// PC GAMER — GAMING
I can't stop comparing the dialogue from the original, messy FF7 localization and its vastly improved fan translation
The Shinra Archaeology Cut of FF7 gives the game the treatment Square Enix's official PC release deserved.
When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works.
"Final Fantasy 7 PC" is not an immediately intuitive combination of numbers and letters. Am I talking about the old trapezoid box version released in 1998? Or the "remaster" re-released in 2013? Or the first in the trilogy of remakes released nearly a decade later? Calling the 1998 version the "original" just makes things more confusing, since it isn't exactly the same as the PlayStation game released the year before.
When Square Enix updated Final Fantasy 7 to modern platforms in 2013 it had the chance to create something like the definitive version of the game, but instead it took some shortcuts, "improving" a few things from the original—like some of the notoriously rushed translation's grammatical mistakes—but more or less leaving the rest untouched. It's a worst of both worlds combination, where funny lines like "this guy are sick" get corrected to "this guy is sick" but the script as a whole remains confusing and frequently misrepresented in English.
Two years ago, fans released a monumental mod called the Shinra Archaeology Cut aimed at doing the script justice with a complete, top-to-bottom retranslation. It's one of a heap of FF7 mods available in the fan launcher 7th Heaven, alongside graphics overhauls, rebalances, a fan dub, and on and on. What I just learned today, though (courtesy of this ResetEra thread) is that there's a meticulously maintained spreadsheet comparing every line of dialogue from the official PC release, the Japanese original, and fan translator TurquoiseHammer's new text.
Side-by-side, it's easy to see where the original English translation cut corners, misunderstood what was happening in the original text, or went too far in adding attitude that wasn't originally there. Sometimes that can be a smart choice when it comes to localization—"accuracy" isn't the be all, end all—but as you can see in a couple of the examples below, the official English script seemingly went edgy for edgy's sake.
While I think much of FF7's charm is tied to its messy translation, it's amazing to see a version of its script that isn't bafflingly vague and convoluted in key scenes related to Sephiroth and Cloud's identity. And instead of the official release's worst of both worlds pairing of fixed grammar but untouched everything else, the Shinra Archaeology Cut offers the opposite—an improved retranslation, but with an optional "Cultural Heritage Mode" that "restores a few memorably strange lines and infamous typos from the original English script." This guy are sick, now and forever.
Take a look at some of the changes that stood out to me as I perused the script.
“The fate of the planet ridin' on our shoulders and all you got is that wimpy-ass phrase?”
“Give us somethin' with more gusto! Somethin' like…I dunno. 'Move out!'”