Posted January 25, 2017
No idea if anyone at Ghostlight read this forum or are still updating the game, but I though I might as well post this list of translation errors and oddities I've noticed. There is probably at-least a few things missing from here so I might update later if I find anything more.
Errors:
* The description for Transmutation in the Alchemy Warehouse: “Use an alchemical item to bond the ore.” should be “Combine ores to create alchemical items.”
* The Thief enemy is misnamed «Man» on the detailed-enemy-info screen and «Barbarian» everywhere else. (Although the «Ghost Thief» enemy is called «Ghost Chieftain», so this enemy might have been intended to be renamed Chieftain.)
* «Uolia» (ウォーリア) should be «Warrior».
* “Arbink” (アーヴァンク) should be “Afanc”, pronounced [‘avank], a Welsh monster.
* “Balbulgis” (ヴァルプルギス) should be “Walpurgis”, after Walpurgisnacht.
* “Vetreyal” (ベトレイアル) should be “Betrayal”.
* “Galeskegul” ( ゲイルスケグル) should be “Geirskögul”, a Valkyrie mentioned in Heimskringla (the national-epic of Norway), Skáldskaparmál (a text from the Prose Edda), Völuspá and Grímnismál (two texts from the Poetic Edda).
* “Otohm” (オトゥーム) should be “Othuum”, after a Cthulhu mythos monster created by Brian Lumley. The name might be copyrighted though.
* I think “Tsarl” (ツァール) is supposed to be “Zhar”, after a Cthulhu mythos deity created by August Derleth. The name at-least match in Japanese. Any possible copyright would be expired on this one.
* “Carcus” (カークス) should be “Cacus”, after the giant killed by Hercules.
* “Samurai Ghost” (ゴーストサマー) should be… not that. “サマー” is not Samurai, but “Samā”, which is a reference to the Ninja-enemy with that name. That enemy was renamed Master Ninja in the translation, so I guess it should be “Ghost Ninja”.
* When finding holes in the walls you can dig for ore: “[Character name] You find a spot where valuable ore remains buried.”. “You” should be removed.
* When throwing away a broken pickaxe after finding an item and having a full inventory: «broken Pick was thrown away». Either «broken» should be capitalized or there should be a «The» at the beginning. Probably applies to other broken items in the same situation too.
Impreciseness:
* On the Party screen on the World Map menu it says «You can restart it.» in the description of the parties and “Restart?” if you choose one. Should say resume or continue or some-such instead of restart.
* The «Ghost» enemy should probably be «Yurei» or something else less generic. While Yurei does mean ghost, the enemy is explicitly based on Japanese conceptions about ghosts rather than western ones, and the game makes a distinction between it (by using a Japanese word) and all the other ghosts (who use the English word ghost (ゴースト)).
* The Tamatebako/Jewel Casket chest-trap (玉手箱) and Small Jewel Casket alchemy item (小さな玉手箱) are translated as Treasure Box and Small Chest respectively, obscuring the fact that the latter is a smaller version of the former. It also doesn't make it clear that it’s a reference to the Japanese legend of Urashima Tarō, which is why it ages your characters.* I think it would be best to just call them Tamatebako or give them a more obvious, if less correct, name (like Time Box, or Casket of Ages or something) or rename them to another mythological reference altogether.
* The “Beast” enemy category might be more properly render as “Beastman”.
Inconsistencies:
* The Daimyō enemies are inconstantly translated. It’s normal variant is called «Great Lord» while it’s ghost variant is called «Ghost Daimyo».
* As mentioned above the ghost variant of the Thief/”Barbarian”-class-enemy is named «Ghost Chieftain».
* Character classes and enemy names use different naming conventions, so the enemies based on the Hunter class are called «Ranger» (e.g. Ranger, Ghost Ranger, Forest Ranger,) and the ones based on the Servant class are called «Herbalist» (Herbalist, Ghost Herbalist, Elite Herbalist, Master Herbalist). (This also extends to the dialogue of NPC in the first dungeon who explains Herbalism. And maybe other NPC dialogue as well.) This is technically true of the Priest class (which was renamed Cleric) as well, but the Cleric-based enemies have a more varied naming scheme than just “[something] [class]” and there is a Cleric among them, so it works out.
* As stated above the “Treasure Box” and “Small Chest” are inconsistently translated.
* 錬金 is inconstantly translated as either “Transmutation” or “Alchemy”/”Alchemical”. Some places online I’ve seen Transmutation called 合成錬金 (“Synthesizing” or “Synthesis-Alchemy”) and Forging called 鍛冶錬金 (“(Black)smiting-Alchemy”). I’m not sure where this comes from, but if it was present in the version of the game the English translation was based on** then it’s either an impreciseness or an error since what you do in that case is synthesizing (combining different objects to create something) rather than transmutation (turning one object into another). The English names also don’t make it clear that both have to do with Alchemy (and thus can only be done by an Alchemist), but this is less of a problem since you can only do both in the Alchemy warehouse.
Other:
* The Scylla (スキュラ) is called “Octopus Woman” in the translation, I’m not sure if it's an intentional change or if the translators just didn’t get the reference (there are other cases in the game where an enemy has a gibberish-sounding name in Japanese and the translators called it something more concrete).
* The Aposto (アポスト) is likely meant to invoke Apostle (or more specifically the Greek apóstolos, Latin apostolus, Italian apostolo and/or Russian apostol), rather than Apostate. Might be an intentional choice by the translators though.
* Kongoushin (コンゴウシン) is short for Jukongōshin, the Japanese name for the Buddhist god and/or bodhisattva Vajrapāni. Leaving it untranslated may be intentional though.
* The Merlion (マーライオン) is called “Sealion” in-game and “Mehlion” in the Digital Artbook. Mehlion is obviously an error, but I’m not sure why it was changed to Sealion (although it is more mythologically accurate that way).
* The “Devil Cat” (Nekomata, ネコマタ, lit. Forked Cat), “Demon Fox” (Tenko, 天狐, lit. Divine Fox), “Dog Spirit” (Inugami, イヌガミ), “Snow Woman” (Yukionna, 雪女) are referring to specific Japanese folkloric creatures, so it might be logical to keep their names in Japanese (Wikipedia does for example), but even the “translations” are specific enough to not have the same problem “Ghost” has. For the record, Storm and Lighting, while being references to Japanese gods Fūjin and Raijin do have those English names in the Japanese version. Also the ogres are actually called ogres, not oni.
* Kishin (キシン), translated as Wargod, is the Japanese word for a type of Buddhist god (encompassing the Sanskrit Vidyārāja, Dharmapāla and Heruka categories). They aren’t actually war-gods. In Japanese Buddhism they seem to be more or less the same as the Vidyārāja (明王, myōō, in Japanese), but not entirely synonymous. In English the terms is usually rendered Wrathful Deity or Fierce Deity.
* The “Septopod” was understandably changed from the silly Leg-Ball (レッグボール), which I’m guessing is a copyright-safe renaming of the Dungeons and Dragons monster Roving Mauler, which in turn is an American-politics-safe renaming of the Christian demon Buer. I’m a bit sad a chance to reinstate the original demon name went by, but at-least Septopod is a better name than either Leg-Ball or Roving Mauler.
* The Cospriest/Kos Priest seems to be a horrible pun on Cosplay and Priest, I’m guessing because it’s dressed like a Cleric but isn’t actually one. (And I’m going to assume it’s not a reference to Rudolph Kos). I would have gone with some other horrible pun, like “Uncleric”.
* «Ghost Fighter» is misnamed «Poltergeist» in the Digital Artbook.
*) The basic gist of the myth is that Urashima is transported to the kingdom of the dragon god, where times passes differently; one hour there equaling a hundred years outside. When he leaves he is given a jewel casket that contains all the time that should have passed for him, which he inevitably ends up opening; instantly ageing (and in some versions killing) him.
**) The English version seems to not be based on the PSP version directly, as it has enemies and items not present in that version (some of which made it into the 3DS version). Like the enemies Klein, Diamond Colony and Hanged Man and the Ring of Life item (which was removed in the 3DS version in favor of making aging optional). If 合成錬金 and 鍛冶錬金 came from the 3DS version it might have also been in the version the English translation is based on.
Errors:
* The description for Transmutation in the Alchemy Warehouse: “Use an alchemical item to bond the ore.” should be “Combine ores to create alchemical items.”
* The Thief enemy is misnamed «Man» on the detailed-enemy-info screen and «Barbarian» everywhere else. (Although the «Ghost Thief» enemy is called «Ghost Chieftain», so this enemy might have been intended to be renamed Chieftain.)
* «Uolia» (ウォーリア) should be «Warrior».
* “Arbink” (アーヴァンク) should be “Afanc”, pronounced [‘avank], a Welsh monster.
* “Balbulgis” (ヴァルプルギス) should be “Walpurgis”, after Walpurgisnacht.
* “Vetreyal” (ベトレイアル) should be “Betrayal”.
* “Galeskegul” ( ゲイルスケグル) should be “Geirskögul”, a Valkyrie mentioned in Heimskringla (the national-epic of Norway), Skáldskaparmál (a text from the Prose Edda), Völuspá and Grímnismál (two texts from the Poetic Edda).
* “Otohm” (オトゥーム) should be “Othuum”, after a Cthulhu mythos monster created by Brian Lumley. The name might be copyrighted though.
* I think “Tsarl” (ツァール) is supposed to be “Zhar”, after a Cthulhu mythos deity created by August Derleth. The name at-least match in Japanese. Any possible copyright would be expired on this one.
* “Carcus” (カークス) should be “Cacus”, after the giant killed by Hercules.
* “Samurai Ghost” (ゴーストサマー) should be… not that. “サマー” is not Samurai, but “Samā”, which is a reference to the Ninja-enemy with that name. That enemy was renamed Master Ninja in the translation, so I guess it should be “Ghost Ninja”.
* When finding holes in the walls you can dig for ore: “[Character name] You find a spot where valuable ore remains buried.”. “You” should be removed.
* When throwing away a broken pickaxe after finding an item and having a full inventory: «broken Pick was thrown away». Either «broken» should be capitalized or there should be a «The» at the beginning. Probably applies to other broken items in the same situation too.
Impreciseness:
* On the Party screen on the World Map menu it says «You can restart it.» in the description of the parties and “Restart?” if you choose one. Should say resume or continue or some-such instead of restart.
* The «Ghost» enemy should probably be «Yurei» or something else less generic. While Yurei does mean ghost, the enemy is explicitly based on Japanese conceptions about ghosts rather than western ones, and the game makes a distinction between it (by using a Japanese word) and all the other ghosts (who use the English word ghost (ゴースト)).
* The Tamatebako/Jewel Casket chest-trap (玉手箱) and Small Jewel Casket alchemy item (小さな玉手箱) are translated as Treasure Box and Small Chest respectively, obscuring the fact that the latter is a smaller version of the former. It also doesn't make it clear that it’s a reference to the Japanese legend of Urashima Tarō, which is why it ages your characters.* I think it would be best to just call them Tamatebako or give them a more obvious, if less correct, name (like Time Box, or Casket of Ages or something) or rename them to another mythological reference altogether.
* The “Beast” enemy category might be more properly render as “Beastman”.
Inconsistencies:
* The Daimyō enemies are inconstantly translated. It’s normal variant is called «Great Lord» while it’s ghost variant is called «Ghost Daimyo».
* As mentioned above the ghost variant of the Thief/”Barbarian”-class-enemy is named «Ghost Chieftain».
* Character classes and enemy names use different naming conventions, so the enemies based on the Hunter class are called «Ranger» (e.g. Ranger, Ghost Ranger, Forest Ranger,) and the ones based on the Servant class are called «Herbalist» (Herbalist, Ghost Herbalist, Elite Herbalist, Master Herbalist). (This also extends to the dialogue of NPC in the first dungeon who explains Herbalism. And maybe other NPC dialogue as well.) This is technically true of the Priest class (which was renamed Cleric) as well, but the Cleric-based enemies have a more varied naming scheme than just “[something] [class]” and there is a Cleric among them, so it works out.
* As stated above the “Treasure Box” and “Small Chest” are inconsistently translated.
* 錬金 is inconstantly translated as either “Transmutation” or “Alchemy”/”Alchemical”. Some places online I’ve seen Transmutation called 合成錬金 (“Synthesizing” or “Synthesis-Alchemy”) and Forging called 鍛冶錬金 (“(Black)smiting-Alchemy”). I’m not sure where this comes from, but if it was present in the version of the game the English translation was based on** then it’s either an impreciseness or an error since what you do in that case is synthesizing (combining different objects to create something) rather than transmutation (turning one object into another). The English names also don’t make it clear that both have to do with Alchemy (and thus can only be done by an Alchemist), but this is less of a problem since you can only do both in the Alchemy warehouse.
Other:
* The Scylla (スキュラ) is called “Octopus Woman” in the translation, I’m not sure if it's an intentional change or if the translators just didn’t get the reference (there are other cases in the game where an enemy has a gibberish-sounding name in Japanese and the translators called it something more concrete).
* The Aposto (アポスト) is likely meant to invoke Apostle (or more specifically the Greek apóstolos, Latin apostolus, Italian apostolo and/or Russian apostol), rather than Apostate. Might be an intentional choice by the translators though.
* Kongoushin (コンゴウシン) is short for Jukongōshin, the Japanese name for the Buddhist god and/or bodhisattva Vajrapāni. Leaving it untranslated may be intentional though.
* The Merlion (マーライオン) is called “Sealion” in-game and “Mehlion” in the Digital Artbook. Mehlion is obviously an error, but I’m not sure why it was changed to Sealion (although it is more mythologically accurate that way).
* The “Devil Cat” (Nekomata, ネコマタ, lit. Forked Cat), “Demon Fox” (Tenko, 天狐, lit. Divine Fox), “Dog Spirit” (Inugami, イヌガミ), “Snow Woman” (Yukionna, 雪女) are referring to specific Japanese folkloric creatures, so it might be logical to keep their names in Japanese (Wikipedia does for example), but even the “translations” are specific enough to not have the same problem “Ghost” has. For the record, Storm and Lighting, while being references to Japanese gods Fūjin and Raijin do have those English names in the Japanese version. Also the ogres are actually called ogres, not oni.
* Kishin (キシン), translated as Wargod, is the Japanese word for a type of Buddhist god (encompassing the Sanskrit Vidyārāja, Dharmapāla and Heruka categories). They aren’t actually war-gods. In Japanese Buddhism they seem to be more or less the same as the Vidyārāja (明王, myōō, in Japanese), but not entirely synonymous. In English the terms is usually rendered Wrathful Deity or Fierce Deity.
* The “Septopod” was understandably changed from the silly Leg-Ball (レッグボール), which I’m guessing is a copyright-safe renaming of the Dungeons and Dragons monster Roving Mauler, which in turn is an American-politics-safe renaming of the Christian demon Buer. I’m a bit sad a chance to reinstate the original demon name went by, but at-least Septopod is a better name than either Leg-Ball or Roving Mauler.
* The Cospriest/Kos Priest seems to be a horrible pun on Cosplay and Priest, I’m guessing because it’s dressed like a Cleric but isn’t actually one. (And I’m going to assume it’s not a reference to Rudolph Kos). I would have gone with some other horrible pun, like “Uncleric”.
* «Ghost Fighter» is misnamed «Poltergeist» in the Digital Artbook.
*) The basic gist of the myth is that Urashima is transported to the kingdom of the dragon god, where times passes differently; one hour there equaling a hundred years outside. When he leaves he is given a jewel casket that contains all the time that should have passed for him, which he inevitably ends up opening; instantly ageing (and in some versions killing) him.
**) The English version seems to not be based on the PSP version directly, as it has enemies and items not present in that version (some of which made it into the 3DS version). Like the enemies Klein, Diamond Colony and Hanged Man and the Ring of Life item (which was removed in the 3DS version in favor of making aging optional). If 合成錬金 and 鍛冶錬金 came from the 3DS version it might have also been in the version the English translation is based on.
Post edited January 25, 2017 by painocus
