A while ago, I wrote a post to aid Namco in their localization of Tales of Graces F. Too bad they didn’t read it!
I am told that Tales of Graces mentions the Hearts characters, as well as other characters from the franchise, in the form of Carta cards. Kohack– err, Kohaku– err, Amber, is also a cameo boss. Obsessed fans of the series waited with bated breath to see how they would handle these characters. And handle them they did. By which I mean they manhandled them. Let’s see how they did:
Shing Meteoryte
HURGH
Okay, just kidding. Last time, I commented on how his name references stars (Xing/星 in Chinese) and how “Shing” reminds me of herpes. These are still true. However, I have uncovered new evidence that suggests that Shing is totally legit. Or rather… Shung.
If this site is to be believed, shungite is an “elementary noncrystalline carbon with a metastable structure incapable of graphitization”. I don’t want to give any undue spoilers, but I think this sounds suspiciously like it’s the mineral theme basis for Shing’s name. This lends some creedence to the choice of Shung– I mean, Shing– as the guy’s name.
Verdict: Namco obviously just went with whatever the Japanese said his name was instead of reasoning it out. Nevertheless, I’m pretty okay with it.
Amber Hearts
Whew! They localized this one nicely. I’m not clear on whether they followed the efforts of Absolute Zero, that “other” group, my own project, or none of the above, but it turned out as I (and many others) had hoped.
Verdict: Some of you posted on the Tales Facebook wall whining about this change. You know who you are. Welcome to the Hall of Shame.
Jadeite Hearts
HURGH
Now I’m wondering if they simply lifted all the names from Absolute Zero’s teaser screenshot. Localizing the name and making sure it doesn’t conflict with preexisting names is certainly a start, but consideration for how it sounds is important, too. Jadeite? What the Heck kind of name Is That? The only one with an awkward-sounding name like that (Shing aside) is Kunzite, the party’s resident Mechanoid Guardian robot dude. It fits him fine. But Jadeite? He’s a hot-blooded dude who is ultra super awesome, as I may have previously mentioned. I don’t think having a robotic/awkward name suits him at all. My own suggestion was Jaden, and another interesting one I heard thrown around was Jasper (it goes nicely with Amber). Hell, they could have named him Jerome for all I care, as long as it’s not Jadeite. The resulting parallels to Sailor Moon only make it that much more ridiculous.
Verdict: Why must you do this to me, Namco.
Bonus: Tales of Innocence
Not content with only ripping Tales of the Heart: Translator’s Cut: American Edition a new one, they decided to mess with names from a game whose full fantranslation has already been released. Let’s see here… Ruca Milda. God damn it. Well, there goes my “they’re just copying Absolute Zero” theory. C’mon, Ruca, really? It’s such a lame non-name, and Luca fits in with the theme naming of Innocence much better. Well, okay, I guess they just stuck to the Japanese names– Illia Animi? What the heck? It’s not even a bad choice, just… why defy the Honorable Japanese Engrish for Iria and not for Ruca? Ruca and Iria would have made sense, Luca and Iria would have made sense, Luca and Illia would have made sense… but this?
Verdict: What.
Bonus: Artes
Allow me to pretty much copy and paste something from my original post:
Guren Kourin
紅蓮皇輪
Based on Gurenken/紅蓮剣/Hell Pyre.
My Localized Name: Pyre Ring
Welp, that’s a pretty straightforward Arte name. I imagine Namco came up with something pretty similar, or maybe Hell Ring or something. Let’s see here–
Namco’s Localized Name: Crimson Disk
…
…
Verdict: pro trollan
—
That’s it, I give up, I’m done. Actually, from what I’ve heard, Tales of Graces F’s localization is overall quite good… it’s just that these nitpicky details weren’t handled well. I don’t even blame them for it; they have a massive game to translate and can’t really be bothered spending time to figure out if minor stuff meshes well with other games in the series that haven’t even been translated yet. They’re professional translators, not obsessive Tales series fanboys/fangirls. Still, though, it raises some interesting questions: Should the fanbase be bound to abide by official localization conventions that likely weren’t all that carefully considered? Are serious business Tales series fans better judges of these sorts of things than pros bound by time constraints? Is there a good way for the localization team to somehow cross-check names, terminology, etc. with the fanbase to make sure they’re not missing any subtle nuances? If you find this sort of thing interesting, I welcome discussion in the comments below. Thanks!
Finally, some of you have been clamoring for an update on progress. I am glad you asked! I have been working on Jerome– err, Jadeite– err, Lucio’s high ohgee (that’s Japanese for Mystic Arte) and have gotten the main animation down, but need to code quite a bit of glue to get it to trigger right and interact with enemies properly. I am hoping that some of you who have played some of the newer localized Tales will find his new high ohgee quite familiar, though of course he has his own twist on it. Also, I think my translator may have translated some stuff, not sure.
Well, I must go to bed now, so I need bid you Gute Nacht. Until next time, everyone!
July 12, 2012 at 7:13 pm | Permalink
I’m kinda against changing the name to Amber for a simple reason… Names ARE NOT TRANSLATED. Seriously it’s one of simple rules you learn in university… Unless it’s some sort of speaking name, like Mr. Potato or something, names are to be left alone. We don’t call Barack Obama Boris Obamovich here in Russia. Because his name is Barack Obama.
July 12, 2012 at 7:45 pm | Permalink
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_peter
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simon_Petrus
http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierre_(apôtre)
http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simón_Pedro
http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pietro_apostolo
http://pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piotr_Apostoł
Your move.
July 12, 2012 at 8:36 pm | Permalink
Well, obviously whomever works at Wikipedia never went to university.
July 12, 2012 at 10:18 pm | Permalink
Kaji, you could have taken the pope, it’s a more “recent” and living example ^^
In French: Benoit XVI ; in italian : Benedetto XVI ; in deutsch : Benedikt XVI.
July 14, 2012 at 2:29 pm | Permalink
well he could have sucked my dick too but you don’t see me complaining you whiny bitch.
July 14, 2012 at 3:25 pm | Permalink
There’s no real point in complaining about whatever “localization” (lol) choices Kaji makes. It’s not like this patch will ever be released.
July 15, 2012 at 12:05 am | Permalink
Entitled tards complainin bouts not being able to do stuffs themselves.
When did “It’s never gonna happen / Kaji sucks / Fuck kaji” become the most effective way to encourage a patch creator to continue his or her (freelance) work?
July 15, 2012 at 6:41 pm | Permalink
and who said anything about encouragement? besides if kaji was a sissy bitch like those guys at crimson nocturnal this site would have been devoured by trolls long ago. no need to kiss his ass, no need to fear his failure, if he ever concludes this it wont be thanks to people sucking up to him. if he ever gives up it wont be the trolls doing. do you guys earnestly believe your words can affect him?
July 18, 2012 at 9:35 pm | Permalink
I honestly believe my dick is hard
July 19, 2012 at 4:12 pm | Permalink
Trolls don’t have dicks, they have cloacas.
November 15, 2012 at 7:13 am | Permalink
My name is previously as LuminBlade.
Shing, Amber and Jadeite are actually confirmed in Graces f, but many people called as Shing, Kohak, Hisui.
I hope you changed Shing Meteorite instead of Shing Meteoryte.
Other two called as Kohaku and Hisui.
November 15, 2012 at 3:26 pm | Permalink
“Jadeite”? Really? ¬¬
November 16, 2012 at 6:16 am | Permalink
>Ni
His name was confirmed in Graces f from Carta Card. My god.
November 22, 2012 at 3:54 pm | Permalink
According to my sources (i. e. the Tales of Hearts blog), Shing’s name is not just a reference to a star. It’s a pairing “Shin” and “Gu”.
http://blog.bngi-channel.jp/tohblog/2008/12/post-17.html
As for Jadeite, I think it works. The majority of the names come from rocks, so Jaden wouldn’t work very well, not to mention it’s too close to Jade from Abyss (for the record, Karyl and Karol pisses me off in the same way). Jasper would have been interesting, though.
November 24, 2012 at 10:02 pm | Permalink
I will never understand this BS of translating names. “Hisui”, what is so unacceptably japanese about it that couldn’t let them keep the name? No, lets call him Jadeite, that sounds a lot better. What about Ricardo from Innocence, shouldn’t they have changed it to Richard? No, that Graces character already got the name. Or Hermana, her name should have been “Sister”. Or even Yuri,
Hisui>>>Jaden>>>>>Saeid Mohammadpourkarkaragh>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>Jadeite.
November 27, 2012 at 3:15 pm | Permalink
People, you have to understand. What Namco (and by extension, Kaji) is doing isn’t a translation. It’s a localization.
As a gamer, I’m sure you’re familiar with Phoenix Wright. Simply put, that game is an example of how localization should be done. You don’t simply translate or just keep the name as is. You find what that name is supposed to represent, and pick an appropriate name that still conveys the meaning of the original name using words that is understandable to us English speakers.
You can’t just leave Hisui’s name as is. How am I supposed to know that his name represent ‘Jade’?
I admit, Jadeite is not a good name, but I still prefer Jadeite over Hisui. Why? Because that way I know he represents Jade.
And no, I don’t think you should name him Jasper or, God forbid, Jerome.
April 21, 2014 at 1:29 pm | Permalink
[…] you that unwilling to preserve series continuity even from games in the series that recent? I even mostly praised you back then for those naming decisions. Why change them […]
August 25, 2014 at 2:04 pm | Permalink
[…] an abject failure on everyone’s part. The number one rule of translation everyone learns is Don’t Translate Names Never Ever. Oh wait no, I’m not a blithering weeaboo — it’s Don’t Fix It If […]