In this example we are going to do some menu translation work. Menu translations is much easier then dialog by far. However you still need to be carefull to some degree.

You have the english menu which is the pre game start or continue menu.

CONTINUE
NEW GAME
RESPOND RATE

And now with the Japanese menu.

‚‚­(tsuduku) = to be continued.
‚â‚è‚È‚¨‚µ(yarinaoshi) = redoing
ƒ?ƒbƒZ?\ƒW ƒXƒs?\ƒh(messeji supido) = message speed

  This is pretty easy and rather funny to some degree. "to be continued" would simply be CONTINUE. "redoing" would be NEW GAME. However you wouldnt possibly know this if there was never a english version of Final Fantasy 1. In which case you would have to try this option out to see what it does. Message Speed was changed to Respond Rate, because there is not enough space in the menu to accomadate it without messing the window up, creating a second line for the option may have been deemed to be tacky by the programmer, not to mention cutting the company credits out.

  And now with the second example of this review. The character class select screen menu will be next. I will show one screen shot for the entire menu, However I will not be showing all the classes in a snap shot. I will do this in the translation example.

‚¹‚ñ‚µ(senshi) = soldier,combatant,warrior
ƒV?\ƒ?(shi-wa) = no translation.
ƒ‚ƒ“ƒN(monku) = monk
‚ ‚©‚Ü‚¶‚ã‚‚µ(akamajixyutsushi) = no translation.
‚µ‚ë‚Ü‚¶‚ã‚‚µ(shiromajixyutsushi) = no translation.
‚­‚ë‚Ü‚¶‚ã‚‚µ(kuromajixyutsushi) = no translation.

  Isnt this just nice. If the title wasnt in english, I might be lost. This would probally cause you to guess. All isnt completly lost, I have a trick. And a cheap trick at that. I take a Japanese word and search on google. Most of the times you will get a match. What I do is go over the sites in the match and look at the content surrounding the words in question. And after that might be the time to panic. Other then looking at the picture and taking a guess. The Red Mage could be called several things if you want to think of them. Red Robe would fit well within the character limit imposed by the window and other constraints. Unless you want to be slick and change the window. Maybe R.Wizzard or even Red Wizzard. Well lets not press our luck too much. :). The point is that sometimes you have to use visuals to help.