|
Post by kimimi on Sept 16, 2009 23:56:15 GMT -5
I can think of nothing worse than "celebrity" board members. Because let's face it, he'd be above the rules and he'd damn well know it.
|
|
|
Post by wyrdwad on Sept 17, 2009 0:21:23 GMT -5
I don't think that's true, and I also don't think he'd abuse it even if it WERE true, since he has something of a public image to uphold.
-Tom
|
|
|
Post by Atma on Sept 17, 2009 1:20:28 GMT -5
Tell him I'll bake him cookies if he comes here
|
|
|
Post by kimimi on Sept 17, 2009 1:24:57 GMT -5
I don't think that's true, and I also don't think he'd abuse it even if it WERE true, since he has something of a public image to uphold. -Tom Public image to uphold? We are talking about the same guy who was happy to publicly air any and all grievances with whatever company or individual he was arguing with at the time, right?
|
|
|
Post by wyrdwad on Sept 17, 2009 1:34:45 GMT -5
And? We do crap like that on here all the time. That's not against the board rules. (:
-Tom
|
|
|
Post by Ace Whatever on Sept 17, 2009 6:56:39 GMT -5
I'd be interested in seeing what Vic's "XYZ Sucks" threads look like.
|
|
|
Post by cj iwakura on Sept 17, 2009 11:22:35 GMT -5
Vic's reputedly not very fond of Final Fantasy, so I'm sure he'd fit right in.
|
|
|
Post by Sketcz-1000 on Sept 17, 2009 14:52:19 GMT -5
I can PM him if you'd like. I will also try to do Exile screens too! I actually discovered an old email address of his still works. I'll try again closer to the article's completion.
|
|
|
Post by spotlessmind on Sept 18, 2009 2:20:52 GMT -5
Sadly, I can't comment on Vagrant Story, but I've seen people make the same complaint about the recent Final Fantasy Tactics re-translation, and it baffles me. The game is very rooted in medieval society, politics, religion and even design... giving it 'faux-Victorian' dialogue just seems like a natural fit and, in my view at least, makes it a lot more engrossing. The problem is, nobody ever talked like that. The idiom that appears in Vagrant Story, FFT, or the new DS FF translations, is a silly, wholly artificial idealization of Elizabethan English that's about as authentically archaic as a hip hop song (if a bit more turgid). It exemplifies the type of hackneyed fantasy prose that reads like a hissy, 6th generation cassette copy of the declamatory, ornate vernacular invented by Tolkien. It doesn't have much to do with a world that's supposed to be rooted in medieval politics and society, beyond aping a few general grammatical practices more common in the past. Playing FFIV DS, for example, I couldn't help but imagine every line of dialogue in the game narrated by a squeaky-voiced American 13 year old doing his best impression of the Queen's English. Though I'm not a great proponent of Working Designs' translations, I'll at least admit that their dialogue had the fluidity and rhythm of real language. Juvenile language, mostly, but it was something.
|
|
|
Post by kobushi on Sept 18, 2009 4:52:34 GMT -5
The problem is, nobody ever talked like that. Nobody ever rode a chocobo, either. So you dislike Square's localization team because they failed to use a rigorously authentic historical idiom (in a game depicting a wholly-invented, completely inauthentic, Japanese vision of the European Middle Ages), or simply because their pseudo-historical prose fails to live up to Tolkien's? Why does Tolkien get a free pass for crafting purposefully non-modern language, but Square doesn't? Just taking FFT as an example (since I am familiar with the Japanese, English PS1, and English PSP versions), the English PSP version's re-translation is superb. The language is flavored with the archaic without being unreadable, wholly self-consistent, and wonderfully fluid. When the alternatives are the juvenalia of Working Designs or the inconsistent, mistranslated mess that was the original translation of Final Fantasy Tactics, I'll choose Square's recent work every time.
|
|
|
Post by Atma on Sept 18, 2009 5:01:13 GMT -5
The FFT PSP retranslation is absolutely fantastic. It really made me fall in love with the game all over again. As someone with a huge hard-on for medieval/renaissance Europe, for the English language, for classic literature, and me being a writer, it spoke wonderfully to me and influenced me quite positively. It flows majestically and sounds not a syllable out of place. In fact I think the script would fit in well alongside written works from the 1500s and 1600s. They took an already fantastic game and made it sing.
Methinks thou protest too much!
|
|
|
Post by Dais on Sept 18, 2009 5:59:04 GMT -5
Methinks thou protest too much! do I get to point out that you are perpetrating the misuse of the line you're paraphrasing or do you catch it before oh, too late
|
|
|
Post by Weasel on Sept 18, 2009 12:55:33 GMT -5
The "Ivalice" dialect is apparently supposed to be a hybrid between traditional, Elizabethan English and more modern English - presumably to sound more medieval, but also to retain legibility for an audience that would probably not be able to read a Shakespeare play without annotations, simply because language in those days is just getting too difficult to understand, with how the language conventions have changed over the last several hundred years.
In short, I like it.
|
|
|
Post by spotlessmind on Sept 18, 2009 15:31:25 GMT -5
Nobody ever rode a chocobo, either. Yes, but...that's irrelevant? I was only responding to the defense of FFT's translation style on the grounds that it matched the game's setting, by pointing out that its style did not actually match the game's setting. The idiom the translator chose was a highly personal and deliberate choice; he was not guided to it in the name of authenticity. So you dislike Square's localization team because they failed to use a rigorously authentic historical idiom (in a game depicting a wholly-invented, completely inauthentic, Japanese vision of the European Middle Ages), or simply because their pseudo-historical prose fails to live up to Tolkien's? Well first of all, unless you're a Seamus Heaney caliber scholar, any attempt to use a rigorously authentic historical idiom in a game would probably end in tears. You're overthinking my opinion here. I dislike Square's localizations because I dislike bad writing. Writing doesn't have to be full of solecisms, malapropisms, and constrained vocabulary to be poor. Gratuitously orotund prose can be just as painful as a schoolboy's essay. Why does Tolkien get a free pass for crafting purposefully non-modern language, but Square doesn't? I said Tolkien got a free pass? I think I said this type of writing is a tone-deaf emulation of a template established by Tolkien. Without voicing any special ardor for the original iteration of some style, I can still recognize an epigone of it. Just taking FFT as an example (since I am familiar with the Japanese, English PS1, and English PSP versions), the English PSP version's re-translation is superb. The language is flavored with the archaic without being unreadable, wholly self-consistent, and wonderfully fluid. Ok, you've got that opinion. Mine is that it's a stilted, artless job that awkwardly tries to disguise the mundanity of its dialogue with clueless oratory. I suspect neither of us will change the other's mind. When the alternatives are the juvenalia of Working Designs or the inconsistent, mistranslated mess that was the original translation of Final Fantasy Tactics, I'll choose Square's recent work every time. Fine, but you're creating a false dilemma for yourself. Those are far from the only alternatives. Methinks thou protest too much! Er... comments fail me. If you're not as familiar with Shakespeare as you thought you were, you may believe FFT belongs alongside actual period literature...
|
|
|
Post by Smithee on Sept 18, 2009 15:46:18 GMT -5
But people wanna be able to understand it.
If it were really like Shakespeare it'd be all... confusing for most.
|
|