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This issue has been written by GBAtemp community member Rydian
Breath Of Fire 2 Retranslation
*Many leftovers of the direct japanese translation have been fixed,
such as the character layout on the naming screen.
*Expanded text and a retranslation make many spots in the game
feel less awkward and robotic.
*Key words and phrases have been bolded so your direction is made much clearer.
Breath Of Fire 2 is an RPG for the SNES. It's got the standard medieval theme and turn-based combat you'd expect from an RPG of the era, and it's a rather good game. The various characters have unique looks, there's a variety of places to explore, there's twists in the plot, there's an overarching story that grows as the game progresses, and all sorts of other things you'd expect from a solid jRPG. The series has continued beyond this game and now has five main entries... so why does this one in particular warrant a retranslation?
Unlike later games, the original Breath Of Fire 2 translation was absolutely atrocious. I'm not talking nit-picky localization issues, this game has a seriously bad translation. Everything from translating the headband item as "SaladBwl", spelling a certain character's name two different ways in different scenes (Habaruku/Babaruku), and obvious L/R issues (the game telling you to equip your "lod" and bait to fish), to gameplay issues such as swapping around the Yes/No answers during some scenes. This isn't even getting into the fact that the official translation doesn't change the font aspects or increase the character limits, so you get things like main characters that are limited to 4-character names and description fields for items that can't fit a good description (such as Bow's weapons all having the same description). These issues sadly extend to the story as well. Because of the terrible translation and lack of space for text many lines in the game; are short, omit important points, are inconsistent with the names of people and places, give you little to no reason for a character's actions, are misleading, and even seem nonsensical at times.
That's where this translation comes in. The original translation effort to german was done by d4s, this conversion to english by Watercrown Productions uses that as a base. The amount of effort that's gone into this translation is apparant from first boot, where the game itself actually runs a consistency check to make sure the patch was applied correctly! The technical improvements are numerous; a voiced-introduction song has been added, various bug fixes to the game itself have been applied, a dash button has been added, menu transparency is a selectable option, and more. In addition this retranslation is more in-line with the translation of the later games as well, changing enemy names and other minor details to match the later games.
This translation turns a good jRPG with a crippling translation into a fantastic experience. More background to the story is translated so character motives make more sense, character interactions are less awkward and more meaningful, items have proper names and descriptions, and more.
English Translation Patch:
Genre: RPG
Developer: Capcom
Release Date: December 10, 1995
System: SNES
Type: Translation Patch
Translation by: Watercrown Productions
Translation Patch Release Date: April 29, 2009
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