I understand your worries! Because, wow, we have one official cut-gameboy advance version and three fantranstations of two different system versions who all could be using different interpretations.
I definitely wanted to put as much thought as I could into my reply so excuse the text wall aa.. I've only played the SNES version recently with the DeJap translation (oh ho ho, I wonder why we are having problems?) The GBA version came out when I was in middle school, I had purchased and played it but that was ten years ago (???) so I don't really remember it as well as I should. That may be where the misconstrue of details and whatnot comes from. I did use the GBA script for some parts I wasn't sure about so there's bound to be some differences in the app itself even just because of that. The parts that I rewatched were the very opening scene up until the town bell starts ringing for danger.
The DeJap translation is infamous for how imperfect it is, but here is a Let’s Play of the lines I’d be using for recent interpretation.
I got to get out of here, it’s the only way Chester will be safe.
Yeahh…. that’s really different! As you can see they play it pretty dramatic in this translation, this is what’s fresh in my head, it might be why some of my app is over played and I’m sorry for that. However we can look to Destiny to see silly, over dramatic and questionable writing is the Tales series in this era.. I think it’s safe to say even the Japanese version is going to have some inconsistencies about characterization considering how many versions of this script and game exist even in Japan..
As for the line about him playing in the woods, I believe it's the character Tornix who says it at the very beginning while standing in Miguel's training school that Cress is "always running off to the woods to play," rather than his father saying anything about it. While I’ve played many games in the NES and SNES era this one doesn’t seem to stray too far off from that traditional writing style which again, might be why I’m interpreting it this way. In my opinion this character NPC wouldn’t exist if not for a reason, to convey something to the player without directly saying it.
It gave me the impression that Cress may be a bit less inclined to train under his father, not that he hadn't practiced at all. In the future, the new master of the sword school who's taken over for Cress's father in Miguel Town states that he's not sure who might take over the school after he's gone. They seem to have forgotten all about Miquel having a son at all, leaving the impression (to me) that he may not have been as involved to those his father knew and knew Cress publically.
As for playing Cress a bit more passively I guess that’s just my interpretation of him? I believe that the way the game is written it wants you to see Cress as immature so that over time you can watch him grow. Tornix is one of those character that are supposed to make you feel this way about him. If you watched that video I linked that translated text the things Chester says are to make the player feel that perhaps Chester is the more mature one over Cress. He’s going to stay behind! He’s not afraid to die for his family!! Ect..
I think though, that Cress has had the right ideas and feelings from the beginning and only needed people to help him progress further, rather than just being childish. That's what I meant by him needing to rely on others. It’s sort of like an inner told but not stated reveal for me once Chester finally rejoins that party and he’s weak, low leveled and on the SNES still without artes. In the end? Cress was already mature enough to handle the situation from the start, they physically show me that Cress knew he needed help, so he sought it, and now he’s almost level 50 while Chester stayed behind to mourn and refused to quickly move on at level 10. We deal with grief in different ways, and though the Tales series doesn’t have groundbreaking writing I feel that subtlety between those two characters is handled rather well. Anyone can grow into a man, but it takes a special kind of person to lead and be a hero. That person just happened to know that he needed help to do just that and if he wanted revenge he couldn’t stick around to say goodbye.
Overall, I think our big issue is translation which honestly I’m not even a little bit surprised. I hope I didn’t sound rude and if there’s anything more to clarify please tell me! I don’t want this to be a sour note in anyone’s mouth.
Re: Clarification Requested!
I definitely wanted to put as much thought as I could into my reply so excuse the text wall aa.. I've only played the SNES version recently with the DeJap translation (oh ho ho, I wonder why we are having problems?) The GBA version came out when I was in middle school, I had purchased and played it but that was ten years ago (???) so I don't really remember it as well as I should. That may be where the misconstrue of details and whatnot comes from. I did use the GBA script for some parts I wasn't sure about so there's bound to be some differences in the app itself even just because of that. The parts that I rewatched were the very opening scene up until the town bell starts ringing for danger.
The DeJap translation is infamous for how imperfect it is, but here is a Let’s Play of the lines I’d be using for recent interpretation.
Yeahh…. that’s really different! As you can see they play it pretty dramatic in this translation, this is what’s fresh in my head, it might be why some of my app is over played and I’m sorry for that. However we can look to Destiny to see silly, over dramatic and questionable writing is the Tales series in this era.. I think it’s safe to say even the Japanese version is going to have some inconsistencies about characterization considering how many versions of this script and game exist even in Japan..
As for the line about him playing in the woods, I believe it's the character Tornix who says it at the very beginning while standing in Miguel's training school that Cress is "always running off to the woods to play," rather than his father saying anything about it. While I’ve played many games in the NES and SNES era this one doesn’t seem to stray too far off from that traditional writing style which again, might be why I’m interpreting it this way. In my opinion this character NPC wouldn’t exist if not for a reason, to convey something to the player without directly saying it.
It gave me the impression that Cress may be a bit less inclined to train under his father, not that he hadn't practiced at all. In the future, the new master of the sword school who's taken over for Cress's father in Miguel Town states that he's not sure who might take over the school after he's gone. They seem to have forgotten all about Miquel having a son at all, leaving the impression (to me) that he may not have been as involved to those his father knew and knew Cress publically.
As for playing Cress a bit more passively I guess that’s just my interpretation of him? I believe that the way the game is written it wants you to see Cress as immature so that over time you can watch him grow. Tornix is one of those character that are supposed to make you feel this way about him. If you watched that video I linked that translated text the things Chester says are to make the player feel that perhaps Chester is the more mature one over Cress. He’s going to stay behind! He’s not afraid to die for his family!! Ect..
I think though, that Cress has had the right ideas and feelings from the beginning and only needed people to help him progress further, rather than just being childish. That's what I meant by him needing to rely on others. It’s sort of like an inner told but not stated reveal for me once Chester finally rejoins that party and he’s weak, low leveled and on the SNES still without artes. In the end? Cress was already mature enough to handle the situation from the start, they physically show me that Cress knew he needed help, so he sought it, and now he’s almost level 50 while Chester stayed behind to mourn and refused to quickly move on at level 10. We deal with grief in different ways, and though the Tales series doesn’t have groundbreaking writing I feel that subtlety between those two characters is handled rather well. Anyone can grow into a man, but it takes a special kind of person to lead and be a hero. That person just happened to know that he needed help to do just that and if he wanted revenge he couldn’t stick around to say goodbye.
Overall, I think our big issue is translation which honestly I’m not even a little bit surprised. I hope I didn’t sound rude and if there’s anything more to clarify please tell me! I don’t want this to be a sour note in anyone’s mouth.