Which FE do you you think was the most well-written?

[Axie]

"Arvis" sounds silly but I never know which side to take in those R/L issues - I think "Manfloy" sounds stupid as fuck too

[General Banzai]

Manfloy does sound stupid as fuck thats why I insist on calling him that because he doesnt deserve a cool name

same with calling him Berdo instead of Veld

in an actual fanslation however Manfroy and Veld are clearly the correct ways to go

anyway, Nabal is an incredibly minor character in the bible whereas navarre is a region with rich cultural history and medieval connotations

saying he's called "Nabarl" in Japanese isn't even strictly true he's called ナバール or literally "Nabaaru" which can be transliterated either as Nabarl or Navarre because b/v are for the most part interchangeable and r/l can go any which way

[Celice]

Did the same people localize Shadow Dragon in Europe? I don't know about the script as a whole but someone definitely looked at some of the names and decided to translate them properly.

From my undestanding, Fire Emblem 11 and Advance Wars - Days of Ruin (Dark Conflict in the EU) were both handled by different localization teams (where before it was usually that the EU teams would inherit the alterations made by the US localization and try and modify that, rather than work with the original text), and have contradicting elements in their script. I don't know about Awakening.

[Rewjeo]

It makes me sad to see people not knowing about Navarre. The Basque language (and, once upon a time, culture, too, as I understand it) is sort of an anomaly in Western Europe. It's small and didn't do a whole lot from what I remember, but all the same it's interesting.

[General Banzai]

It makes me sad to see people not knowing about Navarre. The Basque language (and, once upon a time, culture, too, as I understand it) is sort of an anomaly in Western Europe. It's small and didn't do a whole lot from what I remember, but all the same it's interesting.

and this of course emphasizing the character navarre's implied foreignness (which is expanded upon in dev notes)

but no nabal is a character in the bible that must be what the refrance even though the connection makes no sense

then again we have a character named after renowned existentialist albert camus but the point stands

[Rewjeo]

Camus being named Camus sort of makes sense. One the one end he can't be recruited (futility) and on the other his defiance of personal choice defies existentialism.

Edited November 20, 2013 by Rewjeo

[General Banzai]

Camus being named Camus sort of makes sense. One the one end he can't be recruited (futility) and on the other his defiance of personal choice defies existentialism.

lets not try to have a teenager discussion of existentialism thats not going to go anywhere

[Integrity]

Sometimes names are names because they look/sound nice and not for any big 2DEEP meaning, lol

[Rewjeo]

I was just saying that it's possible someone thought they were being clever with his name being Camus.

But I agree. Most names probably aren't super significant in Archanea. Marth never struck me as Mars-y, who knows what Shiida is supposed to be, both Navarre and Nabal are strange references to really make, etc. Later on we start seeing references (i.e. someone at IS really loves Norse mythology) but I don't recall seeing much in the first few games.

[Celice]

I was just saying that it's possible someone thought they were being clever with his name being Camus.

But I agree. Most names probably aren't super significant in Archanea. Marth never struck me as Mars-y, who knows what Shiida is supposed to be, both Navarre and Nabal are strange references to really make, etc. Later on we start seeing references (i.e. someone at IS really loves Norse mythology) but I don't recall seeing much in the first few games.

Mars, and Minerva, and the Gradius, the Mercury Sword, and the togas aren't enough to write-home the Greek references of FE1 and FE3?

Sometimes, a name is much more than being exotic, too. I mean, we already saw such in FE9 with Soanvalcke, which was a reference to him being an ancestor (and successor?) to Soan. Once that was castrated to Stefan, that referential importance was lost. The connection is made elsewhere I think, but the point remains.

(on the topic of names, I think I remember in an interview, possible one stated on Game Center CX's Fire Emblem episode, that Intelligent Systems has far more names picked out for characters than characters they've ever created)

Edited November 21, 2013 by Celice

[Cymbalina's Revenge]

Sometimes names are names because they look/sound nice and not for any big 2DEEP meaning, lol

Yeah. Take the Jugdral names. With the Norse/Celtic thing that Jugdral has going on some names do seem to have a certain appropriate mythical resonance (Leif aka "Lugh" and Lugh Mac Ethlenn being a pretty good example), but for the most part they're just cool names. Think on the mythical meaning too hard and you disappear down the rabbit hole of Dimna and Finn being OMG the same person.

And then the Elibe games give you things like Bishop Turpin from the Song of Roland being reinvented as Durban the Berserker.

[Rewjeo]

Mars, and Minerva, and the Gradius, the Mercury Sword, and the togas aren't enough to write-home the Greek references of FE1 and FE3?

So I worded that badly. Oops. Started talking about significance, ended up on references. Anyways, Greek references are there, but it's not like the Greek names are super significant. And I don't recall the Greek references being as prevalent as Norse things we see, which continue after Kaga left.

[Celice]

So I worded that badly. Oops. Started talking about significance, ended up on references. Anyways, Greek references are there, but it's not like the Greek names are super significant. And I don't recall the Greek references being as prevalent as Norse things we see, which continue after Kaga left.

Well, what games are these references found in, and are you sure they were actually made by the original developers, or were they added during localization?

[Rewjeo]

You have, for instance, Siegmund and Sieglinde for Eirika and Ephraim, but no, I have absolutely no idea if they were in the original or added in localization.

[Celice]

You have, for instance, Siegmund and Sieglinde for Eirika and Ephraim, but no, I have absolutely no idea if they were in the original or added in localization.

FE8 was also the one I remember the most from. But we should also note that this Fire Emblem was made by a different team. What we got as Fire Emblem 9 actually was announced as the eighth Fire Emblem game. Sacred Stones began development later on, likely as a financial crutch on Nintendo's part--I don't recall how much of the team was by outside members, but it would be interesting, too, to consider whether FE8's referential tendency is natively Intelligent System's work, or something brought in by the outside developers.

[Cymbalina's Revenge]

You have, for instance, Siegmund and Sieglinde for Eirika and Ephraim, but no, I have absolutely no idea if they were in the original or added in localization.

I ran this exact issue by Amielleon (the person who translated the FE13 comix) because I'd heard that NoA added those names (and their implications). Well, the original script has "jiikumunto" and "jiikurinde." The kana used for the weapons match those used in Japan for the mythological characters Siegfried and Sieglinde, so yeah, those were indeed the original names. It's not even like "Derumuddo" and "Barhara" where you can't quite match up spelling of the FE name to its antecedent.

[Jotari]

Another point on the Greek/Roman names in the old games, there was also a minor playable character called Ceaser.

[amadeuscho]

Names on the basis of a particular myth or story are cool in fiction when it relates thematically to events in the story or the background in the character. But, I don't really mind when they change the name for translation purposes.

FE8 was also the one I remember the most from. But we should also note that this Fire Emblem was made by a different team. What we got as Fire Emblem 9 actually was announced as the eighth Fire Emblem game. Sacred Stones began development later on, likely as a financial crutch on Nintendo's part--I don't recall how much of the team was by outside members, but it would be interesting, too, to consider whether FE8's referential tendency is natively Intelligent System's work, or something brought in by the outside developers.

I had no idea about FE9 originally being FE8. I imagine the reason being that dealing with 3D gave the team the delay for FE9 (which didn't matter with no solid release date), leading to the need for another project to keep the series momentum. Hence, FE8, but that's purely speculation on my part. Also, in my head, the delay led to FE9 coming later in the GC's life cycle, resulting in GC developed RD to be ported to the Wii with little changes.

I also didn't know it was developed by any developers outside IS. I feel like they would have gotten credited somehow, but I'm not aware of it. Do you mean a different team within IS that usually doesn't work on FE?

[Blue Druid]

I think fe9 had great ideas and writing, which carried on to fe10, But in fe10, there's Micaiah's struggle to save Daein and the Goddess theme, which I also loved.

[Celice]

Names on the basis of a particular myth or story are cool in fiction when it relates thematically to events in the story or the background in the character. But, I don't really mind when they change the name for translation purposes.

I had no idea about FE9 originally being FE8. I imagine the reason being that dealing with 3D gave the team the delay for FE9 (which didn't matter with no solid release date), leading to the need for another project to keep the series momentum. Hence, FE8, but that's purely speculation on my part. Also, in my head, the delay led to FE9 coming later in the GC's life cycle, resulting in GC developed RD to be ported to the Wii with little changes.

I also didn't know it was developed by any developers outside IS. I feel like they would have gotten credited somehow, but I'm not aware of it. Do you mean a different team within IS that usually doesn't work on FE?

Well, that's what I mean about not sure about what "outside" actually means. I remember it being discussed years ago on FESS by either VincentASM or gamersara; it might have been that a few older members remained while new ones were brought in, making it a collaborative effort, or it at most drastic may have been as Fallout 3 and Bethesda were to Fallout: New Vegas and Obsidian Entertainment. This would explain several things about FE8 that seemingly feel "different" and the somewhat lacking and ugly level design...

If you'd like to check out what little was initially published, I submitted some older scans to Unseen64 a while back (Sacred Stone's early screens are much more interesting to me, though, showing its beginning as a straight mod of FE7 as it splinters off. It also creates some timeline issues, as some elements in the leaked prototype seem to straddle the development periods shown in the scans, which I take to suggested the prototype was a specific team's build rather than a total compiled project):

http://www.unseen64.net/2012/04/24/fire-emblem-path-of-radiance-beta-gamecube/

You can see a main cast that persisted since early development, though Ike's name is decidedly not Ike. Some people thought that FE9 was initially an N64 title due to the graphics of the images, but technically, the Gamecube (and even Wii) iteration aren't that much more detailed in comparison.

Edited November 21, 2013 by Celice

[amadeuscho]

Well, that's what I mean about not sure about what "outside" actually means. I remember it being discussed years ago on FESS by either VincentASM or gamersara; it might have been that a few older members remained while new ones were brought in, making it a collaborative effort, or it at most drastic may have been as Fallout 3 and Bethesda were to Fallout: New Vegas and Obsidian Entertainment. This would explain several things about FE8 that seemingly feel "different" and the somewhat lacking and ugly level design...

If you'd like to check out what little was initially published, I submitted some older scans to Unseen64 a while back (Sacred Stone's early screens are much more interesting to me, though, showing its beginning as a straight mod of FE7 as it splinters off. It also creates some timeline issues, as some elements in the leaked prototype seem to straddle the development periods shown in the scans, which I take to suggested the prototype was a specific team's build rather than a total compiled project):

http://www.unseen64.net/2012/04/24/fire-emblem-path-of-radiance-beta-gamecube/

You can see a main cast that persisted since early development, though Ike's name is decidedly not Ike. Some people thought that FE9 was initially an N64 title due to the graphics of the images, but technically, the Gamecube (and even Wii) iteration aren't that much more detailed in comparison.

from what I know about the credits, it seems to me that the former is more likely. I'm sure that not all of IS works on a given FE game, considering games like AW (at the time), Wario Ware, and Paper Mario so the smaller aspects could have been just allocating a few members from those teams.

Everything from N64 developed title probably went into FE6, as I can't imagine the FE team would hold onto the story of PoR for that long. The FE team was admittedly bad at 3D, hence no releases with the N64 with FE.

If Ike's name was Paris, we would be robbed of an Eisenhower reference in Brawl, which would be unacceptable to me.

Edited November 22, 2013 by Viewtiful_J

[Celice]

I think the interesting thing, too, is that Famicom Wars was also intended to be released on the N64, yet never saw the light of day. It received very little print coverage, and only a short video segment about the game--which is decidedly more than the development of Fire Emblem on the 64. Most of what we know was garnered from a brief remark in some other interview, if I recall correctly.

[DomesticHausCat]

You have, for instance, Siegmund and Sieglinde for Eirika and Ephraim, but no, I have absolutely no idea if they were in the original or added in localization.

Wait, I always thought Ephraim was named after the Israel tribe. But they were really romanized changes from Siegmund and Sieglinde? That's confusing. And I always thought Eirika was just a weird way to spell Erica.

Also, I was really surprised that Barhara wasn't translated to Valhalla in Awakening. I'm almost positive that is what it's supposed to be named after. Makes sense considering that the B's are interchangeable with V's and R's are interchangeable with L's in Japanese.

[Axie]

They didn't change the names for Ephraim and Eirika; that post was talking about their legendary weapons and if they had those names in the japanese release (which I think they did).

[General Banzai]

Wait, I always thought Ephraim was named after the Israel tribe. But they were really romanized changes from Siegmund and Sieglinde? That's confusing. And I always thought Eirika was just a weird way to spell Erica.

Also, I was really surprised that Barhara wasn't translated to Valhalla in Awakening. I'm almost positive that is what it's supposed to be named after. Makes sense considering that the B's are interchangeable with V's and R's are interchangeable with L's in Japanese.

because, believe it or not, a mythological reference doesn't mean that's gonna be what it will get changed to, as you think would have been obvious when Mars became Marth

I think the difference is because some references are seen as too obvious to a western audience vis a vis a japanese one, or having a different cultural meaning. for instance: ulysses, being a character of greek mythology, would probably be seen as a highly aristocratic, highly formal reference for japanese audiences, not necessarily out of touch with the medieval anglofranco setting of your average FE. but for a western audience, ulysses would seem out of joint, more a name for a rousing action hero than a courtier. hence, the name shift to bastian.

interviews with the localization team actually have a lot to say about bastian; for instance, how they made the decision to write his dialogue entirely in iambic pentameter to mirror his speech patterns in japanese