Xenoblade Chronicles 2

The fuck is up with the name changes? The kind of people who would pick this up wouldn't mind it at all. And I'm pretty sure most people are familiar with references such as Byakko anyway.

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Looks like the whole game is full of weird fucking names Im having a hard time reading them on my switch undocked

what

>Got excited when I heard Genbu get dropped
>Waited the rest of the game for the other three to show up
>They were actually already there

I actually want to know why localizers feel the need to translate names of mythical beings as well. Same thing happens in many JRPGs today. Is there an actual reason behind it or is it just bad translations as usual?

>Play through Chapter 2 and onward in Japanese
>Still call shit by their English names because everything's written in the shitty dub

Localizers do whatever they want because they can. Very Japanese games often get really brutally changed with this kind of stuff.
This is a Yokai from Yo-kai Watch. His Japanese name? Muramasa. His English name? Snee.

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In Xenoblade 2 it really stems from the fact that they wanted to use different English accent for the different countries, so they changed the names from the original to match the real world location where the accent comes from and tries to find the corresponding mythology behind the original name.

So there was actually a reason for the name changes and they spent at least a little time thinking of new ones that would make sense.

The only names that were worth changing are Arusu and Arusuto because they sound like arse.

They might've wanted to avoid using the name Muramasa due to other properties using that name, like the Wii game Muramasa The Demon Blade.

>And I'm pretty sure most people are familiar with references such as Byakko

I've only seen that name used in RoR to call Weizeiger's AFW, funny since while its basically a tiger tank on legs its not really white.

The English dub is completely irredeemable desu. If the main characters (Rex, Pyra, Mythra) of your game have absolute shit voice acting, nothing is going to pull it back up.

what was even the point of giving them those names
they have absolutely nothing to do with each other

If anything it would be better to not know the meaning of the word because naming a character after one of their obvious traits is fucking stupid in the first place.

That's not part of a localizer's job. As a translator, you translate. Even if something is stupid, it's not your job to change it. If you want to be a writer, you be a writer. Unfortunately some translators and localizers (they're not always the same thing) are failed writers and just rewrite video game localizations instead.

They're common girl names.

>"The Gate" (literally, as is, in english) in Japanese
>The Conduit in the localization
Fuckingwhy.jpg

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Honestly my main issue with localizations of Japanese games that aren't 1:1 is that a bad localization can absolutely ruin an otherwise great game. It's also messing with the creator's artistic vision and decisions. I wish that companies would realize just who's buying their games and actually playing them and just make shit 1:1 while filling in some of the onomatopoeia words that Japan has here and there. It's honestly the exact same thing with a series like Yo-kai Watch. Hell, I don't need a dub, just give me some subtitles to follow along with.

Isn't this basically what happened with FF7? What I really can't stand are localizers who feel the need to put in a bunch of unfunny meme shit, or make references to shit going on at the time that'll be totally irrelevant afterwards. There's that one anime that namedrops Goobergate.

The two holy grails want to go to heaven to see god, who they call father and dad.

People need to understand that Direct, Faithful translations from Japanese to English are stupid. Even the biggest example of a fan translation, Mother 3, *NEEDED* To be localized to not sound like an awful mess to anyone that didnt know Japanese culture.

FF VII's localization was actually pretty good when you take into account all the bullshit that got in the way. When you look at it objectively, it's very, very spotty. I've played through the Japanese version a couple of times, but the only outright rewrite I can recall off the top of my head is the "Stop acting retarded" line. That and they added in even more swearing than was in the Japanese script. Most changes like the orthopedic underwear were just fuck ups.

1:1 Google translations are not what Translators are paid for, faggot

the people buying them are largely children and overwhelmingly don't care about translation accuracy, just the experience

Localizing is different than translating because localizing includes changing things to fit the targeted country and language. Often times taken too far.

when you do localization you get paid by the amount of work you do
its why names and locations already in english will sometimes get changed for no reason

in xenoblade's 2 case they rewrote lots of dialog entirely. they even fucked up a major mithra line in torna dlc

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Japanese people know what all those names mean. Westerners don't. So they have Western equivalents.

It's not rocket science.

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He's already taken.

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im pretty sure the localizers are salaried lol

I wish the shitty dub didn't have to ruin the subs too

Yeah, I know what localization entails, I've worked in it for a while. It really depends on the company though. Basically the only changes I make are things that simply can't be translated, or something like if a name is has a joke in it or is supposed to convey something. Even then changing names isn't always the best thing to do, there's a lot of factors to consider. But the bigger the company you work for, the less control the translator has, unfortunately.

I'm willing to bet most Japanese don't know saika means lightning strike in Arabic. Pandoria has 0 relation with weather.

That only works for some of them like Pyra and Malos. Others are literally completely random.

>when you do localization you get paid by the amount of work you do

Common myth, but it's not true. I get paid on a salary.

>Japanese people know what Arcadia means
>Japanese people know what Invidia means

>Dropped XC2 due to moving around, couldn't handle playing in handheld, was just getting in the groove of the game and started to love the combat.
>Ended up lending XC2 it to some fren
>He hated it, and the combat. Telling him that I was like 40hrs in and didn't finish the game yet didn't help either.
Tolerating JRPGs and weebshit must be a fuckin challenge, nowadays.

Enjoyed my time with the game, I'll get back to it sometime.

that just wouldn't make sense
for instance in xenoblade 1 they they went out of their way to edit image files of area names, which were already in english in the first place.
the sheer amount of changes wouldn't make sense unless you get paid by the amount of needed work. it would be insane otherwise.

Because smash normies are still going to buy it

>The fuck is up with the name changes?
Welcome to the world of western localizations, what's that? There are foreign cultures out there? Nah, eat your hamburgers Apollo.
Also, I don't like this shit so I will put my headcanon in there.
Oh and don't forget to rewrite that problematic dialogue, think of the children, eh?

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Yes user, "Smash normies" are the one buying Xenoblade 2, the game that doesn't feature Shulk, "Smash normies"' sole exposure to the series.

I haven't played Xenoblade 1 in years, so I can't comment on that change. How did they change them exactly? Sure, I haven't worked for every company, but I really doubt anyone charges base on changed. I've been paid by page for manga and salaried for video games, and I know some translators are paid per character. Some things some localizers do is totally random to me too though. I don't understand what NoA does sometimes, for instance. I know some just change things because they feel like it. I spoke with Will from Plus Alpha (well known for their DS Dragon Quest localizations) and they had some reasons (not good ones from what I saw, but still, reasons) for some of their name changes. Though he admitted that some they changed just because they felt like it.

in other types of software dev you might contract someone and pay them commensurately with the number of words to translate, but in any case the fee is known up front

>The fuck is up with the name changes?
People liked how the first Xenoblade had a dub done by a British cast - it was actually one of the things that it got known for in the West after release - so for 2 the localisation crew leaned into it and heavily edited the script to be more British+Irish. Name changes are just a natural extension of this, and while there are some stinkers (like, notably bad ones) they're generally pretty decent replacements.

>The kind of people who would pick this up wouldn't mind it at all.
Most people looking to pick it up were fans of the first who, as we established, they were aiming to pander to with the edits in the first place. The series is really niche and 2 was relatively low budget, they never expected it to sell as well to the broader JRPG market as it did.

>And I'm pretty sure most people are familiar with references such as Byakko anyway.
You'd be wrong then, at least in the West. You might be spending too much time on the higher powerlevel weeb websites because even most anime fans don't know much about Japanese myth outside the most basic shit that's percolated throughout most otaku media. "Most people" couldn't even tell you what a Shinigami is.