Lunar: Harmony of the Silver Star.

I.S.T. · Post by **I.S.T.** » Wed Nov 04, 2009 2:28 pm

What makes that script so terrible?

Post by **grinvader** » Wed Nov 04, 2009 7:38 pm

Caution: massive incoming rant detected. Citizens may disengage dodge maneuvers and enquire for safety bunker locations.

Gil_Hamilton · Post by **Gil_Hamilton** » Wed Nov 04, 2009 10:26 pm

I.S.T. wrote:What makes that script so terrible?

In a nutshell:
The original was a game about love, at it's heart.

Alex didn't go off and become a dragonmaster to save the world. He did it all for Luna, and it was a happy coincidence that he shanked the Magic Emperor in the process. A point further cemented in Eternal Blue, when we find out that Luna/Althena gave up her godhood to live out a happy mortal life with Alex.

And Ghaleon started down the dark path due to his MANLY HETEROSEXUAL love for his best bud Dyne.

Silver Star Story? Fuck all that nonsense, we've got a Final Fantasy game to rip off!
Althena's retired before she's even MET Alex. She just up and decided that people didn't need gods anymore.
Ghaleon wants to be God to fill the power vacuum like any good JRPG villain, and Alex has to put Ghaleon down because he's a rabid dog like any good JRPG hero.

Also, the whole post-Grindery section where Althena, insane goddess of love and beauty, tries to destroy the world with her ancient battleship of world destroyingness. What. The. Fuck?

*takes a deep breath*

There's a lot of other things that are fundamentally and completely WRONG, but it's not good for my heart to go off on multi-page rants.
Nash's betrayal and chicken suit(actually Nash's treatment in all situations), Vane as Death Star, Pokedragons, the magic trial that doesn't test magic...

At least they didn't rewrite EB drastically. Though the gameplay is fucked up beyond belief.

Cyrus · Post by **Cyrus** » Wed Nov 04, 2009 11:31 pm

If it's re-written as badly as you claim I'm surprised there is no fan translation of it yet. Hell, fans even re-translated CT.

Gil_Hamilton · Post by **Gil_Hamilton** » Thu Nov 05, 2009 1:00 am

Cyrus wrote:If it's re-written as badly as you claim I'm surprised there is no fan translation of it yet. Hell, fans even re-translated CT.

Ummm... how would a fan retranslation fix a problem in the Japanese script?

Working Designs had a lot more respect for the originals than Game Arts, though there was only so much they could do(mainly bringing the old voice actors back instead of recasting the roles).

Cyrus · Post by **Cyrus** » Thu Nov 05, 2009 2:14 am

Gil_Hamilton wrote:
Cyrus wrote:If it's re-written as badly as you claim I'm surprised there is no fan translation of it yet. Hell, fans even re-translated CT.
Ummm... how would a fan retranslation fix a problem in the Japanese script?

Working Designs had a lot more respect for the originals than Game Arts, though there was only so much they could do(mainly bringing the old voice actors back instead of recasting the roles).

So hold on, what's the original "good" script from if even the Japanese script was shat on? The first version of Lunar or something?

Gil_Hamilton · Post by **Gil_Hamilton** » Thu Nov 05, 2009 3:34 am

Cyrus wrote:
Gil_Hamilton wrote:
Cyrus wrote:If it's re-written as badly as you claim I'm surprised there is no fan translation of it yet. Hell, fans even re-translated CT.
Ummm... how would a fan retranslation fix a problem in the Japanese script?

Working Designs had a lot more respect for the originals than Game Arts, though there was only so much they could do(mainly bringing the old voice actors back instead of recasting the roles).
So hold on, what's the original "good" script from if even the Japanese script was shat on? The first version of Lunar or something?

YES!

The original, SegaCD version entitled "Lunar: The Silver Star", is good.
The rewrite, done for the remake entitled "Lunar: Silver Star Story", is bad.

All subsequent ports and remakes have been based on SSS, not TSS.

God, you Square kiddies. Always assuming the americans ruined everything and a retranslation will make the game better.

byuu · Post by **byuu** » Thu Nov 05, 2009 3:37 am

Gil_Hamilton wrote:Working Designs had a lot more respect for the originals than Game Arts

Yeah, it took a lot of commitment to keep the Wheaties, Bill Clinton and flatulence jokes from the original Japanese script in tact. It was also nice that they kept all the vocal songs about fighting like in the original, instead of matching the love underpinnings of the story. It was also classy the way they kept the "you need battle points to save" theme in EB from the original. Very faithful and dedicated, that WD.

If you want a company that gets it, look at Atlus. All WD did was sell fancy, expensive packaging. Hell, they couldn't be bothered to add a lowercase font to the Sega CD games. And if they cared at all, they would have refused to do SSS when they saw it.

But yeah, even with their "translation", it was a million times what SSS was. Despite all its faults, it was still so endearing that I beat it from scratch a good four times (over many years.) You didn't even touch on Ghaleon's bottom bitch.

And it wasn't just the story, though that was the most important part. They also ruined the gameplay. No more beautiful, dramatic orchestral red book audio. No more full scale world map with battles. And now we have Final Fantasy Mystic Quest dungeons, where instead of exploring we're constantly trying to dodge enemies like it's a platformer.

At least the graphics were prettier.

You know what's really the most tragic part of all? Lunar was cut to around ~40% of its original planned size due to time and budget constraints. The series became popular enough for six remakes, but we never got to see their original, completed vision come to fruition. They didn't even get to go out with a bang, Studio Alex's last game was that awful abortion of a Game Gear game.

Cyrus · Post by **Cyrus** » Thu Nov 05, 2009 4:32 am

Gil_Hamilton wrote:God, you Square kiddies. Always assuming the americans ruined everything and a retranslation will make the game better.

I don't see what's stopping a translation group from taking the script of the original and putting it in the new versions of the game.

franpa · Post by **franpa** » Thu Nov 05, 2009 5:46 am

hacking currently copyrighted material?

Cyrus · Post by **Cyrus** » Thu Nov 05, 2009 7:19 am

franpa wrote:hacking currently copyrighted material?

... How's that different than what's been done a thousand times in the past? It wouldn't be the first time or the last.

Gil_Hamilton · Post by **Gil_Hamilton** » Thu Nov 05, 2009 10:15 am

Cyrus wrote:
Gil_Hamilton wrote:God, you Square kiddies. Always assuming the americans ruined everything and a retranslation will make the game better.
I don't see what's stopping a translation group from taking the script of the original and putting it in the new versions of the game.

And redrawing FMVs, and redesigning levels, and etc...

Post by **grinvader** » Thu Nov 05, 2009 7:59 pm

Aww, we got the lightweight version.
The first rant you made about it was legendary. I wish I had logged it back then.

Gil_Hamilton · Post by **Gil_Hamilton** » Thu Nov 05, 2009 10:10 pm

grinvader wrote:Aww, we got the lightweight version.
The first rant you made about it was legendary. I wish I had logged it back then.

Told ya, it's not good for my heart.