I'm a little curious if "Ramza does not need to be in the active party during random encounters" counts as a rake.
It's not a very important rake, but it does feel like it's in the same general category of rakes, especially since apparently Ramza's level might affect stuff, so having him be overlevelled is undesirable? At least for Omicron's playthrough.
More or less I conceptualize rakes as, "things which can cause wipes or significant suffering." Tough battles (Wiegraff at the Windmill, the Gaffgarion 1v1, that sort of thing), or system peculiarities (like having your secondary be unselected when switching classes, or katanas breaking). That sort of thing.
The swamp isn't techically a rake, but I included it anyway because it let me make a bad joke. So there is whimsy as well.
All this talk about the Golgollada Archer-actress made me remember that I was genuinely impressed by the fact that hey, female Archers have blonde hair like Ovelia! when this little scheme was revealed the first time I reached this part.
Kid me was so enamored by this little twist, that every time I saw female archer units I thought that they could try becoming Ovelia too.
Zero thought on the girl probably a theater kid who needs money more than entertaining their life-long dream of becoming an actress, not in this post-war economy.
As long as you're fine with the recruited enemies being monsters, it is absolutely possible to shot things until they agree to join you - the Mediator/Orator has a skill for that. It's called Train/Tame, and how it works is that, if you inflict physical damage on a monster and that puts them in critical without killing them, they will join your side. It has much higher accuracy than Inviting human units, too.
Mediator really does tries its best to be the weirdest class in the game.
Oh a Dragoon pogos back to their starting square after a Jump? That wasn't fully clear from previous posts and screenshots (or maybe it was and I'm illiterate) so I always assumed Hadrian was landing in the nearest adjacent square from his targets. That significantly changes the calculus from a giga-gapcloser like you'd get in FF14 to Intercontinental Ballistic Dude with the bounciest shoes you've ever seen.
Yeah this is totally my bad, I forgot to bring it up because I made the same assumption as you did and it took me a couple of battles to realize "oh wait Hadrian isn't moving when he jumps" and by that time I was already writing about other stuff.
Jump is effectively 'just' a ranged attack with some special rules. The Dragoon disappears from their square, and no one can stop on that square while they're in the air, then they strike the tile you aimed them at and bounce back to their starting square. So you still have to manually move the Dragoon around the map with their Move action, you can't substitute Jump to cross the map. It was a bit of a surprise to find out.
Huh. In the original Japanese script, Gaffgarion does a disbelieving "I actually lost...?" before expiring. Which is weird because he lost to Ramza a couple of times already but during those times just left before he could die.
One possible interpretation is that in both our previous battles, Gaffgarion was holding back, but this time he went in at full power with full intention to kill, so he's surprised that even though he was really trying we still won again.
But also I'm pretty sure the disbelieving "I actually lost...?" is one of those Stock Anime Lines that we've been discussing sometimes. It's just One Of Those Things Defeated Villains Say, it doesn't necessarily have to be consistent with previous plot or characterization. In which case I can't fault the translation for sprucing it up a little with something more characterful.
Omicron: Squire is a good class for Ramza. It is good he doesn't get sword skills. It's thematic.
Gaffgarion: Master of all swords, cut energy! Night Sword!
Agrias: Life is short...Bury! Steady Sword!
Omicron: I'm not coping at all.
The Wiegraf scene also is annoying to me, because without it, you were left wondering if you would ever see Wiegraf again; when you eventually did, it was a surprise - instead, now you know to expect it, which removes a lot of the punch from the suddenness of the next meeting with him. It's also damaging to the structure, in that it somewhat breaks the timeline of events - while obviously something similar happened in the PSX version as well, the fact that we weren't shown it strongly suggested, at the time, that Wiegraf was recruited during the one year while Ramza was being a mercenary. Having his recruitment take place at this point in the plot feels wrong, although I'll explain why that is later, after he shows up again in the game in a more proper fashion.
The Ovelia/Delita scene I can take or leave, but I really don't think the Wiegraf scene is an issue, or rather, I think its absence would hurt. "Wondering if you would ever see Wiegraf again" is a nice bit of suspense to an extent, but it's also, hm. It's fake suspense? Wiegraf was last seen teleporting away from battle while talking about how he couldn't die here, we killed his sister, the Corpse Brigade was wiped out but their leader's body was never found... It's extremely obvious that Wiegraf will show up again, and if he doesn't, then that's a problem in the writing; it's the writers losing track of a character and forgotting to follow up, or accidentally setting up a return they never meant to follow up on - see NORG in FF8. So if the narrative doesn't pause to remind us that it hasn't forgotten Wiegraf, the longer it takes before he shows up again, the less it's an actual ambiguous tension of "when is Wiegraf going to show up again" and the more it becomes "wait, the writers didn't forget about him, did they?" and Wiegraf showing up again isn't "oh shit, Wiegraf!" but rather "oh thank god they didn't just drop this plotline completely."
Like good storytelling involves establishing stakes and that means reminding the reader that some plotlines are currently developing and raising tension in the background.
I suppose I'll have a stronger opinion when we meet him again in-character but I really didn't think this particular cutscene hurt the pacing or storytelling.
Not exactly. How it works is that, when the game sets up a battle, characters get assigned equipment randomly from those they can use, with their level acting as a limiter - the character must be a minimum level for the game to even consider assigning a specific item to them, which is why overleveling and then stealing equipment from random battles can lead to having equipment well in excess of what the story battles are sporting. In any case, the issue with knights, and Gafgarion in this fight, is that, while the head slot can only wear helmets but no hats, the body slot can wear both armors and robes; so, it's up to the random rolls which of those a character gets, and robes can really tank a unit's HP total.
Note that it's entirely possible to have fixed equipment; Gafgarion is always wearing the Cross Helm and always wielding specific swords for each fight - he has the Blood Sword at the Execution Site and the Ancient Blade at Lionel - but clearly the body slot was left to randomness. This is weird, as other bosses have their full equipment list fixed (as it should be), and clearly they did fix some of Gafgarion equipment, so I don't know why they left the body slot up to randomness here.
That is an insane way to design enemy equipment assignment, especially given that it's not even a technological restriction and completely unnecessary. What the hell? Why?
That is an insane way to design enemy equipment assignment, especially given that it's not even a technological restriction and completely unnecessary. What the hell? Why?
You do need some system to auto-build fair loadouts for the autobattles. And once you have a system like that you are confindent in, it would just be unnecessary busywork to manually create story loadouts for every mook, right?
They even did the smart thing and hardcoded stuff for bosses, they apparently just made some mistakes. I doubt they left the armor here undefined on purpose. Since it's subtle and random it would have been pretty hard to catch during testing.
Yeah, as mentioned 教皇 is "Pope", and "High Confessor" (or "Archbishop") is just the genericized term. Also I appreciate the translation changing the High Confessor's name to "Marcel Funebris", because as mentioned his katakana name is basically "Pope Marriage Funeral", which leads to questions like "is that your name or your daily work".
Its also a dramatic improvement over the PSX translation, which if the wiki is to be believed called him "High Priest Marge Funeral", which sounds less like a name OR a job description and more like the summary of a particularly wacky Simpsons episode
I'd be fascinated to know the thought process that led them to choose "Marge". Character limits? Not knowing the Japanese very well? Wanting a name that sounds close to "Marriage" but not being creative enough and not caring about name gender?
Wiegraf was last seen teleporting away from battle while talking about how he couldn't die here, we killed his sister, the Corpse Brigade was wiped out but their leader's body was never found...
This is even more conspicuous in FFT specifically because it's absolutely not shy about just killing off the enemy leaders. If Wiegraf's story were supposed to be over, we'd know it. Because we'd have murdered him and witnessed a poignant death scene.
Its also a dramatic improvement over the PSX translation, which if the wiki is to be believed called him "High Priest Marge Funeral", which sounds less like a name OR a job description and more like the summary of a particularly wacky Simpsons episode
I'd be fascinated to know the thought process that led them to choose "Marge". Character limits? Not knowing the Japanese very well? Wanting a name that sounds close to "Marriage" but not being creative enough and not caring about name gender?
OK, so generally I'm in favor of WotL translation. Its sins that were brought up seem to me more a matter of preference, and its virtues are undeniable.
But now I'm completely over it and think Omi should play PSX instead. Marriage Funeral is an awesome name, and us being depraved of it is heresy.
That is an insane way to design enemy equipment assignment, especially given that it's not even a technological restriction and completely unnecessary. What the hell? Why?
I suspect that @CeBrudras is correct; the system was designed for the random battles, and then used for the mooks in story battles, and they forgot to fix all of the equipment of all the bosses.
Of note, in locations that appear in multiple chapters, such as Mandalia Plains, you can fight the same battle during the 1st Chapter and during the final chapter - the later chapters add harder battles, but the old ones can still be triggered, and with the level scaling and random equipment combined with semi-random unit selections (that is, the same battle will have the same units, but if a slot is occupied by a chocobo, it could be a Yellow, Black, Red, or just not appear, and each one would make the fight slightly different), it allows the game to multiply the amount of different fights it can provide the players. So... the system does makes sense, for its intended purpose, it just doesn't work very well for the story battles.
Damn, that battle was not a doozy. I'm not sure what approach I would have had the most patience to go for if was playing and got to this bottleneck... it's disappointing that the way the game assigns stuff for enemies when you load in or whatever ended up making the final attempt less satisfying than it might have been, but it's very interesting that even the map's seemingly forced split engagement between the Gaffgarion duel and facing the rest of his forces is a deception. There is an alternative to open the map even if it's not easy, the map and your options are built so you can find a way to bring other forces into the attempt to isolate and crush Ramza. To which I say, hell yeah, Dragoon supremacy. Good work figuring out a game plan with the assets you already had.
I remain unsure what is Delita's deal. He cites the machinations of the mighty as levers which only certain people have the ability to push out of place, movements that most have no choice but to be governed and used by, as to persuade Ramza and Ovelia respectively to stand aside from what is beyond him and to accept that her choices of poison are limited by the circumstances written out for her. But he conducts himself with a righteous skepticism, and claims the resolve and ability to straigthen out this crooked state of being for Ivalice. He says he is the only hope the princess has, but seems far too willing to do the bidding of those that don't have her best interests at heart.
It's uncertain. What is certain that Ovelia can't rely on the expectations she used to have of her position and the people around her, and I think she can't allow herself to not have a hand in what's to come, no matter how little opportunity she's given and how difficult the options are.
On the other side of current events, it's very satisfying to see Ramza grow secure in his determination to resist injustice in a way that solidifies his characterization from the prologue and since, his wishes to take action shaped by the loss of Tietra and the disillusionment brought about by her death. Gaffgarion may argue that people have their roles, that idealism does not figure into what they must do to not only survive but be victorious, and that men like Ramza, born into influence that can change the world, have a duty to see it through and enact any means for a greater end, and he may be even believe it, irrespective of, or because of his jaded temperament; but Ramza will no longer allow the moral cowardice of Gaffgarion, Dycedarg, and others like them to go unchallenged.
Between the two, I would instantly pick the English line as the better one for Gaffgarion.
"I actually lost...?" doesn't fit Gaffgarion at all. He's an old workaday sword coming off the Fifty Years War. He might be good at his job owing to his experience but to express surprise at his defeat is just not the ending he deserves - he's a man who's been defeated, probably over and over, trading victory and defeat every time the nobles want to slap one another until life is a series of portraits of blades, swords, and mud. Of everyone, he's arguably the one who should have seen it coming, given his urging of caution as the young merc keeps successfully throwing his team into battle after battle.
"I feel cold." Nothing left for an old man past his prime on the battlefield but the numbing cold of blood loss. No last words of hatred or even defiance, just a final epitaph for a beleaguered soldier's last musing "huh. that's what death is."
Between the two, I would instantly pick the English line as the better one for Gaffgarion.
"I actually lost...?" doesn't fit Gaffgarion at all. He's an old workaday sword coming off the Fifty Years War. He might be good at his job owing to his experience but to express surprise at his defeat is just not the ending he deserves - he's a man who's been defeated, probably over and over, trading victory and defeat every time the nobles want to slap one another until life is a series of portraits of blades, swords, and mud. Of everyone, he's arguably the one who should have seen it coming, given his urging of caution as the young merc keeps successfully throwing his team into battle after battle.
Between the two, I would instantly pick the English line as the better one for Gaffgarion.
"I actually lost...?" doesn't fit Gaffgarion at all. He's an old workaday sword coming off the Fifty Years War. He might be good at his job owing to his experience but to express surprise at his defeat is just not the ending he deserves - he's a man who's been defeated, probably over and over, trading victory and defeat every time the nobles want to slap one another until life is a series of portraits of blades, swords, and mud. Of everyone, he's arguably the one who should have seen it coming, given his urging of caution as the young merc keeps successfully throwing his team into battle after battle.
"I feel cold." Nothing left for an old man past his prime on the battlefield but the numbing cold of blood loss. No last words of hatred or even defiance, just a final epitaph for a beleaguered soldier's last musing "huh. that's what death is."
The comparison with Barbarossa(?) is incredibly appropriate. Charming old greybeards who are ruthless self serving opportunists. In the end, neither skill with the blade nor rich treasure nor the pleasures of flesh, stomach, or mind can forestall the reaper. And in the end, for one who lives solely for oneself- when the self is annihilated, what remains?
Its also a dramatic improvement over the PSX translation, which if the wiki is to be believed called him "High Priest Marge Funeral", which sounds less like a name OR a job description and more like the summary of a particularly wacky Simpsons episode
I'd be fascinated to know the thought process that led them to choose "Marge". Character limits? Not knowing the Japanese very well? Wanting a name that sounds close to "Marriage" but not being creative enough and not caring about name gender?
It's along the same lines as how the katakana for "Loire" (as in Laguna) could be interpreted as "LeWar".
The katakana is マリッジ・フューネラル V世. The latter part is "Funeral" and "the Fifth", and it's fairly straightforward, so we'll leave that aside.
The first bit is transliterated as "Marijji", and as mentioned it is one of those "what the heck are you supposed to do with this" katakana names. I can see a translator guessing "Marge", because it's close to what "Marge" in katakana might be (マルッジュ). My own interpretation of "marriage" is just my personal one, because there are lots of ways to pronounce "marriage" depending on regional accents, and I don't think there's a consensus on which one a Japanese writer would use in katakana. (Most of the time they just use the actual Japanese word, 結婚, because that's far less confusing.)
But this is a game where "Immobilize" and "Paralyze" are written as "Don't Move" and "Don't Act" respectively, and a reaction ability that negates and counters an opponent is named after a then-famous boxer, so who even knows what FFT's writers were going for here.
How the heck the translation go from Marijji/Marge/Marriage to Marcel though? Or, like, why is the katakana chosen for Marcel (if that is indeed the intended name to be given to Funebris in the first place) is Marijji?
Does -si, -se, or even -she not exist in Japanese? Does it have to be -jji? If some other writer can go with Marcille- with the right katakana, for sure these writers can go with the same katakana for Marcel and the translators can extrapolate a male name from there? Marijji to Marcel is a huge jump sideways in translation.
How the heck the translation go from Marijji/Marge/Marriage to Marcel though? Or, like, why is the katakana chosen for Marcel (if that is indeed the intended name to be given to Funebris in the first place) is Marijji?
Does -si, -se, or even -she not exist in Japanese? Does it have to be -jji? If some other writer can go with Marcille- with the right katakana, for sure these writers can go with the same katakana for Marcel and the translators can extrapolate a male name from there? Marijji to Marcel is a huge jump sideways in translation.
"Se" and "shi" exist, you can definitely write something closer to Marcel than "Marijji" in Japanese if that's what they were actually going for. I agree with the interpretation that the original writers intended the name to be "marriage," and the translators for both versions thought that was stupid and picked a real name that sounded vaguely similar instead.
Past the general idea of being a deity, Marici doesn't seem relevant to anything going on so far. If Marcel starts trying to be a savior figure, maybe?
How the heck the translation go from Marijji/Marge/Marriage to Marcel though? Or, like, why is the katakana chosen for Marcel (if that is indeed the intended name to be given to Funebris in the first place) is Marijji?
By localizing instead of just translating. Asking "what is the closest I can get while giving the audience the same general kind of impression of the character" instead of "how do I Romanize the name most directly". After all, "Marriage/Marge Funeral" will sound perfectly reasonable as a name to folks who have only two semesters of badly taught high school English under their belts (compare the "Japanese" names in The Mikado) vs how it sounds to folks deep enough in English to converse here, so it gives a very different impression in English than Japanese.
Neither approach is "better", strictly speaking, although some situations are more suited to one approach, some the other; both approaches lose something. Traduttore, traditore.
Because a pope being named Marriage (or Marge) Funeral is utter nonsense to a native English speaker, so the translation team picked something vaguely similar that qualifies as a real name and went with it. Marcel Funebris has the advantage of the first being a real name and the last being fantasy-ish enough for people to not care that it's not.
Sometimes localization means channeling your inner Nick Fury and saying "I recognize that the Council has made a decision. But given that it's a stupid-ass decision, I've elected to ignore it."
To be painfully pedantic and scrupulously fair, it does also happen surprisingly commonly in real life.
I remember there was a period of time regarding certain news topics where there were near-constant forum posts going "is he really named Cardinal Sin".
Funebris is also Latin for the adjective "funereal".
It's hardly the first time FF has localized names to preserve the vibe rather then the literal transliteration. Tina vs Terra give very different vibes to a Western audience, as an example
