My Thoughts on CTDS

[Lee]

I was disappointed that they used World Revolution for the Dream Devourer, I enjoyed the perspective of a new Final boss battle theme when I first learnt about him. Or atleast the same background they used for the Time Devourer.
But it's no big deal considering the final boss identity. I still remember the amazed face I made when I saw the first screenshot of him on the spoiler thread. That was great.

[Shadow D. Darkman]

My post in response to that pic was my first one on these here Forums. I was like "HOLY SHIT" when I saw it.

[Romana]

I'm still disappointed at the lack of a full-blown Singing Mountain dungeon in the main quest, which would've been a lovely sidequest for Ayla during the final stretch of the story. Zeal Dungeon and Sealed Pyramid, too, although the latter probably had no purpose in the first place anyway...

I was disappointed that they used World Revolution for the Dream Devourer, I enjoyed the perspective of a new Final boss battle theme when I first learnt about him. Or atleast the same background they used for the Time Devourer.
But it's no big deal considering the final boss identity. I still remember the amazed face I made when I saw the first screenshot of him on the spoiler thread. That was great.

Same here, I would've liked a new boss theme, but I felt World Revolution was far more fitting than what I was expecting (the Lavos Core 'Final Battle' theme).

Loading

There are some loading times (not a "Now Loading" Screen but you get the idea) but they weren't horrifically long, thankfully.

There are no loading times on the DS version. You're running it from a cartridge/card, after all.

[Shadow D. Darkman]

I meant that to mean that it's a little bit slow compared to the SNES version, but nowhere near as slow as the PSX version.

[Fireseal]

I noticed that as well on many occasions, I was doubtful that I had bought a legit copy of CT:DS and fearful that the game would just freeze... lol

[ker-plop]

I just finished the game last night, and I'm sorry to say I'm grossly disappointed in the new script.  Adding redundancy where things were perfectly clear before, it's lost the soul the original had.  Renaming all the items and monsters mixed me up, too.

One of my biggest beefs, though, is the way Magus speaks now.  He's lost the casual grumbling that made him less imposing once he joins the party ("Going my way?  Now we've got a winning team!")

I'm sure I'll get verbally torn apart for going against the consensus, but just like most of the other remakes I've played (except for "Lemmings"), I think this script was a smack in the face to the original.  The rest of the game may have been good, but I didn't see the need to rewrite the script, and that ruined the whole experience for me.

Also, I apologize for reheating an old topic, but I didn't see any newer ones to put my comments into.

[V_Translanka]

I think this script was a smack in the face to the original.  The rest of the game may have been good, but I didn't see the need to rewrite the script, and that ruined the whole experience for me.

That's funny because I kind of think the Woosley'd script was kind of a smack in the face of the actual original script: the Japanese one...y'know, the one the actual creators made? Your feelings about it just seems biased because of nostalgia...Something that I just can't understand. If you like the fundamentally worse translation that is the SNES version, it'll always be there (heck, you've even got 2 options for it!)...But I rather prefer a more literal translation that tries to stay truer to the creator's original intentions...I know where you're coming from, but I just can't agree with your sentiments...

Note: I don't entirely blame Woosley (there's blame to go around to the times & time constraints...ironically enough), but a lot of what he did wasn't necessary...or in some cases was just wrong and/or missing things...

[ker-plop]

I've been playing the "original script" version that this site offers, and I see very little that wasn't covered in the original SNES game.

Nostalgia is one thing, but this is another example of an unfortunate trend in the quality of writing in games these days.  Writers feel they have to use more and more words (and more complex ones to boot) to get their points across, but that can suck a lot of enjoyment out of reading it; some games feel more like I'm reading a technical manual than characters speaking.

I'm not against accuracy, but given the need for localization, I feel Woolsey's script did a better job of giving personality to the cast than this one does.

[V_Translanka]

Well, Woosley himself has stated that he had to nix about 50% of the script...It may seem like a lot of little things, but sometimes it's the little things that makes a story.

I'm not sure what you mean about the writing in games these days (especially since this is a game that's a bit old'd now)...it kind of sounds like Doctor L's retranslation would have been more up your alley than the more literal Compendium one (which, it's true, you need to apply a little contextual reasoning to understand at times)...

[ker-plop]

Even with that much of it slashed, the story was full and understandable, and it still became a classic.  That's proof of how well the rest of it was written.

As far as examples go, try picking up "Tales of Symphonia."  Newer, fun game, but everybody talks in the same way, and redundancy runs rampant (the same for its sequel).

Another example is comparing the original "Final Fantasy 6" to its GBA remake...  That one almost made me throw my Game Boy across the room, so much was lost in the new script.

[V_Translanka]

I think that it's proof of how good it was regardless of what was done to it, it's brilliance shone through the game itself, not in its translation...I'd rather not have what boils down to someone's interpretation over the creator's intention.

I've only gotten as far as the WoR in the GBA remake of FFVI, but the only thing that bugged me was the fact that Celes' chained to the wall sprite was missing...V_V I'll go with the RPGOne retranslation though for FFVI even if some of Woosley's more quirky lines aren't there...

[Phillies64]

Just to clarify...DS wasn't a new script. This wasn't like George Lucas revamping his films. This was an attempt of a better translation of the original Japanese script.

It's important to keep in mind that some of the changes you might not like where indeed in the original Japanese version.

[Vehek]

I'll go with the RPGOne retranslation though for FFVI even if some of Woosley's more quirky lines aren't there...

I think the FFVI RPGONE translation sucks. It doesn't have as much accuracy as you'd expect from a literal translation. Some lines have the same meaning as Woolsey's SNES translation, even when the actual meaning of the Japanese line was different according to other fan-translations.

[ker-plop]

Just to clarify...DS wasn't a new script. This wasn't like George Lucas revamping his films. This was an attempt of a better translation of the original Japanese script.

It's important to keep in mind that some of the changes you might not like where indeed in the original Japanese version.

Like I said, playing through the Compendium's "literal" translation, I didn't see much that wasn't covered in the SNES script.

Accuracy issue aside, though, shouldn't the characters to sound believable?  That's kind of lost in this new version.

[Samopoznanie]

Speaking as another guy who could fall under the nostalgia banner, I didn't mind the new translation. It was a bit too formal for my tastes in a couple of lines here and there, and the new terms 'Fiendlord' and 'Athenian Water', I wasn't a fan of. But that's really just nitpicking. The good outweighed the bad, I thought. I quite enjoyed some of the humourous stuff - originally censored / cut in the SNES version - that they worked back into it.