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It is possible to mod the Japanese voice acting done for the Evolution versions of the Sora games into the Steam releases though. The text would still be English of course.
XSEED took some liberties with the localization and while they improved some scenes, they also made about as many scenes worse by changing or adding unnecessary things, for the most part it's a faithful translation though.
Getting to experience both at the same time might be the best of both worlds, but if you're trying to learn reading and writing, then obviously that won't be working for you. Modding the voices into the Japanese versions may also be possible, but I haven't looked into that.
Here is the official store to purchase Sora FC and SC from Falcom, if that is the way you want to go:
https://falcom.shop/products/detail/9
https://falcom.shop/products/detail/10
Morally, I would argue that you've done your part and shouldn't be obligated to pay again to experience the game in a different language—the original one at that—on the same platform, but that's neither here nor there.
https://www.reddit.com/r/Falcom/comments/8uqs8q/instructions_on_how_to_apply_japanese_script_in/
I am interested in learning more details about what, exactly, XSEED took liberties with, and how.
Has anyone written a comprehensive article or made a video that explains all the details of exactly what XSEED changed from the original scripts?
I haven't seen such an article if it does exist. This is just me going through the games myself and noticing the differences.
For the most part it's adding unnecessary exposition that is supposed to add depth to the characters I guess.
Characters like to refer to others by their first name towards Estelle and her group, before realizing that name wouldn't mean anything to them and then using their last name or title. This kind of stuff happens in real life, and it happens in the original games, there is no need to add more instances of it happening in the localization. It just makes the character seem stupid for making the mistake in the first place, when their Japanese counterpart didn't. One example is Cid after his promotion from Major to Lieutenant Colonel, in XSEED SC people regularly start calling Major before stopping and correcting themselves to say the correct rank. The original game had like two instances of that, including Estelle kinda doing it once before learning about the promotion, but in XSEED even military personal that should know better slip up on it.
There are also cases where people explain how it is that they knew something happened/was about to happen, or how it is that they managed to show up in time when that explanation didn't exist before, and is usually not required at all. It's like XSEED thought "This is a bit of a plot hole, lets fix it with some added lines" but it wasn't actually a plot hole at all, and adding this explanation feels unnatural in the moment.
How Kevin and Estelle interact with each other through a lot of SC isn't right either, XSEED Estelle is mostly just not interested in Kevin, plays off his advances and so on, in Japanese she is still mostly playing it off, but she's also happy about the compliments, gets shy about it a lot and their interactions aren't all just played for laughs. Most of Kevins lines in these interactions also lost a lot of their charm, and sometimes mean completely different things in English.
When going through the game and seeing Josette and Joshua getting closer, and realizing that Kevin and Estelle are getting closer to each other too, suddenly you have this subplot where for a bit you can wonder if Estelle and Joshua meeting again will really turn out to be as happy of a reunion as you would want it to be after FC. I don't think anyone would ever truly think that the two don't end up together, but in the Japanese game you have a reason to worry a tiny bit, where in English it's pretty clear there is nothing really standing in their way if they just expressed themselves properly to each other. (I mean, I'm only halfway through SC right now, that's just how it seems to me, no spoilerinos please)
There are are plenty of cases of individual lines of characters being translated to mean something else, but it doesn't really impact much, and reads better in English this way. Usually because the concepts are difficult to translate to English while also making them sound like something people would actually say in that language.
I want to make clear that I think that the localization was overall really well done, and that, given the depth of the project, and the inherent difficulty of translating Japanese to English, the things I consider to be missteps are minor problems that can be overlooked. You're not playing a vastly different game if you only experience it in English, but there are differences, and playing it in Japanese, or at least having the Japanese voices adds to the experience, and can change how you see certain characters and relationships.
Oh, and to be clear, some of the unnecessary exposition does end up making a scene better, and usually when they're adding jokes to lines where there may not have been one before, the joke is funny and doesn't feel out of place. I just focused more on the negatives because I feel more strongly about them, but as I said originally, it's probably an even split between changes that improved something, and changes that made things worse, while the majority of the script is just a faithful translation.
I have another question that maybe you might know something about. I saw old comments quoted on the internet, from the original translator whom XSEED apparently sub-contracted to translate either FC and/or SC...and he complained about some of the lines he had to translate...he said something like "I don't know what Falcom was thinking!" IIRC he was objecting to romantic connotations that he alleged were represented in the original script between Agate and Tita.
Yet other than a joke from Anelace in Sky the 3rd (which is a game that the complaint I cited isn't referring to; he was talking about either FC and/or SC), I haven't seen any romantic connotations presented in the Sky games between Agate and Tita.
So that leaves me to wonder:
a) what lines were the translator objecting to, exactly? and
b) did he and/or XSEED censor those lines in the English version?
Do you happen to have any thoughts and/or insights about that matter?
Do the Japanese versions have any controversial moments between Agate and Tita that the English versions toned down?
Tita starts being interested in Agate in FC, but what kind of interest isn't really clear yet. Estelle suspects something at one point, or is wondering about it because Tita defended Agates behavior in a conversation with Estelle or something, back when Estelle still sees more negatives than positives in him. I'm pretty sure characters also take notice of how much Tita is invested in healing Agate and nursing him back when he got poisoned. Anyway, doesn't mean much yet. I remember thinking at that point that it would be weird if it was actually supposed to be romantic, but given that Tita values family, and always wanted siblings, her seeing Agate as her big Brother makes perfect sense, so that's probably all it'll be.
In SC, when you pick Schera at the beginning and send off Agate with Anelace, Tita shows a lot of jealousy toward Anelace, assuming she is Agates girlfriend just because they're traveling together, and she's being somewhat depressed about that before Estelle clears everything up. She is also super happy to see him whenever they cross paths, and super sad when they separate. Later Tita is jealous of Mischa before learning more about her. Characters around Tita, at least Estelle, Kloe and Schera hint at understanding how Tita feels, and it's implied that those feelings may be of a romantic nature. It's not weird for a younger sister character to be jealous of other girls in the life of their big brothers though, that happens a lot and doesn't have to be because she wants to bone down with him. During the Agate/Mischa backstory segment Tita very much treats him like a big brother. Agate never treats her as anything other than a travel companion/friend/younger sister, he definitely never thought of her in a romantic way. But given his baggage I don't expect he was thinking of anyone in a romantic way for many years and his relationship with Tita going forwards might change now that some of that baggage is being picked up and organized.
To me it's pretty clear Falcom was covering their bases, adding enough for it to be plausible that those two might end up together once Tita is older without being obviously weird about it. Implying Tita may be romantically interested is good fan service, because you can explain it away saying she just saw him like a big brother, while also throwing the younger sister fetishists a bone.
It's a popular trope to have your younger sister character get a bit too attached to their big brothers because that's what people want to see, not just for sexual reasons mind you, those of us that have siblings know it's not always the kind of rose-colored life portrayed in some fiction, but imagining it to be like can be a nice escape.
Sorry for not being helpful with your actual questions, if you point me to the quote I'd be happy to take a look at the actual lines and how they differ in each version.
Thanks, I very much appreciate your attempt to answer.
I don't know what the actual lines are though, because the outraged statement by the translator did not specify what they are.
Then when I asked others on the boards to tell me what specific lines the translator was referring to, another poster said it was related to Agate and Tita. But when I further questioned him about that, he also did not specify exactly what lines they were and/or what they allegedly said in the original version.
Hopefully someone who knows more about this situation regarding the translator's statement of outrage will chime in on it eventually. It seems like we'd need someone to provide more information about what happened before we can solve this mystery.