...copyright Squaresoft 1994. The images used are also from the game. Don't go claiming them as your own or anything silly like that. This document is not intended for any commercial purpose, real or imaginary. It exists primarily out of curiosity about both the Japanese language and the changes between the Japanese and English versions of the game. If you're interested in the game, go out and buy it if you haven't already... a summary of what happens can't compare to actually playing it. One of the best SNES games, best console RPGs, and (arguably) best games, period, ever... despite a number of odd bugs.

Recent Updates

2020-02-08 - Sometimes it seems like I just can't skim through anything I've translated without finding things I want to tweak. And so, minor revisions all over. I was also bored enough at one point to fill in the rest of the monster data, so although it's possible that I've miscopied some of it, that's at least complete now.

2018-11-24 - A probable name origin for the Magna Roaders, plus various other minor revisions.

2016-11-06 - Notes on three more monster names, plus a comment that Vanish/Dooming Death Gaze (Doom Gaze) might also keep the game from removing the encounter in addition to keeping it from coughing up Bahamut.

2016-05-30 - Aside from general revisions, this update includes some changes to and additional notes on several monster names.

2015-09-07 - A handful of small changes, most notably adding a new suggestion on what's up with the name of Setzer's "7-Flush", and an explanation of what mezzo carattere means.

2015-03-01 - A few minor revisions and sidenotes here and there, but nothing particularly remarkable.

2014-03-01 - Added the location names list, a chart of Pointy Things to Throw, soundtrack names, some more of the combat feedback text, and let's not forget finishing off the storyline.

29 Apr 2012 - Added a Rage skill summary page (look under monster data). Added the lines for the rich man in South Figaro both before and after the invasion. Added dialog about the house with treasures in Narshe, as well as the scene with Lone Wolf and Mog. Also various other revisions, and the enemy skills page should be done now as well.

27 Feb 2011 - I know I've made some changes to the monster data section, but I'm not sure what else might have changed since the last update.

21 Aug 2010 - Vastly improved monster data section. More revisions. Attack traits are now color-coded as well.

05 Sep 2009 - Some more revisions, an extra chapter or so of story text, some boss tactics. Also designed a new layout for monster data and converted a few to the new format. Let me know what you think. 07 Apr 2009 - Minor cleanup, mostly fixing misspellings. Also made the status effects page less ugly. 16 Jan 2009 - More sizable updates, this time with the storyline text fully redone from scratch to complement the redone battle text. Changeable names now appear as the default name in { } braces (unless I've missed some in the text already here). I made an effort to standardize terms ahead of time, so consistency shouldn't be a problem, unlike in all too many translations. Working from dumps affects the NA version text formatting considerably, because the raw NA script rarely uses manual line breaks, instead depending on the game engine to break lines up automatically (this is not good programming practice, by the way, but space considerations may have been involved). On that note, my translations now all have manual line breaks wherever appropriate, which makes the formatting look much nicer and also line up with the JP text better. In any case, all this results in at least minor changes to every last page in the section. 07 June 2008 - Scrapped "thaumaturgy" for 魔導 in favor of "sorcery", and gave the term its own section below. Added more details to item, skill, and magic information, Cleaned up formatting, various revisions. I took my dumps of the in-battle text, put them in a spreadsheet, and translated every line in it from scratch, mostly with better results than what I had previously done, so combat dialog is especially affected. 30 Dec 2007 - Expanded my note on 魔導 below, prompted by an e-mail from OrdosAlpha that's been sitting in my inbox for longer than I'd like to admit. I've probably made some other changes here and there, but it's been so long since my last update I don't really remember. 09 Jul 2007 - Some minor updates, something on the weapons page (I don't actually remember what, and can't find the difference now), and changing Bloodstained to Ensanguined on the armors page after the FF12 name for the shield, which means the same thing, but I happen to like it better. 18 Nov 2006 - I've split the entire storyline into smaller, more manageable pieces, revising (sometimes heavily, and including halfwidth characters where appropriate) as I went along. I've split the skills page into more sensible sections like 'magic' and 'character skills', revised most of that, and added more information on various terms. I've changed some of the formatting to what I hope is cleaner and less ugly. I've finally decided on a distinctive, fairly accurate term for 魔導 (refer to the notes below). The links to story sections are now fancier pseudo-buttons that automatically fit as many as possible on a line regardless of window size (just like text!), though IE, as usual, doesn't comply with standards and won't display the borders. But seriously, check them out. Try resizing your browser window and watch them adjust to it. (Update: They don't do that anymore since I've set the page to a fixed width, but they'll still break across lines automatically and without breaking in the middle of a "button", and you can still see the adjustment effect to some extent by resizing the text.) In short, there's been a lot going on here in the last month or two. I wish I could say past more-than-half-a-year, but I hadn't actually touched any of it for most of that time... 28 Dec 2005 - I've been working on this lately, so there's something to update for once! Anyway, the translation has seen some revision and now covers all the way through the opera. Additionally, part 1 now has a some of the kana that's supposed to be halfwidth, actually halfwidth. It's still not perfect, since the game font includes the ゛ (dakuten) and ゜ (handakuten) marks as part of the halfwidth characters while standard computer fonts don't, but it's still better. Earlier - Older changes not logged. :( [hide older news]

Storyline

Non-Story Information and Translations

On 魔導, the Single Most Aggravating Term in the Game

魔導 (madou), in which the kanji mean "magic" or "demon" and "guide" or "derive", appears very often in this game, but not in any normal dictionary. Throwing it in Babelfish gives "demon derived", and while the "demon" part seems off in this case, "derived" makes some sense.

A keyword search on Hatena gives 魔導師 as another word for 魔法使い or 魔術師 (both of which mean "magician"), but with more of an exalted or evil feel to it. That would make 魔導 a synonym for "magic", but with perhaps more of a grandiose or evil connotation to it. Furthermore, other Final Fantasy games often refer to magics as 白魔導 (white magic), 黒魔導 (black magic), and so on.

Since it basically means "magic" but is used as a distinct term with a subtly different meaning in this game, any decent translation needs a distinct and subtly different term in English too. I went with "thaumaturgy" for quite a while, or "thaumaturgic" or whatever form was appropriate. It's a less common synonym for "magic", and while Magitek is less cumbersome, there's no "tek"nology in 魔導. I never really liked the term, though. Additionally, as pointed out by OrdosAlpha, thaumaturgy literally refers to the working of miracles, so is perhaps not the best choice for what the Empire is doing (though the term actually has nothing to do with the Empire and everything to do with the Genjuu). I basically just wanted a general word that means "magic" without actually using the word "magic", and while "devilry" or "the occult" might be more appropriate, the connotations are too obvious in my opinion. Most other possible terms are either too specific (augury, conjuring, etc.) or too colloquial (hocus-pocus, etc.).

And then in late May 2008, it hit me: Sorcery (with the adjectival form "sorcerous"). Duh. It means "magic" but is a distinctly different word, it has no strong or obvious connotations, and it's both more familiar and less cumbersome than "thaumaturgy" (not to mention easier to spell). The term is especially apt here since it has an association with wielding supernatural powers by the aid of spirits.

Various Notes

For one thing, I'd like to note that it's not my intention to dump on the original translator. By all accounts, he was on a ridiculously short timeline with little to no support and often had to attempt to make sense of confusing lines without the benefit of context, not to mention worrying about avoiding topics that might upset Nintendo of America's strict and often arbitrary content rules at the time. Playtesting and quality control were apparently not even considerations. Given all that, it's impressive that the result is even coherent. But by the same token, it's unavoidable that it's far from flawless.

I've been working at this for over a decade, with all the knowledge of the Internet at my fingertips, and I'm still not satisfied with parts of it. I can't imagine trying to get through the entire game text in a matter of months, much less in the early 90s with information that much more difficult to come by.

I make several references to the now semi-infamous "evade bug". The short explanation of the bug is that when the game decides whether an attack hits or misses, it *always* uses the magic hit algorithm (and checks magic evasion) even when it *ought* to use the physical algorithm (and check physical evasion). As a result, most attacks against most monsters will always hit (since the vast majority of monsters have 0 magic evasion), all bonuses to evasion are completely worthless (greatly limiting the usefulness of shields), and characters with high (at least 128) magic evasion are nearly invulnerable because they dodge everything that can be dodged. The same bug also prevents 'darkness', other status ailments, and many accessories from affecting hit or evade rates.





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