Do you guys think Ted Woolsey did a good job translating those old rpg's?

[Uncle Jon]

I think I heard that people have mixed opinions on him, do you like his translations? I like the part where he made Shadow say "This dog eats people" or something similar to that.

[Pack 4 Potatoes]

He did a great job. That doesn't mean his work is flawless. There were time constraints and he had to shorten sentences so the large font could fit in the text boxes, but he did well with what he had to work with.

[Zunnoab #931]

He did a great job for the time and memory constraints he had.

[Dadalama]

Yeah, I liked some of his choices. There was a few problems with 6's translation but it wasn't always his fault. Like how are you going to frame Celes on the cliff's without mentioning the big spoilery elephant in the room and not have it roll some eyes? We all knew what happened but it had to be changed and there was no way to do that. I was always confused about that scene. I even at one point thought she was being sarcastic.

[RAWRmonger]

IDK how it compares with the JP language, but all FF up to and including 7 have really awful flow.
One thing I wish they improved was the dialogue / delivery.

Not sure if that's what poster above mentioned, but that scene with Terra asking Celes, when going up Narshe's Mountain, completely out of left field, if love can happen with them or something like that was just bad.

[Dadalama]

Originally posted by RAWRmonger:

IDK how it compares with the JP language, but all FF up to and including 7 have really awful flow.
One thing I wish they improved was the dialogue / delivery.

Not sure if that's what poster above mentioned, but that scene with Terra asking Celes, when going up Narshe's Mountain, completely out of left field, if love can happen with them or something like that was just bad.

The scene where she throws herself off the cliff. It's suicide in the original but in the original English she's like "This'll perk me right up!"

[Nooneyouknow]

Considering the censorship of the time, and the tech limits, along with how he had to do the translation? Yeah, fantastic job.

If he'd had more time, and like, a full script to work with instead of having to play through the japanese game, and translate based on what was on screen, or a polaroid, I think he could have done better on the mado vs maho distinction. Also a proofreader would have helped.

[Uncle Jon]

Originally posted by Nooneyouknow:

Considering the censorship of the time, and the tech limits, along with how he had to do the translation? Yeah, fantastic job.

If he'd had more time, and like, a full script to work with instead of having to play through the japanese game, and translate based on what was on screen, or a polaroid, I think he could have done better on the mado vs maho distinction. Also a proofreader would have helped.

I never knew that the way he translated the games was by playing through them and then translated what he saw on screen? They couldn't have given him a script?

[JCTed]

For the constraints he had at the time? Yeah it was an excellent job.

It should be obvious by comparing with other Japanese translated text heavy games at the time that he didn't translate.

On modern standards, it depends on one's personal views on "localization".

[Nooneyouknow]

Originally posted by Darunia:

Originally posted by Nooneyouknow:

Considering the censorship of the time, and the tech limits, along with how he had to do the translation? Yeah, fantastic job.

If he'd had more time, and like, a full script to work with instead of having to play through the japanese game, and translate based on what was on screen, or a polaroid, I think he could have done better on the mado vs maho distinction. Also a proofreader would have helped.

I never knew that the way he translated the games was by playing through them and then translated what he saw on screen? They couldn't have given him a script?

Nope. He had to fly to Japan, and play chunks of the game that were broken up in idiosyncratic order for catridge memory, and had about 30 days per project too. He was just putting the finishing touches on his FF5 script when the US release got canceled too.

Like, you don't have to like his changes, but he's damn wizard for as good as the job was.

[Uncle Jon]

Originally posted by Nooneyouknow:

Originally posted by Darunia:

I never knew that the way he translated the games was by playing through them and then translated what he saw on screen? They couldn't have given him a script?

Nope. He had to fly to Japan, and play chunks of the game that were broken up in idiosyncratic order for catridge memory, and had about 30 days per project too. He was just putting the finishing touches on his FF5 script when the US release got canceled too.

Like, you don't have to like his changes, but he's damn wizard for as good as the job was.

wow I now have a lot of respect for that guy now

[Zunnoab #931]

I'm pretty sure he could see script but it was game data and the scenes were not always in order so it was difficult to make sure the dialog wasn't missing context. I hope I remember that correctly.

[Gabby]

I should bring something up. Woosley's translations aren't dropped because he did anything wrong or that he was disliked by Squaresoft / SE or something.

They're dropped because he resigned from the company in 1996 and doesn't work for them anymore. He actually works for Microsoft currently (Undead Labs) and likely is bound by his MS Contract in a non-compete, so they can't even bring him back to touch them up. So going with a more direct, new translation is their only real move.

[Zunnoab #931]

Nothing would stop them from using his old work, which they own. The problem is he was severely limited in both time, cartridge space, and even what would fit in each text box.

[Dadalama]

Originally posted by Zunnoab #931:

Nothing would stop them from using his old work, which they own. The problem is he was severely limited in both time, cartridge space, and even what would fit in each text box.

Yeah translating these old games had to be tough. Especially if you had to pull the script from the game data. I think he was a good localizer, some of his very understandable choices happened to be hilarious but he was good.

[Gabby]

Originally posted by Zunnoab #931:

Nothing would stop them from using his old work, which they own. The problem is he was severely limited in both time, cartridge space, and even what would fit in each text box.

You’re assuming one heck of a lot of things there. Especially ownership.