Question about Valefor in FFXIV.

[Yasuhiro]

Sorry if I'm slow poking really hard

Recently did the quest "Short arms of the law" from the kids in Mor Dhona where near the end of it they tried to summon the primal Valefor, I have to ask what Valefor were they trying to summon? As far as I'm aware at the moment, there's four Valefor's I know of in Final Fantasy. (Picture's provided for people new to Final Fantasy)

There's the one in Final Fantasy III

The Final Fantasy X one which is what introduced Valefor to the mainstream since Final Fantasy III wasn't localized until 2006-2007

Final Fantasy XIII (Forgot this one was even a thing)

and the Final Fantasy XIV one which is just a recycled Shadow Dragon from XI with updated textures sharing the name of the Final Fantasy III enemy that it is named after.

Since Valefor exists in Eorzea it can't be the latter one can it? When Valefor was going to be summoned do you think they were thinking of the one in Final Fantasy XIV? It'd be pretty anti climatic if it was just the Shadow Dragon that ended up being summoned for real.

[Anonymoose]

I checked in with the other languages for help here.

The name of the Crystal Tower enemy is spelled Valefor in English, German, and French and バルフレー in Japanese.
These spellings all match the Final Fantasy III incarnation.

The name of this alleged "summoned beast" is spelled Valfore in English, Valfaris in German, Valefore in French, and ヴァルファーレ in Japanese.
These spellings all match the Final Fantasy X incarnation.

Much like Titan (Tie-tun) and Titan (Tea-tahn), the name was localized into Japanese differently by installment, allowing both names to be used in Fainaru Fantajī XIV while potentially leaving other languages to fend for themselves. (Shout out to my man Titan, aka Phlegethon. Not Acheron. Phlegethon.)

If we get an FFX-esque Valfore, I imagine they'll have to retcon adjust the name or spelling of the one in Labyrinth of the Ancients.

[Yasuhiro]

Yes, I was hoping my Anonymoose summoning spell would work :3

[Anonymoose]

Yes, I was hoping my Anonymoose summoning spell would work :3

A request for information not commonly known, or not known at all, especially if presented as a mystery or hypothetical, is primo Moose bait, lol.

[Yasuhiro]

Actually looking up on the wiki just a moment ago I found out more information on the Valefor mob in Crystal Tower, they're also known as Balfrey but I can't find the source on where that name came from, I even just replayed FFIII (JP) and the DS remake just recently too.

[Anonymoose]

they're also known as Balfrey but I can't find the source on where that name came from

Not all translations are equal, lol.

There are a series of books credited to King Solomon on the subject of the demons he allegedly enslaved, the most well-known of which in fantasy and gaming worldbuilding probably being the Lesser Key of Solomon, specifically the first book, the Ars Goetia. From these early lists of demons comes the name Valefar.

This was converted into バルフレー (Bafure).

バ Ba (There's no Va)
ル ru (replaces L)
フ fu
レ re
ー draws out the vowel just before it

Pretend you only know those Katakana and try to bring it back to English: BA-L-F-RAY. Balfrey.

In Final Fantasy X, they went with ヴァルファーレ, instead.

ヴァ u + a = va
ル ru
ファ fu + a = fa
ー draws out the vowel before it
レ re


EDIT Fun fact, it is believed that this is how the real-world Masamune was lost. Someone who claimed it had their name transcribed into Japanese, and when it came out again as Coldy Bimore, no one had no idea where the hell to start looking.

[Yasuhiro]

As soon as you posted that I did get upto the Crystal Tower in III and there is indeed a mob called バルフレー in that dungeon. which is romanized as Barufure if I read that correctly. It's everywhere else that it seems to be translated to Valefore.

[DamianFatale]

I really want the Final Fantasy X version to be a primal. >~<

[DamianFatale]

Couldn't they just rename the Crystal Tower "Balfrey", and then make the primal valefor happen? Also sorry for the double post, but I can't edit posts on mobile.

[Yasuhiro]

Couldn't they just rename the Crystal Tower "Balfrey", and then make the primal valefor happen? Also sorry for the double post, but I can't edit posts on mobile.

During the localization process of the Crystal Tower they had to change Titan (FFIII) to Archeron and then to Phlegethon.
There's more on it here http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...on-and-Acheron
So it's entirely possible they'll do that, doubt anyone's gonna miss a name of a mob in LoTA being renamed if I wasn't such a nerd about this series I wouldn't notice.