RPG Classics Mailbag

OK, we're back with a serious topic now. Some people will be commenting on my rant on censorship in RPGs, so read it if you haven't yet. Without further ado (no, really, I'm not quite in the mood) we turn to our first correspondent, MABATSEKKER! (as he calls himself, anyway).

Holy Spoony! Another topic for me to spoil up for everyone! And... Guess who it *could* be??

ME!! MABATSEKKER *Insert Cid's "NOOOOO!! HOW DO YOU SPELL THAT? Oh yeah, Ctrl-C&V. LoLz"-scream*

I love how people put words in my mouth. Leaves no place for my own words, you know. Mfmgghfrmfmfm!

Heh, I should try that some day!

You don't even want to KNOW what I can stick in *your* mouth.

Well... for the starters, Cid(olfas Orlandu?), how is the censorship on this mailbag? Can I say Shi*@$$Mo-Fo and get away with it? Or can I tell you about the day I was jAx0ring at some hentai? Good.

Good... that you can't say that stuff? O_o Ah well, some people just have warped values, what can I say?

And anyways, You americans (If americans, that is) get more games than we poor europeans get anyways, and you talk about censorship? We get 'bout 35% of all the great Rpg's and, of course they are put just the way they put it in the U.S, unless it's a PC game, and then the British tight@$$e$ go and remove all blood/sex/cussing from it... no problem with that but when I really grew up to get something out of this subject, I realised it( when I was 12 ):

Gaming companies had grown up: No removing Aeris' Death, Bleu *NAKED* in Breath of Fire 3!! (Not to mention Ryu, he was in his B-day suit too) And... then I realised it was all Nintendos fault... Yep our favourite Super Mario Producing company was behind it all... No bloody Mortal Kombat, No big blade slicing Rosa into half in FF4, NO STRIPPERS in FF4 FOR CRYING OUT LOUD!! *Breathes Deeply* and now, they allowed Rare to release Conkers Bad Fur Day.. (NOT for kiddies.. seriously) And because its 2:35 here and I'm tired, I'll end this pretty lightly for now:

Ozzie! I see that everyone is giving you a hard time, eh? Well don't worry, I got the solutin for you! You know who created you? (*Insert randomness and confusion here*) Well... It was *Only* the creator of Dragon Ball Z, Akira Toriyama... but since that would put you into a higher ground when compared to the other mailbag persons, remember your companions, the Transvestite... Person-thing, Flea (That Flea Vest has Prostetic breasts, Ewwwwwww) and that makes me wonder why Nintendo didn't censor that. Oh well ... And.. uhhh.. Slash.. the swordguy with... the Slasher sword, Yeah! Cid, try them as a substitute for Ozzie for once in a while... or don't. Bye and hold on to your drawers and don't piss in them!

P.S I'm 15 and I talk about Shit like that... I'm cool

P.S.S Lunaris, I lied last time. The Mentats are in CID'S UNDERWEAR!! And Lucca hides Jet and Psycho in her future orphanage in Chrono Cross!

Ewwww....

...Um. First off, talking about "shit" like that isn't cool. I am always extremely annoyed at people who consider it cool. I don't know where you idiots get ideas like that, but all it ends up being is stupid, needlessly macho, and makes people extremely uncomfortable. I'd dig out my Messup sign, but there are so many people that do this that I wouldn't have enough for everyone. Next up is "Donald Marco, aka Donald 3", who went so far as to actually GIVE ME INSTRUCTIONS on what to do in my own mailbag. I'll just leave them in and have everyone laugh at them, hahahahah!

Hello once again. And before certain parties get up and "greet" me, and if you don't know who said parties are, look at Mailbag 46, (or at least 51 & Booken's response,) I'll give you time at the end of my response. Speaking of which, sorry, BSSB, but I fail to see Ozzie hooking up with ANY Human. (Except MAYBE Flea, if he/she/it IS human...) Now, onto the topic of discussion for the week. You make a very good argument in your "rant" Cid. I could even take an example early in Chrono Trigger. And, I know Lucca, you weren't actually there at the time, but I'd say that there may have been more said (or implied) between Chrono & Marle in that scene in the Queen's Bedchamber. (Not THAT much, you ninnies! There wasn't enough Time for that!) And, I know, this is *RPG*Classics, but I think that some of the best (or worse, take your pick) "localizations" are in Anime conversions, also from Japan. I mean, if lowering the main character's age by as many as 3 years isn't "localization", (likely, in effect, modifying the ages of the others on a sliding scale,) then I don't know what is. (And there's a TON of other examples, of which I have knowledge of probably just a dozen.) I CAN see the necessity of SOME changes, again I think you make a good argument, (and no, I am NOT sucking up, I am seriously agreeing with your point,) but the motives of those changes should be reasonable. I think that a good example of a reasonable Localization is that of Gundam Wing (The third instalment of the Gundam Saga of which Mobile Suit Gundam was the First (but the second ported here). Those two are connected like the Final Fantasy Games are connected.) (Yes, ANOTHER Anime reference.) When it was ported here, the transaltors made TWO versions, both of which were broadcast. The "clean" version, which didn't even have blood, and the "uncut" version, which not only had blood, but even minor cursewords unleeped/unmodified. You could actually say "Damn!" and have it not read "Darn!" I've gotta stop myself before going TOO deep into specific examples... (Note: My spellchecker cut it here for some odd reason. Good thing I copied and pasted onto Notepad before checking...) You just have to balance the literal translation vs. the original spirit of the scene, episode, and series and the closest "local" facsimile. There WILL be something lost in the translation, (remember that old kiddy game "telephone"?) it's just a matter of how much and in what way. Localization isn't necessarily bad, (though it can be and probably is characterized as a necessary evil, hence the discussion,) but there's a way to do it well, and several to do it poorly. And THEN, there's grammer errors, the voice actors who say the wrong homonym, etc... As for FF4's American Localization, I DID think they were kissing even without the cut frame. Further, since they used "White" in that game, I took W Meteo to mean White Meteo instead of Double Meteo. And one more thing, "Cid, we really do count on you."

Er... for what?

Acutaly, W is something to mean 'double' of something..Like there 2 v in that... So W Meteo mean Double Meteo. Class over.

Finally, *takes out a bag, puts on a white cloth around his neck like a bib, takes out a knife, looks at it, shakes head, throws it aimlesly,* [Insert possible throwing stab of random audience or stage person here] *takes out old bike helmet, looks at it, shrugs, puts it upside-down in front of Ozzie, stands so that Ozzie and the helmet are between him and Lun & Luc* Ozzie, could you touch your toes for me? [get Ozzie to bend so that the top of his head is towards Lun & Luc] Ok, NOW you two can "greet" me.

...You know? I have absolutely no idea what he's talking about with this "greeting" thingy. Anyway... it's certainly tough to balance understandability with loyalty to the original script. There were some Private Actions in Star Ocean 2 that made no sense at all in English (e.g. Precis asking Claude if he came to meet her parents; in Japan that means he's ready to marry her) and they made no attempt at all to try to get it into something more Anglicized. That doesn't quite work as well, but it pleases purists. Let's see if Sorcerer has something interesting to say.

Ok, as I have expressed on the message board, I am tottally against people warping people to the way they want them to be. What I havent said is that I feel the same way, only for things as well.

Yes, I agree (and know for a fact) that in Japan, and other eastern countries, they feel that thier general population is much more mature in the handling of things of a sexual nature. Now, according to you, the scene that was in ToP was perfectly alright for the Japanese audience. Personally, I havent played the game, although Im pretty sure I know what its about (I've heard about it). Now, when it was brought over to the states, Im surprised to hear that they didnt Localize the scene. Thats the way its always been done, but I think I can see where they are coming from.

Actually, the point is that it *wasn't* brought to the states. DeJap, an online translation group, did the translation the way they saw fit. That scene might actually be why ToP was never released here. ^^;

Now, IMHO, I think that depending on the content, decides if something should be censored, and if so, how heavily. The scene I'm thinking about, wasn't that bad, and simply showed the personality of the charachter, but then again, I havent actully played the game, so I dont know what scene your really talking about. If say, in a video game aimed at little kids, people are having explicit sex, then yes, something definitly needs to be changed. But something of the nature Im thinking of (I belive it was an Step Mother slapping her child...Companies were afraid that the media would make it out as child abuse, and the programmers and game developers argued that it was simply showing the personality of the charachter, hell, this could even be a totally different game ;)

So, all in all, depending on content warrents the amount of censorship. Now, my deals with Censorship:

Censorship isn't neccesarily a bad thing, But I always think that the original version should be available in some form or fashion. for example, anime.

Anime is widly censored in the US, because a lot of it is very explicit in nudity and general violence and gore. But a lot of companies have put out the 'un-cut' versions for the older audiences. Case and point, I think the same should be done for everything else.

That'd be very nice, indeed... but certainly not cost-effective. All it takes to dub an anime game is a translator, someone to put the text on the screen, and someone to redistribute the movie. For games, you have to mess around with the code and everything; localizations usually take from six months to (in the case of Dragon Quest VII) far more than that. It just isn't possible for game companies to make two separate translations for things that overall don't affect it all that much (which is usually the case). Let's see what Mr. Saturn says, shall we?

Here here, Cid! I fully agree with you. As much as some of us insane fan-boys want to play the original un-edited games, I'd personally much rather see more quality games brought here. A literal translation will lead to more alienated people. Some Americans don't know what Sake (the drink) is, and most don't know about Japanese cultural jokes.

I think Working Designs takes the best approach at this. They work hard to make the game fully as high calibur as the original, but also fully palatable by any American. Instead of references to Noritaro Kinashi (a television personality on NTV in Japan), they would instead talk about Regis Philbin, and, as much as we don't want to admit it, we know who Regis is.

There are times when this is done oddly or unneccessarily. One of which was the "tea" issue you mentioned from Enix's Star Ocean: The Second Story (of course, I blame Sony, cause I think they translated it). Many developers (especially Nintendo) think that the game market is only kids, and refuse to put anything that could be perceived as not age-appropriate by the most vehement Christian Coalitions. Many US RPG's have "Coffee Shops" instead of Bars or Pubs. Games like Earthbound (which I know you don't like) were drastically changed, just to give it a childrens feel (the game was originally fully intended for adults).

You gotta be kidding me! Adults would actually play through that willingly? And with those kiddie graphics? O_o

You would be surprised...

Some changes just don't make sense. In Capcom's *Marvel Super Heroes vs. Street Fighter*, a character Norimaro (which was based on the afore mentioned Noritaro Kinashi) was removed fully from the game, because Marvel Characters, Inc. was afraid that the character would be associated with their company. Instead of replacing the character, or even slightly altering his appearance so he could be someone else, or even explaining his origins in the game, they completely deleted him, and left a gap where he once was. (If you want to see what the obviously non-Marvel Comics looking character looked like, click here.)

Anyway, I'm all for a localization of a game, instead of a translation, as long as they don't actually change the game in the process. Yeah, that was a lot of pointlessness to just come to that conclusion, huh.

Oh yeah, and BOING!.

Sycophants... gotta love 'em. Specially when they have a cuddly fuzzy plush toy body and no arms. 8p Lessee what Dan/Neo Dan has to say on this one...

Greetings Cidolfas! How art thou? It is I Dan, and I have done away with my dark alter ego for this one, very serious mailbag.

Glad to hear it. We wouldn't want any silliness at all in here...

*blow a few random townships...and not forgeting to down every planes in sight.*

*running after Ozzie* Hey! It won't hurt! Just a slight tingling noise and lack of brain movement! I've worked on this for DAYS! Get back here!

*running away from Lucca* AUGH!

...Right.

My views on censorship, shock value and cultural differences are as follows:

Censorship- I think that censorship is not a great thing....but to a point. What I mean is, yeah that scene you were describing most definitely could have been scaled down (obviously the localization team behind the translation patch did it for shock value, which I'll discuss in detail in my next section). Other than toning down strong sexual situations censorship is really misused. Look at Final Fantasy IV for a moment. As you pointed out in your rant Nintendo toned down the love story and changed the name of Holy to White. That is just plain ridiculous. If you take a look down memory lane for a moment you'll see that traditionally Nintendo has had very "kid friendly" games, but just last year the released Conker's Bad Fur Day (this was definitely for shock value) so why Nintendo? Why release a game like Conker's, unedited and all the like, when just nine short years prior you released a very chopped up version of Final Fantasy IV? I think I must head into shock value.

Shock Value- Well the reason Nintendo released such a game was for the shock value. Nintendo knew that the only way they were going to seem (note: not be) like a mature gaming company was to release a game with lots of shock value. Who would have expected the big kid-friendly "N" to release a game where a character says (pardon my language here) "Fuck off!!!" I think South Park handled this the best a few weeks ago. As you may recall Comedy Central was hyping up an episode of South Park where they say shit for the first time on TV. You figure something like "Yeah, they probably will right at the end of the episode in some weird and not understandable way." But alas, the episode had a counter at the bottom of the screen which counted how many times the word shit was uttered. I think it was said around 200 times or so. I noticed that by the end of that episode I was tired of hearing the word shit said every two seconds, which is what the entire episode was about: showing how ludicrous shock value can be. It's shocking to hear the word for the first time, but afterwards it's like "So you said shit! Am I supposed to care now?!"

Cultural Differences- I don't really have much of an opinion on the cultural differences of America and Japan except that I know that Japan is much more mature than America. Japan shows things on TV which would be so shocking and unreal in America that we'd refuse to watch it. Even their cartoons (ya know anime) are much more mature than what American's get (I mean look at hentai!!!). The reason they can show such things is because in Japan parents realize that their children are smart enough to decide things for themselves, they raise their kids, but they also treat their kids as adults. In America kids are raised under the assumption that they are stupid, and can't think for themselves (I, for one, am completely against this view). That's the major difference. That's why we have a movie, TV and video game ratings system, so parents don't have to raise their kids, the government and organizations do it for them!

I guess my rant is rather long. I hope that I didn't really confuse anyone reading this mailbag. I know that sometimes my thoughts become a jumble when I write rants and I can't really think straight. Oh well, until next time!

At least he wasn't on drugs. O_o Anyway, of course there aren't too many RPGs based solely on shock value (although there was one called "Bastard!!!" which probably came close, from all I hear) but certain scenes change the mood of an RPG. Sometimes it fits in nicely, other times it kills the whole mood. As a sort-of-example, though I never saw it, I know a bunch of people who would have gone to see the movie Titanic when it was released, if it weren't that they heard that there was a topless scene in it. Obviously Titanic did unbelievable anyway, but a lower-budget film probably couldn't afford that - sticking a raunchy scene in an otherwise feel-good drama movie. We shall now see if RpgDragon has recovered from my horrible insults last week...

A pentagram appears out of nowhere on the floor. The ground begins shaking and light begins to shine from the pentagram. Then, suddenly, a ray of light shoots out of the pentagram towards the sky. It is so bright that nobody can see anything for a few moments. When the light fades away the pentagram has dissapeard, and I am left standing...

...Yay.

Hello Cidolfas, Lucca, Lunaris and Fat Green Lizard (I could not get myself to typ his name, it is to disgusting). It's me: RpgDragon with MY opinion about censorship in games.

But before I start I would like to say something: For every green pig carcass that you bring over at K-Mart you get a free pack of Mentats! Go get him Lunaris!

I'm not a damn pig! Pigs don't wear clothes, they don't float, and they don't wear sunglasses!

And usually, they don't do THIS... *drops 10 Ton Weight on Ozzie*

Do what?

Survive having a ten ton weight dropped on them.

Good point.

Hey! What about the thousands of times I turned him into a swedish cheese?!

Okay on to the point. Censorship in games, what can you say about it? It has it's good sides and it's bad sides. A good thing is that the games can be made less shocking for people with certain *problems*. A bad thing is that really stupid things are censored. As an example: The clever that was going to kill Rosa was changed to an boulder for the U.S release of ff4. What does it matter what hits her? She would die anyway. Or when Rosa and Cecil just hugged eachother instead of kissing. That was just plain stupid.

But on the other hand censorship can also do good. Like the boat scene in DeJap's translation of Tales of Phantasia. It was extremely hilarious but to many of those scenes would ruin the experience of the game. Or if the hero (insert name) get's really mad about something and he would just scream FUCKAH really loud, then it just is not funny anymore. It would kill the experience if that would happen to often.

So in conclusion I would say that the right way to do things is with censorship, but not to much or on really lame stuff.

Well that's it. Goodbye!(RpgDragon puts a gun to his head and blows his brains out so his spirit flees from the mailbag and enters a new and better body in wich he will live on)

...Nope, doesn't look like he really recovered much. Will someone get some other examples other than these, please? -_- Well, let's see what RPGClassics' own Sinistral has to say about this one.

Hey man! For once I have something valid to write about. After all that BS with Jim, its pretty obvious to see where I stand on censoring. I didn't see that scene in Tales of Phantasia since I didn't play the game, but what I do know is that the people , at least where I live and where I know a couple of staffers live, are very sheltered because of all the religious and anti-media groups. I find that rather pathetic because I believe that if someone doesn't want to see something on TV, then its their right to simply not look at it. I also think its pathetic because sheltered minds suck, but I'm not here to rant about stupid people. When Hermann Goering (I think) took an inkblot test before WW2, he said that if you took out those 2 red spots, the blot looked like a bat (or something along those lines). Considering the massacre he was responsible for, its clear that he believed that it was better to take things out to make things look like he thinks they should. I think that in some way, the censoring people are a bit like that because they just don't want to acknowledge the existence of something they don't like. Don't get me wrong here, I'm pretty sure if I saw the scene I'd most likely agree with you that it could've been presented in a different manner, but the fact that a game would not be released because of a scene like that is something which disturbs me and pisses me off. Some censuring to make things decent is ok, but taking it too far sucks.

Well... look at FF7. That had an entire segment based on a connoisseur of prostitutes (and putting in a cross-dressing macho gym man while they were at it). They somehow managed to use words like "wife" and "inn" when they meant something else. In that situation (giving that it already had a "Teen" rating) I think they could have been a bit more explicit about what was going on. I was about 16 when I played it first, and I was still confused as to the more complicated business of sexuality; I had no clue what was going on with all the fogging up they did. O_o But that's an entire scene; the ToP scene, on the other hand, was just conversation that wasn't central to the story in the least. Glossing that over wouldn't have made such a huge difference. Hoo boy... BSSB is up next.

*waive* Wee! HiHi Ciddy-widdie,Lucca-wooka,Lunary-wary,and Ozzie-sedozzie.

...You should see someone about that compulsive double-talk. I'm sure it's some kind of mental disorder.

...What wrong with mental disorders?!

Ok censorship...hmm,that's a toughie.Well,I think it's not all that bad,but then agian,it's not a good thing.As for DeJap's little uhm..*scene*,that was *very* funny,although if that translation did make it over to the States and went all mainstream,you just know parents would become giant evil zombies and kill li'l ol Namco and DeJap.;.;!.Then agian,Xenogears made it without much of a hullabaloo(?).But...this is off the subject,ig Neon Genesis Evangelion(that's an anime for those of ya' who don't know) was localized and shown on somewhere like NBC...badness would occur.So,I guess my take on the whole thing is American soceity just isn't as open as Japanese...which would explain some censorship issues.But I'm not saying that applies to everyone.And in closing,remember,only you can create yummi-yummies!

BTW,if you think ya can whoop moi Lucca,you gotta 'nother thing comin'!

Oh yeah? Bring it on, baby! Any place, any time!

Hey... releasing your stress on Ozzie and Lunaris is one thing. Don't bug the mailbag repliers. I won't have any left.

But SHE started it!

Oh. Hey, you're right. Carry on, then.

Heheheh... you are SO going down...

*moves away about ten feet* Anyway, next up is Epicgamer. I think this is his first mailbag reply! Er... but I'm still stocking up exclamation marks from last week's shameless waste. >_< I've got some prime semicolons, though: ;;;;;;;

Hey Cid,
Censorship huh? This is a tough topic, ah well I might as well start with your example of dejap's translation of ToP. I personally don't mind the way the game was translated because I am not one that is easily offended by video games and T.V. But that's just me, I do feel that is was translated rather crudely for most americans' tastes (or Canadian, or Australian, whatever). But then again T.V. shows are slowly being allowed more and more freedom when it comes to profane topics, South Park is probably one of the biggest examples.

I do agree with you that we are much less frank about these topics when it comes to americans, but only partly because we still can't watch a half hour of a movie or a T.V. show with out a reference to sex, drugs, or untasteful cursing. How can you say that such a scene would cause a shock when I could turn on my T.V. right now and probably find a show on a cable channel that has extensive sex, and/or violence.

Personally I think when a game is translated for us here a censored version should be made but also think a exact translated game should also be available (but only by special order), that way everyone's happy.

Well Cid, there's my censorship rant, like it or not it's what I think.

I dealt with "special versions" above. As for TV having more sex etc., that's because that TV is more aimed towards adults (and have special warnings before the shows if they're shown before about 11 PM) whereas video games are still aimed more towards kids. The ESRB rating system has a rating called AO, or Adults Only, and not a single game has ever used it. Trust me... I'm almost 21 and I'm already getting flak that I'm still playing video games. O_o Hmm... wonder what LiteYear thinks?

*Steps though the wall as an immetrial being, then solidifies in the center of the room*

What? No greeting for me, king of the flashy enterances?

Ill met by moonlight, Titania!

...Shaddap.

Just trying to inject a little culture... this IS a serious mailbag, you know... sheesh.

Well, fine then. For once, I'm actually going to start my mailbag submission right away.

I think that censorship in its current state is completely messed up. I mean, I know they want to protect younger kids from harmful stuff, but it doesn't work at all. I know I'm going to go off on a major tangent, but take a look at the SNES and arcade game Lethal Enforcers.

They changed basically the whole game from the arcade to the SNES to suit "younger kids". They took away minor blood from your enemies, they made the screen flash green when hit instead of red. Instead of a red X when you accendintaly hit an innocent victim, then turned it into a green "Caution!" sign. When you get hit, you recieve a white bullet hole instead of a red one. They changed enemy sayings from "You missed me, bitch", to "You missed me", and "You can't kill me, copper" to "You can't beat me". And do you want to know what burns me up the most. I see these "younger kids" playing the arcade version alot. I think that in that case, censorship just was completely wrong.

Now, I'm trying to get around to playing Tales of Phantasia. I haven't played it yet, but if that game made it into the US, I'd be glad that that scene would be modified/deleted. I wouldn't like to see a whole sex scene in agame. If I wanted that, I'd go to any recent movie. Now, I'm not saying that all sexual references in a game should be eliminated, like Cecil and Rosa's love should have be allowed to stay in.

You didn't *see* anything. There was some rather explicit conversation, is all. Heh, d'you know I got a letter after writing that rant asking me what the scene was about and where he could download the game? Some people have no compunctions.

I do agree that most of the stupid changes that you mentioned in your rant were stupid. Changing Hloy, to White or Peral had no physical sense. Changing the scythe over Rosa's head to a metal ball was a stupid decision. Changing some of the outfit the monsters wear in FF6 was a little more understandable, but still wrong. Changing the drinks you mentioned, well... you get the point. They are all stupid decisions. Take a look at all the movies being produced no adays. 99% either have a sex scene, an implication that someone if nde, violence, blood, swearing, or a combination of nearly all of them. I think the censorship standards should be relaxed, but not totally elimated.

I'd write more, but I think I got my point across. Seeya next week Cid. *Does the tried but traditional gate thing, and leaves.*

Well, there's a relief. Anyway, it is true that sex and violence are becoming more and more common in TV and movies... but I don't think that's a particularly good idea, either. All it does is desensitize people to those things, and give them the idea that this kind of stuff happens all the time. It doesn't, and it shouldn't. Well... I mean, sex has to happen, otherwise we don't get born, but it used to at least be a more private thing. We now have the obligatory MegamanX2K contribution, and we shall see if anything happens...

First, I don't recommend referring to Megaman984 as normal. Anyone who keeps Janet Reno porn and, for that matter, a pit of eternally playing Janet Reno Porn, can hardly be classified as "normal". Just so you know. |-P

I should have censored that out, I really should have... Btw, he quotes my rant in his letter and talks about each paragraph in turn; I just assume you've read the rant and cut the quotes from the letter, to save space. Er, but I left a sentence in if you'd be totally confused otherwise. ^^;

Now, let's cut to the chase:

I assume you mean the Boat scene. I kinda swallowed hard when Klarth said his little line. It's not as harsh as, say, #rpgmaker.net, but still enough to make you go, "?!". However, it should be noted that soon, scenes such as that may be commonplace in America. After all, look at FF3US vs. FF7US. I don't know about sexual content, however apparently it was allured that Cloud had sex with Tifa. I don't know for sure, so correct me if I'm wrong. [...Nope, you're right.] Violence; the Aeris scene. 'nuff said. And Language...Barret or Cid. True, the SNES Games were more like that in reality, but to actually bring it raw to the US was a bit of a shock, and I'll bet USFF fans cocked their eyebrows when they first got FF7 numerous times. Point is, RPGs are getting more towards the vulgar end of the spectrum in cases. ToP was made about 5 or 6 years ago if I'm correct; however, it was translated just now. Perhaps (this should be down in another paragraph but oh well) they (De-Jap) were localizing it time-wise. Knowing De-Jap, that wasn't their main motive though.

[In fact, I saw it done myself by an alternate group.]

As I recall, you are part of this "alternate group" or at least actively helping said group; doesn't that mean you're an expert witness? |-P

Um... nah, I don't think so. ^^; I didn't actually translate anything, just re-edited it after translation.

Anyway, I think that a literal translation may very well have been best, though that's just me. If Namco's conversation did go like that, then perhaps that should be the text displayed. And keep in mind that DeJap is not out to get a profit, so as long as they have the patch (especially now, where they've the ONLY patch) they're in business. Sad, but true. Then again, no one wants to pay for translation.

BTW, Cid, perhaps you should post your group's version of the scene to back up your arguments.

Hmmm, maybe. All right, I have. Go look at it here. No, it's nowhere near as hilarious as DeJap's version. But it's certainly more all-encompassing as far as audiences go.

[But here these sort of things (as much as we claim to think otherwise) do still cause comment and sometimes can cause shock and alienation of the audience.]

Actually, I'd disagree; that scene might be heard in the commonplace of the US Today. People today are far more vulgar and quite open about such things without embarresment. ô.· In an RPG, maybe, but again, expect to see such a scene in the next few years. And DeJap, being DeJap, obviously didn't care about what the original writers wanted.

[So in my opinion, by taking the literal translation you're actually changing the intentions of the authors.]

Perhaps, but keep in mind some newer games aren't bothering to do so, and are becoming more literal in their translations. I doubt DQ7 will be a good example, but I believe a few of the Lunar games were somewhat vulgar (though I know nothing of the series, I've looked at them in the stores, and they have a lot of bad ratings.)

Well, first of all, I'll sat PFBT to FF4 as I always do, but that's another mailbag. Cecil and Rosa...well, all I know is any references to they, or Gilbert and Ms. Spoony Bard, having sex were removed, for obvious reasons. And this is, what, 1992? I doubt they took a lot out of the whole Cecil and Rosa thing, and I think it added up to be the same ("localization") in the end. I question removing the fact that Cid was committing suicide when he jumped from the airship. I also question them removing the secret room the Porno Book was in. The Book? Well, obviously, but the entire forking room?! Godless Peons...

Anyway, my final statement in all this is to point out one obvious but rarely-remembered thing: Censorship (or lack of) doesn't affect gameplay. Whether you're using Cid's patch or DeJap's patch, the battles will still be the same, etc. The one exception to all this...(go to the CV Dungeon for more CV Censorshp info btw, they have a whole page on the topic here http://www.classicgaming.com/castlevania/dungeon.htm ) In CastleVania 5: Vampire's Kiss (SNES), the Japanese version had the Item Crash for Boomerang be lots of shining crucifixes, and all enemies would be hit. Now, this was censored out, and replaced with lots of flying boomerangs. The funny thing was, the Censored version was More effective, especially fighting Dracula. Being able to hit enemies over and over again, it was like Meteo, only for Boomerangs.

That said, let's see if Ozzie can tell the difference between the two!

*both Richter Belmonts come out, but they simply whip Ozzie to a bloody death*

Whoops, looks they were low on MH, well, that's all the time I have, see yas! |-P

Um... yeah. Our last (newbie ;;;;;;;) reply comes from "The Drow".

imho i like literal translation but i can live with a version out that does not have a literal translation if there is a uncensored version out in any case you have some points in your rant but i feel that the application of your argument are not universal

Shift button not working? Obviously they're not universal; I never claimed they would be. I was just trying to vent a little about my feelings on the topic.

Good. Then you don't have to vent on me!

No, wait... I'm feeling some more feelings I have to vent! *drops Ozzie down a plot hole*

I should have seen that coming...

So there's our serious topic; went pretty well, actually. For next week, here's something I dreamed up all by myself (no, really, I did! If you don't agree, I'll sue!)

...It'll get thrown out.

Nobody asked you! *drops Squall down a plot hole*

...See you in court, stupid.

Anyway. The topic for next week is: If you could bring one invention or magical item from any RPG into the real world, which would it be and what would you do with it? And yep, I checked Macc's mailbags and he never did this one. 8p So write in to cidolfas@rpgclassics.com and let the good times roll!

Ooh, I'm looking forward to this one!

Seeya!

*waves a clengted fist over the plot hole.*I'll win this time, Leonheart! I have your lawyers now! BWHAHAH!