Japanese | Original English |
|---|---|
ん～、スペクタクル～ | Mmmmm, a SPECTACLE. |
This line has always stood out to me. This phrase pops out in my head sometimes—absolutely every time I hear the word spectacle, but other times as well. I love it.
The Japanese uses the English word spectacle, written in katakana. This is why they put it in all caps—to signify that it’s special. You know what that means: The English is accurate and this game is ridiculous.
Japanese | Original English | Translation |
|---|---|---|
俺も……考えた。宇宙……星……海 | I’ve…been thinking too. About the universe…planet…ocean. | I’ve been thinking too. The universe, the planet, the ocean: how vast and huge they are. |
俺なんかが動き回っても何も変わらないんじゃないかって | How wide and big… No matter where I go and what I do it won’t change a thing. | Questioning whether something as small as me and my actions could change anything. |
Cloud has been thinking about the universe…planet…ocean.
The original English isn’t a mistranslation, but it sounds silly without any determiners.
Japanese | Original English | Translation |
|---|---|---|
いや……そうじゃない。思いだしたんじゃない。忘れていたんじゃない。そんなのじゃなくて…… | No…not that. You haven’t remembered. You haven’t forgotten. That’s not it… | No, that’s not right. Not something remembered. Not something forgotten. Nothing like that. |
The pronoun you doesn’t show up in the Japanese text. It’s left unclear who, exactly, hasn’t remembered or forgotten. The translators inferred you, but I don’t think that makes sense. Cloud ends both verbs with ん (n) which is an abbreviation of の (no), a nominalizing suffix. He’s saying it’s not rememberedness and it’s not forgottenness. I don’t think a pronoun is needed here. Regardless, I don’t think the original JP makes much sense anyway. I guess he’s saying, “It’s something we haven’t even thought about yet”?
Japanese | Original English | Translation |
|---|---|---|
だいたい、何だってあのネエちゃんはあんな場所へ行ったんだ？ | What, did that girl go off to that place? | Why did she run off to such a place to begin with? |
何だって (nandatte) can mean what, but it can also mean why. They’re pondering Aerith’s final actions and Cid brings up the reason she went to the City of the Ancients. The original English makes it sound like Cid was unaware or unsure that Aerith went there. The original also keeps the unnecessary comma, but that sets off だいたい (daitai) in the Japanese, which means (in this instance) to begin with or in the first place. Setting off the word what, on the other hand, gives the impression that Cid is casting doubt on or expressing confusion about something previously said.
Japanese | Original English | Translation |
|---|---|---|
セフィロスを倒せばメテオも消えるとは目のつけどころが違いますな！ | If we can only defeat Sephiroth, the idea that Meteor will also disappear is based on different objectives! | We shouldn’t pin our hopes on the theory that Meteor will disappear after Sephiroth is defeated. |
Can’t say the original is accurate, here; it’s nonsensical. The PC version changed this to The whole idea that Meteor will disappear if we defeat Sephiroth is all wrong! That’s correct, which is pretty good, considering they didn’t (to my understanding) use the Japanese script for any of their dialogue changes. I guess the real meaning isn’t that hard to figure out.
Japanese | Original English | Translation |
|---|---|---|
いや、何かを……感じてるんだ。……そう、殺気を感じている | No, it’s……feeling something. ……Yeah, it senses murder. | No, it feels something. It’s feeling bloodthirsty. |
There are a lot of interpretations available, because the subject of the verb is left unspecified. It’s literally [Unspecified actor] feels/senses something. [Unspecified actor] feels/senses murderous intent. I think the idea is that Diamond Weapon has stopped fighting them and is heading for Midgar because it wants to do some murderin’, not that it can somehow sense that someone in Midgar wants to kill or has killed anyone.
Japanese | Original English |
|---|---|
このプラウド・クラッドの破壊力 | I’ll show you the destructive power of the Proud Clod! |
This is well known by now, but Proud Clod is likely supposed to be Proud Clad. (The name confused me so much as a kid; who would name their giant kill machine Proud Idiot?) クラッド (kuraddo) could be read either way. It’s in modern Japanese online dictionaries as clad but who knows what was available back in the 90s?