Game developers have big egos. We are always so proud of ourselves! Any artist or creator needs some self-belief in order to project himself or herself forward in front of an audience, but game developers seem to have more than enough. Universally, we seem to think what we are doing is rather remarkable. We are quick to criticize everything around us: publishers, press, other game developers, even our own fans. We are opinionated, even about things of which we know little. We ascribe our successes to ourselves, and our failures to marketing, or timing, or the stupidity of the masses.

The state of game industry journalism is still terrible. Everything seems to cling to the extreme of either gas-bag meaninglessness or rock-stupid fanboyism. Former ESA president Doug Lowenstein thought this was a big enough problem that he chose to mention it in his farewell address to the industry, describing our press as thoughtless, immature and lazy. Unsurprisingly, few video game news sites decided to make much mention of this, but it's impossible to disagree with him– especially when sites like GameDailyBiz concurrently present articles in which a supposed game critic puts forth the laughably absurd notion that “being knowledgable is not necessarily a prerequisite to being a good critic.” Actually, it is.

But instead of staying negative, I want to point towards something that I like, and this brings me to Insert Credit.

Much credit does not usually go to translators and localizers in the game industry, but I feel they are sometimes deserving of special praise, especially those who can not only convey the meaning of the original but also its essence and sometimes its greatness. Final Fantasy XII is a demonstration of Square’s localization prowess and continues a tradition of great translations. The voice actors well-cast and directed, and the words themselves are crafted at a level above that of the average game. But for how well the main story is brought into English, something else steals the show– the encyclopedic Bestiary.