In September of 1994, Illusion of Gaia made its North American debut. Known for being much darker than the other RPGs Nintendo was allowing at the time, it left players with a lot to think about… but unfortunately, the localization was often incomprehensible.
Now, thanks to the efforts of L Thammy, the game has received a new fan translation 30 years after its western release. The GitHub project page for this translation can be found here.
Key points:
- The new translation aims to make the English script more comprehensible and closer to the original Japanese dialogue.
- A demo is available on GitHub, including the translation up to South Cape location.
- In addition, the patch improves load times by decompressing all assets in the game.
Do you remember being confused by the original localization?
7 was a great and brilliant game, with an enormous world and an incredible story… It certainly deserves a lot of hype for what it did and achieved, but I also think its telling that instead of just giving it a graphical update and releasing it for modern systems, Square is doing…whatever horrid shit they are doing with the remake thats basically killed it for me forever.
8 did a lot different. Not just different from 7, but also different from Final Fantasy in general. I think thats why it doesnt have as much love, that, and it it had the misfortune of having to follow 7. But I think that chance it took is what makes it special. Genuinely special.
Unfortunately a lot of people didnt seem to think so, which made Square go back to the classic airship fantasy world that most other final fantasy games used with FF9. They started taking chances again with 10, which was more well received and really blew open the flood gates
Its incredible that you managed to pull that off, though, lol. I wouldnt have. then again, I’m the obsessive hoarder “I cant use this, what if I’ll need it later?!” type.
I think games were great cause the limits they were made in. Limitations that are long gone, and games suffer as a result.
I am also the obsessive hoarder… now. Like as a direct result of that experience I never go below some arbitrary threshold of items (based entirely on the early portion of the game where you have no money but enemies are easy, and the max stack), even if I have to buy them. I used to never spend currency as a matter of pride. I still won’t buy gear if it drops, but I will stock consumables.
I guess I’m not really that familiar with it being different, I went from 8 to 10/10-2, to 13/spins, so it seemed pretty in-tune overall with the vibes and stuff of what I played. Each game was pretty standalone and tried different unique things to see what worked. I’d be interested to hear more of what was different tho!
I’ve heard… things about the remake… my partner played the first and couldn’t be bothered to buy the second when PS+ made the first a free game for cheap subscriptions a couple months after getting it for Xmas… but that seems… like a lot. I mean final fantasy games are looooooong and the mechanics are usually complicated af. I honestly haven’t been able to get into a ff game in a long time, they are just really involved… I can’t imagine needing to play through… what is it supposed to be 3 of them to get the full story? At least 10 and 13, it was the same story just differently applied and expanded… you didn’t -have to- play the next ones, they were still final fantasies (I know that’s not where the name came from, but it’s appropriate)
I’d be into a remaster of 8 (the graphical-only update doesn’t count, and isn’t that updated - I tried to play it and it was still grindy af), but not a fully redone game like 7… I’d like them to cut out most of the random encounters, scale the XP so it’s much less grindy, upgrade the graphics, and do literally nothing else, leave it alone. I’d totally play it again even tho turn based games aren’t my jam anymore. And it probably wouldn’t cost much for them to do that.
I have 7 on switch but I can’t get through it. I’m bored very early on every time I try. Too many random encounters and they take too long with the intro, combat, and victory animations. It’s the whole reason I gave up on most turn based games; they used to totally be my thing. You can’t explore because you get turned around with the constant combat. I want to play it, but I can’t. I’d like that to also get a straight remaster treatment like I want for 8. No real change, just quality of life improvements.
I wonder why they opted not to do that… and -then- the remake…