Another complainy topic where someone whines about a game that has not been made yet!

[DanoruX]

Actually....no. It's not 'vaun'. Say it like you would imitate a german guy saying wahn, as in Wahnsinn (crazyness). And thats how you say Vaan. ^^

[kikimm]

...that sounds almost exactly the same. Balthier says his name in one of the trailers...*searches*

[Resha]

Vaaaan von vhen??? I'm sure we'll get to like the names once we get to know more about teh characters, yesh?!?! Ve vait.

[icegoddess]

wasnt there a girl, who named herself after a weapon, wasnt she a princess whose orginal name was a precious stone. everyone nowadays loves little girls who are named things like emerald or diamond or katana or cutless.
actually, i was the one who came up with those names for ffxii and sent them in to be used (except for fran, i had actually written down fren, they just messed up)...you dont like them *sniff*

[Dark Ekonis]

I think that the more bizzar the name the more it fits into a fantasy theme.

[Breine]

As far as I think the names in Final Fantasy XII are actually pretty good. Like others have said, the Final Fantasy games take place in fantasy worlds, and therefore it is only right that the characters' names fit the game, the world and so on.

Also, there have been worse names in the Final Fantasy games. Butz, as someone else have mentioned, is kinda weird, but in a way it fits the character and that's really what is important and not if it sound cool. Also the character Vivi, from Final Fantasy IX, has a somewhat weird name to people in Denmark. The name "Vivi" is a girl's name in Denmark, but it doesn't bother me. If you ignore the fact that it's a girl's name, the name fits the character, his personality and the world of Final Fantasy IX.

Millions of people have funny, weird and strange names all around the world. No matter what you do, your name probably means something strange in another language. You can't evade such a thing.

Anyway, I actually like the name Balflear. There's something medieval-ish over it.

[Raistlin]

Personally, I doubt you'll be able to change the names. In FFX they were able to pull off a script without using the main character's name. I doubt they can do a script without using any names.

Is it really that hard to use a code or whatever to input into the script whatever name you choose for the main character? They've been doing it on the freaking PS1 since the first Suikoden.

[Del Murder]

I think the problem is with the voice acting. Getting them to pronounce customized names is difficult and wouldn't flow well with the rest of the dialogue.

[Dark Ekonis]

Voice overs with personalized names is more difficult then what you might think, You have to make sure the pronunctuation is the same as it is spelled or else the personalized name could be butchered.

[Cloudane]

vAHn I can handle, sounds good.

Van would be bad, think of an automobile.
Vaun would also be bad, I'd be thinking of that prat off British TV, Johnny Vaughan or however it's spelt... I have several names for him, but 'prat' and 'pillock' are the only ones that are permitted on this particular forum

What about the faces? Apart from pretty-boy, the others look pretty-ugly IMO. Especially that Balthier guy, he looks like a version of Seifer that got made homeless and spent a few years in the gutter

[rubah]

I liked the names they picked out, and the pronounciations I have in my head ;_;

less than three balflear. I hope they don't change it although I guess balthier is almost the same phonetically, but still, it doesn't look as cool.

Balflear is way hotter than seifer. *way*.

[olstar18]

Just to kinda prove how similar some of the words and phrases are in japanese I have two phrases mentioned in the manga hellsing that are almost exactly the same but have two completely different meanings.
anime-ka means turned into anime and ani-meka means mecha big brother. Seriously just changeing where a dash is put changes the entire thing. Course this is just the romanized version of it in normal japanese it probably has completely different symbols. (as you can guess i know very little japanese and that is only in romanized text)

[TasteyPies]

Voice overs with personalized names is more difficult then what you might think, You have to make sure the pronunctuation is the same as it is spelled or else the personalized name could be butchered.

If my cell phone can do it so can ffXII

[Croyles]

The guys name is Balthier which in roman is Balflear and probably called Balflear in japan.

Your cell phone is not a real person and therefore there is no situation where single syllables are recorded for each voice over actor and put together to form the recquired name.

As for the name being butchered, if they could do this, they would probably have a test name button on the character naming screen which will play the sound of the characters name by the voice actors.