Beacause [VII Retranslation Project]

[Claymore]

Apologies if there is a thread about this already, but I just saw a brilliant write up on Eurogamer about the history of the game and its original translation, as well as a new translation project which has just reached its conclusion. If you have time, do give this a read. Quite interesting stuff. Qhimm houses the retranslated work.

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2...ve-years-retranslating-all-of-final-fantasy-7

 

[Obsidian Fire]

*snicker*

So he finally finished it.

I remember some of the discussions we had with that guy on here... at the time they made for a very entertaining read. And some of those posts ended up being the most-thanked posts in the history of the forum at that time...

 

[Lex]

We're very aware of it. I actually worked on it myself. Cait Sith's Scottish dialogue.

EDIT: Actually, I'm indirectly mentioned in that article

Cait Sith is one of Final Fantasy 7's most-loved characters. He is a cat riding a giant stuffed toy Moogle (wait... Moguri!) who works as a fun-loving fortune-teller in the fabulous Gold Saucer location. The original PSone version of Final Fantasy 7 included unaccented Cait Sith dialogue. But it turns out Cait Sith is Scottish.

Cait Sith is in fact based on the Cat Sìth fairy creature from Celtic mythology. It's said to resemble a large black cat with a white spot on its breast, and haunts the Scottish Highlands.

Helpfully, a Scot who came across the Beacause project on the Qhimm forum offered to help Burke add a shot of Scotch to Cait Sith's dialogue. So, for example, instead of Cait Sith saying, "Oh damn,", he instead says, "Och!" "To" is now "Tae".

This change makes one section of Final Fantasy 7, considered for some time to be nonsensical, sensical. The original intention was that Reeve, the Shinra employee who uses Cait Sith to spy on Cloud's party, is the one with the Scottish accent. Reeve uses it when controlling poor Cait Sith to disguise the fact he's working for Shinra. While at Shinra, Reeve defaults to his normal accent, whatever that may be.

 

[Tetsujin]

He gets an article to himself? Did he actually do anything worthwhile other than boss people around to do the work for him?

 

[Ⓐaron]

He gets an article to himself? Did he actually do anything worthwhile other than boss people around to do the work for him?

You could say they were... *puts on shades* ...his flunkies.

YEEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!

 

[ForceStealer]

Burke welcomes positive criticism, in fact... "I'm not against changing my mind. I'm not rigid that I'm going to browbeat people and say, I've done it this way, go away. If they've got a good reason for it, I'm not against changing it."

Anyway, watching that before and after clip, it's the same problem as before. Some of the changes are welcome - like a distinguishing accent for Reeve/Cait Sith - and really make things work better. But so many other lines became completely sterile transliterations with no feeling behind them. To say nothing of his own weird idiosyncracies. As the article itself points out, why insist on going with Moguri? If you want a serious transliteration, why isn't it Molebat? Or, just make it Moogle as is the established norm direct from Square?

I also see the article, in referring to Cait Sith as a "most-loved" character, avoided any diatribes about how he breaks fiction and that Burke was simultaneously creating a mod to write Cait Sith out of the plot entirely.

 

[Strangelove]

holy shit the nostalgia in this thread

 

[Obsidian Fire]

^^A nostalgia trip was inevitable...

 

[robotwarui]

Hate to admit it, but I'm already understanding parts of the plot better.

 

[Cthulhu]

The person in there is ill.





LAME

 

[Ⓐaron]

That is pretty lame. It's like retranslating FFIV without "you spoony bard".

 

[ultima espio]

You'd think he was a celebrity. Did they take him for a photo shoot? xD

 

[ForceStealer]

The person in there is ill.





LAME

lol, but even ignoring the infamy of the original error, "The person in there is ill?" Who talks like that?

 

[ultima espio]

Just noticed the title says "beacause, not because"

 

[The Twilight Mexican]

lol, but even ignoring the infamy of the original error, "The person in there is ill?" Who talks like that?

Ailith, his version of Aerith.

 

[Strangelove]

that's not even more literal based on the original line (ここの人、病気みたいなの = [the] person here looks sick/ill). 'this guy looks ill/sick' feels like a better choice

i don't know if perhaps some changes grew out of a desire to differentiate it from the original, so some lines end up more different from the original translation that they really needed to be in order to make it distinct

 

[Novus]

I'd love a non hd copy of the game in its original psx format with the obvious spelling errors corrected. But most of the other stuff, like 'last elixir' (instead of megalixer) ect to be left alone.

 

[Ite]

Ailith, his version of Aerith.

*Aeris

 

[SirVival]

Oh I remember this too. What the fuck am I doing with my time???

That aside, I'm so happy that someone actually followed through with a project, eventhough he appears to be a bit whiny about it - Never again, he says. That's great, it shows some winning personality! Though spending 5 years for a project such as this one and being burned out afterwards sounds just, ehm, like it could be a waste of time? I really hope he gets some credit for his efforts and that he would have the courtesy to thank everyone here for their contribution, whoever of you were involved. I was not, probably because I didn't care. Double checking - yeah, still don't care. I do appreciate the effort though, great job, I guess.

 

[Cthulhu]

Thanks for the counterpoint Sir, projects like this - even if the person doing it is considered kind of a dick by some and some choices made are considered wtf-y - still deserve some credit.

Five years + burnout for a game with uhhh... actually how much text does it have again? IDK, but you could probably read through all of it within the hour, maybe two - is quite a lot. Then again, if you argue about every sentence, it could stretch out.

 

[Tetsujin]

IDK, but you could probably read through all of it within the hour, maybe two

Uh, I think you're vastly underestimating how much dialogue the game has.

 

[cold_spirit]

Although DLPB's choices and personality has clashed with others, it's the only kind of personality that would be stubborn enough to actually finish the daunting task of re-translating the game. What he produced may not have been what you wanted, but it's the only thing you're going to get, so I find it hard to complain. Even I disagree with some of his decisions, but overall I am very thankful for his work and look forward to experiencing the literal script. I also think that it's really sad that the dude was bullied by people around the internet. Why gamers feel the need to shut down another person's passion project is beyond me.

IDK, but you could probably read through all of it within the hour, maybe two - is quite a lot. Then again, if you argue about every sentence, it could stretch out.

I think it's much larger than that. Unless you're a REALLY fast reader.

 

[The Twilight Mexican]

I don't remember him being bullied, at least not here. I remember him asking for help, then several of us (me, Lex and hito, for sure) agreeing to help, then him being a jerk to basically everyone, and then everyone telling him to fuck off.

I agree that it would take a very stubborn mind to stick with that kind of project, but Shademp has that kind of mind and he is such a not-jerk that I give Daniel no pass whatsoever.

 

[Ⓐaron]

I will confirm what Tres said. We still have the thread where he came to the board here. It's not very difficult to see him being a dick to... basically the entire board before anyone was a dick to him. I observed a similar pattern at qhimm, although I did not spend anywhere near as much time at that board.

I will also add that he's the only person I can think of to receive permabans from this board on two separate occasions, and he richly deserved both of them.

 

[ForceStealer]

Really, the fact that he could turn the entire board against him on the topic of disliking Advent Children - when at least half of the members don't even like the movie, pretty much sums up the point.