Thoughts on Ted Woolsey

[Aztec Triogal]

If you don't know who the man is, that's alright. In short, he's the guy who has translated every Final Fantasy game (except FFIV) from Japanese into English. He's notoriously known for modifying the original Japanese script to make character's speech more conducive with Western audiences.

He's the man who changes names like Bartz from Butz, Aeris from Aerith. He also modifies the script whenever it wouldn't make sense to a Western audience. For instance, he created Kefka's famous line "Son of a Submariner".

I'm curious to know what you people think of him and his work. Apparently some people really hate that he messes with the original Japanese dialogue and spellings of names. Other people really like that he tries to relate it more to us Westerners. So what do you think of him?

 

[Daenerys]

In short, he's the guy who has translated every Final Fantasy game (except FFIV) from Japanese into English.

Wrong, Woolsey officially left the company before translating FFVII, and was hired to fix the original translation of FFIV - http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=6361

If I remember correctly, he made a right mess up of the original translation of FFVI anyway, which is why it's been fixed in the remakes of it.

Woolsey had no part in changing Butz to Bartz or Aeris to Aerith xD

 

[Aztec Triogal]

Oh you are right. I knew he'd been behind "son of a submariner" and he did actually change Butz to Bartz... but he did leave before FFVII needed "englishization". He did work on FFIV through FFVI though.

Well I guess that splits the topic. What do you people think of Ted Woolsey? And what do you people think of translators like Woolsey, who modify the original text?

 

[SaShman]

Well I guess that splits the topic. What do you people think of Ted Woolsey? And what do you people think of translators like Woolsey, who modify the original text?

I don't really care about it to be honest, I can't speak/read Japanese so I wouldn't be able to spot any differences anyway. When someone tells me there was a translation error it doesn't really bother me. There are always going to be a few errors due to the differences in language and culture. I'd rather play a game that made sense to me as opposed to a game which I didn't understand due to differences in culture and language.

 

[strifehart]

i don't really mind with the whole changing of things that just wouldn't make sense to westerners. but it should be pretty damn confusing. i would like it if square gave the western audience more credit for our level of understanding. but changes like aerith to aeris are beyond me. i think it's moronic to make changes like that.

additionally, changes that are longer and script related should be approved by the team that developed the game, not just the north american division of square exix. i want the original story. or at least something that's been approved by the guys who wrote the original story.

 

[charliepanayi]

Aside from the obvious translation errors in FFVII ("This guy are sick" and the like) I've always found the dialogue in the FF games I've played to flow very well, especially the likes of FFVI and FFIX. So whoever the translators are I think they're doing a great job on the whole. As for changing references so that a Western audience can get them, I think that's OK if it keeps in the spirit of the original comment. And stuff like Aeris/Aerith has rarely concerned me, it's two letters (and that was the least of the problems with translation in FFVII), it's not like they renamed her Brittany and made her a cheerleader.

 

[Bambi]

I don't really care about it to be honest, I can't speak/read Japanese so I wouldn't be able to spot any differences anyway. When someone tells me there was a translation error it doesn't really bother me. There are always going to be a few errors due to the differences in language and culture. I'd rather play a game that made sense to me as opposed to a game which I didn't understand due to differences in culture and language.

pretty much sums it up for me tbh, id rather have a few alterations than no translation at all. Not likeI knew any different til i joined up here anyway about some names being different and whathaveyou

The poor translation in VII fucks me off abit though, why people didnt think...hmm that doesnt make sense about certain lines is beyond me

other than that though im not arsed as long as i can understand what im reading.