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English localisations - Names & Such


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He can have a Nohrian name as his default and his Hoshidan siblings will (at first) call him Kamui. Kamui doesn't recognize the name anymore so if he joins Hoshido, he can insist on being called by his Nohrian name (or whatever the player chose). Not too hard to manage.

I think the ears and eyes could give Kamui's identity away. Suzukaze would be like "Could that really be Prince Kamui...?" and Kamui will react in confusion to the name he's never heard.

That would work fine. But meh, I think the developers were just too lazy with the intricacies. Also, if I were Kamui and decided to side with Hoshido, I wouldn't want to be called by some name that Garon gave me instead of the name given to me by my real mother (and getting used to a new name is honestly not that hard), so ideally, Kamui/the player should be able to make a choice here.

All in all, I don't really blame the developers for oversimplifying this. If I had to choose between "Oh, my Hoshidan family somehow knows my Nohrian name and calls me by such" versus "Garon just didn't care enough to give me a new name," the latter makes more sense. I mean, Garon could've just told Kamui that he/she was a unwanted child abandoned in the Hoshidan streets. Covers up the truth without name changes and gives Kamui a reason to dislike Hoshido.

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Who wants to bet they didn't even know that?

imo, this is unlikely. there's a lot to criticise about 8-4's approach to localisation, but i highly doubt they were unaware of fe4!arthur or artur, especially since fe4!arthur was quite literally in the last fe game they localised. despite what some people may insist when it comes to how they handled the names of the legacy characters in fe13, ignorance of prior material just isn't 8-4's modus operandi. they do the research. they give more than a few shits about the games they work on. they're not idiots

(that said, harold -> arthur is still pretty dumb)

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imo, this is unlikely. there's a lot to criticise about 8-4's approach to localisation, but i highly doubt they were unaware of fe4!arthur or artur, especially since fe4!arthur was quite literally in the last fe game they localised. despite what some people may insist when it comes to how they handled the names of the legacy characters in fe13, ignorance of prior material just isn't 8-4's modus operandi. they do the research. they give more than a few shits about the games they work on. they're not idiots

(that said, harold -> arthur is still pretty dumb)

Certainly this. With games like Awakening, Shadow Dragon, Xenoblade X, and Mario Power Tennis under their localization belt, 8-4 is certainly highly competent. Their translations have all been top notch.

The catch is, they tend to change names. A lot. That's not inherently a bad thing. Stuff like Xenoblade's Guin to Gwin or Lyn to Lin is pretty minor, but still changes. I don't really have attachment to the Japanese names, so no problem here.

As for Harold/Arthur, I do admit that Harold is probably better, but Arthur is probably from King Arthur so I don't have a real problem.

also harold is a helicopter so there's that

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Changing the subject, I've been thinking. Could they have changed merely "Oni" onto "Oni Savage" so they could associate that class with the Brigand class? If that's so then Shura might also have a name like "Fierce Shura" or "Wild Shura"

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imo, this is unlikely. there's a lot to criticise about 8-4's approach to localisation, but i highly doubt they were unaware of fe4!arthur or artur, especially since fe4!arthur was quite literally in the last fe game they localised. despite what some people may insist when it comes to how they handled the names of the legacy characters in fe13, ignorance of prior material just isn't 8-4's modus operandi. they do the research. they give more than a few shits about the games they work on. they're not idiots

(that said, harold -> arthur is still pretty dumb)

Certainly this. With games like Awakening, Shadow Dragon, Xenoblade X, and Mario Power Tennis under their localization belt, 8-4 is certainly highly competent. Their translations have all been top notch.

The catch is, they tend to change names. A lot. That's not inherently a bad thing. Stuff like Xenoblade's Guin to Gwin or Lyn to Lin is pretty minor, but still changes. I don't really have attachment to the Japanese names, so no problem here.

As for Harold/Arthur, I do admit that Harold is probably better, but Arthur is probably from King Arthur so I don't have a real problem.

also harold is a helicopter so there's that

8-4 isn't actually localizing Fates. NoA is doing the localization in-house, with no involvement from 8-4.

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imo, this is unlikely. there's a lot to criticise about 8-4's approach to localisation, but i highly doubt they were unaware of fe4!arthur or artur, especially since fe4!arthur was quite literally in the last fe game they localised. despite what some people may insist when it comes to how they handled the names of the legacy characters in fe13, ignorance of prior material just isn't 8-4's modus operandi. they do the research. they give more than a few shits about the games they work on. they're not idiots

(that said, harold -> arthur is still pretty dumb)

This isn't 8-4. During one of the E3 streams, they said that the Treehouse was doing it. (If you check 8-4's site, it says they're working on Xenoblade X, but not this.)

Also, the last statement; I think a certain Azure Striker Gunvolt would beg to differ. There's a ton of drama around that games' localization (by 8-4).

One of the big reasons is that the devs wanted them to rush it (released in the US 9 days after the Japanese release), so a lot of text was cut. What was left was almost entirely re-written. This was met with such a negative reception by the fanbase that, for the Steam release, they added back the cut text and re-translated everything that was in the base NA game, and confirmed they're patching it back into the 3DS version.

May be a bit of a freak example, but it doesn't exactly inspire trust in them.

Edited by The DanMan
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I think Nyx is a good name, but I wouldn't mind it if they changed her name to Ariadne in Western areas, as it's another name from Greek Mythology and totally matches a Dark Mage

Yuugiri will probably change, as will Oboro, for a possibly more feminine-sounding name (for western ears)

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Honestly, I think it'd be good if they changed Tsubaki's name completely. I find it really weird to have like two characters named Camilla in one game.

They haven't changed it, unless you count changing the 'Ts' to 'S' to help the filthy westerners who don't know how to speak Japanese XD

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Can we please change the spelling of "tsunami"?

Aį rįlį hop so; it is hard tu ûndurstand al ûf thoz dificûlt saįlent leterz. Al thį némz nįd tu bį fonetikalį spelt!

I don't mind Ryoma at all. The "u" in Ryouma only signifies a longer o sound, which is basically already pronounced in English because we have syllable stresses. Subaki is really strange though. That T isn't some confusing, silent trap. It's pronounced and isn't exactly a tongue-twister. If they assume their audience can't pronounce tsunami, how old do they think the average Fire Emblem player is?

Edited by gayserbeam
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This isn't 8-4. During one of the E3 streams, they said that the Treehouse was doing it. (If you check 8-4's site, it says they're working on Xenoblade X, but not this.)

Also, the last statement; I think a certain Azure Striker Gunvolt would beg to differ. There's a ton of drama around that games' localization (by 8-4).

One of the big reasons is that the devs wanted them to rush it (released in the US 9 days after the Japanese release), so a lot of text was cut. What was left was almost entirely re-written. This was met with such a negative reception by the fanbase that, for the Steam release, they added back the cut text and re-translated everything that was in the base NA game, and confirmed they're patching it back into the 3DS version.

May be a bit of a freak example, but it doesn't exactly inspire trust in them.

okay, this comes as a surprise. the dialogue shown at e3 looked a hell of a lot like 8-4's localisation style, bearing both their fe work hallmarks so far: a relatively floofy and floral approach that treehouse wasn't known for dabbling in, and a tendency to sort of de-emphasise and outright rewrite the nuance in the original text, for better or worse (example from the e3 footage spoilered below because it's kind of an interesting one). i suppose treehouse did a bit of the latter in fe9 with how it ramped up the ike/elincia stuff, but even so... idk, the e3 dialogue felt so much like it walked right out of en!fe13 that it comes as a legitimate surprise that 8-4 might not be involved

as far as gunvolt goes, though... yeesh

[spoiler=example: heavy scrutiny of a line from leo in the e3 footage](12:08:01 PM) amielleon: what I'm so offended by what they've done to Leon's speech

(12:08:13 PM) holsety: i should've seen this coming :P

(12:08:16 PM) amielleon: hahahahah

(12:08:27 PM) amielleon: okay but I recognize this because I also struggle with Leon's voice, because like

(12:08:35 PM) amielleon: he's so COOL AND COLLECTED but he's also kind of a fucking brat?

(12:08:43 PM) amielleon: and it's easy to lean too hard in the cool and collected direction

(12:08:57 PM) amielleon: but I remember the Ch 2 scene very well, because it is one of my favorites

(12:09:01 PM) amielleon: and he was definitely being a fucking brat in that one

(12:09:48 PM) holsety: i admit i'm holding out hope that because the localisation was still in relatively early stages at this point, that it's going to be revised to properly reflect this sort of thing later on

(12:09:53 PM) holsety: but who am i kidding

(12:10:12 PM) holsety: a) we're probably looking at an 8-4 localisation job here

(12:10:28 PM) holsety: they're neat and all but fe13 says a bit about their concerns with this sort of thing

(12:10:48 PM) holsety: and b) come on there's only one reason that i am hoping for this, and it's fucking harold

(12:10:55 PM) amielleon: hahaha

(12:11:01 PM) amielleon: Harold should really just stay Harold.

(12:11:28 PM) holsety: i mean i don't know why i'm so annoyed by this

(12:11:35 PM) holsety: it's not like fe hasn't reused names before

(12:11:54 PM) holsety: leon himself is technically an example of this now thanks to the localisation

(12:13:06 PM) amielleon: There's a Leo in prior FEs?

(12:13:09 PM) holsety: fe2

(12:13:13 PM) holsety: very minor archer named leo

(12:13:15 PM) amielleon: ... okay but it's FE2.

(12:13:25 PM) holsety: oh and fe2 also had a kamui :P

(12:13:28 PM) amielleon: anyway anyway so the bratty thing

(12:13:31 PM) holsety: aaaaaaaaaaaand a robin :P

(12:13:43 PM) amielleon: Here's the line that Leon originally delivers after he smacks the prisoners and walks up to daddy with his chest puffed out:

(12:13:44 PM) amielleon: 父上。

不出来な兄の代わりに、僕が止めを。▾

(12:14:15 PM) amielleon: ISN'T HE A BRAT

(12:14:27 PM) holsety: ahahahahaha that's beautiful

(12:15:07 PM) amielleon: and then the localization is like

(12:15:14 PM) amielleon: "Father, I have dispatched our enemies on behalf of my softhearted brother."

(12:15:32 PM) amielleon: which just totally loses that nuance of

(12:15:50 PM) amielleon: "I'm sorry, my brother is a useless sod, I did it for him"

(12:16:21 PM) amielleon: there's just this undercurrent of constant cockiness and sighhhh

(12:16:24 PM) amielleon: I love Leon :<

(12:16:39 PM) holsety: i can sort of see "softhearted" as evidencing it but you're right in that it's nowhere near as strong

(12:16:43 PM) amielleon: Yeah.

(12:17:06 PM) amielleon: and also the 代わりに

(12:17:20 PM) amielleon: like instead of "I'm doing him a favor" it's more like

(12:17:27 PM) amielleon: well SINCE HE'S USELESS I guess I've got to cover for him

(12:17:29 PM) holsety: absolutely!

(12:18:24 PM) amielleon: I can get behind "Agreed. Now hush," though.

(12:19:30 PM) holsety: heh

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okay, this comes as a surprise. the dialogue shown at e3 looked a hell of a lot like 8-4's localisation style, bearing both their fe work hallmarks so far: a relatively floofy and floral approach that treehouse wasn't known for dabbling in, and a tendency to sort of de-emphasise and outright rewrite the nuance in the original text, for better or worse (example from the e3 footage spoilered below because it's kind of an interesting one). i suppose treehouse did a bit of the latter in fe9 with how it ramped up the ike/elincia stuff, but even so... idk, the e3 dialogue felt so much like it walked right out of en!fe13 that it comes as a legitimate surprise that 8-4 might not be involved

as far as gunvolt goes, though... yeesh

[spoiler=example: heavy scrutiny of a line from leo in the e3 footage](12:08:01 PM) amielleon: what I'm so offended by what they've done to Leon's speech

(12:08:13 PM) holsety: i should've seen this coming :P

(12:08:16 PM) amielleon: hahahahah

(12:08:27 PM) amielleon: okay but I recognize this because I also struggle with Leon's voice, because like

(12:08:35 PM) amielleon: he's so COOL AND COLLECTED but he's also kind of a fucking brat?

(12:08:43 PM) amielleon: and it's easy to lean too hard in the cool and collected direction

(12:08:57 PM) amielleon: but I remember the Ch 2 scene very well, because it is one of my favorites

(12:09:01 PM) amielleon: and he was definitely being a fucking brat in that one

(12:09:48 PM) holsety: i admit i'm holding out hope that because the localisation was still in relatively early stages at this point, that it's going to be revised to properly reflect this sort of thing later on

(12:09:53 PM) holsety: but who am i kidding

(12:10:12 PM) holsety: a) we're probably looking at an 8-4 localisation job here

(12:10:28 PM) holsety: they're neat and all but fe13 says a bit about their concerns with this sort of thing

(12:10:48 PM) holsety: and b) come on there's only one reason that i am hoping for this, and it's fucking harold

(12:10:55 PM) amielleon: hahaha

(12:11:01 PM) amielleon: Harold should really just stay Harold.

(12:11:28 PM) holsety: i mean i don't know why i'm so annoyed by this

(12:11:35 PM) holsety: it's not like fe hasn't reused names before

(12:11:54 PM) holsety: leon himself is technically an example of this now thanks to the localisation

(12:13:06 PM) amielleon: There's a Leo in prior FEs?

(12:13:09 PM) holsety: fe2

(12:13:13 PM) holsety: very minor archer named leo

(12:13:15 PM) amielleon: ... okay but it's FE2.

(12:13:25 PM) holsety: oh and fe2 also had a kamui :P

(12:13:28 PM) amielleon: anyway anyway so the bratty thing

(12:13:31 PM) holsety: aaaaaaaaaaaand a robin :P

(12:13:43 PM) amielleon: Here's the line that Leon originally delivers after he smacks the prisoners and walks up to daddy with his chest puffed out:

(12:13:44 PM) amielleon: 父上。

不出来な兄の代わりに、僕が止めを。▾

(12:14:15 PM) amielleon: ISN'T HE A BRAT

(12:14:27 PM) holsety: ahahahahaha that's beautiful

(12:15:07 PM) amielleon: and then the localization is like

(12:15:14 PM) amielleon: "Father, I have dispatched our enemies on behalf of my softhearted brother."

(12:15:32 PM) amielleon: which just totally loses that nuance of

(12:15:50 PM) amielleon: "I'm sorry, my brother is a useless sod, I did it for him"

(12:16:21 PM) amielleon: there's just this undercurrent of constant cockiness and sighhhh

(12:16:24 PM) amielleon: I love Leon :<

(12:16:39 PM) holsety: i can sort of see "softhearted" as evidencing it but you're right in that it's nowhere near as strong

(12:16:43 PM) amielleon: Yeah.

(12:17:06 PM) amielleon: and also the 代わりに

(12:17:20 PM) amielleon: like instead of "I'm doing him a favor" it's more like

(12:17:27 PM) amielleon: well SINCE HE'S USELESS I guess I've got to cover for him

(12:17:29 PM) holsety: absolutely!

(12:18:24 PM) amielleon: I can get behind "Agreed. Now hush," though.

(12:19:30 PM) holsety: heh

The spoilered example seems more nitpicky than anything; as pointed out, the nuance is still pretty much there (it sounds more formal, but you can still infer tension). And the localization is really early on; heck, there was Japanese error text that kept flashing on the bottom screen.

What little else was shown of the localization definitely looked rough, but then again they probably just rushed things out so they could show something at E3.

I'm not thrilled with the Okami route of localizing Hoshidan names, but regardless Harold should've stayed Harold; the name just fits the character (regardless of Arthur referencing a certain heroic king of Anglo-Saxon legend).

Heh, Gaiden: Robin, Kamui, Leo, what's next?

As far as NOA's style comparing to 8-4's, well... *shrugs*.

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The spoilered example seems more nitpicky than anything; as pointed out, the nuance is still pretty much there (it sounds more formal, but you can still infer tension). And the localization is really early on; heck, there was Japanese error text that kept flashing on the bottom screen.

What little else was shown of the localization definitely looked rough, but then again they probably just rushed things out so they could show something at E3.

honestly, i disagree that the script progress as of e3 looked rough. there's no question that the technical and presentation side of things needs a LOT of work, but the script itself looked like something that could quite comfortably fit in a finished game. it was flawed, but it struck me as being less of a flaw related to it being in an early state and more of a stylistic flaw where they chose to localise it in a relatively loose and lax manner similar to what was done with fe13. while my feelings on matters of style have changed a bit over the past two years, i'd still argue that it's not an invalid style by any means, but it's certainly something to keep in mind

you're not wrong in that it's a nitpick, but in a way the nits are kind of the core issue with the fe13/14 style of localisation and, to a lesser extent, 9/10. we're looking at a matter of tiny, consistent tweaks which don't do much to distort singular lines, but come together as an overall body of work to shape a different impression and feeling from the original text, for better or worse. whether leo will be subject to that outside this line remains to be seen

I'm not thrilled with the Okami route of localizing Hoshidan names, but regardless Harold should've stayed Harold; the name just fits the character (regardless of Arthur referencing a certain heroic king of Anglo-Saxon legend).

i feel kind of awkward coming down hard one way or another here; on one hand, my experience working on fe games has taught me that taking issue with names is often drastically overblown and they don't matter that much in the long run compared to other elements of a localised work, but on the other i certainly don't disagree. putting aside the obvious fe4!arthur-flavoured issue with harold, i can sort of see where they were coming from with the approach to hoshido names so far, but at the same time i feel like it's doing the audience a disservice to assume that they'll look at the original names and go "shit i can't pronounce this". the audience is seldom that dumb, and let's face it, japanese is kind of inherently an easy language to pronounce, especially when you've got voice clips which can help clarify for the audience

then again, my chief issue with some of the hoshido names is a personal taste thing to do with shortening elongated vowels (ryouma -> ryoma) so what the hell do i know

As far as NOA's style comparing to 8-4's, well... *shrugs*.

imo, there's a hell of a lot to work with when it comes to comparing treehouse's localisation work to 8-4's; here's a solid bit of introduction on the subject. that said, i've had it pointed out to me that perhaps the issue is less what the localisers are doing and more what they have to work with in the first place. modern fe (that is to say, fe12 onward) exhibits some pretty significant stylistic differences from earlier titles in terms of the japanese scripts, opting for more of a, for want of a better description, lax and cartoony narrative style. that might make a better explanation for stylistic similarities, and how treehouse might so far be outputting something that looks a hell of a lot like what 8-4 did on 13

Edited by bookofholsety
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honestly, i disagree that the script progress as of e3 looked rough. there's no question that the technical and presentation side of things needs a LOT of work, but the script itself looked like something that could quite comfortably fit in a finished game. it was flawed, but it struck me as being less of a flaw related to it being in an early state and more of a stylistic flaw where they chose to localise it in a relatively loose and lax manner similar to what was done with fe13. while my feelings on matters of style have changed a bit over the past two years, i'd still argue that it's not an invalid style by any means, but it's certainly something to keep in mind

you're not wrong in that it's a nitpick, but in a way the nits are kind of the core issue with the fe13/14 style of localisation and, to a lesser extent, 9/10. we're looking at a matter of tiny, consistent tweaks which don't do much to distort singular lines, but come together as an overall body of work to shape a different impression and feeling from the original text, for better or worse. whether leo will be subject to that outside this line remains to be seen

i feel kind of awkward coming down hard one way or another here; on one hand, my experience working on fe games has taught me that taking issue with names is often drastically overblown and they don't matter that much in the long run compared to other elements of a localised work, but on the other i certainly don't disagree. putting aside the obvious fe4!arthur-flavoured issue with harold, i can sort of see where they were coming from with the approach to hoshido names so far, but at the same time i feel like it's doing the audience a disservice to assume that they'll look at the original names and go "shit i can't pronounce this". the audience is seldom that dumb, and let's face it, japanese is kind of inherently an easy language to pronounce, especially when you've got voice clips which can help clarify for the audience

then again, my chief issue with some of the hoshido names is a personal taste thing to do with shortening elongated vowels (ryouma -> ryoma) so what the hell do i know

imo, there's a hell of a lot to work with when it comes to comparing treehouse's localisation work to 8-4's; here's a solid bit of introduction on the subject. that said, i've had it pointed out to me that perhaps the issue is less what the localisers are doing and more what they have to work with in the first place. modern fe (that is to say, fe12 onward) exhibits some pretty significant stylistic differences from earlier titles in terms of the japanese scripts, opting for more of a, for want of a better description, lax and cartoony narrative style. that might make a better explanation for stylistic similarities, and how treehouse might so far be outputting something that looks a hell of a lot like what 8-4 did on 13

There's a part at the beginning of the 1st Nohr chapter shown that reads really awkwardly:

Kamui: I'm out of my league. I have no choice... I'll have to use my Dragonstone.

Faceless: Grrraaaaargh!

Kamui: Dammit! I'm surrounded. I'm in deep trouble now. There's no way I can transform in time.

The flow is just really rough; it could definitely use re-wording.

I didn't disagree that nitpicks can build up; however, that certain line is very similiar to the original. It's not like one of Sumia's lines changing from being about helping friends to caring for horses; it's not like the Donnel/Olivia C support butchering a reference; and it definitely doesn't read like "full character re-write" (though there's going to be some of those; there has to be a couple of those *cough* Pieri *cough* Soleil *cough*).

However, I will agree that Wedon-esque snark injection that everybody underwent wasn't one of the localization's high points. We've already seen shades of it (Kamui: "What? They're here already? We just arrived five minutes ago."). This is going to read especially odd in Fates, as it (the game) tries to do so many things tonally, but fails at most of them; it's like the localizers are sitting there, getting the last laugh.

I wouldn't quite describe the tone difference as "cartoony" as much as simply informal. It's possible that the more formal Japanese presented more of a challenge and/or inspired the localizers to be closer to the original work; now that the tone and atmosphere is generally lax and informal, it encourages them to cut loose with it because, hey, the original work clearly wasn't very serious, so why should we treat it as such?

Also, as an aside about the linked work: if you're complaining about Henry, then you should also be complaining about Gregor. Both underwent complete re-writes, yet people are fine with Gregor but complain about Henry to no end (Gregor, to my understanding, was the standard "middle-aged mentor" type and Henry was the overdone and stereotypical "has a dark past but tries to hide it through a cheery facade). Gregor went almost complete TF2-style Ruskie while Henry became a "heroic"-psychopath with a blood fetish; both are massive deviations from the original character for seemingly no reason, but people only seem to complain about one of them.

Edited by The DanMan
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Also, the last statement; I think a certain Azure Striker Gunvolt would beg to differ. There's a ton of drama around that games' localization (by 8-4).

One of the big reasons is that the devs wanted them to rush it (released in the US 9 days after the Japanese release), so a lot of text was cut. What was left was almost entirely re-written.

Most of that would be the devs fault though for rushing them. And cutting that much story out and not changing anything else might have left some major holes, so a rewrite might have been necessary. Regardless of the second sentence, the first is entirely on the devs/publishers.

I'm biased though, since I really liked 8-4's localization style (and tbh, the Treehouse isn't very different, just look at Splatoon). If the writing can't be good, then it can at least make me feel good.

I read through a chunk of J!Henry's supports. They weren't bad, some of them quite sad, but none of them were very memorable.

However, I will agree that Wedon-esque snark injection that everybody underwent wasn't one of the localization's high points. We've already seen shades of it (Kamui: "What? They're here already? We just arrived five minutes ago."). This is going to read especially odd in Fates, as it (the game) tries to do so many things tonally, but fails at most of them; it's like the localizers are sitting there, getting the last laugh.

I wouldn't quite describe the tone difference as "cartoony" as much as simply informal. It's possible that the more formal Japanese presented more of a challenge and/or inspired the localizers to be closer to the original work; now that the tone and atmosphere is generally lax and informal, it encourages them to cut loose with it because, hey, the original work clearly wasn't very serious, so why should we treat it as such?

See, I'm cool with stuff like this, especially since I've yet to read a Kamui support where they weren't plain as hell. It does suck for those who want the original work, I really feel for those fans. But what can I say, I liked being entertained above all else, and even as a person who didn't hate Awakening's story, what I know of Fates plot is very disappointing and full of logic holes. So at the very least I want a not boring as white bread protagonist.

Also, as an aside about the linked work: if you're complaining about Henry, then you should also be complaining about Gregor. Both underwent complete re-writes, yet people are fine with Gregor butt complain about Henry to no end (Gregor, to my understanding, was the standard "middle-aged mentor" type and Henry was the overdone and stereotypical "has a dark past but tries to hide it through a cheery facade). Gregor went almost complete TF2-style Ruskie while Henry became a "heroic"-psychopath with a blood fetish; both are massive deviations from the original character for seemingly no reason, but people only seem to complain about one of them.

To play Devil's Advocate here, a big difference between Gregor and Henry is that Gregor still said all of the same things as in the original, he just did so with a funny accent. This is true for Henry roughly half of the time, but the other half has him saying/doing completely different things. The biggest being the Olivia support, where Henry went from a typical "person who hides his tragic past and pain behind a smile", to "person who's happy despite all the horrible things that happened to him in the past". That's what pisses people off. Well, not me of course, but I don't associate "different" with "bad" like purist tend to

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Most of that would be the devs fault though for rushing them. And cutting that much story out and not changing anything else might have left some major holes, so a rewrite might have been necessary. Regardless of the second sentence, the first is entirely on the devs/publishers.

I'm biased though, since I really liked 8-4's localization style (and tbh, the Treehouse isn't very different, just look at Splatoon). If the writing can't be good, then it can at least make me feel good.

I read through a chunk of J!Henry's supports. They weren't bad, some of them quite sad, but none of them were very memorable.

See, I'm cool with stuff like this, especially since I've yet to read a Kamui support where they weren't plain as hell. It does suck for those who want the original work, I really feel for those fans. But what can I say, I liked being entertained above all else, and even as a person who didn't hate Awakening's story, what I know of Fates plot is very disappointing and full of logic holes. So at the very least I want a not boring as white bread protagonist.

To play Devil's Advocate here, a big difference between Gregor and Henry is that Gregor still said all of the same things as in the original, he just did so with a funny accent. This is true for Henry roughly half of the time, but the other half has him saying/doing completely different things. The biggest being the Olivia support, where Henry went from a typical "person who hides his tragic past and pain behind a smile", to "person who's happy despite all the horrible things that happened to him in the past". That's what pisses people off. Well, not me of course, but I don't associate "different" with "bad" like purist tend to

I never denied that the text cuts were squarely on the dev's shoulders; I was just explaining the issue to bookofholsety.

As for the rest, I'll spoiler it:

(Off-topic localization rant below)

The cut text wasn't story text per se; most of the conversations you would randomly have between missions with an important NPC were cut, removing characterization and worldbuilding. On top of that, mid-gameplay text that would be displayed on the bottom part of the top screen was cut entirely, on the grounds that it got in the way and they were doing us a favor (resulting in further characterization and worldbuilding lossage; ironically, the X button was used to skip through that dialoge, and there was a menu option that disabled it entirely)(funnily enough, this text actually played a massive part in the final boss fight, giving exposition and helping to set-up the sequel).

As for re-writing, one of the most notable is the main character, codenamed Gunvolt. In the Japanese version his speech would randomly omit certain words; the most logical adaptation would've been a calm, mutant-of-few-words. But nope; he's the generic sarcastic badass.

His relationship with an important NPC ended up much more romantic in the English version, while the Japanese version handled it very similiar to a Master Chief-Cortana situation; an intimate brother-sister relationship where they're forced to rely on each other and cover each other's backs.

And then there was random goofy-sounding "censor" swears that, from reading translations of the original Japanese text, "censored" nothing. And let's not forget random references thrown in for the sake of it.

Anyway, back on topic...

I respect your opinion.

With the Henry situation, I honestly find J!Henry much easier to sympathize with. Change is not bad by itsself, but change for the sake of change isn't good (and the personality of the Japanese version of Henry being "like watching paint dry", as I've seen at least one person put it, is debatable).

I don't care for Gregor as a character, but I'm not a fan of how he was handled either; I was pulling him out because he's also a character who was re-written for seemingly no reason, but often is forgotten in the Henry debate.

Yeah, Kamui's pretty flawed. But occasionally snarking off when pretty much everyone else now does isn't exactly adding to uniqueness.

Some change is necessary; I'm all for re-writing truly unsympathizable characters like Pieri, or avoiding controversy by changing characters such as Soleil. But changing something for the sake of changing it really rubs me the wrong way.

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I think Lazwald/Inigo's name will be changed. It just is not the type of name the localizers would use.

But I think his name change will have something to do with blue.

I'm in favor of something like "Azure".

Is there anyone else that prefers "Elite Ninja" over Jonin?

Also Midoriko --> Midori

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I don't really think treehouse will change or cut much of anything unless like bookofholsety suggested they get orders from above to "do it more like 8-4 instead of how you usually did". Which they might, perhaps even from the japanese devs themselves if they were particularly tickled by the awakening changes in a "haha american joke" sort of way. Treehouse is all-around hard-pressed to ignore any sort of request from the original developers, no matter how silly or off-base they might be.

More interestingly and related to that, I expect them to include some stat and thus gameplay changes. That has been treehouse's style with FE in the past, sometimes related to japanese feedback and other times related to original developer insistence.

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More interestingly and related to that, I expect them to include some stat and thus gameplay changes. That has been treehouse's style with FE in the past, sometimes related to japanese feedback and other times related to original developer insistence.

Actual abs for Rinkah?

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