#Vagrant story manual#

USG: How did each of you get attached to Vagrant Story? Were you assigned or did you choose to work on this. Katsurada did help translate some of the menu material in VS, however, and I remember that Brian Bell, who possibly wasn't even officially on the project, had lots of good comments during the editing phase. The first major project I did with Aziz was Final Fantasy X.

#Vagrant story manual#

Smith: I had no idea the manual said that, either! Aziz Hinoshita did not translate on Vagrant Story, he hadn't joined the company yet at that point if I recall correctly. Alex, did Aziz translate on this with you?Īlexander O. The sad irony is that I probably edited that manual at some point? But yes, Alex translated, and I edited. Alex drove the creative vision for the writing on this project, and I absolutely embraced it and did everything I could to help polish his work and bring out the best in it. Rich Amtower: (laughs) Wow, what kind of editor misses something like that when he's editing the manual. Can you take me through the differences in what you were doing? USgamer: Before we get to the game, can you explain your individual roles? Alex is listed in the credits of the game as the translator, but the manual leaves you him out and lists Rich and Brian Bell as editors. (Note: Answers have been edited for clarity and remove redundancies) The People Who Brought Vagrant Story to Life

Smith over email on their breakthrough early work in the field and to reflect on the rise of localization as a craft that truly mattered. I recently had the opportunity to interview localization editor Richard Amtower and famous translator Alexander O. A taut, lean story of dark medieval intrigue and magic, it was a game with a depth of language still uncommonly used to this day. Released that May in North America, Vagrant Story was a significant step forward for English localization. The beginning of the new millennium, though, was going to change all of that. Subsequent translations were exponentially better, of course but though they were certainly Square's breadwinner, they weren't their only property. But for everything that made Final Fantasy VII forward thinking, it would also put a period at the end of a long-standing problem with not only Square, but most other Japanese developers and publishers: its translation.Īs a company that released very long and equally verbose games, this was a problem needed to be addressed, and quickly. An unqualified smash, it's practically useless to go over the details yet again of a game that's so widely remembered and endearingly adored all these years later. Just three short years earlier, the developer had finally broken American audiences of their widespread RPG ambivalence with the release of Final Fantasy VII. Things were looking pretty good for SquareSoft in 2000. Some content, such as this article, has been migrated to VG247 for posterity after USgamer's closure - but it has not been edited or further vetted by the VG247 team.

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