Translation Facination

[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. 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 (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 (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 (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.