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!
March 5, 2011 at 7:27 pm | Permalink
i got the gift but dont got the GIFT
birthday gifts all arounnnnd
March 6, 2011 at 2:40 am | Permalink
“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. ”
iamokaywiththis.jpg
If you were being serious for once I agree with the names aside from Xing, but oh well, I can rename him in the game.
March 6, 2011 at 2:43 am | Permalink
Oh, I forgot to say something. Thank you for making a real update. Go back to your joke updates if you want, but releasing actual updates now and then would be nice.
March 9, 2011 at 9:10 pm | Permalink
Hisui and Kohaku screams “TSUKIHIME” for me. No, not a critique, just a random comment
I just stopped by, downloaded the nakiri2 patch and decided to drop a “Thank you” for your effort. Keep on going and I hope you’re having fun
March 10, 2011 at 1:18 am | Permalink
WOW! I defend somebody on here and get called a child amazing thank you very much. I can’t stand when people aren’t nice so I had to say something but i guess i know better now….
March 10, 2011 at 3:06 am | Permalink
So what if I use the wrong words or grammar i’m human i’m not perfect we all need to have respect for each other but no things like “because you touch yourself at night” need be said why I ask? Why be mean? If sombody wants to know when it (the translation) comes out that’s the person’s prerogative, just because it’s annoying does not give you the right to deliberately say something foul or negative. Chialry is in my veins and so I felt had to say something but that wasn’t right of me either I am sorry if i offended anyone but can we please keep things in a kind
courteous manner.
Because in the end we all live then we die
March 10, 2011 at 10:24 am | Permalink
COMMAS.
Use them.
Because in the end we all live then we die
March 10, 2011 at 1:54 pm | Permalink
omg it just doesn’t stop no i won’t use commas this is a website not a term paper
March 10, 2011 at 2:23 pm | Permalink
Welcome to the Writing Center Online Writing Lab.
March 10, 2011 at 3:07 pm | Permalink
You all should be ashamed of being suck jerks to that poor thing. Why do you think you are better than him, just because you can use proper punctuation and he can’t? Or maybe because his pleas for a release date are annoying? Or is it because he can’t spell right?
People like him deserve respect too. Let’s stop this madness, we all live and die at the end.
March 10, 2011 at 3:31 pm | Permalink
@Alurane
Chialry is in your veins? Well, I’m sorry to hear that. It sounds very unpleasant. Fortunately, I have chivalry, so I don’t have to worry about that.
March 10, 2011 at 5:53 pm | Permalink
This is a proper comma use zone. Remember, every time you neglect or abuse a comma, a kitten or puppy dies horribly, respectively.
Remember the kittens and puppies. Thank you for your cooperation.
March 10, 2011 at 6:59 pm | Permalink
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March 10, 2011 at 7:00 pm | Permalink
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March 10, 2011 at 7:03 pm | Permalink
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March 10, 2011 at 7:05 pm | Permalink
I’d like to mock him/her too, but I’m too lazy… but not too lazy to post this post.
At least no puppies or kittens died because of my post though. At least, none that I’m aware of.
March 10, 2011 at 7:07 pm | Permalink
I have dyslexia but thank you for making fun of me
March 10, 2011 at 8:00 pm | Permalink
If you’re gonna pretend to be two different persons you could at least use punctuation in one of the posts, that way you wouldn’t be as obvious.
Unless you have dyslexia AND split personality…
March 10, 2011 at 9:36 pm | Permalink
Please refrain from spamming stupid comments with random instances of inappropriate language. The offending comments have been terminated. Thank you for your cooperation.
March 10, 2011 at 9:39 pm | Permalink
Haha. Aside from the punctuation, the first time it kept his posting image; the second, it changed it, but kept his name… So it’s obvious either way.
@Alurane: Stop inviting people to make fun of you if you find it undesirable. Or continue, if you want – it’s kinda funny watching you demean yourself and then blame others for what follows.
Oh, and random – Kaji, if you need/want an editor for the script or anything, I’d be willing. I’m guessing that position’s been filled a few times over though.
March 10, 2011 at 11:13 pm | Permalink
Aha, well I had no idea any users here were dyslexic, so I’ll have to apologize for offending you, Alurane.
But uhh, aye, what lolprogressbar said. If there’s anything you need someone for, this complete stranger is willing to do a bit of work.
March 11, 2011 at 11:03 am | Permalink
Yeah, apologies from here too.
March 12, 2011 at 8:00 am | Permalink
It’s always good to make yourself look pretty well-educated online. If English isn’t your first language, then say so and maybe there won’t be as many insults being thrown around. I’ll forgive you for that. The Internet is very superficial, after all. I still don’t like people who ask for release dates, though.
March 12, 2011 at 4:29 pm | Permalink
It’s said that Jrpgs are repetitive, but it’s ok to shoot sombody over and over in games like halo or Call of Duty… I disagree.
March 12, 2011 at 4:49 pm | Permalink
Ahaha, all games are like that, not a single one of them isn’t guilty of doing the same thing over and over again.
March 12, 2011 at 7:24 pm | Permalink
Hey Kaji, about Kohaku artes I have a suggestion…
Since Shippuukyaku and Kuuga Ranshuusen are related, why not name it more related?
Like, Dancing Gale and Dancing Tornado, Gale Dance and Tornado Dance…
March 15, 2011 at 4:43 pm | Permalink
People clam down, why bitch about the names? I mean come on this is worst then a 5 year old kid. So what if the names are wrong, who gives a flying fuck. Besides, the names he pick, are waaaaaaaaay better.
March 15, 2011 at 6:15 pm | Permalink
As long as the translation is better than “Shishi Senkou” becoming “Beast”, I’m okay.
(seriously, wth? “Beast”? Just… “Beast”? That always bugged me.)
March 15, 2011 at 6:38 pm | Permalink
Beast always sounded silly to me. Especially since the speakers in my TV don’t work properly, so I keep hearing “FEET!” instead Beast. But it’s still better than “Chi”
I always thought Lion Strike was appropriate, or at least something with Lion in the name >.>
March 15, 2011 at 9:20 pm | Permalink
People are actually bitching about names? I haven’t read most of the comments. Jesus, why? You can rename them if you want.
March 16, 2011 at 2:07 pm | Permalink
Eh, most of the bitching took place on forums and stuffs that aren’t all that related to this site. Haven’t seen many complaints here though.
March 16, 2011 at 4:29 pm | Permalink
Hisui’s name should be changed to Oliver Queen and Kunzite’s to Otto Gunther.
Nuff said.
March 20, 2011 at 7:59 am | Permalink
I don’t see a problem with the naming convention. I know a bit of Chinese, so hearing a character called “Xing” sounds cheesy regardless of how its spelled. As for Hisui and Kohaku, they sound stereotypically Japanese, which is kinda what most would expect from a JAPANESE video game. And Kohak just sounds stupid. I find it hard to believe anybody would want her to be named like that ._.
March 22, 2011 at 5:22 pm | Permalink
I actually really liked this post, but pics and vids are still nice!
March 23, 2011 at 6:37 pm | Permalink
Some people here bitch and all but it’s bearable. Kajitani is sarcastic and doesn’t interact that much with us readers, so it feels like he’s distant and sometimes like he doesn’t give a crap about us at all. But I like his style better than Absolute Zero’s. thoughhim was so present and “nice” in his blog people would go there just for the sake of posting “thanks”and how epically godly awesomely cool thoughhim was. Sometimes you’d scroll down an entire page and see nothing but “thanks” spamming and pleas for a release date.
Nothing against AZ, I loved the ToI patch and donated before and after the release, but often I felt like I was in a fangirl club while browsing the blog. I hope the next updates will be made in old style, and with Kaji being the good old a**hole he have been until now. I’d hate to see the ass-kissing brigade setting camp over here.
March 27, 2011 at 4:03 pm | Permalink
If I were a translator for an official localization team, I would definitely go for Amber and Jaden, too. (I originally was thinking ‘Nephrite’ since, yeah, there’s already a Jade, but Nephrite’s a little clunky, and when I thought about it, Jaden suits him way better anyway and, like Amber, sounds like a real name.) Barring using Amber, I would definitely stick with Kohaku, because Kohak, like Shing, looks terrible. (Personally, I would use Amber and Jaden /anyway/, but I definitely understand the reason for your hesitation.)
Speaking of Shing, I love Xing, too; it has a clever layered meaning (certainly cleverer than the names that were actually given) that’s relevant to both major themes of the character (“star” and “heart”). So, know that you have at least one person supporting your choice in translations!
March 28, 2011 at 1:47 pm | Permalink
Huh… Haven’t been here for a while, but it seems like something happened. <..<"
March 28, 2011 at 1:52 pm | Permalink
What the hell… =(
I had written a huge text and only the first phrase appeared… T_T
March 28, 2011 at 1:57 pm | Permalink
*floats around while waiting for next update*
March 29, 2011 at 8:44 am | Permalink
Jadite also sounds nice.
March 29, 2011 at 2:51 pm | Permalink
No it doesn’t.
Jadite? Seriously? No, just no.
March 29, 2011 at 3:48 pm | Permalink
*agrees with Eman while floating around while waiting for update*
March 30, 2011 at 7:42 am | Permalink
You’ll probably have to wait till Friday..
March 30, 2011 at 8:28 pm | Permalink
but Shing and his name in the tales of vs
March 31, 2011 at 12:36 am | Permalink
Meh, Engrish sucks. Also, Japanese people (the primary audience of Tales of Vs.) probably wouldn’t associate “Shing” with what Kaji and most people would, and it probably wouldn’t look as stupid to them, either. This is very likely the reason why it was romaji-nized to Shing rather than Xing. …Then again, I’m not Japanese, so I’m only guessing here.
And if you really want to shing out your shing for his name to stay “Shing,” just take a few seconds to change it yourself when you play the game. That is an option, after all…
March 31, 2011 at 4:14 am | Permalink
i m expecting another joke tomorrow or maybe the day after, hhhh :p
March 7, 2012 at 7:49 pm | Permalink
[…] Meteoryte – Xing is tricky. The explanation that the game’s director once offered just doesn’t add up. I would be surprised if they choose to use “Shing” given that it doesn’t really […]
May 12, 2012 at 11:28 pm | Permalink
[…] while ago, I wrote a post to aid Namco in their localization of Tales of Graces F. Too bad they didn’t read […]
April 21, 2014 at 1:22 pm | Permalink
[…] As I’m sure you’ve heard by now, it’s been confirmed that the main character of Tales of Hearts R will be named Kor, and his love interest will be named Kohaku. This decision is so out there that I don’t know where to begin. Oh, I know — how about we start by linking the post I made on this very subject three years ago specifically for Namco’s benefit? […]
June 12, 2014 at 1:25 am | Permalink
[…] (紅蓮剣) in Japanese (compare the first two kanji). You might also recognize this Arte because I previously discussed the logic behind naming this exact Arte. Based on the naming conventions established in […]