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Phantasy Star Spell Names
Posted: Thu Nov 09, 2006 9:57 pm
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Just want to get some input on this before the final version of the Phantasy Star retranslation is released. Here are the names of the spells in Phantasy Star, along with my suggested translations of them. The ones that don't explain themselves are explained in parentheses:
Hiiru 'Heal' Dohiiru 'Super heal' Ribaasu 'Rebirth' (revive a dead character) Toruupa 'Troopa' (fly to last church visited) Suruto 'Suruto' (immediately exit a dungeon) Raputto 'Rapt' (detects and removes traps) Muoode 'Mu Oh De' (opens magically-sealed doors) Rakusuta 'Easy run' (allows quick escape from battle) Peyaraku 'Transrate (yes, transrate)' (communicate with weak enemies) Telepasu 'Telepath(y)' (communicate with stronger enemies) Fureiri 'Flaeli' (fire magic) Hyuun 'Hewn' (wind magic) Tandore 'Tandle' (lightning magic) Teruru 'Terror' (frighten an enemy and lower its attack power) Bindowa 'Bindwa' (prevents enemy attack) Powma 'Pow Ma' (boosts a character's attack power) Waara 'Walla' (creates a wall that protects against physical attacks) Muwaara 'Mu Walla' (creates a wall that protects against magical attacks) Notes: 1) It's possible that Toruupa 'Troopa' might have been intended to be Toruupaa 'Trooper', but was truncated to To-ru-u-pa to fit into the 4-character limit of the menu in the game. 2) The same goes for Rakusuta 'Easy run', which, if it was actually meant to be Rakusutaa, which could translate to 'Rockstar', so the spell would actually allow you to run away like a rockstar. Could be? 3) Suruto means something like 'and then...', which I don't think works well. It's probably best to leave this one as is. 4) Peyaraku looks like a play on Perayaku 'fluent translation'. Since it doesn't work on all enemies, it's more like 'flutranslentation' (thanks to the person who suggestion this -- I forget who at the moment). For space reasons, I think 'Transrate' would work well. 5) Spell names containing "Mu" are related to magic in some way. "Mu Oh De" (Mu + 'arms open wide') opens magic doors, and 'Mu Walla' protects against magical attacks. Compare this to 'Walla', which pretects only against physical attacks. That's all I can think of for now. What does everyone think? |
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Posted: Thu Nov 09, 2006 11:22 pm |
No answer to your questions, but, considering how some of those spell names may sound strange to people, you may want to release a small documentation explaining the choice, playword in japanese if any, etc.
Because everybody's gonna ask himself why "Transrate" is spelled this way. |
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Posted: Fri Nov 10, 2006 2:51 am |
Edited for being silly and not checking first.
This is a decent start: http://www.algol-star-system.net/library/jap-eng-1.shtml not sure if you started there as well. They have decent grasp of things, but waara is not wall, waaru is. Waller is a better transliteration than walla becase...that's half of a city in WA. Suruto might be a transliteration rather than an actual japanese phrase. Because, like you said, it make no sense on its own. Might not be English. I'm sure pow-ma is short for 'pawaa maho.' So Power Magic is more correct, but Power really works fine. 'hyuun' is the sound the wind makes. 'Whoosh' just sounds silly. tandore might be a typo, or odd transliteration of what would normaly come out as tandaa, sanndaa or tandoru, ie Thunder. As it stands, it's a Hill or given-name in England. Peyaraku also translates as "Easy Pair(-up)/Pair(-up) Easily" These are things I'd ask a native speaker about, but my friends went back to Japan, and the people at the discussion group are either above playing video games, or worse than me... |
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Posted: Fri Nov 10, 2006 3:52 am |
I agree that Tandore seems related to "Thunder".
But Powma? I can't see how that can be Japanese, with a W right before an M. |
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Posted: Fri Nov 10, 2006 7:04 am |
it's Pa-u-ma, sylabically.
Pawaa is normally power, so you have a point. pawama takes up the same character space. I'm at a loss now. Pa-Uma? Paper Horse? No idea. |
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Posted: Fri Nov 10, 2006 9:32 am Last edited by Maxim on Tue Nov 14, 2006 4:28 pm; edited 1 time in total |
Just for completeness,
Original Romaji Katakana Description
translation Heal hiiru ヒール +20HP Cure dohiiru ドヒール +80HP Wall waara ワーラ creates a "wall" that blocks attacks Prot muwaara ムワーラ creates a "wall" that blocks attacks and magic Fire fureeri フレエリ fire attack (-10DP x 2) Wind hyuun ヒューン wind attack (-10DP x 3) Thun tandore タンドレ lightning attack (-30DP to all enemies) Rope bindowa ビンドワ "binds" enemy so it can't attack Bye rakusuta ラクスタ exit a battle Help pauma パウマ boosts AP Terr teruru テルル decreases enemy DP Trap raputto ラプット disarms traps Exit suruto スルト exit dungeon Fly toruupa トルーパ return to last church Open muoode ムオーデ open sealed doors Rise riibasu リーバス resurrects a dead person to full life Chat peyaraku ペヤラク talk to enemies Tele telepasu テレパス talk to enemies and the translation's got to fit in a 7x2 character block (so names of 7 of less characters look best). Transrate would have to look like Trans-
rate which is obviously not so nice as something that fits on 1 line. Trawling the thesaurus.com doesn't help much (translation was obviously not a strongly Anglo-Saxon concept). How about "Pidgin" (not quite the same concept) or "Paraphrase" (would be split, but seems more readable)? Another alternative might be to jumble the letters differently, eg. Tr lat
ans e but that might just look weird. I already decided "etalsnarT" is too nasty... |
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Posted: Sun Nov 12, 2006 12:17 am |
"Pidgin" sounds really good. Go with that. | |
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Posted: Sun Nov 12, 2006 5:49 pm |
Cue a thousand people asking what it has to do with pigeons... | |
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Posted: Tue Nov 14, 2006 6:00 pm |
Well, let's divide this thing up.
First, the ones that are transliterations from English: hiiru ヒール -> Heal teruru テルル -> Terror telepasu テレパス -> Telepath(y) riibasu リーバス -> Rebirth Next, the prefixes - Do- and Mu- - which we can use "Super" and "Magic" for respectively: dohiiru ドヒール -> Super Heal muwaara ムワーラ -> Magic Wall Now for discussion of the rest. toruupa トルーパ (exit to last church visited) Could be "Trooper" or "Troop". The latter can mean "to come/go as a group". muoode ムオーデ (open magically sealed door)
"Magic unlock" or "Magic unseal"? "Abraca-dabra" (split over 2 lines) is a great fit (magical unlocking), but nothing to do with his arms. rakusuta ラクスタ (exit battle)
"EZ-sprint" is nasty :) Maybe "Easy escape"? "Quick dash"? "Abscond"? "Flee"? "Skedaddle" is too big. "Run away!" has a certain Monty Python edge to it that might not be appropriate. peyaraku ペヤラク (talk to enemies)
"Transrate" has to be split. I previously suggested "Pidgin", but I'm not happy with it. fureeri フレエリ (Fire attack) Could be "Fire" or "Fiery". I'd love "Burninate" but again, it may be too much. (And it'd be split over 2 lines.) bindowa ビンドワ (Rope) "Bind" is good for me, I'm not sure what the "Wa" is for. waara ワーラ (wall against physical attacks) "Wall" is good for me, "Walla" seems unnecessary. pauma パウマ (boost another character's AP) "Power Boost"? hyuun ヒューン (wind attack) It's supposed to be onomatopoeic (thank goodness for FF2 with a spell checker). "Woo" is no good. "Howl"? "Rush"? English doesn't really have any words that mean "the sound of wind", apart from ones that also mean "exhale" - blow, whistle, etc - and few are onomatopoeic. Maybe just stick with "Wind"? tandore タンドレ (thunder attack) I think this could just be a dodge transliteration of "Thunder". raputto ラプット (disarm trap) A jumbled-up "trap", but what can you make in English? Trap Rtap Atrp Ptra Tarp Rtpa Atpr Ptar Trpa Rpat Aptr Part Tapr Rpta Aprt Patr Tpra Rapt Arpt Prat Tpar Ratp Artp Rrta None of those look very good, especially if we avoid existing English words (Part, Rapt, Prat). What to do? suruto スルト (exit dungeon) Nothing to do with the Norse god Surtr, unfortunately. Is "And then.." so bad? We could use "And Now..." as a WB3 reference. |
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Posted: Tue Nov 14, 2006 10:18 pm |
Why not just call raputto "Untrap" ? | |
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suruto スルト
Posted: Mon Dec 04, 2006 11:08 am
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I think スルト is came from するっと.
It means 'pass(or walk around) somewhere easily' in Japanese. |
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Namida
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Posted: Wed Dec 06, 2006 5:19 pm |
I do think we should not translate anything, but just make a transcription of the spells.
Because because spells are shouted words and even the japanese player may not understand or try to really understand the true meaning of the words. They should be treated just a city or character names are (you don't want to look at the etymology of the city name and then translate it, but will rather just make a transcription of the pronounciation). We cannot translate everything, and should keep some of the Japanese culture which is integrated in this Japanese space opera :) The best translation suggested here is "Mu Oh De" ;) |
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Posted: Wed Dec 06, 2006 5:46 pm |
There are people (like me) who have yet to play the game and might want an idea of what the spell will do when I use it. "Waller" makes alot more sense than "Wara." "Sake Hoshii!" doesn't quite mean "I want Sake!" It means "I want Booze!" Looking into a cultural background of a term makes sense. Translating a joke CAN work, if you work at it. And I see some jokes here. |
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Enemy names too
Posted: Thu Dec 07, 2006 3:13 pm
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Here's the list. Excuse the formatting, it's a nightmare to get it lined up when it's mixing alphabets.
Sega translation | Japanese | Romaji | Translation Sworm | モンスターフライ | monsutaa furai | Monster Fly Green Slime | グリーンスライム | guriin suraimu | Green Slime Wing Eye | ウイングアイ | uingu ai | Wing Eye Man Eater | マンイーター | man iitaa | Man Eater Scorpion | スコーピラス | sukoopirasu | Scorpius Gold Scorpion | ラージャーゴ | raajaago | Raajaago [*] Blue Slime | ブルースライム | buruu suraimu | Blue Slime N.Farmer | モタビアンノーフ | motabian noofu | Motavian Farmer Owl Bear | デビルバット | debiru batto | Devil Bat Dead Tree | キラープラント | kiraa puranto | Killer Plant Scorpius | バイターフライ | baitaa furai | Fighter Fly E.Farmer | モタビアンイビル | motabian ibiru | Motavian Teaser Giant Fly | ヘレックス | herekkusu | Helix Crawler | サンドフーム | sandowaamu | Sandworm Barbarian | モタビアンマニア | motabian mania | Motavian Maniac Goldlens | ゴールドレンズ | goorudo renzu | Gold Lens Red Slime | レッドスライム | reddo suraimu | Red Slime Werebat | バットマン | battoman | Batman Big Club | カブトガニ | kabutogani | Horseshoe Crab Fishman | シャーキン | shaakin | Shark King Evil Dead | リッチ | ricchi | Leech Tarantula | タラヌチッラ | taranutirra | Tarantula Manticore | マンチコア | mantikoa | Manticore Skeleton | スケルトン | sukeruton | Skeleton Ant Lion | アリジゴク | arijigoku | Ant-lion Marshman | マーシーズ | maashiizu | Marshes Dezorian | デゾリアン | dezorian | Dezorian Leech | デザートリーチ | dezaato riichi | Desert Leech Vampire | クライオン | kuraion | Kuraion [*] Elephant | ビッグノーズ | biggu noozu | Big Nose Ghoul | グール | guuru | Ghoul Shellfish | アンモナイト | anmonaito | Ammonite Executer | エグゼキュート | eguzekyuuto | Executor Wight | ワイト | waito | Wight Skull-En | スカルソルジャー | sukaru sorujaa | Skull Soldier Ammonite | マイマイ | maimai | Snail Sphinx | マンチコート | manticooto | Manticore [*] Serpent | サーペント | saapento | Serpent Sandworm | リバイアサン | ribaiasan | Leviathan Lich | ドルージュ | doruuju | Dorouge Octopus | オクトパス | okutopasu | Octopus Stalker | マッドストーカー | maddo sutookaa | Mad Stalker Evil Head | デゾリアンヘッド | dezorian heddo | Dezorian Head Zombie | ゾンビ | zonbi | Zombie Battalion | ビュート | byuuto | Butte Robotcop | ロボットポリス | robotto porisu | Robot Police Sorcerer | サイボーグメイジ | saiboogu meiji | Cyborg Mage Nessie | フレームリザド | fureemu rizado | Flame Lizard Tarzimal | タジム | tajim | Tajim Golem | ガイア | gaia | Gaia Androcop | マシーンガーダー | mashiin gaadaa | Machine Guard Tentacle | ビッグイ-タ- | bigguiitaa | Snake Lord [*] Giant | タロス | tarosu | Talos Wyvern | スネークロード | suneeku roodo | Snake Lord Reaper | デスベアラー | desu bearaa | Death Bearer Magician | カオスンーサラー | kaosu soosaraa | Chaos Sorcerer Horseman | セントール | sentooru | Centaur Frostman | アイスマン | aisuman | Ice Man Amundsen | バルカン | barukan | Vulcan Red Dragon | レッドドラゴン | reddo doragon | Red Dragon Green Dragon | グリーンドラゴン | guriin doragon | Green Dragon Shadow | ラシーク(影武者) | Rashiiku (Kagemusha) | Shadow Warrior Mammoth | マンモス | manmosu | Mammoth Centaur | キングセイバー | kingu saiba | King Saber Marauder | ダークマローダー | daaku maroodaa | Dark Marauder Titan | コーレム | kooremu | Golem Medusa | メデューサ | medyuusa | Medusa White Dragon | フロストドラゴン | furosu doragon | Frost Dragon Blue Dragon | ドラゴンワイズ | doragon waizu | Dragon Wise Gold Dragon | ゴールドドレイク | goorudo doreiku | Gold Drake Dr. Mad | マッドドクター | maddo dokutaa | Mad Doctor Lassic | ラシーク | rashiiku | LaShiec Dark Falz | ダークファルス | daaku farusu | Dark Force Saccubus | ナイトメア | naitomea | Nightmare I've marked a [*] next to the ones that need attention: ラージャーゴ | raajaago Not sure what to do with this one. クライオン | kuraion Same again. マンチコア | mantikoa マンチコート | manticooto OK, one's a manticore, the other's a manticooto? What? ビッグイ-タ- bigguiitaa What's this? We have a duplicate name for it currently. Also: The original game doesn't show 影武者 next to the first ラシーク, that came from the website I was copying; but it does seem to be the source for the "Shadow Warrior" translation. Do you guys think マッドドクター should be Mad Doctor (a description) or Dr. Mad (a name)? (Images stolen from here.) |
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Posted: Fri Dec 08, 2006 8:42 am |
That blue one looks like it's supposed to be "Big Eater"
The "Manchikoa" and the like seem to be amalgamations of what they're made of. Man-sting(suchingaa)-komori. though lion is lacking... |
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Posted: Fri Dec 08, 2006 9:07 am |
Manticore at Wikipedia | |
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Posted: Fri Dec 08, 2006 1:12 pm |
I have been owned. |
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Posted: Sun Dec 10, 2006 8:47 pm |
Here's my take on some of these names:
Gold Scorpion | ラージャーゴ | raajaago | Raajaago [*] I have no ideas for this one, either. Maybe something like 'Raja-go', but that sounds pretty lame. N.Farmer | モタビアンノーフ | motabian noofu | Motavian Farmer I think this should be '(Motavian) Peasant'. The word "noofu" seems to be pretty elusive in terms of it's presence in dictionaries, but I was told once that it means something like "Peasant". Scorpius | バイターフライ | baitaa furai | Fighter Fly This should be 'Biter Fly', although I think 'Biting fly' sounds more natural in English. Giant Fly | ヘレックス | herekkusu | Helix 'Helix' sounds okay, but a more faithful rendering would be 'Herex'. Werebat | バットマン | battoman | Batman Maybe 'Bat man'. Makes it sound a little less like the comic book character is the same name, although I think that'll be impossible to avoid as long as we keep the translation faithful. Evil Dead | リッチ | ricchi | Leech This should be 'Lich'. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lich. Vampire | クライオン | kuraion | Kuraion [*] I guess this would be 'Cryon'. This might be a reference to a movie title or something (see "Batallion"). Sphinx | マンチコート | manticooto | Manticore [*] This could just be 'Manticort'. Battalion | ビュート | byuuto | Butte Are the red-colored zombies really called "Byuuto" in the Japanese version? (It's been a while since I've played it through.) Even if they are, I actually prefer the translation "Batallion". "Batarian" was the Japanese name for George Romero's Night of the Living Dead (1968? version). Maybe we could just call them 'Living dead'. Tentacle | ビッグイ-タ- | bigguiitaa | Snake Lord [*] Isn't this just 'Big Eater'? Shadow | ラシーク(影武者) | Rashiiku (Kagemusha) | Shadow Warrior There's a Kurosawa film called "Kagemusha" ('shadow warrior'). Basically, a shadow warrior is a "stand-in" for a lord, general, or whatever. This enemy's name comes up as "LaShiec" in the game. The term 'shadow warrior' only comes up after you've beaten him. Dr. Mad | マッドドクター | maddo dokutaa | Mad Doctor I think this one should stay as Mad Doctor. That's about all I can think of for now. |
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Posted: Sun Dec 10, 2006 9:26 pm |
I'm happy with that, it probably makes more sense than "farmer".
I prefer Biting myself.
Wouldn't you transliterate "Helix" in the same way?
Bizarrely, the only reference to Cryon I could find is in some Doctor Who backstory; I don't think it's referring to that, because those Cryons only live in cold conditions and these appear on Palma and Dezoris.
Sounds like a better translation to me.
So, shouldn't it be called LaShiec, for authenticity? I reckon so. |
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Posted: Mon Dec 11, 2006 9:06 am |
Right, it should be LaShiec. Sorry if that was unclear. As for "Herekkusu", a faithful translation would be 'Herex'. 'Helix' in Japanese is "Hirikkusu". Close, but still a different word. |
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Namida
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Re: Enemy names too
Posted: Mon Dec 11, 2006 3:06 pm
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Sega translation | Japanese | Romaji | Translation
Dark Falz | ダークファルス | daaku farusu | Dark Force You may not trust me but, ダークファルス true name is : Dark Phallus (not Dark False as it was translated later in other English versions). |
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Posted: Mon Dec 11, 2006 3:33 pm Last edited by Maxim on Mon Dec 11, 2006 5:20 pm; edited 1 time in total |
I've seen that around too, but (1) it makes no sense (he looks nothing like one), (2) it's weird, (3) it's not in line with any other translation, (4) it's still weird, (5) it'll frighten small children. I'd rather use Dark Force.
Next can of worms: LaShiec or La Shiec? |
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Posted: Mon Dec 11, 2006 4:33 pm |
Well, even if it's weird, if it is indeed the original intent don't you think it shall be preserved.? | |
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Posted: Mon Dec 11, 2006 4:50 pm |
The former is more usual (see also: the "Mac" prefix). |
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Posted: Mon Dec 11, 2006 5:25 pm |
Well, the scarily long Wikipedia entry for him is entitled Reipard La Shiec which is why I thought I'd ask... there must be some reason for it. | |
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Posted: Mon Dec 11, 2006 7:04 pm |
What is the evidence that it is the original intent? I had not heard of this before. I can see how it would be more likely that 'Dark Force' would have been represented as 'daaku faasu' (treat the ah + r sound as a long aa, consistant with the first word and the usual method of adaptation of loan words). But I'm not convinced it was meant to be 'phallus'. On the other hand, the Wikipedia article on 'Dark Force' says that a monster resembling the PS1 Dark Force appears in PS4, and it is named 'Prophallus'. So I guess that's some evidence to support that. |
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Posted: Tue Dec 12, 2006 3:38 am |
Dark False would be written the same... | |
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Posted: Tue Dec 12, 2006 8:39 am |
The resemblance is annoying. Also, Prophallus is darker than Dark Phallus.
Well, I've been swayed I think. It's somewhat earth-shaking, but no more so than Lütz. |
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Posted: Tue Dec 12, 2006 5:54 pm |
Dark False would be written exactly the same. I have no idea why he'd want to shange it, but there's no need to. | |
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Posted: Tue Dec 12, 2006 10:56 pm |
Yeah, I'm not convinced. It's been romanized a number of ways throughout the series so I'd say it's presence in the English version PSIV doesn't strictly indicate that was the original intended name. | |
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Posted: Thu Dec 14, 2006 9:51 pm |
According to my co-worker Brandon:
[13:45] Brandon: well [13:45] Brandon: the way you would pronounce that is faloosu [13:47] Brandon: I'd say farruse or something [13:47] normalroach: I'm just going to change it to Black Cock [13:49] Brandon: do it! [13:49] Brandon: you can tell him that wasn't 'the original intent', because I mean [13:49] Brandon: japanese people can't speak english [13:49] Brandon: half the time they think they're making normal european names So there you go. Please don't name the final boss of Phantasy Star after a porn site. The "original intent" was to make a name that sounded catchy, no one on Phantasy Star's team named this character after a penis. Edit: I've also been informed that it could be Dark Farlus, given the lack of R or L distinction. |
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Phantasy Star Compendium scans
Posted: Mon Dec 18, 2006 10:49 pm
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TheRedEye sent these to me, maybe they can help shed some light on some of the spell/item names?
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Posted: Mon Dec 18, 2006 11:19 pm Last edited by Bock on Tue Dec 19, 2006 11:59 am; edited 1 time in total |
Joseph (Namida) quoted this via MSN:
Q.ダークファルスは英語版だとダークフォースなのは何故?
A.phallus(男根崇拝)と区別するためです。 Also said to get info from http://a-zap.net/GPk1.htm This address doesn't load for me, thought. It does work for him (he's in Japan). |
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Posted: Mon Dec 18, 2006 11:23 pm |
To answer this old post from TheGZeus:
Well, one of the point of this translation was to avoid some of the "cultural background aware" traps from the original translation (eg: BURGER), and be close to the original script. So in your exemple, Sake should be left as is. |
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Posted: Tue Dec 19, 2006 12:33 am |
http://a-zap.net/GPk1.htm works for me. Here's a quick copy and paste:
It's just slightly more than I can handle... |
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Posted: Tue Dec 19, 2006 9:43 pm |
Gold Scorpion | ラージャーゴ | raajaago | Raajaago [*]
This is different. In Japanese, the thing of a dragonfly larva is called YAGO(ヤゴ). Therefore, it becomes like this in fact. Gold Scorpion | ラージヤーゴ | raajiyaago | Large Dragonfly Larva I think that it becomes a meaning called a large dragonfly larva. Sorry, if it is strange English, I am poor at English. |
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Posted: Wed Dec 20, 2006 2:06 am |
Your English is not bad at all :)
It seems the correct word for a dragonfly larva is "naiad" - which I have never heard of. So I think I'll call it "Giant Naiad" and people can go and look it up :) Phantasy Star released in Japan 1987/12/20 Phantasy Star Retranslation released on SMS Power! 2006/12/20 Yikes, I have work to do. |
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Posted: Tue Mar 31, 2020 5:53 pm |
Continuing from the other thread, here's the current spell names:
My Original Romaji Katakana Description
translation translation Heal Heal hiiru ヒール +20HP Quick Dash Bye rakusuta ラクスタ exit a battle Transrate Chat peyaraku ペヤラク talk to enemies Fire Fire fureeri フレエリ fire attack (-10DP x 2) Bind Rope bindowa ビンドワ "binds" enemy so it can't attack Troop Fly toruupa トルーパ return to last church Super Heal Cure dohiiru ドヒール +80HP Terror Terr teruru テルル decreases enemy DP Waller Wall waara ワーラ creates a "wall" that blocks attacks Untrap Trap raputto ラプット disarms traps Bypass Exit suruto スルト exit dungeon Power Boost Help pauma パウマ boosts AP Telepathy Tele telepasu テレパス talk to enemies Wind Wind hyuun ヒューン wind attack (-10DP x 3) Magic Waller Prot muwaara ムワーラ creates a "wall" that blocks attacks and magic Magic Unseal Open muoode ムオーデ open sealed doors Thunder Thun tandore タンドレ lightning attack (-30DP to all enemies) Rebirth Rise riibasu リーバス resurrects a dead person to full life What might we need to change here? |
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Posted: Tue Mar 31, 2020 8:51 pm |
For sure: Transrate to Translate My opinion: Quick Dash -> Run / Run Away Troop -> Trip(?) Heal -> Treat / Bandage Super heal -> Heal Waller -> Wall Untrap -> Disarm / Disarm Trap Magic Waller -> Magic Wall |
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Posted: Tue Mar 31, 2020 10:08 pm |
Alright, I gave most of the thread a read but skipped things unrelated to spell names.
I think I understand the goal here. You're avoiding precedent set by Phantasy Star IV because you feel that their research wasn't sufficient, which is admirable. However, it looks like spells fall into four different categories. More or less directly transliterated:
JP ....... ENG .. SMS Power! Hiiru .... Heal . Heal Riibasu .. Rise . Rebirth Waara .... Wall . Waller Terepasu . Tele . Telepathy Toruupa .. Fly .. Troop Localized: Muwaara .. Prot . Magic Waller Rakusuta . Bye .. Quick Dash Peyaraku . Chat . Transrate Outright renamed: Dohiiru .. Cure . Super Heal Pauma .... Help . Power Boost Bindowa .. Rope . Bind Suruto ... Exit . Bypass Raputto .. Trap . Untrap Muode .... Open . Magic Unseal Retained from official localization: Fureeri .. Fire . Fire Hyuun .... Wind . Wind Tandore .. Thun . Thunder Teruru ... Terr . Terror The end result is just a messy jumble of terms changed arbitrarily, akin to a Working Designs localization. If you wanted the response of my natural instinct--which you don't, because you've already heard it from me--it's to go straight-up transliterated. That aside, here are some nitpicks I have of existing translations. - Fureeri is probably based on the word Furea/Flare, and I've always thought Flarey would be a more accurate rendering than Flaeli. Flare would probably suffice. (I'm not sure where the conclusion that "fureeri" is similar to "faia" came from. If it was intended as "Fiery", I'm sure it would've been "fairari".) - Bypass seems like such a strange name for an Exit spell. It would honestly fit better for Myau's Trap spell. I noticed you've realized that "Suruto" means "And then..." but that's definitely a difficult pun to convey in English. Do you think it would be good to change it to a "goodbye" term, maybe? "Depart" has a nice ring to it. - Since Hewn/Hyuun is the sound of the wind blowing, what about calling it Gust instead? That word sounds a bit more like a sound effect. I also admit I'm not a fan of the two-word magic names. - Super Heal: Maybe Grand Heal or Hi-Heal to keep with how Doheal is 2 syllables. - Magic Unseal: Simply "Unseal" would work better here. Unlike Magic Waller, the distinction of it affecting magic in specific is unnecessary. I know it loses the reference to the "Mu" character this way, but localized like this it becomes wordy and superfluous. - Quick Dash: Abscond was the better choice, I think. Quick Dash evokes fast food in my mind. |
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Posted: Wed Apr 01, 2020 6:30 pm |
I think it makes sense to retain the transliterated, and localise the rest. I disagree about some of the "outright renamed" - after all, localisation is a continuum between translating and rewriting. Also, I think fureeri, tandore and teruru fall into the transliteration bucket, even if they are not normal transliterations.
I guess this would make sense, except that Fire spells are a well known trope (pulling us towards that) and flares aren't usually an attack weapon. If it's read as a verb then it makes more sense.
Perhaps "Bye-pass"? How about "Exeunt"? It captures the sense of "and now..." a little bit more. I think "And now..." is a bit weird.
Well, it's not onomatopoeic at all. Some onomatopoeic wind words from the internet: puff, hiss, whistle, swoosh, whoosh, swish, whiff, whizz, whisper. I feel all of these invite misunderstanding. I feel like "hewn" is evoking a more powerful, howling wind - in line with the effect it has.
The Do- and Mu- prefixes are converted to Super and Magic respectively; I think it is sensible to retain these even when there is no non-magic version. If we can think of better prefixes then we can use them - but I think the consistency is important.
Abscond doesn't give you the sense of "easy", but it's probably better than Quick Dash on reflection. |
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Posted: Wed Apr 01, 2020 6:32 pm |
Thanks for giving my suggestions a read. I trust your judgment. Honestly, I kind of regret bothering you at all about this since I can just make my own personal edition with the tools from the repo. | |
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Posted: Wed Apr 01, 2020 7:02 pm |
I’m almost, but not quite, tempted to make a form to let you specify your personal choices for everything and build a custom patch on demand... | |
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Posted: Wed Apr 01, 2020 11:06 pm |
You could do something like that. I have enough know-how of tools like this to just update this stuff myself, so again, I'm sorry for challenging your vision and not looking closer at the repo. | |
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Posted: Sat Apr 04, 2020 11:41 pm |
Ah, sorry for the double post, but rather than Quick Dash, why not Hightail? https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/hightail
I think it fits perfectly in this context. |
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