(2015-01-22, 07:19 AM)nilianofts link Wrote:HwitVlf I am amazed by your progress in this project. The last time I replied this post was. What? Two years ago I think. But I regularly check the updates from time to time.
I'm very satisfied with the update that is already available. But will probably wait for the final version to really play the game all the way. While I tested it. I cound not avoid to notice that the Demons were translated as Imp, Archdemons as Siren, and Lucifer was Arch Seraph even had its Sprite color changed. I'm not very familiar with japanese but I do know that the kana in the game could be romanized to Rushiferu. And its clearly a fallen angel (considering that it is Light and Dark at the same time). Weird enough, Lilith remained the same. I wound like to know the reason for the change?
Anyway. Thanks for your effort and I'm still looking forward to your next patch.
Ha, so you're saying you want me to name something Rushiferu? I'm a bit weary of answering questions about why I changed some names since it's already been discussed pretty extensively. But to answer your question, there were several reasons. One of the main ones being there were three creatures in the game named after synonyms for satan (Satan Lucifer Shaitan). That may work for Japanese who really have no idea what the English names mean, but for a European audience it's a bad choice that waters down the name's impact. Second, I don't think the game was trying to say the angel line ended 'fallen', but as mandated by taoist cliche principles both the angel and demon lines ended in nearly identical black/white yin/yang creatures. That may feel 'meaningful' to Japanese taoist spiritualism, but having the two strongest units in the game end up nearly identical was a bad choice gameplay-wise and it lost its spiritual impact for a large part of the western audience who have a long history of "good versus evil" as opposed to "evil completes good". My belief is that these changes, though further from literally accurate, make the "feeling" more accurate to the original for a western audience.
It's a common practice for companies to completely change names when translating a game- precisely for the kind of reasons I've mentioned. Atlus changed lots of names when translating LoF. If someone has a reason why a name I used is inferior to the 100% literal, I'm happy to consider it. But if it just boils down to "OMG that's not what Atlus called it", I have trouble taking it seriously. Am I right? Who knows, but all I can do is use my best judgement.