It’s just like me translating the PD names in PDSaga to portuguese and consider them Panzer.
No, it’s not, unless you do so good work that they use them in the next game cos they sound more panzerish than the efforts ppl have done so far 
Imagine if Bob was considered a COOL name in Japan and Edge was named Bob in the end. I’m sure you’d appreciate the change to Edge or whatever else in that case…
The only thing you should be worrying about is narrative that has a huge impact on the story being lost in translation. When I read fan translations of some key narration in the original Genesis/Mega Drive Shining games I was almost scarred for life.
When you defeat Kane in Shining Force and the mask Darksol used to control him is shattered, he says “I was forced to fight you” as if we’re supposed to know what the hell he is talking about. Hopefully, Amusement Vision ammends the original English script for the Shining Force remake to include the fact that the main character is Kane’s brother. Better late than never I suppose…
What matters to me is the original idea.And the origins of that same idea…
I still can’t bring myself to call him Eggman…
Kadamose: Not really, I just find it amusing to learn of mistranslated words, then to hear of people taking those mistranslations literally.
Gehn: But, the idea is the same. It’s just worded differently. Nothing can be translated exactly and still have the meaning remain in tact. For instance, if you were to have the Japanese phrase:
“Aitsu hana taka-daka dakara…”
and you were to literally translate it, you’d get:
“That guy’s nose is tall…”
But, what it really means is:
“That guy’s an arrogant bastard.”
Is it the same idea? Yes. Is it the same words? No.
You can apply the same logic to naming as well. For instance, in Japanese, they are a lot less sensitive to copying names from famous characters. For instance, most of the characters in Dragonball (which is, as we all know, the pinnacle of modern literature…) are named after stupid, mundane objects. All the Saiyans are named after vegetables (hell, even the word “Saiyan” comes from “Yasai,” which means “vegetable” in Japanese), all of Freeza’s henchmen are named after dairy products, fruits, or appliances, etc. Fortunately, the words come across as being so jumbled that Americans can’t tell the difference, but as a Japanese-American, the names are cheesy beyond all hell.
That’s just it, regardless I prefer to see Ten (the three eye freak) with his original name than have it translated to Plate (or whatever it means).
I’m strange, sue me
If I were to make a story for a videogame I certainly wouldn’t like the names I created for SOME specific reason to be plunged into oblivion just like that…
Ten’s original name is actually “Tenshinhan,” which is actually a type of Chinese food. Yamcha is actually “Dim Sum” in Japanese. Bulma is actually the type of short-shorts that Japanese highschool girls wear during gym class (and sometimes they wear them over their underwear when wearing short skirts).
However, those are sort of different than what I meant. Those names pass in English because they sound okay, and you don’t know what they mean. However, what if Freeza’s name was kept the same as in Japanese: “Freezer”? Or his big brother “Cooler”? Those just sound stupid, and there’s no way around it (why don’t they just go and name their father “Refridgerator” or something?).
You can get away with certain things in some languages, but not in others.
Yeah but neither Smilebit or TA are that stupid.
Sure, but stylistically, names need to be changed sometimes.
For instance, the Lathum. It’s original name was Zeus. The writer for the US version of PDS felt that there shouldn’t be references to mythologies that wouldn’t exist in the Panzer world, so changed it.
Same thing in Skies of Arcadia. The purple whale, Rhaknam, was originally named “Mobius.” However, the writers felt that it was too blatant a rip-off of Moby Dick, so the name was changed to something that felt more appropriate for the world.
Um, he’s still a blatant rip-off of Moby Dick, and the old man’s obcession doesn’t help any.
On the other hand, I found it funny that the Tenchi Muyo! Tactics game for the SNES (If you don’t know what I’m talking about, don’t worry.) had a character that was spelled Shitsuki. How many people would pronounce it like “shee-tsu-kee” instead of “shit-sue-kee?”
Yeah, it’s still a rip-off, but the whole game was an homage to the days of sailors and exploration, as well as old school RPGs. So, there are references to Montezuma (in fact, Ixa’taka’s original name was Montezuma), El Dorado (again, the original name of “Rixis”), Arabia, Moby Dick, etc.
Well, that’s actually a bit of a shame then. A lot of those names would have been familar whether you live within or without the Land of the Rising Sun. Ah well.
So, any dirt on who decided Kunoichi should be changed to Nightshade as opposed to… I dunno’… Shinobi Part Deux?
Like I mentioned earlier, the Japanese are a lot less sensitive to those types of “rip-offs” than Westerners, for some reason. I think it’s just part of their humor.
As for Nightshade, from the rumors that I hear, the reasons were several fold:
- 90% of Americans couldn’t pronounce “Kunoichi” to save their lives
- Kunoichi wasn’t meant as a sequel, but rather, a sidestory to Shinobi (which is why it doesn’t feature Hotsuma… it’d be like calling Luigi’s Mansion “Mario 128,” I guess)
Any Shinobi game without Joe Musashi or Takashi from Shadow Dancer is no Shinobi game anyway.
Yeah yeah, I know: Shinobi just means ninja in Japanese. I suppose a game titled “Ninja” in the west wouldn’t quite have the same impact as the rather exotic “Shinobi”.
[quote=“Geoffrey Duke”]
Any Shinobi game without Joe Musashi or Takashi from Shadow Dancer is no Shinobi game anyway. :)[/quote]
Ah, so you liked the PS2 game, eh? Me too. Camera needs work though.
[quote=“Abadd the Really Really Pale”]As for Nightshade, from the rumors that I hear, the reasons were several fold:
- 90% of Americans couldn’t pronounce “Kunoichi” to save their lives [/quote]
Yeah, but I first learned the word in a TMNT comic, and loved it ever since. Ah well.
Makes sense. Still, I wonder why they didn’t make it clearer on the cover that it was related to Shinobi PS2.
does everyone know what kunoichi means?
hiragana ku " く " plus kanakana no " ノ " plus kanji for ichi (one) " 一"
gives the kanji for woman 女 . it’s a female ninja! =)
May I ask how do write japanese characters KFC?
Do you have a jap keyboard?
Yeah, most of the stuff in Panzer Dragoon has a foreign meaning (i think thats how you spell it). Panzer is german, as you would know, as so dragoon is.
Slight tangent, but something I’ve been wondering:
A decent amount of the PD Saga enemies’ names were changed from the Japanese version, but what about the names of PD Orta enemies? The styles of those names seem very different, and I was wondering if they were “accurate” phonetic tranlations rather than names created for the western audience?
This ocured to me because in the PD Saga game code, some of the tag-names for enemies seem to be the original Japanese versions - things like ZUSU (Lathum) and GORAIAS (Sand Mites) are confirmed. Some of the Imperial ships’ tag-names, though, like VALNA (Enforcer), KARLA (Raider) and VAJURA (Annihilator) sound far more like the names we hear in PD Orta: things like VAHRA, KARTHA and VERMANA.
(Although I’m just guessing that those are the Japanese names because of where they’re placed in the game code; they might not be 100% accurate, or they might mean something else entirely).
Another thing I’ve never found out the truth about is: what’s the German connection with the PD series? For example, why “Panzer Dragoon Zwei”? I accept that I’m likely missing something obvious here, but it’s something I’ve often wondered…