Dumb names and poor translations…

Rydia

Need I say more? Does anyone in all of creation know how to say it?

Actually, for anyone with a keen eye, you may have noticed some translations leave a real problem when it comes to the letter R. What I believe it is meant to say is "Lydia".

That’s not to say all Rs are meant to be Ls – I’m just hypothesising based on what I’ve seen in the forums (mainly people that can’t type, ahem). I’m pretty sure Bartz isn’t meant to be Ballz, and Auron isn’t meant to be Aulon 😉

Thoughts? Feel free to add your own dumb names and explain your logic behind it.

Here are some other clunky constructions that never cease to amaze me:

FuSoYa – Just what the F$@# is this anyway?!
Blank – Did they run out of ideas, or just come up blank on this poor guy?
Wakka/Rikku/Jassu/(anyone with a double letter, FFX) – The over-exploitation of the consonant-vowel-2X consonant-vowel. There must be at least 50, mostly Blitzball player names.

Bartz is meant to be Ballz Edited for hilarity.

Square actually has a history of choosing names for their characters that are unpronouncable not in English but in Japanese. How retarded is that?

Like,

Tifa – 2, simple syllables in English. However, neither Ti nor Fa syllables exist in Japanese! It comes out somthing like TuIFuA. lol.

Balthier is another good example, there’s no Thi syllable in Japanese. I think they go with BaFuRiA or something.

I think maybe they figure if a name is unpronouncable in Japanese it sounds more "Western" or something?

Names like Wakka, Rikku, Jassu, etc are actually really easy to pronounce in Japanese, and kinda sound Japanese-y.

The R/L thing is the case because ther’es no difference in Japanese so, the people who Localize the game have to make a call. I think they picked Rydia instead of Lydia because it’s a Fantasy game and they wanted a more "fantasy-esque" name or something.

This defies my sensibilities no end.

Why don’t they just do what I do, and invent them? It’s not hard to do. I invented Sequekhan and Malphregor for my novel. Far more satisfying too, when you get people saying they love ’em.

*snickers*

I rather like their names. And I love seeing the stupid fanboy fights that ensue over whether it’s Aerith or Aeris (and other such hilarity), especially when it comes from morons who think that watching a few fandubbed anime shows makes ’em some kind of authority on understanding Japanese.

wow i hanv’t see kurohime is a while

sain states, apropos of nothing.

Terra turned out to Tina. That was vry annoying for me even to hear. I actually played the game on pc using an emulator but I think its kind of stubit to name her Tina.

Yeah, and then there’s "Edgar and Mash."

Cefca 🙁

lollin @ overuse of Cid too, forgot to mention 😉

Is there a game he hasn’t appeared in?

Yes, the first one. And in the Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within film, he was Sid.

But at least there’s a reasonable explanation for that though — that’s something of a Final Fantasy legend thing. It’s just one of those little fun things they put in there. Cid is usually either a bad-ass dude who works on airships, an old man at the head of something, or some kind of government scientist. And occasionally all that gets a bit mixed together.

lollin @ overuse of Cid too, forgot to mention 😉

Is there a game he hasn’t appeared in?The beginning games? I?