First playthrough, should I use a translation mod?

[Taedren]

I heard the original game has a pretty meh english translation. I really want to get the best experience possible, and was just curious if there was anything I should get to have the best reading of the plot. Thanks in advance.

[Electric Cupcake]

Aside from the Scorpion Tank battle where the translation infamously says the exact opposite of what it means, I have no complaints.

[Xengre]

First game's translation is NOT as bad as it is made out to be. People who claim it is super terrible or whatever need to chill with the drugs.

What Hugsie says about the Scorpion (first boss) is the only major issue because, as said, it is literally the opposite (you are supposed to NOT attack during the tail being up).

[Electric Cupcake]

The Wall Market sequence was pretty toned down from the original Japanese. But then, I doubt too many 12 year olds in 1997 would have known what a love hotel is or the cultural references of Beautiful Bro and his gang.
https://kotaku.com/final-fantasy-viis-nightlife-district-wall-market-is-a-1818548230

Of course in English, calling a woman a "heifer" isn't too flattering. That could have certainly been translated better. Aeris should have socked that jerk.

[Ahmad]

Originally posted by Xengre:

First game's translation is NOT as bad as it is made out to be. People who claim it is super terrible or whatever need to chill with the drugs.

What Hugsie says about the Scorpion (first boss) is the only major issue because, as said, it is literally the opposite (you are supposed to NOT attack during the tail being up).

I don’t see any problem with scorpion boss translation. I think what Cloud said is “attack when the tail is up, and it will counterattack”, which is right. Or maybe there’s something else that I miss?

[Taedren]

Is the english translation mostly grammatically correct? I have played a lot of games with awkward translations (Castlevania and the like) but for the most part they were gameplay focused and not story focused, which I'd assume FF7 would be a more focused on plot.

[Ahmad]

Originally posted by Taedren:

Is the english translation mostly grammatically correct? I have played a lot of games with awkward translations (Castlevania and the like) but for the most part they were gameplay focused and not story focused, which I'd assume FF7 would be a more focused on plot.

I don’t think it’s 100% grammatically correct but at least the story it tries to convey is understandable.

[darxide23]

I'd use the Reunion translation. Much of the story is changed in the original English translation due to very poor localization. With the remake coming, there stands a decent chance it's going to use the original Japanese script as it's basis, so if you're coming off of the official English release of the game, you might end up lost. And yes, the fan translation is pretty close to spot on. It's not awkward at all although it might not be 100% accurate 100% of the time, but it is better than the official translation. There is no argument of that.

Download here:
http://forums.qhimm.com/index.php?topic=14914.msg209231

There are other mods included, but everything is optional.

That's just my suggestion.

[Xengre]

Originally posted by Horuto:

Originally posted by Xengre:

First game's translation is NOT as bad as it is made out to be. People who claim it is super terrible or whatever need to chill with the drugs.

What Hugsie says about the Scorpion (first boss) is the only major issue because, as said, it is literally the opposite (you are supposed to NOT attack during the tail being up).

I don’t see any problem with scorpion boss translation. I think what Cloud said is “attack when the tail is up, and it will counterattack”, which is right. Or maybe there’s something else that I miss?

It says:

"Attack while it's tail's up!"

If you do this it will counter with the powerful AoE laser attack which it can't use otherwise. What it was supposed to say is "Don't attack while its tail is up!" Not only is the meaning literally the opposite but the bad translation has "it's" instead of "its" as well as "tail's" which is grammatically incorrect.
https://youtu.be/t9d7sgMMenA?t=132

[Taedren]

Originally posted by darxide23:

I'd use the Reunion translation. Much of the story is changed in the original English translation due to very poor localization. With the remake coming, there stands a decent chance it's going to use the original Japanese script as it's basis, so if you're coming off of the official English release of the game, you might end up lost. And yes, the fan translation is pretty close to spot on. It's not awkward at all although it might not be 100% accurate 100% of the time, but it is better than the official translation. There is no argument of that.

Download here:
http://forums.qhimm.com/index.php?topic=14914.msg209231

There are other mods included, but everything is optional.

That's just my suggestion.

Interesting, are there differences in meaning in the english text from the japanese text? Or did they just simplify stuff when localizing it?

[Spooniest]

Originally posted by Hugsie Muffinball:

Aside from the Scorpion Tank battle where the translation infamously says the exact opposite of what it means, I have no complaints.

I do have to say, as someone who is dating a person who doesn't speak English as a first language, she often forgets to include the word "not" or puts it in where it doesn't belong:

"Are you sure you are not ok?"

or

"I am not going to sleep now, good night."

These kinds of rules are often difficult for a non-native speaker of English to suss out, especially if (as I'm guessing the case is with Japanese) the rules in their native language are a totally different animal.

[Electric Cupcake]

The thing is, the FFVII localization was really rushed. It's a shame they didn't get Ted Woolsey to work on it.

[Taedren]

Alright so after reading up on some mods I think what I want to go with is to go full vanilla for now, and if I want to do another playthrough i'll do so with the Reunion package, as I have heard both good and bad about some of the changes. If anything, maybe I will appreciate the corrections more after going vanilla.

[Spooniest]

Originally posted by Taedren:

Alright so after reading up on some mods I think what I want to go with is to go full vanilla for now, and if I want to do another playthrough i'll do so with the Reunion package, as I have heard both good and bad about some of the changes. If anything, maybe I will appreciate the corrections more after going vanilla.

What I'd do is install Reunion and use only these options:

American English
Series Canon
Fixed Width Character Names

Everything else, uncheck. Most of the complaints people have are about him changing the names of things as compared with the Original Version, however, he did create a version that keeps the names (of both Characters and Items) from the PSX version.

Or you can just do the vanilla version.

[Electric Cupcake]

Anyone who raises a fuss about "Aeris" instead of "Aerith" deserves a boot up the ass. Her canon name is Arisu, but Aeris is perfectly cromulent. You can call her "Alice" if you really want to. But Aerith is just plain wrong.

[Spooniest]

Anyone who raises a fuss about a video game needs to get some therapy, if you ask me.

Sure, people get murdered everyday, but MAH VIDYA GAMEZ