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[Fou-Lu]

So one thing that I've been thinking about as I have been playing many old school RPGs lately is pronuciation. RPGs often have odd character names so it can be tough to figure out how to pronounce their names properly.

I was currently wondering how to pronounce Kazin, my favourite character from Shining Force 2.

What are some names (or other words) that have made you wonder?

 

[Nicky Ali]

Apparently a lot of people couldn't pronounce Sephiroth from FFVII correctly, not that hard though honestly.

 

[Dandy Crocodile]

I'm positive a whole host of people can't pronounce Final Fantasy's Cait Sith properly.

 

[NinjaCoachZ]

I had no problem pronouncing the SFII cast's names, EXCEPT Guile. I called him "Gill".

Real talk, the fact that people today still pronounce Ryu as "Rayu" and yet have no problems saying "Shoryuken" boggles my mind.

 

[A Dead Diehard]

Bahamut, aka "Why I keep yelling 'NO' at FF12's cutscenes"

 

[disappeared]

I thought Gil in Final Fantasy was pronounced "Jill" for the longest time.

 

[chaobreaker]

I had no problem pronouncing the SFII cast's names, EXCEPT Guile. I called him "Gill".

Real talk, the fact that people today still pronounce Ryu as "Rayu" and yet have no problems saying "Shoryuken" boggles my mind.

SFV even straights up say his name on the character select screen and yet people still fuck it up. I blame the JCVD movie and the American cartoon.

 

[psyfi]

I'm still not totally sure how to say Aghanim (bad sorcerer dude from Zelda: LTTP).

I thought Gil in Final Fantasy was pronounced "Jill" for the longest time.

Same.

 

[preta]

Looking at the original katakana for characters' names helps for Japanese games. Obviously you wouldn't pronounce it exactly like that in English but it should give you an idea of the intended pronunciation.

 

[Vital Tundra]

I thought Gil in Final Fantasy was pronounced "Jill" for the longest time.

isn't that what its supposed to be but everyone says Gil?

 

[Mookie1515]

Apparently a lot of people couldn't pronounce Sephiroth from FFVII correctly, not that hard though honestly.

I finally learned how to pronounce it when they were singing his name!

..... at the end of the game.

 

[BluePigGanon]

I'm still not sure exactly how I'm supposed to say "Nei" from Phantasy Star II. I say it like knee, but... *shrug*

 

[spazchicken]

The name "Sephiroth" messed me up until the final boss choir sang his name in the music. Back then I just read "Sblah blah blah" in my head whenever his name came up.

 

[Finale Fireworker]

Zebes. (I only ever heard Zee-bus. Occasionally I heard Zeebs. Never zeb-us.)

Arceus. (Always heard and said Ar-see-us. Occasionally heard Ar-Kee-us. I saw somebody maintaining it was Ar-soos.)

I still don't know if Marle from Chrono Trigger is "Marl" or "Mar-lee." Marl sounds stupid but it appears to be correct. It's hard to unlearn that one.

 

[KraytarJ]

Arceus and about a third of the rest of Pokemon

Edit: God damnit…

 

[Finale Fireworker]

Arceus and about a third of the rest of Pokemon

Edit: God damnit…

Do not be upset. We are in this together.

I never had a problem with most Pokémon, other than my own mispronounciation of Pidgeot as Pidg-itt.

But I just had an argument with a coworker about whether it's Need-o-ran or Ny-do-ran. (It's the first one.)

 

[Baron von Loathsome]

Zebes. (I only ever heard Zee-bus. Occasionally I heard Zeebs. Never zeb-us.)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tAjpuctFvJY

 

[Adam_Vania]

Japanese language is phonetic, meaning it is spoken exactly as it is written. this is in contrast to English which has all kinds of weird unspoken rules. look at the word "science" and try pronouncing all the letters in it.

there are 5 basic vowel sounds in Japanese:

a = "ah", between the 'a' in "father" and the one in "dad"
i = "ee", as in "feet"
u = "oo" in "boot"
e = "ay", as in "hay"
o = "oh"

using this guide, you can easily pronounce anything, or at least get really close to how a Japanese speaker will pronounce it.

"y" is usually pronounced similar to the "i", though it usually appears before another vowel sound, and is intended to lead into it. thus "Ryu" is "Reeoo"

consonants have different pronunciation than English too, Rs and Ls sort of blending into one another for instance, but these are the basics.

 

[Morrigan Stark]

VA doesn't always even help. My friend keeps saying calling Yuria (Demon's Souls and Dark Souls 3) Yoo-ry-ah, even though the game's VA refers to her as Yoor-eeah. Annoys the shit out of me.

 

[Finale Fireworker]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tAjpuctFvJY

This is where I heard it for the first time. Friendships ended.

 

[HTupolev]

W'rkncacnter.

 

[woopWOOP]

Even with voice acting I was surprised when I watched on the on-disc trailer for FFX and the narrator mentioned Tee-dus.

He's still Tie-dus to me, damnit

I thought Gil in Final Fantasy was pronounced "Jill" for the longest time.

Wait, it's not?? Nooooooooo!

 

[adamsapple]

I thought Gil in Final Fantasy was pronounced "Jill" for the longest time.

Same here, I think hearing it in FFXII is when it hit me that it's supposed to be a hard G.

 

[Crumpo]

This is basically Final Fantasy: the thread.

Quetzacotl was a particular pita for 12 year-old me.

 

[purseowner]

Suicune.

 

[SolVanderlyn]

Trails in the Sky -> Cold Steel recently did this a few times for me, as one game was voice acted and the other was not.

Aidios
Loewe
Olivier

What I thought was the correct pronunciation:

Aie-dee-ohs
Low
Oli-veer

What actually is the correct pronunciation:

Ay-dee-ohs
Lew-ay (wtf?)
Oli-vee-ay

I like my pronunciations better.

 

[Pankratous]

I pretty much pronounced everything wrong apparently.

Shiva - Sheevah (supposed to be Shiv-ah)
Ifrit - Ayefrit (supposed to be Ifreet)

 

[Dolobill]

When I was younger I used to pronounce "Navi" in Ocarina of Time as "Navy".

Even with voice acting, it hasn't gone away entirely. It's crazy how often I hear "Geralt" pronounced as "jerALT".

 

[SolVanderlyn]

I still remember my friends who insisted Tifa (FFVII) was pronounced "tiffa" as it was CLEARLY short for Tiffany.

Suck it, grade school buddies. You were wrong.

 

[Qurupeke]

I'm sure I pronounce like half the Pokémon wrong...

 

[moozoom]

It's mainly English or American people that have those problems. In french, most of the Japanese sounds can be spoken correctly just by reading them aloud. The vowels like "a" "e" and "i" are really different in English and cause many mispronounced words. The things I have to remember is to pronounce the Japanese "u" as a french "ou" ("oo" in english) and to transform the "r" in "l".

The inverse is true when french pronounce English titles or names badly... It can be very bad.

 

[Fou-Lu]

For Kazin I am thinking it could be:

Ka-zin
Kay-zin
Ka-zeen

 

[Finale Fireworker]

Semi-related: RuneScape had no voice acting and a global player base, so everybody read the names of towns differently. There was one town called Ardougne that was a frequent point of contention among players. Ardougne had every variety of pronounciation.

Ar-doon
Ar-dug-nee
Ar-doh-n

Eventually the developers decided to weigh in on how various towns were pronounced. Rather than clear things up, it threw players into a frenzy.

Ardougne was apparently pronounced "Ar-doyn." Nobody on earth pronounced it that way and people were defensive.

But, worse, one of the most central towns of the game was a town called Varrock, unanimously pronounced as Vuh-rock. The devs said it was pronounced Vair-ock.

And if that wasn't bad enough, they also said the town of Falador, ubiquitously pronounced as Fal-a-dor, was really pronounced Fay-la-dor.

It was cataclysmic.

 

[TheOmegaSpartan]

Suicune.

"Soo-ee-coon" or "Swee-coon". I use the latter.

For Kazin I am thinking it could be:

Ka-zin
Kay-zin
Ka-zeen

I'd think the last pronunciation is correct considering how the Japanese pronounce their words. To each their own, I suppose.

 

[Jedi2016]

Chocobo. I always pronounced it "Kokobo" before FFX.

 

[Piers]

Poh-keh-mon

Not Poker Mon.
(I know the anime occasionally pronounces the latter anyway)

 

[MomoQca]

Probably not the right place, but I'm hoping they'll say Nayru in Breath of the Wild.

 

[Crankshaft]

Jaquio from Ninja Gaiden. Late at night I look at the ceiling and ponder how to pronounce that name.

 

[mdtauk]

I remember watching The Completionist doing a live stream playing through Ocarina of Time. It really grated on me as he pronounced Hylia and Hylian as Hill-ee-ah and Hill-ee-an

To me it is like Hyrule: High-rule | Hylia: High-lee-ah and Hylian: High-lee-an

When I was younger Navi was Neh-vee or Navy. But these days I tend to say Nav-ee as in Navigation.

Fi is either Fee or F-igh

 

[Leeness]

I will never call Zidane "Zih-Dawn".

Never.

 

[HeeHo]

Used to read Sephiroth as Suh-vye-roth as opposed to Sephy-roth. I actually liked my original interpretation better.

Same thing with Chocobo. Used to pronounce it as Coco-bo.

 

[Morrigan Stark]

For Kazin I am thinking it could be:

Ka-zin
Kay-zin
Ka-zeen

Always said Ka-zin, but I'm a francophone so...

 

[mrmickfran]

I always thought that Tidus from FFX was pronounced "Tide-us", until I played Kingdom Hearts years later and they said "Tee-dus".

I was soo confused.

I will never call Zidane "Zih-Dawn".

Never.

That's the actual pronunciation?

what the fuck

 

[SatelliteOfLove]

SFV even straights up say his name on the character select screen and yet people still fuck it up. I blame the JCVD movie and the American cartoon.

"Gilly"

Trails in the Sky -> Cold Steel recently did this a few times for me, as one game was voice acted and the other was not.

Aidios
Loewe
Olivier

What I thought was the correct pronunciation:

Aie-dee-ohs
Low
Oli-veer

What actually is the correct pronunciation:

Ay-dee-ohs
Lew-ay (wtf?)
Oli-vee-ay

I like my pronunciations better.

mine

Crossbell <--- Cross-Bell, not Crossb'll

Calvard <----- CALvard, not CalVARD

and more than a few more like Aidios too. The playing of Cold Steel 1 was a shocking revelation.

Loewe is Loo-veh because it's Löwe, (it's German).

 

[Princess Viola]

And if that wasn't bad enough, they also said the town of Falador, ubiquitously pronounced as Fal-a-dor, was really pronounced Fay-la-dor.

WHAT

 

[Kinsei]

Probably not the right place, but I'm hoping they'll say Nayru in Breath of the Wild.

We almost got that in Hyrule Warriors but Lanayru Gorge was localized as the Valley of Seers.

 

[Pankratous]

I always thought that Tidus from FFX was pronounced "Tide-us", until I played Kingdom Hearts years later and they said "Tee-dus".

I was soo confused.

GOAT pronunciation is "Tie-dus"

 

[Meowster]

It was probably because I was just a child when I first played it but I was very shocked to find out how you pronounce Ultimecia when Dissidia came out.

 

[Leeness]

That's the actual pronunciation?

what the fuck

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=OnRqbATGOb8



Will never accept. Always "Zi-dayne".

 

[mrmickfran]

GOAT pronunciation is "Tie-dus"

Exactly, and rolls off the tounge. Tee-dus just sounds awkward.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=OnRqbATGOb8



Will never accept. Always "Zi-dayne".

Ewww, wtf