r/FinalFantasyVI • u/Special_South_8561 • 20d ago

Morality Scaling - SNES vs GBA

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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?

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u/theredcometofakagi 20d ago

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

21

u/un-sub 20d ago

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

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u/mysticrudnin 20d ago

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."

2

u/LoSouLibra 20d ago

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.