Final Fantasy VIII - Localisation Review (7)

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
Zell	なっ……！！どいつもこいつも……！！オレは……チキンじゃねぇ！	What the...!!! WHY IS EVERYONE...? I am not a CHICKEN!!!
Selphie 1	チキンがいやなら大サービスでポークかなぁ～？でも、ブタ野郎っていうのもなんかやだよね～	Well... If you don't like CHICKEN, how 'bout...a PIG! Oh, but you look more like a CHICKEN, anyway.”

1. The first half of Selphie's first sentence is identical in Japanese, but from there on it differs. Continuing on from, "Well if you don't chicken...", she says, "I could be kind and call you pork." Japanese has a word for pig, (buta), but Selphie says pooku (meaning "pork"), Moreover, she emphasises that she would be being kind if she referred to Zell like that. In the second sentence she then says, "But pig-wuss is kinda weird." This would be the literal translation if I kept in line with the previous translation of yarou (野朗) as "wuss," Selphie swaps the word chicken for pig, but then comments that there's something off about it. I suppose the English does somewhat capture this sentiment that calling Zell a pig isn't as good a fit (because chicken is a better fit). Moreover, I can see why the translator opted against mentioning pork, along with Selphie's opinion that being referred to as one would be an upgrade from chicken; this dialogue are somewhat confusing. However, maybe this was to intentionally show Selphie's airy and eccentric nature (which the rest of the game shows is a big part of her characterisation). The game's English translation makes Selphie seem fairly mean, especially because the translator's decision to write the animal terms in capital letters makes it seem like she is shouting this at Zell. I would offer alternative dialogue of, "Well, if you don't like chicken, how about piglet? But hmmm... piglet-wuss just doesn't have the same ring to it as chicken-wuss, does it?" Selphie's complaint with Zell is that he is cowardly, so I felt that calling him a piglet conveys this sentiment (and also sticks to the Japanese). I think it would be a mistake to use pork (because it's unnatural sounding) or pig (because it conjures up images of greed that don't fit the context).

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	Japanese	English
Zell	これが【電波塔】か？	So this is the [Communication Tower]...?
Selphie 2	おっきいねぇ～	Sure is big...

2. In a continuation of the above theme, I feel that the translation changes Selphie's emotions in the Japanese script. Although the words are translated accurately, I think the use of ellipses at the end of her remark in English makes it seem like she is feeling a sense of foreboding. On the contrary, her remark in Japanese a far lighter, indicted by the way her speech is geminated and there is a tilde at the end of the sentence. Selphie is simply impressed at how big the tower is. I think the English translation could be remedied by replacing the ellipses with an exclamation mark.

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	Japanese	English
Selphie 3	あたし、こういうリフト好きなんだぁ～	Wow, this lift is pretty cool!
Zell 4	はしゃいで落ちたりすんなよ！	Don't get too excited, or you'll fall!

3. Here, Selphie's feelings are conveyed accurately, but the content of her remarks are not. In Japanese, she says, "I love these kinds of lifts!" I wonder why the English translation differs in content? Did the translator think it was improbable that Selphie would have ridden such a lift before? In all likelihood, I doubt the translator gave such thought to Selphie's lift experience. Indeed, I think the English is a more natural remark to make in this situation. However, I again come back to my previously raised point that Selphie is a kooky character, so I don't think it would be right to "correct" her dialogue to make it more natural. I think a literal translation would be preferable here.

4. Zell's Japanese sentence construction lacks the "or" of the English. Instead, it reads as just one long command, "Hey, don't get too excited and fall off!" The difference is tiny, but it does slightly change the nuance of Zell's remark. The Japanese make Zell sound more irritated, and as if he is ordering Selphie. In contrast, the English seems like Zell seem like he is adopting a paternalistic towards Selphie.

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	Japanese	English
Wedge 5	……修理にお時間かかりそうなので少し見回りに行ってきます。	Sir, I'll check around while the repairs are being done.

5. First, I want to point out my like for the use of the word, "sir." Wedge's Japanese is spoken using the polite form, but the English language lacks such a way to conjugate verbs. It is often therefore necessary to add to the script in other places to convey this degree of formality. Here, the use of "sir" does this job admirably. In regard to the content of the dialogue, in the Japanese, Wedge explicitly mentions the reason why he is going to look around, because it looks like (Biggs') repairs are going to take a while to finish. Literally it reads, "... It looks like the repairs are going to take a while, so I'll go have a check around in the meantime."

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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-8.html