Brendan McGrath Interviews Ted Woolsey
This is my interview with Ted Woolsey. I would like to comment on how friendly Mr. Woolsey was when I asked if I could interview him.
Also, as some background, Ted Woolsey worked for Squaresoft for many years, translating many games, such as Secret of Mana. When Squaresoft moved from Redmond, WA, to California he stopped working for them, and began his own company, Big Rain. Big Rain is currently working on Shadow Maddness, an RPG that looks awesome.
Ted Woolsey, before the interview:
I'll answer what I can, but bear in mind, I can't speak for the folks at
Square! By the way, it has been quite a while since I worked on, or
played, some of these games! I remember thoroughly enjoying them, and
enjoying the translation work in spite of frustrating memory limitations
and terrible timelines...
Here are the questions:
Brendan McGrath:
1) Tell me about the vision behind Secret of Mana. Did you, or
Square,
have any goals for it?
Ted Woolsey:
I loved the look and feel of SM the moment I saw
the artwork for the game. I think the SOM team at Square in Japan did a
phenomenal job putting together the adventure and story. I wish I had
been given more time to work on the translation, however. I flew over
with my family at the beginning of June, 1993, and flew home at the end
of that month, having done various rewrites, etc. The text was being
finished as I worked on it, which didn't help, but hey, that's software!
The game also was maxing out the memory configuration (16 megs as I
recall), so the English had to be cut two or three times.
Brendan McGrath:
2) What lessons was the player meant to gain from the story, if any?
For example, I learned to never give up hope.
Ted Woolsey:
I think that's about it. That and you can do
most anything if you put your mind to it (and have some good friends)!
Brendan McGrath:
3) Due to space limitations, was there anything lost in the
translation
of Secret of Mana? Was anything cut due to cultural differences? For
example, I have often wondered if Jema had anything more to say on the
Grand Palace, or if anything happened to Dyluck and Phanna while they
were in Thanatos's clutches.
Ted Woolsey:
There were a TON of stuff that got cut. The list
is too long to go into!
Brendan McGrath:
4) In the Grand Palace, the boy asks Fanha, "Did you beat the
Emperor?"
She responds, "I'm afraid so! We'd rule the world if we had the Mana
Fortress!" But they DO have the Mana Fortress. Was it not possible
to
translate this part smoothly, or do I just misunderstand it?
Ted Woolsey:
I think this was a text window placement or
numbering problem. This game was extremely difficult to translate as
there was very little sequential text: it was just pasted together in
clumps. Imagine shuffling a novel and having to translate the resulting
mess!
Brendan McGrath:
5) In the introduction, it says that a hero wielded the Mana Sword and
smashed the Fortress. Is this Serin, the boy's father? But if it is,
how can these events have happened eons ago, according to Luka? Was
the
person reffered to in the introduction just one in a long line of Mana
Knights?
Ted Woolsey:
The latter. The idea is simply that this has
happened before, probably a few times in history...
Brendan McGrath:
6) In the Mandala Temple, one of the orbs mentions a country known as
Lorima. What is this? My theory is that it is a country that was in
the Ice Country, with the Ice Palace as it's core, until some
cataclysm
altered the environment.
Ted Woolsey:
Actually, I forget where Lorima was...sorry!
Brendan McGrath:
7) Is Final Fantasy Adventure/ Seiken Densetsu 1 at all connected in
story line to Secret of Mana? I have heard that Serin is in it.
Ted Woolsey:
It's been so long since I played the Japanese
version of that GameBoy adventure. I remember I liked SD1 (Final Fantasy
Adventure in the US) but I don't recall it really having any strong
bearing on SD2.
Brendan McGrath:
8) What does Thanatos mean when he says that he needed "one born in
the
shadow of darkness, and raised in the light of Mana"?
Ted Woolsey:
I think he wanted to find a weakness in an
otherwise strong "mana" user/wielder...
Brendan McGrath:
9) What can you tell me about Secret of Mana 2's storyline?
Ted Woolsey:
It was a good game, if you ask me. It was a huge
story, with a variety of environments and characters. It had almost
nothing to do with its precursor.
Brendan McGrath:
10) What are Big Rain's goals? Are there any games other than Shadow
Maddness in development?
Ted Woolsey
Actually, Big Rain has just been bought out by
another company, Crave Entertainment, Inc. I think the folks at Crave
are working on their long and short range plans as we speak.
I hope you enjoyed this interview. Please note that this interview may not be reused, copied, whatever, in any way without my permission. Please email me if you want to request permission to use this.
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