Translation Train Wreck: Final Fantasy VII in Spain

[Super Mario]

I was browsing tv tropes just now on Translation Train Wreck and they claim that Sony has published a very pastiche and crappy localization of spanish of FFVII back in the day. Tell me, is this for real? Like how they describe Tifa's pub as a "Storage room", Aeris/Aerith being a boy AND girl in one sentence and redundant lines such as " Flowers don't grow in Midgar, but, for some reason, flowers do " ????

 

[Dashell]

I was browsing tv tropes just now on Translation Train Wreck and they claim that Sony has published a very pastiche and crappy localization of spanish of FFVII back in the day. Tell me, is this for real? Like how they describe Tifa's pub as a "Storage room", Aeris/Aerith being a boy AND girl in one sentence and redundant lines such as " Flowers don't grow in Midgar, but, for some reason, flowers do " ????

This reminds me of something I saw on tumblr:

-Oh the weather outside is weather

But the fire is so fire

Sense we’ve got no place to place

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow-

 

[Strangelove]

urge to play the spanish version rising

 

[Alex Strife]

Yes. It's all true. I can vouch for that.

As for the boy/girl thing, in Spanish you differentiate the adjectives depending on whether you apply them to a boy or a girl. So you'd say a boy is "contento" (happy) but a girl is "contenta".

Usually, this type of mistake happens when you hire a translator who's not even seeing the game. Nowadays this is unthinkable but back in the day, it was easier to hire a "translator" than hiring a "videogame translator". Then, the translator writes something assuming a character is a boy when in fact it's a girl.


I should one day play FFVII and write down all the silly stuff I see. Shame I have little time to do it, but it'd be real fun!

 

[Strangelove]

i have played about thirty minutes and have noticed some bad grammar/punctuation (lolol like i would notice spanish grammar mistakes)

is 'no. 1' right?

'1er' seems more french but idk

this thread is now me asking spanish questions

 

[Alex Strife]

Actually, "1er" is correct... except for the fact it should use the tiny, elevated letters. But I doubt the game had the necessary fonts to do that so .

Indeed you'd say "no. 1" with no capital letter... unless "Number 1" was a name of its own. As it's not, then it's wrong. I love the "Elemento" instead of "Objeto", which is the word we use for items in every other Final Fantasy game.

Also, HP (Hit Points) are always translated as "Puntos de vida" (Life Points) in Spanish, but they translated it as "Puntos de Golpe" (PG), which is, almost literally... points that belong to the "hitting" concept. It makes one think it's an offensive meter and not your life points.

This game in Spanish is really quirky.

 

[Tetsujin]

Sounds like it might be even worse than the German translation.

 

[Shademp]

I recently dived into the Spanish PC version via Makou Reactor and found that the "hint" for the second dial number in the Shinra Mansion is not so much a hint as it is...outright stating where the number is found.

I just now had great fun reading the French, Spanish and German PC2012 versions via Makou Reactor. In these, none of the piano keys are broken. The hint for the second dial is also different.

Spoiler

I think the French and German hints reflect closer what the Japanese version says, but I could be wrong.

*google translate*

French:
Ivoire et Ebène = Ivory and Ebony

German:
Hinter Schwarz und Weiß ohne Himmel = Background black and white without the sky
(Not sure if Himmel is a reference to the pianist Friedrich Heinrich Himmel)

Spanish:
Detrás del piano = Behind the piano


Spanish version...I love you.

 

[Alex Strife]

Translators thought Spanish people are dumber and would not understand the concept of Ivory and Ebony on a piano.

Sad thing is I agree with them.

 

[Strangelove]

they must have been thinking 'qué diablos es este mierda riddles, no hay nadie que hay tiempo para eso'

only in proper spanish and not bad translation spanish

 

[Glaurung]

That infamous "Cliente, cliente, cliente!" is still seared into my eyes after more than ten years. It was meant to say "Custom, custom, custom!". I hate when I have to translate to English and then back to Spanish :/

If the PC version didn't crash I would play it again but, alas!

 

[Kermitu Kleric Katie]

Translators thought Spanish people are dumber and would not understand the concept of Ivory and Ebony on a piano.

But they go together in perfect harmony!

 

[Wolfhart]

When I read people complaining about the English translation I think "if only they could see the Spanish version"... Really, it's funny that to understand some sentences you have to translate them to English, but literally. At the moment I can think of two parts that I found really confusing... One is when you talk to Tifa while sitting by the Cosmo Candle and she asks Cloud if he is really himself. The other one is when Sephiroth creates the illusion of Nibelheim and tells Cloud that he was created. But yes, there are a lot of mistakes in the translation...

 

[Wolfhart]

Translators thought Spanish people are dumber and would not understand the concept of Ivory and Ebony on a piano.

Sad thing is I agree with them.

Haha! I hadn't noticed that!

 

[Wolfhart]

Oh, I remembered the confusion with the word "party" translated as "fiesta"

 

[Alex Strife]

YES!!

"Your 'party' is awaiting for your upstairs" upon arriving at Kalm. And I was like "Woo, a party". And everyone's serious and they talk about Sephiroth and the past. What a downer.

 

[Arianna]

Oh, I remembered the confusion with the word "party" translated as "fiesta"

YES!!

"Your 'party' is awaiting for your upstairs" upon arriving at Kalm. And I was like "Woo, a party". And everyone's serious and they talk about Sephiroth and the past. What a downer.

LOL Haha... Oh that's too funny. Seriously, I'm laughing at that one.

 

[Strangelove]

> party upstairs \o/
> "everyone i once knew is dead /o\"

 

[Tetsujin]

German translation called it "Partei" which is generally only used for political parties.

 

[Obsidian Fire]

The English use of the word "Party" as it's used in RPGs doesn't make much sense either. Why isn't it called a "group" or something?

 

[Super Mario]

Lmao in spanish a literal party is waiting for you upstairs, while in german it is time for a political cabinet meeting. It is alot more formal and serious in german than laid back in spanish. I like these translation train wrecks.

 

[Alex Strife]

It almost makes you feel translators put their culture on it. Germans being serious and stuff and Spaniards being crazy "partay".

 

[SirVival]

I loved the shit out of the spanish version. I mentioned it already in another thread, but when I first got in touch with FF7 as a kid, it was exactly the spanish version of the game. I bough it around 1998-99 and it was a platinum version.

Unluckily I loaned it around 6 or 7 years ago to an ex friend of mine (nowadays a drug addict), with whom we used to play the game all the time together. The motherfucker never returned the game and it's one of the biggest regrets of my life. I probably still have some old save states on my trusty memory card of it. I also beat Ruby Weapon in the spanish version of the game and this is something I never bothered to do later again. It was extremely time consuming, especially because no guides existed back then...

Fuck this makes me emotional.