Final Fantasy VIII - Localisation Review (2)

This is an entry in a series of posts looking at the localisation of the beginning segment of the game, Final Fantasy VIII. You can find the first post here. Thanks for reading!

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	Japanese	English
Seifer 1	ウザイんだよ。……チキン野郎	Stop that...It's annoying. ...Chicken-wuss.

1. When I played this game as a child, this was a line that stuck in my memory. I think this was perhaps because I'd never previously heard such a combination of chicken and wuss. All the search hits that arise from Googling this term produces results related Final Fantasy VIII, so it's fair to say that the game coined this new insult. In fact, one of the top search hits link to a forum discussing this in translation, as pictured below. I expected this insult to be a very liberal translation, but it is actually the opposite. In the Japanese, Seifer calls Zell a chicken (チキン (chikkin)) and tags on the derogatory term 野郎 (yarou), which dictionaries define as an "asshole/bastard/son of a bitch." Some online Japanese dictionaries contain a definition of these words when combined.

チキン野郎：臆病者の青二才。 この弱虫野郎、といった意味で相手を罵る表現。米国のスラングに由来する。- A cowardly and immature greenhorn. It is an expression used to deride an individual. It derives from American slang.

In this respect, chicken-wuss succeeds in accurately conveying the meaning of the Japanese. It could be seen as a failure because it doesn't seem very natural, but I like the line because it gives Seifer a unique insult and the game a standout line. Admittedly, this is not the case in the Japanese so perhaps this could be seen as straying from the writer's original intent. If it was me, I would translate the line as, "Chicken-shit," as this is an insult in common parlance that also conveys the meaning of the Japanese.

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	Japanese	English
Xu	やあ、キスティス。	Hi, Quistis.
Quisits 2	これが今回のＢ班のメンバー。よろしくね、シュウ。	Well, these are the members of Squad B.
Zell	よろしくお願いします！	Nice to meet ya!
Squall	……よろしくお願いします。	Pleased to meet you...

2. A small difference here. The second sentence of the Japanese goes untranslated. This is unsurprising as it contains a term notoriously difficult to translate, "yoroshiku onegaishimasu" (よろしくお願いします) (in this case abbreviated to "yoroshiku" (よろしく). To pin it down as succinctly as possible, it is a term used as a greeting and as an expression requesting someone's good will/cooperation on something. It is commonly used when meeting someone for the first time, and this lends itself to a neat translation of, "Nice to meet you." This is demonstrated by Zell and Squall's line in the above text. However, it is not possible to use this translation for Quistis' dialogue because she already knows Xu. I did consider offering, "I'm counting on you" as a translation. This carries the right sentiment but is ultimately too strong a remark to be passable, especially as Quistis is not Xu's superior. In the end, I like the game's translation as it accurately conveys the sense that Quistis is presenting the group to Xu and handing them over to her for the explanation of the mission.

	Japanese	English
Xu 3	開戦から４９時間後ドール公国は市街区域を放棄。現在は周辺の山間部に退避し部隊の再編を急いでいる。以上。	49 hours into the battle, Dollet abandoned their position in the inner city. Currently, they have retreated into the nearby mountains and are reorganizing their troops.

3. There is a tiny difference in the second sentence here. In the Japanese, Xu says, "Currently, they have retreated into the nearby mountains and are hurriedly reorganizing their troops." The Japanese contains the verb "isogu" (急ぐ) which means, "to rush." There is no reason to omit this detail in the English, especially because it makes the situation sound more intense. Finally, Xu ends her speech with "ijou" (以上), a Japanese word used to signify you have finished what you were saying. It could be translated as "that's it," but I feel this is unnecessary, and the translator correctly omitted this part.

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	Japanese	English
Xu	君たちＳｅｅＤ候補生には市街地に入り込んだガ軍を排除してもらう。	SeeD candidates are to eliminate the G-Army inside the city.
Zell 4	責任重大だ！	Sounds important!
Seifer 5	楽しくないな。ようするに、ＳｅｅＤの連中のおこぼれちょうだいだろ？	Sounds boring. So what you're saying is, we do all the little, dirty work…

4. The Japanese contains no mention of the "sounds" part of the English. Zell simply says, "That's a big responsibility." Seifer also doesn't contain mention the "sounds" part, he just says, "That's no fun." The use of "sounds" in both sentences gives Seifer a snappy way to retort Zell. For Seifer's line, I could offer, "That's dull work" as way to get rid of the "sounds" part and preserve the back-and-forth but overall I think the English is perfectly fine as it is. There is no need to kick up a fuss over how the word, "sounds" changes the overall meaning of the sentence.

5. The previous point included discussion of Seifer's first sentence, but his second sentence also deserves attention. The Japanese reads, "So basically, we're getting SeeD leftovers, right?" I really like the translation of "okobore" (おこぼれ), which means "leftovers", as "all the little dirty work" as I imagine this is what Seifer would see as leftovers. However, I think that his dialogue should include reference that the dirty work comes from the SeeDs. In the Japanese he uses the derogatory term "renchuu" (連中.) Seifer clearly has some issues with the SeeDs, yet the English doesn't convey this sentiment. This could be recitifed by making the sentence read, "So what you're saying is, we do the SeeD's little, dirty work…"

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Thanks for reading! I'd love to hear your thoughts on the above points or Final Fantasy VIII's localisation as a whole, so please comment if you've got something to say. 

If you enjoyed this post, I bet you'll like the next post in this series:
http://www.localireview.com/2015/04/final-fantasy-viii-localisation-review-3.html