Final Fantasy VII Remake Script Comparison: Chapter 10+11

Cloud starts off with the choice of whether to help Tifa or Aerith first, as in the original.

In Japanese, Tifa exclaims that this is 最低 (saitei ; “the worst”), just like on Playstation. E Remake has her express her frustration more naturally.

Japanese Remake	English Remake	Japanese Original	English Original
ティファ　もう　最低	Tifa That bastard!	ティファ「もう！　サイテーね、これ」	Tifa “Man! This is terrible.”

This time around, though, Tifa isn’t as convinced that Shinra is actually going to go through with dropping the plate. Her line here is reminiscent of Reeve’s line from the original, asking if Shinra is really going to kill all those people just to stop Avalanche.

Japanese Remake	English Remake	Japanese Original	English Original
ティファ　ねえ　コルネオの話　信じる？	Tifa Hey… You don’t believe that crazy story of his, do you?
ティファ　プレートを落とすなんて　アバランチをつぶすどころ　じゃない	Tifa Shinra wouldn’t sacrifice a whole sector just to take out Avalanche, would they?
ティファ　ミッドガルの危機だよ　神羅カンパニーが　そんなことする？	Tifa Destroying part of the city—killing all those people, just to get at us?	リーブ「プレジデント！　本当にやるのですか？　たかだか数人の組織を　つぶすのに……」	Reeve “President!! Are we really going to do this? Simply destroy a group with only a few members…”

The trio proceeds through the sewers to get back to Sector 7. This was a pretty short sequence without much dialogue in the original game, but has been expanded into a whole chapter in Remake.

Japanese Remake	English Remake
ティファ　六番街と七番街の下水は繋がってるの　迷ったら水路を辿れってね	Tifa The sewers under Sectors 6 and 7 should be connected. “If you get in trouble, just follow the stench.”

On the way back, Tifa continues to agonize over whether Sector 7 is really going to be destroyed. Aerith, meanwhile, seems to be holding something back. In Japanese, Tifa directly asks her “Aerith, do you know something?” The English translation implies this and focuses more on the “you’re hiding something” aspect.

Japanese Remake	English Remake
ティファ　ギリギリで中止になる　そうなる	Tifa We have to get there in time to stop it. We have to.
エアリス　うん	Aerith Right.
ティファ　エアリス　何か知ってるの？	Tifa Aerith, what are you not telling me?

Aerith has a line hinting at the end of the game…

Japanese Remake	English Remake
エアリス　最悪の事態？	Aerith Still thinking about the plate?
ティファ　うん	Tifa Yeah.
エアリス　どんな未来でも変えられるよ？	Aerith The future isn’t…set in stone.
エアリス　わたし　そう信じてる	Aerith That’s what I always tell myself.

And “pack chocobo” is a really nice touch in English, drawing on the game’s setting. The Japanese is roughly just “(we’ll) make (him) carry a lot!”

Japanese Remake	English Remake
エアリス　楽しいことも　考えるの	Aerith How ’bout this, then? Think of something fun.
エアリス　七番街　守ったら	Aerith After saving Sector 7, you’re gonna…?
ティファ　守れたら	Tifa I’m gonna…
ティファ　上で買い物　どう？	Tifa Go shopping—topside!
ティファ　えっと	Tifa I’ll buy…
ティファ　たとえば　雰囲気のある小物や食器を探すの	Tifa Stuff for the bar! Decorations, coasters…
エアリス　ティファと？	Aerith Can I come?
ティファ　よければ	Tifa You’d better!
エアリス　絶対　行く	Aerith Then it’s a date!
ティファ　クラウドは荷物持ち	Tifa Cloud can carry all our stuff!
エアリス　い～っぱい　持たせちゃう	Aerith He’ll be our pack chocobo!

The chapter closes with Cloud trying to act cool again. Like in Chapter 2, he basically just says “I’m strong!” in Japanese, which doesn’t sound nearly as impactful in English. So the translation goes for something more threatening.

Japanese Remake	English Remake
クラウド　もう知ってるよな　俺は強いぞ？	Cloud Last warning! Back off, or die!

The trio exits from the sewer into a train graveyard. Tifa suggests that they stick to the trains that are lit up. In the original, she tells the group that they can get out if they get past the lit up trains. Again, this was a short sequence in the original without much dialogue, but in Remake it’s been expanded into an entire chapter.

Japanese Remake	English Remake	Japanese Original	English Original
ティファ　通称　列車墓場　ジャンクパーツの宝庫	Tifa This is the train graveyard all right—a real treasure trove of scrap.
ティファ　あそこに見えてる車両倉庫の　向こうが七番街のはずだよ	Tifa Sector 7 should be just past that large maintenance facility over there.
ティファ　あかりのついている場所を　通っていこう	Tifa I vote we stay in the light so we can see where we’re going.	ティファ「え～と……明かりのついている　車両を抜けて行けば　出られそうね」	Tifa “Let’s see…If we can just get past the trains that are lit up, we should be able to get out of here.”

They quickly discover that the train graveyard is truly haunted. In Japanese, Cloud says that ghosts are outside his range of expertise. English goes for “aren’t my thing” to sound natural, and also probably to better fit the timing of the line.

Japanese Remake	English Remake
クラウド　オバケは専門外だ	Cloud Ghosts aren’t my thing.

As the trio proceeds, a spooky train announcement starts playing. The Japanese subtitle has words cut out to reflect the fact that the audio itself is hard to hear and cuts in and out. English decides to fully subtitle the line, perhaps for accessibility reasons.

Japanese Remake	English Remake
？？？？　この列車は……駅経由……墓場行	??? This train will be stopping at the Sector 7 slums…and is bound for the train graveyard.
？？？？　ご乗車になる……は　お急……そ　ぎ——	??? The train will depart shortly. Please stand clear of the closing doors.
エアリス　いじわる～	Aerith That’s not funny, you know.

A big ghoul appears. In Japanese Aerith says みつけた？(mitsuketa) roughly meaning “Found (you)?” Because there’s no subject or object, this could be interpreted multiple ways. Aerith could be hesitantly saying that she found the ghoul. The English translation, though, decides to interpret it as the ghoul saying that it found them, with Aerith quietly repeating its message, since she’s the only one who can communicate with the ghosts.

Japanese Remake	English Remake
エアリス　みつけた？	Aerith “Coming to get you”…?

And again, after the boss Aerith says かくれんぼ (kakurenbo ; “hide-and-seek”) in Japanese, while the English has her repeating what the ghost supposedly said. Honestly, this is a nice way to emphasize her supernatural abilities, making it extra clear that she can communicate with spirits.

Japanese Remake	English Remake
エアリス　かくれんぼ	Aerith “That was fun”…
エアリス　誰かに見つけてほしくて　ずっと　待ってたのかな	Aerith All this time, you were waiting for someone to come and play with you.

Tifa has a brief vision of Marlene, who once again has great dialogue in English that really makes her sound like a little kid.

Japanese Remake	English Remake
ティファ　マリン？	Tifa Marlene?
マリン　黒い風に連れていかれた子はね　ず～っと列車墓場をさまようんだって	Marlene …And…the kids that the black wind carries away have to live in the train graveyard forever and ever!
マリン　危ないから　ティファも絶対に近づいちゃだめだよ	Marlene So you have to stay far, far away from there!

As they press on, the trio discovers that they need to push the trains to open up a path, just like in the original game. (Also, can I just say that the music kicking in with the Turks’ theme at this point is just So Good.)

Japanese Remake	English Remake
ティファ　また道が塞がれてる　あと少しのはずなのに	Tifa This path is blocked too? But we’re so close, I can see it.
エアリス　列車　動かせないかな	Aerith Hey, do you think these trains might still run?
クラウド　調べてみよう	Cloud Could give it a try.
クラウド　読みが当たったな　まだ動きそうだ	Cloud Good call. Looks like it still works.

Aerith gets separated from the group and is surrounded by ghost/vision children who are playing hide-and-seek. In Japan, after counting down from whatever number, the seeker calls out もういいかーい (mou ii kai), roughly meaning “Are (you) ready yet?” and the hiders will reply まだだよ (mada da yo ; “not yet”) if they still need time or もういいよ (mou ii yo ; “(it’s) good now” or in this context “(I’m) ready”) when they’re good to go. This call and response would be extremely familiar to Japanese people, but in America we don’t tend to wait politely for everyone to be ready; we just immediately yell “Ready or not, here I come!” E Remake decides to go for a straight translation of “Are you ready?” and “I’m ready!” anyway, but something like “Ready or not, here I come!” and “You’ll never find me!” may have been more familiar to an English-speaking audience. To be fair, the scene would need to be heavily rewritten to get rid of all the “Are you ready?” and “I’m ready!”s going back and forth, and the timing for these lines was probably extremely tight.

Japanese Remake	English Remake
少年　もういいかーい	Boy Are you ready?
少年　もういいかーい	Boy Well, are ya!?
少年　もういいよ	Boy I’m ready now!
少女　もういいよー	Girl Me too!
少年　みーーっけ！	Boy Found you!
少女　あ　みつかった	Girl No way!
少年　みつけたっ	Boy We found you!
少年　ああ　みつかっちゃった	Boy Aw, you got me.
少年　なあ　エアリスは？	Boy Hey, where’s Aerith?

The English translation does at least mix it up a bit when child Aerith repeatedly calls もういいよ (mou ii yo ; “(I’m) ready”) to try to get the other kids to find her.

Japanese Remake	English Remake
エアリス　もういいよー	Aerith I’m ready!
エアリス　もういいよー	Aerith I’m ready!
エアリス　もういいよー	Aerith I said I’m ready!
エアリス　もういいよー	Aerith Come get me!
エアリス　もう……いいよ……	Aerith I’m right here…

The trio fights Eligor, a rare enemy from the original game that has been expanded into a boss battle in Remake. You can even steal one of Aerith’s weapons from it, like before.

Tifa lands the finishing blow on it, yelling いい加減　どいて！ (ii kagen doite ; roughly “just get outta the way already!”) in Japanese. E Remake has her instead say “go to hell” which is much more impactful and perhaps a light jab at the fact that Eligor is an actual mythological demon.

Japanese Remake	English Remake
ティファ　みんな　今行くね	Tifa Hold on, guys. We’re coming.
ティファ　いい加減　どいて！	Tifa And you…can go to hell!
ティファ　行こう	Tifa Let’s go.

They dash for Sector 7, finally making it to the train station there. Funnily enough E Remake’s “We made it!” is directly from the original translation (as small of a thing as it is), while the Japanese is actually rewritten, using ついた (tsuita ; “(we’ve) arrived!”) instead of まにあった (ma ni atta ; “(we) made it in time!”).

Japanese Remake	English Remake	Japanese Original	English Original
ティファ　ついた！	Tifa We made it!	ティファ「まにあった！　柱が立ってる！」	Tifa “We made it! The pillar’s standing!”