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** The Brazilian dub is particularly egregious. They almost never seem to keep the attack names the same, even getting to the point of ''mixing them up.''
** The same happens in the Mexican dub. Attack names switch back and forth between literal translations of the English names to the names used in the [European] Spanish games. It is worse with cities, which change from literal translations to made up names to European Spanish names to unaltered English names. Not to mention that Pokémon pronunciations change from one episode to another, and even during the same episode, Pokémon names are pronounced differently depending on the character.
** The Norwegian dub of [[Pokémon (anime)|Pokémon]] started out by translating all terms and attacks from English into Norwegian. While the recurring terms were generally translated consistently, attack names that popped up every 20 episodes or so were all over the place, and words that have no direct parallel in Norwegian, like "Gym" and "badge" tended to jump between equally correct translations constantly. By season 9 they started keeping most terms in English, and aside from this sounding relatively dorky in the first place (with mispronunciations being common), the translators often had trouble differing between actual Pokémon terms (like "Flying Pokémon") and just generic descriptions (like "bird Pokémon" and "forest Pokémon"), keeping them all in English. Other times, they'd translate obvious game terms, like the names of the Battle Frontier facilities, while leaving terms like "nurse" in English.
** The Spanish dub did a [[Tropes Are Not Bad]] version of this, where most moves kept their game names, but "Counter" was correctly translated as "counter attack", not "something that counts". Now if they only explained why "Swift" became "Star Swift"...
* In ''[[Pokémon Special]]'', nobody can seem to remember their Pokemon's nicknames for the first three arcs. Also, the translators can't seem to decide whether or not (EN)Blue's sister is named May or Daisy.
* Mew Lettuce from ''[[Tokyo Mew Mew]]'' has one attack, Reborn Lettuce Rush. Mew Bridget from 4Kids' ''Mew Mew Power'' has about five, and they all look the same and do the same thing.
** Don't forget that 4Kids made Pudding/Kiki a homeless girl in her first appearance, but when we actually DO see her house, they changed it to "We THOUGHT you were a homeless girl!" proving that 4Kids did NOT watch ahead, but still changed important plot points anyway!
*** The Portuguese dub is anything but consistent. After episode 26, suddenly, all the voices changed, and the character names changed, all the attack names changed, etc to match the Japanese version more closely than the first half of the series (which was based off the 4Kids dub). The French, Hebrew, and Serbian dubs also continued past the point where 4Kids left off. They were mostly consistent on that regard, but the Serbian dub had other problems, such as the characters' attack names changing almost every episode!
*** The Tokyopop translation of the English manga is also bad with this. Ichigo's age changed from 11 to 12 to 13, and back to 11. Her attack name also changed from "Sutoro Bell Bell" to the more accurate "Ribbon Strawberry Check" after the first volume. Kimera animals were also called "Chimera animals" in the first volume.
* Same with... well, just about everyone in the ''[[Sailor Moon]] S'' dub. Both attacks and transformation sequences never really stayed the same. Similarly, "[[Crystal Dragon Jesus|Messiah]]" and "Holy Grail" had to be censored, but they never decided what to change them to.
** Quite possibly the worst offender is the [[MacGuffin|Silver Crystal]] (Maboroshi no Ginzuishou). It's given a variety of different names in the anime dub, such as the Imperium Silver Crystal, Silver Moon Crystal, just plain Silver Crystal, or some variety of those three.
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*** Pales in comparison to the Brazilian version. While later seasons were slightly (but only ''slightly'') more consistent, ''[[Sailor Moon]] R'' was a total mess (done by a different studio than the first season) to the point that brazilian fans still make fun of it to this day. Pretty much every single attack name had at least two variants, though mainly the "Moon Princess Halation" attack which had a different name per episode. A favorite was "By the Powers of the Moon Princess' Tiara!". Because her tiara has [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IguHX3hQ4ZU everything to do with the attack].
*** In the first season, the term "Sailor Senshi" was usually translated as "Sailor Guerreiras" (Sailor Warriors). After the [[Uncancelled|Uncancelling]] and studio swap, suddenly they were... "the Sailor Moons" (which made the [[In the Name of the Moon]] speech ridiculously [[Narm|Narmy]], since Sailor Moon said her name ''three times'' <ref>"I'm ''a'' Sailor Moon! Who fights for love and justice! I'm Sailor Moon! Sailor Moon will punish you in the name of the moon"</ref>). After 70% of the R season it was changed to sometimes-Sailor and sometimes-Sailor Guerreiras, and so it stayed for all subsequent seasons.
*** While almost every attack in the English dub version of Sailor Moon would have more than one name for a single attack. Sailor Moon's primary attack in the second season Moon Princess Halation is an interesting case. Starting in its first appearance until dub episode 65 it was called Moon Princess Elimination. For the remainder of the R season it was called Moon Scepter Activation (it should be noted that there was a 3 year break before the last 17 episodes of R were dubbed). For the R movie it was Moon Princess Elimination and for its only appearance in the S season it was back to its original dub name.
*** Even the manga has it's moments, most noticeably a page in the Dream Arc. The Outer Senshi kept their names - Haruka, Michiru, Setsuna and Hotaru. While Haruka is playing with Hotaru, she calls her ''Jenny''. This happens only on that one page and never happens again
** The French manga is terrible for this. Attack names are translated differently almost every time (or ''not'' translated as the case may be -- sometimes they're left in their original English form), and on a couple of occasions, even the characters' names are inconsistent. (Eg, Setsuna, who is called Severine in French, is once referred to as "Setusna".)
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* Cannon chips in ''[[Mega Man NT Warrior]]'' wavered between "Cannon" or "Laser Blast". They had a continuity for about three instances on whether the chip was used in "summon" mode or "weapon" mode, but that scarcely excuses it, especially when they neatly broke that. Oh, and "High Cannon" and "Mega Cannon" are called fairly consistently. I think there was even a combo sequence involving "Laser Blast, High Cannon, Mega Cannon" that sounded incredibly stupid. They did that with the names of the characters too, with powers and character names diverging incredibly from the English translation of the very game series it's based on, leading to many characters having ''two'' completely different English names.
** The English dub of ''[[Mega Man Star Force|Ryuusei no RockMan]]'' was no better. Misora Hibiki became Sonia Strumm in the game and Sonia '''Sky''' in the anime dub. Harp was ''Lyra'' in the game but still combined with Sonia to become ''Harp'' Note, yet the dub changed the name to '''Lyra''' Note. Then there was a random moment where MegaMan called his attack as "Rock Buster."
** The 2nd game uses "Gospel" (After Bass's [[Evil Counterpart]] for Rush) for the villains and doesn't change it in the English version (where the original "Gospel" is known as "Treble" in the main series). The fact that their logo is a giant G and "Treble" not being a good name for an evil organization is believed to be behind this.
* The ''[[Digimon]]'' dubs quite a problem with this, with the names and attacks of characters alternating between the ones used in the show in Japan and the ones used in the merchandise (or previous show appearances) in America. ''[[Digimon Adventure 02]]'' is ''terrible'' about the same characters - not different Digimon of the same type, but the very same characters - using different names for the same attack. (Bonus points if the name was used for a different attack last time we heard it.) Since ''Digimon'' is big on [[Calling Your Attacks]], to the point where it's often speculated that a Digimon cannot use an attack without saying it, it's very glaring when yesterday's Flaming Fist is today's Fire Rocket.
** Different attacks would also be called the same thing a lot as well. WarGreymon's Terra Force is the giant fireball throw, Great Tornado is his spinning drill attack, Mega Claw is his hack-and-slash technique. The dub called ALL of those attacks Terra Force at some point or another, except when it called Great Tornado Mega Claw.
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** In ''[[Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha]] A's'', the Belkan intelligent device Graf Eisen has the abilities "Panzer Schild" (armor shield) and "Panzer Hindernis" (armor obstacle), and the intelligent device Laevatein has the ability "Panzer Geist" (armor spirit). Geneon's subtitles translate "panzer" as "tank" for Graf Eisen's abilities, but translate it as "armor" for Laevatein's ability. The fact that there aren't any tanks in this show, and that these are all defensive abilities, might suggest that it should be "armor" (or "armored"; the correct adjective forms would be "gepanzert", "gepanzertes", and "gepanzert", respectively).
* It's not an inconsistent ''dub'' (in fact there isn't a dub at all), but there's contradiction among the subtitles, the [[Eyecatch|eye catches]], and various other things at two whether ''[[Gunbuster]]'' (both the machine and the series itself) is supposed to be two words (Gun Buster), one regular word (Gunbuster), or a CamelCase word (GunBuster).
* The ''[[Ranma ½|[[Ranma 1/2½]]'' manga by Viz ran into this during the "Aging Mushrooms" (called "Mushrooms of Time" in the English version) storyline. After consuming one of the titular items, which make you as old as the mushroom is long (in centimeters,) Ryouga turns into a little 6 year-old kid. Later on, he's fed a 3cm mushroom and becomes a three year-old, and he gets back at Ranma with the "Explosive Pulverization" technique (the ''Bakusai Tenketsu'', which Viz itself had ''always'' translated as "Breaking Point") and he gains a three year-old's lisp. Even worse, when he eats a 10cm mushroom, ''he keeps the lisp'' even though he didn't have one when he was six.
** The ''Hiryuushoutenha'' ("Flying Dragon Ascend-to-Heaven Blast") gets a new translation every time it's [[Calling Your Attacks|called out]].
* The [[Mahou Sensei Negima]] manga had some problems with this, especially in the first few volumes. They're fairly minor for the most part but there are two gratuitous instances: [[Weasel Mascot|Chamo]] is variously referred (by the same characters) as an ermine, rat, weasel, or ferret, before they finally confirmed him as an ermine. Then there was the early incident where Negi's father was referred to as the "Southern Master" for a volume before the translators realized that it makes no sense and switched to the correct "Thousand Master". Fortunately, more recent editions of that volume fixed it.
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* The Hungarian dub of ''[[Dragonball Z]]'' had trouble with the name of the Kamehameha, going through at least six different names, including "Lifeforce Wave", "Highest Power", "Magical Force", "Magic Ray", "Personality Beam" and the simple "Lightning", and switching back and forth between them, sometimes within the same episode. Since Hungarian dubs are usually pretty good compared to most, it's possible that this was a quirk carried over from the French dub.
** It probably was, since the Spanish dub is also based on the French one and also has that issue ("Cameame Waves"? "Vital Wave"? "Infinite Light"?). The opposite also happened, with "Vital Wave" (The "normal" name for the Kamehameha) also being used for the [[Dangerous Forbidden Technique|Kikouhou]], the [[Blinded by the Light|Taiyou-ken]], the [[Heroic RROD|Kaioh-ken]], several unnamed ki attacks, and more. The Taiyou-ken (Solar Fist) also went by several names, such as "Solar Beam", "Solar Fist" (Gasp!), "Photoelectric Waves" (Said by [[Idiot Hero|Goku]], go figure) and the crowner, "Final Flash". By Cell. One episode BEFORE Vegeta used the ''real'' Final Flash. Not even the titular [[McGuffin|McGuffins]] are safe, being "magical balls" (Most things are simply "magical X" on this dub for [[Viewers are Morons|some reason]]) but sometimes becoming "crystal balls" or even "dragon balls". There's also calling Saiyans "Space Warriors" and Super Saiyans "Super Warriors", but then using "Super Warriors" for vanilla Saiyans in some movies, and actually calling them "Saiyans" (In English) on early GT. Even the manga fell to this one, calling them "Saiyajins" in [[Gratuitous Japanese]] at first, and by extension "Super Saiyajin" later on... until the Androids arc, where they used "Super Warriors" like the anime. Sometimes. To the point of using both terms ''on the same page''. The manga also called the [[Combined Energy Attack|Genki Dama]] "fireball" on its first appearance and "Energy Ball" everywhere else. And that's not even getting to current video games being translated from the USA versions resulting in even ''more'' name changes for minor characters.
** The Mexican dub had also its own share of inconcistencies: First, in early episodes, both Pilaf and Shen Long had no name (they were referred to as "The Emperor" and "The Dragon God", respectively), until the Red Ribbon saga when their names were finally said. Uupa on his first appeareance was called Nube (lit. "Cloud") and was a girl; by the next episode he was aptly renamed Uupa and got a gender change. Later, in the Z series, Dr. Gero was strangely called Dr. Maki and after a few episodes he reverted to his Japanese name. But maybe the worst offender is planet Namek, which during the Saiyan and Freezer sagas was named "Planeta Namekusei" ("Planet Planet Namek", in a weird case of Gratuitous Japanese). After the arc had ended the planet got renamed as Planeta Nameku. Also, secondary characters changed voices every now and then.
** In the English version of ''[[Dragonball Z]]'', Piccolo went by the pseudonym "Ma Junior" at the World Martial Arts Tournament, with his reasoning that it was what he used last time he entered the tournament. In the ''[[Dragon Ball]]'' dub, he went by the name "Junior" (No "Ma") instead. Also, in the [[Bowdlerisation|edited version]] of ''[[Dragonball Z Kai]]'' he uses the "Special Beam Cannon" on Raditz, only for it to be the "Makankosappo" in the next episode's flashback. This was averted in the uncut dub in that case, however was later invoked when Goku uses the "Solar Flare" and Krillin does the "Taiyou-ken".
** Let's not forget the infamous dub error where Raditz was said to be faster than the speed of light, yet much later on Goku's instant transmission was described as allowing him to move at the speed of light. (Both of these are inaccurate FYI, as in the original Piccolo just said that Raditz was amazingly fast and Instant Transmission, like its name implies, is actually instant).
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== Film ==
* ''[[Star Wars]]'' is a major sufferer of this in several languages, partly due to its age and changes in countries' dubbing practices during the franchise's lifespan.
** In both the French and Italian versions of the original ''[[Star Wars]]'' movies, most characters and vehicles received a [[Dub Name Change]]. However, in translations of the prequels and later Expanded Universe material, most of these changes were reverted.
*** In the case of French, [[The Dragon|Darth Vader]] is a unique case; both France and Canada share one dub of the original movies, made in France, in which Vader's name (the only "Darth" character at that point) is changed to "[[Gratuitous English|Dark]] Vador". Although later translations in France kept this change and carried it over to new characters ("Dark Maul", etc.), the French-Canadian versions of the new movies, series and packaging blurbs on merchandise not only kept "Darth", but also used Vader's original English name. This actually happens a lot in French Canada when new entries to old movies and TV series are dubbed. Before the 1990's, most French translations were done in France. Nowadays, most of them get a local dub in Quebec; series that got early instalments dubbed in France can have later ones dubbed in Quebec (''[[Indiana Jones]]'', ''[[The Lion King]]'' and ''[[Family Guy]]'' come to mind).
*** For the Italian versions, there was actually a poll to determine whether Darth Vader (known as "[[Spell My Name with an "S"|Dart]] Fener" in Italian) would use his original name in the ''[[Revenge of the Sith]]'' dub. "Fener" won with 55% of the votes, although "Darth Vader", for some reason, is still used in most Italian merchandise blurbs. (Not to mention the fact that other Sith Lords would use "Darth" rather than "Dart" as a title.)
** The German [[Star Wars]] franchise has some serious problems with consistency. Sometimes english titles like captain and lieutenant are swapped with the german versions, sometimes not. Sometimes Poggle the Lesser is Poggle der Geringere, sometimes not (even within some episodes in The Clone Wars). Sometimes Tarkin is a Grand Moff, but sometimes it gets woolseyisted to Mufti (made up word by a translator). Even the comics, full of a staff of promoted fanboys it is not safe to say if the Home One is Heimat Eins or not. Jango is called with english pronounceiation everywhere except for The Clone Wars where it is Ijangoh.
** Same for the Hungarian translations. Nobody is sure whether the Millenium Falcon's name should be left in English, or if the dubs (there are several) of the Original Trilogy are correct by naming it "Ezeréves Sólyom" ("Thousand Year-Old Falcon"). Light sabers also get to be referred to as "Laser swords" a lot, and although the dubbing studio made an effort to keep the voices and name translations of the Prequels and the cartoon shows consistent, they still switched them around needlessly. The dub of ''[[The Clone Wars]]'', for instance translated the clone nicknames at first, then decided to go with their English names, only Rex is voiced by the "standard" clone voice actor from the movies, and the voices of secondary characters also keep changing depending on the episode.
* Some gag dubs of [[Dmitry Puchkov]] (AKA Goblin) are this way. For example, in the dub of the first ''[[The Lord of the Rings (film)|The Lord of the Rings]]'' film, Gimli is named Gimler (referring to [[Those Wacky Nazis|Heinrich Himmler]]), but in the second and third films' [[Gag Dub|Gag Dubs]], he is named Givi, a stereotypical Georgian name. Also done in the [[Gag Dub]] of ''[[The Matrix]]'', where Matvey (Morpheus) claims to be travelling aboard an armored train (called KV-1, even though it's a tank) in the vicinity of Berlin, although later he claims to be aboard a submarine.
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== Literature ==
* The Swedish translation of the [[Discworld]] books, while generally excellently flowing and providing [[Woolseyism|good localization]] of English-specific puns and jokes, does have some annoying inconsistencies: for example, the translation of "the Dungeon Dimensions" alternates between ''Källardimensionerna'' ("the Basement Dimensions"), which keeps the meaning while losing the alliteration, and ''Demondimensionerna'' ("the Demon Dimensions"), which ''sounds'' awesome but loses the important point that the Things in the Dungeon Dimensions are nothing as rational and anthropomorphic as demons. However, the worst is probably the translation of "sourcerer", which is translated in three equally bad ways: ''urmagiker'' ("source-magician", keeping the meaning but losing the pun); ''häcksmästare'' ("hedge-ician", creating a bad pun that has nothing to do with the meaning... not that "sourcerer" is that awesome a pun), and finally, in the sourcerer-centric book ''Sourcery'', ''svartkonstnär'' ("warlock"), which is neither funny nor descriptive of what a sourcerer does.
** The Finnish translation for the Dungeon Dimensions varied for awhile between "Tietymättömät tyrmät" ("Unknown/Endless Dungeons") and "Umpi-ulottuvuudet" ("Sealed/Closed Dimensions), finally settling for the latter. The Finnish translation of ''Mort'' also went against every other translation's conventions, by for example translating trolls as "jätit" (giants/ogres), even though there's a perfectly good direct equivalent "peikko", which is used in every other Discworld book, and wizards as "taikurit" ("magicians"), even though that term is more commonly used of stage-magicians than the real deal, especially in a fantasy setting.
* The ''[[Harry Potter]]'' books started out changing "jumper" to "sweater", but quit at some point, creating a strange ambiguity. For all one knew, Lupin actually was intended to be wearing a child's dress, because surely if they meant a warm, woolen pullover which is worn by all sorts of people, they'd say so, as per usual.
** The American editions of the first couple books saw fit to change Dumbledore's fondness for sherbet lemons into a fondness for lemon drops. So in the American edition of the second book, the password to Dumbledore's office becomes "lemon drop". However, "sherbet lemon" was left intact in the fourth book, causing Harry to "remember" the password to Dumbledore's office being "sherbet lemon" despite the fact that that only happened in the British version of the second book.
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* In different Italian translations of the ''[[Dune]]'' saga, the Golden Path is translated sometimes to "Sentiero Dorato" and sometimes to "Via Aurea".
** Turkish ones too, sometimes retaining the original English terms and sometimes translating them with no apparent consistency or pattern.
* Italian translations of Tolkien's works suffer the same problem. Examples: orcs are "orchi" in ''[[The Hobbit]]'', "orchetti" in ''[[The Lord of the Rings]]''; Bilbo's sword, Sting, is "Pungiglione" in ''[[The Hobbit]]'', "Pungolo" in ''[[The Lord of the Rings]]''.
** It's a matter of setting things right. The english "orc" is very similar to the italian "orco" ("ogre"), but they indicates different creatures. In the ''[[The Hobbit]]'' translation they used the false relative "orc = orco", while in ''[[The Lord of the Rings]]'' they used the right meaning.
** The same can be said for the Hungarian translations. This lead to so much confusion, in fact, that for ''[[The Hobbit]]'', they released a revised translation, integrating the terms popularized by ''[[The Lord of the Rings]]'' books. Then, when the ''LOTR'' books received a revision of their own, ''Hobbit'' saw its fourth and (hopefully) final re-translation. [http://hu.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_hobbit#Terminol.C3.B3giai_.C3.B6sszehasonl.C3.ADt.C3.B3_t.C3.A1bl.C3.A1zatok See here] for a comprehensive list of name variations<ref> 1st column: Original ''Hobbit'' translations; 2nd column: Original ''LOTR'' translations; 3rd column: first revised edition; 4th column: finalized name changes</ref>, and [http://volgyzugoly.uw.hu/konyvtar/baboszotar.php here] for a less in-depth list, which also includes the English terms.
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* For a couple of episodes, the Hungarian dub of ''[[Myth Busters]]'' kept referring to Buster both by his original English name (which is normally used in the dub) and "Tulok" ("Bullock"). Even the narrator was surprised about it, as you could tell by his voice. However, it ''is'' a dub that has the voice cast alternate from episode to episode...
* The first season of ''[[Mighty Morphin Power Rangers]]'' gave some of the weapons and vehicles on the show more than one name. For example, the Dragonzord Fighting Mode ([[Combining Mecha|the Dragonzord/Sabretooth Tiger/Triceratops/Mastondon Zord combination]]) is also referred as the Mega Dragonzord (not to be confused with a different Dino Megazord/Dragonzord combination) and the Dragonzord Battle Mode.
* The European Spanish dub of ''[[Friends]]'' renders [[Kavorka Man|Joey]]'s "How ''you'' doin?" catchphrase a different thing everytime it shows up, which kills the point of a catchphrase on the first place. The same happened with [[Family Matters|Steve Urkel]]'s "Did I do that?".
* The Hungarian dub of ''[[Star Trek: Voyager]]'''s 7th season was an example, but thankfully a second dub rectified the problem. It was handed over to a Romanian dubbing studio called Zone, notorious for its ''very'' cheap and lazy dubs. It was not only inconsistent with the dubbing of the rest of the show (new voices for everyone, new name variations, new expressions), but also with itself. It was so bad, in fact, that the TV station issued a public apology to the fans and re-dubbed the entire thing with the original cast some time later.
 
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*** Still better than Dark Phallus, which is apparently the romanization the original development team had in mind.
* Minor example from ''[[Final Fantasy VI]]'': a scholar early in the game tells you how people who used magic were called Mage Knights. By the time you actually meet their descendants later, they're called Mage Warriors. Later retranslations fixed this.
* In ''[[Command and& Conquer]]: Tiberian Sun'', the Good Guys had the "Firestorm Defense", which used a "Firestorm Generator" and "Firestorm Walls". In the French localization, it becomes the [[Logic Bomb|"ANTI-Firestorm defense", but is *still* powered by a "Firestorm Generator"]].
* Extremely common in various long-running [[RPG]] video game series, where item, spell or monster names that are the same in Japanese are localized differently in different games.
** ''[[Final Fantasy]]'': The spell Esuna has appeared as Heal and Esna. Holy has appeared as Fade, White, Pearl and Holy. Potions have also been Cure (Potion) and Tonic. Are they Golden Needles or Soft Potions? Remember when Thundara was called Lit2? And who can forget Cactuar/Cactrot/Sabotender, and Coeurl/Cuahl?
*** In the series' defense, the item, spell, and monster names are consistent within a given game. Since none of the games are actually in continuity with each other, this is a borderline case, if that.
*** Also, the reason "Thundara" was "Lit2" [[Mis Blamed|has more to do with character limits in the early games than inconsistency]]. ''[[Final Fantasy I]]'' only allowed four characters per name, whereas ''[[Final Fantasy IV]]'' and ''[[Final Fantasy VI]]'' allowed five and six, respectively. The Holy situation is also related to Nintendo's former draconian policies involving any sort of religious content. In all these cases, the localization team had to work with the resources (and within the limits) they were given, and it was only until the [[PlayStation]] era that they could be consistent with the Japanese naming schemes. In fact, it's only ''[[Final Fantasy VII]]'' which is the truly inconsistent installment, since it was [[Blind Idiot Translation|translated by Sony]].
** In Spain, Dragon Knights (AKA "Dragoons") seem to change name depending of the game: "Dragon Knight" on ''[[Final Fantasy Tactics Advance]]'' and its sequel, "Dragontino" ("Draconesque", and no, it wasn't "Dragonesque Knight, that would make too much sense) on ''III'' and ''V'', and "Draconius" on ''IV'' (The ''FF'' translator loves [[Gratuitous Latin]]). Curaja can't keep its own name consistent either; the previous spells are always "Cura", "Cura+", and "Cura++", but in ''IV'' it's "[[Rank Inflation|Cura+++]]", in ''I'' "Cura++2" And the crowner, ''III'' changes the entire system to be "Cura, Omnicura, Cura+, Omnicura+" for the hell of it. Thanks for making this simple, Square. Thanks. And we won't even get on how ''VII'' had completely different translations from later games, though that might be forgiven since ''VII'' was a [[Blind Idiot Translation]] from the English version and the others are translated from the Japanese versions.
** Even in English, the translation of "Dragon Knight" was inconsistent for a while, being translated directly in ''[[Final Fantasy IX]]'' and translated as "Lancer" in ''[[Final Fantasy Tactics]]'' and ''[[Final Fantasy V]]'' (Playstation versions of both). Pretty much every other game refers to them as "Dragoons", despite the word "dragoon" meaning something ''very'' different in English normally (and you can blame ''[[Final Fantasy IV]]'' for that one, being the first game in the series to have the class and be translated into English... [[Blind Idiot Translation|sorta]].)
** ''[[Breath of Fire]]'': The first game was translated by Square, the later ones (sometimes very poorly) by Capcom. The goddess Tyr became Myria in her second appearance (the latter is actually correct); recurring character Deis was sometimes called Bleu (Originating with the Square release of the original, and kept as an [[The Artifact|Artifact]] for the Capcom translation of Breath of Fire 2); and Winlan/Windia/Wyndia was supposedly the same place in each game. Gobi/Maniro/Manillo is another case -- all Capcom can be accused of is poor romanization, and yet again it was Square who was the root problem, picking a name out of thin air rather than using the original Japanese name; most cases of Inconsistent Dubbing in Breath of Fire can be traced back to this, actually -- although some of these were necessitated by technical limitations, there's actually no particularly good reason to change Deis to Bleu.
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*** And, unlike some cases of this, ''none'' of these actually match the original Japanese name; "Death Pisaro" is just plain too long for English versions, even if they want to be faithful.
*** The guy actually goes by multiple names, complicating it further. In the original, he is Pisaro, who becomes Death Pisaro when he decides to exterminate humanity. The first localization has him as Saro/Necrosaro, while the most recent one calls him Psaro/Psaro the Manslayer. {{spoiler|He loses the upgraded name when he joins your party.}}
* The English translation of ''[[Dynasty Warriors]]'' consistently uses the traditional East Asian name format of Family Name first, then Given Name. ''[[Samurai Warriors]]'' instead consistently used the Given Name, Family Name format more common in the West. Since they each used it consistently, this wasn't too much of a problem... until ''Warriors Orochi'', where you now get characters who are inconsistently named using one format or the other, depending on the source game.
* A bizarre example between ''[[Super Smash Bros.]]. Brawl'' and [http://www.smashbros.com Smash Bros. Dojo], which apparently have their own separate translation teams. For one, the game pluralizes the recurring enemies in the Subspace Emissary as "Primids", while the site perfers just "Primid" (made even more jarring when the Trophy Stand update had a screenshot of the Big Primid trophy that includes the game's pluralization). Additionally, the game level "Outside the Ancient Ruins" is referred to on the site as "Outer Ancient Ruins" in the Secret Element List update, and the Mysteries of The Subspace Emissary update calls what is named the "Island of the Ancients" in the game the "Isle of Ancients". To be fair, however, the site did correct some of its own errors later on, as at one point, Samurai Goroh and the Wario Bike and Drill Rush attacks are called Samurai Goro, the Wario Chopper and the Triple Dash.
** The Italian site also has Ike's Aether being named "Twilight". (Well, it ''is'' pretty [[Twilight (novel)|sparkly]]...)
* A minor inconsistency in ''[[Super Mario Bros 3]]'': the items "Kuribo's Shoe" and "Jugem's Cloud" are obviously named after the enemies otherwise translated into English as [[The Goomba|Goomba]] and Lakitu.
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** The Spanish translation of ''[[Tales of Symphonia]]'' changed the names of many skills, enemies and even some characters (Such as [[Our Dwarves Are All the Same|the dwarves]]), but ''[[Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World]]'' used the English terms. In most cases, [[Tropes Are Not Bad|this was a good thing]], since some names were ''too'' imaginative and clashed with the rest of the game. On a negative example (Still on ''Dawn''), [[Arc Words]] "Courage is the magic that turns dreams into reality" was translated literally for 75% of the game, but suddenly changed to "With courage and galantry, any dream can be made true" (Which is not quite the same, mind you) right before the battle against {{spoiler|Brute}}, then kept this way until the [[Final Boss]], where they go back to the first translation.
* The [[Video Game Remake|remake]] of the original ''[[Wild Arms 1|Wild ARMs]]'' game, ''Wild ARMs: Alter Code F'', despite being developed eight years after the original, still infamously had a poor translation. Perhaps the best example of this is [[White Magician Girl|Cecilia's]] middle name; she is referred to, at various points throughout the game, as Cecilia Lynne Adlehyde, Cecilia Raynne Adlehyde, and Cecilia Lynn Adlehyde. It's very jarring.
** More jarring example: Alhazad's gender, which is referred to both as "she" and "fellow". Why is this jarring? Because, not only is Alhazad referred to as a male in both the original's translation and the Japanese version of the remake, but he also constantly makes creepy advances towards a certain female even in his first appearance, which should have been a huge tip-off on his gender from the start.
* ''[[The Legendary Starfy]]'' refers to Shurikit as both a "he" and a "she" at different points in the game. Officially, she's a girl.
* Capcom seems to ''like'' being inconsistent about terms in [[Mega Man Battle Network]] and its sequel, [[Mega Man Star Force]]. The most notable ones are the [[By the Power of Greyskull]] quotes: in the first ''Battle Network'' game, the sentence was "Jack In! MegaMan.EXE, Transmit!". In later games, it became "Jack In! Mega Man, Execute!". ''Star Force'' followed too - in the first game, the quote was "EM Change, Geo Stelar, ON THE AIR!". By the third game, it became "Transcode! Mega Man!".
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