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Hack description

This is a large-scale rewrite of the script for Final Fantasy VI, heavily based on the live translation stream featured on the Legends of Localization website. The game's dialog has been extensively rewritten in order to accurately convey the meaning of the original Japanese, with particular emphasis placed on being readable and natural in English.

The initial SNES release had a great many translation errors, and while later versions have sought to correct these problems, they often introduced new inaccuracies and other oddities into the text. The goal of this rewrite is to strip away the confusion that has surrounded the translation of this game, yielding a version that is faithful to the meaning of the Japanese script in all of its story and character details. Some of the memorable 'flavor text' from the SNES version has been retained, but only in cases where the meaning of the story was unaffected by the difference in wording.

Given its status as a popular and well-established game, and the necessary compromises involved in translating a complex work of art between two starkly different languages and cultures, it would be somewhat misleading to claim that any one translation of the script for Final Fantasy VI could be considered completely definitive in every respect. But insofar as it can be done, this project aims to represent the intentions of the game's designers as closely as possible, while sounding as though the text had originated in English in the first place.

The character of Cyan has been rewritten most extensively of all, in order to present a consistent and believable representation of archaic speech. A great deal of research was done on Early Modern English to achieve this goal. Enemies, items, spells, and other abilities have been renamed for greater translation accuracy, and previously censored graphics have been restored to their original forms from the Japanese game. This version also includes a large number of bug fixes to the game code, as well as a few minor enhancements such as B-button dashing.

A link to a copy of the script can be found in the readme file. It contains many annotations on story and character details that have been lost or obscured in previous translations, as well as notes on why various writing choices were made.

To play this version, apply the patch to an unmodified, unheadered copy of Final Fantasy III (USA) v1.0. It is compatible with real SNES hardware as well as emulators.

Contributions

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