Star Ocean Translation Question

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Jack
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Star Ocean Translation Question

Post by Jack »

Hello. I was wondering how the Japanese names of the characters, monsters, and items in Star Ocean are translated into English. Names such as Milly, Dora, Orihalcon, Mithril, Ionis, Fat Fudd, Cockatrice. In the original version all the names are in Japanese. Thanks.
grinvader
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Post by grinvader »

There's this incredible thing called a human brain. It can learn stuff. That's awesome in itself. It can even learn something that someone else knows ! Totally rad.
If you use this superpower to learn other people's language, then you can use the special ability 'translate'. It's a very complicated technique, and many people only partially control it, but there are great people who master it after years of intense practice.
And then sometimes these masters choose to use their talents to translate games, and that's how it happens.

Side note: the character names are written in english at several places, like the game manual and ending credits (hence Joshua and Ronixis even though they are written Yoshua and Ronikis in japanese).
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Deathlike2
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Post by Deathlike2 »

All I'm going to say here is that the question was poorly constructed.

If you are wondering how the text is replaced, it requires romhacking. You have to replace the internal font used in game and also insert text for every possible place in the rom where the dialog/menu/etc. reside.

In any case, it really isn't hard to image.
Continuing [url=http://slickproductions.org/forum/index.php?board=13.0]FF4[/url] Research...
Jack
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Post by Jack »

For example, how did the Japanese word describing a particular monster get translated into the word Dora? Is the Japanese word phonetically spelling out Dora? Or is there a Japanese word that means Dora? Same with Fat Fudd. Is the Japanese word phonetically spelling out Fat Fudd? Or is there a Japanese word that means Fat Fudd?
Deathlike2
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Post by Deathlike2 »

Not all translation is directly literal because it would not sound right in English. More often than not, the translators try to use the best judgement they can to give you a reasonable translation.
Continuing [url=http://slickproductions.org/forum/index.php?board=13.0]FF4[/url] Research...
Unforgiven

Post by Unforgiven »

Jack wrote:For example, how did the Japanese word describing a particular monster get translated into the word Dora? Is the Japanese word phonetically spelling out Dora? Or is there a Japanese word that means Dora? Same with Fat Fudd. Is the Japanese word phonetically spelling out Fat Fudd? Or is there a Japanese word that means Fat Fudd?
As Deathlike2 said, some words in Japanese simply have no English equilavent so it is up to the translator to find the closest replacement that can present a similar meaning.
grinvader wrote:Rant
I'm guessing your reply to 3-post newbie was supposed to be funny and the sarcasm intended to be used for great comedic effect.

Since nobody else was brave enough to mention it for fear of offending your almost 4000-post e-penis, I just wanted to say that your "funny" reply to Jack was not funny.

Quite the opposite actually, you present yourself as the token douchebag scum of message boards.

Because of you, that 3-post forum member remains at 3-posts.

I hope you're proud of yourself.
grinvader
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Post by grinvader »

Unforgiven wrote:I hope you're proud of yourself.
Sure am. Fearing my post count ? Hmm... Better now ?
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<jmr> bsnes has the most accurate wiki page but it takes forever to load (or something)
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I.S.T.
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Post by I.S.T. »

Unforgiven wrote:
Because of you, that 3-post forum member remains at 3-posts.

I hope you're proud of yourself.
You can't assume that. It's not even logical. Unless Jack point blank said "I don't go to the zsnes boards because one guy was a jackass, thus they must all be jackasses," you can't just assume it's grinvader's fault. Maybe he got the answer he wanted, and no longer had any use for the board. Maybe it bored him. Maybe he got caught up in something and forgot.

There are far too many possible reasons why.
Unforgiven

Post by Unforgiven »

I.S.T. wrote: You can't assume that. It's not even logical.
Yes it is logical and yes I can reasonably assume that. The very first reply Jack got received can be summarized as thus:
grinvader wrote: YOU ARE A VERY STUPID NEWBIE WITH A STUPID QUESTION.

Side note: oh and here's my answer to your question after I was done insulting you.
Of course, Jack could have left the forum for other reasons but we have only 1 evidence of 1 reason: grinvader's meanness.

To put it another way, if you walked into a room and a person was lying in a pool of blood and standing next to him was a person with a knife, would you assume the person with a knife killed the other person? Sure, the person could have died by other means, but with the evidence available for now would suggest that the knife-wielder was the killer.

There are many possible reasons why. We do however, have one suspect: grinvader, and one reason: elitism towards newbies.

My interpretation of the situation would be as follows:

1) Jack joins the message boards with the intent of asking a question. There is a small chance he may stay for longer than that and become a regular.
2) grinvader posts a sarcastic reply effectively calling Jack stupid. While also partially answering his question.
3) Deathlike2 contribues to the thread productively and without vitriol.
4) Jack after looking at grinvader's reply thinks to himself: "Nah, screw being a long-term forum member here, I'll just get some more info on this question and leave"
5) Deathlike2 provides more answers but the damage has already been done. Jack disappears from the forums.

My assertion is that Jack COULD have been a long-term productive forum member, but grinvader's sarcasm-filled elitism destroyed and chances of that.
grinvader wrote:Unless Jack point blank said "I don't go to the zsnes boards because one guy was a jackass, thus they must all be jackasses," you can't just assume it's grinvader's fault. Maybe he got the answer he wanted, and no longer had any use for the board. Maybe it bored him. Maybe he got caught up in something and forgot.

There are far too many possible reasons why.
And of course Jack doesn't want to point blank say "that forum member was a jackass", because he would only be inviting the forum yes-men to take the side of grinvader and proceed to tell Jack to "get the fuck out if you don't like it here".
Deathlike2
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Post by Deathlike2 »

You're wasting your time overanalyzing the situation.

Such questions have been asked over time, and thus get similar responses. Even if the perceived opinion of grinvader's comments sounds mean, it is to point out the "unobvious" stuff that the op posed in his original question.

Posters such as the op are usually the one post/thread and done type of folk anyways.
Continuing [url=http://slickproductions.org/forum/index.php?board=13.0]FF4[/url] Research...
badinsults
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Post by badinsults »

Original post was from a long time ago. No need for a bump for the sake of trolling.
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