How much text?

[Iron Maiden]

Exactly how much text is to this game I do not want to have to wade through walls and walls of text just to get to actually play something.

[Gabby]

People who have to go ad hominem one response in are usually the actual trolls. Either actually respond to my points or just don't. You took the image I linked (made by someone who knows more about Kiseki than you, me, and 100 other people put together) and attempted to discredit it by claiming it was misleading, citing the difference in lengths between Japanese and English characters, when that's the very thing it does at the very start. When I point out that in no way can that fact ever actually be used to underplay what the image presents due to the very nature of the two languages, you fall to calling me a troll and act like you weren't trying to blow something up yourself when that's exactly what you did.

Sweetie, if anyone's trolling here, it's you.

[Quint the Alligator Snapper]

...and this is why I try to word things so as to make sure there's no way to mistake what I'm saying, when I say things on the internet. But unfortunately that makes me rather wordy and boring.

[omgfloofy]

Originally posted by Geomancer:

The only point I was making is a single sentence (a sample size of 1) doesn't give you an average. No need to blow up about it.

I'm the creator of that image, first off. I know that Japanese =/= English exactly. Which is why I made a baseline at the top of the image. Maybe you should bug me about it instead to Seraphna.

Second off, someone has gone through and made an estimated word count based off the English script files, and came up with an estimation of 550,000 to 600,000 words in FC alone. If you double that (which will already be off anyway, since SC is slightly more than double, afterall), you're probably going to get somewhere between 1,100,000 and 1,200,000 characters. If we take the higher estimations of the two, that puts them at 1,800,000 words. The ENTIRE Wheel of Time series is just over 4,400,000 words.

If the word about Zero and Ao are correct in their text counts that they are, in fact, larger games than SC, then my estimation will most certainly be very damn close.

By the way, my baseline was 18 : 10. A modified baseline per Guan's wordcount algorithm would adjust it to about 18 : 7. If you use the math for my original baseline, it is about a 20% difference in numbers, but I was also being extremely liberal in my estimations in the end. If you use the 3.6m number I used for the Wheel of Time series (1-12, excluding A New Spring), then FC, SC, Zero, and Ao would most definitely have more text than those books- which is my statement made in the picture.

In fact, using that 18 : 7 base, which I hadn't done yet, SC's 3.6m Japanese characters probably comes down to something like 1,400,000 words.

[Quint the Alligator Snapper]

Honestly, whether it's more or less than the Wheel of Time series really doesn't much matter.

The whole point of this is to establish that we're talking about comparably huge amounts of text.

[omgfloofy]

Originally posted by Quint the Robot Girl:

The whole point of this is to establish that we're talking about comparably huge amounts of text.

This this this.

Because if we're looking at word counts, FC on its own very likely contains more text than War and Peace.

EDIT: a word was missing. whoops.

[Gabby]

Yep.

[Meredius]

Hmmmm although doesn't this is some way hamper the possibility of seeing a stateside release considering how massive a workload the SC was?

I'd assume you're saving time at this point with:
a) Better process workflow within your team
b) Having a glossary for consistency of terms/names and or places
c) The person translating having more experience and being more productive as well

I think having Trails of Cold Steel is quite positive and hopeful for the future - considering they're "catching up" in a way to the japanese games by skipping a couple titles and cross-sales on different platforms....

But wow... Kickstarter for "Trails translation coffee & tea budget" anyone? :D.

[TotalBlank]

Stay away from RPG's if you don't want to invest time into really learning about the world and it's inhabitants.

[Gabby]

Originally posted by Meredius:

But wow... Kickstarter for "Trails translation coffee & tea budget" anyone? :D.

Wine budget.

[omgfloofy]

Originally posted by Meredius:

a) Better process workflow within your team
b) Having a glossary for consistency of terms/names and or places
c) The person translating having more experience and being more productive as well

These reasons are why I think the comments from people saying that a different company should pick up the series. A series this convuluted and intricate will definitely have issues if they don't take the time to look back and refer to things.

Look at Sentai Filmworks' release of the OVA vs XSEED's game?

Or better yet, at Udon Books and their Kiseki artbooks. "Clam Dip Flow" anyone? lol

[Knight]

It is not better than FFVII or FFVIII.

The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky was released in 2004 and still cannot beat FFVII from 1997 or FFVIII from 1999. Lol.

[Gabby]

Originally posted by Cloud Strife-VII:

It is not better than FFVII or FFVIII.

The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky was released in 2004 and still cannot beat FFVII from 1997 or FFVIII from 1999. Lol.

A guy called Cloud Strife VII wanders into a JRPG's forums to say how superior FF7 is to anything else.

Gee, I don't sense any bias or trolling coming off this guy whatsoever. Seems legit to me.

Also compares FF8 as being superior to pretty much anything under the sun. Umm... "Lol."?

[myhr2]

Lemme check...mmmh, yup, FF7 is behind Trails in the Sky on my top10 J-RPG list, and FF8 doesn't even make to the top 30. Opinions...

[Meredius]

Originally posted by omgfloofy:

Originally posted by Meredius:

a) Better process workflow within your team
b) Having a glossary for consistency of terms/names and or places
c) The person translating having more experience and being more productive as well

These reasons are why I think the comments from people saying that a different company should pick up the series. A series this convuluted and intricate will definitely have issues if they don't take the time to look back and refer to things.

Look at Sentai Filmworks' release of the OVA vs XSEED's game?

Or better yet, at Udon Books and their Kiseki artbooks. "Clam Dip Flow" anyone? lol

lol some of it is hilareous. :)

Am I the only one who prefers FF6 above FF7 in the FF Universe? I like 7 but 6 is king to me. Then it's all downhill and lost interest because the worlds are a complete mess in consistency and writing (although to be fair looking back at some FF6 dialogue is cringy but you could only do so much at that time and the game did touch on grave themes)..

Actually games and writing in general seem to be at odds with each-other - the writing that seems to pull ME in at least is quite sparse. It's like gaming is still on broadcast TV with its 1950's infantile view on sex and violence until gaming HBO's show up (This game and The Witcher for me personnally show signs that some sort of evolution is taking place).

And, I know, I know, someone will point out that gaming is a completely different interactive medium and experience a story you might not see half the work (like in The Witcher where you can go to a quest marker OR learn about the world and WHY things are the way they are) - I agree and I don't have the answers. :)

But thinking about these 2 games and the quoted FF8 etc. makes me think that what draws me in with the writing is a sense of place and purpose. Things are there for a functionning reason. Like in Trails, the city's have specialisations for commerce, the lighthouse is there to help ships navigate the waters, etc. Everything is there - and scaled down a little for manageability - but it has a purpose within the world.

So I can really enjoy reading Trails because the characters are thre and the world is there whereas I don't give a rat's ass about FF8 or FF10 in any way shape or form and they just throw techno-babble out there when it's convenient... so quantity is one thing.... but here we also have QUALITY for this game which is extremely rare since they're usually opposites of the spectrum.

[Quint the Alligator Snapper]

Originally posted by Meredius:

Am I the only one who prefers FF6 above FF7 in the FF Universe? I like 7 but 6 is king to me. Then it's all downhill and lost interest because the worlds are a complete mess in consistency and writing (although to be fair looking back at some FF6 dialogue is cringy but you could only do so much at that time and the game did touch on grave themes)..

You're not.

I also prefer FF6 over FF7.

There's a large number of people who prefer FF6 over FF7, in fact.

FF7 was roughly when the FF fanbase split into two groups, because while there was the older (in how long they've been fans and also sometimes literally in age) and more gaming-oriented crowd, FF7 also brought on a newer and more story-oriented crowd that liked its cinematicness and such.

FF8 tends to be even more polarizing, adored by the newer crowd and heavily panned by the older crowd.

I haven't played FF8 myself though.

FF9 actually tends to have a pretty good reputation with the older crowd, actually, so I usually refer to it as a "neoclassical" FF game, since it seems to try to hark back to some of the older games' elements.

I haven't played FF9 either, FWIW.