Final Fantasy VII Remake Script Comparison: Chapter 6

Remake turns the journey to the Sector 5 reactor into more of a fully fledged dungeon, centered around turning off lamps to free up power.

Japanese Remake	English Remake	Japanese Original	English Original
バレット　ここを抜けりゃ　伍番魔晄炉だ	Barret Through here and straight on to Reactor 5.	ウェッジ「クラウドさん、こっちっす。　五番魔晄炉はこのハシゴの先っす」	Wedge “Cloud, this way. The reactor’s up this ladder.”

In Japanese, Tifa wonders if the power shortage is due to the sun lamps, even though it’s pretty obvious that this is the case. So English revises this a bit to have her wonder why the maintenance crew hasn’t figured out how to balance the electrical load yet. This also serves to better transition into Barret’s response of “The maintenance guys are probably just playing hooky.”

Japanese Remake	English Remake
ティファ　スラムの太陽のせいで　電力不足なのかな　ここ	Tifa All these lamps… You’d think they’d be able to balance the load by now though.
バレット　さあな　点検をサボってるだけじゃねぇか	Barret Maybe. If the maintenance guys or whoever weren’t playing hooky.

They encounter more monsters and Barret comments on it, reflecting the line he uses on the train. E Remake chose to go with “great big pizza in the sky” for the line on the train, probably to make the metaphor clearer, but here uses “rot” just like the Japanese, which uses 腐る (kusaru; “to rot/decay”) for both lines. It’s also a reference to the song titled “Under the Rotting Pizza” in the soundtrack.

Japanese Remake	English Remake	Japanese Original	English Original
バレット　どこまで腐ってやがんだ　このピザはよ	Barret Tell you what, the rot runs deep in this damn pizza.	「あのくさったピザのせいで　下の人間がどんなに　苦しんでることか……」	“It’s ‘cuz of that &^#$# ‘pizza’, that people underneath are sufferin’!”

Barret later talks about how Shinra pollutes the air, referencing another line of his from the initial train ride.

Japanese Remake	English Remake	Japanese Original	English Original
バレット　くせえガスを　スラムに垂れ流しやがって	Barret Filling the air that we gotta breathe with their shit.	バレット「下の世界は今じゃあ　汚された空気のたまり場だ」	Barret “And the city below is full of polluted air.”

Similarly, this part alludes to a concept from a line that was cut from the original where Barret says during his rant on the train that all the mako pollution from the plate falls down into the slums below.

Japanese Remake	English Remake	Japanese Original (cut)	English Original (cut)
バレット　吹き飛ばしても　ガスが消えてなくなる　わけじゃねえ	Barret Keeping the plate’s air clean by pushing the smog into the slums.	バレット「上の世界で汚された　魔晄エネルギーが　下の世界に降りてくる」	Barret “All the pollution from Mako energy above falls down on the world below.”
バレット　やばいもんは　全部スラムに垂れ流しよ	Barret Whole system’s designed to make shit roll downhill faster.

They decide to cross a pipe to get to the other side. Barret deflects the insinuation that he’s scared by saying he’s worried about Cloud. The Japanese doesn’t line up here at all, but the use of “your bony ass” in English reminded me of how Barret would talk in the original translation, particularly this “skinny ass” line.

Japanese Remake	English Remake	Japanese Original	English Original
バレット　てめえの細っこい体が　吹き飛ばされねぇかって　こっちは——	Barret I’m just worried that your bony ass is gonna get blown off the side and shit—	「でもな、おまえは　反乱組織アバランチに　やとわれてる身だ。　神羅のかたを持つんじゃねえ！」	“But don’t forget that your skinny ass’s workin’ for AVALANCHE now!”

Tifa recites a part of a speech that President Shinra once gave on the sun lamps, alluding her comment in the original that President Shinra loved to make speeches.

Japanese Remake	English Remake	Japanese Original	English Original
ティファ　スラムの太陽の宣伝文句　プレジデントが演説してた	Tifa It’s from a speech President Shinra gave talking up the importance of the sun lamps.	ティファ「演説好きなところはそっくりね」	Tifa “He likes to make speeches just like his father.”

As they’re working to turn off the lamps, Cloud notices the Sector 4 slums below them and he and Tifa start talking about visiting them. Barret, on the other hand, is much more worried about how high up they are. In Japanese he literally says “Be a little more worried!” calling Cloud and Tifa out on how cavalier they’re being. English has a great translation here which serves the same effect, but does it indirectly and humorously.

Japanese Remake	English Remake
クラウド　下は　四番街スラムか	Cloud That the Sector 4 slums down there?
ティファ　興味ある？　今度　案内しよっか	Tifa Huh? You wanna check them out sometime? I can show you around.
バレット　少しは　心配しろよ	Barret We’ll check them out now if we fall!

Later on, they talk about how Biggs said he had multiple plans to kill time as he waited for them to come. The Japanese here says he made plans from A to Z, referencing the lettering they used for the alternative mission plans. (They’re currently on Plan E, as you might remember.) The English just says he came up “with a few ways to kill time.” It’s possible the “A through Z” thing wouldn’t fit in the time limit, or they just prioritized making it sound natural rather than trying to shoehorn this in, which is a good call.

Japanese Remake	English Remake
クラウド　ビッグスとの合流場所は	Cloud When do we link up with Biggs?
バレット　魔晄炉へ続く　通路ん中だ	Barret Soon enough, don’t you worry.
ティファ　暇つぶしのプラン　AからZまであるって言ってた	Tifa He knew we might be late, so he came up with a few ways to kill time.
バレット　Gくらいまでには　着くようにしねえとな	Barret We oughta reach him long before he dies of boredom.

Barret has another good line in English as they leave the area, showing his annoyance at having to deal with all of that. The Japanese expresses his irritation by having him refer to it as a “scrap iron maze.”

Japanese Remake	English Remake
バレット　あばよ　鉄くず迷路	Barret So long, underplate. I hate you too.

Tifa wonders aloud what the reactor’s like. Barret begins describing it, noting the mako smell. The smell of mako is something that came up in the original, too, during a certain flashback.

Japanese Remake	English Remake
ティファ　いよいよ　魔晄炉か	Tifa Wonder what the reactor’s like.
バレット　暗くて　陰気くせえ　星の命が削られる場所だ	Barret Dark. Dismal. A slaughterhouse where they butcher the planet.
バレット　中は魔晄のにおいが鼻につくぞ　覚悟しとけ	Barret Then there’s the smell. The mako. Be ready for it.
ティファ　うん	Tifa Right…

They finally make it to Biggs, who thanks Cloud for helping them out. It’s only the very vaguest of similarities, but in the original Biggs also says that they’re counting on Cloud for the mako reactor 5 mission.

Japanese Remake	English Remake	Japanese Original	English Original
ビッグス　世話になるな	Biggs Thanks for stepping up.	「クラウド、五番魔晄炉の爆破　よろしくたのむぜ！」	“Cloud, we’re countin’ on you to blow up the reactor!”

Biggs shows them the chute they’ll need to slide down. In Japanese, Barret’s reaction is almost word-for-word the same as the original, just adding in ポコ (poko) an onomatopoeia that basically serves to emphasize “hole.” The English is rewritten to more naturally convey his hesitancy.

Japanese Remake	English Remake	Japanese Original	English Original
ビッグス　ちょっと複雑だが　この奥はもう　魔晄炉ン中だ	Biggs It’s a bit of a squeeze, but it ought to get you where you need to go.
バレット　せまっちい　穴ポコだぜ	Barret Little dark and foreboding for my taste…	バレット「か～っ、せまっちい穴だな。　ここからプレートの下に　もぐれってのか？　たまんねぇぜ」	Barret “That’s one damn tiny hole. You tellin’ me to squeeze into that to get under the Plate? No way!”