Spell My Name with an "S"/Video Games: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

* "Aeris vs. Aerith" from ''[[Final Fantasy VII]]'' is a [[Trope Codifier|canonical example]] <ref>and one that could've served as the [[Trope Namer]] if not for Asimov</ref> that can spawn enough [[Internet Backdraft]] ''[[Serious Business|to melt the polar icecaps]]''. It is always romanized as "Aerith" in Japan and used internationally in more current works, and some fans even use ''Earisu'' (the phonetic transliteration of the Japanese writing, エアリス). Aerith was subsequently chosen as a romanization because it sounds like "earth" when romanized, something that [[Word of God]] [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aerith_Gainsborough#cite_note-kaitai-8\] confirmed at the time of the game's release in Japan. "Aeris" was chosen for the first English release because Sony handled the English release and their team felt it sounded better. Things got complicated by Square once they took over localization of their own titles again - by the time of ''[[Kingdom Hearts (video game)|Kingdom Hearts]]'', Square had switched it back to "Aerith" outside of Japan. Some fans (including the ones editing Wikipedia and Final Fantasy Wiki) have struck a sort of compromise and use "Aeris" in regards to the game ''[[Final Fantasy VII]]'' and as "Aerith" when referring to all other games she appears in. If the game ever ''is'' remade, one can only guess how Square and their long-suffering fanbase will handle it.

** It doesn't help that "Aeris" is a Latin word with many other connotations that could be reasonably applied to the character, though these were unintentional since even the Japanese developers intended to get the "earth" homophone (and early concept art shows other spellings such as "Erith"). For example, try reading the [[Planet Eris]] trope without thinking of Aerith.

** Its sequel, the OVA ''Legend of the Crystals'' naturally follows in its footsteps. "Bartz" is referred to as "Batz," while Exdeath is "Exodese," and "Cid" is rendered as "Shido." The English dub is even internally inconsistent, as the main male character's name is rendered as first "Prettz" and later "Pritz" by the opening text in different episodes.

* ''[[Final Fantasy IV]]'' has a character named "Rydia". Some fans have thought this was a mistranslation of Lydia. Square Enix has never used any other English spelling, though.

*** Lenor is a fabric conditioner in the UK and parts of Europe. The equivalent US product is Downy. Whether this was considered by Square's translation team is unknown, but probably not. Still, releasing the game in the UK with the character named "Lenore" could have resulted in mockery. Although Lenore DOES '''soften''' Squall's heart, so...

**** It ''could'' have been [[Edgar Allan Poe|a Shout Out]]. While she isn't an example of [[The Lost Lenore|the associated trope]], she does have an angel motif, so it sort of fits.

* One of the examples of Ted Woolsey's videogame translations is the [[Goldfish Poop Gang|comic recurring enemy]] Ultros from ''[[Final Fantasy VI]]'', who was originally named Orthros. Square seems to go back and forth on whether to keep it or not. A reference to him as a mark in ''[[Final Fantasy XII]]'' and his appearance as a [[Bonus Boss]] in ''[[Final Fantasy Tactics A2]]'' and the GBA and PSP versions of ''[[Final Fantasy I]]'' use "Orthros", but when the GBA version of ''[[Final Fantasy VI]]'' came out in America with a fresh script, they went back to "Ultros."

** For extra confusion, in the German translation he's called Ultros.

*** There is now a type of object in the ''[[Final Fantasy XI]]'' Abyssea add-ons called an Atma, possibly combining a [[Shout-Out]] with the Hindu meaning.

** Note that Square officially romanizes "Kefka" as "Cefca" (Japanese materials to this day maintain the spelling), but the name is always changed to "Kefka" overseas. It's a very strange case because in Japanese, the hard C needed for this sound would be "ke" and the kana ''supports'' "Kefka". Unlike the Aerith/Aeris example, they've continued to leave his name alone in non-Japanese localizations.

*** This was lampshaded in the GBA enhanced port: at a certain point in the game, one of the guards in Figaro Castle will talk about how a certain faction of the Cult of Kefka argue about whether to spell Kefka's name with K's (as in Kefka) or C's (as in Cefca).

* The ''[[Final Fantasy]]'' games [[Final Fantasy Tactics|set in]] [[Final Fantasy XII|Ivalice]] started out with a ''lot'' of this, sometimes in the same game. As of the re-translations it's mostly cleared up, generally for the better.

** There has long been debate over Gilgamesh's "bad" sword equivalent of "Excalibur". The first game it appeared in was ''[[Final Fantasy V]]'', and the most common translation for a long time was "Exca'''il'''bur", taken from a fan translation done before the game was finally localized in the U.S. Square's first translation of this was in ''[[Final Fantasy VIII]]'', in which they chose "Excalipoor", a name that made sense considering the horrible quality of the weapon. They later flipped back and forth on using "Excalipoor" and "Excalipur", though they appear to have finally settled on the former.

* In ''[[Final Fantasy XIII]]'', the villain is named after the mythical creature Baldanders, but Square-Enix went with the Latinized name Barthandelus instead.

* The French edition of ''Final Fantasy IX'' had Zidane's name changed to Djidane, though this was done because Zidane is the name of France's most popular football player.

** His name was supposed to be Gitan (French for gypsy) anyway.

** The ''Zelda'' series makes a point of giving normal Anglo names strange Romanizations--for example, Renado from ''[[The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess]]'' could've easily been "Leonard". What makes this even worse is that the Japanese website for the game used such "normal" Romanizations until the English release neared and everything was switched to the "weird" Romanizations.

** Saria's name was spelled "Salia" in German.

* Dr. Light (ライト) from the ''[[Mega Man (video game)|Mega Man]]'' series had his name variously rendered as Light, Right, or Wright in the early games; it wasn't until ''4'' that it was standardized as Dr. Light in the English games. Similarly, Dr. Wily (ワイリー) was sometimes referred to as Dr. Wiley (or even Dr. Willy) in the early games.

** In Japan, Dr. Light is officially spelled Dr. Right, with the logo of his lab being a capital "R" in the Famicom game ''Rockboard''. When the Light's Lab logo appeared officially appeared in the English version of the series with ''Mega Man 9'', it became a capital "L".

** The ''[[Mega Man Battle Network]]'' games [[Lampshade Hanging|address]] the Light/Right mixup: the main protagonist's grandfather is called Tadashi Hikari, which pretty much translates to "Right Light" in English. Apparently Capcom thinks either version is fine for them at this point.

** Averted with ''[[Mega Man Zero]]'s'' [[Big Bad]], Dr. Weil (Vile in Japan). Before he was unveiled in part 3, fans thought this was Capcom USA's worst translation botch ever, that they somehow got Dr. Wily's name wrong. Further more, his Japanese pronunciation is actually ''Bairu'' (バイル), which sounds like While/Bile/Vile so there was plenty of naming issues to [[Fan Wank]] over before MMZ3 was released and revealed...Dr. Weil as a completely separate person. "Weil" is presumably with a Germanic V-sounding W, thus keeping the pronunciation more or less identical.

** In a ''[[Mega Man X]]'' manga adaption there's a mermaid character named Marty, however people find this either stupid or a translation error as the character it question is female, causing quite a few variations to the name: Marti, Martei, Mary, Marit, and Merit.

** Nintendo also likes to completely change names for no apparent reason. This usually leads to mass confusion when new titles come out because there's always been enough delay for fans to have translated the names themselves. To be fair, Nintendo does have reasons for it occasionally, usually to eliminate names that sound strange in English (like Beeze) or to try and get them all to sound consistent in one universe. However, changing "Soanevalke" to "Stefan" came back to bite them when his Japanese name was actually a hint to the character's origins in ''Radiant Dawn''.

*** Nintendo also screwed up with the name of the Dragon King. It's spelled "Deghinsea" in ''Path Of Radiance'', then spelled "Dheginsea" in ''Radiant Dawn'' (however, this was fixed in the PAL version, which uses ''Path of Radiance'''s spelling).

*** Marth's Pegasus Knight friend/lover is "Sheeda" in Japan, "Shiida" in Europe, and "Caeda" in North America (though likely pronounced the same - the name is Gaelic).

*** The character romanized with "Cheini" and fan dubbed as "Chainy" became "Xane" in both English versions.

*** Marth's homeland is "Akaneia" and ''Super Smash Bros Melee'' translated it as that (a debug menu also showed "Akaneia" as a stage). The American release uses "Archanea".

** In the games with explicitly named enemies, a certain type of agile, dual-dagger-wielding enemy was given the name "Skeleton Blaze", starting with ''Symphony of the Night''. Although it is fairly obvious to all involved (except the translators) that this should be "Skeleton '''Blades'''", the localization teams have kept this the same throughout the entire series, presumably for continuity.

** In ''[[Kid Dracula]]'', the main villain is called Garamoth. In ''[[Symphony of the Night]]'' and subsequent games, he is known as Galamoth.

** There are debates over whether "Zeikfried" in the first game is supposed to be "Siegfried." The fact that {{spoiler|his appearance in the third game spells it Siegfried}} appears to be nullified by [[The Remake|Alter Code F's]] [[Blind Idiot Translation]] that reverts it back to Zeikfried.

** ''[[Final Fantasy VI]]'' had the same problem. Then {{spoiler|Ultros becomes a receptionist}} at the cavalcade of misspellings that is the Colosseum/Coliseum and the circle is complete.

* Happens each time UDE decides to transliterate the Konami names for ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh!]]'' cards instead of renaming them, and sometimes even when fans try to translate OCG-only cards themselves. Some memorable ones include Gors/Gorz/Gooz/Goes and Goggle Golem/Google Golem/Giant Ogre Golem.

** Also in ''Disgaea'', the overlord Laharl's name is a subject of debate. Though Laharl is the official spelling in all of the games, "Lahar" would make more sense; it is a term related to volcanoes and would be in keeping with the other volcano-related names, like Etna and Vulcanus.

** The first I heard was "Razing Storm", which would actually make the most sense, since it doesn't rise above the ground and (until very late in the series) isn't at all raging. (FYI, "raze" means to demolish a structure.)

** For that matter, a LOT of attacks used by [[Fatal Fury]] characters have this problem. In large part because for most of them no one's even sure what they're ''saying'', let alone how to spell it.

*** Terry Bogard is especially bad about this.

*** But Duck King is the undisputed champ. "Wahn gooh fuh buh-huh looOOOOOOhh!"

** Then there's Togechick (トゲチック), which is [[Blind Idiot Translation|incorrectly translated]] as Toge'''tic''' overseas. People were [[Incredibly Lame Pun|"tic'd"]] off by this since it was announced.

** As of the reveal of the starter Pokemon for the upcoming Black and White versions, there's been debate on whether the grass starter's name (ツタージャ) should be written as Tsutaja, Tsutaaja, or Tsutarja. The fact that "tsutarja" is a registered domain name belonging to Nintendo gives that Romanization more weight.

** The kicker is another character's possible names, Levi Tolar, Rebi Torah, and Rabbi Torah, as all of them fit the character in terms of language and meaningfulness... and all three are spelled the same in Japanese.

** Zengar Zombolt gets a little pass, since it was first spelled in katakana that way, as the Japanese pronunciation of the actual spelling, ''Sanger'' Zonvolt. Silly German.

*** The [[Fan Translation]] of ''Alpha Gaiden'' choose "Sombold", because that was the closest thing that was an actual German name.

** Oh, and there's Sleigh/Surei/Srey/Slaye Presty/Presti.

** Speaking of ''Z'', how about "[[Spell My Name with a "The"|The Edel]]," who takes the time in-game to explain that he calls himself ''The'' Edel to make it clear that he's more important and more powerful than any of his [[Alternate Universe]] incarnations. This doesn't stop some people from spelling it "Ji Edel."

* As an example of this trope occurring even when transliteration is not involved, the infamously bad [http://hamsterrepublic.com/ohrrpgce/index.php/Main_Page.html OHRRPGCE] game ''Magnus'' can't decide on whether its [[Squishy Wizard]] is named "Quio" or "Ouio."

** [[Memetic Mutation|It's a bit hard to grasp the true form]] of the name of the series's final boss. It has been transliterated as "Gyiyg" or "Geeg", but the localizers for ''Earthbound Zero'' used "Giegue". Early promotional material for ''Earthbound'' actually referred to him as "Geek" before it was modified/finalized into "Giygas".

** Nintendo can't even seem to make up its mind about the name of the ''[[Mother 3]]'' village - in the US ''[[Super Smash Bros Brawl]]'', one of Lucas's trophies refers to it as "Tazumily". The PAL version changes it to the more common spelling of "Tazmily".

** Then there's the party member Lloyd/Loid/Roid from the first game in the series. An older official encyclopedia writes it as "Roid", while "Loid" relates to a potential Japanese pun on his [[Nerd Glasses]], and "Lloyd" seems the most natural for an American character. Brawl officially writes his name as "Lloyd". A less-debated example is Ana/Anna from the same game. It turns out to be "Ana" according to Brawl, though.

* Protagonist Roid/Lloyd Clive in the first ''[[Front Mission]]'' game. Roid being the original Japanese spelling, Lloyd being the fan-translated version. Proponents of either version were surprised when his name was officially translated as ''Royd''.

* Kevin R'''i'''an from ''Garou: Mark of the Wolves'', is supposedly a distant relative of Blue Mary of ''[[Fatal Fury]]'' and ''KOF'' fame, even though Mary's surname is romanized differently in the ''KOF'' series (R'''y'''an).

* Gantz/Guntz from ''Klonoa 2: Dream Champ Tournament'' and ''Klonoa: Beach Volleyball'' respectively. His name was romanized differently in each game.

* While not a mistranslation per se, Blizzard has recently decided that all names should be translated to the respective language in ''[[World of Warcraft]]'', while the initial release, ''[[Warcraft]] 3'' and all novels simply used the English names. Thankfully, it's possible to download a language pack to play it in English altogether. If only the same could be said about the novels...

* The male lead of ''[[Star Ocean the Second Story]]'' has the official name of "Claude" in the US, but his name is officially romanized as "Crawd" in Japanese. No English speakers actually use the name "Crawd", though, because it doesn't sound anything like an actual name -- it's generally accepted that tri-Ace really ''did'' mean for him to be named Claude, and just messed up the romanization.

* ''[[Silhouette Mirage]]'' is heavy on the Judeo-Christian [[Theme Naming]] of its characters, but the names of the protagonist's seven weapons got lost in translation. They are named after the [[Seven Deadly Sins]] using the Japanese equivalent of the English words. The names were taken literally from the transliterations, leading to the following: Surosa (Sloth), Priday (Pride), Angara (Anger), Rasti (Lust), Cavitas (Covetry or Greed), Grattoni (Gluttony), and Envia (Envy).

* ''[[Kirby]]'s Dream Land'' had a blimp-like boss named Kaboola, which was absent in the ''Kirby Super Star'' sub-game Spring Breeze, which was mostly a remake of ''Kirby's Dream Land'' (some other features were also absent). The [[Video Game Remake|remake]] of ''Kirby Super Star'' for the Nintendo DS, ''Kirby Super Star Ultra'', added the sub-game Revenge of the King, which is basically a harder version of Spring Breeze. In it the formerly missing boss returned with an altered appearance, as well as an altered name: Kabula. However, once ''Kirby's Dream Land'' was released on the [[Nintendo 3DS]] [[Virtual Console]], the name was back to being Kaboola according [[All There in the Manual|to the digital manual that comes with the game]].

*** Heck, many names in the remake were [[Blind Idiot Translation|incorrectly translated]] or even renamed, including Cavios to Cavius, Mecheye to Mekkai, Kaboola to Kabula, Iron Mom to Iron Mam, and so on.

** Before the Kaboola/Kabula incident was the case of Mr. Frosty, who was inexplicably named "[[Blind Idiot Translation|Mr. Flosty]]" in ''Kirby and the Amazing Mirror.''

* A recurring villain in the ''[[Bomberman]]'' series is Bagular/Bauglar/Buggler. While all are legitimate translations of the name "Bagura," Hudson Soft seems to have a hard time picking which one to go with. The confusion only gets worse when 2 games were released at the same time (''Bomberman Hero'' and ''Bomberman World''), each one referring to the character by a different name...or two (''Hero'' had both of the first two spellings).

** Bomberman Fantasy Race has the name as Bugglar in the credits, even in the Japanese version. The translators chose to translate it as Burglar, however for whatever reason.

** There's a reason to avoid trusting the flyer anyway.

* Nobody can seem to decide whether the Amazon princess of ''[[World of Mana|Seiken Densetsu 3]]'' is supposed to be called "Lise", "Riese", or "Riesz".

* Gray Fox from the ''[[Metal Gear]]'' series has had his real name<ref>フランク・イェーガー, ''Furanku Yēgā''</ref> translated as "Frank Jaeger" or "Yeager", depending on the game. Incidentally, Yeager is an Americanized form of the German surname Jaeger. His codename also varies between "Gray Fox" and "Grey Fox".

** But that's just a matter of American spelling versus British spelling.

** The names of the bosses in the first two ''Metal Gear'' games for the MSX2 were mostly [[Writing Around Trademarks|mangled]] pop-culture references: there's "Arnold" the cyborg (as in Schwarzenegger), "Coward Duck" ([[Howard the Duck (comics)|Howard the Duck]]), "Black Color" (from Blackcollar, an obscure Timothy Zahn novel about space ninjas), "Ultra Box" ([[Ultravox]]) and the "[[Predator]]". Not surprisingly, almost all of them (with the exception of [[The Running Man (film)|Running Man]]) were changed in the remade versions.

* That guy with the pointy hat in ''[[Mortal Kombat]]'': is he Raiden or Rayden? [[Justified Trope|Justified]] in that "Raiden" is a legitimate Japanese name, but the developers were forced to alter the spelling to avoid confusion with [[Fatal Fury|the other Raiden]]. Or the [[Shoot'Em Up]] series ''[[Raiden]]''.

* An example born out of [[The Anime of the Game|the game's TV adaptation]] slightly changing the name of the character in question: [[Tak and the Power of Juju|Tlaloc/Traloc]].

* Lord Raptor's name from ''[[Darkstalkers]]'' is spelled "Lord Rapter" in the third game, ''Vampire Savior''. Despite being a Japanese game, this is a purely western example; Lord Raptor's name in the Japanese version is named Zabel Zarock.

* In ''[[SNK vs. Capcom SVC Chaos|SNK vs. Capcom: SVC Chaos]]'', [[Samurai Shodown|Genjuro Kibagami]] gets his name spelled as "Genjyuro Kibagami", while "[[Street Fighter|Juli]]" becomes "Juri".

* ''[[The King of Fighters]] 2001'' mistakenly refers to "Chang" as "Chan".

* A few ''[[Street Fighter]]'' and ''[[Final Fight]]'' examples.

* Averted (mostly) by the characters in [[Touhou]]. Everyone who appears in the games have their names in Japanese, then a handy English Romanization next to it. This has helped quite a lot over time with names, even the ones that are actually Japanese. For example, the second kanji in [[Too Kinky to Torture|Tenshi]]'s name is more commonly read as "ko;" the Romanization cleared up quite a lot of confusion (although "Tenko" is still a popular [[Fan Nickname]] for her).

** There are exceptions occasionally though, when ZUN starts using foreign names. Is "Parsee" was pronounced "par-sii," or "par-seh-eh" (the former is the correct based on the katakana).

** The naming crisis is averted for characters like Inubashiri Momizi/Momiji, Kotiya/Kochiya Sanae, and Kazami Yuka/Yuuka because the [[Fandom]] has accepted they're the same character.

*** These particular differences in romanization are because ZUN doesn't want to pin down just which one (there are multiple romanization schemes) he wants to use.

* Lots of these in the ''[[Ys]]'' games: Rea/Lea/Lair, Luta/Luther, Dark Fact/Dulk Fukt, Duless/Dalles, Varestain/Valestine/Ballacetine, etc. Doesn't help that many of the games [[No Export for You|weren't officially translated]]. And others had their [[Dub Name Change|names completely changed]]. Not to mention that the first U.S. release on the [[Sega Master System]] spelled the title ''Y's''.

* Back when ''[[Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep]]'' was announced, fans translated the name of the new heartless style monsters as Unbirths. This spelling spread widely and no one thought anything of it until [[Word of God]] corrected fans that it was Unversed, meaning one "who is not enlightned" rather then the "oppostie of human life". Many fans still insisted it was supposed to be "Unbirth" and that the English version was censoring it.

*** Its actually a translation issue as the Japanese language didn't have an equivalent romanji for the letter "v" and used "b" instead

** One of the Ansem Reports in ''[[Kingdom Hearts II]]'' mentions the names of his apprentices. In the North American version, Dilan, Aeleus and Braig are written Dilin, Eleus and Bleig. This was corrected in the PAL version.

* ''[[Journey to Silius]]'' is supposed to be [[Japanese Ranguage|"Sirius"]].

* The intro to ''[[Sonic the Fighters]]'' infamously misspelled Dr. Robotnik's name "DR. ROBOTONIC."

** This also applies to ''[[Sonic Colors|Sonic Colo(u)rs]]'', the name slightly changes depending on how the word colours is spelled in the region the game is being sold in. A wise decision on SEGA's part.

** When it doubt, [http://yugioh.wikia.com/wiki/Lord_British_Space_Fighter believe in the heart of the cards]. And if you don't trust children's card games, ''Solar Assault'' also makes "Lord British" its name.

** ''Gradius'''s title is itself a Japanese misspelling of "gladius". Some material refers to the [[Spider Tank]] enemy as the "Club(Crab) Spider".

* In ''[[Remember 11]]'', the first main character has her name spelled "Cocoro" in the opening credits, but the translation in the game itself uses "Kokoro", which renders it using standard romanization spelling

* [[Metal Slug]] 3's Stage 4 boss is named ''ソル・デ・ロカ'' in official artwork. That name is often romanized as "Sol Dae Rokker", even though it's clearly "Sol de roca" (Spanish for "sun of rock"; that [[Giant Space Flea From Nowhere|thing]] is made of rock and looks like a sun)

** Then again, Agetec did mess up big time in the first game and rendered the pilot of Valkyrie, Rossweisse/Roßweiße <ref>ロスヴァイセ</ref> as "Losvaize". It may have been excused on the grounds that Rossweisse is an allusion to one of the Valkyries in Die Walkuere and Agetec didn't know that, but ''her name is displayed on her own emblem''! *headdesk*

* In ''[[Ōkami|Okami]]'', there is a character named Ishaku. In ''[[Ōkamiden|Okamiden]]'', he is inexplicably now named Isshaku.

* The ''[[Legacy of the Wizard]]'' manual names the mother, son, grandmother and grandfather "Meyna", "Roas", "Jiela" and "Douel" respectively (though the mother is "Mayna Worzen" in the credits), whereas the intro screen for the [[MSX|MSX2]] version (''Dragon Slayer IV: Drasle Family'') names them Maia, Royas, Geera and Dawel. The English version changed the name of the [[Final Boss]] to Keela, but in Japan its name was either Dilgyos or Dilguios.

* ''[[Fate/stay night]]'' does not really have official spellings for names like Ilyasviel Von Einzbern, leading to spelling her name both Ilya and Illya. FSN used Ilya while the translators for ''[[Fate/hollow ataraxia]]'' are using Illya. There is, however, an official Romanization for Saber's real name -- {{spoiler|Altria}}, as opposed to the fan translation's {{spoiler|Arturia}}.

* Kaidan Alenko from ''[[Mass Effect]]'' often has his name spelled "Kaiden" by both Mass Effect fans and even [[BioWare]] themselves.