[Eien Ni Hen]

Wow, um, okay. 

Back on topic, I found the SMB comparison fascinating. I had no idea most of the enemy names were changed. Now the "Nok Nok Shell" from Super Mario RPG finally makes sense.

Regarding the use of katakana in games over hiragana, I remember hearing that katakana is easier to program in because it's "pointy," as opposed to hiragana which tends to be curvier. I have no proof of this, though.

I was also kind of surprised to find out that English text was used a lot in older NES games. It makes sense, though, and in fact I remember helping translate an ending screen for an NES game that was romanized Japanese (Japanese in English characters). That was a bitch to translate. 

Anyway, I look forward to seeing the next comparison, because these are super neat. Keep up the good work.

[Garoth Moulinoski]

I remember helping translate an ending screen for an NES game that was romanized Japanese (Japanese in English characters). That was a bitch to translate. 

Oh god, I can't stand that. Reading romanized Japanese is like your mind getting raped by... things. How did you make sense of anything? By rewriting it in kana?

[Tomato]

Anyway, I look forward to seeing the next comparison, because these are super neat. Keep up the good work.

Glad you liked it!

I've actually started the next one: http://matotree.com/localization/final-fantasy-iv/



What I have up is a little rough around the edges but I'm sure it'll improve as I go on. There's just so much to talk about 

[LostTemplar]

Oh god, I can't stand that. Reading romanized Japanese is like your mind getting raped by... things. How did you make sense of anything? By rewriting it in kana?

It can get confusing because it's so uncommon (your brain isn't accostumed to reading it), but it's not that much worse than kana-only in my opinion. I can understand it just fine, albeit slower than texts in kanji/kana.

EDIT: I find it really interesting that FFIVET also simplified its Japanese to appeal to a younger audience, especially because you can see what Japanese adults consider "difficult words".

[Garoth Moulinoski]

Interesting. And it's not even like the original contained kanji. Both Japanese versions seem strictly in kana.

Edit: I said something to effect that the original didn't contain kana. *facepalm*

[DarknessSavior]

Definitely interesting. I knew that the items and whatnot had changed a bit for younger audiences, and a few items were altered. I had no idea that the scripts were slightly different.

~DS

[Kiyoshi Aman]

I'd throw in the GBA translation, too, frankly; if only because it has kanji to clarify matters. (Or the PSP version, where the Kanji are actually readable...)

[Eien Ni Hen]

Oh god, I can't stand that. Reading romanized Japanese is like your mind getting raped by... things. How did you make sense of anything? By rewriting it in kana?

I wrote it out in kana first, then changed it to kanji where necesssary, and then translated it.

Most of the time translating from kana isn't that difficult for me (hence my silly, self-given title of "Hiragana Queen,") but there was something about putting the English characters back into kana ("un-romanizing" I guess) that hurt my brain. The text wasn't untranslatable or anything, just a pain in the ass.

[Tomato]

Got a new page up for the FFIV/Easy Type/II comparison: http://matotree.com/localization/final-fantasy-iv/baron/

Most of it is probably old news for most people who hang out around ROM hacking circles, but maybe there's something inside that wall of text you never knew before

[BRPXQZME]

The Fat Chocobo’s line in Japanese reminds me of the fat kid’s catchphrase from Little Giants (“You raaaang?”).

[KingMike]

I don't remember the exact line, but I do recall there was one in Baron Castle that in the GBA version used the words "something", "awful" and "goons" in the same sentence that was a pretty clear in-joke to something.

(and can't be the only one to see the line if FF6 Advance about "some people spell Kefka with two C's" and thought "wow! The official translators PWNED Sky Render!" )

[Tomato]

While I was checking stuff earlier today I was surprised there weren't as many FFIV translation patches as I seemed to remember. I seem to recall there being quite a lot back in the day, I guess the J2E one overshadowed them. I thought there'd been a new translation project since that patch too, maybe I was thinking of the FFVI retranslation though.

[DarknessSavior]

While I was checking stuff earlier today I was surprised there weren't as many FFIV translation patches as I seemed to remember. I seem to recall there being quite a lot back in the day, I guess the J2E one overshadowed them. I thought there'd been a new translation project since that patch too, maybe I was thinking of the FFVI retranslation though.

I'm working on a new patch, but it's not done yet. It'll blow the J2E one out of the water.

~DS

[KingMike]

While I was checking stuff earlier today I was surprised there weren't as many FFIV translation patches as I seemed to remember. I seem to recall there being quite a lot back in the day, I guess the J2E one overshadowed them. I thought there'd been a new translation project since that patch too, maybe I was thinking of the FFVI retranslation though.

There were a few in the GoodSNES set. But I don't think the authors are known, and we're that great anyways.
I guess one of them is known... by Ryusui(?) as the "We R Red Wings" patch.
And another one is the FF2 script crappily inserted into FF4 (don't need to play farther than the intro to see bad line breaks and an incomplete font hack). Wouldn't mention it except some idiot on ebay has recently decided to sell FF4 carts with that shitty hack installed (but at least he's kind of enough to include the original ROM chip so I guess you could put it back in maybe if you have soldering skills.)

[Kiyoshi Aman]

"Heal-All Medicine" is a bit cumbersome, frankly; I would hope that you'd have gone with 'Panacea' or 'Remedy' were you translating it for real rather than for this comparison.

[Tomato]

I'm working on a new patch, but it's not done yet. It'll blow the J2E one out of the water.

Say, I dunno how much of a pain it'd be, but how hard would it be to make text dumps of things like enemy names, item names, technique names, etc. from all three games? I was planning to do it someday myself but if you already have the know-how and/or have already done it it'd save me a lot of time.

[Kiyoshi Aman]

I don't know about the SNES version, but I did a guide for FF4 Advance. I fully intend to do the DS (or PSP) release as soon as I can find a resource for 'em.

[Tomato]

Whoa, cool!

While browsing the list I was curious about Golbez's name - should it be "Golbeza" or "Golbeze"? The kana suggests "a" but I seem to remember the "e" version being used a lot back in the flurry of FFIV retranslation projects. I never paid much attention though so I might be wrong or maybe it's something more well-versed fans know.
August 19, 2012, 06:27:22 pm - (Auto Merged - Double Posts are not allowed before 7 days.)(Oops, it's a double post but go ahead and merge this with my last one if it breaks some sort of rule.)



I've updated with a look at Mist this time: http://matotree.com/localization/final-fantasy-iv/mist/

Nothing too much this time, but it's interesting to see some of the subtle changes between all three versions even for some minor stuff.

[BRPXQZME]

Internet sleuths have deemed it to be a corruption of “Golubaeser”, i.e. from “Golubaes”, itself something of a bad transliteration or transcription job dating back to the Age of Intractable and/or Non-Existent Transliteration; at any rate, the place is still called Golubac to this day (where the ‘c’ is pronounced ‘ts’). You can find old literature also refer to it as “Golubacz” under the convention that also gives us the spelling “czar” (the ‘aes’ spelling quite possibly came about from some editor seeing this spelling and thinking he knew better), “Golubaz” under the convention of “German uses those for ‘ts’ sounds, right?”, and most probably some other variants. Assuming this is correct, it refers to a nasty (perhaps mythical) sort of insect, the research of which I shall leave to those better versed in mythology and the languages of that region.

So, uh, I guess there’s no really right answer since everything is based on layers of mistakes, but I’ve seen at least one bit of official merch strongly implying that ‘Golbeza’ is the intended romanization (track listing of Piano Collections Final Fantasy IV). I suppose you would see it in a copy of the easy sheet music (DOREMI Music Publishing) if you had it; that’s an easy place to find several other intended romanizations for some old games (I believe it’s because these piano books were done before actual translations were ever considered—not all of them provide English/Engrish titles, though). Too bad I’ve never gotten my mitts on a copy

[Kiyoshi Aman]

According to his JP Bestiary, ゴルベーザ -- possibly Golbelze or Gorbelze? Apparently I typoed when I transcribed his bestiary entry.

(EDIT: The translation guide has been updated. Changes will be live within 10 minutes of now.)