July 28th, 2000 -

Hopefully the North American front cover will share the Japanese's simplicity and not the abomination that was the NA FFVIII cover.

With the Final Fantasy series becoming as profitable as a Hollywood blockbuster, the next step in lining Square's pockets is to release Final Fantasy IX in North America and the now just-as-lucrative Europe. With over three million units sold in Japan already, you can bet your mortgage (err, which you probably haven't got, kids ;)) that it'll do as well - if not better - on our shores.

American gaming magazine Electronic Gaming Monthly once again comes up with the goods and delivers a short report on the mammoth task of translating Final Fantasy IX so its suitable for western audiences:

"Electronic Gaming Monthly recently paid homage to Square's Los Angeles offices, where they sat down with the translators to discuss the progress of moulding Final Fantasy IX for the English-speaking audience. The translation staff currently consists of three linguists: Ryosuke Taketomi, Maki Yamane, and Brody Phillips. The translation process has been in development for months, long before the Japanese release.

"The amount of dialog is pretty much close to what was in Final Fantasy VIII," Taketomi told EGM, "so, as a rough estimate, it lasts about as long as that game."

The discussion moved on to characters, so each put in his input to the character's personality.

Yamane spoke up, "He [Zidane] is a player, or tries to be anyway. He's not a jerk like Squall."

Touching on Garnet, "She really struggles when she gets out and tries to speak like a commoner would. Zidane goes through an entire lecture with her, teaching her how to talk and all these little lessons," Phillips noted.

Zidane in the Village Of Dali. He can use that Moogle to save his game.

This is perhaps the most intriguing quote, especially those familiar with Japanese. In Japanese, there are several "levels" of speech ranging from honorific to demeaning. English doesn't really have those "levels", so it's always interesting to see how translators overcome such obstacles and still retain the feel of the language in English.

Square should be commended for their recent translations. (Final Fantasy V needed some more work though... I mean c'mon! There are boxes where they didn't capitalise "Krile"!). However, the medieval Vagrant Story is a verbal delicacy. In addition, Final Fantasy VIII had several language barriers where much linguistic creativity was implemented. In the Japanese version, Fujin was only capable of speaking one kanji, a Chinese character that usually represents an intangible thought, which is heavily used in the Japanese language. In the US version, one word in caps was replaced such as "DESTRUCTION." or "RETREAT."

Another bridge to cross was Watts' over abuse of the polite Japanese verb. Instead, "Sir" was repeatedly placed in sentences. Marcus of FFIX seems to be doing a similar scheme, probably so as not to offend the lovely royalty Garnet.

I can already see some challenges on the horizon. Steiner constantly and habitually refers to Garnet as "Hime-sama", which translates roughly to "Honourable Princess". Of course putting that in the game may not be very fluid. Or is it already a bit stiff?