10 Huge Video Games That Screwed Up Basic Things

9. The Typo-Ridden English Translation - Final Fantasy VII

Ghost of Tsushima
Square Enix

Though Square Enix has an entire team dedicated to providing immaculate localisations of its games nowadays, back in 1997, they had no idea just how successful Final Fantasy VII would be outside of Japan.

As a result, much expense was spared on its translation job, and due to poor communication between the Japanese and North American offices, Square Enix didn't take sufficient care when translating language and grammar from Japanese to English. In fact, just one man, working from a spreadsheet, handled the gruelling task.

This resulted in the final western releases shipping with a ton of typos and grammatical errors, and most infamously saw Aerith renamed to "Aeris."

These inconsistencies created only further issues, as the final English script became the source from which most other major translations were also generated.

Considering that Final Fantasy VII boasts a scarcely coherent plot at the best of times, its "fluid" approach to basic language sure wasn't ideal, especially with the game's monstrous $45 million budget.

Contributor
Contributor

Stay at home dad who spends as much time teaching his kids the merits of Martin Scorsese as possible (against the missus' wishes). General video game, TV and film nut. Occasional sports fan. Full time loon.