“Uboa” (ウボァー, Uboā), alternatively rendered as “Uvoa” or “Ubā”, was the death throe of the antagonist of Final Fantasy II, known as the “Emperor” (皇帝, Kōtei).¹⁾ According to Akitoshi Kawazu, the dialogue is meant to be short, saying “die” and closing with “uvoā” (ウヴォァー).

Final Fantasy II (FC), 1988

• On the Japanese side, there are two possible reasons why the death throe was somehow popular:
  1. The lack of an exclamation point and break in the original made it sound a lot more stupid.
  2. Nonsensical sounds were popular in the late 1980s. Some examples include “Hidebu” (ひでぶ) from Fist of the North Star, and “URYYY”/“WRYYYYYYY” from Jojo's Bizarre Adventure.
• The death throe does not have the same effect in the western world for many possible reasons:
  1. Final Fantasy II aggressively tries to innovate, but it's also harshly criticized for this very reason, so it's possible that many players dropped the game before they ever reached the scene.¹⁰⁾
  2. Unlike the Japanese language, the English language doesn't have the same level of attachment to onomatopoeia and nothing makes it stand out, so most people don't notice anything unusual.
  3. In addition, the death throe has multiple translations, so there isn't a universally recognized scream, plus the fan translation for the WonderSwan Color version completely omits it.
• You can hear the Emperor, voiced by Kenyu Horiuchi, shout this within Dissidia Final Fantasy.¹¹⁾
  • In addition, Tidus from Final Fantasy X references this line when facing the Emperor.¹²⁾
  • For the English localization, the Emperor is voiced by Christopher Corey Smith and they use the recent “Ungaahhhh!” translation.¹³⁾ Likewise, Tidus still retains the reference to this line.¹⁴⁾
• An anonymous 2channel post on July 30, 2005 using the scream¹⁵⁾ would end up giving the tentative name for a 1/64 (1.56%) chance event known as “Uboa” (ウボァ) in the Yume Nikki community.
• While writing this article, I had come to the conclusion that Final Fantasy I & II: Dawn of Souls (GBA)¹⁶⁾ is the best way to play Final Fantasy I and Final Fantasy II.

• Uboa on Pixiv Encyclopedia
• Uboa on Niconico Encyclopedia

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