So I was reading about FF8 the other day still trying to understand the plot, when I decided to watch a let’s play of the final battle. Then I realised I should be practicing Japanese and found a JP version. Here’s Ultimecia’s first speech in the English version:

“…SeeD… SeeD……SeeD…… SeeD, SeeD, SeeD! Kurse all SeeDs. Swarming like lokusts akross generations. You disgust me. The world was on the brink of that ever-elusive ‘time kompression’. Insolent fools! Your vain krusade ends here, SeeDs. The price for your meddling is death beyond death. I shall send you to a dimension beyond your imagining. There, I will reign, and you will be my slaves for eternity. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA. Whom shall I exterminate first!? I’ll start with you three!”

Here’s roughly what she says in Japanese:

“…eeD…

SeeD…SeeD…

SeeD, SeeD, SeeD!!

It displeases me…

Why do you interfere with sorceresses!?

Why won’t you let me be free!?

In just a little longer, my perfect world of time compression would have been completed…

I won’t allow you to interfere…

Your very existences shall be absorbed by the algorithm of time compression!!

You will feel agony as your thoughts are ripped apart and all your memories fade away to nothing.

There won’t be a thing you can do, think or even feel!

That’s the world I’m going to send you to!

There will be absolutely nothing you can…

…No, you’ll be able to worship me, the sole existence for all eternity!!

So, who will come first!?

Who will fight me!?

Hmpf, it matters not, the end will be the same!

I will choose!”

The gist is the same, but the extra details even in this little section make it a fair bit clearer what “time compression” involves and why she wants it. Ultimecia also has no accent in Japanese, and uses “omae” to refer to the main characters, which is arrogant and usually associated with male speech. She uses few feminine speech markers, which means she sounds rather like a male villain, though it could be seen as simply having no time for politeness or pleasantries.

Her description of time compression also describes quite well what Squall goes through in the ending FMV, which makes its omission regrettable.

Anyway, I then had a look at the rest of Ultimecia’s dialogue during the final battles. If the rest of this game is translated similarly, then I think I understand why so many people feel the plot is disjointed and uninspiring.

English: “The most powerful GF… …You shall… …SUFFER…! HAHAHA…”

Japanese: “I will summon the one you believe is most powerful. The stronger you believe he is, the stronger he becomes. That will surely make you suffer. Muahaha.”

[i.e. Griever is powerful purely because of his importance as a symbol in Squall’s mind. Point completely missed]

English: “The GF’s true power… To show you…! Griever! Make them bleed!”

Japanese: “Muahaha, Have you forgotten? (lit. Are you losing your memories?) That is not the real terror of a G.F. I will teach you the true terror of a G.F. Griever! Show them your power!”

[English version is stilted and misses the taunt about the main cast losing their memories]

English: “I shall junction myself… …Unto Griever!”

Japanese: “The prelude is over! Now I will junction myself to Greiver!”

[…Whatever.]

English: “I am Ultimecia. Time shall compress… …All existence denied.”

Japanese: “I am Ultimecia. I will compress all time and refute all existence.”

[The English translation makes many of the sentences passive instead of active (“Time shall compress” vs “I will compress time”), which -could- be stylistic in this particular case, but is also a bad habit of crappy J>E translators. Also in Japanese Ultimecia’s speech here shifts to formal register, which makes her sound rather cold and creepy all of a sudden.]

English: “Reflect on your… Childhood…”

“Your sensation… Your words… Your emotions…”

“Time… It will not wait…”

“No matter… …how hard you hold on. It escapes you…”

“And…”

Japanese: “Have you remembered something?

Something from your childhood

A sensation

The words from back then

The emotions from back then

As you become an adult

You leave something behind, throw something away

Time will not wait for you

Even if you cling to it

It slips away the instant you open your hands

And…”

[Leaving stuff out again for no reason and vagueifyng things. I read a suggestion that the point of the story is the theme of impermanence and inevitable loss (which is a common theme in Japanese culture), the memory loss plot, Squall’s coldness after losing Ellone as a child/learning to love Rinoa and Ultimecia’s goal of stopping time all play into that. It’s like they thought Western audiences wouldn’t understand that and just cut most of the references and thematic hints out, which is why the plot feels confusing and pointless in English. ARGH.]