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Ni no Kuni PS3 named "Ni No Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch" for overseas
- Thread starter ULTROS!
- Start date
RatskyWatsky
Hunky Nostradamus
Sounds too much like something from Narnia.
cpp_is_king
Member
This is one of my most anticipated games of 2012. If they manage to capture the spirit and feeling of a Miyazaki movie in a game, I can see myself spending hundreds of hours in this game.
Dead Prince
Banned
she was hot though.RatskyWatsky said:
sixteen-bit
Member
Cool. I hope it performs well stateside. It looks interesting.
Cosmo Clock 21
Banned
Did they really not bother translating 'Ni no Kuni'? Dumb.
cpp_is_king
Member
Cosmo Clock 21 said:
Sounds stupid though. "Another World" is already the name of another game, so would lead to confusion, ad the more literal translation of "The Second World" also just doesn't sound very natural.
cj_iwakura
Member
Another World is the name of a classic game, that could be why.
cj_iwakura
Member
Aeana said:
Some things have a better flow in Japanese. 'When The Seagulls Cry' versus 'Umineko no Naku Koro Ni' for example.
I'm fine with the title.
K
kittens
Unconfirmed Member
What? It sounds magical and awesome! It invites curiosity -- makes you wonder what "Second World" means. And at least English speakers could glean some meaning from it -- Ni No Kuni is just gibberish to most English speaking folks.cpp_is_king said:
cj_iwakura
Member
ULTROS! said:Well... It (sort of) worked for Shin Megami Tensei.
That's another example. True Goddess Reincarnation/Metempsychosis just doesn't flow.
meltingparappa
Member
I hope to god that title wasn't the first official project of the North American Level-5 branch.
It works because the games are very Japanese.ULTROS! said:Well... It (sort of) worked for Shin Megami Tensei.
Ninokuni is not. There's no reason to leave that title in Japanese.
Also, cj_iwakura, you seem to think that only direct/literal translations can work. You can communicate the same ideas with different words. Take a look at the subtitles of the Dragon Quest games in NA - they are far from direct translations of the original Japanese subtitles, but they work very well.
iKeepPlaying
Banned
Ni No Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch?
Ni No Kuni: VVVVVV?
Why...?
Ni No Kuni: VVVVVV?
Why...?
cj_iwakura
Member
M_Night said:
They do in the states, but they haven't made as big a deal with it lately, it's just kind of there. The only ones that ever had it in Japan were 1-3, Strange Journey, and Devil Summoner(the original, not Raidou).
Also, Catherine was officially their best selling game ever in the US. I believe it even outdid Demon's Souls.
Cheesemeister
Member
Looking at the trademarked image, Ni no Kuni is in all caps. Ugh. Now we're going to get inconsistent capitalization.
FateBreaker
Member
Nice use of alliteration there in the subtitle.
However, it's pretty stupid to leave the Ni No Kuni part.
However, it's pretty stupid to leave the Ni No Kuni part.
Diprosalic
Banned
not a fan of leaving "Ni No Kuni" in but who cares we're getting the game hell yeah.
cj_iwakura
Member
I bet if they changed it, we'd have people complaining about not using the original title.
At the very least, they could have used Ninokuni without spaces.randomkid said:
But honestly, considering the type of game it is, the setting it has, associating it with Japanese is a bad idea.
I'm glad we got Spirited Away instead of Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi or even The Mysterious Disappearance of Sen and Chihiro.
Angry Fork
Member
Should've changed Ni no Kuni to Action Shotgun Pump: The Fourth Bloody War
Glad they kept Ni no Kuni, fuck marketing bs
charlequin
Banned
Keeping the name in Japanese is embarrassing.
The purpose of localization is to localize things, to bring the experience of the original language into a form that those who speak another language can access and comprehend -- not to hold the content at arm's length and feed into the kind of cultural fetishism that elevates the mundane to transcendence as long as it's not written in Roman characters.
This is definitely a case where a direct translation is a bit problematic (the best choice, "Another World," is rather conspicuously unavailable) but to look at that challenge and say "oh, it's too hard! let's just give up and punt" is unprofessional -- and basically guaranteed to hurt the game's performance in the West.
The purpose of localization is to localize things, to bring the experience of the original language into a form that those who speak another language can access and comprehend -- not to hold the content at arm's length and feed into the kind of cultural fetishism that elevates the mundane to transcendence as long as it's not written in Roman characters.
This is definitely a case where a direct translation is a bit problematic (the best choice, "Another World," is rather conspicuously unavailable) but to look at that challenge and say "oh, it's too hard! let's just give up and punt" is unprofessional -- and basically guaranteed to hurt the game's performance in the West.
K
kittens
Unconfirmed Member
^ well put.
And there's nothing wrong with that. Some people like some things, other people like other things.
I wouldn't, but I'm sure others would.Brazil said:
And there's nothing wrong with that. Some people like some things, other people like other things.
I'm getting sick of people saying GAF does nothing but complain.
charlequin said:
I think I saw a "Second Land" translation floating about a while back.
"Second Land: Wrath of the White Witch" doesn't sound so bad.
Edit: Second World: Wrath of the White Witch, Another Land: Wrath of the White Witch, or even New Land: Wrath of the White Witch doesn't sound bad, either.
charlequin
Banned
cj_iwakura said:
Wrong wrong wrong. Catherine had Atlus' largest initial shipment ever but its sellthrough to date is lower than a large number of their titles and not even remotely close to Demon's Souls, which was already their best-selling game by a good margin before it went Greatest Hits (and thereby racked up far, far more sales.) I go into it in a bit more detail here.
This is some nonsense that came from several severe misreadings of the available information and I want to nip it in the bud before it spreads.
cj_iwakura said:
Yes, but only the wrong kind of people.
Aeana said:
Spirited Away is a really masterful title localization, given how descriptive and evocative it is.