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Translation Help on These Spells?


FionordeQuester
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I'm doing a Relocalization of both the Golden Sun games, to clean up a lot of the errors and unnecessary liberties taken by the localizers.  But, I'm not translating it totally literally, either.  I'm still going for the meaning of the original Japanese script, rather than the clinical translation of it; as I think that's how the best localizations tend to be.  But...I've run into some trouble with three VERY oddly named spells...and they are...

 

デンジャラス -> デンジャラクト -> デンジャフュジョン

 

For now, I've renamed them "Flash -> Death Flash -> Terra Flash".  For context, here's their animations...

 

 

Flash.gif

 

 

Death Flash.gif

 

Flashy.gif

 

Now, obviously the new names are decent enough on their own, but...are they really faithful to the original script?  Did I preserve the general feel the original writers were going for?  Because I'll be honest; I have NO idea what the original writers were going for with the original names.  Does the English word for "dangerous" have some sort of connotation that only exists in Japan?  Did they just slap some fancy sounding English words on their fire spells, and call it a day?    What's going on here?

 

If anyone with more experience and knowledge than me can answer this definitively, that would be great.  Thank you so much; and God bless you all.

Edited by FionordeQuester
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Hi! This is my kinda thread xD You may not know me but I basically do these kinds of things as a hobby.

Please note I haven't played the games, and as I am sure you are well aware, context really matters. So this is just working with what I'm given alone (the animation and names). Do you have the original Japanese descriptions of the spells handy too? The animations show the English but it may help to see the original.

Anyway!

Sometimes it helps to work backward in these situations: How did they get to "Dangerous/Danger?"

The most likely case is a literal translation of 危ない , with the meaning of "danger" in the sense that it could be unstable/risky in general to use such a spell, as it indeed does produce an explosion. Dangerous was the one that may have sounded coolest, or that they were convinced would convey its meaning --not that it matters too much, as foreign words have their own exotic taste to them, and the accuracy of intent wouldn't really matter too much to non-English speakers.

EDIT: I also saw there were already some "explosion" themed spells that are different. But that shouldn't change much of the below, as I was focused on conveying a flash/flare kind of flame, slightly different from what an explosion itself may entail. Flare is probably the more accurate way to go.

デンジャラス = Dangerous, or more likely "a risky spell [to use] that produces an [unstable] explosion, and hence is dangerous."  With that kind of definition, perhaps "Wildfire" or "Wildflare" or something along those lines that conveys both instability/unpredictability and the fact it is heated/produces an explosive flash would be along those lines.

デンジャラクト = After some searching I came to the conclusion that this may be "Danger + Destruct", or "Dangestruct" (xD).  You could either combine two equivalent English words, or just express a "bigger, badder" explosion. Combining would be something like "Mortalare" (mortal + flare, or both deadly and keeping to flare) or "Flashfire" (which gives a more sudden/unpredictable destructive flame connotation to it).

デンジャフュジョン = Danger Fusion --or more accurately, an unstable fusion reaction. It is from this I assume the official localization reached their "Nova" theme, or Supernova in this case, as that is the ultimate end to a fusion reaction (as it breaks down and becomes more unstable). Perhaps something like "Astral Flare / Astralare" (Astral + Flare) or more basic like, or even more "out there" like "Phlasma" (Flare + Plasma). Basically anything that can convey the image of a star (most often associated with nuclear fusion).

Though really, Flash > Death Flash > Terra Flash is a fine natural progression as is. Sometimes when faced with silly things like this, localizers can come up with what may make sense when carrying partial intent. Even the originals I read (Blast, Nova, Supernova) still have that progression sense to them, which in the end is likely the main intent behind things. The "instability" is natural in any explosive word, after all!

These are just some ideas. You could probably come up with better as you have been working with the game and most likely have played it already. But i hope I could help you in some way. : )

Edited by Kirokan
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On ‎2018‎年‎2‎月‎11‎日 at 12:34 PM, FionordeQuester said:

What would you think of this?

Wild Fire -> Fire Bolt -> Star Fire

With Fire Bolt being a portmanteau of "Fire" and Thunderbolt"?

Oh sorry, it didn`t notify me of your reply, or I would`ve replied sooner.

The portmanteau is nice! It helps increase its power in name alone from Wild Fire. It has the "sudden" feel to it too,

The only potential issue is that the image of a "bolt" of fire may be taken as a slender-looking kind of spell, rather than a more wild burst of fire the animation shows due to the relation to the image a "bolt" of lightning may give. Fire Burst/Flash Fire would express progression the same way (the second keeps Fire as the second word, too, as the other two are).

However, those lose the portmanteau! Though, one close way may be to use a word that is an existing word made of "fire" and another word. In this case, "Fire Bolt" can be made "Fire Storm" (Firestorm) which itself is a word that has the strength behind it as well as keeping to escalating from Wild Fire.

Once again these are just suggestions to help you come up with an idea you like best. Use the quote button if you reply so it pings me too! That way I can reply faster next time. : ) hope that helps!

 

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17 hours ago, Kirokan said:

Oh sorry, it didn`t notify me of your reply, or I would`ve replied sooner.

The portmanteau is nice! It helps increase its power in name alone from Wild Fire. It has the "sudden" feel to it too,

The only potential issue is that the image of a "bolt" of fire may be taken as a slender-looking kind of spell, rather than a more wild burst of fire the animation shows due to the relation to the image a "bolt" of lightning may give. Fire Burst/Flash Fire would express progression the same way (the second keeps Fire as the second word, too, as the other two are).

However, those lose the portmanteau! Though, one close way may be to use a word that is an existing word made of "fire" and another word. In this case, "Fire Bolt" can be made "Fire Storm" (Firestorm) which itself is a word that has the strength behind it as well as keeping to escalating from Wild Fire.

Once again these are just suggestions to help you come up with an idea you like best. Use the quote button if you reply so it pings me too! That way I can reply faster next time. : ) hope that helps!

 

Yeah.  Actually, I came up with another scheme I really liked, since I typed that...

Razer -> Hellrazer (a portmanteau of "hellraiser" and "razer") -> Atom Razer (wanted to use "Particle Razer", but that didn't fit any of the textboxes)

I think, out of all the things I've come up with, that's the closest thing I've found to getting across "an uncontrollable fiery thing with a portmanteau in the middle that still sounds cool to native English speakers".

Actually, now I've moved on to another challenge; the "Slippy Gorilla" boss fight. 

See, you encounter a group of three of them.  And while they're called "Chestbeaters" in the official localization, they're called スリッピーゴリラ in the original script.  Thinking that that's kind of a terrible name, I've been trying hard to figure out what that could be a reference to.  They're found in a place called "Kandla Temple" (a vaguely Shinto/Buddhist temple whose name references a port town in India), behind this boiling cauldron that you have to move.  You can see this, here...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I2waghZ0sv0&t=13m11s

Haven't found any luck so far.  "Slippy" seems to have basically the same connotation in Japanese as it does in English; and while there are the "Three Wise Monkeys" that are central in Shinto mythology, I don't see how they would apply too directly here.  For now, the best I could come up with is calling them "Oiled Gorillas"; as they might've been using that same boiling cauldron to bathe and get oiled up.

Do you know anything about this that I might not?  Thanks for the help!

Edited by FionordeQuester
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10 hours ago, FionordeQuester said:

Yeah.  Actually, I came up with another scheme I really liked, since I typed that...

Razer -> Hellrazer (a portmanteau of "hellraiser" and "razer") -> Atom Razer (wanted to use "Particle Razer", but that didn't fit any of the textboxes)

I think, out of all the things I've come up with, that's the closest thing I've found to getting across "an uncontrollable fiery thing with a portmanteau in the middle that still sounds cool to native English speakers".

Actually, now I've moved on to another challenge; the "Slippy Gorilla" boss fight. 

See, you encounter a group of three of them.  And while they're called "Chestbeaters" in the official localization, they're called スリッピーゴリラ in the original script.  Thinking that that's kind of a terrible name, I've been trying hard to figure out what that could be a reference to.  They're found in a place called "Kandla Temple" (a vaguely Shinto/Buddhist temple whose name references a port town in India), behind this boiling cauldron that you have to move.  You can see this, here...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I2waghZ0sv0&t=13m11s

Haven't found any luck so far.  "Slippy" seems to have basically the same connotation in Japanese as it does in English; and while there are the "Three Wise Monkeys" that are central in Shinto mythology, I don't see how they would apply too directly here.  For now, the best I could come up with is calling them "Oiled Gorillas"; as they might've been using that same boiling cauldron to bathe and get oiled up.

Do you know anything about this that I might not?  Thanks for the help!

That's a good one to settle on for the Flare one!

As for Slippy, after watching that video and seeing some of those musical attacks --I'm convinced they're referring to "Slippy" like "Smooth" (think of Michael Jackson's "Smooth Criminal"). Alternatively there is also the song "Born Slippy" that is popular in Japan, which may have popularized this term.

You've been struck by, you've been hit by, a Smooth Gorilla!

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