I've started to do the preliminary scanning and translation work on the short non-FE novelization I will post throughout the last months of this year, to fill in the 3.5 month gap between the end of the FE2 and FE6 novels, and when I start to post the FE1 novel translation in January of next year.
I'm keeping the identity of this interim project secret right now, just for the fun of surprises. But I will say that I started to translate the front cover of this novel a few minutes ago and...
IT'S WRITTEN BY THE AUTHOR OF THE FE8 NOVELIZATION.
I CANNOT ESCAPE CONNECTING MYSELF TO FIRE EMBLEM IN SOME WAY, EVEN IF I TRY.
I'm certainly not complaining, and it's certainly no surprise that the number of game novelization authors in Japan is small, just... I can never get used to how small this world is, lol. It gets me every time.
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My one of my most "American out-of-place in Japan" moments was when I expected my monthly health insurance cost to increase after having a kid. It took MONTHS for me to finally realize something was different in Japan, and turns out for the most part, heath insurance is a set percentage of someone's income - usually around 5%.
Turns out it is not inherently normal to start billing people more for healthcare just because there's someone new in their family.
Who weilds which Legendary Weapon in the FE6 novelization?
For anyone curious to find out who gets the honor of weilding a Legendary Weapon in the FE6 novelization, and making it to the final battle with Roy, read under the cut!
Most of these come as no surprise, but it's still fun to discuss!
To start, I'll point out that each weapon is only weilded by one character, even the ones that are obtained earlier in the story, like Durandal. None of them are ever passed around to anyone else, even for a single battle.
Durandal: Dieck
Armads: Marcus
Forblaze: Lilina
Aureola: Saul
Mulagir: Sue
Maltet: Melady
Apocalypse: Raigh
Fae also gets to join in the final battle of course, as she is force deployed in-game.
While Rutger is such a favorite character of the fans and probably the devs alike (They had to know how OP he is, right?), Durandal is such a massive and heavy blade, that Dieck is really the only logical choice for it.
It's a bit too bad Lugh and Raigh can't fight side-by-side as twins, but Lilina has her heroine privilege, after all.
Sophia might seem like the best first option for Apocalypse, but the writer doesn't even have her join Roy's army. She stays in Arcadia. I know she's a contender for the weakest character in all of Fire Emblem, but that's still a harsh decision on the writer's part, lol...
The biggest surprise of all is probably Marcus weilding Armads, but once you reach the end of the novel, it's clear that after his decades of service to House Pherae, the novel writer wanted him to have a special place in the FE6 story. He gets a small selection of original scenes honoring his legacy, and his changing of the guard to the new generation. I agree, if any old man can weild an axe the size of a tall muscular human, it's Marcus!
I've finally skimmed far enough ahead in the book to figure this out!
Answer is below the cut for spoilers, in case you don't want to know in advance exactly how the FE6 novelization portrays the 2nd route split. (It will be a while before my weekly novel updates get to that point in the book.)
And the winner is... Ilia!
Considering the novel gives Zelot, Trec, and Noah a brief spotlight several times; and also keeps in all brief mentions of the pegasus sisters in the main story, I wasn't surprised.
The novel does add in some extra Sacae details so that Sue and Sin's plots are not totally abandoned, though! After Roy's army obtains Maltet and the Ilia arc is over, they receive a report that Dayan is leading the resistance against Bern in Sacae, and starting to form a new tribe with Sacae's survivors. Lyn is injured but safe, so she is helping Dayan in matters outside the battlefield for the time being. Yoder, the St. Elimine Church, Dayan, Lyn, and the Kutolah Tribe's survivors worked together to obtain Mulagir.
The novel then catches back up with the game's cutscenes, and Yoder personally delivers Mulagir to Roy.
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If you've ever been curious which of the FE novels cost me the most money, it was this one! FE4 choose-your-own adventure book 2! It set me back 10,057 yen in 2018 (9,800 + 257 for shipping). I spent about 5,000 yen on at least 3 or 4 of the other books, but that still doesn't even come close to 10,000 yen.
It felt about as painful to my wallet as spending $100 USD on a book would.
(I absolutely loathe using the exchange rate as a metric in this sort of context, because it does not convey how expensive an item feels to someone working in Japan and being paid in yen.)
Not to put down the medieval Europe-not-medieval Europe standard setting of Fire Emblem games, by any means. I'll never tire of it.
But I hope Intelligent Systems greenlights another Fire Emblem set in a Japan-not-Japan setting one day, because everything about Hoshido's aesthetic is just *chef's kiss*.
And a major apology to Rune Factory 4 Special. But you came out in Japan just 1 day before Three Houses. You never stood a chance. I promise you're somewhere high up on my gaming backlog... probably...
Today I learned that FE1's doubling threshold is just 1 AS.
(Meaning the character with higher speed after weapon weight calculations will ALWAYS double. Later FE games generally require a final speed of 4+ higher than the opponent to double attack.)
I was suspicious when characters were doubled at times I was convinced they would not be.
But I still did not figure out exactly what was up.
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I never bothered to buy a North American copy of Echoes back upon release, because I was living in Japan at the time, and knew Japanese plenty well enough by that point. I didn't need the assistance of an English playthrough to understand everything going on.
But now I'm translating the FE2 novel, and as much as I could read the game script online to learn all of the localized names and terms, it's pretty boring to read a game script totally detached from its game, so I couldn't bring myself to do it. Plus the scripts posted online won't include every little menu detail, and things like that.
Then one day a few months ago, I saw that copies of Echoes still go for a reasonable price, and picked one up. And now I've dusted off my trusty old Awakening-themed NA-region 3DS and started a playthrough!
I'm taking notes on localized terms and names as I go, and will revise the FE2 novel at some point where needed.
Impressions of returning to the 3DS in general: Thanks to the Switch and its vast library, and my investing in a Steam Deck, I haven't touched my 3DS in years. It took some getting used to tiny screens and lower resolution again, but once I did, I realized... I miss REAL handheld systems so much!! T~T The 3DS fits in most small bags and pockets... and isn't too heavy or awkward to hold for extended periods of time... I miss this feeling so much. The Switch and Steam Deck are amazing in their own right, but are really just a console and a PC masquerading as handhelds, in the opinion of my tiny little hands. Definitely going to find myself returning to the 3DS and my older handhelds more often.
Impressions of the localization: Currently, I am just playing the game through and ignoring the Japanese script. I wanted to see what the localization is like in its own vacuum. The script is so much fun! It feels like a lot of effort went into each and every line of dialogue and word choice, to give everyone a distinct personality no matter how brief their time on screen is. It really enhances the overall experience and fun of playing the game.
Finally finished my FE1 playthrough! I enjoyed it thoroughly to the end. I'll always understand why it's not for everyone, but old school strategy/ RPG game clunk is my jam.
And now it's time to give the animations some major credit in this game - the GBA FE games get all the animation spotlight, but FE1 set the foundation that led to them in the first place!
The sprite art team did not have to go this hard for a Famicom game, but they sure did. Some of them are a little derpy - Marth's standard attack animation is him slowly walking up to the enemy, lightly whacking them, then walking back into position - but most of them are really dynamic for 8-bit!
Marth ends up redeeming himself with Falchion's unique animation, anyway. The backflip is one for legends.
And Medeus? You know how he's an earth dragon? So of COURSE he comes crawling out of the ground! I don't know how... the final battle map is in a castle... but the final boss doesn't need logic, okay?
Link to FE1 Marth vs. Medeus fight on YouTube
And then... one day in 2008, FE11 happened. I still love playing this game too, and defend it a lot. ...I just wish I could know what happened during development, that made it the game where animation goes to die, when it's a remake of THE FE1.
Well, Book 2 / Chapter 2 of FE2's novelization being roughly 1/3 of the book on its own, kinda destroys the purpose of me alternating its translation with FE6...
But I was already halfway through translating Chapter 2 by the time I realized this, so I just powered through, lol.
This realization will not change the upload schedule at all, as I was able to keep up my regular novel translation pace. I can really feel how much better I've gotten as a translator since I started FE2 Book 1!!
Still slowly working through my first FE1 playthrough, and I'm surprised to find that I'm having a genuine blast! I was worried that the slow clunkiness of the Famicom, and the fact that I've played FE11 at least 2-3 times, would make me feel the original is too boring, and just give up. That happened to me once in the past when I tried to play the FE1 remake within FE3. It was just too slow and I couldn't make it further than a couple chapters in. I guess I just wasn't in the right mindset to enjoy FE1 at the time, because I certainly am now.
In general , I have fun with old strategy/ puzzle games, because it often feels like the old school limitations just add to the genre.
For example, the limit of only 4 inventory slots per character and 40 tent convoy slots total is a little painful, but it really makes you think about what weapons and items are truly valuable to you, and who plays what designated role in your army.
And healers leveling up only through combat (meaning dodging or soaking up a hit) seems like an utter nightmare at first. But they always gain as much EXP as a normal unit would gain for a kill, so you'd be surprised at how quickly they can gain levels, even under this system. And when healing isn't how healers gain levels, in combination with the limited inventory slots, you are incentivized to heal only when you truly need to. It's refreshing for there to be actual strategy behind healing, because FE has otherwise programmed my brain to think "Unga bunga, unit missing 1 HP? Heal immediately!"
My only main complaint is the combination of how much the game spams reinforcements, and the fact that all item menu-ing has to happen in battle. There's no access to the tent convoy or item trading before combat. If the game wants to incentivize a low turn count finish, or else you suffer waves of same-turn reinforcements, when are you supposed to do your item menu-ing?? There's no way I can make that fun.
I wouldn't try to convince anyone to play FEs 1-3 if they don't seem very interested. There's no real need to when these games all have remakes. But if you are interested, I think it's totally worth giving them a go. They can still be a ton of fun to play.
Because Alm's birthmark is depicted on his hand in Echoes, at first, I instinctively translated the novel to match. ...However, Ozaki-sensei very clearly uses the word "arm" when describing its location on his body. And it didn't click that I was doing something wrong until I got to book 2, and there's a whole piece of art that was made to show exactly where it is on his arm.
One of the tricky parts of translation is to not let your brain turn on auto-fill!! You're never too good or experienced not to do it.
(I'm mostly making this post so I can remember later to go back and fix book 1's translation.)
...I also just learned that the localization translates aza to "Brand." That might be something I go back and change, too. I really should have read the localized Echoes script and taken detailed notes before I started translating the novel, lol.
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It's always fun to see how each author's unique love for Fire Emblem comes out in little ways in their novelizations.
Ozaki-sensei is totally a big Zeke/ Camus fan. Maybe even has a lil' crush on him. Why else would he take a whole paragraph to introduce Zeke as a gorgeous bishounen (pretty boy), in both FE2 book 1 and 2? With luscious, wavy golden locks... flawless skin despite years of real combat experience (while describing, in contrast, that Jerome is covered in battle scars)... the eyes of a goddess...
You love to see it. None of these FE novels were a cash grab, they were all labors of love by genuine writers and fans. There's a reason why they are worth the years and years of effort to translate!
Started reading chapter 2 of the FE2 novelization book 2, and I am NOT okay.
Details are under the cut, if you want to avoid being spoiled about exactly how the FE2 novel depicts the game's events.
So this chapter starts, all gas no breaks, with the introduction of Luthier and Delthea.
Luthier meets Clive and Clair, and quickly becomes jealous of the close older brother / younger sister bond they have, because he is on Zofia's side, and Delthea is on Rigel's side, forcing them to be enemies.
Before I know it, the two are fighting 1-on-1 to the death. With Delthea's raw magic talent greater than Luthier's, it's almost no contest, and she quickly kills him.
Soon after, she snaps out of Tatarrah's control, only to see her brother's lifeless body in front of her. She vows to avenge him, and demands to know the name of his killer. No one in Alm's army has the heart to tell her the truth.
...I don't think Luthier knew Delthea was possessed. (I skimmed some chunks of the text a little too quickly, won't confirm this for sure until I translate these pages fully.)
Meanwhile, Clair is also having an existential crisis, wondering if she is a lucky one in a million to have a close bond with Clive. Thinking maybe siblings hating each other is the norm and not the exception. She also feels that she will feel guilty her entire life, for not being able to do more to stop Luthier and Delthea's fight before it ended in tragedy.
When Silque learns what happened, as one of the few people who knows Alm and Rudolf's true connection, she suffers in her own way that she must keep secret, knowing that this is not the last time she will witness two people of the same family fight to the death. This also conveys why Ozaki-sensei chose a tragic telling of Delthea and Luthier's story - it is a parallel of events to come.
...My heart can't take any more, and we aren't even anywhere near close to the climax... Ozaki-sensei is too good of a writer. He knew how to even further heighten the emotional impacts of this tragic story.
