I’m generally not a fan of retranslations, because they’re usually unnecessary; they’re often for games that already have a fine translation, and the retranslation is often really nitpicky. Of course, this is the game to retranslate, because the plot is an absolute trainwreck, so I decided to give it a go. In the beginning, all I saw was nitpicks, and was worried that I was getting myself into the same mess. A lot of the translation choices are odd (Phoenix… Tail?), and much of the dialogue has had the flavor sucked out of it, as though it were a dish with too much nutmeg; it made me appreciate the original translation more than I had; I suppose pedantic is the word that I would use. There are still spelling and grammar errors, but they’ve shifted from those made by non-native speakers to those made by native speakers. There’s also a translator’s note in the middle of THE SCENE, which probably would’ve upset me more, if it had been something I’d ever been able to take seriously in the first place.

So, why does this get a recommend? Because this translation gets it right where it actually needs to. As many gripes as I have with it - especially as someone who’s done translation work before (not for video games) - I have to throw them all out the window, because this translation makes the plot coherent. It makes this game’s plot coherent. That is no small feat, as fans know, so even though it went from that fun, wild slob you like to hang out with to a stuffy priss in a fancy suit, in the end, it’s the fancy suit that gets the job done. This is also a minor personal note, but I really like the cute little icons for materia and items that have been added to the text, as well as the colored text that describes them; it was a really nice touch.