Current Events > Super Mario RPG remake has defiled Ted Woolsey's translations >_> RIP

(+) Yeah! (+)

ted woosley was good at dialog but accurate names and such he was awful at

dialog has more freedom to it than a name

He had his time.

DKBananaSlamma posted...

No one has any clue how the f*** Ted Woolsey came up with Neosquid for it >_>

I always thought it was because he was looking at the sprites and naming them accordingly.

If you view the sprite individually and squint, I could see how someone who is overworked and super tired due to rushing to translate all by himself would confuse just the bottom of Exor's mouth with some kind of tentacled creature.

chaos_knight posted...

The mini game part?

Wasnt that bowsers castle? I thought the whole lead up to Exor was after all of that, and it was just slog fight after slog fight with some mini bosses sprinkled in before him and then Smithys factory. The whole gray ashen area or whatever

I could be wrong and that whole part was inside/after Exor, idk its been over a decade since a play through at this point, so Im looking forward to the remake.

FortuneCookie posted...

Yes. They made a point to include Valentina getting punched in the first trailer so as to show that it was removed.

If they had to censor it, it was smart to get it out of the way early that they were going to do so. I'll be playing the original for a while before I give the remake a try.

<_<

So that's what they call Margarita? Man that ruins the pun.

ThisIsAKnoife posted...

Wasnt that bowsers castle? I thought the whole lead up to Exor was after all of that, and it was just slog fight after slog fight with some mini bosses sprinkled in before him and then Smithys factory. The whole gray ashen area or whatever

I could be wrong and that whole part was inside/after Exor, idk its been over a decade since a play through at this point, so Im looking forward to the remake.

Yeah, that's after. Which honestly I didn't mind that part either. Honestly, I'm buying this regardless day one anyway.

Irony posted...

Speardovich is so dumb

Yari from Yaridovich literally means spear.

So it just went from a dumb you don't know into a dumb you know.

Yaridovich flows better as a name. Speardovich is awkward in the middle. Probably sound better in Japanese, but that isn't the version we will play.

chaos_knight posted...

Yaridovich flows better as a name. Speardovich is awkward in the middle. Probably sound better in Japanese, but that isn't the version we will play.

Yaridovich is the Japanese name. Yaridovihhi

The remake is translating the name, because (yari) means spear. A lot of RPGs at the time had untranslated names because they didn't understand what the pun was. They also had a lot of confusing r and l in translations. I think it was Symphony of the Night that had Rubicante translated as Lubricant.

Wait what. Isn't Ted Woolsey the ff 6 guy? What's he got to do with smrpg?

Revisited posted...

Wait what. Isn't Ted Woolsey the ff 6 guy? What's he got to do with smrpg?

He translated all the square SNES games of that period.

creativerealms posted...

He translated all the square SNES games of that period.

Was BoF 2 also by him too?
It was translated by Square, and yes a lot of mistranslation.

This the one with peachs corn mag?

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Oh good.
That BoF 2 translation was really bad. Woolsey's translation are still good despite taking a lot if liberty.

ffs Square Enix. They did this for FFVI and CT too. I get that they wanted to improve them, so I can't really complain (except getting rid of Frog's accent), and this is even more of a remake so I'm not surprised they would re-translate, but changing a bunch of names?

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Are you sure he did 4 (2) on SNES? That translation was definitely weaker than the others.

It's a name change to fit the puns more in English.

Dragon Quest had this too and despite a lot of people crying, the name changes are generally accepted.
I still a bit annoyed they changed Sylvia to Sylvando in XI tho, but it's still acceptable.

Justin2Krelian posted...

Are you sure he did 4 (2) on SNES? That translation was definitely weaker than the others.

I don't think he was.
"You spoony bard" is very Woolsey-ish tho, i guess people misattributed it to him.

Ted Woolsey worked on:

Final Fantasy: Mystic Quest
Final Fantasy Legend III
Secret of Mana
Breath of Fire
Final Fantasy VI
Chrono Trigger
Secret of Evermore
Super Mario RPG
Shadow Madness

Apparently he also did work on Final Fantasy V for the US before they decided not to release it on SNES here >_> I don't think they used any of his translation when they released it on PS1

Good. Even Woolsey admits his SMRPG translation was a bad rush job.

Rexdragon125 posted...

Good. Even Woolsey admits his SMRPG translation was a bad rush job.

But it's a charming bad rush job

LMAO, is this really how they translated Final Fantasy IV? Just some random staff dudes doing it?

Ted Woolsey quit his Ph.D. studies to join Square's American office in Redmond, Washington, shortly after that in 1991.[3][4] At the time, Final Fantasy IV had just been released in the United States (under the title Final Fantasy II) and did not sell according to their expectations.[3] At this point, Square had no localization department, and a Square employee who spoke some English ended up translating Final Fantasy II. Other employees, including one in the financial department and a senior vice president, helped with editing after hours in their spare time.

Source:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ted_Woolsey

Geez >_>

Modern square doesn't quite understand that a bad translation often makes things more memorable. And not even just modern Square.

I mean is Final Fantasy Tactics War of the Lions a better translation? Yes. Is it as memorable as the PS1 translation? Hell no.

Rexdragon125 posted...

Good. Even Woolsey admits his SMRPG translation was a bad rush job.

Thankfully now we're getting a bad take time job

creativerealms posted...

Modern square doesn't quite understand that a bad translation often makes things more memorable. And not even just modern Square.

I mean is Final Fantasy Tactics War of the Lions a better translation? Yes. Is it as memorable as the PS1 translation? Hell no.

Yeah Id rather get the good translation than one that is memorable because of its errors.

War of the Lions has one of the worst translations ever. The guy that modded it to have the original's translation was a hero.

Irony posted...

War of the Lions has one of the worst translations ever. The guy that modded it to have the original's translation was a hero.

Oh I always thought people accepted it as more accurate but no where near as entertaining. I was relying on second hand knowledge since I never played that version. So disregard my post.

It is more accurate but not in any way that matters

creativerealms posted...

Oh I always thought people accepted it as more accurate but no where near as entertaining. I was relying on second hand knowledge since I never played that version. So disregard my post.

Lol, so this second hand knowledge is reliable?

WotL has by far the better translation. There, now you have yet more second hand knowledge.

Who did the horrible translation of FFV on PlayStation? I read it was re-used from a PC port that never got released.

Kinda see both sides. Some names shouldnt change, but going more accurate isnt bad.

take which ever sounds better or more iconic.

Mystereave posted...

It's funny because in every other localization discussion I see anywhere, people *want* correct translations and get angry if anything is changed.

Names have always been an exception since names of entities/groups/etc are often picked not just for meaning but how they sound
Some creative freedom has to be allowed for translating names to account for this, but conversation and other dialogue should never drop/change the important points (which deserve localization criticism)

Chrono Trigger DS is another case of a better but less memorable translation.

WotL felt like someone had just binge-read ASoIaF the night before and handled the retranslation accordingly. Technically more accurate to the time period I guess, but of course lacking in charm and originality.

The SMRPG retranslation will probably turn out a lot like the Chrono Trigger retranslation: they'll keep one classic line to throw a bone to the old-school fans ("Ozzie's in a pickle!" > "I forgot my bazooka at home, sheesh!") and gut the rest, with something that's technically more accurate yet ultimately homogenized and unmemorable.

DerWillZurMacht posted...

Very true. I don't understand Woolsey fans. What a disgrace FF VI was because of that idiot.

Part of the reason anyone here even gives a semblance of a shit about Kefka is because of him

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I mean, did "Cure 2", "Fire 3", really bother you before you learned it should be Cura and Firaga? >_>

Dialogue matters more than spell names, imo. (Provided the spell names accurately describe what it does of course)

when ppl say less memorable what they mean is they played it as an adult so it does not stick with them

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Uh, yeah, FF 6's plot / overall experience was totally ruined for me because of this. The Opera scene was thoroughly tarnished for me because I simply could not stop seething over how abysmal 'Cure 2' was as a spell name.

It'll always be Yardovich to me

I never played FF6 on the SNES (only on GBA). But I will say that Chrono Trigger on the SNES is a better version than the DS. The translation is way more fun and the gameplay isn't bloated with actual bad side content like the DS version

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I have my little nitpicks with the FF 6 retranslation - Kefka losing some of his batshit craziness, 'Doom' being a way more intimidating name than 'Fiend,' etc - but it is the one I do like overall, and prefer over the original. And I say that as someone who lost my longtime username to the dustbin of history because of it.

The CT retranslation was so disappointing, though. The low point was when they turned Slash into a stock effete English swordsman - the exact character archetype the original subverted by not being. I was also particularly put off by how they renamed equipment and items to fall in line with the Final Fantasy series - that kind of homogenization did nothing but hurt CT's uniqueness.

Speaking of ff6 translation and retranslation, nobody ever bothered that Jihad is translated into Crusader, and then retranslated into Doomsday?

Maybe they didnt want to touch jihad because it was translated during the height of the war on terrorism >_>