FFXII Espers = homage to Woolsey?

[aerithsloveslave]

I haven't seen this discussed before so here it goes.

In FFVI, summons were called Phantom Beasts in the original Japanese version. Ted Woolsey, the translator of the English version, renamed them to Espers in order to decrease the amount of text that needed to be used. Now in FFXII the summons are called Espers (in both the Japanese and English versions). My question is this:

Did Square-Enix of Japan name them as an homage to Ted Woolsey, who was just a game translator? I guess it just seems strange to me that a big Japanese videogame company would be influenced by an English game translator.

Your thoughts, please.

[chionos]

I doubt it had anything at all to do with Woolsey. Terming them as Espers just makes them more tangible. "Esper" is a snappy term, readily recognized, and easily perpetuated.

[Kawaii Ryûkishi]

The use of "Esper" definitely pays credence to the SNES translation of FFVI, but it's more about invoking nostalgia in people who played that game than anything to do with respecting Woolsey personally. Japanese gamers have found Phantom Beasts to be pretty consistently labeled throughout the series, so why shouldn't English-speaking gamers get the same benefit? Same deal with the use of "magicite."