Qwerty wrote:[*]Tell us why you do not like certain names we use in the patch and suggest changes (WARNING: You're probably wrong.)
Oh okay so this thread is pointless.
Whatever. I'm throwing this in and I'm out. I'm pretty fatigued from making the same arguments that get shot down anyway.
Qwerty wrote:And the answer is never, because those names are not only bad, but they are also wrong. But how, you ask, can an
official name be wrong? Because many Japanese content creators do not have a precise grasp on English spelling and pronunciation. Additionally, there are multiple different systems that can be used to romanize Japanese text (even that written in katakana), and the systems taught in Japanese schools differ from the system commonly used by native English-speakers. And that is just one of many factors.
To the content creator (and the intended Japanese audience), there would be no significant difference between Chroto and Klotho, as they would both be read ku-ro-to. To an English-speaker, though, there is a huge difference. Klotho is not only an actual name, but it also fits with the naming scheme (minor planetoids) followed by multiple other NPCs in the game. Chroto, on the other hand, is...absolutely nothing. The same applies to Marlu/Marlur.
Clyde Mandelin wrote:As I’ve mentioned before, you really have to take “official” English spellings with a grain of salt. I can’t even count the number of times I’ve encountered incorrect English by a Japanese creator or licensor.
Sega has never been one for consistency, in either English or Japanese, which they've shown just splendidly with their flipflopping of Lilipur. I'd still say to give the official translations a go, though. Through all the flipflopping, at least one of them is usually correct.
Intentional bastardizations of names have been done for years. We have how many variations of the same name throughout how many cultures? How many of them were changed just to reflect their language's pronunciation system, and how many of them were changed just because they felt like it? How many mothers name their kids shit like Mykul (Michael with "unique" spelling) and think it's clever or special? This kind of thing is done all the time in reality, and plenty in fiction.
If they truly named them after things consistently, I'm pretty sure they did their homework and know how they're actually spelled. If I spent hours looking up the names of comets that were named in other languages, I'm pretty sure I'd check my spelling if I wanted to follow them 100% accurately. But according to official translations so far, they really, REALLY don't. (How many of them have kept the spellings of the comets?) So their name origin comes from a comet or a mathematician or whatever it comes from. It's a bit of trivia. Put it at the bottom of a wiki, "'Chroto' is an intentional bastardization of the name of the comet, 'Klotho', which happens to also be the name of a figure in Greek mythology and an enzyme."
Not that that's going to be considered. After-all, what good is the word of the creator. But, well, at least Chroto's been consistent.
Though, if/when NA/EU releases and it has mostly the same translations as SEA, I really think it should be considered again to switch to the official translations of subjective names to help lessen the shock of moving from the NA/EU servers to the JP servers, since that's inevitable no matter what happens. Trying to match up names between katakana and someone else's translation is bad enough. Trying to remember that a Kartagot is a
Carthago might not be too hard, but when it comes to things like Wopal's natives... I can only imagine how horrid that'll be.
Or, if you're that adamant about it, make a few separate files with the official names begrudgingly slapped in like you do for the Japanese enemies/E-trials. (As an aside: I'd actually appreciate one with Japanese character names since I obviously hate reading "Klotho" so much. But at this rate, I might as well just not use the patch at all.) But that's probably more effort than it's worth, I guess. Players should just be grateful they have a patch at all etc.
Oh well. Life goes on.