Samurai action name translations

[Aosha]

Midare Setsugekka

I think of it as "I'm going to cut you so hard you won't remember what season it is". :P

[Maku]

They are all pretty good. But remember, you want to translate the feeling/meaning and not so much the words themselves.

For example: Blade Wind is literally just translated. But "Wind Blade" rolls off the tongue better and makes more sense. Instead of just Gust "Gust Slash."

Only other suggestion would be Hissatsu as "Killing Technique or Secret Technique"

[Aosha]

They are all pretty good. But remember, you want to translate the feeling/meaning and not so much the words themselves.

For example: Blade Wind is literally just translated. But "Wind Blade" rolls off the tongue better and makes more sense. Instead of just Gust "Gust Slash."

Only other suggestion would be Hissatsu as "Killing Technique or Secret Technique"

Yeah, I know. However, for this specifically, I wanted to translate the words themselves as accurately as I could (although that's already a whole 'nother can o' worms...). Maybe I should make a second set of translations where I aim for names you could actually put in-game... Hmm...
If I had actually aimed for that, I probably would have called Meikyo Shisui "As still water" or something like that.
Jinpu/Gust could also be written out as Sudden Wind (sounds kinda clunky, any idea for a better word?). Most of the basic weaponskills are something-wind. Hence I'd want to also make Hakaze stay with that theme. Maybe Cutting Wind?

[Quor]

Meikyo Shisui

I've seen a few translations that refine it down to "Clear Tranquil" when applied in it's Final Fantasy context. That made sense to me, given the presence of Clear Tranquil as a skill/limit break-type move in other FF games (7 comes to mind).

As for the "wind" WS, what do you think of these?

Yukikaze - Biting Cold/Biting Wind
Hakaze - Cutting Wind
Jinpu - Forceful Gale
Shifu - Fierce Gust

The idea being to represent what each move does. Ice/Snow for Yuki, a basic cut for Hakaze, a strength-focused/boosting attack for Jinpu, and a sudden/speed-focused attack for Shifu.

[Aosha]

Ideas

I like those. Maybe Chilling Wind for Yukikaze? It's nice to know of Clear Tranquil, as I've not played any other Final Fantasy yet.

[Gun-Cat]

Shifu, 士風 = Samurai Wind. This one has me quite confused still.

The 風 in 士風 doesn't refere to wind. It translates to "The way of the Samurai/Soldier". 風 is one of those kanji that have a lot of more... ephemeral meanings to it, despite being used for something as simple as "Wind". It gets used in 気風 for example. If you'd translate the kanji you'd have "spirit wind", and a japanese person would understand "Character" or "Ethos". Granted it is a pretty old word and you'd be better off using 性格. There is also a grammar "ふうに” (as in "this way/that way") but I have never seen it written in Kanji, so it might not be related to it.

It does have a hard time on complex stuff like those skill names, but other than that it seems like Google Translate has been improving quite a bit over the years with their Japanese translations. The translated skill descriptions (not names) are pretty spot on most of the time.

Most of the jobs primarily use Katakana (e.g. ストーン/Stone) for their skill names, but there are four jobs that almost exclusively use Kanji and/or Hiragana: Samurai, Ninja, Monk, and Scholar (excluding Arcanist skills). Scholar is of particular interest because of how the skill/effect names differ between the English and Japanese versions.

I'm using Google Translate for this so please feel free to correct or clarify any of these translations.

Galvanize → 鼓舞 "Inspiration"

Adloquium → 鼓舞激励の策 "Inspiration encouraging measures"
Succor → 士気高揚の策 "Morale raising measures"
Indomitability → 不撓不屈の策 "Unbending, indomitable measures"
Excogitation → 深謀遠慮の策 "Careful consideration measures"

Sacred Soil → 野戦治療の陣 "Field treatment camp"

Leeches → 生命浄化法 "Bio-purification method"
Lustrate → 生命活性法 "Bio-activity method"
Broil → 気炎法 "Air flame method"
Broil II → 魔炎法 "Magic flame method"

For Japanese people, english Katana phrases are very much related to Fantasy worlds. For them it makes it seem very old and mystical. This is partly due to the fact that old NES RPGs were sometimes exclusivly in hiragana or katakana due to memmory restrictions and using english terms was shorter than writing japanese terms. That is why a lot of them have very nostalgic feelings for this. Personally I can't play the game on Japanese because it completely sucks me out of the fantasy setting. They have perfectly fine words for "Potion" "Stone" and all these things, but keep using the english terms. It just doesn't fit the fantasy style in my eyes.

NIN, MNK and SAM are obvious why they are kept in Kanji. For SCH, it is simply to give it a sohpisticated air. Also, Galvanize is actually a perfect translation. 鼓舞 is not the normal word you'd use if you want to encourage somebody. It would be 奨励 or maybe 激励. 鼓舞 has a very sophisticated air to it and you'd expect, for example, your professor to use it. Galvanize is the same. It has the meaning of encouragement in english, but only very few people even use it anymore. It is worth pointing out that in Japanese, the word for galvanizing metal is completely different to 鼓舞.

As far as Broil and Broil II go... my guess is that in that case the english translator simply decided to go with what english speaking FF fans are used to in terms of FF skill progression and used a more literal meaning of the kanji. The german translation catches the skills a lot better. 気炎 actually means "big talk" or simply to boast/swagger with 法 being a marker for magic. In the german version it is called Bravade, an old word that most people (including me) would have to look up, but it has just that meaing. An english term that has the same kind of "ye olden words" meaning would probably have been gasconade or bombast.

[Aosha]

士風

Ah, now that makes more sense. Thanks. Updated.

[Pyitoechito]

As far as Broil and Broil II go... my guess is that in that case the English translator simply decided to go with what English speaking FF fans are used to in terms of FF skill progression and used a more literal meaning of the kanji. The German translation catches the skills a lot better. 気炎 actually means "big talk" or simply to boast/swagger with 法 being a marker for magic. In the German version it is called Bravade, an old word that most people (including me) would have to look up, but it has just that meaning. An English term that has the same kind of "ye olden words" meaning would probably have been gasconade or bombast.

Someone (probably Reddit) actually enlightened me on "Broil" that it can also mean "a quarrel or commotion". So the translators could have intended it to mean something like a "heated discussion", which isn't really a direct translation of "boast/swagger" but does fit well with Scholar (and still has the alternate definition of "heat").

Also, "Bravade" can probably be recognized as "Bravado" in English (both have the same meaning).

[Stormblessed9000]

I found what seems like a good translation source for the samurai skills a while ago:
http://eu.finalfantasyxiv.com/lodest.../blog/3373509/

It seems to agree with most of what you've put down but adds some more background on some skills so I'd definitely recommend it. Look at Hagakure in particular, as it has some nice historical background.

P.S. to make it clear, this is not my work.

[Valdegarde]

It took me over a year to read this thread, but I'm so happy that they've referenced my favorite series of all time, SaGa. I caught Final Letter from Zwerchau immediately, and although it's a real cross-cut maneuver, and although Final Letter was itself a nod to Zorro, the animation looks too similar to be a coincidence.
Similarly, Midare Setsugekka has shown up throughout the SaGa series many times using different translations, and I just cross referenced the list, they have been using the same kanji of Midare (Chaotic, Scattered etc.) Setsugekka (Flowerfall, Petals, etc.)

While the components of the Setsugekka have also appeared often in SaGa games in interesting ways due to its unique tech learning mechanics, to my knowledge they also appear in FFXI so it's difficult to say which is a direct reference or not. Midare Setsugekka however, down to the animation, is a nod to a recurring SaGa attack. Go play SaGa Frontier and use Tres Flores, even the high pitched noise while the afterimage is leading up is a part of it.

I wonder how many other references I've missed? I know Monk has a lot, its entire skillset was pretty much FFT's that was lost in translation.