Ask Localization Megathread

[Ophannus]

Drakesbane in the JP is 雲蒸竜変 which according to Google Translate is "Strange Cloud". I'm sure this is an idiomatic phrase only understood by Japanese people in the context of their culture's mythos surrounding eastern dragons (e.g. Mistmelt/Cloud Evoker). I couldn't find anything on the interwebs about it but I was wondering if you could provide a brief description of what 雲蒸竜変 really eludes to. I know it was localized to "Drakesbane" before your time. I'm presuming that dragons require clouds to fly, and 雲蒸竜変 related to disrupting clouds somehow which I suppose would result in a dragon 'falling'. And an attack which destroys the clouds necessary for a dragon to fly, would be a bane to a dragon? I'm just using deductive logic here based on my extremely limited japanese, but was just curious!

Also I was wondering why Ryuken (Dragon Sword) DRG's SP1 was localized to Spirit Surge in FFXI when in previous FF games it was simply called Lancet/Lancer/Dragon Sword. Was Dragon Sword/Lancet not 'cool' or dramatic enough for an SP name? I also remember getting hyped about DRG's SP2 before it was released, back before you guys actually named it "Fly High", and I remember being so disappointed at its name. 1) because 'Fly High" sounds so mundane, and 2) I was halfway hoping you guys would name it "Highwind" after Highwind being a very prominent term relating to DRGs throughout the FF series (and also the name of DRG's ultimate Jump attack in several other FF games). Seeing as Manafont, Benediction, and Summoner's Astral Flow abilities are all names of ultimate skills those jobs use in other games, Highwind would have been a better name than "Fly High", which I think is actually almost seems like a synonym for High Wind as both terms allude to altitude/flying, but I think Fly High as not having as much fan service as Highwind, in the same regard as Hellfire, Gaia's Wrath, Tsunami, Dark Messenger being renamed Inferno, Earthen Fury, Tidal Wave and Ruinous Omen. Even if the latter are more 'accurate' translations.

I know that many of you refer to Bostaunieux Oubliette as "Boston Omelette." This tickles me to no end...

While true, the newer zones are easier to pronounce, the former stylized naming conventions were probably more 'grown-up' and actually preserved more accurate meaning. A dungeon is very generic, but an Oubliette is a very particular kind of french-style dungeon, and Sand'Oria is very much based on medieval France. Calling it simply a dungeon wouldn't confer the same 'feel' as calling it an Oubliette, though 90% of players don't care about that sort of deeper connection to lore and maintaining meaning, but moving forward it probably is a better choice to use terms like "Drifts" or "Fields" rather than archaic terms.

Also one more thing. I'm extremely proud of the FFXI localization team for sticking with FF style naming conventions of items. I groan when I play any other RPG series and items are named like "Staff of Fiery Striking" or "Sword of Frozen Spite" or "Helmet of Magick'd Fortitude" I hate RPGs that use "[Blank] of [Blankity] [Blank]" for items, it's so cheesy and feels too D&Dish. Whereas FF games typically name items after a noun or a single adjective Cleric's Robe, Bloodsword, Masamune, Noble's Tunic, etc... It's less pretentious and a lot less annoying, also it's more fun reading about the lore behind some of these items and their terms (i.e. Estoqueuer) rather than boring names in other games e.g. Shield of Divine Light---BORING.