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Saving the World One Moonrune at a Time, Let's Translate Farland Saga 1 and 2

The Farland franchise, developed by TGL, is set in a generic fantasy land wherein its inhabitants go on various quests of incrementing stakes until the fate of the world is in their hands and they have to punch the local deity (or equivalent) in the face. Given TGL's much smaller budgets and staff sizes compared to, say, Square-Enix, it doesn't compare favorably to other games of its era (Farland Saga 1 came out in the same year as Final Fantasy Tactics), and it also doesn't age all that well, but I was introduced to it by my cousin back in the day when I hadn't played all that many video games, so I still remember it fondly enough to want to share the experience with you guys.

Disclaimer: These games were localized from Japanese to Chinese, so this LP is in effect a translation of a translation. I will add what little I know about Japanese in various footnotes.

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Upon launching a new game, we're immediately treated to what I believe is an in-engine cinematic with super deformed character models and half-body character portraits in the dialogue boxes.

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Leon: Sorry for making you wait!
Ralph: Why're you dragging your feet like that?
Leon: Sorry. Hey, where's dad?
Ralph: He's probably already gone on ahead!
Leon: WHAAAAT!?
Ralph: Just kidding. He's waiting at the village gate.
Leon: Don't scare me like that!
Ralph: It's your own fault for not getting up early enough. Enough blather, let's get going!
Leon: Yeah, let's!

Dot's Footnote About Moon Runes
Befitting his personality as a rough-and-tumble type with little brain-to-mouth filter, Ralph speaks with a Kansai dialect and uses more casual grammar.



Ralph: Hey, pops!
Brian: Hey, took you two long enough!
Leon: Sorry, dad.
Ralph: What a sleepy-head.
Leon: I was too nervous to fall asleep last night.
Brian: Oh, yeah, this is your first trip to the palace, isn't it?
Leon: Uh-huh! I wanna hurry up and see it!
Ralph: Please! Act your age!
Leon: You're one to talk! Didn't you buy a new outfit just for the occasion?
Ralph: And that's exactly why I think you're still a kid. Think about it--we're going to Barth's capital city! There's gotta be lots of pretty girls there!
Leon: So you're planning to pick up chicks, huh?
Ralph: C'mon, be nice! This is the chance of a lifetime!
Leon: Sure, whatever you say...
Brian (chuckling): The world isn't as nice as you think at all.
Ralph: Pops~
Leon: So what can we expect at the palace tomorrow, dad?
Brian: I'll explain along the way. C'mon!

Dot's Footnote About Moon Runes




Ralph: Wh-wh-wh-what is that!?
Leon: Monsters!?
Brian: I heard that there were more monster attacks lately...didn't think the rumors were true.
Leon: D-d-dad! What do we do???
Brian: What's the big deal? Haven't I trained you for situations like this since you were little? Just do as I've been teaching you, and winning won't be a problem.
Ralph: Alright! Leave everything to me!



Brian: Idiot! Charging ahead by yourself can still get you surrounded and killed even if the enemy is weak!
Leon: Ralph, I think it's better if we all stuck together.
Ralph: Yeah...no point in pushing things too far.

Stage 1: Setting Off

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Immediately, one of the major weaknesses of this game shows itself: the map is pointlessly huge and cannot be rotated. Worse, you can't move through any units, not even your allies. Many turns will be spent standing around doing nothing, especially if one wants to gather all of the treasure lying around on the field--and you have to schlep over to those spots if you want them, because the game won't count them as gained at the end of any battle otherwise. On your first playthrough, you also might want to save each turn individually, because some monsters (and only those monsters) will drop loot, but the battle ends immediately once you've completed the objective.

The second slightly annoying factor is that you have to end all of your turns by selecting the command in the menu (or by inputting the proper keyboard shortcut); the game will not do this for you, not even after all party members have completed their move and fight actions.

Anyway, now that we're in a battle, let's take a look at the characters the game has handed to us so far:



(Stats in the left column under the character portrait are as follows: HP, MP, Attack, Defense, Intelligence, Magic Defense, Agility, with the numbers in parentheses the bonuses/pentalties granted to us by equipment. The right column tracks all experience accumulated and the character's elemental attribute--Leon has, I believe, 5 ranks in Wind.)

Leon is our generic sword user. He's not the strongest of the fighters, but he can hold his own fairly well. He'll eventually gain some fancy skills, but right now all he can do is move and attack.



Ralph is a monk (element: stone). He's got about the same stats as Leon.



Brian is a tank (element: light). In addition to his better stats, he has a spear that pierces two tiles, so position him carefully.



Attacking in this game works like any other isometric turn-based RPG that features alternating ally and enemy turns, except for one additional twist: if your character is in a straight line with an enemy and at least two tiles away, they will initiate a charge when you have them attack, doing extra damage.



The animations in this game are fairly charming--units idle about until they complete all actions, have various reactions depending on whether an attack landed and if they are suffering from any status effects (I will tl;dr more on that when they become relevant), and all special abilities have their own distinct effects--though any and all of these can be turned off in the settings.



Picking up an item immediately puts it into the group inventory that can be used by anyone, but anything equippable stays in that character's inventory until they hand it off to someone else, and you have to be within 4 tiles of an ally in order to give them stuff.



Once a character completes an action (attacking, executing a skill, or using an item), they will gain experience and fill a bar, leveling up once the bar fills all the way to the right. There's no need to spread experience across all characters evenly as the game does not have a particularly high difficulty curve, so just pick the party member(s) you like and feed them all of the kills.

This battle is nothing special, just four wolves and four imps that you have to wipe out. They won't engage unless you move into range, but you can have one guy play bait while the others stay on the bridge from getting back attacked. The on-field treasure is just a leather armor that Leon and Brian is already wearing and is a mere 2 points better than what Ralph has, so you're free to leave that there, though you may want to pick up all of the herbs that are dropped by the various monsters (they restore 20 HP each). You start out with a couple of herbs and 2 Phoenix Down equivalents (the Chinese version translates it as "stimulant"), so having emergency healing on hand is always great.

The cutscenes between battles lock me out of the menu while they run, but thanks to the magic of editing I'm going to break them up into more digestible chunks.

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Leon: Phew! A real fight is totally different from practice.
Ralph: Ha! For me it was a piece of cake!
Brian: Take a good look at yourself before you boast.
Ralph: Huh?...oh nooooooo!
Leon: Ick! We're covered in mud...
Ralph: M-my clothes...
Brian: Didn't I tell you? Life's a lot tougher than you'd imagine.
Leon: If only there really were some sort of Destiny out there that we could meet.
Ralph (dusting himself off): Uuuuuugh...

Next time: as the plot gives the first hints of trouble brewing on the horizon, we gain another party member.

The cast so far:
Leon: An earnest and kind-hearted young swordsman.
Ralph: Leon's best friend, he is hot-blooded and quick to speak his mind, his Kansai accent getting worse as he becomes more emotional. Prefers to fight with his fists.
Brian: Leon and Ralph's father figure. Uses a spear.