The journey through FE7 in JP continues, this one with actually more significant changes, oddly!
Summary: The Localization inserted their own events into some of the character epilogues if they fall in battle. However, by doing this, some of the text contradicts events later in Eliwood’s story when those characters reappear.
Let’s take a closer look!
So in Japanese, several characters have a generic epilogue if they fell in battle, for example:
(Character)にて負傷。
リンたちと別れる。
This translates to:
(Character) was wounded. They parted ways with Lyn.
This is used for several characters in Japanese, mostly for non-story important characters who you encounter again in Eliwood’s story that did not remain in Caelin. (Dorcas, Serra, Lucius, Wallace, Erk, and Rath).
However, the Localization made an interesting choice with these characters. Below are their English epilogues instead if they fall during Lyn’s story:
- Dorcas
- “After taking injuries in combat, Dorcas returns to Bern to tend to his wife. He never sees Lyn again.”
- Serra
- “Wounded in battle, Serra decides that a life of quiet meditation is the best course. She bids Lyn farewell and joins service in Ostia.”
- Wallace
- “Wounded in battle, Wallace realizes he is past his prime. With some sadness, he returns to his simple farmer’s life.”
What? Dorcas never sees Lyn again? Serra goes for a quiet life?! Wallace retires for good?
Even stranger, the following characters more or less stick with the generic wounded ending in Japanese, though with slight wording differences:
- Erk
- “After recovering from his injuries, Erk parts ways with Lyn.”
- Rath
- “He suffers an injury in battle and departs from the company.”
- Lucius
- “His injuries in combat prove too much for Lucius, and he bids Lyn farewell.”
Erk’s is the closest!
What happened?
My assumption is the text was translated earlier on without consideration for context later on. For example, Wallace’s reluctant return to farming life would fit as an imagined scenario when Kent and Sain see him off after his injury, but then his return in Eliwood’s story (if the player chooses to go to that map) contradicts his retirement.
Or perhaps there were several different translators not communicating with each other? The inconsistency is certainly interesting though between epilogues.
The one that stuck out to me the most is Dorcas’s epilogue, as it makes it sound like he didn’t make it.
Dorcas:
“Ah, this is as far as I go. I wanted to be with you until the end.”Lyn:
“Will we see you again?”Dorcas:
“If we survive… and if fate wills it. Good health to you, Lyn…Tactician.”
Given it states that Dorcas never saw Lyn again, yet you recruit Dorcas quite early in Eliwood’s story and cannot avoid getting Lyn later on makes this very interesting!
The only way for this epilogue to come true is if you lose him before getting Lyn again, or if you choose to believe he just actively ignored her through the entirety of Eliwood’s story… perhaps he is incredibly passive aggressive toward Lyn after that injury?
I suppose one could argue these epilogues are only for the year between Lyn and Eliwood’s story. In that case, it means Serra stopped her meditation, Dorcas did meet Lyn again, and Wallace came back out of retirement (again). But the finality of the wording makes me doubt this may have been the intent. And if it was, then it’s a little awkward.
All these years later FE7’s localization continues to be fairly amusing in ways… that’s all for this article!
Let’s see what silly fun might come up in Eliwood’s story…
kantopia 