Judging from the comments, people are in an uproar about how I never do any “real” updates. I now see the error of my ways. Clearly, the problem was that I was previously including too many pictures and videos. Going forward, I will do my best to provide “real” updates in the form of long, boring reams of text. I seem to have gotten a lot of questions about names recently, so I guess I will discuss that. Those of you that will find this tl;dr may want to just stop now. Those of you that just look for pretty pictures and videos and ignore any and all text (and I know a lot of you are out there) will also want to quit now, because as I said, this post will be long and boring and will contain neither pictures nor video.
Basically, Tales of Hearts is a game with a lot of deep meaning behind each and every carefully-chosen name. Okay, not really. They just kind of threw a lot of mineral, fairy tale, and plant names all over the place and called it a day. I could discuss all of these, but I think the names that people tend to ask the most about are of three of the main characters — Xing, Hisui, and Kohaku.
Xing Meteoryte
“But his name is Shing! It says so on the official website!” you say. The official Engrish on the website is meaningless to me. If it works well, then sure, I’ll go with it. If not, though, I won’t. And it doesn’t really work well. The words a name like “Shing” brings to mind are not exactly positive, making it a very undesirable name to speakers of the English language. Xing, on the other hand, is pronounced the same and readily brings to mind another theme that Xing is heavily associated with — stars. Xing (星) means “star” in Chinese, and that same character is repeated throughout Xing’s Artes and titles. And I mean c’mon, his last name is Meteoryte.
It can also mean “heart” (心), and this is the meaning that the Tales of Hearts developers were supposedly going for, according to their blog. In line with the Heart theme, they wanted to make the main character a young man whose heart is like a blank slate. And so because he is endowed with a heart (心を具えている/kokoro o sonaete iru), they named him Shing (心具/shingu). I am not sure this explanation really makes any sense. Also, incidentally, this makes him the only character not named after a mineral. Which is a bit odd, since his mother and grandfather are both named after minerals, and he would be too if we were going with the Xing spelling. This, combined with the fact that Shing was originally a placeholder name that was intended to be eventually replaced with something else, which never happened since the dev team ran out of time and was too attached to the temporary names to make a real decision, makes me not really put a lot of stock in their official Engrish spelling, “Shing”.
tl;dr Some people, who shall go unnamed, argue that he should be called Shing because it represents the supposed 心具 meaning (?) better (?) than Xing does. I argue that I’d rather not have a main character named similarly to herpes. I think I win. My apologies to the Japanese dev team.
Hisui Hearts
This one is probably the most straightforward of the bunch. Keeping in line with the mineral naming theme, Hisui means “jade” in Japanese. (He also is wind-element and has a green color scheme; imagine that!) So the question is, should his name be translated into English? Keep in mind that, other than characters who are from ninja villages based on Japan, Tales has never used Japanese names before. Hisui is not from a ninja village that is based on Japan, and his name means something that is relevant to the naming theme. The Japanese audience would recognize this and appreciate the masterful artistry that went into naming the characters (or more likely, groan at the cheesiness of it all). Therefore, it makes sense to rename him Jade — oops, we already have a Tales character by that name! Jaden it is.
However! Being a fantranslator, I am somewhat hesitant to completely rename a character. The audio is still Japanese, and if someone yells “Hisui!” and you read “Jaden!”, it’s slightly disconcerting. As I noted in the readme for the Demo patch release, if I were working on an official Bamco localization project for this game instead of a mere fantranslation, I would probably go with Jaden (or at least seriously consider it). As it stands, however, I kind of want to stick with Hisui.
Kohaku Hearts
The same arguments regarding translation apply to her; her name means “amber” in Japanese. I would totally rename her “Amber” if this weren’t a fantranslation. Since it is, though, I’m sticking with Kohaku.
“But wait, the official site says she’s Kohak!” you say. To that, I say psh and hogwash. Kohak is not a Japanese name; Kohaku is. More importantly, Kohak sounds stupid. If you listen to the audio, there is an “oo” sound at the end of her name. This is properly reflected in “Kohaku”. “Kohak”, on the other hand, does not reflect this, and further, sounds completely non-feminine. “Co-hack”? “Cough, hack”, perhaps? Or maybe more charitably, “Ko-hawk”? It would be a cool name for like, a muscled but lithe jungle native character who leaps from tree to tree and shoots bears with his bow and arrow in an exciting action-adventure game. Maybe even for a rough-and-tough female character along the same lines. Not so much for a cute young lady with an unpossible frilly leotard outfit and mage baton. (Note to Bamco: plz make the aforementioned game with aforementioned female main character)
Bonus: Artes
While we’re at it, let’s discuss Artes. Artes require considerable attention and care because they tend to be interrelated with other Artes in many ways. As the series continues to add new Artes left and right, it is important to at least TRY to maintain some consistency and adopt names that suggest relationships between related Artes and do not suggest relationships between unrelated Artes. This will maintain some level of coherent mapping between the Japanese Arte naming system and the English Arte naming system. I am by no means an expert on this, but I’d like to share some Artes and the relationships they have, using Kohaku as an example:
Shippuukyaku
疾風脚
Kohaku does a three-kick aerial combo.
My Localized Name: Dancing Gale
This one is relatively easy. It is clearly related to the Hienrenkyaku/飛燕連脚/Swallow Dance series of Artes. Additionally, there’s Shippuusen/疾風閃/Shining Gale. Hence, Dancing Gale. Admittedly it’s unclear whether Shippuukyaku and Shippuusen are really meant to be related or not, but ehh.
Kuuga Ranshuusen
空牙嵐蹴旋
Kohaku does a six-kick aerial combo, similar to Shippuukyaku.
My Localized Name: Tornado Dance
This Arte is obviously related to Shippuukyaku by means of effect, similar to how Stahn’s Kuuga Shouryuukyaku/空牙昇竜脚 is related to Hienrenkyaku. Which is called… Dragon Toss, in English… ugh. This name dates back to Tales of Destiny for the PSX, which is somewhat of an unreliable source of decent Arte naming. I believe the ToDR translation project is planning on calling it Wyvern Dance. Anyway, the point is that the parallels are obvious, and if there were any good way of taking into account, it should be done. There really isn’t, though, so I just went with whatever sounds cool and refers to tornados/hurricanes/storms/whatever. Oh well.
Guren Kourin
紅蓮皇輪
Kohaku jumps up and back and throws a ring of flames roughly where she was standing.
My Localized Name: Pyre Ring
So, this one is based on Hell Pyre/紅蓮剣/Gurenken. Except instead of a sword, she does it with her baton thing. She has a previous Arte, Kasenrin/火旋輪, for which I went with Flame Ring. Hence, Pyre Ring. The “kou”/皇 kanji might come from Stahn’s Kouou Tenshouyoku or somewhere else, or it might just kinda randomly be thrown in there. Oh well.
Hopefully you get the idea. There are previous Artes that newer Artes are clearly related to, some that they’re not too clearly related to, some they’re related to but you can’t really figure out a good way to show that relation without making the name sound like Hurricane Fang Leg Ascending through the Rooftops at Dawn or something, and so forth. It’s very complicated.
—
Well, chances are few of you are still awake at this point, so I’ll stop here. I hope this post provided some insight as to how and why some things are named the way they (currently) are. Some of this might even be moot, now that I think about it, since I believe Kohaku shows up in Tales of Graces, which is due to be stateside sometime in the coming months/years. I guess I can just crib off their names once it comes out! Unless they go with Kohak.
And with that, I bid you adieu. Good night, and stay tuned to the Tales Facebook page and Rich’s Twitter for updates regarding Graces!
February 27, 2011 at 5:22 pm | Permalink
I say keep the names as they are. I love Xing, Hisui and Kohaku. Not to mention Hisui Hearts just sounds so well together. Personally, I don’t think the whole world should melt over because of some naming localizations. People act that way sometimes.
As for artes, I don’t care much how they are translated. I’ll use the names even if they were in Al Bhed…which would be cool, by the way.
I hope the ongoing translation goes smoothly.
February 27, 2011 at 5:28 pm | Permalink
Good choices really. I get it you wanting to rename them to Amber and Jade, but even if it was a real localized game by Namco I’d like to see the original names. Feels more anime-y to me, if that makes sense.
February 27, 2011 at 5:29 pm | Permalink
it’s great to see progress keep up the good work
February 27, 2011 at 5:49 pm | Permalink
Very informative post. I enjoyed reading it. Your reasons for the naming schemes make perfect sense and I cant wait to play your fantranslation. Keep up the good work!
February 27, 2011 at 6:49 pm | Permalink
I definitely concur with your naming system as it make the most logical sense. Heck I’d be fine even if you named them all wacky as long as the description of each arte is there in English.
I look forward to your next update ^-^
February 27, 2011 at 7:17 pm | Permalink
I believe I was hit with a Hurricane Fang Leg Ascending Through the Rooftops at Dawn once… not a fun day, that was.
And hah, I was right. “Real” update is just as informative as joke updates with pictures and etc. Which is to say, it’s nice, in that it’s an update. Thanks (even though my first thought was admittedly tl;dr)
…Speaking of which, I strangely sensed this one coming when I went to the website. Got an eerie “Kaji just updated” feeling. Kinda creeps me out that of all the things to have accurate premonitions of, I just had one.. for a fan translation site. 😐
Not that I think there’s any coincidence in that, seeing as he posts roughly once a month and it was about that time again… but yeah.
February 27, 2011 at 8:10 pm | Permalink
glad u don’t replace Hisui by Jade, theres already a Jade… a jerk one 😡
and… thanks for a serious update, you can continue trolling now :l
February 27, 2011 at 8:41 pm | Permalink
Thanks for this excellent update, even when I still enjoyed greatly the JK ones 😀
Keep up this great work, Kaji!
February 27, 2011 at 8:49 pm | Permalink
If you ever feel like expanding on this, I’d love to read it.
Just saying.
February 28, 2011 at 12:52 am | Permalink
Regarding Xing’s family…
The potential basis for Zeks, Donna and their grandson Xing are likely from the minerals Zektzerite, Donnayite-(Y), and Xingzhongite. These further reinforce the naming scheme and your own conclusions. They also have a reasonable XYZ pattern, three familiar letters of the alphabet who are coincidentally in sequence.
Did the creators of the alphabet have this in mind when planning how to lay out the letters? I believe they must have.
http://webmineral.com/data/Zektzerite.shtml
http://webmineral.com/data/Donnayite-(Y).shtml
http://webmineral.com/data/Xingzhongite.shtml
(I stole this information directly from Kaji, in case you’re wondering. Kaji is good and great, and is my hero.)
February 28, 2011 at 12:57 am | Permalink
Thank you for those fine words, Tempus! I had neglected to include that in my post. I am sure it will be of interest to our dear commenters. And I am touched by your words of praise.
February 28, 2011 at 1:25 am | Permalink
You’re a very, very funny man.
February 28, 2011 at 2:11 am | Permalink
Excellent update. Ironically I found the bits on the otherwise serious text hilarious. I totally agree with your naming choices, I did not like Xing at first but now I feel you made the right choice… shingles notwithstanding. SO GLAD you went with Kohaku. I absolutely hate people calling her Kohak. That interpretation of the very japanese name Kohaku makes no damn sense. Japanese devs were just going on their merry engrishy ways as they always do.
Awesome Kaji, glad I happened to check your site today. It is very rewarding to follow a fantranslation of a game you want when the team/person in charge updates on a constant basis like you do.
February 28, 2011 at 7:02 am | Permalink
Thanks for the almost entirely trolling-free update, Kaji.
I never became too involved in the naming controversy of Hearts, so this was an interesting read.
February 28, 2011 at 12:07 pm | Permalink
Lol, I do know that Kohaku is written romanized like that because a friend of mine has that name. xP
And just wondering, but does this game have any romance on it?
I love romance in RPG’s. =3
February 28, 2011 at 1:36 pm | Permalink
It’s a Tales game, so maybe?
February 28, 2011 at 3:33 pm | Permalink
Man this is stupid. I want a real update with pictures, videos and lulz, not this tl;dr BS.
February 28, 2011 at 3:55 pm | Permalink
Hehe. Xing actually is pronounced “Shing” in Mandarin Chinese. And, much as my opinion doesn’t matter much, I think Tornado Dance is a better name than Dragon Toss for 空牙嵐蹴旋(with the kanji translating literally to Sky Fang Tempest Kick Revolve), which has nothing to do with dragons, or tossing.
February 28, 2011 at 4:13 pm | Permalink
You misunderstand. Dragon Toss was the original Tales of Destiny PSX name for Kuuga Shouryuukyaku (空牙昇竜脚). Kuuga Ranshuusen (空牙嵐蹴旋) is a new Arte in Tales of Hearts. The two are obviously intended to be related to each other, but they aren’t the same Arte.
February 28, 2011 at 6:43 pm | Permalink
Good read Kaji. Enjoyed it.
February 28, 2011 at 9:31 pm | Permalink
I enjoyed this wall of text. It had a lot of interesting information and provided some insight into the translation process for Hearts. Hope your still having fun with this translation dispite how much work it is.
Also yeah to Tales of Graces F.
March 1, 2011 at 1:22 am | Permalink
I know it takes time off from your translation work on Hearts, let alone your personal life to do this blog post, so thanks for giving us peasant folk a tiny glimpse into the translation process. You’re the coolest by having your own sarcastic and satirical tone, and I don’t mind if you go 6 months without updating or giving any real progress; you’re still the man for sacrificing hundreds of hours of your time to entertain only a couple of tens of ours.
March 1, 2011 at 4:21 am | Permalink
@Kajitani-Eizan
Ah. Well, I see where the dragon came in. Still don’t see where the original translators got “Toss” from, since 竜 and 脚 translate to Dragon and Leg respectively. But I’ll be the first person to admit I don’t understand Japanese, and only know a few phrases for greetings(I’m using a kanji dictionary to look up the meaning of the kanji..)
March 1, 2011 at 3:38 pm | Permalink
Seriously what’s the big deal? Isn’t going to the status screen and pressing “A” all that is needed to change the names of the characters? You can change Hisui’s name to Green Lantern or whatever, if anybody doesn’t like it changing it is as easy as cake.
Unless the cake is a lie. You aren’t going to remove that option are you?
As for skills names, anybody that tried your previous patches know anything you do can’t be worse than most official translations. I mean Majinken –> Sonic Blade/ Missile Sword = epic lulz. And again, if anybody is unsatisfied there’s the “romanized” option for the skills.
No problem.
March 1, 2011 at 8:02 pm | Permalink
so when do u think the whole translation may be possible?
March 1, 2011 at 11:29 pm | Permalink
It’ll be finished as soon as you stop touching yourself at night, i believe.
March 2, 2011 at 3:23 am | Permalink
Should have capitalized that ‘i’.
March 2, 2011 at 3:35 am | Permalink
@cloud why do you have to be a jackass messiah just asked a question douche
March 2, 2011 at 2:36 pm | Permalink
I thought this was very interesting.
I really want to learn more of the names of the new artes.
March 2, 2011 at 5:41 pm | Permalink
If there’s one thing people hate getting asked, it’s when something’s going to be released.
March 2, 2011 at 7:10 pm | Permalink
lol the progress bar moved backwards 😛
March 2, 2011 at 8:01 pm | Permalink
@Anon: I’m sorry are you kajitani ? … what’s THAT NO SO shut it unless your a mind reader which I doubt. People like you just have to be jerks to others.
March 3, 2011 at 12:13 am | Permalink
^Ahh, the irony.
March 3, 2011 at 1:35 am | Permalink
hey everyone,
we all think that every progress bar moves forward. but what if this one move backwards. i.e. the Gray colored area represent the finished percentage…….
March 3, 2011 at 2:47 am | Permalink
wow I’m actually impress, to be honest I’ve just stumbled into this blog and bam! what do I see? A Tales of Heart Translation, hahah, it’s true that I haven’t been following the Tales Series like a die hard fan these past few years…
Anyway, back on topic, I really like how you describe the way you went for naming the Characters and Artes, it really makes senses and I agree 100% on Xing meaning ‘Star’ versus Shing which if I’m correct means Victory/Triumph in Chinese.
Keep up the good work! Something most peoples don’t know about translations is that it’s never easy and require the translators to give up 10% of their lifespan every time a game is translated!
Sincerely,
Seishin Kan
March 3, 2011 at 8:59 am | Permalink
It requires lifespan?! O_O How comes..?
I mean.. so basically Developers have a short lifespan or what is it that actually takes the lifespan? Working with fans? I’m sooo gonna die soon. Q_Q I don’t want to die, I want to have a house and husband and children and stuff…
March 3, 2011 at 9:29 am | Permalink
What would that mean to poor Ted Woolsey, then? ;_; I mean, in the SNES era, he translated at least 7 titles, which means he already lost 70% of his lifespan! And that was back in the 90’s!!!! NO! DON’T DIE, TED WOOLSEY. YOU’RE AN INSPIRATION TO PEOPLE! You translated entire RPGs in less than a MONTH! You’re a hero! Can’t die… just can’t…
Sorry, I got overemotional *sniff*.
March 3, 2011 at 11:39 am | Permalink
“It would be a cool name for like, a muscled but lithe jungle native character who leaps from tree to tree and shoots bears with his bow and arrow in an exciting action-adventure game.”
Really? I was thinking native American. :/
Also, a game like that needs to be made. Sounds so ****ing manly.
March 3, 2011 at 5:55 pm | Permalink
@Alurane
It’s because people like you don’t know how to use correct grammar or spell correctly. Perhaps if people like you and Messiah would stop butchering the English language I’d show some manner of respect as a person of equal standing, but no.
March 3, 2011 at 6:01 pm | Permalink
Also, for the record, ‘you’re’ is a contraction of ‘you are’ while ‘your’ is the possessive form of ‘you’. What you wanted was the former where, in that case, I would be the mind reader. It’s really surprising how many people get them mixed up.
March 3, 2011 at 6:15 pm | Permalink
Imagine an annoying little kid that’s being taken by car to an amusement park. The kid is so excited that he can’t help but keep asking: “Are we there yet?”;”How about now?”; “Are we close?”; “Have we arrived?”; “How much longer till we arrive?”; “OMG, thank you so much for what you are doing, dad but… how much longer? =3”.
Yes, I’m talking about you. Yes, you that keeps asking “how much longer”. Yes, YOU! You are the annoying little kid. No,no, I’m not Kaji and I can’t read minds, it’s just common sense.
March 3, 2011 at 11:21 pm | Permalink
Very good and informative update. However I do miss the pictures and videos.
March 4, 2011 at 1:52 am | Permalink
@ anon: you feel better know it all
March 4, 2011 at 1:58 am | Permalink
Even when Kajitani makes a (mostly) serious update, retarded responses and petty disputes show up in the comments. The internet is truly amazing.
March 4, 2011 at 2:59 pm | Permalink
At any rate it’s good to see the patch isn’t dead. I’m almost done with the game and this will give me a reason to play again.
March 4, 2011 at 11:07 pm | Permalink
@Solo
you fail to remember how stupid people on the internet can be :<
March 5, 2011 at 6:05 am | Permalink
@Aqua
It’s not that all that people are stupid; it’s because of the GIFT (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/GIFT). There’s just something in anonymity that makes people act like 5 year olds on the internet, given the circumstances. Kind of sad, actually.
March 5, 2011 at 12:19 pm | Permalink
@Sahgo
Ahaha, you do have a point there. But even without anons all over the place people still act that, regardless. Really says a lot about the maturity of people.
March 5, 2011 at 12:57 pm | Permalink
The GIFT really made my day.
March 5, 2011 at 2:49 pm | Permalink
Just feeding trolls with replies and calling them kids is already immature. It’s really cute how people just love to call others stupid and whiny just to look all grown up in the internet. That alone just prove that you have the GIFT.
They complain about the wait and you complain about them. This is the internet, we’re all at the same level. Deal with it.