VideoGame_Discussion

Haven't had a chance to play it yet, but is this for fans of for FFT, Ogre Battle or Tactics Ogre?

To be honest I've never played any of those but from what I've read online a lot of people are saying FFT

I just thought it was okay. Still interested in seeing more though.

I've only played through one battle, so I'm with you. I need to see more. Octopath Traveler grabbed me from the very beginning, so I need to try my best to not compare the two. Lol

I put about 3 hours into the demo, enough to get through the 2nd battle. It has a lot of potential but does need work.

The most glaring issue is the camera. I almost rage quit a few times because I got lost in the confusion and couldn't navigate. The voice acting isn't great and could be much more compelling. I loved the voice acting in Octopath and thought it was much better. Some say it sucked though apparently.

I was excited to play the demo, and left pretty disappointed. I never played octopath traveler so I don't have that frame of reference, but just talking about my general thoughts-

The good: art style. The pixel art character models looked a little out of place at times, but overall I really like how this game looks.

The meh: gameplay and strategic options in battle. I'd like to see more, but from the small slice we were given I wasn't a fan. The battles didn't seem to flow that well, just my opinion though. Maybe it gets better.

The bad: voice acting and general story/dialogue. "brother!" "BROTHER!" "bROtHeR!" ... who talks like that? My god the dialogue was grating, I really leaned on that "speed up" button.

flamingtoastjpn wrote:

That's definitely a cultural difference and/or a trope carried over from anime. ONIISAN! ONIISAN! The translation to "brother" is accurate enough, but it's not how most English speakers would actually address their brother. Sure we may use mom and dad to refer to parents, but for siblings we usually just use their name (or a nickname - my family all just call each other Steve).

I'm not familiar enough with real Japanese culture to know if that's how people actually talk to their siblings outside of anime. I know titles and such are important, and surnames are often used instead of given names in many situations, but since everyone in a family ostensibly has the same surname maybe they do go with brother instead of using the first name.

The problem is no matter how they translate it someone will kvetch about it. It's either "nobody talks like that, this translation sucks" or "that's not what they said in the original language, this translation sucks".

benstylus wrote:

And here is the problem, there are two types of translations. Translations where it's simply translated from the original source to the new language and a localization-translation where it's translated to be more fluid to the new language.

But as long as it's not Breath of Fire II for SNES, that translation was awful.

People who can read both languages tend to complain that it's not a pure translation, but translating it to be more akin to the new language is a better way to do it, IMO.

I tried the demo and the voice acting is so bad I turned off voices. Camera is certainly annoying.

benstylus wrote:

I can see both arguments. To me though, when I hear complaints about translations and localizations, it's usually because of some significant material change. Like how Earthbound got rid of the town bar for example. Literally translating every sentence just seems lazy to me. The team could have changed "brother" to whatever the character's name is, and it would be less awkward sounding to the english audience without changing the meaning of the scene.

But you're right, it is a trope, I've seen this same kind of dialogue elsewhere. It's just a trope that I personally dislike.

flamingtoastjpn wrote:

And to some people it sound more authentic to the culture. Not that you need modern Japan anime culture in a fantasy rpg game, but they figure if it comes from Japan it should sound Japanese.

My favorite example of weird literal translation in any game is from Shenmue. When you're drawing a ticket at the local shop and don't win anything, Ryo says "no prize."

The cashier responds with "Especially since you bought merchandise."

Sometimes Japanese is just as much about what you don't say as what you do. So in Japanese it's a perfectly fine thing to say, as it implies that you're feeling bad for them that they didn't win. But in English it's just awkward (and kind of hilarious).

I actually really enjoyed the demo. Sure, it's got its issues (re-camera angles & dialogue...), but the game isn't scheduled for release until next year sometime. That means plenty of time for changes. I even was emailed a survey yesterday in regards to the demo. I'm probably in the minority on this but I just could not get into Octopath Travelers, no matter how many times I tried. So, to play PTS demo was refreshing to me as I love the graphics/style OT offered and really wanted to like that game. I also really enjoyed FF Tactics though, so this seems right up my ally.

I also didn't like OT @BluFox262 so it's not just you.

Kommie wrote:

I can recognize there is a lot about OT that is to be liked. However, I just felt it was over ambitious with the multiple character storylines.

I didn't think OT was ambitious, for me the lack of an interesting story killed it. I need some balance of game-play and story in JRPGs like OT.

The honest question here is why do tactics type troop placement / grid games have stories? It's a waste. Just give me hundreds of tactically demanding battle setups and I'm good. No drama.

Feeb wrote:

This is how I feel; I play a good number of Strategy RPGs, and in recent years I've started to just skip the stories entirely.

Blasphemy. A good story is essential to making a great game, especially a ROLE PLAYING GAME. Repent for ye have sinned!