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{{trope}}
* "Aeris vs. Aerith" from ''[[Final Fantasy VII (Video Game)|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 (Videovideo Gamegame)|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 (Video 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.
** In Spain, Sephiroth was spelled "Sefirot", which is the Spanish name for the Kabbalah term the character is named after. However, just like with Aerith, Square's localization team changed his name to the Japanese romanization in later games.
*** Also, "Safer Sephiroth" and "Bizarro Sephiroth" were supposed to be romanized as "Seifer Sephiroth" and "[[Blind Idiot Translation|Rebirth Sephiroth]]" respectively, which were intended as further references to Sephiroth's name origin. Many still love using the original names mostly because of the [[Narm|ironically funny naming]], but [[Justified Trope|they don't want to be confused with]] [[Final Fantasy VIII (Video Game)|another similar character called "Seifer."]]
** It was sometimes believed that Aerith and Cloud were meant to be "Alice" and "Claude".
** Is Tifa's last name spelled Lockhart or Lockheart?
** Another two weird examples are Zack and Rufus - while their names sound like perfectly acceptable English names, they don't match with the Japanese romanizations - Zakkusu and Rūfausu, which would be pronounced Zacks and Rufaus (rhymes with "house") respectively. Also, Barret (Baretto) is a [[Lost in Translation|play on the Japanese pronunciation]] of "Bullet".
* Some names of ''[[Tales of Symphonia (Video Game)|Tales of Symphonia]]'' characters were changed or spelled differently for the western release. Examples: Collet Brunel (became Colette in the translation) and Shihna Fujibayashi (who became Sheena). Genius Sage and Refill Sage got their names changed to Genis and Raine respectively. Also, the place names Asgard, Palmacosta, Luin and Hima were Ascard, Parumacosta, Ruin and Haima in the original (though Asgard makes more sense, as it most likely refers to Ásgarðr, a place in Norse mythology).
** The [[Fan Translation]] names from ''[[Tales of Phantasia (Video Game)|Tales of Phantasia]]'' are still in use, with fans outright rejecting the English names after waiting a decade for an English release. There are some legitimate objections to parts of them, in particular "Kangaroo" instead of "Ragnarok," and also that spellings like "Cless" and "Klarth" are used in all the Japanese source, such as manual graphics and even in the credits to the PS remake of the game.
*** It doesn't help that the fan translation got their original names for the main characters from an article in Nintendo Power in the 90s that was profiling the Japanese version, back when the game was brand new. Apparently Nintendo completely changed their minds on their romanizations a decade later when they took over .
*** On the other hand, "Cress" is a perfectly valid romanisation ''and'' fits with Mint for some [[Theme Naming]] (both cress and mint are plants), so one could easily argue Cress was the intended name.
** This is a recurring thing in the ''[[Tales Series(series)]]'', really. Namco usually changes names in the American version of a game; sometimes they do it for no reason (as any [[Tales of Destiny (Video Game)|Destiny]] fan could tell you), but mostly they do it because the original names were just "Western-sounding", not genuinely western. For example (but definitely not limited to), [[Tales of Destiny (Video Game)|Leon Magnus]], whose Japanese name was ''Lion'' Magnus; while Lion sounds silly when read in English, in Japanese it is read the exact same way "Leon" is read here. The same applied to many, many games. It has been toned down in recent installments (for example, ''[[Tales of Vesperia (Video Game)|Tales of Vesperia]]''), probably because the writers started doing some research.
* Seifer of ''[[Final Fantasy VIII (Video Game)|Final Fantasy VIII]]'' was サイファー ''Saifā'' in Japanese, so the English romanization seems straightforward. The German version, however, compared the other characters' names (which are all either vaguely English-sounding and spelled accordingly or downright English words) and went for ''Cifer''. "Seife" being the German word for "soap" might [[Fail O'Suckyname|also have played a role]] in the decision. In a similar vein, Zell is Xell in Germany. "Zelle" means "cell".
* Because ''[[Final Fantasy V (Video Game)|Final Fantasy V]]'' went a long time without an official translation, the [[Fan Translation|fan translations]] tended to disagree on what the English equivalent of "Kururu" was, the most popular alternative being "Cara". Square eventually translated it as "Krile".
** And then, of course, there's Butz/Bartz. It is ''still'' romanized as "Butz" in Japan, though most English speakers call him "Bartz" considering the alternative (that and his name has always been translated as such officially).
** The villain's name being Exdeath or Exodus ''seems'' to be an issue, but it should be noted that everything that's "Exdeath" in English is ''Ekusudesu'' (エクスデス) in Japanese; meanwhile, everything that's "Exodus" is ''Ekusodasu'' (エクソダス). However, he has been referred to as "Ex-Death" or "X-Death" before settling on "Exdeath".
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** While Galuf has always been Galuf, the other three Warriors of Dawn have been very inconsistent; Bartz's father was originally dubbed "Dorgan" in the fan translation and "Drogan" in the [[PS 1]] release, before becoming "Dorgann" in the GBA translation. The werewolf has been called "Kelgar", "Kelga", and "Kelgore" before becoming "Kelger". Finally, the king of Surgate has been "Zezae" or "Zeza" before becoming "Xezat". One name translation that everyone agrees on, however, is that Faris's real name is "Sarisa" and NOT "Salsa".
** 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 (Video Game)|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.
** Square's handling of ''Final Fantasy IV'''s translations are... spotty, at best. These are the same Japanese-version romanizations that give us "Gilbart" (instead of Gilbert, known in the translation as Edward), "Cain" (instead of Kain), and various other spelling differences.
* Rinoa from ''[[Final Fantasy VIII (Video Game)|Final Fantasy VIII]]'' is a similar case, in that some fans have argued her name should be Lenore. A few fan-run websites initially translated her name as "Lenore" before an official romanization was released. Again, [http://www.rpgamer.com/games/ff/ff8/art/ff8chars.jpg Square Enix] artwork from before the US release contradicts this.
*** 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.
*** Ultimecia is translated in some other countries as Artemisia.
** The ''[[Final Fantasy VI (Video Game)|Final Fantasy VI]]'' character known as "Sabin" in the English version is called "Mash"<ref>マッシュ, ''Masshu''</ref> in the Japanese version. Some fans have insisted that Mash is a mistranslation of "Matthew", but this is incorrect since transliterating "Matthew" to Japanese ends up as ''Mashū''<ref>マシュウ</ref>. The point is moot, since "Mash" is actually his ''nickname'' in Japan, his real name being Macias<ref>マシアス, ''Mashiasu''</ref>.
* One of the examples of Ted Woolsey's videogame translations is the [[Goldfish Poop Gang|comic recurring enemy]] Ultros from ''[[Final Fantasy VI (Video Game)|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 (Video Game)|Final Fantasy XII]]'' and his appearance as a [[Bonus Boss]] in ''[[Final Fantasy Tactics a 2 (Video Game)|Final Fantasy Tactics a 2]]'' and the GBA and PSP versions of ''[[Final Fantasy I (Video Game)|Final Fantasy I]]'' use "Orthros", but when the GBA version of ''[[Final Fantasy VI (Video Game)|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.
** Another name issue in FFVI is the Atma / Ultima weapon. While Ultima makes sense for all the future games and is therefore now the standard, Atma actually still works because it refers to the soul in Hindi. Therefore, a boss that has its lifeforce entirely in magic would make sense being a soul weapon. However, Atma Weapon was obviously only chosen for space considerations, and only appeared in the SNES version of FFVI where "Ultima Weapon" wouldn't fit. "Atma" doesn't even match the katakana for "Ultima". It's even lampooned in ''[[Final Fantasy X 2 (Video Game)|Final Fantasy X 2]]'', where the bestiary entry for Ultima Weapon chides the player, "Whatever you do, don't call it Atma."
*** There is now a type of object in the ''[[Final Fantasy XI (Video Game)|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 (Video Game)|set in]] [[Final Fantasy XII (Video Game)|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.
** The most famous example being the original release of ''Final Fantasy Tactics''. The queen is most frequently referred to as Ruvelia, but occasionally the pronunciation is inverted to Luveria. The latter is chosen for the rerelease, but spelt Louveria. And don't get the fanbase started on Tietra/Teta, Orran/Olan, Zalbaag/Zalbag, Isilud/Izlude...
** There has long been debate over Gilgamesh's "bad" sword equivalent of "Excalibur". The first game it appeared in was ''[[Final Fantasy V (Video Game)|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 (Video Game)|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 (Video Game)|Final Fantasy XIII]]'', the villain is named after the mythical creature Baldanders, but Square-Enix went with the Latinized name Barthandelus instead.
* In ''[[Final Fantasy IX (Video Game)|Final Fantasy IX]]'', there's a recurring enemy called the Ragtime Mouse in the English release. It's almost certainly a mistransliteration of Ragtime Mouth (since the character in question is not a mouse, but does have a giant mouth: [http://images2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20070728163038/finalfantasy/images/f/fe/Ragtime-FFIX.jpg behold]!)
* 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.
** Zidane was really popular in Spain as well, hence in the Spanish translation the character is called Yitán.
** It doesn't stop there for ''[[Final Fantasy IX (Video Game)|Final Fantasy IX]]'' - many [[Mythology Gag|Mythology Gags]] were ruined thanks to inconsistent translations. For example, there's a place in ''[[Final Fantasy IX (Video Game)|Final Fantasy IX]]'' called Mount Gulug, romanized as "Gurugu" in Japanese and obviously a reference to Gurgu Volcano from ''[[Final Fantasy I (Video Game)|Final Fantasy I]]''. The name of Eiko's Eidolon, Madeen, is supposed to be a reference to the Esper Maduin from ''[[Final Fantasy VI (Video Game)|Final Fantasy VI]]'' (both are romanized as "Madin" in Japanese), and its attack, Terra Homing, was supposed to be Terraforming ("Terafōmingu" in Japanese).
* In early ''[[Final Fantasy XII (Video Game)|Final Fantasy XII]]'' translations, Balthier's name originally appeared as 'Balflear', because that was actually his name in the Japanese original (romanised "Barufurea").
* In the [[The Legend of Zelda (Videovideo Gamegame)|first game]] of the ''[[The Legend of Zelda]]'' series, there was an armored knight enemy called a "Darknut" by the instruction book. It was intended to be ''Taatonakku'', which translates as "Tart Knuck". Compare this with ''Zelda II'''s ''aiannakku'' which became "Iron Knuckle". There's also a boss enemy named ''rebonakku'' that rides a horse. This has simply been translated as "Rebonack" in the recent ''Zelda: Collectors Edition'' Player's Guide.
** In the ''Official Nintendo Player's Guide'', Ironknuckle was romanized as "Ironnack."
** Also, the number of people who call Sheik "Shiek" is saddening. However, it ''is'' "Shiek" in Germany, because "Sheik" would be pronounced "shike", not "sheek" like it should be.
*** Oh, it gets worse: The official English release of ''[[The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time]]'' misspells "Sheikah" as "Shiekah" in one Kakariko resident's dialogue.
** And then we have Zoras vs. Zolas. This worked, though, because they look and behave like two separate species (Zora = tail-headed/nice; Zola = scaly and crested/AlwaysChaoticEvil [though the Zola King in ''[[The Legend of Zelda: aA Link Toto Thethe Past]]'' isn't so bad]). In ''[[The Legend of Zelda Oracle Games|Oracle of Ages]],'' both types are referred to as Zoras; according to an NPC in the Zora village, they're the same species, with "Ocean Zoras" being the friendly variety, and "River Zoras" being the enemy type.
** The whole "Ganon vs. Gannon" mess from the original ''Zelda'' spawned [[Gannon Banned|its own meme]].
** Before ''[[The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass]]'' came out, some websites were translating Link's fairy companion Ciela's name as "Sierra", another L/R issue. "Ciela" is correct due to [[Theme Naming]] between the fairies; her name refers to air, and the others refer to earth and water.
** 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.
** The dragon bosses appearing in ''[[Zelda II: theThe Adventure of Link]]'' and ''[[Ocarina of Time]]'' were actually intended to be one and the same, both being known as ''Barubajia'' in Japan. The former got translated as "Barba" in the initial English release, while the latter became "Volvagia".
* Dr. Light (ライト) from the ''[[Mega Man (Videovideo Gamegame)|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".
** ''[[Mega Man 2 (Video Game)|Mega Man 2]]'' had Crash/Clash Man.
** The ''[[MegamanMega 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 (Video Game)|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 (Video Game)|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.
* The protagonist of the original ''[[Fire Emblem]]'' appears to have been named for Mars (The god of war), however the ''[[Super Smash Bros]].''' series localized his name as Marth. The Japanese aren't any help in this -- the debug menu for ''Melee'' has "Mars" in English, but [http://serenesforest.net/media/complete/Marth.jpg the artbooks] put out for ''Monshou no Nazo'', as well as the [http://serenesforest.net/media/tcg/6/fe6-001.jpg official] [http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v139/VincentASM/TCG/P037_Marth.jpg trading card] [http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v139/VincentASM/TCG/5001_Marth_L.jpg game] clearly have "Marth" written in English, yet the same card game also writes "Minerva" [http://serenesforest.net/media/tcg/P/P042x.jpg as] [http://serenesforest.net/media/tcg/6/fe6-005.jpg Minerba"], "Jeorge" as "[http://serenesforest.net/media/tcg/5/fe5-007.jpg Jorjue]" and "Scorpio" as "[http://serenesforest.net/media/tcg/3/fe3-050.jpg Scopio]".
** 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''.
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** Even the official Japanese subtitle of the original Famicom game has been subject to variation due to the different readings for the kanji for "sword". Some official sources use ''Ankoku Ryuu to Hikari no '''Ken''','' while other sources uses ''Ankoku Ryuu to Hikari no '''Tsurugi'''.''
*** And then you have the conflicting translations of those titles. "Sword of Seals", "Sealed Sword", or "Binding Blade"? "Sword of Flames" or "Blazing Blade"? "Dark Dragons and the Sword of Light" or "Shadow Dragons and the Bright Blade"? "Sword of Flames/Blazing Blade" was dropped from the title entirely for the American release, and the DS remake of the first game was simply called "Shadow Dragon". Jeebus.
* The ''[[Phantasy Star]]'' series has several examples, the most [[Egregious]] of which involve the complete name change of a character present in the first two games, {{spoiler|Noah in the first game, Lutz in the second}}. While the name used in the second game is the correct one, it was so long before the change was identified that many fans of the series are convinced the character is actually two separate people who look alike. A large body of [[Fanon|fanon]] was created to support the idea. Note also: Dark Force/Darkfalz/Dark Phallus.
** In PSO, there is a weapon named Rika's Claw. PSU has a weapon named Falclaw. Both weapons look identical...because they reference the same character, a Newman named Rika in English versions of Phantasy Star IV, and Fal in Japanese versions. Similar, but less severe, violations include the weapon named Sato in PSO which is named Shato in PSU, and the enemy named Gigobooma in PSO and Jigo Booma in PSU.
*** In Phantasy Star Zero the spelling has been changed once more, this time to "Chato". Maybe it's an inside joke on the part of the localization team.
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* Angol Moa/Angolmois from ''[[Wild Arms]]''.
** 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 (Video Game)|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.
* Prier/Priere from the ''[[Disgaea]]'' and ''[[La Pucelle]]'' games. Her name is only spelled with the last "e" in the former, where she appears as a [[Bonus Boss]]. Not helping the situation at all is that ''both'' versions work within the [[Theme Naming]] of the series {Prier = "To Pray", Priere = "Prayer").
** 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.
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** ''Original Generation Gaiden'' makes fun of Banpresto's own mistake by having the boss of ''R'', Duminuss finds out that her name is actually Dynamis (greek for power), Banpresto has simply mispelled it while making ''R''.
** There's also Tootie/Tytti/Tutti Noorbuck/Norback/Nolbach... Since she's supposed to be Finnish, the most likely correct version would be Tytti Norrback (with two R's).
*** Speaking of that, even her mecha's name is an example of [[Spell My Name Withwith an "S"]]. Some call it Gaddeath, but some also call it Goddess even though it's not one, since it adds up a [[Shout-Out]] to [[Ah! My Goddess (Manga)|a certain goddess]] Tytti was almost similar with.
** The newest and probably most ridiculous one would be the new Loli protagonist of ''[[Super Robot Wars]] Z''. Most formal people call her 'Mel Peter', but some just go on ahead and call her ''Male Beater''...
** And after all the above, the confusion over Psybuster and Cybuster seems downright tame...
*** People render it as Cyberstar, despite that not matching the kana unless you kind of squint and are '''really''' drunk.
**** And ''then'' there's the official Japanese translation of Cyb''a''ster.
** Speaking of ''Z'', how about "[[Spell My Name Withwith 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."
* ''[[Earthbound (Video Game)|Earthbound]]'' features a villain named Pokey in the U.S. version, who threatens to come back for revenge in the ending. He makes good on his promise in ''[[Mother 3 (Video Game)|Mother 3]]'', and this incarnation makes a cameo as a boss in ''[[Super Smash Bros]]. Brawl''. Problem? His name was originally meant to be Porky, referring to his bloated belly and pig-like nose, and the pig theme continues with his army in ''Mother 3''. ''Brawl'' uses the name Porky, obscuring the connection to the ''[[Earthbound (Video Game)|Earthbound]]'' villain.
** [[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 (Video Game)|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''.
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** The character who is known as "Joka" in the original game is changed to "Joker" in the Wii remake.
* The ''[[Atelier]]'' series gets a whole helping of a ton of the above issues, featuring both a character with the katakana of "Norudisu" (leading our friends at Tokyopop to spell it as ''both'' "Nordith" and "Nordis" during the print run of the ''Atelier Marie & Elie'' spinoff manga) and the fact that the setting for the first three games (if not many of the others) is a variation on Renaissance Germany, with many words being pronounced in a kind of pseudo-[[Gratuitous German]] fashion. Gust Inc., makers of the games, like to call the principality "Salburg" (and even [http://www.salburg.com run a website] with that name); several fan translators and Tokyopop go with "Zarlburg" due to the katakana used to represent the German pronunciation of "s". Latter games, especially those still unreleased in the West, have a host of other pronunciation issues.
* In the arcade version of ''[[Rival Schools (Video Game)|Rival Schools]]''', Shoma has his name romanized as "Syoma", which is from a non-Hepburn romanization system used by the Japanese. It was changed to "Shoma" in the PlayStation version.
** The sequel, ''Project Justice'', cleverly uses this trope to diferentiate between similar characters. In the story, the hero Batsu is plauged by a look-a-like {{spoiler|who is actually by [[Big Bad]] Kurow}} going around ruining his good reputation. The fake Batsu can be fought against and eventually can be a playable character, so to differentiate him from the real Batsu, Capcom took advantage of the ambigutity in B and V sounds in Japanese and named the fake hero "Vatsu".
* 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, ''[[War CraftWarcraft]] 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 (Video Game)|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.
** To make things more confusing, the game uses voice acting during battles. Sometimes his name is pronounced "Crawd," and sometimes "Claude."
*** And for whatever reason, they went and changed every single name in the PSP remake of the first game so that none of them match up with the sequel anymore. Even though the original game has perfectly legible English names for every single major character in its end credits.
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** The Galacta Knight is called Galactic Knight (Gyarakutikku Naito) in Japanese. Also, Marx was called Mark (Maruku).
* ''[[Leisure Suit Larry]] 7: Love For Sail'' includes a character named [[The Unpronounceable|Xqwzts]]. The writer of the game intended for it to be pronounced "X-squats," but the actor that plays Larry couldn't get it right. That gave the writer the idea to have every character intentionally mispronounce the name any crazy way they could think of. In fact, throughout the whole game, only one character (not Larry) says it "correctly".
* A recurring villain in the ''[[Bomberman (Video Game)|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.
* Mathematicians call a ''[[Tetris (Video Game)|Tetris]]'' piece a [http://mathworld.wolfram.com/Tetromino.html tetromino], by parallel with "domino". The Tetris Company [http://harddrop.com/wiki/index.php?title=Glossary#T once called it] a "tetramino" before settling on "tetrimino".
* ''Bubble Symphony'' aka ''[[Bubble Bobble (Video Game)|Bubble Bobble]] [[Non-Linear Sequel|II]]'': Its [[All There in the Manual|flyer]] stated the name for the orange female bubble dragon as [http://bubblebobblehq.110mb.com/bubblebobble/arcade/bs_jpn_flyer_back.jpg "Cururun"]. The game itself says it's [http://www.vazcomics.org/mamend/png/bubl0059.png "Kululun"]. Chalk one up to C/K and R/L confusion.
** There's a reason to avoid trusting the flyer anyway.
* In ''[[Mario and Luigi Superstar Saga (Video Game)|Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga]]'' and ''[[Super Smash Bros]]. Brawl'', you might notice that the starfish character appearing in both goes by the name of "Stafy". Well, his game series is finally being brought overseas as... ''[[The Legendary Starfy]]'' (ie: Sta'''r'''fy). His cameo in ''Mario & Luigi'' called it ''The Legend of Stafy''. Make of that what you will.
* 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 MSX2 versions of ''Metal Gear'' and ''Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake'' had a few romanizations for some of the characters' names that are different from the ones used in the later ''Metal Gear Solid'' games. Roy Campbell was originally called "Roy Kyanbel", Holly White was "Horry White", George Kasler in the [[PSPlay Station 2]] version is known as George Kesler. Gustava Heffner and Johan Jacobsen were originally called Natasha Marcova and Yozef Norden respectively, which were legitimate name changes to the characters and not different romanizations of the same name. Natasha was likely changed due to the introduction of a later character called Nastasha Romanenko, but Yozef's was unexplained
** 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 (Comic Bookcomics)|Howard the Duck]]), "Black Color" (from Blackcollar, an obscure Timothy Zahn novel about space ninjas), "Ultra Box" ([[Ultravox]]) and the "[[Predator (Franchise)|Predator]]". Not surprisingly, almost all of them (with the exception of [[The Running Man (Filmfilm)|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 Thethe Power of Juju|Tlaloc/Traloc]].
* In an interesting aversion to the sort of trouble Romanizing "Kururu" as mentioned previously, [[Working Designs]], when translating ''[[Arc the Lad (Video Game)|Arc the Lad]] Collection'' for the [[Play Station]], just left Kukuru's name the hell alone: [[Too Long; Didn't Dub|she's "Kukuru" in the US, as well.]]
* Lord Raptor's name from ''[[Darkstalkers (Video Game)|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 (Video Game)|SNK vs. Capcom: SVC Chaos]]'', [[Samurai Shodown|Genjuro Kibagami]] gets his name spelled as "Genjyuro Kibagami", while "[[Street Fighter|Juli]]" becomes "Juri".
* In ''Samurai Shodown III'', Rimururu's name is spelled "Rimnerel" on the instruction card.
* ''[[The King of Fighters]] 2001'' mistakenly refers to "Chang" as "Chan".
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** Guy's real name is actually ''Gai''<ref>凱</ref> [[Word of God|according to several sources]] <ref>''All About Capcom Head-To-Head Fighting Games'', the ''Final Fight'' soundtrack album, the official ''Namco X Capcom'' website, just to name a few</ref>. "Guy" is actually an approximation of how his name is supposed to be pronounced (likely done to avoid the [[Accidental Innuendo]]). Unfortunately, there are fans who end up mispronouncing Guy's name as "Gwee".
** Chun-Li's and Fei-Long's names are sometimes spelled as one words ("Chunli" or "Feilong") or without the hyphen.
** On the credits of the ''[[Street Fighter II the Animated Movie (Anime)|Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie]]'', Cammy's and Dee-Jay's names are spelled "Cammie" and "DJ".
* The NES version of ''[[Double Dragon]]'' has an enemy character whose name is spelled "Rowper" in the game's versus mode and "Lopar" in the manual. His name is actually intended to be a [[Shout-Out Theme Naming|nod]] to Roper from ''[[Enter the Dragon]]'', since one of the other [[Mooks]] in the game is named Williams. To make matters even more confusing, the names "Roper" and "Lopar" are used for two different enemy characters in ''[[Intercontinuity Crossover|Battletoads & Double Dragon]]'', neither of them actually resembles the actual Rowper/Lopar character from the original game (one of them is really just a renamed Machine Gun Willy).
** The name of Billy's girlfriend also seems to vary between "Marian" and "Marion" depending on the game. The manual for the [[Sega Master System]] version actually calls her "Mary-Ann"
* ''[[Langrisser]] II'' and ''Der Langrisser'' never had official translations, so some names are completely inconsistent, not just between translations, but within translations themselves. Is it Kalxath, Kalzas or Karzas? Liana or Riana? Lana or Larna? Boser, Bozel, or Bosel?
* In ''[[Thunder Force]] III'', the upgraded version of the Twin Shot has been spelled out as both "Sever" and "Saber." The latter spelling is a bit [[Hilarious in Hindsight|funny]] because the upgraded Back Shot is called [[Fate/stay Stay Night (Visual Novel)night|"Lancer"]].
* In ''[[Valis (Video Game)|Valis]] II'' for the Turbografx CD, Valis is sometimes pronounced "Varis", thanks to [[Blind Idiot Translation]]. The villain of ''Valis IV'', Garugia/Galgear, had his name officially translated in ''Super Valis IV'' as "Gallagher".
* In the Sega Master System version of the first ''[[Ghostbusters]]'' game, Gozer is transliterated "Gorza".
* While not a mistransliteration, Lisa from ''[[Backyard Sports]]'' has a last name that has been said to be either Crocket or Crocket'''t'''. Neither of which are meaningful. Even the developers aren't sure.
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** [http://en.touhouwiki.net/wiki/Hong_Meiling Hong Meiling] knows what it's like to not have anyone ''know'' her name.
** Even though Flandre appears to be the most common spelling of this vampire's name, it has been spelled Frandle, Frandoll, Frandale, Frandre, etc.
* When [[PacmanPac-Man]] was first released in Japan, it was known as "Puckman" (pronounced ''Pakkuman''). However, the name had to be changed for its U.S. release because the "P" could be vandalized making the name offensive to people. Namco found another romanization of the same pronunciation, and "Pac-Man" has since become the official English spelling of the name in Japan.
* ''[[Jak and Daxter]]'''s [[My Nayme Is|Erol]] had his name's spelling changed to Errol in ''Jak 3'', then back to Erol in ''[[Interquel|Daxter]]''. Some fans have joked that the extra "R" stands for "robot", given his "enhancements" in the third game.
** [[The Legend of Zelda|I am]] [[Incredibly Lame Pun|Errol]]?
* The ''[[Dragon Quest]]'' series had Slime-like enemies called Babbles and Metal Babbles, which look more bubbling than babbling. Newer translations have them as Bubble Slimes and Liquid Metal Slimes.
* In ''Tsukihime'', レン has had issues with her name. Until the release of ''Melty Blood'', she had no official romanization. But ''Melty Blood'' gives Len as her official romanization. There was a dispute about this, fans insisting that her actual name is spelled Ren, citing that Type-Moon sometimes "messes up". But considering that it's been Len throughout the series...
* Lots of these in the ''[[Ys (Video Game)|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 (Video Game)|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.
** Which is a good thing, considering "unbirthing" is apparently a vore fetish.
*** 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 (Video Game)|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 cover of the Japanese version of ''[[Yoshis Island (Video Game)|Yoshi's Island]]'' actually spells the game's title as "Yossy Island".
* The intro to ''[[Sonic the Fighters (Video Game)|Sonic the Fighters]]'' infamously misspelled Dr. Robotnik's name "DR. ROBOTONIC."
** This also applies to ''[[Sonic Colors (Video Game)|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.
* Everyone knows the Vic Viper is the main ship in the ''[[Gradius]]'' series (barring the odd [[Dub Name Change|name changes]] made by Konami's localization staff, like the "Warp Rattler" or the "M.A.X."), but what about the Player 2 ship that appears in ''Salamander'' spinoffs. Is it the "Lord British" (a possible intentional [[Shout-Out]] to Richard Garriott of the ''Ultima'' franchise), the "Road British" or the "Load British"?
** 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.
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* [[Knights in The Nightmare]] has this ''in spades''. No one can seem to agree whether the princess' name is Pisce, Pische, or Piche. The ''other'' princess is Arlier, Arlie, or Alier. The archer general is Aculienne, Aqualine, Acqueline, or Aquina. [[Big Bad|Zolgonark]] has been spelled with a C at the end. How many Ls are in Yelma, or is it an R? Is it Vienna, Vienya, or Vinya? And that's not even the complete list.
** Likewise, [[Blaze Union]]. The only new character whose name is certain is [[The Hero|Garlot]].
** Put simply, [[Sting Entertainment]] has a bad habit of choosing [[As Long Asas It Sounds Foreign]] names and then not telling America how they're supposed to be spelled.
** Averted, thankfully, by [[Gloria Union]], in which whenever a character leads a Union, their name shows up on the attack confirmation screen. Unfortunately, Sting decided not to spell "Minnesota" correctly, as they did it with just one N. And seeing as the character with that name is an [[Indiana Jones]] [[Expy]]...
* [[Star Fox Command (Video Game)|Star Fox Command]] retconned Panther Caroso to Panther Caruso for unknown reasons. And since there hasn't been a new Star Fox game after it, most fans will probably still use Caroso.
* In addition to the usual [[Blind Idiot Translation]], ''[[Resident Evil]] 2'' had many gross misspellings, including "dust shoot" and "mugnum parts".
* In the manual for ''[[Syphon Filter]]'', Girdeux is misspelled "Girdeaux".
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* [[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)
* In [[SaGa 2|SaGa2 / Final Fantasy Legend II]], it is usually taken for granted that the character named Lynn in the west was called Lin in the original Japanese version. However, the romanization of the game on the 2009 remake's Japanese website lists her name as Rin.
* ''[[Armored Core (Video Game)|Armored Core]]'' has had it bad, especially after changing hands from Agetec to Sega to Ubisoft. Last Raven brings us Zinaida <ref>ジナイーダ</ref> (a common Cyrillic name, although the kana spelling is nonstandard), which has been argued to be Schneider (totally missed it), and from Nexus onwards, we also have Genobee <ref>ジノーヴィー</ref> which has been suggested to be originally Shinobi (implausible) or Zinovi (another common Cyrillic name, very likely). Those are examples of pragmatic translations; Sega and Ubisoft were more...lax. Then again, who can really blame them for being divided between Abu Marche and Abe Marsh <ref>アブ・マーシュ</ref>?
** 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 ''[[Okami (Video Game)Ōkami|Okami]]'', there is a character named Ishaku. In ''[[Okamiden (Video Game)Ōkamiden|Okamiden]]'', he is inexplicably now named Isshaku.
* The NES version of ''[[Hydlide]]'' [[All There in the Manual|only describes the plot in the manual]], unlike the original [[PC 88]] version. The English manual renamed the [[Big Bad]] Boralis, though his name is still displayed as Varalys in the game's status window.
* 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 (Visual Novel)|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 (Visual Novel)|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}}.
* ''[[Persona 4 (Video Game)|Persona 4]]: [[Updated Rerelease|The Golden]]'' adds a new female character named マリー. Fights have already erupted over whether she'll be known as Marii, Mari, Mary, or Marie in the English edition.
* In the original Japanese [[MSX|MSX2]] version of ''[[Aleste]]'', the name of the supercomputer gone wrong was romanized as "DIA 51". The supercomputer was written out of the translated [[Sega Master System]] version, ''Power Strike'', but the [[All There in the Manual|out-of-game material]] for ''M.U.S.H.A.'' refers to it as "Dire 51".
* [[Compile]]'s little round mascot has appeared under two different names: Randar (''Golvellius: Valley of Doom'') and Lander (''[[The Guardian Legend]]'').
* Seen on the title screen of ''[[Harvest Moon 64 (Video Game)|Harvest Moon 64]]'': "©1999 Natume Inc." The company is more commonly translated as Natsume, although both "tsu" and "tu" are valid transliterations of the kanji in question.
* In ''[[Magical Cannon Wars (Video Game)|Magical Cannon Wars]]'' none of the characters have the same name in the dialogue as they do in the credits so apparently nobody could decide what their names were.
* In the manual of ''[[Space Harrier (Video Game)|Space Harrier]] 3-D'', Uriah is spelled "Euria."
* Kaidan Alenko from ''[[Mass Effect (Video Game)|Mass Effect]]'' often has his name spelled "Kaiden" by both Mass Effect fans and even [[Bio WareBioWare]] themselves.
 
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Retrieved from "https://allthetropes.org/wiki/Special:MobileDiff/895789"