31st March 2022, 4:57 AM
Addendum! As it turns out, the PS1 retranslation (and subsequent ones based on it) are actually... terrible. They gave in to the pressure caused by the fan translation and made things edgier because they thought that's what people wanted. The J2E fan translation isn't very accurate at all.
https://legendsoflocalization.com/final-fantasy-iv/
More details here!
As it turns out, in spite of some censorship, the original SNES release has the most accurate translation.
As for FFVI, in that case the GBA translation (and later releases based on it) has the most accurate translation, save for some really painfully dated pop culture references. The one exception would be Kefka's dialog which still hews closely to the SNES game. That, as it turns out, is a good thing. Kefka's dialog is apparently very boring in the Japanese original, and his "Jokering up" in the US version was a stylistic choice meant to make him a more interesting antagonist. It's no wonder he's a much more beloved villain in the US than in Japan. I'd say we got the better end of that deal. I still am not a fan of the silly forth wall breaking stuff with NPCs commenting on how Kefka's name is spelled though.
https://legendsoflocalization.com/final-fantasy-iv/
More details here!
As it turns out, in spite of some censorship, the original SNES release has the most accurate translation.
As for FFVI, in that case the GBA translation (and later releases based on it) has the most accurate translation, save for some really painfully dated pop culture references. The one exception would be Kefka's dialog which still hews closely to the SNES game. That, as it turns out, is a good thing. Kefka's dialog is apparently very boring in the Japanese original, and his "Jokering up" in the US version was a stylistic choice meant to make him a more interesting antagonist. It's no wonder he's a much more beloved villain in the US than in Japan. I'd say we got the better end of that deal. I still am not a fan of the silly forth wall breaking stuff with NPCs commenting on how Kefka's name is spelled though.
"On two occasions, I have been asked [by members of Parliament], 'Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out?' I am not able to rightly apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question." ~ Charles Babbage (1791-1871)