Translation Facination

[MJN SEIFER]

I am a long term fan of Final Fantasy, and as such I've seen various different versions of the games. I really love it how very often there will be at least two names for each character depending on which version you've got - hell sometimes it's more than character, it can be monster names, spell names, you name it. Sometimes the mistranslation can actually sound better, sometimes it ironically creates a meaning when there isn't one there, and other times it just looks completely wrong...:roll2

This thread will be a discussion on how we all see different, translations of stuff in FF games, and whether we use the correct names or prefer the bad translation for them.

I shall start

These are for FFV characters, but this still belongs in the general forum because this will hopefully cover all games eventually.

(Note: The bold parts are what I think are the correct translations)

Butz/Batz/Bartz: I longer do Butz = Butts jokes (it's probably not pronounced that way anyway), Batz came up too late for me for it to register, Bartz to me, sounds better, and it is the first on I saw. I just got used to it - I know it's wrong.

Lenna/Reina: Without second thought, Reina all the way. Again I realize it's wrong, but think about this even in an FF game, why should the second child of a king be Queen Queen? (for those who don't get that, "Lenna" actually means "Queen") it just doesn't seam right to do it like that. Add that her surname has a "rich" theme to it, and it feels like someone is playing a joke on you. Besides Lenna sounds a bit silly to say in my opinion, "Reina" actually sounds like a genuine RPG type name in my book, it has a sort of "Fantasy" type ring to it.

Krille/Cara/Kulutlu(?): Well for a start, how the hell do you pronounce "Krille" (Krill-eee?) and "Kulutlu" (Not even trying it, it's probably spelt wrong anyway...)? Cara is wrong, but it's the easiest for me to use and it always kind of stuck with me for some reason.

X-Death/Exdeath: Both sound the same, but "X-Death" looks like a comic-book character's name :p Go with Exdeath.

Sarisa/Salsa: Salsa? That's a type of food isn't it? I prefer Sarisa, it is the correct one, and provides a clue to how she got the name "Faris".

Hope it's a good discussion for you all to do, looking forward to it.

(Note: You don't have to write it like I did - that was just to get the ball rolling.)

[Darkswordofchaos]

In most of the erley final fantasy title up to 7 i think they changed the name of the holy majics to white or somthing like that but that was cause they was afraid it would offend christan players in america

[The Turk]

I try to use 'Aeris' all the time as that's what her name is in the game I own. But I sometimes call her 'Aerith' by mistake. If they ever do a remake and call her Aerith, which they would do, they better leave in the ability to rename her so I can call her Aeris again.

Also from VII the main Turk is called Tseng! I've seen it spelt so many ways such as Zeng.

As for VI I am sooooo glad they changed the names. Tina may sound exotic to the Japanese but not to a Western audience. Imagine a playable party consisting of Tina, Bill, Gary, Kate and Dan...doesn't sound nearly as cool. 'Mash' just sounds stupid and Cayenne (or whatever it is) sounds like a girl's name. I have a pet peeve when people use the 'real translation' names like Tina and Mash and as for Cefka....pfft.

[hhr1dluv]

Lenna/Reina: Without second thought, Reina all the way. Again I realize it's wrong, but think about this even in an FF game, why should the second child of a king be Queen Queen? (for those who don't get that, "Lenna" actually means "Queen") it just doesn't seam right to do it like that.

Actually, "Reina" also means queen...in Spanish. They must've intended for her to be Queen Queen, or they just wanted to be quirky and give her a name that had to do with royalty.

EDIT: Although, did you mean Reina initially? In what language does lenna mean queen? Japanese?

As for other mistranslated names or whatever, the only controversy that I'm familiar with is the whole Aeris vs. Aerith debate. For the longest time, I called her Aeris because it sounded better...but since she's been Aerith in KH I and II, and FFVII CC, I've just submitted. Aeris + lisp it is. :-/

[Jessweeee♪]

Krille is pronounced "krill" I think.


As for Aeris/Aerith, I don't like how "Aeris" looks, but "Aerith" sounds better. So either way.

[hhr1dluv]

^ According to your logic, it should always be Aerith. :p It both looks and sounds better!

As for me, I think Aeris looks and sounds better. Well...maybe Aerith does look a bit better than Aeris.

[Jessweeee♪]

...whoops. I mean Aeris sounds better.

[Darkswordofchaos]

How bout tactics on the PS. It has so many mistransations it almost changes the story

[Marshall Banana]

I wish that Zell wouldn't say "Frickin' Hell!"

[blackmage_nuke]

I prefer Bolt to Thunder.

And Ice over Blizzard.

[The Man]

Cara's name was intended to be romanised as Cara-ru, if memory serves correctly. A verbatim romanisation would be Klulu or Kruru; you're apparently thinking of Cthulhu.

And I believe Leina was the intended name, not Reina or Lenna, although Kishi can tell you more about this.

[MJN SEIFER]

In most of the erley final fantasy title up to 7 i think they changed the name of the holy majics to white or somthing like that but that was cause they was afraid it would offend christan players in america

I think the "Hell" related stuff was changed for the same reason, Nintendo (who had most of the FF stuff) where very sensitive back then - maybe they still are?


As for Aeris/Aerith, I don't like how "Aeris" looks, but "Aerith" sounds better. So either way. ...whoops. I mean Aeris sounds better.

I personally thin Aeris sounds better aswell, although it's wrong, but that's partly because I am unable to pronounce "th" sounds in real life. Here's a thing for you all though, In one of my old magazines I This is the order of the deaths according to the premonition which is backwards; saw an article on FFVII that was produced as the game was being made and they called Aeris "Ealis" anyone else know about that name?


Cara's name was intended to be romanised as Cara-ru, if memory serves correctly. A verbatim romanisation would be Klulu or Kruru; you're apparently thinking of Cthulhu.

And I believe Leina was the intended name, not Reina or Lenna, although Kishi can tell you more about this.

"Cthulhu"? - That's even harder to pronounce than what I put! Also "Leina" sounds familier, like it's been mentioned here before. Have to do some research. I guess.

Keep 'em coming guys.

[Jessweeee♪]

I think Ealis sounds too much like Elvis. Which is something I named her on one playthrough xD

[BG-57]

What gets me wondering is in FFVII Bagrisks drop Vagyrisk Claws. Were there two different translators working on Basilisks?

[The Man]

"Cthulhu"? - That's even harder to pronounce than what I put!Not by accident, I assure you. Actually Lovecraft said he intended it to be pronunced something along the lines of "K'lulu" which makes me wonder whether it was an unconscious homage. It definitely wouldn't be a conscious one.

[MJN SEIFER]

Lenna/Reina: Without second thought, Reina all the way. Again I realize it's wrong, but think about this even in an FF game, why should the second child of a king be Queen Queen? (for those who don't get that, "Lenna" actually means "Queen") it just doesn't seam right to do it like that.

Actually, "Reina" also means queen...in Spanish. They must've intended for her to be Queen Queen, or they just wanted to be quirky and give her a name that had to do with royalty.

EDIT: Although, did you mean Reina initially? In what language does lenna mean queen? Japanese?


I actually thought "Lenna" was the Spanish queen, I must have got it wrong. :roll2 I still prefer Reina though.


What gets me wondering is in FFVII Bagrisks drop Vagyrisk Claws. Were there two different translators working on Basilisks?

Maybe so, I think there where probably some bad comunications in who ever did the monster name translations - I think in a lot of FFs it was the monsters who suffered most from translation errors. (some of them may have been deliberate - like most of the FFVI ones)

[The Crystal]

I prefer to write her name as "Aerith" but pronounce it "Aeris".


And before anyone brings this up: Safer Sephiroth isn't a mistranslation of "Sapher" or "Seraf".
The name "Safer Sephiroth" means "Book of Numbers" in Latin. It's just another reference to the Kaballah.

[The Man]

I was under the impression that "Sepher Sephiroth" was actually the term that meant "The Book of Numbers" in Latin.

[MJN SEIFER]

I orginally had a feeling that "Safer Sephiroth" was a mistranslation of something, I mean - he's safer than what exactly. The Kaballah thing is probably correct though and makes more sense, I had no idea the word "safer" meant something in latin.

Also I notice that some names where changed totally, this would sometimes be either because what they where called was deamed too religious or too offensive at the time (mostly Nintendo's fault), and sometimes they would be because for some strange reason Square only allowed themselves so many spaces to create names, so originally we had names all cramed up like "Phnix Down", but as that just looks really stupid, we got things like "Fenix Down", which is the wrong spelling, but it is better because it looks like a propper word. For monsters and Summons we got complety different names, "Cappitlebas"(sp?) couldn't fit, so it became "shoat". Now, I have no idea what a "Cappitlebas" is, but it's most likely named after something legendary - so calling it "Shoat" probably ruins the meaning.

[Kawaii Ryûkishi]

Cara's name was intended to be romanised as Cara-ru, if memory serves correctly. A verbatim romanisation would be Klulu or Kruru; you're apparently thinking of Cthulhu.

And I believe Leina was the intended name, not Reina or Lenna, although Kishi can tell you more about this.

Before the game was ever actually localized, the official Romanizations of the FFV cast's names were Butz, Lenna, Galuf, Faris, and Klulu. The faulty PlayStation translation of the game has had the bizarre side-effect of Klulu being Romanized "Krile," even in Japan. Even though that makes no sense.

Butz and Lenna have stayed the same, though.

[Roogle]

Klulu and Kruru sound displeasing to the ear to the average English speaker, in my opinion.

I was a big fan of the name Cara, but since that is not really her name, it might be better to go with a sort of romanized version of the name with a minor modification to make it more pleasant to the North American audience.

What about Kururu?

EDICT J2EK[kururu][: 枢 n くるる (1) pivot hinge (using extensions on the top & bottom of a door that fit into cavities in the frame)/(2) sliding wooden bolt (for holding a door or window shut) :]

[Kawaii Ryûkishi]

I'm just saying what was official. (I also happen to think Klulu sounds wonderful.)

[Bolivar]

Translations can make a big difference on a game, I think the different FFVI versions prove that. The original SNES/Playstation one is corny, the GBA version apparently is epic, and I think the unofficial SkyRender/ChrisRPG translation from RPGOne.com gives it a very adult, japanese-import-type feel that apparently is truer to the original.

I also think all of the Playstation names for Final Fantasy V are much better than their original, and now official romanizations. Butz and Lenna sound like awkward engrish, trying to say Bartz and Reina.

I'm in the minority, but I personally enjoy the imperfect translations of Final Fantasy VII and Final Fantasy Tactics. To me, its an added aesthetic, it has this very raw feel to it, something that you could never get from an American game with proper english all the way through. This feel/ambience it gives the games is probably part of why they're 2 of my favorite games of all time, probably my top 2 favorite RPG's of all time.

[Kawaii Ryûkishi]

the unofficial SkyRender/ChrisRPG translation from RPGOne.com gives it a very adult, japanese-import-type feel that apparently is truer to the original.

It might be truer to the letter, but not the intent. It's translation without localization, resulting in seemingly nonsensical garbage.

[MJN SEIFER]

Another thing I like is that some translators seam to like to change names of things, to create some sort of external references; for example, in FFVI (I think) Malboros got renaimed as "Oscars" or something stupid, in the same game something got called a "Slurm" - though I dunno what the orginal translation was, though I doubt it was anything Nickelodian related :D (of course, I can't prove it was intentional) Also the Three Dream Stooges where changed to "The 3 Stooges" in one version, and their real names (can't remember what they were, but it all meant "Dream" I think) where changed to the actual 3 Stooges' names (Curly, Larry, and Moe) - you can't tell me that was unintentional.

[The Man]

I always assumed Slurm was a Futurama reference.

[MJN SEIFER]

I always assumed Slurm was a Futurama reference.

Is there something called a "Slurm" in Futurama? New one on me...

The first thing I thought of was a Nickelodian show (Someone's Castle I think) they had some small worm-like characters called Slurms, and since Slurms are worm-like, I thought that's where the name came from.

Was the Futurama Slurm a worm? <---EDIT: Hey that rhymes!

[The Man]

It's a super-addictive soft drink, which comes from a gigantic worm/slug-like creature (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fry_and_the_Slurm_Factory) (indeed, the name is a portmanteau of "slug" and "worm").

[MJN SEIFER]

It's a super-addictive soft drink, which comes from a gigantic worm/slug-like creature (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fry_and_the_Slurm_Factory) (indeed, the name is a portmanteau of "slug" and "worm").

Oh yeah, that. Thanks for answering - I;m suprised I forgot it.

[Bolivar]

the unofficial SkyRender/ChrisRPG translation from RPGOne.com gives it a very adult, japanese-import-type feel that apparently is truer to the original.

It might be truer to the letter, but not the intent. It's translation without localization, resulting in seemingly nonsensical garbage.

I would disagree. Localization in Nintendo era RPGs from Japan almost guaranteed complete sabotage of "translation true to intent".

In many cases, "localization" actually meant censorship to comply with American norms. I'm not sure if you could ever argue that translating the spell "holy" to "pearl" is translating truer to intent, when a blatant religious allusion gets turned into a type of gem.

The names are the most obvious examples. Tina is supposed to be an exotic name, whereas Terra just sounds like a latin/romance-language reference. Cayenne is a spice, where Cyan is a color, simply replaced to comply with the 6-character maximum of names.

I'm assuming you either haven't played the various versions, or are unaware of the "true intent" you speak of from the Japanese FFVI. Because I don't think you could seriously argue that the American localization of FFVI was truer to intent and not get laughed out of the room.

[Kawaii Ryûkishi]

I'm talking about the presentation of the story, not petty, immaterial things like whether Ether got renamed Tincture. The only place I can think of where it was actually compromised was Celes's suicide attempt, which got nonsensically rewritten as a "leap of faith."

Things like translating Relm's dialogue as referring to herself in the third person are true to the letter of the Japanese version, but they either carry different, unintentional meanings or make no sense at all from a Western perspective. They've been translated without being localized.

(In the example given, in Japan, using the third person to refer to oneself is associated with small children; for us, it's how cavemen talk. The competent, official localization makes Relm use normal pronouns while finding ways to convey her childishness that still makes sense in a Western context.)

[MJN SEIFER]

I remember the "leap of faith" stuff - it was pointless translating (not even really translating, but rather over moralized cenorship).

Going on; One thing I suddenly remembered is when the translation would suddenly use a word from another translation (I assume that's what it was) there may be some on other FFs but the ones I remember where FFVII, One of the Chocobo's Greens is reffered to as "Salmon Greens" by an NPC - confusing newcomers as "Salmon Greens" don't exist, I think it is refering to Mimmit(sp?) Greens. So Salmon might be from another translation - or a simple mistake by the translaters. Another example is that at one point (I forget where) you recieve the "Last Elixer", does that mean that's the last ever Elixer you will find in the game? No it's just a Megalixer. :roll2

Note: I'm still trying to determine wether "Knowlespole" was a mistranslation or not...

[The Man]

Yeah I'm pretty sure that was supposed to be North Pole.

[Wolf Kanno]

Localization is incredibly important for RPGs nowadays. XII would have been a very generic game if they just chose to simply translate it. Not only did they give it a much more humanized narrative but they even brought over the multi-cultural aspect that was present in the Japanese version by utilizing different dialects to show different regions of the world. Hell, some people feel the English version is actually superior to the Japanese version in regards to localization.

In the past, a lot was lost in localization. Hell some titles still slip through the cracks (FFX, Xenosaga, etc...) I even feel part of my issues with a title like VII is that the poor localization makes several of the story elements seem less important than they really are. Luckily the Ultimania clears it up but its still annoying. I have not been able to get the emulator to work to see Skyrender's translation but from what I have seen of the dialogue, I'm more in agreement with Kishi that the fan translation is lacking due to having little localization. The GBA ports of IV-VI prove how powerful an accurate translation combined with excellent localization can create an almost different experience. Hell, even though I do miss the whole "Nanten and Hokuten" Knights spiel in FFT:WoTL, it was amusing to see them translated and see a newer facet of the Ivalice of FFT. The localization really cleared up and made the FFT world seem more interconnected than before.

Now if I can just get SE to do a new translation and port of Xenogears, we'll be in business. God knows that game lost quite a bit in its localization. :cool:

[MJN SEIFER]

Yeah I'm pretty sure that was supposed to be North Pole.

Yeah, It probably is.

I like Skyrender's translation as well, although inplaces it looks like things are in the wrong order (I only have it as a script) I can't think of any examples yet, but I have the script somewhere so I'll soon have some. I can remember being a bit confused about the EXP Egg clue in that one - it certanly isn't "The World Is Square".

Also I heard a rumor that FFVII had the most monster names poorly translated. Anyone know some examples?