Whats the proper spelling of X-Death?

[The Magus]

The game spells it "X-Death" but I usually hear everyone saying "EX-Death." Which do you think is correct?

[TasteyPies]

X-Death, obviously :rolleyes2

grar...

[DJZen]

In the US version, he's called X-Death. In the Japanese version, he's called Ex-Death. I'm guessing he got renamed for one of the following reasons:

1) X takes fewer spaces then Ex, and things always need to be shortened in English translations.
2) They're pronounced the exact same way, and would therefore be spelled the same way in Japanese, so the translater just didn't know better.
3) X is EDGY. It's COOL. ALL the kids like the letter X. I mean, just look at all the X-treme movies with "X" in the title! Why there's Jason X, the anime X, there's even a TRIPLE X!!!! HOW COOL IS THAT!?!!?!

[ShivaBlizzard8]

LOL - I don't think it has anything to do with that.

I believe the difference comes from the fact that there are 2 translations of FF5 from Japanese to English. The first one was a fan-made ROM translation created closer to the time the game was originally released in Japan (mid-1990s). This translation used names like Batz, Lenna, Cara, and Ex-Death for its main characters, and is generally considered the "better" translation.

The second is the "official" translation, made by Square when it finally released FF5 outside of Japan as part of FF Anthology for the PS in 1999. This one used names like Bartz, Renia, Krile, and X-Death. This is generally considered the "crappy" translation.

Since most FF fans prefer the old fan-made ROM translation, they still refer to characters as Lenna or Ex-Death as opposed to the actual Square names. So really, its all a matter of opinion; personally, I prefer Ex-Death because X-Death sounds really cheesy.

[Del Murder]

Ex-Death is former death and X-Death is extra death. Which one is more intimidating?

[UltimateSpamGrover]

Its weird in my version of FF5, when I fought him in (SPOILER) Galufs World it said was Ex-Death

[DJZen]

I always read X-Death as Death multiplied by a variable, and Ex-Death I always read as FROM death. But yeah, the fan translation wasn't actually done in the mid nineties, it was completed sometime around 98 or 99 I think. Also, the names used were Butz (the officially given name, I think you can see why it was changed), Lenna, Faris, Galuf and Kururu. At least, the translation I saw way back when SAID it was going to be Kururu. They might have switched and used Cara instead. There are many reasons why people think the fan translation was better done, including higher accuracy on name translations (Salsa? SARISA!!!!) including enemy names (What's a Y Burn? Is that anything like a Wyvern?), "less censorship", etc. Generally people get pissed off if anything gets changed on its way over from Japan. Some of these people should look at the many ways FFVII was raped by its translators....

[Jebus]

I like Ex-Death better. In Latin "ex" means beyond. (It also means from, but bear with me here.) So that way his name would be beyond death, which is cool.

[MJN SEIFER]

It was supposed to Be "Excdeath witch meand "Exceeds Death"

[Heath]

First I've ever heard of "ExcDeath".

I, like Jebus, prefer "Ex-Death" over the others for the reason he gave.

[Sefie1999AD]

I also prefer Exdeath. X-Death sounds way too generic, cheesy and stupid. I think he was Ekusudesu or something like that in Japanese, which could be something like Exodes if you translate it.

[aeris2001x2]

i,ll think i,ll stick with the offical square translation for my ffV boss tournment