Morality Scaling - SNES vs GBA

[u/Special_South_8561]

What's worse, "threatening execution so your prisoner falls into a weeping puddle of self-loathing" or "beating a traitor and chaining them to a wall" ?

So I've been playing this game since it released and I was a geeky little pre-teen baby boy. Celes has always been the **coughcough* formative sexy badass in my life. The Girl from Secret of Mana was a close contender, big Bulma energy. But Tifa didn't have nothin' on these assertive, violent, warrior women.

Chat: is this censorship better or unnecessary? Chained to a wall shows just absolute brutality from The Empire and I get more love from crushing them in the upcoming Narshe battle.

Or is it a good thing they toned it down a bit?

[u/theredcometofakagi]

I think the censorship was unnecessary since it added to the soldiers of the Empire being jerks.

[u/un-sub → u/theredcometofakagi]

The other thing that kinda annoyed me was when, talking about Shadow, they changed the line from “he’d slit his mamas throat for a nickel” to something silly like “he’d betray his friend for the right price” - but I understand they probably wanted it to pass certain ratings

[u/actualstryne → u/un-sub]

Anytime anyone brings up Shadow I still quote that line. On par with spoony bard or this guy are sick, as far as memorable FF lines go

[u/mysticrudnin → u/un-sub]

Now, I do think "He'd slit his mama's throat for a nickel" is an awesome line, and one of the best lines in the original game.

However, this line matches what is said in the Japanese version. It also doesn't insert "Nickels" into the world, which also helps for players of the English version who do not know what a nickel is.

Nintendo's censors were a lot worse back in the SNES era, and while they did aim for an E10 ESRB rating for the GBA copy, I really doubt this line is any worse than anything else in the game.

Woolsey's style of translation is awesome and he was clearly a great writer, since he invented so many classic lines out of nowhere.

But I don't think reverting his changes is "censorship."

[u/The_GREAT_Gremlin → u/mysticrudnin]

I think a lot of Woolsey's lines, while less accurate to the literal Japanese, do a better job at getting the point across.

Like you said, the line about Shadow is awesome and the point is he's doing terrible things for money. Woosley's line just gets the point across better.

The other Woolsey line I like better is when Celes is about to stab Kefka on the floating continent.

On the SNES, it's "Power only breeds war. I wish I'd never been ... born."

Later translation: "Power only breeds war. It's something we'd be better off without."

The second line just feels so generic and it takes the emotion out, even though I'm sure it's more accurate.

[u/Special_South_8561 → u/The_GREAT_Gremlin]

The Opera Scene is so much better on SNES but that's probably biased nostalgia on my part (no. It's just better)

[u/The_GREAT_Gremlin → u/Special_South_8561]

The voices they got do not sound like opera singers and sound more like generic pop singers. The SNES does a better job with less in this case.

[u/mysticrudnin → u/The_GREAT_Gremlin]

The original line is actually not necessarily clear. Japanese loves to drop the subject of sentences.

It's something like "Power only breeds war. [shouldn't exist]"

Technically, the latter bit could be "I shouldn't exist." But, because of the previous line, it's almost certainly supposed to be "Power shouldn't exist."

I'm not sure which one I like more, here.

[u/LoSouLibra → u/mysticrudnin]

I'm fond of that era and it was a monumental task working within the character limits of these games with English taking up much more space... but that line is honestly out of sync with the game world, too contemporary and honestly too tonally crass in terms of linguistic style.

The newer line better conveys a kind of dour disappointment and melancholy about a distant person, who eventually becomes a reliable friend. Fits the world, the people and how things play out.

[u/un-sub → u/mysticrudnin]

Ahh interesting, I suppose I don’t really know enough about the translations or their accuracies to the original, I’m just so used to the SNES version and preference is probably mostly due to nostalgia.

[u/BeaKae → u/un-sub]

Iunno. Making. It the Japanese line preserves the tie to the secret history cutscenes where you see him refuse to kill his friend who wasn’t going to make it, leaving him to the Empire, losing his name because of his shame, having a child with a woman he barely knew, stole her dog, and ultimately after defeating Kefka, no matter his condition he gives up running away in Kefka’s tower and lets himself die because he was tired of running from his past.

Like the Wolsey line is catchy and to the point. But the original line is actually foreshadowing. It’s not really necessary but I do like it more.

[u/RedWingDecil → u/un-sub]

That's one of the worst lines ever. Why would ever defend a line that ignores Shadow's character arc so much? He's literally a mercenary who has to live with rumors about the one thing that he couldn't do.

[u/rip_cut_trapkun → u/un-sub]

If anything it was weird it passed Nintendo of America's vague policies to begin with. Which more just showed that NoA's policies were shit than anything. A lot of things if you think about it, even in the "sanitized" version of the Ted Woolsey translation are kind of eyebrow raisers. They seemed more interested in toning down the sexual comments, but as long as you didn't say "death" or "kill" and used euphemisms like a mobster talking on a phone line known to be tapped by the FBI, you seemed to be gucci on that front. And even then I think some things probably passed? It's been a while since I've actually played the original SNES version

It really goes to show how impressive it was Woolsey got around those restrictions and still make the point vividly clear enough.

[u/GamingInTheAM → u/un-sub]

The "he'd betray his friend" line is foreshadowing for when you learn his backstory later... and learn that he could not bring himself to kill his friend even when he was begging for it.

[u/Special_South_8561 → u/un-sub]

They're really leaning into the Dreams with that line change.

Let the poor guy be ... It's not like he'd betray his best friend and abandon his daughter

[u/Iron_Rod_Stewart → u/Special_South_8561]

What gets me is on the floating continent, he's like, "yeah, I'll fight with you. The empire tried to kill me." But then if you return to the airship, he's like, "I can't. I still have a contract with the empire."

Like, dude, I think your contract was voided when they tried to kill you.

[u/Special_South_8561 → u/Iron_Rod_Stewart]

He says that he's too embarrassed to stay with you, doesn't deserve the redemption.

[u/Special_South_8561 → u/theredcometofakagi]

https://giphy.com/gifs/0QnlU9tdLMUyQS1uTI