Localized Names

[property of nuvelle]

Do you guys think any names will be changed in the localized version of the game? We've only got a handful of characters OFFICIALLY revealed for NA and most of them keep the same name.

[BlizzardWolf95]

Ideally, the names would go off of the localizations used on the Choose Your Legends site for Heroes, but that's all for playable characters (plus Rudolf, Judah, Desaix and Greith).

According to that Dutch Reddit poster a few weeks ago, Berkut and Fernand are keeping their english names, as he said the demo he played was the english version. Rinea could be renamed Rinean, but the poster admitted he didn't remember her part well.

We could see a lot of renaming of bosses, especially Saizo, Garcia, and Wolf, just to disconnect them from the actual playable characters sharing those names. We've already seen Slayder changed to Slayde, so anything is possible, really.

[Topaz Light]

Might be kinda interesting if they kept Saizo, honestly, since that could be read by people who liked Fates as a tie-in to that game while being unobtrusive to people who didn't, since that character was named Saizo first.

As for the others, it'd be pretty easy to just change them to similar names, i.e. Wolf → Wolfgang, etc.

Aside from that, my thoughts on the localized names are that I'm okay with them! For the most part, there's nothing that egregious or anything. Robin → Tobin seems a little silly, although that might just be my bias in favor of using another bird name instead speaking.

Leon and Leo just switching names in localization is still really funny to me, honestly. I love that that's a thing that happened.

Edited April 6, 2017 by Topaz Light

[GAIDENBRO]

1 hour ago, Topaz Light said:

Leon and Leo just switching names in localization is still really funny to me, honestly. I love that that's a thing that happened.

Gotta be original with the names :v

[Cute Chao]

2 hours ago, Topaz Light said:

Might be kinda interesting if they kept Saizo, honestly, since that could be read by people who liked Fates as a tie-in to that game while being unobtrusive to people who didn't, since that character was named Saizo first.

As for the others, it'd be pretty easy to just change them to similar names, i.e. Wolf → Wolfgang, etc.

Aside from that, my thoughts on the localized names are that I'm okay with them! For the most part, there's nothing that egregious or anything. Robin → Tobin seems a little silly, although that might just be my bias in favor of using another bird name instead speaking.

Leon and Leo just switching names in localization is still really funny to me, honestly. I love that that's a thing that happened.

It annoyed me. When collecting fanart, I went with both of their Japanese names initially. Now I have to switch them both over xD

Plus Leo still looks like a Leon to me, and vice versa xD

[Corrobin]

Am I the only one who thinks Luthier will become Luther?

[RedEyedDrake]

Given that Marth's weapon is called the "Exalted Falchion" while Alm's is simply the "Falchion" I'm holding out hope that Alm's sword as well as the Valentian Mercurius, Gradivus and Parthia will get original names in the English version if only because of how stupid the idea of them having the exact same names as their Archanean counterparts is.

Also, some of the minor villains are going to need a major reworking when it comes to their names. Oh, and actually spell the names of the various monsters correctly, as per the mythological references. And if Alm's sword does get renamed then I'd prefer to see the name of the phantom Marth's sword being changed to "Falchion". That is the sword's original state, dammit. Said state doesn't need some special moniker.

Edited April 6, 2017 by RedEyedDrake

[property of nuvelle]

1 hour ago, Corrobin said:

Am I the only one who thinks Luthier will become Luther?

Yeah, I was thinking about that to.

[VincentASM]

1 hour ago, RedEyedDrake said:

Given that Marth's weapon is called the "Exalted Falchion" while Alm's is simply the "Falchion" I'm holding out hope that Alm's sword as well as the Valentian Mercurius, Gradivus and Parthia will get original names in the English version if only because of how stupid the idea of them having the exact same names as their Archanean counterparts is.

Also, some of the minor villains are going to need a major reworking when it comes to their names. Oh, and actually spell the names of the various monsters correctly, as per the mythological references. And if Alm's sword does get renamed then I'd prefer to see the name of the phantom Marth's sword being changed to "Falchion". That is the sword's original state, dammit. Said state doesn't need some special moniker.

The game specifies they're Archanea's Three Regalia. It's silly how they're in Valentia, but there's no use denying that they're the same.

For all we know, maybe the Dragons made spares and put them in Valentia?

Also, Exalted Falchion, while coined in Awakening's localisation, is the full name for Archanea's Falchion since the very first game. It's literally Divine Sword Falchion, often shortened to Divine Falchion.

In Awakening, Falchion was sealed before becoming its true form, the Divine/Exalted Falchion.

[John_of_Valentia]

1 hour ago, Corrobin said:

Am I the only one who thinks Luthier will become Luther?

I'll be surprised if he doesn't.

Also expect Deen to become Dean.

[RedEyedDrake]

1 hour ago, VincentASM said:

The game specifies they're Archanea's Three Regalia. It's silly how they're in Valentia, but there's no use denying that they're the same.

For all we know, maybe the Dragons made spares and put them in Valentia?

Them being in Valentia in Gaiden was just so that the player could have access to the previous game's legendary weapons. It was nothing beyond fanservice of this basic of a level. There's no point in keeping things that are downright nonsensical now that Fire Emblem is a franchise of more than two games and when you take into account that both Archanea and Valentia are settings that take place not only in the same universe but in the same time period.

1 hour ago, VincentASM said:

Also, Exalted Falchion, while coined in Awakening's localisation, is the full name for Archanea's Falchion since the very first game. It's literally Divine Sword Falchion, often shortened to Divine Falchion.

In Awakening, Falchion was sealed before becoming its true form, the Divine/Exalted Falchion.

I'm well aware.

However, Marth's native game, where the unsealed state is the only state, has it simply referred to as "Falchion". By contrast, Awakening used the term "Falchion" to refer to the sealed state because that was the default in that game. However, this isn't Awakening and the Falchion needing batteries in that time period isn't a factor. In fact, the English version of Fates refers to Marth's sword as "Falchion" as well. Granted, it refers to Chrom's sealed sword as "Falchion" as well but that version of it doesn't appear in SoV.

Having said all this, this gives us a chance to have Marth's sword be referred to as "Falchion" for a third time while Chrom's sword will remain stuck at two appearances for now. And if there were to be another game which features both of these versions then I could see Marth's sword being kept as "Falchion" for the sake of consistency while Chrom's sword would get renamed to "Sealed Falchion" for the sake of differentiation. This gets even more likely when you take into account how any future games are more likely to feature Marth's sword without featuring Chrom's given that Marth has an amiibo while Chrom only appeared in Fates for the sake of referencing the previous game in the franchise, which Awakening no longer is. And thus I'm hopeful that this chance that SoV gave us to have the default state be recognized as the default gets capitalized upon. Because that is what it actually is and the need for a sealed state came later. Treat the actual default as the default and the actual special state as the special state and not vice versa.

Though, admittedly, if Chrom's sword were to appear again it would probably be in a state that is meant to represent the Exalted Falchion from Awakening's endgame...But that could simply be referred to as "Falchion" as well after SoV (hopefully) sets things more or less in stone.

Edited April 6, 2017 by RedEyedDrake

[VincentASM]

@RedEyedDrake

First argument, I think you're being too subjective. It's definitely weird, but I wouldn't go as far to say it's "downright nonsensical". The creators of the games can decide whatever the heck they want to do; we can describe their decisions as strange, but we shouldn't say they're wrong because it doesn't fit with our canon.

Like I said, there could be myriad explanations. The Three Regalia in Mystery of the Emblem were just strong weapons left behind by the Gods/Dragons. Who's to say they're actually unique? Or laziest explanation: Outrealm shenanigans.

I mean, it's barely any different to the Deadlords in Awakening magically having Jugdral's holy weapons. Sure, timeline-wise, there's a lot more leeway, but still they were given them with little to no explanation of why. Part of the fun is making up theories as to why these strange occurrences happened, rather than sweeping them under the rug.

Second argument is... a lot of text for what I concede is a response to a poorly worded answer from me. Marth's Falchion may very well be renamed "Falchion" in the English version. I wasn't arguing that it shouldn't be renamed in the localisation, but rather explaining why it's named that way in the Japanese version.

In fact, in Fates, Ike's Ragnell and Marth's Falchion both had the Exalted/Divine prefix in the Japanese version, but those were removed in the English version.

The point I was making is that the prefix is not a new invention, but merely a new way to represent how these weapons were originally referred to. Yes, in the old games, the item was "Falchion", but it was always meant to be "Divine Falchion".

As for Chrom's Exalted Falchion, yes, it's the original state, but that doesn't mean it shouldn't have a prefix. It's basically saying the Falchion and the True Falchion. Blame marketing for that one.

[RedEyedDrake]

1 hour ago, VincentASM said:

@RedEyedDrake

First argument, I think you're being too subjective. It's definitely weird, but I wouldn't go as far to say it's "downright nonsensical". The creators of the games can decide whatever the heck they want to do; we can describe their decisions as strange, but we shouldn't say they're wrong because it doesn't fit with our canon.

Like I said, there could be myriad explanations. The Three Regalia in Mystery of the Emblem were just strong weapons left behind by the Gods/Dragons. Who's to say they're actually unique? Or laziest explanation: Outrealm shenanigans.

The writers don't get to decide what is basic common sense and what isn't. I don't mind these weapons being mass produced, even. But them having the exact same names? And besides, you're the one who can provide the answer to this next question. Is there an actual explanation for these weapons' presence within the borders of Valentia in SoV? Because if there isn't then I see no reason to believe that their existence in SoV is anything beyond IS copypasting the aforementioned fanservice.

Edited April 6, 2017 by RedEyedDrake

[VincentASM]

34 minutes ago, RedEyedDrake said:

The writers don't get to decide what is basic common sense and what isn't. I don't mind these weapons being mass produced, even. But them having the exact same names? And besides, you're the one who can provide the answer to this next question. Is there an actual explanation for these weapons' presence within the borders of Valentia in SoV? Because if there isn't then I see no reason to believe that their existence in SoV is anything beyond IS copypasting the aforementioned fanservice.

C'mon, it's not like they're suddenly saying pigs can fly.

Why can you accept the former and not the latter? Iron Swords are mass produced, but they have the same name. Same with Killing Edges, Wo Daos, Rapiers, Wing Spears, etc.

I have not had time to comb everything, but I do know they changed the backstory for the Falchion.

[King Marth 64]

10 hours ago, BlizzardWolf95 said:

Ideally, the names would go off of the localizations used on the Choose Your Legends site for Heroes, but that's all for playable characters (plus Rudolf, Judah, Desaix and Greith).

According to that Dutch Reddit poster a few weeks ago, Berkut and Fernand are keeping their english names, as he said the demo he played was the english version. Rinea could be renamed Rinean, but the poster admitted he didn't remember her part well.

We could see a lot of renaming of bosses, especially Saizo, Garcia, and Wolf, just to disconnect them from the actual playable characters sharing those names. We've already seen Slayder changed to Slayde, so anything is possible, really.

I did not see Judah was shown in the Choose Your Legends poll. And also, I did asked someone that did went to the Dutch Comic Con when I asked what was the official spelling for Berkut's girlfriend and he did replied Rinean was the official localization name that was shown in the demo from Dutch Comic Con.

9 hours ago, Topaz Light said:

Aside from that, my thoughts on the localized names are that I'm okay with them! For the most part, there's nothing that egregious or anything. Robin → Tobin seems a little silly, although that might just be my bias in favor of using another bird name instead speaking.

Actually, we do have an another Robin existed which it's the default name of the Avatar unit from Fire Emblem Awakening and plus, he does appear in this game as one of the Illusory Heroes when you scanned the Robin amiibo to Echoes: Shadows of Valentia.

Edited April 6, 2017 by King Marth 64

[RedEyedDrake]

3 hours ago, VincentASM said:

Why can you accept the former and not the latter? Iron Swords are mass produced, but they have the same name. Same with Killing Edges, Wo Daos, Rapiers, Wing Spears, etc.

Because there's nothing to indicate that these weapons weren't named by humans. In other words, am I to believe that, for example, both continents just happened to have an extremely powerful lance and both of them got named "Gradivus"? And just to clarify, when I said "mass produced" I meant "mass produced by the dragons" (or the relatively recently changed Manaketes since dragons would have no use for such weaponry). And even if the dragons did name them then what? Did the place where Adrah found them inside the Fane of Raman happened to have nametags for the weapons' models that were written in a human language?

Edited April 6, 2017 by RedEyedDrake

[Thane]

I hope they don't stick to "Rinea" or "Rinnea" or whatever they called Berkut's girlfriend, since "Linnéa" is a Swedish name, which is what I'd assume her transcribed name would be in Japan. Then again, they haven't been very good with Nordic names over there, what with Sigurd being "Zigludo" and Leif "Leaf" in a continent filled with Norse names. I take my names seriously, dammit.

[RedEyedDrake]

1 hour ago, Thane said:

I hope they don't stick to "Rinea" or "Rinnea" or whatever they called Berkut's girlfriend, since "Linnéa" is a Swedish name, which is what I'd assume her transcribed name would be in Japan. Then again, they haven't been very good with Nordic names over there, what with Sigurd being "Zigludo" and Leif "Leaf" in a continent filled with Norse names. I take my names seriously, dammit.

Well, the English team is seemingly smart enough to know what the proper word for a single Fury is so they just might.

[Iridium]

Regarding name changes, keep in mind that we've mostly been using English names all along. Luthier is straight from Awakening; his Japanese name is Ryuto. It's not impossible that they could pull a Lachesis, but it's pretty doubtful given how otherwise loyal they've been to the poll website and Awakening. 

 

The only characters likely to receive further name changes are new ones and bosses that weren't already on the website, like Wolf or Saizo.

Speaking of Saizo, his name is not the same, technically. 

[Extrasolar]

9 hours ago, Thane said:

Then again, they haven't been very good with Nordic names over there, what with Sigurd being "Zigludo" and Leif "Leaf" in a continent filled with Norse names. I take my names seriously, dammit.

According to @shadowofchaos, Sigurd in Japan is still Sigurd (i.e., the characters used in his name are the same characters used to refer to the mythological figure). Stuff like "Siglud" and "Zigludo" were inexperienced fan translators. I remember that from the localization thread. And as for Leif, I'm not sure if the characters are the same as the ones used in, say, Leif Erikson's name. I imagine it's a similar case, though.

[Topaz Light]

16 hours ago, Corrobin said:

Am I the only one who thinks Luthier will become Luther?

14 hours ago, John_of_Valentia said:

I'll be surprised if he doesn't.

Also expect Deen to become Dean.

Luthier and Deen are the official localized names, as shown in Fire Emblem Awakening and Fire Emblem Heroes' Choose Your Legends poll. Luthier was originally Ryūto (リュート), while Deen's name is a fairly faithful translation of Dīn (ディーン), albeit a rather odd choice of spelling as opposed to just using the more standard "Dean".

11 hours ago, King Marth 64 said:

Actually, we do have an another Robin existed which it's the default name of the Avatar unit from Fire Emblem Awakening and plus, he does appear in this game as one of the Illusory Heroes when you scanned the Robin amiibo to Echoes: Shadows of Valentia.

Oh, I know. What I mean was, knowing that Gaiden!Robin's name would need to be changed, I would've gone with naming him after a different bird instead of just changing it to Tobin.

Edited April 7, 2017 by Topaz Light

[Extrasolar]

20 minutes ago, Topaz Light said:

Oh, I know. What I mean was, knowing that Gaiden!Robin's name would need to be changed, I would've gone with naming him after a different bird instead of just changing it to Tobin.

I'm curious. Which one? I can't think of many bird names that are common and accepted names...

[Topaz Light]

8 minutes ago, Extrasolar said:

I'm curious. Which one? I can't think of many bird names that are common and accepted names...

Lark was the one that had come to mind for me, but it mostly just stems from my desire to try to retain name meanings and themes and such over than aural/visual similarities when names must be changed in localization, unless it's just a made-up name that happens to be close to an existing regular one.

And, I don't really think it has to be a "common" or "accepted" name, as long as it sounds namey enough and not too silly for the character and/or series. All names were originally just made up by humans, after all, and it's not like we've passed some deadline in time that means we have to stop making up new names… although there are some people who really should.

Edited April 7, 2017 by Topaz Light

[Acacia Sgt]

24 minutes ago, Topaz Light said:

I'm pretty sure that that weapon is just supposed to be the same Gradivus as the one from Archanea, considering it comes in Camus's Zeke's inventory. That does leave the mystery of how it ended up in the hands of Hardin come Mystery of the Emblem—and Camus dropping it when defeated could be handwaved as gameplay and story segregation, or implicative of not taking him down being the canon course of action—but I'm fairly confident the intended implication as of Gaiden's release was that it was supposed to be the same Gradivus Camus wielded back on Archanea, not a new, identically-named weapon.

…Alternatively, making the names of legendary weapons of respective types the same across every Fire Emblem game as a sort of through line could've been the intention instead, although there's no real way of knowing. They probably just weren't thinking too hard about it, haha~

Actually, no, Zeke does not carry Valentia's Gradivus. It's in a chest in the final dungeon. Little reason or possibility for Zeke to have placed it there if he had really been carrying Archaneia's Gradivus.

[Topaz Light]

1 minute ago, Acacia Sgt said:

Actually, no, Zeke does not carry Valentia's Gradivus. It's in a chest in the final dungeon. Little reason or possibility for Zeke to have placed it there if he had really been carrying Archaneia's Gradivus.

Oh, huh. I guess I just always assumed he came with it in his inventory and never actually looked it up.

In that case… I have no idea why it's there. That's odd.

Edited April 7, 2017 by Topaz Light