LogFAQs > #886923608

Entity13 posted...

Even if it turns out that we Americans got the worse version where Squall hardly says anything--apparently he's a little smarter and way wordy in the Japanese version

Based on the things he DOES say in the American version, I can only assume that a version where he actually had more to say would be far, far worse than what we actually got.

And what we got was an infected root canal without anesthesia.

I see zero evidence that the problems with his personality stem entirely from translation or localization issues - if anything, I'd say it's one of the earliest examples in the franchise of Japan's different cultural expectations and interests clashing with the Western perception of what a main character should actually be (see also, a large part of what makes Shinji so repugnantly annoying in Neon Genesis Evangelion - the Japanese seem to LOVE ineffectual whiny bitch pretty boy main characters). The same personality traits that make me want to leapt into my TV and repeatedly bludgeon his face and the same things Japanese audiences LIKE about him. And I will never stop hating them for it.

(About the only evidence I've ever seen that Squall is even remotely capable of being a more worthwhile character is in Kingdom Hearts, but that's also a game that has no problem tweaking characterization to suit the needs of the story it wants to tell, so I'd argue that doesn't reflect on the officially canon original version of the character anyway.)



Entity13 posted...

.hack//G.U. Last Recode

So basically, it'll be like paying for the fourth volume if it had come out with the rest of the trilogy all those years ago.

Not really. It's more like buying the tacked-on fourth part of a trilogy that was never even remotely meant to have a fourth part in the first place. And which will most likely have a far weaker story because of it, which will only make the preceding games less enjoyable by proxy (also known as "Mass Effect Syndrome").

As much as I love/loved .hack (and I definitely loved GU more than the original recipe), I have zero interest in this. And I am saying this as someone who has probably spent upwards of a thousand dollars on all the games, all of the anime, most of the manga, and most of the OSTs (including the harder to find import only) from both the anime and games.

The shittier quality of things like Link, Quantum, and the movies have left me with very little faith that they're even remotely capable of creating a story 10 years after the fact that has the same narrative weight and characterization of the original games. Especially since the story is going to feel forced, because it was originally unplanned and thus not really integrated into the plot of the original games.

Wanting it to play the original games again on a newer console is understandable (though statements like "We tweaked so much it will feel like a new game" always make me nervous, because that defeats the entire point of banking on nostalgia in the first place *cough*fuck your FFVII remaster Squeenix*cough*), but buying it because you want to play volume 4 sort of feels like the Monkey's Paw wish that was the Star Wars Prequel movies all over again.


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"Wall of Text'D!" --- oldskoolplayr76
"POwned again." --- blight family