The Text
One of my main reasons for replaying the game was to experience the original script myself. FF6 has been translated into English twice. The first translation was handled by Ted Woolsey, and that's the one you'll see if you play the SNES/SNES Classic original or the PlayStation version. The second, a more "true-to-the-Japanese" pass for the Gameboy Advance version handled by Tom Slattery. Both have their merits, and I maintain that Woolsey's characterizations for Kefka in particular are as inspired as anything in the Japanese. I personally prefer the GBA's retranslation since it unifies a lot of item and term names with other entries in the series, but ultimately, any English version of the game has plenty of charm.
Playing in Japanese was an excellent bit of practice for me, because there's a lot to compare between the localized versions and the original, and plenty to learn from how each translator chose to tackle the text. Cyan/Cayenne's dialogue is fascinating to compare (as is the Sabin/Mash joke in which he accidentally starts talking like the former) between versions, and it's also interesting to compare Kefka's shrill sociopathy between English and Japanese.
I posted about this on Twitter recently, but one of the most curious localization decisions made deals with Cyan's final quest, in which he faces off against the manifestation of his guilt and sorrow over his failure to protect his family. The team goes to sleep in Doma Castle, lost to time since everyone inside of it was killed when Kefka poisoned the local water source in the first half of the game. What follows is the introduction of 夢の三兄弟, or 'the three dream brothers,' demons that devour the dreams and souls of those suffering intense emotional distress, and a neat little dungeon sequence in which you fight the demons and later free Cyan from his guilt. This sequence is meant to be a poignant coda to Cyan's emotional journey, the final stop in his journey towards self-forgiveness, and it really works.
I'm fascinated, then, by the motivation behind choosing to retitle these brothers 'the Dream Stooges' in the SNES version. While their names are Sueño (Spanish), Sogno (Italian), and Rêve (French), all words that mean 'dream,' the SNES localization opts to rename them Moe, Larry, and Curly. A compromise was made in the GBA version, restyling them as Moebius, Laragorn, and Curlax.
It's important to note that in game localization, hard choices often have to be made when choosing how to render terms and words as they make the trip from one language to the other. Often, I find myself asking questions like "what's the intent of this line?" or "how do I feel after playing through this scene?" in the original. There are also always other factors to consider, like character limitations, space issues, and more, so you can never be certain why a certain choice might've been made. That said, this is a scene clearly meant to represent Cyan's last steps towards recovery, a poignant and satisfying finale for a man tormented by the death of his crown, country, and family, and yet here we have a Three Stooges reference!
To me, this reads against the scene; many of the original localization's jokes were context-appropriate (and in the case of most of Kefka's dialogue, quite funny), but for some reason, we've got Moe, Larry, and Curly in the middle of medieval samurai man's heart-rending goodbye to his family. I'd love to be able to pick the translator's brain on this one and ask what inspired the choice not to just go with straight translations of the French, Italian, and Spanish words, which to me seems like an easy out. That's not meant to be a condemnation of the "Dream Stooges,' but something I'm genuinely curious about.
