Namco pls. Seriously, just stop for a moment. What are you doing?
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?
You have a character whose name has an oblique set of references — it might refer to the mineral shungite, it definitely refers to Chinese for “star”, and it is claimed by the developers to refer to being “endowed with a heart”. You have two characters whose names are directly referring to minerals which have direct equivalent names in English that are commonly used. So you localize the name of the first guy but not the names of the other two? This is like Ruca and Illia all over again.
Did you also forget that their names were Shing, Amber, and Jadeite in Tales of Graces f? Did you forget that Amber actually appeared as a cameo character and boss fight in said game? This was two years ago. Are 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 now?
And why Kor? What does Kor even mean? Does Kor sound like Shing? Does Kor mean the same thing as Shing? Is Kor a common English name? What possible reason is there for this name? Cor, at least, would be Latin for “heart”, which is an acceptable localization… but then why would you not localize Kohak and Hisui to Amber and Jadeite, too? Especially when you already did exactly that?
I apologize if I’m jumping the gun on condemning these naming decisions (Spoilers: I’m not) and there’s actually a really good reason for them (Spoilers: there isn’t), but this is really not the sort of silliness fans probably want to hear. Please reconsider. Thanks.
EDIT: I see you’ve put up a subtitled trailer:
You have got to be kidding me. These subtitles are absolutely atrocious. This is a troll, right? Mr. Baba, I always pegged you for a joker. Haha! Congratulations, you’ve won. I declare you to be a greater troll than me. Now please, please, give us the real scoop.
April 21, 2014 at 1:41 pm | Permalink
I think the most annoying part about this is back when they localized Radiant Mythology, they intentionally kept Woodrow’s name as Garr because they wanted to maintain consistency, but I guess now they just don’t care about it anymore. Do they not realize that there’s a rock/mineral theme naming thing going on…? Do they not care enough to go back to previous localizations in the series to make sure they’re not arbitrarily renaming characters who just made cameos 2 games ago (or 3 depending on when ToX2 comes out)…? Also I think I’ll cry if they don’t go with Hisui for Jadeite/Jaden, now that it’s official that they’re going with Kohaku for Amber.
April 21, 2014 at 2:06 pm | Permalink
[…] seen. Like, okay, the references for this name are not as obvious as some of the other characters. Kaji has a number of possibilities he throws around for Xing/Shing, all of which make infinitely more sense than Kor, which I can only assume was pulled out of a hat […]
April 21, 2014 at 2:24 pm | Permalink
Even Kaji doesn’t know what the hell Kor means?! Who will explain it then?
April 21, 2014 at 4:05 pm | Permalink
Sending a copy/paste of these posts directly to Namco? And I wouldn’t be surprised if the localization for this game was handled by a company that didn’t work on the other Tales. You know, big mothership titles -> good loc team. Minor tales -> whoever does the job for the cheapest price.
April 21, 2014 at 7:25 pm | Permalink
Kor Meteor Kaji, sigh…
but yeah, I don’t get it either, we should spam the rep twitter with #korisnotshing
April 22, 2014 at 2:10 am | Permalink
Shing=Kanji for Tool and Heart
Kor=Latin for Heart
Badda bing badda boom, localiztion, how do they work!?
Seriously ya’ll bustas need to stop trippin.
April 22, 2014 at 5:05 am | Permalink
[Deleted at the request of the original poster]
April 22, 2014 at 10:01 am | Permalink
I’ve edited the post with their latest trailer. I will let you view the video and let you form your own opinions before I give mine.
April 22, 2014 at 11:08 am | Permalink
@Groundhog
Heart in latin is with C not K.
April 22, 2014 at 11:13 am | Permalink
Maybe that “I’ve found you” repeated three times was considered boring…
April 22, 2014 at 11:27 am | Permalink
Perhaps, but the phrase “moths to a flame” has a specific meaning. It refers to someone taking the bait and coming for something. This does not apply to this situation because she is simply chasing the two. She did not set any bait for them; she has nothing they want. The phrasing is basically just throwing English words together because they sounded cool.
April 22, 2014 at 11:47 am | Permalink
What’s “Will”? Spiria?
April 22, 2014 at 1:31 pm | Permalink
Shinen (思念), which we rendered as “Psi”.
As a side note, that line is probably the only one — the only one — that wasn’t a disaster.
April 22, 2014 at 3:02 pm | Permalink
Well, Kohaku and Hisui are supposed to be not-Asian, while Kor here… isn’t. So it makes sense to keep their names the same while changing Shing to Kor, I guess.
April 22, 2014 at 6:11 pm | Permalink
There’s no friggin’ sense in this, even more if they don’t plan on dubbing the game.
April 22, 2014 at 7:17 pm | Permalink
my god that subtitule was awful, is devil may cry 3 spanish sub all over again
April 23, 2014 at 2:07 am | Permalink
Very odd choices by the localization team. But hopefully this is a placeholder done by a marketing-team?
It’s possible that the REAL localization-team wasn’t involved in this.
Though I will be buying the game to show Namco US/EU that we ARE interested in more Tales games. But I’m not sure how to tell them we’d rather have the DS title……..
@Kaji, soooo throughhim said the translation is on pause for now, does he speak for himself or the whole project?
April 23, 2014 at 3:43 am | Permalink
so… will we have an anime version and a 3d model version of this?? -_-ll
Could anyone at namco tell me just what type of drugs were they taking when they decided to say fk continuity? So, in the next tales game, will their name be changed again to something else?
April 23, 2014 at 5:32 am | Permalink
You better stick to Shing when you’re gonna continue with the fan translation later on, bro.
April 23, 2014 at 7:57 am | Permalink
Kaji don’t like Namco translation == Kaji releases his own translation
April 23, 2014 at 10:17 am | Permalink
At least we’ll have an official English translation without having to wait 5 years for some fan translation… lol
April 24, 2014 at 10:19 am | Permalink
@Emiru I would rather wait 6 more years for a translation that i know it will be good than playing a game translated by monkeys in a dark room like the trailer
April 24, 2014 at 2:31 pm | Permalink
Good luck then, Anon. I will buy the game and play in my Vita, better this with a official translation where only the main’s name are changed than wait for 13 years with a stupid troll who doesnt know if he will translate, joke or play change the game content or his name.
April 24, 2014 at 4:20 pm | Permalink
@Anon: To be fair, the trailer was probably subtitled on a one-off basis and not by the people actually translating the game. I hope. I’m not sure why they would do that instead of just using the people translating the game, though… That scene has to be translated anyway, doesn’t it? Poor decisions abound.
@Ra: I’m not sure I understand the thrust of your complaint. To address the points individually:
– I am not the one in charge of translating, hence why I keep mentioning a translator.
– Whether I joke or not doesn’t affect whether we work on the game or not.
– Some of the game content changes are necessary to translate the game and/or are bugfixes. The other changes are bundled in the optional Translator’s Cut mode. The latter have always been lower priority than the former, and regardless, do not affect the pace of translation.
– I have never changed my name.
Hope this helps!
April 27, 2014 at 2:39 pm | Permalink
Tbh I’m expecting more the Translator’s Cut than the actual translation since I’ve played Herts like 3 times or something.
May 8, 2014 at 10:34 am | Permalink
I dont really care what he is named aslong as it isnt ridiculous. It is obvious that Shing was supposed to be called Kokoro but the team didnt change it in time as you said on the other post. This time around, they thought they’d do it. But Kokoro isnt a very good name (sounds like a girls name), so they went with the short version of Kor. Its not a terrible name.
The concerning question is if the game will be dubbed or subbed. If its dubbed, doesnt matter that he is called Kor. If its just subbed then it will make little sense to see Kor written everytime the other characters call him Shing. At wich point i would prefer if they kep him as Shing.
May 9, 2014 at 1:11 am | Permalink
I like how a somewhat-menacing “Found you” is needlessly turned into a terribly wordy cliche. It’s not like the Tales series doesn’t come off as generally cheesy or anything, so clearly wham-Bam-thank-you-ma’am-Co is perceptive and reflective regarding their franchise.
Maybe this is the game that will finally top that inspirational classic, “Courage is the magic that turns dreams into reality.”
May 28, 2014 at 8:15 pm | Permalink
@Nem
“If its dubbed, doesnt matter that he is called Kor. If its just subbed then it will make little sense to see Kor written everytime the other characters call him Shing.”
They pulled off the exact same thing you mentioned with Jude’s name in the German version of Tales of Xilia last year.
In our subs Jude is called Jyde. However since we only get the same dub as the rest of the western markets everyone still calls him Jude in the cutscenes. Now don’t get me wrong I’m not complaining, that we don’t get our own dub. I personally like a good English dub far more then a crappy German one (even if the latter is my mother’s tongue). But this Jyde BS is irritating as hell (just rolls right off the tongue, right).
Now, since “Jude” is by coincidence the german word for jew, I can only assume that Namco thought it would be offensive to jewish players. But then again, I don’t understand that we for example call Jude Law (the actor) by his name. It’s all a stupid mess of Namco, thats all.
May 30, 2014 at 7:08 pm | Permalink
A lot of japanese games (with good & bad translations) use canned english phrases like “moths to a flame”. Sometimes they’re way off & sometimes close but still wrong, aka Tales of Graces “white on rice”. I’ve almost grown accustomed to them. It’s like waiting for Arnold Schwarzenegger to drop a cheesy line in a movie. I don’t like it, but i know its coming. I wish they wouldn’t use any English or Japanese sayings unless the game is actually on Earth, or purposely breaking the 4th wall.
June 4, 2014 at 1:31 am | Permalink
Hurry wit the damn patched just wanna play the f*****g game already dont feel like waiting for the crappy names there are giving the characters
June 12, 2014 at 1:25 am | Permalink
[…] reveal profound issues with the game’s localization that go beyond superficial matters like whether the main characters’ names make any sense or not. I’m sure I will rant endlessly about this so let me summarize the point for those of you who […]
June 21, 2014 at 6:12 pm | Permalink
You know whats funny? I’ve asked people who I know who HATE Japanese names and they think Kor is extremely inferior to Shing as a name. And what does Kor mean? And why not just keep it Shing if they’re not gonna dub it?! I get not changing everyone else’s names back to their localization such as Hisui to Jadeite but why change Shing’s? Also, this is the first game since Destiny, which was the first to come to America and didn’t have enough time or money to localize, that doesn’t have an English dub. That says a lot.
August 16, 2014 at 9:07 am | Permalink
I don’t want a name that implies hash.
http://ja.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=shing