I played Final Fantasy Tactics when it was brand new and… didn’t really like it. I thought the plot and characters were boring and difficult to understand. I had a really hard time grasping the game mechanics, and so only managed to fumble my way through the game after long periods of frustration. I hadn’t yet developed that strong, healthy appreciation for finely-detailed and well-animated 2d sprites.
Well now I’m a little older, a little smarter, a little more patient, and I have access to a version of a game with… well, I won’t say good writing. But it’s at least the kind of writing that I like to read.
(Note that, throughout this post, I will be using terminology from the PSP version of the game, even when talking about the PSX version, because that’s what is most fresh in my mind. Sorry if this causes any confusion.)
I’ve been thinking a lot this week about why 15-year-old Brickroad had such a hard time with this game, whereas 27-year-old Brickroad is eating it up. I mean yeah there’s the hyper-obvious answer of “well dude your tastes have changed in the over-a-decade since you last played it”. But there’s personal value in looking at the specifics. So I’ll do that.
First up is the story. When I was 15 I played RPGs almost exclusively. In fact if it weren’t for my misguided desire to justify my N64 I probably never would have played anything else. The idea of playing a game for the gameplay was totally alien to me; obviously the most important aspect of a game was what it was doing onscreen when I wasn’t playing it.
(Why yes, I did once have an unconditional love of Xenogears. Why do you ask?)
Forget the constant intrigue and double-crossing at play in the world of Ivalice. Forget the plot’s focus on multiple nuanced sides of a complicated conflict. Forget the amount of depth and detail in the setting and story. My 15-year-old brain was so drunk on bog-standard jRPG tropes that it couldn’t even process simple things like a man putting his power struggle over the well-being of his own brother, or an aristocrat treating a commoner like an object. Thank goodness for the magic stones subplot. Magic stones, I could handle. Magic stones, now those made sense.
The gameplay, though, was what I really despised. I bought Final Fantasy Tactics because it had the words “Final” and “Fantasy” in the title. I desperately wanted it to be a normal Final Fantasy game, and that’s how I approached it. I didn’t see the point in developing a Chemist once White Mage opened up. Classes like Mystic, Orator and Geomancer didn’t make any sense to me. I have to buy an ability for every terrain type in the game? Why cast Hesitate or Immobilize, which have a chance of failure, when I could just cast Fira instead? Why on earth would anyone stay with boring classes like Knight or Thief after you’ve opened fun ones like Ninja or Dragoon?
So there was 15-year-old Brickroad, tromping through the game with his paltry band of Ninjas and Summoners, not fully understanding why he was getting his ass kicked by the CPU in virtually every fight. Hating every second of it.
It was more of an unwillingness to learn the game than anything. I didn’t understand how simple things like CT or height affected the game, and rather than experiment with them I just treated them like mystifyingly random game elements. The first time I told my Dragoon to jump and his target walked away, I decided Dragoons were useless. When I saw Thieves had to learn to steal each equipment type individually I decided they weren’t worth the bother. The first time an enemy walked into the range of my Haste or Cura spell, I decided that was a necessary evil I’d just have to put up with from time to time. Judging by how many vivid memories I have of thrown items or attacks being ineffective, I doubt I even had my stupid head wrapped around the concept of “line of sight”.
I must have ranted about how stupid and hard the game was to someone who knew better, because I would have never made it as far as Arithmeticians and Orlandeau without someone explaining to me how broken they were.
Now, though? The story of political intrigue is like sweet, sweet nectar. The wealth of unique jobs and playstyle options is like an open spring field in which to frolick, giggling and tripping over my own feet. 15-year-old me didn’t have access to this new translation, but even if he did, he wouldn’t have appreciated it. (I know there are purists out there who prefer the original text. Those people are wrong. I have no reservations saying this.)
I still have about half the game to go. I look forward to going to work every night, knowing I’ll get to spend a few hours with it, and I’ll be sad when it’s over.
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Just to be clear, I think the old translation is terrible and the new one is unequivocally better–but it still sucks in its own way and could have been much, much better.
I love it because, well, let’s put it this way: if A Dance With Dragons were only one year late instead of thirty-seven years late, I’d wonder whether it’s because GRRM took a year off to do the WotL translation.
Welcome home, Brickroad.
People that prefer the original translation are the patently insane and overly nostalgic. There is pretty much nothing good about that engrish-laced confusing mess. I can understand not liking the writing style of the new translation, but to defend the original translation as anything but garbage requires turning a blind eye to its many faults. My favorite encounter with a person of that sort was someone who tried to argue that changing “Blame yourself or God!” to something like “It is your birth and station that wrong you, not I” constituted a bowdlerization because it removed the word god.
My main problem with the new translation is that certain elements ring a little false to me. Like when you have random thugs saying lines like “or quick as lightning, blood on snow” or whatever the line was at Fort Zeakden just sounded too flowery, especially when the guy’s a low-class thug.
That said, while I prefer the original translation because I just don’t care for the new one’s style (and probably nostalgia), I would say the new one’s better. What’s odd though, is I don’t mind Vagrant Story’s localization, even though it’s the same sort of text.
You should play Xenosaga 3 if you enjoyed Xenogears as a kid. Not because they’re at all alike, but because I want you to play it despite blah blah blah Jesus blah blah blah giant crosses.