Script translation up on GameFAQs (*massive spoilers, obviously*)

[curiousACfan]

Someone who calls theirself MinoSpelgud has translated almost the whole game: http://www.gamefaqs.com/portable/psp/file/939394/55511

Their translation so far includes all of the voiced cutscenes (Destiny Odyssey I-X and Shade Impulse). Apparently new translations of the battle quotes will follow soon.

I'm honestly not sure if I understand the story yet. The nature of the cycle they were living through is still unclear to me.

 

[Ryushikaze]

Spiffy. Some of this is hilarious, like Cloud saying that he might just be chasing the wind, in a nod to Calling again. In jokes are gloriously in-jokey.

 

[ForceStealer]

Yeah I saw that, what's kinda inconvenient about it is that it seems to be transcribed chronologically rather than by character, although, maybe that is chronological? But it sorta makes it hard to find the character you're currently playing as.

 

[Strangelove]

It is taken from the Theatre mode listing rather than while playing the game from the looks of it, although it does include a list of which scenes make up who's story. It'd be nice if there was a code (DOI, DOVI, etc) you could search for to find specific character's scenes more easily.

Although, from just comparing with what I can remember, there are several error that change the meaning of the lines reather substantially.

 

[Ryushikaze]

I noticed a few of those, yes. They had 'I don't want to meet you again' instead of 'You're not the one I want to meet', and a few other differences.

Just so long as none of them cock up the Sephy/ Golby dialogue about him getting burned by going to close to the light and I can keep my mental image of bugzappered Golby, I'm good.

 

[Makoeyes987]

I like the Shade Impulse translations but I'm kinda miffed at the whole error regarding Warrior of Light and Sephiroth.

 

[curiousACfan]

Which error is that, Mako?

And, yeah, you guys are right that some of this differs from what we've seen in other translations. For the most part, though, it seems consistent.

In any case, it's nice to have all of it in one FAQ. The unvoiced dialogue is apparently going to get translated as well.

 

[Makoeyes987]

It's the dialogue that happens after Warrior of Light fights Sephiroth.

Sephiroth: Impressive. You're the only one other than him to defeat me.

Warrior: What on earth are you....

Sephiroth: Let me ask you one thing.

Sephiroth: Why have you taken up that sword?

The translation in the faq somehow has it backwards.

 

[curiousACfan]

It's still in the right order in the FAQ:

Sephiroth: Well done. However...

Sephiroth: Is the only one who can defeat me that guy after all?

WoL: What are you saying...?

Sephiroth: I have a query.

Sephiroth: Why do you wield a sword and fight?

The FAQ also has the correct translation of that first part. Seph said Cloud's the only one who could beat him, not that WoL had beaten him as well.

 

[Makoeyes987]

No, that's what I'm saying. That's wrong.

Sephiroth says WoL beat him as well as "that guy." Thats the whole contention I have with that translation.

 

[curiousACfan]

Oh, it's definitely correct. Here, this is the line in Japanese: "????????—???????????????
." You can see really clear subtitles of it here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EX2r-M035Cg&fmt=18

Sephiroth's first line there has been correct in all translations, but it's pretty easy to translate: "Dai shi ta mo no da ga." "Dai" means "large" or "great," so that sentence means "not bad, but..." or "impressive, but...".

His next line is where we see a difference: "Watashi wo tou se ru no ha"; the "ha" (pronounced "wa&quot here identifies the preceding clause as the subject of the sentence. "Watashi" is "I" or "me," while "wo" is the identifier for an object that an action is being effected upon or toward. The kanji after that -- "tou" -- means "to topple" or "overthrow." Basically, "to defeat."

In other words, the subject of the sentence is "Defeating me."

Next line: "ya ha ri ya tsu da ke ka." "Yahari" is "after all," or "apparently," or "of course" -- with the context that it's what the speaker expected. The kanji here -- "yatsu" -- refers to a male "guy" basically, and we know that's Cloud.

The sentence ends in "ka," so it seems to be a question he's musing outloud, as if to himself. This would fit MinoSpelgud's interpretation of the scene. Basically, it means: "Defeating me is that guy's, as expected?"

MinoSpelgud and myself aren't the only ones to interpret that line like this, by the way. The YouTube translator sinnesspiel -- who seems to have given up on their project -- did as well:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8-CEDT8y6pg&fmt=18

Schala-Kitty's a great translator, and I hope it doesn't seem like I'm trying to suggest otherwise. She just got this one line wrong as far as I know.

 

[Strangelove]

[quote author=curiousACfan link=topic=414.msg11696#msg11696 date=1233094265]"Dai shi ta mo no da ga."[/QUOTE]
'Taishita mono'

??? [taoseru] is the potential form of 'taosu', so would be 'able to defeat'.

I agree with the '[Cloud's] the only one who can defeat me' take on it. I think he basically says something like that in Kingdom Hearts II as well.

EDIT; having checked it, KHII:
Jpn: ???????????????????????????????????
Eng: I admit you're very skilled... But apparently Cloud is the only one who can eliminate me.

The wording is different, but it says basically the same thing.

 

[curiousACfan]

[quote author=hitoshura link=topic=414.msg11886#msg11886 date=1233134403]
[quote author=curiousACfan link=topic=414.msg11696#msg11696 date=1233094265]"Dai shi ta mo no da ga."[/QUOTE]
'Taishita mono'[/quote]

Thanks. I wasn't sure which he was saying since both "tai" and "dai" can become that kanji. Since he used "tai" in KHII, though, then it's probably the case here as well.

[quote author=hitoshura link=topic=414.msg11886#msg11886 date=1233134403]I agree with the '[Cloud's] the only one who can defeat me' take on it. I think he basically says something like that in Kingdom Hearts II as well.

EDIT; having checked it, KHII:
Jpn: ???????????????????????????????????
Eng: I admit you're very skilled... But apparently Cloud is the only one who can eliminate me.

The wording is different, but it says basically the same thing.
[/quote]

And thanks also for looking that up. I'd thought about hunting that line down but didn't bother.


So definitely Seph doesn't say WoL beat him. If that's the only point of contention you had with MinoSpelgud's translation, Mako, hopefully you'll like it more now.

Ryushikaze, though, did bring up a valid mistake in there: Cloud actually says "The one I really want to meet is—" not "I never want to meet you again."

While the second line sounds cooler, the first actually ties into the ending.

 

[Ryushikaze]

Well, if the ending is a reference to anything other than the Dream he adopts from Firi, that is. Similarly, I'm suspecting the feather Squall catches is actually related to his wanting to work with the other warriors, in a callback to the feather Bartz gives him that symbolizes how he's 'with' the group even though he works alone and is later used to locate Bartz.

I'm pretty sure Tina's 'bead' is also a flower seed, referring to her adopting Firi's dream.
Cecil's moon is his wish that Golbez can eventually overcome his own demons and join Cecil as his brother again, etc.
They all seem to be internal, not external references.

 

[Makoeyes987]

@curiousACfan

Thanks for clearing that up then, I stand corrected.

@Ryushikaze

Yeah, but the feather's white...and white feathers have always been connected to Rinoa and him returning to their special spot to meet in FFVIII. A grubby chocobo feather isn't the same a beautiful angelic one. Each of the items they're holding in the ending is a reference to their individual games.

And what bead are you talking about?

 

[Ryushikaze]

The other items people are holding are their respective crystals, though, which they all already had. He just grabs that feather out of nowhere in the ending. It could be 'hey guys I'm going home to the woman', but since Cecil gets nothing of the sort, I refuse to allow anyone else to have any nookie.
Seriously, though, given there aren't any other references to Rinoa or anything else FFVIII in the game, it seemed just a bit more likely for it to refer to an internal fact.
In either case, I'm calling the field as being partly 'his' too.

I refer to the item seen in Tina's hand that has a sort of pinkish glow in the ending.

 

[Makoeyes987]

Isn't that item Terra's crystal? It's supposed to be Magicite. It looks like a 3D render of magicite from FFVI.

And I can see what you're saying about the white feather but I think with all the references to each of their worlds and them going back, it'd make a lot more sense for the feather to be the game's Rinoa reference. White feathers and FFVIII just go hand in hand.

 

[curiousACfan]

I'm in agreement with Mako on the feather being a reference to Rinoa. As you said, Ryu, the field of flowers Cloud disappears in even appears at first behind Squall.

So, him holding a white feather with a flower field as his background? Definitely a reference to Rinoa and his promise with her.

Isn't that item Terra's crystal? It's supposed to be Magicite. It looks like a 3D render of magicite from FFVI.

He means this little thing in her palm:

http://img144.imageshack.us/img144/9052/snowflakebe0.jpg

I'm not sure what it is, but since it appears to melt, my guess is a snowflake. Perhaps a reference to Narshe.

Anyway, as for the flower field, it does tie into the conversations Cloud had about flowers with Firion and Terra, sure, but it's obviously the flower field from Advent Children. I'm pretty sure that ties it and the quote we're discussing back to Aeris.

When he says "The one I really want to meet is—" he looks up. The last time Cloud was in that scenery (that pit in the Northern Cave) and looked up, Aeris' hand was coming down.

Then, of course, there's the "I think I can find her there" line in the original game, as well as the matter of meeting Aeris in a flower field again during AC.

I'm definitely no fan of an Aeris-Cloud pairing, but all of those were clearly Aeris references. They need not be taken as romantic, though.

Presumably, all of this happened for Cloud between the original game and AC, when Cloud was still feeling guilty over her and Zack's deaths. He did want to meet Aeris again so that he could apologize for not being able to save her:

Aerith: You came! Even though you're about to break. That's a good sign.

Aerith: So, why did you come?

Cloud: I think ... I want to be forgiven, more than anything.

...

Cloud: But, I let you die.

 

[Ryushikaze]

When he says "The one I really want to meet is—" he looks up. The last time Cloud was in that scenery (that pit in the Northern Cave) and looked up, Aeris' hand was coming down.

I'm still amused that the UO refers to it as just 'the hand in the light'.

Then, of course, there's the "I think I can find her there" line in the original game, as well as the matter of meeting Aeris in a flower field again during AC.

Oh, I HATE that mistranslation. It's a reasonable compromise from the original to English, but still.

The 'More than anything' irks me too. Was it so hard to fit 'Yeah, I want to be forgiven' into english?

Then there's shilly shally. Was having Tifa just say 'dragging and dragging' too hard?

Yeah, I get reasoning behind those references, and they all make sense and I admit the possibility, but again, it irks me to just have references like that without anything beforehand, especially the Squall/Rinoa

 

[Makoeyes987]

Maybe there's some other references to Rinoa in the game that just haven't been translated it? Who knows.

And what was the original translation of "I think I can find her there" supposed to be? I've forgotten and I don't know where to look to find it.

 

[curiousACfan]

[quote author=Ryushikaze link=topic=414.msg12134#msg12134 date=1233181802]
The 'More than anything' irks me too. Was it so hard to fit 'Yeah, I want to be forgiven' into english?[/quote]

I didn't care for that either.

[quote author=Ryushikaze link=topic=414.msg12134#msg12134 date=1233181802]Then there's shilly shally. Was having Tifa just say 'dragging and dragging' too hard?[/quote]

Agreed.

[quote author=Ryushikaze link=topic=414.msg12134#msg12134 date=1233181802]Yeah, I get reasoning behind those references, and they all make sense and I admit the possibility, but again, it irks me to just have references like that without anything beforehand, especially the Squall/Rinoa
[/quote]

Well, half of each character's story is references to past games, so it's to be expected. It's a fan service title, after all.

And what was the original translation of "I think I can find her there" supposed to be? I've forgotten and I don't know where to look to find it.

The original English version used "I think I can meet her there," while the English translation of Reminiscence used "I think I can find her there."

The original line was "???....????????," which ? due to a lack of context in the sentence itself ? would translate literally as "There....I can meet [it], I think."

Honestly, if not for the English translations using "her," I wouldn't have known that it was referring to Aeris. Maybe it was clearer to a Japanese audience, but I would have looked to Cloud's previous sentence to determine what the "[it]" he was talking about meeting is. And that would have been no help.

 

[MinoSpelgud]

Hey, everyone. MinoSpelgud here. I was referred to this board by the people at GameFAQs. As I was browsing through, it seems there are people in this thread that have spotted translation errors in my scripts. If it's not asking too much, could you guys point them out to me, please? I included my e-mail in the fact so that the Japanese-saavy readers could send me my mistakes. As for the instances with the lines exchanged between WoL and Sephiroth that were correctly translated but conflict with a previous translation, don't bother. But if you know that it's actually different from the actual Japanese lines, then please do.

Also, about my translations for the Cosmos and Chaos Reports, those were quickly thrown together in a day, so of course I intend to polish those up a lot.

Thanks, everyone! =)

 

[MinoSpelgud]

I went back to take a look at the "I never want to meet you again/You're not the one I want to meet" line. I remember at the time, thinking as a localizer, I didn't want to make any unproven assumptions, so I picked a line that would make sense and match the context. Since there's a lot of disagreement on it, I was considering changing it to "Cloud: The one I really want to meet is her..." Sure, to fans this would make sense, but to the casual English speaker, I feel like this is a bad flow of dialogue.

Sephiroth: We shall meet again, Cloud.

Sephiroth: No matter how much you think you're in control, I will always be
controlling you...

*Sephiroth disappears.*

Cloud: Mind your own business.

Cloud: The one I really want to meet is her...

In a literary perspective, it seems too random and tangent to relate to the current dialogue. I mean, Sephiroth and Cloud are talking about being bound together and Cloud finding his own purpose, and Cloud's ending line is he wants to meet Aeris? That's just bad dialogue... But lemme know what you guys think.

 

[Ryushikaze]

There is no object in the original sentence, I'd leave it without object in the translation. ESPECIALLY if you want to avoid unproven assumptions.

 

[curiousACfan]

I agree with Ryushikaze on that. I'd leave it as an incomplete sentence, because that's how it was in Japanese (the little dash there signifies that it just cuts off, right?). So, just "The one really I want to meet is ..." would probably be best.