On writing and richness of theme in War of the Lions

Day 383

Final Fantasy Tactics is unparalleled in its breadth of character development and customization even to this day. It was originally released in something like 1997 or thereabouts but it is still just as engaging today, despite some dated interface choices. It has a timeless graphical style and an excellent plot. Recently, I have been playing Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions, the PSP port/update to the original PlayStation 1 title. I've completed the original on numerous occasions and still consider it one of my favorite games of all time--but for some reason I'd never finished the PSP version.

I could make the argument that it's because of the frequent animation slowdowns in combat, but after spending some time with the game, it's not difficult to become accustomed to that kind of thing. I'm pretty far into chapter 2 already, and although I still notice these slowdowns, they no longer bother me. The mechanics of the game are just so strong that I don't have it in me to nitpick about such a minor issue when instead I'd rather talk about the number of changes that have been made to the game's script.

Square-Enix wisely chose to leave the game's mechanics largely untouched. For an old fan like myself, this is much appreciated. There's not much in Final Fantasy Tactics' gameplay that I can find issue with, except perhaps for the design of a few of the game's jobs. Archers and Dragoons don't have particularly engaging skillsets, although they do feature excellent and fun reaction and support abilities. Still, the purpose of a remake is very rarely to redesign a game from the ground up, so I wouldn't have expected them to overhaul these classes that are still perfectly workable.

The largest and most noticeable change in War of the Lions is of course the dramatically reimagined script. I mentioned earlier that I felt Tactics' plot was excellent, and I still believe that to be true. However, the PS1 original certainly suffered from an amateurish and occasionally confusing translation, with such infamous mistranslations as "Defeat Dycedarg's Elder Brother!" and "Salty Rage." For the most part, though, the script was perfectly readable for the average player and conveyed the sense of the plot well. I would have expected names, both of places and persons, to be significantly tweaked in this remake to better adhere to the original Japanese. What I did not expect, however, was a complete rewriting of the entire game's script.

Don't get me wrong--the rewritten script perfectly communicates the sentiments of the original game, but the tone has changed significantly. The original localization, despite some translation errors, was written primarily in contemporary vernacular, whereas the War of the Lions translation is written entirely in (shockingly genuine) archaic language. A famous line form the first prologue mission has undergone a significant change, for instance. The original line was "Don't blame us. Blame yourself or God." I always thought this was a very straightforward and memorable line. The new version is "Tis your birth and faith that wrong you, not I." This communicates the same exact meaning but is written in much more flowery language. It's jarring at first, but I'm beginning to become accustomed to it.

What's so impressive about the script is that it adheres strictly to that ancient highborn linguistic style throughout the game. It never feels as if the writers slipped out of character for a moment. It really does add to the genuine medieval feel of the game, but it's certainly a change from the more direct writing from the original localization. I was initially put off by this overly verbose style but I have to admit that I like it more and more as I get further into the game.