Reunion choses a literal transliteration of "Abzu" or "Apsu", solely to make its relation to something later on a bit more literally spelled out.
Oh, Abzu. Sumerian personification of the primeval freshwater beneath the Underworld. That makes
way more sense for a water-themed monsters hiding in the sewers underneath a criminal mansion. I guess the translator just wasn't up on his Mesopotamian mythology.
I actually think the most interesting part is how the Remake's characterization of Aerith in the Honey Bee scene is explicitly sexual? Not sexualized, but she is actually extremely horny for Cloud and it shows then and there. And in the original, she's a gremlin who is developing feelings for him but there's not so much of an emphasis on sexual desire outside of what is implied via romantic desire.
It really fits the character, but it's also kind of new.
Yeah, that's a great point. Female characters in media rarely get to be openly sexual beings without being portrayed as aggressive or sinful for it, still.
Ah yes. Reminds me of that bit in Ace Combat 7 where the AWACS operator talks about wanting to eat at some Italian restaurant.
In a game where the world map looks like
this.
"There are SOLDIERs like you in every generation, and I've felled every last one of them."
On a similar note, one of the best lines in the Remake is Cloud meeting Tifa in Corneo's mansion, Cloud still in drag:
Tifa: "Cloud?! Is that you!? Oh my god, that makeup! And that dress!"
Cloud: "Nailed it, I know. Thank you. Moving on."
This is actually an invention of the English localization team, Cloud's line in Japanese is something more like "I don't need to hear it, there was no other way." Big improvement.
Damn, the modern English localization team for Squeenix game never ceases to be absolutely based.
I'm sorry, I have to go cry about Dark Knight lv 70 again-
Haven't the games been doing this since all the way back in FF1 to some extent or another? Granted it's a bit more noticeable in FF7 with 3D models where the weapons are always out and ready than in older games where you just briefly see "yo that new sword is brown instead of blue" while someone's swinging said weapon, but still, progress.
Yeah, but the big difference is the old 2D models didn't have a persistent existence on the field, they only showed up during the animation. There's a reason I never ended up commenting on new weapon appearances in older games, they're just not memorable
It's very 90s, because the Japanese text for that choice is 焼肉定食, "Yakiniku Teishoku": "Barbecued meat set meal". Now, we all probably know what "yakiniku" is, due to the proliferation of Japanese places offering that around the world, but the origin of Japanese yakiniku is, indeed, Korean barbecue. (From post-WW2 Korean restaurants introducing that specific grilled meat cuisine to Japan.)
So calling it "Korean BBQ plate" is one of those cases where it's probably the more familiar reference to an English speaker in the 90s. Honestly I would have translated it to "grilled meat plate", and accepted the loss of nuance that it's specifically freshly grilled and still sizzling meat.
Also "Sushi Plate" is more accurately "Sashimi Plate", but again I understand that the difference between "sushi" and "sashimi" might not have been obvious back in the 90s.
Ah, thanks. "What the fuck is the Korean BBQ Plate supposed to
be" is a question that has been haunting a few of us on Discord for days now; theories put forward was that it was meant to be bulgogi, kalbi, or samgyupsal.
Turns out while related, it was none of these and the "Korean" was an invention of the translator I guess
So in the Japanese text, the woman starts lines with "Po-" before going into customer service mode. The English translation appears to interpret this as the woman being out of breath due to hurrying or nervousness.
But with the context from above, the more natural interpretation is the woman is barely able to stop addressing Cloud with the insulting nickname she came up for him in her head.
Incredible.
Exact same thing happened with Squall (don't think that's a spoiler since Omi has moderate knowledge of FF8), mostly courtesy of Rinoa
Wait.
Wait a minute.
The fuck do you mean,
Rinoa?
Oh yeah, that's getting into Limit Break naming fights. The Reunion translates it directly to Curse Slash because that's what it is given the paralysis effect and edgy kanji. I presume the original translator either couldn't see the kanji in the animation or assumed that the average American player wouldn't understand the implication and would just see it as Cloud doing a particularly cool sword combo.
Although... now that I think about it, where does the power of a lot of these Limit Breaks come from in-universe, when all the "normal" magic is manufactured Materia? Like, Tifa's just doing some really flashy grapples, Aerith having some inherent restorative/spiritual magic separate from her Materia makes sense, Barret probably has extra attachments and special weapons besides his current gun arm, but now Cloud has the power to channel some evil, menacing power through his sword?
Let's put a pin in that for some later Limit Breaks I've already seen in my game...
That one I think is easily explained by looking at Final Fantasy VI.
Remember how magic is only and solely derived from espers/the Warring Triad, yet when we meet Sabin, he's capable of delivering ki blasts and destroying advanced machines with his bare hands, and only grows more powerful including unlocking healing powers and fiery tornadoes, all of it without 'magic'?
I think in the world of FFVII, everyone has something that might be called 'ki' or 'chi' or 'cosmos' in another story. The human soul has a kind of innate spiritual power, and with the right techniques, you can tap into that power and "break their limit," exceed human potential to perform incredible feats under pressure. The more 'weird' a character is, the more out there their Limit Breaks get - Tifa just punches people really fast, really hard, while Cloud who is touched by Mako can have esoteric sword slashes. But potentially, all humans can 'exceed their potential' - achieve Limit Break.
So maybe I'm misinterpreting the game because no one else has commented on this yet, but "Big Bro" IS in Remake. It's just not Jules.
I'm assuming you haven't played through the entirety of Remake yet so as to stay at the same place in both games, but in Remake you'll revisit Wall Market and find out who I'm talking about.
I have... Genuinely no idea who you might be referring to.
In Remake Cloud (or Aeris, one of them) says that'd just get them killed or whatever. Which is reasonable by most stretches. Of course it's heavy on the "gameplay vs story" power scale thing, the same reason why one lousy Guard will block your way when you just spent three dungeons going through an entire battalion's worth of them no sweat.
It's just One Of Those Things in video games.
Judging by the visuals of the Remake in gameplay and story cutscenes, Cloud is... Still meant to be relatively fragile. He's superhumanly strong, fast, and resilient, but he deals with bullets mainly by using quick dodges, positioning, overwhelming speed against human opponents, and leveraging his enormous sword as a body shield. He can overtake most ordinary soldiers equipped with modern rifles, but when he's facing a vehicle-mounted minigun, he has to actually take cover.
So in that paradigm, taking on Corneo's mansion is something he
could do, but not
trivially. It would represent a real risk and be time- and effort-consuming, and potentially put Tifa in danger.
Personally, I really don't like the Wall Market sequence.
This is entirely because of something Omicron also noted in his playthrough: the sidequests here are on another level, and I am quite certain I don't like that level.
It's the bizarre flippant logic of point-and-click adventure games, which I've never liked. Use the Pharmacy Coupon to get a Digestive to give to someone in distress in the toilet so they give you the Sexy Cologne. Everything up to "someone in distress in the toilet" has a reasonable logical course, but suddenly Sexy Cologne which that person just happens to have and is willing to give away to the person who helped them at the time.
And then there's the Diamond Tiara, which is much too extravagant a reward for information along the lines of "the vending machine sells energy drinks".
It's not at the point of Sierra style point and click games, but it's certainly at least to the LucasArts style. And because it's FFVII with FFVII's own peculiarities in savegames (as we saw, save points are scarce because the game can't account for the player accidentally soft-locking themselves), we can't retry and redo the puzzles until we get the intended results.
See, this is because your mind is still trapped within the Old Ways. I, who have never played a point-and-click adventure game before, simply do not
respect them. It takes me until the exact moment I decide a puzzle is kind of annoying to reach for google and find the solution. If I'm given a choice between three items and there is no clear in-game information to make the correct choice, I immediately look it up. I never allow any one of these bullshit puzzles to annoy me for more than 30 seconds.
Life is too short.
