Localization: Was WD too free with EB?

[GhaleonOne]

Your point about immersion reminds me of the holodecks on Star Trek: The Next Generation. I don't know how the hell people kept out of those things to get anything done. And really, I could think of much better simulations than the dumb ones that some of those people came up with.

[phyco126]

I totally would love the Holodeck if they ever came out with one. I'd probably be so addicted to it that they would have to use many many many tranq. darts to drag me out of there.

And Kiz, yeah I know what you are saying, but I was just trying to point out that immersion is fun, but sometimes it's okay to have a few things to snap you out, something we can somewhat relate to. I mean, even FFVII had some of that. Nothing like playing with a cross dressing Cloud

[Shiva Indis]

Your point about immersion reminds me of the holodecks on Star Trek: The Next Generation. I don't know how the hell people kept out of those things to get anything done.

People in the future are just awesome like that, I guess. Everybody's so calm and collected... It's the polar opposite of reality TV.

Oh, BTW... There are two Loraina Bobbit references in EB. One in Azado, and the aforementioned one in the Neo Vane trial cave. Castration anxiety lingered in everyone's minds in the early 90's, it seems...

[cj iwakura]

I have to say that all these years later, the localization humor still makes every NPC worth talking to.

There is some downright comedy gold in this game.

[Evil_Goddess]

Well, as this old thread is back now I also would like to write my opinions about the Lunar Eternal Blue localization as I really care about this game which is for me the best Lunar game and one of my favorite games now and forever.

Generally I have no problems with the localizations from WD, some jokes might be a little out of place but I don't feel that they spoil the whole game and actually the I agree that the sense of humor in the game makes talking the NPC really enjoyable.
Here I also find it great how much you can talk to people and mostly you can talk to NPC a second of even third time and they say something different or the dialog goes on. I am happy that WD did go through all those dialogs and didn't cut anything to finish the work faster/cheaper like it often happened in other games.

I didn't know that in the Japanese version they were talking about an Order instead of a Cult of Althena but I have to say that I never had a problem with the word Cult.
I am not sure how it sounds in the ears of a native English speaker which I am not but I feel it sounding a little more negative than Cult and as it is used for a group worshiping a fake Althena which just wants to get money from people I think it fits pretty well.

Also somehow I think you can just feel when you play the game that here people were at work who enjoyed the game themselves and understood the story and the characters and didn't just translate a script. The same goes for their wonderful voice acting which I really would hope other localizations would at least come close still these days (no wonder undubs of games are so popular).
You could see nicely and their making off videos where the voice actors were interviewed that they all knew who their character is and they tried to identify with them where in other localizations I can hear that there is just someone reading a script from a paper without knowing anything about the game.

But well, different people can of course have different opinions but I really really love this game and still play it every one or two years these days on my still working Mega CD and I also feel that this is thanks to WD who first made it accessible for me and imho did a great job while doing so.

[tbb033]

The real world references in EB didn't bother me at the time, but recently I've finally gotten around to playing EBC (and I preordered the game, and have a Ghaleon puppet to prove it, to let you know how long I've been putting it off) and came across a line where Ronfar talks about Swedish triplets, and I was all "there's a Sweden in Lunar?"

I suspect it has more to do with me changing over the last almost 20 years than anything, but it just took me right out of the game.

[Leo]

I enjoyed the topical humor in all of the games in each version of Lunar. What I hated was being at the end of the first one, about to walk to talk to Luna and having a word with my friends beforehand and KYLE BREAKS THE FOURTH WALL! >=(

[jay_are]

Oh man, decade old thread! (Though has been revived a few times i guess)
Anyway, to me personally, WD was not too free with Eternal Blue.
What would Lunar 2 be like if another company had translated it? It would probably be known as "That great game hurt by a barebones rushed translation".

I loved reading in this game. Dated references? No problem! I'm not a dumbarse to expect a 1995 game to talk about things that are still relevant today.
I loved the pop culture references when they were fresh, and I love them now, 20 years later. Yep! Lunar Eternal Blue is ... 20 years old right now.
It's fun discovering things that belong to the game's era. If I'm not already familiar with it, I can always research and learn something new, and be teleported to a different time in existence. That is extremely positive.
*sigh* How can I put it... I'll make a picture comparison of how I see Lunar 2 next to other RPGs...



When I say Most RPGs, I include:

Lufia
Lufia 2 (though it tried not to be in this list)
Secret of Mana
Phantasy Star 2 or/and 3
Breath of Fire 2 (haven't played but it has bad reputation translation)
Breath of Fire 3 (I played this game and can't believe the translation)
Legend of Mana
FF8
FF9
FFX
FFX-2 (don't need to finish it)
FFXII (haven't finished)
FFXIII (haven't finished)
Legend of Dragoon
Legend of Dragoon (again because it deserves more than 1 spot on this list, this is the Dark Link of Lunar EB.)
Wild Arms (1 and 3. Havent finished any, but what i've played has made me fall asleep on my chair)
Omg Tales of games
Omg Neptunia games

All Dragon Quests are an exception, those games have great art in those darn text boxes. But Dragon Quest V felt really odd the first few hours even though it's an epic game.
This list doesn't necessarily mean that all those games are bad. I still like Wild Arms, Lufia and Secret of Mana for example, but their dialogue is either BLAND and unfunny or the content is weak, not very original, spread too much apart in between, etc.
Imagine I made a graph where I judge unnecessary and painful grinding of RPGs compared to Lunar EB?