Final Fantasy VIII - Localisation Review (12)

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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		English
Garden Faculty 1	学園長……そろそろ学園長室へ。	Headmaster Cid, you have some business in your office...

1. The Japanese features the word sorosoro, an interesting term that lacks an exact English equivalent. In a post dededicated to the term,  the chap over at SelfTaughtJapanese.com explained the term in the following way:

そろそろ is commonly used to express that its [sic] about time to do something, often because its getting late or you have other plans.

When you're at a social gathering in Japan, you just need to utter sorosoro to indirectly convey that you are thinking of heading off; it saves you from directly mentioning the fact. I think there are times in the Western world too when people are reluctant to directly say that they want to leave a party, but since there is no sorosorso, these people often end up trying to convey their desire to leave by stretching, yawning slightly, looking at their watch, or mentioning their plans for tomorrow. In the the dialogue above, it is not Cid himself, but the Garden Faculty communicating this sentiment. Literally the Japanese reads, "Headmaster, it's about time you went to your office." As outlined though, sorosoro is a far more delicate way of communicating that it's about time to leave. I therefore applaud the game's translation, "you have some business." It's both very natural sounding, and preserves the indirectness of the sorosoro.

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	Japanese	English
Garden Faculty	ディン…ゼル・ディン	Dincht... Zell Dincht.
Zell 2	やったぜーーーーーーーっ！みんな、お先に！	OHHHHH YEAHHHHHH!!! See ya!!!

2. The context for this remark is that the candidates who took the SeeD exam and waiting to hear who passed. This paragraph continues the theme of the above paragraph; Zell's final remark contains a Japanese phrase (osakini (お先に)) that doesn't have a direct English equivalent. It is a casual abbrivation of the term osakini shitsurei shimasu (お先に失礼します), which people use to express they are going to be rude and leave before other people. It is often heard at the workplace when someboy leaves ahead of their colleagues. It could translated literally as, "Pardon me for leaving first." In the game, Zell is indeed the first successful candidate to announced, and the game's animations suggest he says osakini in a very jovial manner. I don't think osakini would normally necessitate such pondering, and the game's "See ya!!!" is perfectly fine. However, for fun I racked my brains for an alternative translation that would more tightly capture the Japanese. I ended up with, "I hate to go first but... !" I imagine Zell would say this with a huge grin on his face. What do you think? Can you think of an alternative translation?

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	Japanese	English
Garden Faculty 3	SeeDはガーデンの重要な商品だ。その価値を高めるのもおとしめるのも、君たちひとりひとりにかかっている。	SeeD is a valuable asset to Garden. It's reputation is solely dependant on each one of you.
Garden Faculty	心して任務に取り組んでもらいたい。これが学園長のおっしゃりたかったことですね？	Handle your mission with care. Is that what you wanted to say, sir?
Garden Faculty 4	認定証およびSeeDランク通知書授与！	Here is your SeeD rank report!

3. In this scene, the Garden Faculty is giving a speech to the new SeeD soldiers. I chose to highlight the second sentence here because it is an example of a nice, fluid translation. The Japanese literally reads, "Each and every one of you are responsible for both increasing and decreasing its standing." This could be smoothed out as, ""The rise and fall of its reputation is linked to each and every one of you." However, I like the game's translation because it encapsulates the two actions (increasing and decreasing the value of SeeD) just by saying that it is dependant on each of them. As an aside, from linguistic angle, I found it interesting that the two verbs (takameru (高める) and otoshimeru (もおとしめる)) are transitive verbs. I expected to see intransitive verbs (i.e. that the reputation of SeeD rises and falls based on the actions of SeeD soldiers) rather than the transitive verbs (i.e. that SeeD soldiers directly increase and decrease the reputation of SeeD). I asked a native Japanese speaker about the difference and they commented that in this context the use of transitive verbs puts a stronger focus on the direct actions of the SeeD soldiers, which makes sense. As a final addendum, it could be argued that the English unnecessarily fabricates the detail that the reputation of SeeD is solely dependant on SeeD soldiers. Given the Garden Faculty speaks these words at ceremony for newly appointed SeeD soldiers, it's foreseeable that a spot of exaggeration might be used to more strongly reinforce their sense of responsibility. However, to write such a thing feels like an attempt to justify a tiny localization oversight that most people wouldn't bat an eyelid at. You can only get this kind of minute analysis here LocalReview.com!

4. In terms of the game's lore, the English doesn't translate an important piece of information! The Japanese reads, "Here is your certificate and your SeeD rank report." Just as nurses receive a certificate after they finish their training to prove their qualification, SeeD soldiers do too! The word ninteishou (認定証), meaning "certificate", is plain to see and makes total sense in this context, so why does the translation omit this detail? The sentence is so short that I can't imagine it was just an oversight. I just don't know, it's a mystery...

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This is the last post in this series examining Final Fantasy VIII's localisation. Next week I will publish a couple of posts examining snippets of localisation from other games, before moving onto a more detailed analysis of a new game the following week!

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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 :)