@GRAG asked me to back up this thread, which was all about the various translations used in Yomi. Lots of cool notes about the French, German, and Japanese translations of the card and move names. Enjoy!
[quote=“GRAG”]EDIT, WAY LATER ON: For the most part I was far too critical of what were, on the whole, quite good translations. Read on to see me gradually come to this realization.
It only recently occurred to me, while making cheat sheets with screen shots of the Japanese cards from the online client for the locals who play at a board game café I frequent in Kyoto, that I had no idea who did the various Yomi translations into whatever other languages. Like, were they commissioned professionals? Were they enthusiastic amateurs? These are the idle musings of a bored professional translator.
I ask partially because sometimes the translations are really good (like Grave’s 龍心拳/Ryushinken for his Q), but sometimes they’re slightly off in a way that suggests that the translator either isn’t familiar with Japanese fighting game terminology (in Japanese, Street Fighter always used ガード/“guard” to refer to blocking instead of Yomi’s more literal 防御/“defense”) or idiomatic English (Onimaru’s Clockwork Soldiers should be ぜんまい兵士 instead of 時計仕掛けの兵士 — 時計仕掛け literally means “the moving parts inside of a clock,” while ぜんまい means any sort of gear-and-spring-based machine.*). I also appreciated how sometimes the translator had the good sense to keep the English name, again, much like in Street Fighter (like Rook’s Checkmate Buster, for instance).
Of course, a lot of this stuff is largely immaterial and fixable/modifiable until such time as foreign-language publishing runs actually happen!
Mainly, I guess my point is: the Japanese translation, at least, has its highs and lows, but it’s never actually bad enough to actually impede understanding. It is at best high-fiveworthy and at worst merely inconsistent with established fighting game phrasing convention. Whoever did it did a pretty good job, but it could always use polishing?
Now I wish I spoke enough French or German to be able to see if those translations were pretty well done too. Astonishing how completely five years of German classes in middle and high school just vanish from your brain, really.
*Granted, “A Clockwork Orange” was officially translated as 時計仕掛けのオレンジ, with the more literal translation. It’s possible that Onimaru’s super is meant as a reference to this. It’s also possible that the title’s translation was simply botched — Studio Ghibli in particular has notoriously poor luck with this sort of thing, with “The Cat’s Gratitude” becoming “The Cat Returns,” or “Princess of the Mononoke [forest spirits]” becoming “Princess Mononoke” like it’s her name. Hell, sometimes the creator screws it up on their own — “Attack on Titan” should be “The Attacking Titans” or “Attack of the Titans,” but instead it sounds like a science fiction thing about one of Saturn’s moons.[/quote]
[quote=“Djister”]Yours truly did most of the French translation! I actually have a bachelor’s degree in English to French translation (French is my native language). I would say Yomi is my proudest translation work. I did it for the fun and the challenge of it all.
@Thelo helped me quite a bit. We brainstormed a lot. He vetoed my good stuff until I found something great. Then he vetoed my great stuff until I found something even better. He even translated some text by himself. His linguistic skills are above average.
I did the best I could. Every single word has been meticulously thought out. The art of translation is quite misunderstood by the masses, but that’s another story.
I have a list of known typos, and I’m looking for more of them still! I report them to Thelo from time to time.[/quote]
[quote=“mysticjuicer”]I love the translation for DeGrey’s ‘Troublesome Rhetoric’; ‘Entwaffnende Rhetorik’ translates beautifully to ‘Disarming Rhetoric’ which is just the most elegant thing ever, perfectly matching the mechanics of the card.
Quince’s ‘Positive Spin’ becomes the wonderful ‘Warped Truth’, and ‘Crosswise Toss’ becomes ‘Put on the cross!’ which I think we all agree are excellent, excellent translations. Menelker’s ‘Nether Orb’ gets upgraded to ‘Hell Orb’. Onimaru’s ‘Guard Crush’ becomes ‘SHIELDBREAKER’ which is absolutely top-tier, but not as top-tier as ‘Rising Sword’ which becomes ‘SKYSPLITTER!’
Persephone’s ‘Rapid Lashes’ get upgraded to ‘Dancing Whip’. Gwen - already painfully metal - drops ‘Burnbarrow’ for ‘Flamegrave/Flameburial’, and ‘Dreadlands Portal’ for ‘Hell Portal’, confirming her kvlt status for all time. Zane’s ‘Meaty Attacks’ are revealed to be ‘Dirty Tricks’, officially doubling the amount (and power?) of his shenanigans.
All in all, I’d give the german translation a 10/10!
@Djister Rook’s Q, ‘Eboulement’ is ‘Avalanche’, right? Or ‘Rock-Slide’? That’s fantastic![/quote]
[quote=“Djister”]I was shooting for “landslide”, yes!
For the most part, I tried to strike a balance between “it means the same thing as the original”, “it sounds natural (and hopefully cool) in the target language”, and “both the original and the translation evoke the same feelings in their respective readers”.[/quote]
[quote=“mysticjuicer”]Ooooh, the French translation has some loooovely stuff! @Djister@Thelo
Grave’s ‘Mental Toughness’ is the result of his ‘Phlegmatic Temperament’, and he discards the ‘True Power of Storms’ for the ‘Absolute Power of the Storm’! :eek: Definitely giving German a run for it’s metal status there! Not to be outdone, his mentor Midori’s ‘Dragon Form’ becomes a ‘Draconic Transformation’, and ‘Rising Mountain’ is abandoned for an ‘Indomitable Mountain’, and his ‘Final Dragon Buster’ for ‘Draconic Annihilation’! … I think in the French lore Midori might have killed Menelker!
Rook’s ‘Windmill Crusher’ gets some added height with ‘Vertiginous Crusher’, and his ‘Checkmate Buster’ becomes a ‘Triumphant Blitz’ which very accurately describes the feeling of landing one! Valerie’s ‘Burst of Speed’ becomes ‘Prodigious Speed’, and ‘Three Colours’ becomes a ‘Tri-colour Lunge (or Dash)’! Lum’s ‘Coin Toss’ becomes the intriguing ‘Master Coin/Piece’? Sounds like a turn of phrase; I can’t make heads or tails of it (get it?). Jaina’s ‘Letter J’ becomes the amazing ‘J as in Jaina’. #SWAG#RememberTheName
Setsuki’s ‘Esper Dash’… I don’t know either of the french words used. This is what happens when you don’t speak french after the 5th grade. Her K moves become ‘Shooting Star’ and ‘Flickering(Flashing?) Star’ respectively. Love the mirroring there! DeGrey’s ‘Point, Counter-Point’ becomes a ‘Cutting Remark’, ‘Daggerfal Thrust’ becomes ‘Canon Ball’, ‘Pilbunker’ is upgraded (!!!) to ‘Atomic Piston’ (!!!). I think DeGrey’s face cards may all deal +3 damage in French. :eek:
Geiger’s ‘Flash Gear’ remains ‘Flash Gear’, but it’s way better in French. In English I always read Flash as a noun, whereas in French it’s definitely an adjective! Quince’s ‘Positive Spin’ becomes ‘Turn of Phrase’, which is so lovely and coy you can practically smell his smirk! ‘Crosswise Toss’ becomes… hmm, this one’s tough to convey. ‘Bias Trap’ I think, is the literal translation of the words, but probably closer to a pun on ‘Logical Fallacy’ or something like ‘Pitfall of Perspective’.
Troq may be my favourite though. ‘Troq Armor’ is ‘Hide/Leather Armor’! Djister you glorious monster! :laugh: ‘Lockhorn Skewer’ becomes (essentially) ‘Spearhead’ which, goddamn if that isn’t perfect. :laugh: Menelker’s ‘Bonecracker’ becomes ‘Pulverizer’, and ‘Into Oblivion’ upgrades to ‘Memory Hole’/‘Oubliette’. Basically ‘A Yawning Chasm Where Once Were Memories’? #MetalAsHell#MoveOverGerman His ‘Nether Orb’ becomes an ‘Infernal Orb’. His Q though. Oh my god. Nevermind what I said about Midori winning the kumite in the French version of the game. Menelker’s ‘Rising Dragon’ becomes ‘Merciless (literally: heartless) Dragon.’ I can’t even. The mirroring to Grave, Jaina, and Midori’s Dragonheart? Unf! Menelker’s translation OP.
Vendetta’s innate becomes… ‘Picking Corpses Clean’? Am I getting this right? German, are you paying attention? This is how it’s done! ‘Pincer Poke’ and ‘Pincer Stab’ become ‘Slash’ and ‘Scrape’ respectively, which are incredible in how blunt and grim they are compared to the English! :eek: The lesson here, if you haven’t caught on, is basically don’t fuck with the French cast! Vendetta’s K gets a nice mirroring, like Setsuki’s, becoming ‘Bludgeoning Dive’ and ‘Stabbing/Piercing Dive’.
I’ll have to finish off the rest of the cast tomorrow, unless someone else picks up where I left off. But wow! I’m really looking forward to reading the Japanese review/analysis![/quote]
[quote=“Sirlin”]I’m most worried about fighting game terms in the translations. They require the translator to know fighting game terms in their own language, which they might not know. Some examples.
Block is correct term in English, even though there are synonyms for that word that might seem reasonable to someone who didn’t know fighting games terms. In Japanese, translating that to the equivalent of “block” is incorrect though. Japanese fighting gamers call that term “guard.”
In English, normal / special / super are the specific, correct words for different types of moves. I can imagine that coming out as like “ordinary / unusual / mega” or something weirdo in another language if the translator doesn’t know the right terms.
Mixup normals isn’t exactly a fighting game term, but mixup and normal separately are the correct words. A “mixup” is a thing. Maybe in another language fighting gamers use a slightly different word. But choosing the wrong word in German or something would come out sounding like “trickshot” in English or who knows what, which isn’t correct.
“Meaty attack” (Zane) is the correct fighting game term for attacking early against a rising opponent, even though it’s a dumb-sounding word. That should not be translated literally or even to something like “tricky attack” or “early attack.” Instead it should be whatever is the correct term in the fighting game community for that language. To a lesser extent that’s true of Zane’s “Shenanigans” too. That’s not quite as rigidly defined a term as Meaty Attacks, but it is lingo from fighting games. If the translation where the equivalent of “dirty tricks,” that’s sensible if you don’t know fighting games, but it appears tone deaf to call it that if the fighting game community calls it “shenanigans” or whatever. (Translator’s note: the term refers to fighting games moves or tactics that are not dependable, but that you might try to get away with anyway.)
“Wall Dive Loop” refers to what Vega does in Street Fighter. Again, it translating literally or even “in the spirit” of it can end up really wrong if some other language commonly uses a different word than “loop” to refer to repeated move in a fighting game.
I bet there are a bunch more of these fighting game terms in the game, those are just the ones off the top of my head.[/quote]
[quote=“GRAG”]Right, yeah. That’s sort of my point with the Japanese translation: there’s a lot that feels “translated,” for lack of a better way to put it.
I actually just stumbled across a list of fighting game terminology with translations of English slang, of all things, based on my curiosity about this topic (熊花日記 : [格ゲー]格ゲー用語を英語で言ってみよう！). A lot of the Japanese is a lot more straightforward and less slangy, though. For instance, the Japanese term for a “meaty attack” is essentially just “hits-during” or “continued-hit.” Even more disappointingly, “footsies” has the rather pedestrian* Japanese equivalent just meaning “fighting on the ground.” Amusingly enough, there’s also a Twitter account called @FightingGameESL that is just all about this topic.
Of course, there are a few pieces of English fighting game terminology that come from Japanese, more or less directly. “Empty jump” is a literal translation, and “okizeme” is just a romanization. If you play Virtua Fighter, you might know the term “abare” (literally “rampage,” more or less) to refer to an extremely aggressive play style.
Incidentally, was the Japanese translation done by an amateur fan, or by an actual professional? There’s clearly room for improvement and polishing, though it’s certainly at least workable. It just feels… y’know, translated. I’d offer my assistance, but with the caveat that an actual native speaker should absolutely check it at some point too, because only half of the job of translating is actually understanding the source language; the other half is writing in the target language, which is a difficult enough skill to master in one’s own native language.
*rim shot[/quote]
[quote=“Zejety”]A problem I can see is that some local communities may not even translate many words. German gamers in general tend to just use English terms for most technical stuff, at least in my extended circle of friends.
Btw.: The translations on the reference card were mostly done by Thelo and me in one evening on the IRC. We’ll have to see how they hold up since I had barely any contact to the German scene (but I didn’t have to name any moves so we’re probably golden).[/quote]
[quote=“Kasumi”]Thanks @DoctorFedora ! Uh, May we use this works?
We will be exhibited at “Game market Tokyo”.
I want to distribute to people you need these.
YOMI Japanese trancelation by @SIN1024 .
We have but did not respond nobody recruiting translators.
So I asked SIN.
I was scolded by @midge11 about it. He was told that I should be translation.
He knew some Trouble about boardgame translation.
He was worried about everyone’s position. SIN, Mr.Sirlin, and me.
As a result, he was pleased with translation very much because SIN and @Thelo
made a big success.
Japanese people use the most convenient foreign words .
ex. “draw a card” is “カードを(1枚)引く” kaad wo (ichi mai) hiku.
(引く has other means. “Pull”. hahaha, Japanese language is so crazy!)
But we use “draw” (ドロー). Because this is easy to talking with game.:D[/quote]
[quote=“Star Slayer”]Thanks. That is really helpful and makes it really easy to look at the cards.
Here is a list of (German) Vendetta’s dragon abilities:
2 / Klauenstoß / Claw Thrust
3 / Klauenstich / Claw Stab
7 / Klauenfeger / Claw Sweeper
K / Klauenschlitzer / Claw Slasher
Now compare those to Midori’s dragon abilities:
J / Giftodem / Poisonous Breath
K / Herabshießende Klaue / Swooping Claw
A / Finaler Dragon Buster / Final Dragon Buster
That’s 4-3 for Vendetta. In other words: German Vendetta is more of a dragon than Midori is! :eek:
And since we are comparing and playing with languages (a thing that I really like to do): The German word “Klauen” is the plural of “claw”, while the verb “klauen” means “(to) steal”. It therefore makes sense that only Vendetta’s “Klauen” attacks are dragon abilities, since it seems that he was stealing them from Midori.[/quote]
[quote=“mysticjuicer”]Picking up where I left off… Onimaru! Seems the French general’s sword is sharper than his counterparts, because his innate has changed to ‘Opening’, in the sense of ‘An Opening In Someone’s Defence’. A slight change in ‘Rising Sword’ to ‘Cutting/Keen Ascension’. BBB’s ‘Robo-Headbutt’ becomes ‘Iron Head’, which I love, and his ‘Overdrive’ becomes ‘Overclock’ or ‘Overheat’. My french is terrible.
Persephone toughens up her ‘Do As You’re Told’ for the whip-backed ‘Obey!’ and her ‘Bare Your Soul’ becomes ‘Confess’, in a move that Madonna would certainly approve of. Her J gets upgraded to ‘Resounding Whip’ and ‘Scathing Whip’ respectively. Her ‘Rising Passion’ becomes an ‘Irresistible Impulse’, and a ‘Wild Ride’ becomes a ‘Dangerous Liaison.’ ‘Mistress’ command’ becomes ‘That’s an order!’ 5/5 blushy faces! :oops:
Bring out your dead, because Gwen’s got ‘Black Plague’ as her innate. Her ‘Shadow Slice’ becomes a ‘Fatal Cut’, and ‘Burnbarrow’ becomes straight out ‘Incineration.’ Her A gets the full black metal treatment on both sides with ‘Dread Portal’, and ‘Slaughter’. I think 'Skysplitter’s guitarist has guest appearances on both of those tracks. \m/ \m/ Zane has a tough act to follow, but starts out strong, trading his ‘Meaty Attacks’ for ‘Massive Attacks’. ‘Anarch Crusher’ becomes the faaaaaaantastic ‘Radical Torpedo’! ‘Shoulder Ram’ becomes the excellent ‘Ram’s Blow’, and ‘Slipstream Phase’ becomes ‘X-TREEEEEM turbulence’!!!
Much love to the French translation! I think it’s beautifully done![/quote]
[quote=“GRAG”]Oh man, that’s a great translation for “Guard Crush.” That same use of “opening” would work really well in Japanese, like 隙を見切る (“Catch openings [in one’s defense]”).
Well, hell, I’m done being at work for today. Let’s take a crack at some of these.
Grave:
Innate: Knowing the Opponent —> 敵を知る (“Know the enemy”) is pretty much just as-is translation.
7: Martial Mastery —> 格闘術 (“Fighting technique” in the sense of “a fighting technique”) feels a little vague and slightly off. Maybe something more along the lines of 極めた格闘術? (“Mastered fighting technique”) Maybe I’m just missing something because I’m not a native speaker of Japanese, but it doesn’t feel like the English meaning quite made it through.
10: Mental Toughness —> 根性 is pretty much spot on. “Willpower” or “spirit” or “grit,” essentially.
J: Lightning Cloud —> 雷雲掌 (“Thundercloud Palm”) is a damn solid translation! It even takes advantage of the illustration to make it sound more legitimate as a technique name through specificity of the body part used for the strike (as it were).
J*: Lightning Trap —> 雷雲固め should probably be 雷雲ハメ if we’re looking to keep the fighting game terminology/slang intact, since that’s the accepted term in the Japanese fighting game community.
Q: Dragonheart —> 龍心拳 (“Dragon heart fist”) nails it by just being a straightforward translation. Sounds like it could be the shoryuken equivalent for the Ryu clone in some Data East fighting game in the '90s.
K: Whirlwind —> 旋風脚 (“Whirlwind leg/kick”) is… well, it’s literally just the last 60% of tatsumaki sempukyaku (“tornado whirlwind leg/kick”). Nothing to see here. Move along.
A: True-Spark Arc —> 真・雷電閃 (“True • flash of lightning”) sounds nicely Ryu-esque. Not bad!
A: True Power of Storms —> 真・嵐龍拳 (“True • storm dragon fist”) actually sounds pretty badass and completely spot-on for a lightning-themed Ryu clone.
Jaina:
Innate: Burning Vigor —> 熱血 (“hot-blooded”) is actually a pretty good translation, inasmuch as it uses a well-established target language phrase at the cost of ever-so-slight inaccuracy, which can be completely acceptable depending on the context. Whether the pun will actually be noticed, though, is hard to say.
Burning Desperation —> 熱狂 is an interesting case. The word itself actually means “fanatical enthusiasm,” in the sense of “extremely hype,” but it loses the “desperation” element, though it does retain the “hot” pun in the first kanji. The second kanji does mean “crazy” or “wild,” though, so it’s still not too bad overall.
7: Unstable Power —> 定まり得ぬ力 (“power that cannot find tranquility/order”) isn’t too bad either. The use of literary phrasing (the 得ぬ) makes it sound more like a “real” saying, though again, as a non-native speaker, I also don’t quite have the ability to tell if it’s a reference to a real saying after all.
10: Smoldering Embers —> くすぶる残り火 is just a direct translation.
J: Flame Arrow —> 炎弓弾 (“flame bow shot/bullet”) and Charged Shot —> 溜め炎弓弾 (“charged flame bow shot”) are both pretty much as-is. The “charged” is the same as is used in fighting game terminology in Japan, too.
Q: Dragonheart —> See above
K: Crossfire Kick —> 炎舞十字脚 (“flame dance cross [shape] leg/kick”) feels a little off, if only because it feels like the translator missed the wordplay involved in “crossfire” and assumed it had something to do with a + shape. The “flame dance” part does sound cool, though.
A: Letter J —> イニシャルJ (“Initial J”) trades a completely opaque reference ('sup Johnny) for a much more accessible one.
Red Dragon —> 紅龍拳 (“Crimson dragon fist”) sounds pretty badass.
I’ll post more as I get more free time. I need to go pick up my wife from work shortly so I’ll leave it at these for now.[/quote]
[quote=“GRAG”]Midori:
We’ll sort of gloss over the fact that his name is just Japanese for “green.” The Japanese translation does render it as a word of foreign origin, implying that it’s just coincidence that it happens to also be a word in Japanese, akin to how if you see the word “sake” italicized, you think of the alcoholic beverage instead of the word meaning “on behalf of or for the benefit of.” Neat trick.
Innate: Aspect of the Dragon —> 龍の相 is literally just “aspect/countenance/appearance of dragon.” Granted, “aspect of the dragon” always sounded a little weird to me and I’m a native English speaker, so hey.
Defense Mastery —> 大防御 (“Great [in the sense of “large”] defense”) isn’t too bad, and it at least uses the same word “defense” that “block” was translated as (instead of ガード, how “block” should be translated for consistency with JFGC terminology). I’m sure a bit more effort could result in something great instead of something that works, but eh.
2: Dragon Form —> 龍変化 (“Dragon change”) is a little off in my opinion, as it’s presumably his entire body changing into a dragon, so perhaps 龍変身 (“dragon transformation”) would be better?
10: Glimpse of the Dragon —> 刹那の龍影 (“Momentary dragon shadow”). 龍影 seems to be an established phrase (to the point where you’ll find a ramen shop named that if you google the phrase), and it’s also part of the name of an old building in Nagoya (龍影閣/Ryueikaku), so I have no real qualms with this translation. It’s nicely non-literal while still being faithful!
J: Whirlwind —> See above
JD: Toxic Breath —> 龍毒吐 (“Dragon poison exhale”) is pretty much as-is.
Q: Rising Mountain —> 昇山拳 (“Rising mountain fist/punch”) takes “shoryuken” and substitutes in “mountain.” Not bad!
QD: Dragon Mountain —> 龍山拳 (“Dragon mountain fist/punch”) works much the same way.
K: Rushing River —> 渡河襲取 (“Cross-a-wide-river take-by-surprise”) seems to be, as far as I can tell, a reference to classical Chinese literature. Huh!
KD: Talon Swoop —> 龍爪天襲 (“Dragon claw assault-from-the-heavens”) has a similar name structure that also sounds like it could be a reference to Chinese literature, but almost certainly isn’t.
A: Wrath of Earth —> 大地憤怒撃 (“Earth/ground wrath/rage strike”) is pretty much as-is.
AD: Final Dragon Buster —> 極・龍王撃砕 (“Ultimate/mastered/extreme • dragon king pulverize/devastate”) is another interesting case. If you didn’t catch the obvious reference in the English, it’s time to turn in your badge and joystick, but the more closely I look at Midori, the more clearly it seems that the translator was very definitely going for a Thing with his attack names.
So. A Thing.
In Japan, and indeed throughout much of Asia, the language of Classical Learning was/is Chinese, in much the same way that Greek and Latin hold a position of sounding learned and academic and, frankly, old throughout Europe. The use of four-character phrases for the names of the moves on the king and ace is actually a pretty interesting call, because of the implication. Basically, Chinese literature is full of four-character phrases that are fairly idiomatic in meaning (generally being abbreviated references to stories or quotes, and in some cases simply being deliberately constructed with the intention of explaining them to give them meaning), and for a character like Midori who’s supposed to be this sort of old-fashioned learnèd teacher mentor master sort of guy, it actually makes a lot of sense for his techniques to sound “old,” because unlike English, where affected “ye olde englishe” makes you come off sounding like some guy who owns a cloak and has a vanity plate on his car that says “RENFAIR,” sounding old-timey (like Oni’s or Gouki’s Japanese win quotes in SF4) draws on imagery of BUDDHIST HELLS and DEMON GODS WITH SWORDS that is actually fairly badass.
In other words, at first I felt like maybe Midori’s move names were kind of “off” in their translation (especially since “Final Dragon Buster” could be rendered phonetically as ファイナルドラゴンバスター and literally everyone with any familiarity with Street Fighter would completely get it), but the more I look at it the better a job I feel was done overall for his general flavor by giving him deliberately Chinese-sounding move names.[/quote]
[quote=“GRAG”]Let’s bang out another one of these before I get started for the day.
Setsuki
Innate: Speed of the Fox —> 狐の速力 is pretty much just… as-is.
7: Bag of Tricks —> 七つ道具袋 (“seven tools bag”) isn’t too bad. Obviously “bag of tricks” is a little too English-slangy to translate directly, which can’t be helped, but the 七つ道具 in the translated name refers to a ninja’s standard set of equipment (or, more broadly, any seven-piece set of standard equipment in any field). Truth be told, it may have actually been better without the “bag” at the end of it, given that the phrase “bag of tricks” is largely idiomatic anyway unless you’re, like, Felix the Cat.
10: Smoke Bomb —> 煙玉 (“smoke ball”) is pretty much just a literal translation. Nothing to see here.
J: Esper Dash —> 瞬き駆け (“Blink-of-an-eye run/dash”) isn’t too bad, especially because “esper” kind of isn’t a real word in English anyway?
Q: Ninpo Flash —> 忍術・閃光 (“Ninjutsu/Ninja Technique • flash of light”) is pretty spot-on. “Ninpo” (忍法) refers to the overall discipline of ninja-ing, including techniques and equipment, so the translation actually kind of fixed the name.
K: Starlight Kick —> 星光蹴 (“star light kick”) is… well, yeah.
K: Starlight Tumbler —> 星光砕 (“star light crush/break”) isn’t too bad either, though it does sound a lot less like a rolling throw as a result.
A: Surprise Gift —> 忍者の贈り物 (“Ninja’s present” or “gift from a ninja”) is pretty much as-is. Kind of a weird name to begin with, so whatever.
A: Shuriken Hail ('sup Ibuki) —> 苦無暴れ雨 (“Kunai [throwing knife] violent rain”) actually fixes the name again based on the illustration (“shuriken” refers more to the flat, generally-star-shaped projectiles, while “kunai” refers to the kind of knife you see in the picture. Which, incidentally, is missing the ring or hole on the end of the handle that you ordinarily see them depicted with in Japan)
A little bit of ninja trivia, incidentally: A few months ago, on a weekend with no plans, my wife and I drove to Koka, Shiga, which is famous for having been the home of the Koga school of ninjary. One of the more interesting things we learned was that, as befits a spy, actual IRL AFK ninjas would dress like… you know, normal, inconspicuous people. Traveling medicine salesmen especially (at least for Koga-school ninjas, because I guess they were all sorts of smitten with Toyama’s grasp on the market), but also stuff like monks or whatever else someone who would non-suspiciously travel around a lot would look like. You know what they pretty much didn’t ever dress like? Ninjas.
The modern stereotype of “what a ninja looks like” is apparently derived from the all-black outfits that stagehands (or kuroko/黒子) wear in Japan. In Kabuki plays, occasionally someone would be “killed” by a stagehand. This represented the character being killed by a ninja, in the sense of “out of nowhere,” but over time signifier and signified sort of switched places and people started thinking of the stagehand outfit as actually being a representation of the ninja in question, rather than as a stand-in for someone completely unnoticed by the other people around.[/quote]
[quote=“GRAG”]DeGrey? Sure! Why not!
Innate: Moral High Ground —> 徳の優位 (“Superiority of virtue”) isn’t too far off, though it does miss the “established saying” aspect of the original name. Still not too shabby though.
2 & 3: Spectral Pull & Spectral Push —> スペクトラルフロント & スペクトラルバック (“Spectral Front” and “Spectral Back”, expressed phonetically) are interesting. Perhaps the translator just didn’t really know what to do with these attacks’ names.
4: Troublesome Rhetoric —> 屁理屈 (“Hair-splitting”) is an interesting choice. I never fully understood the intended meaning of the original English myself (is it supposed to refer to something like rabble-rousing and saying Dangerous Ideas?), though it admittedly sounds prooty neat. The translation is an interesting approach to something as essentially untranslatable as the original, inasmuch as “quibbling” or “hair-splitting” seems like a pretty reasonable thing someone known for their argumentative nature would be into.
7: Point, Counterpoint —> 対位法 (“Counterpoint”)
J: Daggerfall Thrust —> ダガーフォールスラスト (“Daggerfall Thrust” expressed phonetically)
Q: Pilebunker —> パイルバンカー (“Pilebunker” expressed phonetically)
K: Spirit Justice —> スピリットジャスティス (“Spirit Justice” expressed phonetically)
Aa: Final Arbiter —> ファイナルアービター (“Final Arbiter” expressed etc.)
Ad: Ghost Riposte —> ゴーストリポスト ("Ghost blah blah blah
JQK all seem fine as as-is names, but the ace really seems like it could have been done better. “Final Arbiter” could have maybe been something like 最終裁断 (“Final” left as-is, with 裁断 being used for its double meaning of “to judge” and “to cut”), and the wordplay of “Ghost Riposte” is almost inevitably utterly lost. I’m not clever enough in a second language to come up with something clever, but the fencing term “riposte” is translated into Japanese as the native word 突き返し (refuse, return, or poke back) instead of being used as a loanword, so the use of “riposte” is almost certainly going to mean nothing in particular to Japanese speakers.
So it turns out I’m done with my work I had to get taken care of this week. Awesome!
Valerie’s next in line. It’s worth noting ahead of time that words related to writing and drawing in Japanese are a little blurry — “to write” (書く) and “to draw” (描く) are both pronounced identically in Japanese (suggesting that the verbal distinction was originally made in Chinese, but not in the indigenous Japanese vocabulary), and because Chinese-derived writing in Asia is brush-centric, a lot of words having to do with writing (or, presumably, drawing) contain the word “brush” being used either semi-literally or idiomatically. So.
Innate: Agile Hands —> 自由速筆 (“Free fast writer [literally ‘fast brush’]”) is interesting. Seems apt enough I guess.
7: Bold Strokes —> 太筆描き (“Drawing with bold strokes [literally ‘thick brush drawing’]”) isn’t bad either.
10: Burst of Speed —> 俊速 is an interesting case. It sounds like a play on 俊足 (pronounced the same way), which literally means “excellent feet” but means “swift-footed.” The translation here trades out “foot” for “fast”/“speed,” literally resulting in “excellent speed,” which is actually pretty clever.
J: Three Colors —> 三色乱筆 (“Three-colored scribbling/hasty writing [lit. ‘wild brush’]”) does that thing again where the illustration informs the translation, and it works pretty well here too.
Q: Crimson Passion —> 紅の力筆 (“Crimson power brush”) is… you know, whatever. Sometimes the source material is hard to work with.
K: Flying Rainbow Stroke —> 躍る虹色の一筆 (“Leaping rainbow-colored single stroke [lit. ‘single brush,’ can also refer to writing a short message]”) isn’t bad. It’s a little unwieldy, but there are worse sins.
A: Masterpiece —> 大傑作 (literally just “masterpiece”)
A: Chromatic Orb —> 色の宝玉 (“Colored jewel/gem”) is a little bit off, but then you also have to deal with how to translate the nuance involved in “chromatic” and its Romantic (Greek?) roots, and how it doesn’t mean the same thing as “color” by itself, and so on and so forth.
A: Unbounded Creativity —> 無限の創造性 (“Limitless/infinite creativity”) is basically as-is.[/quote]
[quote=“GRAG”]Addendum to the Setsuki trivia bit: some Yomi history trivia! The name “Sleb” came from a thread Way Back When (we’re talking, like, around the introduction of the Fantasy Strike characters, back when the decks were still SF2 characters), when I got all pointlessly indignant about how the name “Setsuki Hiruki” didn’t sound like an actual Japanese name (and, well, it still sounds close-but-no-cigar, but I’ve learned to just deal with the rationalization of “it takes place in a fictional world where there is no Japan anyway,” though the name Onimaru kind of undermines that. More on that later, presumably), giving the name “Sleb” as an example of a series of sounds that are conceivably English-ish but definitely not an actual name. Then the rest of the board basically unanimously decided that “Sleb” was to be the name of the poor getting-thrown dude.
What a pointlessly dumb story that turned out to be.[/quote]
[quote=“Sirlin”]The translations sound good overall. Good job on explaining them. Anything that isn’t using fighting game terms should be though. Like “block” and the “trap” part of lighting trap, etc. Some other notes:
Sleb is…not an official term, for the record. And Setsuki was said to be fine by native Japanese speakers, as I explained the last time you brought that up. Hiruki was an actual Japanese family I knew. But then these names aren’t actually Japanese anyway since there’s no Japan in the fictional world.
Crimson power brush is a bad translation of Crimson Passion. The word passion means love, like intense an intense feeling for one’s art as well as love for people, since love is key to Valerie’s character. Changing “passion” to “brush” is just not good.
Colored jewel/gem doesn’t really make sense for Chromatic Orb. An orb is like a ball of energy, and there’s no gem involved. For “colored”, it would also be ok to use some form multicolored, rainbow, or even iridescent maybe. Though “colored” is fine too, it’s the gem/jewel part that’s weird.
The art for the shurikens has always been wrong, unfortunately. The word is right, the art is wrong. Oh well.
Hair splitting as a translation is way off. To split hairs is to quibble over a tiny detail. Hardly an impressive thing for a master of rhetoric to be doing. Rhetoric is a form of persuasive speaking, and troublesome rhetoric is rhetoric that’s so powerful that you don’t know what to even say in response. I think a really really good argument and “splitting hairs” are actually opposite things.
Jaina’s Buring Desperation losing the “desperation” part is sad. Desperation is kind of the point of that ability. Fanatical enthusiasm is sort of close though.
Crossfire kick doesn’t refer to an actual cross. There should be no references anywhere to anything religious or anything to do with an actual cross anywhere in the game.
Anyway, it sounds like most of the translation is pretty great. And some things here and there that could be better, maybe DoctorFedora can submit to thelo.[/quote]
[quote=“GRAG”]Oh, I should definitely point out, the “cross” in the translation of “crossfire kick” has no more to do with religion than a plus sign does. It’s just the name of the + shape. I’ll continue to be needlessly salty over the “Hiruki” thing, especially fueled by the knowledge that I was incontrovertibly in the wrong about its feasibility as a name.
Depending on free time once I’m done working through these one by one, I suppose I could try to work with a native Japanese speaker (Kasumi?) to ensure good translations. Like I mentioned before, one of the golden rules of respectable translation agencies is that they’d never ask someone to translate into a non-native language.[/quote]
[quote=“Kasumi”]When SIN was responsible for the translation, I was the only one request.
"DeGrey and Geiger are Westerners, so use Katakana-English(expressed phonetically)."
Oh, why Valerie not use Katakana ?
Ah, probably because only those in which the term is not fit to Japanese.
And DeGrey and Geiger attacks are difficult to translate to Japanese.
But he has only one modification.
Geiger K “Flash Gear” is “サマーソルト ギア”. →"Somersault Gear".[/quote]
[quote=“GRAG”]Speaking of Geiger being next… Geiger’s next up!
Innate: Time Stop —> 時間停止 (“Time Stop”) is as-is
4: Temporal Distortion —> 時間湾曲 (“Time bend”) should probably be 時間歪曲 (“time distortion”). Hell, even Google thought I wanted 時間歪曲 when I searched to see if 時間湾曲 was an established phrase or something.
4: Suplex of Science —> サイエンススープレックス (phonetically “Science Suplex”)
8: Research & Development —> 研究開発 (“Research [and] development”) is as-is
J: Fast Time Spiral —> ファスト・タイムスパイラル (phonetically “Fast time spiral”) could probably safely be modified slightly instead of using the English word “fast” in there (強タイムスパイラル to fit the SF2 motif?) but there’s nothing inherently bad. Could also do something semi-clever with time wordplay due to the fact that the word はやい in Japanese means both “fast” and “early” (though, much like “write” and “draw,” the two concepts are distinguished with kanji in writing but not in speech).
Q: Slow Time Spiral —> スロウ・タイムスパイラル (phonetically “slow time spiral”) is the same as above, more or less. You even have the same (missed) potential for wordplay with the fact that “slow” and “late” are also both the same word in Japanese.
K: Flash Gear —> サマーソルトギア (phonetically “somersault gear”) was a good call, as mentioned above by Kasumi, because Guile’s Flash Kick is called the Somersault Kick in Japanese.
A: Time Spiral Hurricane and Cycloid Revolution are just the English names expressed phonetically.[/quote]
[quote=“GRAG”]so I guess there’s some sort of pandaman guy
Lum
Innate: Roll the Dice —> ダイスロール (phonetically “dice roll”) could just as well be actually translated as サイコロ振り or something like that, but hey, maybe the English name sounds all right to Japanese players.
7: Jackpot —> ジャックポット (phonetically “jackpot”) could likewise just as well be actually translated as something like 当たり or 大当たり, although given the random draw involved in the ability, くじ引き (lit. “lot/lottery draw”) might be a better idiomatic translation.
10: Poker Flourish —> ポーカーフラリッシュ (phonetically “poker flourish,” or at least close enough) also feels like the meaning of the English is lost to the point where some sort of translation, even if it’s not quite literal, might be better. 役見せびらかし (“showing off/making a display of a poker hand [lit. a scoring combination of cards]”) maybe? It would certainly suggest a degree of flamboyance.
J: Coin Toss —> コイントス (phonetically “coin toss”) seems… fine, actually. Apparently トスする (using “toss” as a loanword verb meaning “to toss”) is a thing, and the phrase “coin toss” is used phonetically in Japanese as well to refer to the act of flipping a coin. The artwork on the card does the rest of the job.
Q: Rolling Panda —> ローリングパンダ (phonetically “rolling panda”)
K: Polar Cartwheel —> ポーラーホイール (phonetically “polar wheel”) isn’t great. Leaving aside the fact that the English name kind of makes no sense (since, y’know, pandas and polar bears are different enough that you might even think of them as entirely different species), the translation completely misses the “acrobatics” element of the word “cartwheel” (which would be 横とんぼ返り in Japanese, admittedly a mouthful). On the other hand, there’s enough nonsense English in Japanese fighting game move names (“HAMMER MOUNTAIN”) that it’s unlikely to raise too many eyebrows at this point, given that it is a god damned gambling panda in the first place
Ad: Blackjack —> ブラックジャック (phonetically “blackjack”)
Aa: Great Pandamonium —> グレート・パンダモニウム (phonetically “great pandamonium”) completely loses the wordplay, because duh, it’s a pun. That’s what happens when you try to translate puns. At a minimum, the name could have been changed to ジアントパンダモニウム (“giant pandemonium”) since in Japanese, they use the phrase “giant panda” instead of “great panda” to refer to the kind of panda that isn’t in the Firefox logo. I’m sure someone cleverer than I am in Japanese could think of some sort of panda pun that incorporated the 大混乱 nuance of “pandemonium.” Maybe ジャイアントパン大混乱 or パンダイコンラン or something stupid like that.[/quote]
[quote=“GRAG”]Let’s wrap up the original set.
Argagarg
Innate: Hex of Murkwood —> マークウッドの呪い (“curse of Murkwood”) is fine, though phonetically “murkwood” winds up sounding kind of like “markwood.” I’d personally have gone with ムルクウッド but then that does get to be a little awkward to say. Also, the name “murkwood” is a lost cause. Gotta know where to draw the line with names.
7: Protective Ward —> 防護結界 (“protection fence/boundary/prohibition”) actually works reasonably well. 結界 has a bunch of meanings, including conceptual prohibition of people, things, spirits, and other stuff that would interfere with Buddhist practices, as well as the physical fence between the inner and outer sanctums of a temple.
10: Crash and Flow —> 受け流しis an interesting one. The translation isn’t literal, but actually works pretty well with the water theme. The literal meaning of the phrase is essentially “receive-and-flow,” but idiomatically it means to evade or parry, like dodging a question.
J: Flying Fish —> フライングフィッシュ (phonetically “flying fish”) is fine. Nothing wrong with English names for these things, especially because a more “accurate” translation (飛び魚) actually refers to, y’know, flying fish.
Q: Water Spirit —> ウォータースピリット (phonetically “water spirit”)
K: Sparkling Bubble —> スパークリングバブル (phonetically “sparkling bubble”) is fine too. The way it’s rendered caused me to initially parse it as “spark ring bubble,” but either way it sounds fighting game-ish (FUN FACT: the word “sparkling” is often rendered phonetically into Japanese as “sparking,” which can lead to some VERY ODD IMAGERY)
[quote=“GRAG”]So, what is there to be said looking at these first ten, overall? Broadly speaking, using move names as-is rendered phonetically isn’t really a problem, especially because in the canonical Street Fighter, non-Asian characters (and even then, non-Chinese-martial-arts-derived Asian characters) have English names for their attacks (Jaguar Knee, Final Atomic Buster, Sonic Boom, etc.).* You’ll occasionally see Japanese names for those characters’ moves, but they tend to be fairly utilitarian descriptions of things like command normals.
My favorite translation job overall has to be Midori, because the translator saw a way to add nuance in a way that simply wouldn’t have been possible in the source language for cultural reasons, which is just super cool. Grave and Jaina’s special moves (for the most part) get names that sound appropriately Ryu-and-Ken-esque. Setsuki’s translation had some nice touches, too, though it also had a couple of rough patches.
There are also some clearly wrong translations here and there, with “block” being the most apparent. Fighting game terminology has, for the most part, been translated a little too literally or just not directly enough, and Jaina and Valerie had some issues with move names just being weirdly mistranslated. They can definitely be fixed, though, and hey, it’s not in print (yet?) so there’s still plenty of time to iron out the problems. For what I can only assume was an enthusiastic fan working for free, the overall translation is very well done and never actually gets in the way of playing the damn game, which is kind of priority one.
I guess it’s time to move on to Shadows later. I already know for a fact that both of Zane’s innates need their names fixed.
*Q from Third Strike is a major exception to this, but then the entire character design is very odd for flavor purposes. His attacks’ names in Japanese all sound like classifications or categorizations by an agency watching and trying to understand him, so you get stuff that, translated into English, has names like “Rushing blow to the head (tentative name).” This was completely lost in the English translation of Third Strike. OTHER THIRD STRIKE TRANSLATION FUN FACT: Urien’s name should have been Julian (with the intended pronunciation using a German or Latin-style “y” sound for the J)[/quote]
[quote=“GRAG”]Continuing on, because someone probably should, if only because Japanese is a rather less accessible foreign language to English speakers than, y’know, European languages that also use the Roman alphabet
Quince
Innate: Positive Spin —> 情報操作 (“Information/media manipulation”) is about as close as you’re going to get to as slangy a term as that. Obviously it loses the “spin” wordplay, because that’s unavoidable.
Jd: Dodge the Question —> 論点の回避 (“Avoiding the point being discussed”) works well enough with the use of the same 回避 used to translate “Dodge” as a type of card.
Ja: Truth Geyser —> 湧き起こる真実 (“swelling/welling up/surging/emerging truth”) sort of works. Admittedly, the phrase “truth geyser” has no actual meaning in English unless you’re Stephen Colbert, so.
Qa: Righteous Zeal —> 正当なる熱意 (“Righteous zeal/enthusiasm”)
Qt: Righteous Tumbler —> 正当なる足元掬い (“Righteous scoop-up-from-the-feet”) is one of those where the original English is opaque enough that I feel like anything throwish-sounding is adequate. I’m assuming “tumbler” is, like with Setsuki, supposed to be a rolling sort of throw, like Ken’s in SF2?
Kt: Crosswise Toss —> 斜への投げかけ (“throw/hurl aside/diagonally”) is kind of cool. The throw/hurl part (なげかけ) is also used in the phrase 疑問をなげかける, literally “throw doubt/question(s)” but idiomatically “cast doubt on” (or, apparently, “beg the question,” though I’m not 100% confident on that if only because it’s hard to say whether the dictionary includes it with the actual meaning of “circular reasoning” or the now more common meaning of “it sounds more impressive than ‘raise the question’ does”)
Kd: Evasive Answer —> 回避的回答 (“evasive answer”). Translation does what it says on the tin. Once again, uses the same word used to translate “dodge.”
A: Patriot Mirror —> 鏡の愛国者 (“Lover-of-his/her-country of/in [the] mirror”) is… exactly backward. Like, it’s a pretty straightforward translation of “Mirror Patriot,” unfortunately. It also loses some of the rather contemporary American flavor of the word “patriot” becoming a sort of real-life 1984 word, which is unavoidable. Just reversing it to 愛国者の鏡 would at least fix it to be a literal translation of the English “a/the patriot’s mirror”), through 愛国の鏡 (mirror of patriotism) might be better.
A: Consent of the Governed —> 国民の同意 (“consent of the people of the country”) is basically as-is.[/quote]
[quote=“GRAG”]All right, Onimaru time
General Onimaru —> 鬼丸 (rendered properly as a Japanese name)* should almost certainly be rendered オニマル or maybe オニマル大将 to fit how Midori’s and Setsuki’s names are handled in the Japanese translations, treating the names as though they’re just coincidentally conceivable Japanese names.
Innate: Guard Crush —> ガードクラッシュ (“guard crush” expressed phonetically) is accurate, especially given that the English phrase “guard crush” comes from the Japanese anyway. I did really like the French(?) translation (essentially “catching gaps in the enemy’s defense”) mentioned that treated his innate less as brute force and more as, y’know, a masterful tactician. I think I’d recommend 隙を見切る (“catching gaps [in opponent’s defense]”) as a less direct translation that fits his flavor better than the original English does.
5: General’s Armor —> ジェネラルアーマー (“general armor” expressed phonetically) is actually better than I originally would have given it credit for. “Armor” (as a loanword) is used in video game terminology in Japanese to refer to the ability to absorb a hit in fighting games and the like, and the dropping of the " 's" in the name is just sort of how Japan imports English phrases.
9: Final Authority —> 最終権限 (lit. “final authority”) is basically as-is
J: Divide and Conquer —> 分断制圧 (lit “divide/cut off and [take] control”) isn’t too bad, though it does lead me to wonder if the established Japanese translation from the Latin of 分裂させて征服 was disregarded on purpose or by accident.
Q: Rising Sword —> 昇斬 (“rising cut”) is pretty much as-is
K: Spirit Fire —> 魂炎 (“spirit flame”) is also pretty much as-is
A: Martial Law —> 戒厳令 (“martial law”) is a direct translation of the phrase
A: Clockwork Soldiers —> 時計じかけの兵隊 (“clockwork troops”) feels like ぜんまい兵隊 would probably be a little closer to the intended meaning, as mentioned upthread. The current translation uses what, so far as I can tell, literally refers to the machinery inside of a clock, as opposed to the whole category of gears-and-springs machinery.
Also, the 1* on the ace is just a 1 in the web client, it looks like. Guess that’s more of a bug report than analysis of the translation job.
A*: Clockwork Formation —> 時計じかけの布陣 (“clockwork battle formation”) is pretty much as-is. Likewise, I’d recommend ぜんまい布陣 or something for the translation on this one.
Like Midori, Onimaru’s attack names are actually translated rather than just expressed phonetically, which makes sense given his flavor as Totally Not A Warring States General with an emphasis on “master tactician,” though I often get this feeling that white Americans are probably more into The Art of War as being A Thing than Japanese people, on the whole.
*I’ve actually been past a bar or a restaurant or something here in Kyoto named Onimaru and very nearly took a photo of it before deciding: you know what? Nah.[/quote]
[quote=“GRAG”]Still waiting on the client to get today’s translation job to me, so in the meanwhile: Troq!
Innate: Giant Growth —> 巨大化 (lit. “change to being giant”) is basically as-is.
10: War Stomp —> 踏み鳴らし (“stamp/stomp”) loses the “war” part of the name, which might be hard to translate anyway. Hard to say, honestly, given that I’m not entirely familiar with Japanese military culture/traditions.
Q: Up Hawk —> 鷹の飛翔 (“soaring/flight of hawk”) isn’t too bad. The obviousness of the T. Hawk influence is somewhat lost, but then as Seth Killian so famously pointed out, nobody’s favorite character is T. Hawk.
K: Lockhorn Skewer —> 角刺し (“horn stab”) gets the point across well enough. The English name isn’t exactly straightforward, and would be quite a mouthful to render phonetically （ロックホーン・スキュワー)
Aa: Eagle Totem —> 鷲の化身 (“embodiment/incarnation of eagle”) actually isn’t too bad, and kind of commits to the willingness to not be super up-front about how obviously Troq’s specials are based on T. Hawk.
At: Beast Unleashed —> 獣性の解放 (“letting loose [one’s] brutality/animal nature”) isn’t too bad either. “Beast Unleashed” is going to be a rough one no matter what because of the rhyming wordplay and the fact that it’s kind of a set phrase in English, and this works well enough.
It’s worth noting that Troq kind of bucks the trend of phonetic renderings of English names, for whatever reason. It seems a little arbitrary, though the translations are by no means bad, or even not outright pretty good.[/quote]
[quote=“GRAG”]Yo, I skipped Rook. Whoops.
Innate: Rock Armor —> ロックアーマー (phonetically “rock armor”) is fine. アーマー is used to refer to fighting game armor where you can absorb hits.
3: Entangling Vines —> 蔓巻き (“wrapped with/wrap in vines”)
5: Stone Wall —> 石の壁 (“wall of stone/stones”)
J: Hugo Thunder Clap —> サンダークラップ (phonetically “thunder clap”) is just as-is from the English
Qa: Hammerfist —> ハンマーフィスト (phonetically “hammer fist”)
Qt: Rolling Stone —> ローリング・ストーン (phonetically “rolling stone”)
K: Windmill Crusher —> 風車崩し (“crumbler/destroyer of windmill/windmills”) seems a bit off, like the English name was interpreted as having “windmill” as the target of “crusher,” rather than the style. 振り回し in there might help. Not feeling creative enough right now to think of a good idea.
Aa: Wall of Vines —> 蔓の壁 (“wall of vine”)
At: Checkmate Buster —> チェックメイトバスター (phonetically “checkmate buster”) and Sleb is just not having a great day[/quote]
[quote=“GRAG”]Hmm. Maybe カラクリ would work better as a translation for Onimaru’s “clockwork.” ぜんまい (as I’d suggested) suggests a wind-up key, while カラクリ is mostly just gears and stuff.
Also, hey, back from Sapporo and I caught a cold on the flight home! Always fun. I’ll try to update this thread again eventually when I catch up with the work I wasn’t around for on Monday and Tuesday.[/quote]
[quote]Sorry, I can’t really read long passages of English text, and it’ll take a while, so I’ll write this in Japanese.
It’s good that Mr. Sirlin and Thelo would want to correct and revise SIN’s translation, right?
In any case, here are my thoughts.
First off, to a Japanese audience, characters like Geiger or DeGrey are obviously of European descent, so there isn’t necessarily a need for their move names to be translated into Japanese, and so they are just written phonetically.
(I’ve had conversations that go “What’s ‘arbiter’ mean?” “I dunno.” “No use in having unnecessary stuff.” “I can’t do anything about it,” so this applies now.)
For DeGrey’s 4, 屁理屈 [“hair-splitting/far-fetched argument”/Troublesome Rhetoric], even if you translate it as めんどくさい修辞 [“annoying/nuisance/pain-in-the-neck rhetoric”], I don’t have much familiarity with the word “rhetoric,” but if it’s a pain, that makes it feel like DeGrey-sensei is impolite. Hair-splitting would be fun for him, so I feel like it’s a good translation.
Incidentally, it’s standard to refer to him with the title “sensei” [a suffix used for teachers or other respected positions]. Due to his importance to the story, there are people who regard him as being the main character. All members of Fami[?] pay him respect.
Incidentally, regarding the discussion of 時計じかけの兵隊 [Clockwork Formation], much like how JOJO was aware of the subtitle for the movie A Clockwork Orange, I think SIN was likewise fairly familiar with it.
I don’t know if Mr. Sirlin was aware of steampunk when designing Geiger or BBB. I wasn’t aware that anyone thought of Geiger as an expression of steampunk. Maybe, because he’s a watchmaker, “clockpunk”? It’s important to keep clocks in mind.
As for “カラクリ” [suggested more recently as a translation for “clockwork”], that word refers to mechanical devices. This doesn’t necessarily include gears.
[A video showing カラクリ mechanical devices: ]
Before Geiger came in contact with the Vortoss, I think he happened to come in contact with Japan (but this is just my own headcanon).
While, yes, カラクリ兵 [the more recent translation] does sound natural, Geiger is a clockmaker, so I think that SIN’s translation along the lines of “A Clockwork Orange” was actually quite good.
I’m getting sleepy, so bye for now.[/quote]
[quote=“GRAG”]翻訳してみました。少しずれているところがあれば是非突っ込んでください（笑）まだ風邪ひいてるので。カッコの中のコメントは翻訳者のコメントや説明です。
Gave it a translation. I apologize if anything is off, but then I do still have a cold. Comments/explanations in brackets are mine.
そういえば「時計仕掛け兵隊」は確かに良さそうかもね。Geiger が作ったことを忘れちゃって、やっぱり「時計」のことが大事かも。
Now that you put it that way, the more literal translation of “clockwork” is actually pretty good there, especially given that Geiger is a clockmaker.
DeGrey の屁理屈はまだずれそうな気がします。「Troublesome Rhetoric」の「Troublesome」は「めんどくさい」ではなく、「対処しにくい」「問題的な」「扇動する」でしょう。翻訳として「相手をピンチにさせる議論」かも。Geiger が時計職人のように、DeGrey 先生は「議論職人」ですね。（笑）失礼なわけではなく、無意味の礼儀は余計ぐらい真面目でしょう。
For DeGrey’s Troublesome Rhetoric, the “troublesome” isn’t the usual translation of “a pain in the neck,” but rather “difficult to deal with,” “problematic,” or “agitating.” Perhaps you could translate it as “an argument that puts the opponent in a bind.” Much like Geiger is a master clockmaker, you could say that DeGrey is a master argument-maker. He’s not “impolite” so much as “serious to the point where meaningless politeness is unnecessary.”
もちろん、これらも自分だけの思い方ですね。（笑）
Of course, these are just my own thoughts, too. : )[/quote]
[quote=“Kasumi”]Wow! This is the great job!!! Very cool . Thank you.
Oh take care〜！お風邪を召されているのに、翻訳ありがとうございます！お大事に！
I didn’t know “Troublesome Rhetoric” . But, I understood !
It’s like “Low & Order” ! :mad: :mad:
Maybe we have to change this word. Hummm.
And @K-To said on his Twitter,
" 対位法 is a musical terminology. So change to “Dialogue (of Socrates)”=問答法(Mondo hou),
or “Dialectic (of Hegel)”=弁証法(Benshou hou).
全ファミ is Zen-fami . It’s my gaming circle.
Crimson Passion is “Love” ! Not Art. Okey! How about 深紅の情熱(Shink no Jyounetsu) ?
Very fun ! Hype![/quote]
[quote=“Japanman”]This has been very interesting to follow. Kudos to DoctorFedora for going through all of the characters. I’m waiting to hear what he says about Zane’s Shenanigans. I’m not a fan of わるふざけ (or however it’s rendered) and agree that a lot of the Japanese translations feel flat.
Apologies for my unfamiliarity with forum-formatting but I thought I’d point 2 things out:
Kasumi wrote “SINさんの訳を、Mr.SirlinやTheloさんは修正・改訂したいということで良いんでしょうか？” She is under the impression that Sirlin and Thelo want to correct or amend SIN’s translation and is trying to confirm this. (Doctor Fedora translated as “It’s good that Mr. Sirlin and Thelo would want to correct and revise SIN’s translation, right?” but this is an error).
My understanding of this thread is that Dr. Fedora is questioning the accuracy/quality of the translations and suggesting changes. Sirlin’s reply indicates that he’s interested but not necessarily going to change them.
If Kasumi is looking for confirmation that there definitely will be changes, I think it should be pointed out that this is not the case, at least yet. Kasumi has probably done more to promote Yomi in Japan than anyone and has a tendency to take on a lot of volunteer work. I’d hate for her to mistakenly think that this was a new official project when at this point it seems like it’s just another forum thread.
全ファミ is the abbreviated name of the Tokyo-based quasi-biweekly board/retro game association that Kasumi has promoted on the forums in the past. It’s practically free to attend and I think anyone who’s passing through Tokyo should stop by. If you tweet Kasumi beforehand, maybe she’ll bring her Yomi set!
Oh, and for troublesome rhetoric, I wonder if there’s some way to throw 理屈っぽい into the term. I think that’s the nuance you’re looking for.[/quote]
[quote=“GRAG”]Well hey, I’m essentially well again, and I feel like putting off my work, so let’s take a look at BBB.
Bal-Bas-Beta
Innate: Long Range —> ロングレンジ (“Long range” expressed phonetically). Personally, I’d have gone with more of an actual translation, like 遠距離 or something.
You know what? They’re 100% all just expressed phonetically so let’s just skip to Menelker
Menelker
Innate: Bleeding Wounds —> 血祭り (“Bloodbath/vicious beating,” lit. “blood festival”) is interestingly different from the original English, but it works well enough to express the viciousness of the character, in my opinion.
7: Bonecracker —> 骨砕き (“bone smasher”) likewise gets an upgrade to its brutality
10: Into Oblivion —> 忘却の彼方 (essentially “oblivion”) is pretty much as-is
Q: Rising Dragon —> 龍昇拳 (“dragon-rise-fist”) is, I believe, the same translation used for Grave et al. It has the neat '90s-era SF2-ripoff bonus of using the same kanji as “Shoryuken,” just with the “rising” and “dragon” swapped.
K: Sweeping Claws —> 払旋爪 (“sweep-spin-claw”) works well enough, and the middle kanji is the “sen” in “tatsumaki senpukyaku” as a neat bonus
Aa: Dragon Breath —> 龍の息吹 (“Dragon’s breath”)
At: Deathstrike Dragon —> 死撃の龍 (“Death-blow dragon”) works pretty well as a straightforward translation, though I think it would be kind of neat if it were a rewritten name that played a little more on the Japanese name for the Raging Demon (瞬獄殺/“moment-judgment-kill”), except that I don’t have the sort of creativity to do that idea any justice myself. OH WELL[/quote]
[quote=“GRAG”]Persephone
Innate: Dominance —> 支配 (rule/control/dominance). Dunno if it still maintains the BDSM nuance (given that I’m not adequately into BDSM to know the Japanese terminology for it)
9: Do As Told —> 勅のままに (“[to/in the way] as decreed [imperially]”) definitely gives at least an impression of importance in the phrasing. 勅 refers specifically to an imperial decree, basically.
10: Bare Your Soul —> 魂を曝せ (“expose [your] soul” [as a direct imperative]) is pretty much as-is
A: Mistress’s Command —> 女王の命令 (“Queen’s order/command”)
A: On Your Knees —> 跪拝せよ is a little hard to translate, but it pretty much idiomatically translates to “bow before me” or “kneel before me.” The actual command to 跪拝 refers to an action more along the lines of kowtowing, with the knees on the ground and the body sort of bent forward with the elbows and forearms on the ground as well.[/quote]
[quote=“GRAG”]Gloria
Innate: Healing Touch —> 癒しの手 (“hand that heals/comforts/soothes”). 癒し is kind of hard to translate in a single word.
J: Ray of Moonlight —> 貫く月光 (“piercing moonlight”), in the sense of a beam/ray of light piercing through the darkness or something
J: Moonlight Sphere —> 月光珠 (“moonlight orb/ball/pearl”)
Qt: Sunbar Cage —> 陽光の檻 (“sunlight pen/jail/corral”). So uh I have no idea what “sunbar” is supposed to mean so
Qa: Sunburst —> 弾ける陽光 (“bursting-open/splitting-open sunlight”)
K: Fountain of Light —> 光の泉 (“fountain of light”)
A: Sun and Moon —> 日月陰陽 (“sun-moon-shade-light”) is a little hard to actually translate back into English. It looks like a four-character Chinese phrase, which is kind of neat, and the first half (“sun-moon”) can refer either literally to the sun and moon or idiomatically to the passage of time, while the second half (“shade-light”) means either “light and shade” or “yin and yang.”
A: Twilight Key —> 黄昏の鍵 (“key of twilight/dusk”)
A: Overdose —> 過剰治癒 (“excessive healing”) is kind of an odd one, given that “overdose” (in the medical sense) would be something like 過剰投与 or 過剰摂取. I guess it’s because she isn’t actually using medicine, though.
Time to go start prepping dinner. I’ll do the other three… eventually. Zane in particular has a couple of translations what needs fixin’ in order to properly match Japanese fighting game terminology.[/quote]
[quote=“GRAG”]looks like I’m still waiting on today’s work to arrive (i.e. I’m not getting paid for this morning anyway) so hey, Gwen time
also it is FREEZING in here so it’s Typo Time here in Kyoto
J: Chains of Ice —> 氷の枷 (“Shackles/handcuffs of ice”)
J: Links of Ice —> 氷の鎖 (“Chain(s) of ice”). Interesting to note that these translations are, in a sense, reversed (though the distinction makes a lot of sense, given gameplay implications). Japanese also lacks any specific word to refer to the links of a chain (instead just calling them, essentially, “rings” or “loops”) so it makes more sense to just use the word “chain” to refer to the one that doesn’t effectively “imprison.”
Q: Shadow Slice —> 影刻み (“Shadow chop/mince/shred”). Interesting to note that Gwen’s specials aren’t just expressed phonetically despite being ripe for doing so overall.
K: Burnbarrow —> 火炎車 (“Car/cart of [powerful/consuming] flames”)
At: Dreadlands Portal —> ドレッドランドへの扉 (“Door/gate to the Dreadlands”) is a fairly pedestrian phrasing, akin to “take this exit to get to the museum”
[quote=“GRAG”]Just two more to go until I can set fantasystrike.com/game back to English mode
Vendetta (“Balrog” in Japan)
Innate: Carrion Reach —> 腐敗の長腕 (“Long reach of rot/corruption”)
2: Pincer Poke —> 鋏突き ("Scissors/clipper/pincer poke/prick). 鋏 covers basically any sort of cutting tool that works by closing from both sides. 突く (the verb part) covers all sorts of actions from pricking a finger on a needle to stabbing a spear into someone’s chest. Also worth noting that the English fighting game terminology is lost in the translation (partially because the Japanese equivalent of a poke, 牽制, means something more along the lines of a check or a restraint, and is actually the word used to refer to pick-off plays in baseball).
3: Pincer Stab —> 鋏刺し (“Scissors/clipper/pincer stab”). The distinction between the two words is kind of lost in Japanese, as they seem to be largely synonyms.
4: Kidney Shot —> 臓腑打ち (“Blow to the bowels/entrails”). This may (I am merely speculating) be because Japanese may lack an equivalent phrase to the English “kidney shot,” which also implies a degree of fighting dirty.
Q: Frost Web —> 凍り網 (“Freezing net”). It’s worth noting that there’s no specific word in Japanese for a spider web (the word for “nest” is simply used), as well as that 網 is used to refer to pretty much anything with that sort of structure, from nets to grill grates.
Ka: Diving Pincer Slice —> 跳び込み一閃 (“Diving-in single flash”)
Kt: Wall Dive Suplex —> 壁跳び裏投げ (“Wall-jumping ura-nage”). Ura-nage refers to a type of throw in judo performed by rolling backward.
K: Wall Dive Loop —> 壁跳び嵌め (“Wall-jump trap”). Worth noting that it uses the Japanese word for e.g. a fireball trap (which Grave’s translation, as it exists, does not).
A: Surgical Strike —> 解剖の一撃 (“Autopsy/postmortem/dissection single-strike”) kind of misses the idiomatic meaning of the original English (i.e. “extreme precision”) and goes instead rather literal. Could probably be fixed. Also worth noting that “surgical strike” is kind of an American “set phrase” due to discussions of things like military tactics being in the news a lot, basically all the time? Anyway, something like ツボに一撃 (“single strike to a pressure point”) or something would probably be better overall as a translation.
A: Maximum Spider —> マキシマムヴェン (phonetically “Maximum Ven”)[/quote]
[quote=“GRAG”]Okay, let’s finish this up.
Zane
Innate: Shenanigans —> 悪ふざけ (“Prank/practical joke”). Should be 奇襲攻撃 (lit. “sneak/surprise attack”), which is the Japanese equivalent to the English fighting game term.
Innate: Meaty Attacks —> 転倒重ね (“Piling on when knocked down”). Could be 持続当て (lit. “connecting during duration”), but 重ね is also a valid term in Japanese for meaty attacks, so this seems… fine, I guess?
4: Creator and Destroyer —> 創作と破壊 (“Creation and Destruction”). I always wondered why Zane couldn’t play this on his own hand.
J: Anarch Crusher —> アナーキークラッシャー (phonetically “Anarchy Crusher”). Makes sense that the phoneticized name would be modified slightly, since “anarch” isn’t exactly an everyday word in English in the first place. I’m honestly a little surprised to find out it’s even a real word.
Grave:
Overhead Slice —> 頭蓋破斬 (“Cranium destructive-cut”)
Rapid Poke —> 迅雷打ち (“Thunderclap hit/strike/chop”)
Stormborne Sword —> ストームボーンの剣 (“Sword of Stormborne”)
Notes: The 迅雷 in the translation of Rapid Poke is the same “Jinrai” as in Ken’s SF3 super art, the Shippu-Jinrai Kyaku (“fast-as-lightning kick,” lit. “gale-and-thunderclap leg/foot”)
Jaina:
High Phoenix —> 鳳凰矢・天 (“Phoenix arrow • heaven”)
Low Phoenix —> 鳳凰矢・地 (“Phoenix arrow • earth”)
Phoenix Shots —> 不死鳥の矢 (“Arrow(s) of the phoenix”)
Notes: WHOA these are excellent translations. The “heaven” and “earth” thing is TOTALLY a common way of phrasing distinctions between “higher” and “lower” in Japan for poetic purposes (for example, I lived in a hot spring town, and the town’s public — i.e. non-hotel-affiliated — bath had two bathing areas, the “bath of heaven” on the roof and the “bath of earth” inside, that switched genders month by month).
It’s also worth noting that, for some reason, “phoenix” is translated as 鳳凰 (houou, a bird originally from Chinese mythology known in China as the fènghuáng and the basis for the Pokémon Ho-oh) for the attacks themselves, but as 不死鳥 (lit. “undying bird,” the Japanese word for the phoenix of western mythology that is reborn from its own ashes) for the ability name translation. It’s an odd bit of inconsistency overall — 不死鳥 is frankly more accurate (especially given the fire motif) but 鳳凰 does sound cooler in the attack names, and it’s conceivable that someone might not even realize that the two are actually very different mythological birds with only superficial similarities.
Midori:
Eight-Point Counter —> 八点陣 (lit. “eight point military camp/formation/position”) frankly confuses me as a translation. I get this impression that I’m missing something. Maybe it’s meant to sound more non-literal like old Chinese names for things tend to.
Setsuki:
Ninjaport Dash —> 忍者の飛び駆け (“flight of a/the ninja”)
DeGrey:
Ghostly Force —> ゴーストフォース (phonetically, “Ghost Force”)
♪ Vaaaalerieeeee, you make me wish I was deeeeeeead ♬
Rainbow Disc —> 虹の円盤 (lit. “Rainbow disc”)
Geiger:
Ripsaw Gear —> チェーンソーギア (phonetically, “chainsaw gear”)
Yestergear —> イェスタギア (phonetically, “yestergear”)
Notes: a pun that bad deserves punishmOH NOOO WHAT WORDPLAY TRAP HAVE I STUMBLED INTO
Lum:
Item Toss —> 何が出るかな？ (“I wonder what’ll we’ll get?” more or less)
Notes: NAILED IT, as mentioned previously. 何が出るかな？ was the name of Faust’s special in Guilty Gear (presumably named for the fact that he says it while using it) that Item Toss duplicates. Perfect.
Argagarg:
Raging River —> レイジングリバー (phonetically, “raging river”)
Quince:
Courage Assault —> 勇敢なる強襲 (“Courageous/gallant assault/violent attack”)
Bravery Deflect —> 勇気ある偏向 (“Deflection with bravery”)
Chancellor’s Veto —> 首相拒否権 (“Chancellor’s right to veto”)
Gwen:
Desperate Strike —> 捨身の一撃 (“Single strike at the risk of one’s life,” lit. “throwing-away-body single-strike”)
Desperation —> 捨身 (“at the risk of one’s life,” lit. “throwing away one’s body”)
Vendetta:
Venomous Stab —> 毒刺し (“poison stab/pierce”)
Poison —> ポイズン (phonetically, “poison”)
Notes: Interesting choice to express “poison” phonetically rather than with the Japanese word.
Zane:
Dragonish Flight —> ドラゴニッシュ・フライト (phonetically, “dragonish flight”)
A Little Shake-up —> ちょっと混ぜっ返し (lit. “a little interruption/mix-up/mockery/confusion-by-joking”)[/quote]
[quote=“mysticjuicer”]FRENCH EX ABILITIIIIIIES (that have a slightly different/cool flavour compared to the English)!
Grave’s Overhead Slice is traded out for Blow to the Skull (BOOM HEADSHOT, imo).
Rook’s Tanglevine becomes (I think?) Unentangleable Vines, which I’m sure makes his Entangling Vines, feel a little overshadowed.
DeGrey’s Moral Mountain is a really nice pun in French, which can be read as either Height/Peak of Morality.
Valerie’s Manic Hands become Maniacal Hands, which makes her as scary as those 8 combo points would suggest!
Geiger’s Ripsaw Gear gets a similar upgrade to Chainsaw Disk! :eek::eek::eek:
Not to be outdone, Argagarg’s Raging River gets upgraded to Raging Rapids![/quote]
quote=“mysticjuicer” FRENCH EX ABILITIIIIIIES (that have a slightly different/cool flavour compared to the English)!
Quince abandons Positive Spin, Negative Spin for Convoluted Turn of Phrase, which is brilliant!
Onimaru’s Guard Thunder Crush becomes Lighting Opening in the sense of a, like, a strike that obliterates defences like a bolt of lighting! :eek:
Troq’s Bullbuster becomes a Bovine Stunner. So perfect! :laugh:
Vendetta, who’s fingers are knives, trades in his Venomous Stab for a Poisoned Dagger. You can never have too many tools, is what I’m getting here. And he trades his Carrion Counter for an Infected Riposte, which… hmm. I’m having a hard time figuring out which is more gross.
Zane’s A Little Shake-Up is Bowled Over, or Thrown on its Ass, if we’re not being strictly literal. :D[/quote]
[quote=“GRAG”]So, with the help of @Titus_Neighbors(Kasumi), the Japanese translation of Yomi has seen some touch-ups to bring the translated text more in line with the original English text’s meaning, or to fix fighting game terminology. These should go live… eventually. ^^
• “Block” was changed from 防御 to ガード to match Japanese fighting game terminology
• “Mixup normals” was changed from 起き攻め (okizeme: applying pressure on opponent wakeup) to 揺さぶり (the phrase used to refer to a mixup in fighting games) to match fighting game terminology
• Name fixes: Jaina’s name was fixed from ジャイナ to ジェイナ (vowel sound in the first syllable now rhymes with “say” instead of “car”), Bal-Bas-Beta is now バル＝バス＝ベータ instead of just BBB, and Onimaru’s name is now written in katakana to match Setsuki and Midori
• Jaina’s Crossfire Kick changed from “炎舞十字脚” (lit. flame dance cross-shape kick) to “炎舞脚” (lit. flame dance kick)
• Valerie’s Crimson Passion changed from “紅の力筆” (lit. crimson power-brush) to “紅の情熱” (lit. crimson passion)
• Chromatic Orb changed from “色の宝玉” (lit. jewel of color) to “色彩のオーブ” (lit. orb of coloration)
• DeGrey’s Troublesome Rhetoric changed from “屁理屈” (hair-splitting) to “窮させる弁術” (lit. “rhetorical technique that puts [the opponent] at a loss/at their wit’s end/in a dilemma”
• Point, Counterpoint changed from “対位法” (“counterpoint,” but in the musical sense) to “本証と反証” (lit. “evidence and counter-evidence”)
• Quince’s Patriot Mirror changed from “鏡の愛国者” (lit. “the patriot in/of the mirror”) to “憂国の鏡” (lit. “mirror of patriotism/concern for the wellbeing of one’s country”)
• Menelker’s Into Oblivion changed from “忘却の彼方” (sounds like fading into oblivion, like something being forgotten to history) to “壊滅” (obliteration/annihilation)
• Vendetta’s Surgical Strike changed from “解剖の一撃” (lit. “single strike of autopsy/post-mortem”) to “急所直撃” (lit. “weak point/vital organ direct hit”)
• Zane’s Shenanigans changed from “悪ふざけ” to “奇襲攻撃” (to match fighting game terminology); EX Zane’s More Shenanigans changed from “もっと悪ふざけ” to “ずうずうしい奇襲攻撃” (“shameless shenanigans”)
Actually, I’ll let you in on a little secret (but don’t tell anyone!): this stuff was all just to match up with the Japanese translation of the online version of Puzzle Strike that I’m working on with @Titus_Neighbors(Kasumi). The initial translation of all of the in-game strings and the chip names and explanations is done, but it still needs a fair bit of editing and just general smoothing out (I did the initial E—>J translation, and in the world of professional translation, you simply don’t DO translations into a non-native language, because of all of the weird, unnatural phrasings I’ve no doubt left in there). I will say, though, the chip names in Puzzle Strike are so chock full of references to just EVERYTHING that I feel pretty confident that the end result will be much better off for having someone familiar with all of the references working on it, at least.[/quote]
Hi ! I’d like to comment the @Djister and @Thelo 's work on Yomi’s french translation !
I had a look on the menu and the 10 first character cards.
Pratique C. Bot → Entraînement
In my language, une pratique is not tied with the idea of training. It’s just the way we do things. Example : “Les bonnes pratiques de préparation en pharmacie”.
Partie personnelle → Partie personnalisée Personnel doesn’t mean “custom” but “personnal”
Joute → Ok it’s not the good term, but very very fun, let’s keep it A correct but more boring term would be “phase de combat”.
Paquet → Deck (or Pioche)
In French, un paquet means a pile of cards. The discard is a paquet, the deck is another, and even the cardboard box when you store the cards is one ! It isn’t false to name it Paquet, but a little confusing. Une pioche explicits that it’s the paquet you will draw cards from.
Rebut → Défausse
In french, we don’t use this word for cards. It’s like we called discard pile “detritus” or “garbage”. Défausse is the correct word.
Brassez le paquet → Mélangez votre deck
Brasser is a verb that implies you are doing it to something fluid. You can “brasser de l’air”, “brasser une bière” and even “la brasse” is a swimming move. But you can’t “brasser un paquet”.
Attaques draconiennes → Attaques draconiques
Ok this one is very very fun “Draconien” is completely different from dragons or any giant beast with scales ! The term comes from Dracon, you can read his article on wikipedia at Draco (lawgiver) - Wikipedia.
Quand vous → Lorsque vous
Lorsque implies an instant effect. But both are ok !
Manoeuvres draconniennes → coups draconiques
Ok this one is very weird. A Manoeuvre is something you do with your car or your boat/plane/crane, but with your body you do “Mouvements”. We don’t have an exact word to say “attacks+throws”, but “coups” is pretty ok yeah.
Les combos en série en désordre vous permettent → Même en désordre, les combos vous permettent toujours…
It’s a bit more tricky to understand, but yeah the first sentence is incorrect.
Dégâts bloqués → Dégâts de grattage
In fighting games, these are called “dégâts de grattage”. If you need it, I can find some video from Ken Bogard or anyone to convince you definitely.
Jeter la première carte du paquet → Défausser la première carte du paquet
The first sentence isn’t false, but in french “jeter” means more “trash” and not “discard”.
Vous pouvez reprendre en main une ou plusieurs cartes de combo → Vous pouvez reprendre en main une ou plusieurs cartes jouées lors de ce combo
We can’t say “une carte de combo”.
Avant la pioche → Avant la phase de pioche (or Avant de piocher)
The first sentence isn’t false, but the second is better. “Pioche” literally means “pickaxe” in French, you can’t do anything with this word.
Equivalant → égales
Why using a complex word if we can use a shorter, more usual, that has the same meaning ? The first sentence isn’t false though.
Un bloc → une garde (or un blocage)
Ok, this one is very problematic. In french, un bloc has no link with fights. It’s a big solid chunk. In fighting games, we use the word “la garde” (example : un shoryuken piffé dans la garde) but “une garde” seems quite weird. I could understand we use “un blocage” instead for Yomi, but “un bloc” isn’t possible.
If you are interested, I propose to correct the whole french version. Are you native french speakers ? Some errors (draconien/draconique, manoeuvre/mouvement, bloc/bloquage) seem very unlikely to do as a native speaker.
EDIT :
Jaina :Bruleras → brûleras
Quince :_Dévoiler → révéler_These two words have different emphasis in French.
Troq :Cartes adjointes → cartes attachées“Attaché” is a much more common word in French and fits well there
Menelker :vous atteignez → vous touchez__boni → power-up (or phase de power-up, phase de bonus)Boni is a very rare word in French, and is specific to the fiscal jargon. Most people (like me just before checking on internet 5min ago) just don’t understand this word. If you really want to keep it, simply write “phase de boni” each time. I’d personnally keep “phase de power-up” or just “power-up” because even in French we use this term for video games (but with the - between the two words). We can also speak about “bonus”, (even at plural, most words that come from latin actually don’t keep their latin plural in French (we say des hiatus, des rictus, des plexus, etc.)
Gloria :renversé → à terre_In 2D fighting game the most common word is “à terre”. We also can see “au sol” or “renversé” though.
Vendetta :Décarcassement → hey pretty cool translation ! +1
BBB :amplifier → wow ok you don’t like angicisms ^^ quite fun, let’s keep it ! I’d have proposed booster but yeah amplifier is nice !
WIP…
Hi @Castanietzsche! Thank you for your post; there are interesting suggestions in there. Yes, @Thelo and I are both native French speakers. Also, I have a bachelor’s degree in English to French translation and I’ve worked as a translator and proofreader for about a decade. Any given text could be translated in a multitude of ways by any given translator, let alone by different ones, so there is seldom a “right” way of translating a given text. It is very much an art form.
For instance, as you can see here, draconien can mean both “extremely rigorous” (as a martial arts master would be) and “resembling a dragon”. I could spend hours explaining every single translation choice, but I really don’t feel like it. Rest assured that every single move name has been painstakingly selected by a professional translator who knows what he’s doing.
I focused on the translation of the actual cards. As for the game interface, @Thelo translated that without consulting me. ಠ_ಠ
Yeah I love the translation of actually about all moves !
There was lacking a “i” on Cycloïdienne or something like that on Geiger’s ace, and “Patriot Mirror” remained the same as in english (but yeah let’s keep it like that !) but yeah special moves translation is very good !
Is it usual in Québec to speak about “brasser”, “rebut” and “paquet” about card games ?
I have never heard it, but yeah that’s quite funny
EDIT : I checked your link @Djister , and with respect I don’t see any mention of dragon or anything… Yeah it sounds almost the same, we can keep “draconien” but that’s kinda weird. It’s not a problem leaving 1 or 2 strange terms in the game (“joute”, “draconien”…) but leaving too many just gives a global feeling of “wow this game is strange I don’t understand anything there”.
Yes, we do use words like “brasser” and “paquet” for card games, ha ha!
Check the link again! It’s the second tab underneath Lexicographie:
“ZOOL. Qui ressemble à un dragon. À entrevoir, de plus en plus près d’elle, sous l’eau hideuse, cette tête draconienne, cette gueule mâchant l’écume (Hugo, Misér.,t. 2, 1862, p. 203).”
It might be kinda weird, but it was good enough for Hugo.
Anyway, I’ve never had access to the software to actually implement anything in the game itself, so if there are changes to be made, @Thelo would be the man to seek.
Ah ok I didn’t see it, sorry
What a shame, what is more I love this author I’ve read 5 books of him lol
Before contacting Thelo, there were things to check about the 10 shadow expansion characters, I’ll do it asap
For example Zane’s meaty attacks were translated “attaques massives” but in fighting games we speak about attaques à la relevée or poke à la relevée. What was the idea behind this term ?
But yeah poke is maybe a bit too specific for yomi, where there isn’t any mention of “crossup”, “juggle” or any fighting game jargon term.
I’d have loved to see any reference though ! Such as “piff”, “dash-avant” or “bas-gros-poing”
But yeah there isn’t any flavor text in yomi so let’s forget it
Of your translation Djister, my favourites are Onimaru’s ones ! Diviser pour régner is very fun, and the Ace attacks were quite well found too if I remember well
This is what happens when you don’t speak french after the 5th grade. Her K moves become ‘Shooting Star’ and ‘Flickering(Flashing?) Star’ respectively. Love the mirroring there! 
Quince’s ‘Positive Spin’ becomes ‘Turn of Phrase’, which is so lovely and coy you can practically smell his smirk! ‘Crosswise Toss’ becomes… hmm, this one’s tough to convey. ‘Bias Trap’ I think, is the literal translation of the words, but probably closer to a pun on ‘Logical Fallacy’ or something like ‘Pitfall of Perspective’. 
:mad: :mad:
A correct but more boring term would be “phase de combat”.
“Draconien” is completely different from dragons or any giant beast with scales ! The term comes from Dracon, you can read his article on wikipedia at 
