Thank you very much! I figured there weren't too many details, or the echo chamber of American gaming sites would have a few more specifics, but I thought it'd be good to go back to the source of the news.

*SOBS* Why can't I plug a flash drive into my brain and upload Japanese? Why?! I need to take a class so badly.

You'll have to make room in that corner for my wife and myself, I think. #8 is one of our absolute favorites, and ... nothing! Not even a murmur from Squeenix.

*hugs* Squeenix has not been financially sound since the Spriits Within nearly bankrupted them, and recent releases (XII, XIII, XIV) have had massive cost overruns and mixed results. So they are going back to a game that won't cost much to upscale, since they've already got all the models and just need to tweak them. Same reason that X-2 was produced, actually, to help them stagger out of a financial hole.

Alas, a remake of VIII, VI or VI would require starting nearly from scratch, as the models and game engines can't simply be upscaled to higher resolution and minor adjustments. This is not so much a remake as a remaster.

But I hear ya. I really do.

OHHHHH.

I have just skimmed it, as I'm in the middle of writing the next chapter (yay!) and only coming up for air for a moment, but that is a fascinating interview, and I need to read it more fully to digest it.

The "arigato/I love you" has always bothered me. For some reason, reading the translator's comments and the fact that the original writer signed off on it, reconciles me.

Translation. I miss it. I will never forget the moment when I learned that Kassandra's scream in Aeschylus' Agammemnon, which is translated in English as Apollo, my destroyer, is Apollo, apollymi! or something like that with a bizarre pun on the god's name, or (much more cheesily) when I was watching the second Lord of the Rings movie and understood Legolas' lines without subtitles, Helen Kellerish, without having to translate them into English in my head. (Hiro hyn hîdh ab 'wanath... "may they find peace after death").

All right, NOW I've read it thoroughly, and it is indeed fascinating. My suspicion that some of the lines in X got hammered by the need to synch the English translation to the lip-flaps (or at least, the animations) is borne out. SO much easier and so much more expensive when they re-animate to synch with the dub!

Reading between the lines, I love the comments about how all the translation team had some trouble coming to grips with the silliness in X-2, but were eventually able to handle it.

Also, I see this guy (whose name I'vea already blanked on, oops) and his translation team that actually lived RIGHT WHERE I DO. That Costa Mesa office they mention is closed now, but it used to be about 15 minutes from my house... right next to Irvine and Laguna (Beach). :D

I LOVE YOU.

All this good stuff and then I hit this paragraph (about KH2):

My agent called and said, “Have you played some character named Auron? Disney wants you to do that character in some new game…” I said, “Auron’s DEAD!” She said, “You’re booked. Go make some money.”

For some reason I am asphyxiating with laughter. Okay. Recover, recover...

Aww... closing line.
Mckenzie: "Take an occasional break from gaming for romance. It’s important! Have fun!"

(Auron: "Make mistakes. That's what youth is for, after all.")

Reading McKenzie's rather serious interview, I have the feeling that he was not really acting all that much. Speaking of which, I have got to dig out the episodes of Voyager and DS9 where he has speaking roles as some minor (I assume?) guest character.

You rock. Thank you for pointing me to both of those!