im confused with their names

[Dr.M]

im having troble getting use to the charaters' names

vaan- the to 'A's are weird. can't we just call him car the wonder dog
ashe or is it ache or something and how the hell do u say it
and to to guys with b names i can't say them

fran and penelo i can live with.

[Zanark]

Vaan could be pronounced "van" or "va'an."
Ashe, I think is just "ash."

[TheAbominatrix]

I think it'd be prudent to wait until the game is out, that way you have the voice actors saying the names and you'll know just how to pronounce them. Maybe be a little presumptuous to worry now.

edit: And in my exhaustion, I forgot to answer the question. Zanark has most likely got it right. I dont see any other ways to pronounce them, and Ashe is no different than Ash, just with a slightly more feminine spelling.

[Ouch!]

I've always been pronouncing Vaan like Vaughn, which is pronounced Von. It just sounds better as far as I'm concerned.

[Craig]

Vaan = Van
Ashe = Ash

IMO.

[crazybayman]

I've always been pronouncing Vaan like Vaughn, which is pronounced Von. It just sounds better as far as I'm concerned.

I'm pretty sure this is right.

Seems like its a Dutch influenced name.......anyways, I think its a cool sounding name.

Being a game that will appeal to gamers all over the world, I don't think Square will limit themselves to English sounding names only.

I catch myself reading "Ashe" as Ash-ie....but maybe it should be pronounced "Ash"....guess we'll only know when we hear the voice-overs.

[rubah]

there's a lot of people that think Balflear is stupid and would prefer balthier, but I don't.

Van, Ash, ball-fleer.

Penelo should be more of an issue than the two four letter names:P

Is it pen-nel-o like in penelope, or penna-lo?

[FranXII]

Fran should be the esiest to know...

[Raven Nox]

I'm sure both Vaan and Fran are with accents:
Vaan=said like von
Fran=said like fron, though, I don't think the english version will pronouce it this way

I just pronouce Vaan like it was pronouced in Escaflowne, which was "von", and whenever I've heard the name Fran, it's been pronpunced "Fron"

Also, I think Ache, and the other ways to spell it reflect the japanese way to say Ashe, I think it's really prounced Ash.

Penelo, I would think, would be something like peh-ni-lo, it can also be Peh-neh-lo, though, or neither. xD It all really depends on how it was written in japanese, and since I don't remember what characters are in her name, I don't know. XD

It's the two Balthier and Basch (or whatever their names are, when the game comes out, I'll make note of the spelling) that I don't really have a temp pronouction for, I just say Bal-fere and Bah-sh, XD or something like that, but when the game comes out, we'll heard hoe it's said, and I wouldn't doubt I'm saying them all wrong. XD

[assemblage]

going off of the whole japanese pronunciation thing, they probably said "ah-shey", but since they tend to not say the y, it probably is just "ash". and i agree with Raven about the "von". i want to, anyway...i mean, in a way, the pronunciation "van" is already taken by Chrono Cross, what with that kid from that town that i can't remember. ( ::later...."AHH! TERMINA! THAT'S IT!!! :freak:" :: ) but yknow, who knows. you should email Square, see what they say, they'd be able to shed some light on the subject.

[TheAbominatrix]

Or wait for the game to come out. Either way.

And Van from Chrono Cross has a much more complex Japanese name. Van is just the dub name.

[assemblage]

oh, did he? okay, i don't know about this stuff, but yknow. i pretty much BS my way through life. it's rather fun

[TheAbominatrix]

xD no worries.