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So let's discuss Fire Emblem localization

Busaiku

Member
First off, there will be names and minor plot/thematic spoilers for Fire Emblem Fates, so if you wanna go in completely clean, probably best to avoid this.
Second, this is not dealing with the likelihood/necessity of censorship. That's a bigger topic, and not what I want to focus on.
Please don't cut content, Nintendo of America.

So, Fire Emblem if came out, and Japan and import GAF are tearing away at it, while us 2nd tier citizens have to wait till 2016 for Fates
It's pretty lame that the rest of the world has to wait so long for localization, when other companies have made it a priority to reduce the lag between regions. Square Enix gets their non-Dragon Quest games out within 4 - 5 months, Atlus has been doing games in 6 months or less (RIP Europe), NISA's been getting Disgaea out quicker, XSEED with internal Marvelous stuff, and so on.
Nintendo gets some of the big games out everywhere reasonably (Pokemon and Mario), but still has problems in that regard (Yoshi being a notable recent one).
Yes, Fire Emblem wasn't the biggest series in times past, but Fire Emblem Awakening was a huge hit among Western gamers. Heck, it did better in the US alone than in Japan. It would make sense then to capitalize on this by making sure Fates isn't so far out. But what can you do, it's Nintendo.
Let's not even get into the release schedules/potential timing, cause, just ugh.

Well, having to wait sucks, sure, but hey, they can't just pluck a good translation out of a tree. Ok, that's cool, but interpreting the content itself isn't the only problem.

Another big problem with Fire Emblem localization is that, in 2015, in a T rated game, we still have to deal with name changes.
Now don't get me wrong, I didn't have an issue with the names themselves in previous games, but this causes a but of disconnect with the Japanese players.
When going through the if thread, us US peasants may see characters like Kamui, Marx, Aqua, etc mentioned, getting a general understanding of characters, but when it comes tome for is to finally play it, there won't be a Marx or Aqua and so on. So for people that do want to follow import impressions, but don't want to constantly have to correct themselves later on, this is really annoying. Japanese players will have the same problem if they wanna join in next year.
Now wait just a minute...*Avatar Quote*
Pokemon is a different case, where names are often based around puns (in whatever language), and since it is primarily a childrens' series, must be able to appeal to the widest demographics of the respective regions. This isn't the case with Fire Emblem, where names seem to be changed arbitrarily. Unless you can tell me what special meaning "Xander" or "Azura" have.

Now I mentioned name changes not being a problem for me before, but they are a big deal now.
As you may know, Nohr and Hoshido are based around European and Japanese cultures, respectively. Names carry greater weight than before, and Treehouse kind of sees this as well.
As such they've chosen to keep certain names more similar, but in doing so, have caused a mess. Characters have name changes for no particular reason.
Leon is now Leo, Kazahana is Hana, Tsubaki is Subaki. What is even the point of this? The names are extremely similar, but they just dropped some letters because..?
Going back to the cause of the main character, Kamui in if and Corrin in Fates, the change was also dumb. The character is the child of Queen Mikoto (in if, dunno what she'll be in Fates) of Hoshido, a Japanese themed kingdom. It would make sense for the child to be named Kamui, a Japanese name. But nope, the character is now Corrin, cause why not.

(The following is a spoiler for certain characters. I won't make it immediately clear, but I caution you before revealing the spoiler).
Certain characters are also very dependent on their names, and honestly, I cannot see how they will work well in English. Maybe Treehouse will surprise is, but I can't help but feel it'll be clunky at best, or completely lose the meaning at worst.

While I doubt name/location changes would affect localization time to a great degree, it certainly doesn't help.

Going back to long localization times, yeah waiting is bad sure, but nothing new. We'll just have to tough it. Ok, this wouldn't be the biggest deal if it weren't for something introduced in Awakening. That something being special post-release DLC.
Awakening came out in Japan quite some time before the rest of the world. During this time, NCL interacted with fans and made some cool stuff in response.
NCL held polls for everyones' favorite characters, and from those results, certain characters got some special fanservice (males and females), and I thought it was fun.
Now again, I don't necessarily have a problem with the results (Owain is the greatest), but it would've been nice if other regions also had input on this. The results might have been different, we might have had different DLC. Those poll results still have an impact even today, so it's definitely a big deal.
If they wanted to do regional polls instead of a worldwide one, I'd be ok with that, but it'd definitely be a lot more work.
I would rather get Japan flavored DLC than none at all, but with the game blowing up elsewhere, we deserve a voice too.
This might be a moot point, cause there haven't been any announcements for if/Fates, but after the success of Awakening, I don't see why they wouldn't do this.

So how does everyone else feel on this?
I doubt anyone's a fan of waiting, but what about name changes and the like?
Are you also angry at the DLC (potentially in this case) situation?
 

Memory

Member
Meh, RPGs over the last few decades have been plagued by bad and rushed localisations. I don't mind waiting for a good job, besides if its anything like the first one by the time the game us released dlc will already be rolling out.
 

Astral Dog

Member
It sucks they are releasing this in 2016, i understand late 2015, but next year is soo far away, at least 2016 will be a good FE year, i suppose.

Also dont like how they change some names, even if minor last game had Gimle changed to Grima.
 
I can understand the name change from Marx to Xander, at least. You know, links to Communism and all that. But yeah, the other name changes are pretty stupid.

I imagine the 2016 release is due to it being two games as well as likely having to censor a lot of the really sexual stuff. They're going to have to rewrite a lot of the supports, and some features might get outright removed (face rubbing mainly).
 
I can understand the name change from Marx to Xander, at least. You know, links to Communism and all that.

I always knew Kirby was communist propaganda.

latest


I don't really mind changes from Kazahana, Tsunaki, Kamui to be something slightly more westernized, but I agree that Corrin is stupid and things like the Harold/Arthur switch make no sense.
 
I feel like Nintendo doesn't know what to do/expect from Fire Emblem in the West.

It might be a niche series but considering they actually bother to market and promote it (and whoops undership it), they still are treating it like eh, when we get to it. Lack of clarification over if we're getting both versions was one of the major things everyone was wondering about during E3.

Name changes aren't new to the series, but most of the time, it was to make a romanization look more English or less a clump of letters, so changing Kuromu to Chrom isn't that drastic.

Now it just looks like they are changing names for the sake of changing names, especially when you consider we have half a country that's based on Japanese culture.
 

kunonabi

Member
The treehouse looks to be spread pretty thin right now so I can understand the wait. Names could be several things but Japanese and English text are very different so it may simply an issue of space. I just want no unnecessary censorship this time.
 

Zaventem

Member
I never understood the drastic name changes either. I can't even blame it on being a translation/pronunciation issue since they're relatively easy.
 

Hikami

Member
I bought the Hoshido version in Japanese and was planning on waiting to buy Nohr when the English version is out but.. thinking of just buying the Japanese version of Nohr as well.
Really think a lot of stuff will end up being censored, and those name changes are really silly.
 

Busaiku

Member
Where were the people complaining about Awakening?
Like I said, I didn't have a big problem with names before, but now the names are bit more significant in terms of the settings/themes.
And some of the changes are completely arbitrary.

I don't know if others did, but I definitely expressed disappointment at not having any type of input into DLC.
NoA held some polls around launch, ao I thought we might get some cool stuff from our opinions, but it led nowhere.
 

rhandino

Banned
Some names really need to be localized tho and there is not anything wrong with that... unless you feel that the changes like Tina / Terra (FFVI) or Sharla / Carna (Xenoblade Chronicles), Zael / Elza and Calista / Kanan (The Last Story) were detrimental to the story...
 
I would prefer if Nintendo localized the games alot quicker. Its ridiculous that we have to wait so long for the game since it already seems like they translated alot of the text not to mention it has a dub.

As for the name changes I don't mind them as long as it doesn't affect the story. The changes that really annoy me is when its specific dialogue during certain scenes.
 

Busaiku

Member
Does anyone know why they would change it? 8-4 did such a good job on the first one. I'm kind of worried about losing some of the personality they brought to it.
8-4's probably too busy workimg on Tales of Zestiria (with there being 3 versions) and Mighty No. 9, and Nintendo probably wants a better handling of the project so it's easier for them to make cuts.
 

Iksenpets

Banned
8-4's probably too busy workimg on Tales of Zestiria (with there being 3 versions) and Mighty No. 9, and Nintendo probably wants a better handling of the project so it's easier for them to make cuts.

I had kind of figured about Nintendo maybe wanting more direct control on this one, given some of the content. Forgot 8-4 was doing Zestiria, too. I guess that probably does eat up a lot of their time.
 

StoneFox

Member
What I never understood was changing a Western sounding name to a different Western sounding name for seemingly no reason. In Path of Radiance, Kevin became Kieran. But... why?
 
I don't really mind localized names, particularly. Especially if they're supposed to be Western names that come out with missing letters or nonsensical spellings or what-have-you.

Agreed that changes like Leon -> Leo and Tsubaki -> Subaki are stupid, though. Xander isn't a great name either; if they wanted to avoid he Marxism connection, I'd have gone with "Max," short for either Maximillian. Or Maximus, if they want to play up the vague Roman connections Nohr's got going on. They'd have to rename the rest of the family for that to work, though. Still, Xander? Ugh, no.

Kamui to Corrin actually makes a ton of sense, though. Kids abducted into other cultures often get new names.
 
Why even change the names of some of the characters though when they were fine as is? Were they worried that people wouldn't be able to pronounce them? Fire Emblem has a weird track record with this stuff.
 

Khort

Member
Yeah I am disappointed it is taking that much time to localized it. After Awakening, I was expecting their localization process to be ironed out
 

Asd202

Member
Those name changes are dumb and 8-4 is not localizing this? Guess now I know why such stupid decision are being made.
 

Busaiku

Member
Agreed that changes like Leon -> Leo and Tsubaki -> Subaki are stupid, though. Xander isn't a great name either; if they wanted to avoid he Marxism connection, I'd have gone with "Max," short for either Maximillian. Or Maximus, if they want to play up the vague Roman connections Nohr's got going on. They'd have to rename the rest of the family for that to work, though. Still, Xander? Ugh, no.
You know what would've been a good name?
Marcus.

Sounds similar to Marx (when pronouncing it in Japanese), and it brings up Marcus Aurelius.
 
That sums up FE character name localsiations. Some will be really minor changes (e.g. Pant > Pent, Renault > Renaud*, Gordon > Gordin, Noyce > Nolan...I feel in 2015 Noyce would stay), others will be rather extreme changes despite no problem (e.g. Hawkeye > Tronk*, Usylus > Bastian, Kilroy > Rhys) and some are sure, whatever (Soanevalcke > Stefan...how do you even say the former?).

The easiest thing to do is not follow the Japanese release to avoid issues of two sets of names for the same person and confusing people by referring to both at random.

You can knock yourself out with this list

*These are EU FE7 ones. Renaud was France and Tronk was Germany IIRC.
 

FSLink

Banned
Not about Fates, but could someone explain the Rachel -> L'Arachel name change in Fire Emblem: Sacred Stones?

Is that even a real name?
 

HawthorneKitty

Sgt. 2nd Class in the Creep Battalion, Waifu Wars
Busaiku, go to the Awakening name changes and complain about those.
This hate and fear mongering for Treehouse for a product that isn't finished is crude.
 
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