FF8 Ultimecia dialogue comparison
So I was reading about FF8 the other day still trying to understand the plot, when I decided to watch a let’s play of the final battle. Then I realised I should be practicing Japanese and found a JP version. Here’s Ultimecia’s first speech in the English version:
“…SeeD… SeeD……SeeD…… SeeD, SeeD, SeeD! Kurse all SeeDs. Swarming like lokusts akross generations. You disgust me. The world was on the brink of that ever-elusive ‘time kompression’. Insolent fools! Your vain krusade ends here, SeeDs. The price for your meddling is death beyond death. I shall send you to a dimension beyond your imagining. There, I will reign, and you will be my slaves for eternity. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA. Whom shall I exterminate first!? I’ll start with you three!”
Here’s roughly what she says in Japanese:
“…eeD…
SeeD…SeeD…
SeeD, SeeD, SeeD!!
It displeases me…
Why do you interfere with sorceresses!?
Why won’t you let me be free!?
In just a little longer, my perfect world of time compression would have been completed…
I won’t allow you to interfere…
Your very existences shall be absorbed by the algorithm of time compression!!
You will feel agony as your thoughts are ripped apart and all your memories fade away to nothing.
There won’t be a thing you can do, think or even feel!
That’s the world I’m going to send you to!
There will be absolutely nothing you can…
…No, you’ll be able to worship me, the sole existence for all eternity!!
So, who will come first!?
Who will fight me!?
Hmpf, it matters not, the end will be the same!
I will choose!”
The gist is the same, but the extra details even in this little section make it a fair bit clearer what “time compression” involves and why she wants it. Ultimecia also has no accent in Japanese, and uses “omae” to refer to the main characters, which is arrogant and usually associated with male speech. She uses few feminine speech markers, which means she sounds rather like a male villain, though it could be seen as simply having no time for politeness or pleasantries.
Her description of time compression also describes quite well what Squall goes through in the ending FMV, which makes its omission regrettable.
Anyway, I then had a look at the rest of Ultimecia’s dialogue during the final battles. If the rest of this game is translated similarly, then I think I understand why so many people feel the plot is disjointed and uninspiring.
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