Nearly eleven years after the North American Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES) release, and seven after the PlayStation (PS) rendition, the release of the
Chrono Trigger Nintendo Dual Screen (NDS) version transpired, bringing with it three new playable areas and a revised translation by Tom Slattery. Extra content
— which includes the anime style cutscenes and “Extras” mode
— developed for the PS was bundled within the re-release as well, developing a sense of consistency between versions, ultimately bringing everything together to form one comprehensive edition.
In particular, the introduction of a new partial translation altered the view of Chrono Trigger in the eyes of Westerners the most. By undertaking this project, Slattery brought North Americans closer to the original Japanese script than ever before, transferring back lost context caused by limited storage capacity, censorship, mistranslation, and cultural barriers. During a recent interview, Slattery revealed that he “had to do a great deal more research” than in previous projects, and that, “the project schedule was also extremely tight. I had to move at a pace of 5000-6000 Japanese characters of translation a day, which meant I couldn't do a full retranslation even had I wanted to.”1 Regardless, when comparing the original Japanese script and localized SNES and PS English script to this updated translation, it is clear that Slattery’s efforts paid off — ultimately exposing and articulating lost Japanese culture to a new generation of North American gamers.
Works Cited:
[1] "Inside Gaming - Interview with Former Square Enix Translator Tom Slattery." Interview by Michael A. Cunningham. RPGamer. RPGamer, n.d. Web. 28 July 2015.
