Questions about the Reunion Mod before I install it.

[djkennedy001]

So, I've heard some good things about Reunion, and while I might not install all the bells & whistles it has, I have some questions about it.

1. Is this the retranslation that does some pretty purist things like rename Zack as "Zax"? If so, is there a way to keep Zack's name as is?

2. Will this impead my ability to get steam achievements? Like, will I have to create a different launch icon just to use it and get the benefits of the mod? Or will this work with the standard launcher and work fine with Steam as is?

3. Should I use Reunion or the 7th Heaven mod? I'm still vanilla, and want to know which has the better benefits.

Thanks in advance.

[Kaldarasha]

1. It does change the names to the correct translations but that can be uncecked and the wrong official translation for the name is used.

2. Works with Steam and you still get achievements.

3. Depands on what you want. If you aiming for a more remastered look but don't need Steam 7H is probably bettter. Else the reunion is enough.

[djkennedy001]

Originally posted by Kaldarasha:

1. It does change the names to the correct translations but that can be uncecked and the wrong official translation for the name is used.

2. Works with Steam and you still get achievements.

3. Depands on what you want. If you aiming for a more remastered look but don't need Steam 7H is probably bettter. Else the reunion is enough.

1. "Wrong official translation", that kinda purist/weeb thing kinda rubs me the wrong way. Like, yeah, Aerith is the correct spelling and has been fixed in every media FF7 is in, including the friggin' Kingdom Hearts series, but apparently Zack is wrong? I mean, it's been 20 years and it's still Zack; he even got his own game and was still called Zack, and Aerith was still called Aerith all those years later.

But anyways... to clarify, I can keep most of the retranslation, but keep Zack's name as is? Or is it a part-in-parcel "keep the buggy translation with Zack" or "get the more accurate one, but you have to get the 'accurate' Zax name".

2. Cool, good to know.

3. Looked over all the stuff that 7H does. Yeesh, I love the game, but that looks way too much, and far too many hoops to jump through. Might just stick with Reunion, depending.

[cbbbbbbb]

Are there any details on the difficulty rebalance mod included? I like to have specifics before I install things like that.

[Kaldarasha]

A wrong translation is a wrong translation. Official or not. I like Zack more over Zax. But Zack leads you to a total misinterpretation (if you start to desire to interpret the story around him in FF7) where you can land in the jew religion. Zax is named after the sword on his back which looks like a long sax with a different cutting edge (some more trivia: the gunblade in FF8 is also a long sax). However, I think they left the names the way they are because the meaning if there is one isn't important and in case of Zack vs Zax they sound more natural for the western audience. For Aerith, this name's meaning is important because it is connected to the very story itself so the correction was needed. Anyway you have the option to leave the names as you know them or use the correct translation.

The mod itself hasn't any rebalancing done yet to the game's difficulty exceptions are a few minigame fixes like a 60fps speed game (instead of 15) and a more PSX like submarine minigame (PC has a different version as on PSX). Weapon will someday include a rebalance for the battles but that's in the very future.

[djkennedy001]

Originally posted by Kaldarasha:

A wrong translation is a wrong translation. Official or not.

Never considered the sword connection to Zack's name (never even heard of Zax), but that sounds more like a combination of a pun in Japanese (which almost never translate well), and a romaji of a name that's difficult to say in Japanese. To take a comparision, it'd be like saying that Nintendo's Luigi should be Ruiji because it's the "correct" way of translating his name, along with the pun of ruiji meaning "similar".

So, I did check out the Reunion and it was worse than I thought when it came to the re-translation, even changing series core terms like Moogle and Phoenix Down.

BUT, I was pleasantly surprised with how willing the modders were willing to work with people by allowing the options to pick to keep certain names as is, even if they think it's "wrong". It's an attitude that I don't think a lot of other people in that position would be willing to be in due to ego, so I will go through with it.

Thanks for answering.

[Elegnaim]

I wanted to check out the translation too but I saw some other reviews of it that indicated it had things like translator's notes stuck directly in the game? That... doesn't sound great to me. Also got the impression that some parts of the new translation aren't really accurate to the Japanese text, either.

(Speaking as someone who's been playing through Eternal Blue in Japanese because I don't like Working Design's shenanigans... not all translation inaccuracies are created equally.

There's a HUGE difference between picking an English phrasing that doesn't quite reflect the Japanese phrasing and outright making stuff up or just replacing NPC dialogue with sex jokes about Kevin Bacon.

Example from the project page:

Original:
…listen, Nanaki. I think you may already know. If you have any mission in life, it is not to defend this valley.

New (and ostensibly more accurate?):
Listen to me, Nanaki. And I think you may know this already…If you have any duty at all,it is… not to defend this canyon.

These really, really are not that different.

Meanwhile, changing Myght's motivation for being a hermit to be because he smells bad and then taking out the only in-game indication of /how to get through his tower/ for the sake of making a joke? Yeah that's a big problem.)

[Kaldarasha]

If the above example would be the only problem, then we wouldn't have seen the Reunion mod. There is text in the English version created out of thin air. The problem the original translator had that there was no way to contact the developers and it's very likely that he only translated the text without to see it in game.
So far I'm not aware of any translator notes nor have I ever heard of that before. To the accurate thing. It is as accurate to the meaning as good as it can. There is a riddle in the Shin-Ra villa regarding the piano. In the Japanese version it is a pun where the sibyls are similar to the do re me signs. This can't be translated. You simply can't use a correct Japanese to English translation here. I think it is important to keep the meaning, so you need to find something that comes this pun near in your language. A good translator should always make sure that the translated text hits the meaning of the original and sounds natural to the audience and be as close to the original text as it can be. You see, there are a lot of possibilities where the personal taste can influence the translation and that's why DLPB was/is always open for suggestions for the dialog text and has always asked for more Japanese-speaking people to run through the game and finding errors.
I think that this is as professional as it can be for someone which hasn't learned that job. And with respect SE has retranslated FF6 (while the translation was good Kefka was portrait different — most say better), so why haven't they re-translated FF7, which really need it?

[Elegnaim]

Originally posted by Kaldarasha:

So far I'm not aware of any translator notes nor have I ever heard of that before.

I think I heard that regarding the version of the translation that someone ported over to the PSX version of the game. Is the PC version of the translation more up-to-date..? Maybe the translator's note the person was talking about was just a to-do stub if that's the case, and I do apologize for my misunderstanding :S