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Black and White demo reveals several English names: Mall tour gives new localizations

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Re: Black and White demo reveals several English name: Mall tour gives new localizati

I honestly dont know why they had to get rid of Shell Blade. They are taking almost all the Samurai references away form Samurott. Leaf Tornado sounds ok even though i loved Grass Mixer. I liked Nitro Charge too, i dont know why they had to change of of those. It makes me kind of sad.
 
Re: Black and White demo reveals several English name: Mall tour gives new localizati

To be honest, literal translations are not always the way to go.

"Herbivore" sounded boring and lazy. They don't just translate. They have to localise it. One wouldn't want to end up with boring stuff in the end.
Point of localization is to make it understandable to the language they localize in. The only thing that makes "Sap Sipper" less boring is the alliteration and that itself is subjective, and if we're talking subjective, the name's pretty much a euphemism along with "Big Pecks" on your Vuljina. And on the point of being "more understandable", like I said, completely lost the meaning since it seems like something more associated with bugs then the grass grazing animals that have this ability. Oh look, a better name with alliteration that also keeps the meaning of herbivore, and is a better representative of the Pokemon who learn it: Grass grazer or Grazing. Both fit the 12-character limit, the former has the same alliteration and both keep the actual meaning. Almost seems like they didn't bother looking at the Pokemon who learns it.

Or Mandibuzz, while it is a play on mandible and buzzard, its name seems more fitting for the steel/ant
 
Re: Black and White demo reveals several English name: Mall tour gives new localizati

Eh, I like the sound of Shell Blade better as opposed to Razor Shell, the idea of Oshawott/Mijumaru/Wotter pulling of the shell and using it as a sword is just cooler.

Also, finally, a town name that I can actually see the meaning of!
 
Re: Black and White demo reveals several English name: Mall tour gives new localizati

Or the Xtransceiver, which is apparently "Cross" transceiver according to Serebii. Now that wouldn't be so bad if "X" was actually pronounced "cross" but its not, or the fact that we've had X-[stat] items and X-Scissor and wasn't referred to as "Cross". A good portion of their English names aren't even intuitive.
Reminds me of Digimon Xros Wars. :sweatlol: But seriously, what was wrong w/ "Live Caster"?
 
Re: Black and White demo reveals several English name: Mall tour gives new localizati

Outrage is correct. TPCI's localization in this gen is going to both extremes. Here we have names that almost sound generic, but are very difficult to pronounce (i.e. Reuniclus) even for those outside the targeted demographic.

How is one supposed to pronounce Beartic, which grammatically fits the pun (Bear + "Arctic") but phonetically could lose meaning to one of its words when pronounced?

Then we have names that are much less confusing, but for some reason, TPCI chooses to translate them as something else because they believe the kids will not understand what certain words would mean ("Nitro Charge" loses its impact when translated as just "Flame Charge.")

Don't get me started on how one should pronounce the town/city names.

Eh, I like the sound of Shell Blade better as opposed to Razor Shell, the idea of Oshawott/Mijumaru/Wotter pulling of the shell and using it as a sword is just cooler.

Considering that Futachimaru/"Dewott's" sprite animation has the pokemon unsheathe its shell as if it was a sword, it only made the localization that much more complicated.

Razor Leaf's original name (in Japanese) could be translated as "Leaf Cutter," not necessarily related to blades. In Generations III and IV, the names of many of these "sharp" attacks were kept for the English localization.

For attack names in Gen III, the localization translated Air Cutter (instead of Razor Air) and Leaf Blade.

Yet here, two generations later, where localizing the attack name as simply "Shell Blade" would have been suffice, TPCI chose to change the attack name to "Razor Shell" and obliterate any references the attack name had.

Even if the Shellder line is able to use this attack as well, considering that the Oshawott line is samurai-themed (to the point of unsheating their shells like swords), it makes absolutely little sense for the localization to change it to something else.

I understand that the team responsible for the localization this gen is different from ones in the past; but the purpose of any localization is to translate everything that would make sense for the game's audience (really Shell Blade is not hard to understand), and change around a few words or phrases that would be inappropriate for the kid demographic.

By any chance, what will happen if there will be an attack in the future known as Shell Cutter (translated from Japanese)?

This is assuming TPCI will be localizing all of the games from henceforth.
 
Re: Black and White demo reveals several English name: Mall tour gives new localizati

Shell blade --> Razor Shell?

Herbivore --> Sap Sipper? (Herbivore's not actually a big word >_> and kind of loses some meaning there, seems more fit for bugs)

You also lose that argument if you say young children don't know what the word Herbivore means, but are supposed to get Volcarona is a pun on volcano and corona. Then there's also everyone claiming how clever the Pan- and Sim- monkeys are, not really intuitive that they're derived from scientific names for kids, yet they dumb down Herbivore and loses almost all its meaning.

Hydreigon's family? Yeah, just like Dusknoir and Gardevoir, unless you got that Hydreigon's name is derived from another language (this case German) and knew how to pronounce it, you're going to be saying it wrong all the time.

Then there's also all those "Let's take perfectly good names that are already in English and make them more difficult to pronounce!" names for Pokémon, and even if they were Japanese names, a lot of the English names actually seem harder because they insist on using extremely cool letters causing a string of them to appear that normally wouldn't in the English language.

Or you have things like Zebstrika, where I could see that string of four consonant sounds winding up to be Zebrika in a world where language isn't static, because the second (aka Japanese name) rolls of the tongue much easier.

There's also Beartic. Pun works when written, not when said. Do you say "Bear-tic" losing the arctic reference and sounding like a creature from Avatar? Or do you say "Be-artic" which itself isn't that intuitive of a pronunciation. Honestly, I've just been calling it Beatrice.

Or the Xtransceiver, which is apparently "Cross" transceiver according to Serebii. Now that wouldn't be so bad if "X" was actually pronounced "cross" but its not, or the fact that we've had X-[stat] items and X-Scissor and wasn't referred to as "Cross". A good portion of their English names aren't even intuitive.

Bianca is really the only name that pops up in my head that they could have kept the same but actually changed the name to communicate the meaning better, and worked.

Ouch. And I thought you were the guy who said not to have a hissy fit over bad localization names.

As for the actual names:

Razor Shell: Eh, Shell Blade fits the whole samurai theme better, but this is OK.
Leaf Tornado: Actually somewhat better than Grass Mixer, IMO. It just has more POWER to it. Even though the move itself isn't that powerful...
Incinerate: Great! Means the same thing, but now 100% more fire related!
Flame Charge: Meh, despite possibly being more fire-related, it doesn't have that same ring to it. Oh well.
Icirrus City: Already fine with cloud names. This one seems the most obviously cloud-like so far.
Dragonspiral Tower: Oh noes, a missing space! Pokemon is DOOMED!

Just kidding.
Darumaka: Already knew about it, one less k, can we just confirm these names now?
 
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Re: Black and White demo reveals several English names: Mall tour gives new localizat

I like these names better than the Japanese ones. Grass Mixer made me think of a place where grass could meet other singles. Incinerate does sound infinitely cooler. The only one that sounds worse imo is Flame Charge. Nitro Charge was definitely cooler.
 
Re: Black and White demo reveals several English name: Mall tour gives new localizati

I see they're going with a cloud theme for the city names.
 
Re: Black and White demo reveals several English name: Mall tour gives new localizati

I loved Shell Blade because it's... you know, actually a blade. It's not a razor or anything so that's a change I'm quite disappointed with. Grass Tornado doesn't sound like an attack to me, sounds like just a description of something. "Wow, that looks like a grass tornado!" Grass Mixer was better.
 
Re: Black and White demo reveals several English name: Mall tour gives new localizati

Ouch. And I thought you were the guy who said not to have a hissy fit over bad localization names.
Having a hissy fit (as in, calling this the worst generation ever, the series is ruined forever and whatnot) is not the same as explaining why I don't like some of these names. Then there's the fact that you take what I say out of context as me throwing a hissy fit over bad names, rather than, I don't know, responding to the quote in my post which claimed "there are reasons for the name changes. Sometimes, just translating won't cut it - the player has to understand it, too" in which I would obviously site examples where I believe the localization team failed in what they're hired to do and also give examples where "understanding" the name was clearly a non-issue. Changing Japanese names to hard-to-pronounce English-like names is one thing, changing perfectly okay English names that were easy to pronounce into harder-to-pronounce names is another.

People need to learn the difference between overreaction and criticisms.

Really, my main problem is their inconsistency with their logic for name changes. Its almost as if they had different people making the names and not being allowed to discuss with each other.
 
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Re: Black and White demo reveals several English name: Mall tour gives new localizati

Is it just me, or does this generation have an unusual amount of pointless name changes? As if Nitro Charge, Shell Blade and Grass Mixer even needed to be altered.
It's not so much that I'm complaining, but moreso the fact that I'd just like to know what on Earth goes through their heads when they localise these games. Someday, I'd really like someone in the fandom to bag an interview with these guys...
Oh, you're not the only one. I dunno if it's because TPCI is handling this now or what, but things seem super weird this time around.
 
Re: Black and White demo reveals several English name: Mall tour gives new localizati

But TCPI handled Gen IV too, and the localization didn't seem nearly as off there as I recall...
 
Re: Black and White demo reveals several English name: Mall tour gives new localizati

I'm confused. I thought Nintendo were the ones who handled the translations of the games. When exactly did this change to TCPI happen?o_O
 
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Re: Black and White demo reveals several English name: Mall tour gives new localizati

Having a hissy fit (as in, calling this the worst generation ever, the series is ruined forever and whatnot) is not the same as explaining why I don't like some of these names. Then there's the fact that you take what I say out of context as me throwing a hissy fit over bad names, rather than, I don't know, responding to the quote in my post which claimed "there are reasons for the name changes. Sometimes, just translating won't cut it - the player has to understand it, too" in which I would obviously site examples where I believe the localization team failed in what they're hired to do and also give examples where "understanding" the name was clearly a non-issue. Changing Japanese names to hard-to-pronounce English-like names is one thing, changing perfectly okay English names that were easy to pronounce into harder-to-pronounce names is another.

People need to learn the difference between overreaction and criticisms.

Really, my main problem is their inconsistency with their logic for name changes. Its almost as if they had different people making the names and not being allowed to discuss with each other.

Sorry. :( Guess I did take that out of context. Besides, some of those names are iffy.

EDIT: Somewhat on topic - When that Darumaka in the first video used Incinerate on the Deerling, I actually said something along the lines of "Ooh, that's gonna hurt." When the Deerling was revealed to be a Zorua, I laughed so hard I nearly fell over.
 
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Re: Black and White demo reveals several English names: Mall tour gives new localizat

This demo thing makes me wonder

Why couldn't they also have Black and White for DS Download like other games do?
 
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