Let's Mosey: A Slow Translation Of Final Fantasy VII

8/14/2017

Let's play Final Fantasy VII in Japanese! I'll compare the Japanese script with the original English translation. It'll be fun. In our first installment, we'll describe the little nuances of the first words Cloud speaks in Japanese.

8/30/2017

I’ve been playing Final Fantasy VII in Japanese and English at the same time, and I’m noticing a lot of neat little differences. This is part three of my video series. Today, we’re going to meet Tifa and Aeris. Everyone in the English version refers to Cloud and Tifa as “childhood friends”, though does that mean something more interesting in Japanese? The answer (which is, “sort of”) may blow your mind—or it might just entertain you. I would appreciate it if it did either of those for you. As always, a warning: any Japanese you learn over the course of this video might never be of any use whatsoever to you.

9/19/2017

I’ve been playing Final Fantasy VII in Japanese and English at the same time, and I’m noticing a trillion tiny differences. This is part four of my video series comparing the two versions of the game. Today, we follow Cloud and Aeris as they follow Tifa into Wall Market, a nighttime city of sex and danger. This is one of the most famous set pieces in the game (it’s the part where Cloud has to dress up as a girl), and maybe one of the most important video game set pieces in general. The English version misunderstood or obscured much of the cultural nuances of this place. If I tried to solve every mystery of Wall Market, we’d end up being stuck here for ten more episodes of this series. So let’s just unravel a few choice mangled gags about male sexual performance anxiety and call it a day. As always, a warning: any Japanese you learn over the course of this video might never be of any use whatsoever to you.

10/2/2017

I’ve been playing Final Fantasy VII in Japanese and English at the same time, and I’m noticing a trillion tiny differences. This is part five of my video series comparing the two versions of the game.

11/15/2017

I've been playing Final Fantasy VII in English and Japanese at the same time. I've been noticing a lot of tiny little differences. I've been pointing them out in a series of videos. Whoa: here is the latest episode of that series! Today we'll talk about Barret's sailor suit disguise, which is amazing. Also, we'll learn multiple ways to tell someone, in Japanese, that their laughter stinks of horses.

11/21/2017

I have been playing through Final Fantasy VII in Japanese and English at the same time. This is part seven of my series comparing the two languages' scripts.

1/2/2018

Final Fantasy VII came out in 1997. In 2001, I moved to Japan, and then lived there for 10 years. In 2017, I played Final Fantasy VII in Japanese for the first time. I've been making these videos explaining the little differences I noticed along the way. oo:oo The intro (this is where videos tend to begin). 01:05 We arrive at the Gold Saucer. Barret is upset. 02:59 We meet Dio, the owner of the Gold Saucer. He suggests a nickname for himself. 05:12 We stop by the Ghost Hotel. I tell a ghost story. 07:22 We meet Cait Sith. I talk about Indiana University. We encounter a line of dialogue whose translation indicates the translator might not have known Aeris dies later in the game. 12:14 We are sentenced to Corel Prison, an outdoor prison in the hated desert. Barret tells us about how he got his gun arm. In English he says he got an artificial arm. In Japanese he says no such thing. I investigate why it might have been translated that way.

2/26/2018

Final Fantasy VII is going to kill me. This is part nine of my series exploring the minuscule language nuance differences between the original Japanese script and the English translation. As per usual, here we see some scraps of possible evidence that Zack and Aeris were not, in fact, bedtime buddies. We unearth some more incidental dialogue that was not translated into English. Once more, Barret is a fair deal more nuanced in Japanese than in English. Also, I start to lose my mind.

8/3/2018

I've been playing Final Fantasy VII in Japanese and English at the same time time. I have been making videos chronicling the tiny differences between the scripts. This is the penultimate episode of my series. In this episode, we'll befriend a vampire, study rocket science, and be locked in an amusement park.

4/12/2019

Tim Rogers spent 800 hours over the course of two years replaying Final Fantasy VII sixteen times in both English and Japanese. This eleven-part series excavates, examines, and explains dozens of tiny nuanced differences between the game's first English translation and its original Japanese script.

4/19/2019

Finally: the finale. Tim Rogers spent 800 hours over the course of two years replaying Final Fantasy VII sixteen times in both English and Japanese. This eleven-part series excavates, examines, and explains dozens of tiny nuanced differences between the game's first English translation and its original Japanese script.