The old man who helped Tina remains here, and a young man runs in from the back. He has light brown hair and wears a navy blue vest and a matching bandana as a headband. No music plays yet.

"Washed your hands of" might be a more familiar idiom.

As the whole mini-biography and naming thing starts, 1-4 "Locke" starts playing. It's energetic and has a rather heroic sound to it.

It's not obvious at this point, but the game text only uses 秘宝 (hihou, literally "secret treasure", a term used when referring to treasured possessions of the sort that are kept hidden away) to refer to one particular thing. He's searching for something specific, not just ancient treasures in general.

I'm used to spelling his name with a silent 'e' because the NA version spells it that way, but the JP version really does spell it "Lock" in the ending. I could always break with that, but without any particular reason to, why?

Bad NA version. Lock's reaction in the original is surprised, probably excited, but certainly not angry or disgusted. The original also gives the impression that he's heard about a magic-using girl, but doesn't have any details, while the NA version sounds like he knows all about recent events.

Where do I begin...? In order of appearance, in the original: City guards are chasing her, not Imperial troops. The town stands a fair chance against the Empire (at least according to him, though it hardly seemed like it earlier), rather than being no match for it (why else would the Returners want their help so badly?). The city's stubborn independence prevents an alliance with the Returners, rather than the city needing the Returners to maintain independence. The old man speaks to Lock as a fellow member of the Returners, not merely as a concerned citizen of the city. There is no mention of getting the girl to understand their dilemma, just getting the guards to listen.

Lock enters. Unfortunately, so does a pack of guards...

A squadron fills in behind him.

Several creatures that resemble white teddy bears with little red bat wings walk in.

I don't see how you could possibly get "moogle" from モーグリ (MOUGURI), which is a lot closer to "moagly", but the term "moogle" is so well-known I'm not even going to bother trying to argue with it. According to a post by Kawaii Ryûkishi on the Eyes on Final Fantasy Forums, モーグリ blends the Japanese words for "mole" and "bat", which are, spelling corrected, モグラ (MOGURA) and コーモリ (KOUMORI). They do look a lot like white moles with bat wings, so that's probably right. Maybe they should be "molebats", but again, it's not worth disputing the familiar name.

The screen fades out except for a moogle in the middle. The game uses them occasionally to explain things instead of relying on impersonal narration.

Like I said earlier, ALL CAPS in the middle of a sentence doesn't look too good.

I'm not sure why the NA version has a vague open-ended threat instead of just saying Game Over or something...

Lock and the moogles fight off the guards. "Locke" continues playing during the whole scene, even during battles and wins, until the battle with the Guard Leader, which uses "Decisive Battle" like a normal boss, and "Fanfare" when Lock and the moogles win.

Lock is speedy and can steal items from enemies during battle, which often helps pad your supplies and can sometimes yield better equipment than what stores carry, or even the occasional rare item. Mog, the apparent leader of the moogles, can perform dances that turn the terrain against his foes. Though uncontrollable, the dances are versatile and fairly powerful, at least until they become largely obsolete towards the endgame, but by then Mog can get armor that makes him a defensive marvel. (See the character page for details of each skill: Lock, Mog).

The Guard Leader hurts when he hits and tends to be more aggressive when alone, but can't stand up to much damage. Mog's dances might kill the poor guy in a single attack, while Lock can steal a Mithril Knife if you think it's worth the effort. The music stops after winning the battle.

Here's a little trick: Unequip Mog before beating the Guard Leader to keep his equipment after this event, since you won't see anything else this good any time soon. Unfortunately, you can't change any equipment on the other moogles.

Lock takes Tina to a different part of the mines, then feels around on the rock wall. "The Mines of Narshe" plays.

He hits the switch, opening a secret exit. Tina starts showing signs of awareness by the time he's done.

Lock flips out a bit.

The original makes Lock more clearly agitated. He also starts saying something about memory again, as if it has some special meaning to him...

Additionally, Lock says nothing in the original about the secret entrance here. Apparently someone thought American gamers were clueless. Sigh. The added remark doesn't really fit the scene, either.

They leave through the secret exit.

Try entering town, and a guard runs up and...

Lock grabs Tina and ducks around the corner.