little things that help make the experience that much better. It's a fun romp, one I highly recommend. I hope the game gets ported or remade one day so more people can play it. It won't set the world on fire, but it's very good 7 or 8 out of 10 game.

Zendervai Since: Oct, 2009
#2921: Sep 8th 2023 at 4:43:39 AM

[up][up] I don't think you need it (especially for the second one), but it helps fill in the gaps. And the third game kinda assumes you played the other two.

Nofix from Over there Since: Jan, 2015
#2922: Sep 15th 2023 at 6:05:43 AM

Everytime an RPG, remake, and especially RPG remake comes to Switch, my dream of a Digital Devil Saga remake grows ever more likely.

Admittedly it's in increments of .1%, or .3% in the case of games like Baten Kaitos and TTYD, but still.

darkabomination Since: Mar, 2012
#2923: Sep 15th 2023 at 9:17:40 AM

Rhapsody also has really nice English dubbed songs, in a time where good voice acting on the Playstation was rare to come by, let alone good singing. I'm really bummed the sequels don't dub their numbers.

Zendervai Since: Oct, 2009
#2924: Sep 15th 2023 at 9:23:08 AM

I do get why though. Dubbing music is hard and time consuming and you generally need slightly different equipment for singing than for speaking.

Ayumi-chan 3rd happiest man in Connecticut from Iacon City (Experienced Trainee) Relationship Status: I like big bots and I can not lie
3rd happiest man in Connecticut
#2925: Sep 15th 2023 at 8:39:59 PM

Kinoko Nasu (of Nasurverse fame) plays Ys X and has a convo with Toshihiro Kondo (Link is in Japanese)

Well this some pleasantly surprising news.

She/Her | Currently cleaning: N/A

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