How Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Echoes of Time Breaks Language Barriers

Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Echoes of Time is a pick up and play, drop in and drop out multiplayer game. Different from many online enabled console RPGs there is an option to link up with worldwide players. A great idea, but also a potential problem when adventurers can’t speak the same language.

Square Enix tackled the issue with preset phrases. When you say “howdy” in English someone playing the game in French gets sees something else

Mitsuru Kamiyama, Director of Echoes of Time, details the system, “The phrases for the Japanese, North American, and European versions are stored on each respective region’s cart (or disc), and the game picks a corresponding phrase in the set language to enable communication between the different language versions.  For the DS version, the phrases are pulled as needed from the cart, and for the Wii version, the phrases are stored in the main memory.”

Will Square Enix use a preset phrases for future Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles or other Square Enix games? “A similar system has already been utilized for Final Fantasy XI, and while there is no specific title we are working on at the moment, the importance of this type of system will surely increase with the continued development of games that connect on a global scale,” Kamiyama explains.