Half-Glass Gaming [Episode 35] : Sticks to Snakes W
We’re back, and we’re sounding better than ever! Our audio issues have been taken care of and our voices sound clear and crisp. It’s a good time to be alive, folks.
To warm things up, Julian tells tales of his sick dog’s miraculous recovery and his rap career (Julian’s rap career, not his dog’s). The Reverend hits another Skyrim milestone. Josh talks trash about GoDaddy (GoDaddy really is the worst) and then rejoices in the greatness of Stardew Valley (which is a much better way to spend your time than being on the phone with GoDaddy customer service). Mandi sheds some light on the Fire Emblem controversy, which is a hot topic right now.
When we return from the break, we have an informative conversation about the history of video game localization. What are the challenges facing localization teams these days, and what happens when things truly go wrong? Are video games more heavily localized than other forms of entertainment? And what does “Hope worst not situation” even mean?
We’ve got Tolkien fans burnin’ down the house up in here. It’s Half-Glass Gaming!
Here’s a full list of games mentioned in this episode:
- MTV Music Generator 2
- FunkMaster Flex’s Digital Hitz Factory
- Beaterator
- The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
- Donkey Kong Country
- Jurassic Park (SNES)
- Mario Paint
- Harvest Moon
- Stardew Valley
- Fire Emblem (series)
- Pillars of Eternity
- The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky Second Chapter
- Yakuza (series)
- Hot Shots Golf (series)
- Fairy Fencer F
- Grand Theft Auto IV
- Pac-Man
- Tales of (series)
- The Legend of Zelda
- Tomb Raider
- Zero Wing
- Lux-Pain
- Deadly Premonition
- Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney (series)
- Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Trials & Tribulations
- Resident Evil (series)
- Chrono Trigger
- Final Fantasy VI
- Street Fighter III: W Impact
- .hack (series)
Retrovolve Staff
At Retrovolve, we love discussing, studying, and playing retro games, though not necessarily in that order.
I’m glad to hear your sound issues were resolved. I always enjoy your podcast, but it’s far more pleasant to listen to this way. As for the topic, I’m quite envious of Mandi’s knowledge of japanese games. I only speak one language myself and I often feel I miss out on quite a lot because of it. Are there any Fire Emblem games a person like me could play?
I’m not sure what systems you have access to, but there are probably a few Fire Emblems you could try! There are two localized Fire Emblem games for the Game Boy Advance: Fire Emblem and Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones. There’s also Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance for the GameCube, which is a personal favorite of mine.
If you’d like to play the older games, most of them have English translation patches. The Super Famicom titles aren’t the best place to start, but they’re really ambitious and interesting. I highly recommend Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War, which we talked about in the dating sim episode of the podcast!
You’re a fountain of knowledge as always. Path of Radiance appears to be quite rare but I’ll try to track down one of the other titles you suggested.
Wait what was the drama in the retro video games group? I want to know!
I actually missed most of it. I just caught the post-drama post about the resulting banhammer. I think a couple of the other podcasters got a closer look at it.
No offense, but I’m glad you took care of your sound problems. It was hard to listen before. I don’t know much about Fire Emblem but I’d heard about all the controversy. Glad to hear your take on it all, I’m not surprised the whole thing’s been overblown.
No offense taken. I’m glad we took care of our issues as well. I love it when we sound crystal clear!
These people crying about censorship must be kids. Any retro gaming fan knows how much got changed back in the day.
I don’t want to speak with broad, sweeping generalizations or anything, but I feel like you may be right. I mean, when I was a kidlet, I seem to recall that it was easy enough to find fan sites telling you about some of the changes, and/or you were smart enough to figure things out yourself (“Yeah, Chrono, you’re having a *soda* drinking contest. Yup. That’s what it is. Soda.”) It really does feel like the weird “Any change is DIRTY ROTTEN CENSORSHIP!” thing is a bit newer.
I have no actual evidence to back any of this up, of course. It just sort of feels that way. I am, of course, open to any evidence that people have.
– The Reverend
Not everything has to stay the same but I don’t like when Nintendo decides if somethings acceptable or
not. I’m an adult and can decide for myself.
Sure, but you’re not the only person Nintendo sells games to. And while from a cultural standpoint it’s absolutely reasonable to go “Parents should raise their own damn kids and not depend on Nintendo to make sure the kids don’t see anything naughty”, it’s not necessarily a good business decision to do so.
– The Reverend