Certain characters in the JP version were paired, and were puns or references to each other; but the new translation breaks those.

The Title vendor, named Lachesis, and an NPC in the upper level of the Gate area named Chroto (Clotho in the JP version), were paired originally. Their names were a reference to the Three Fates in Greek culture, Clotho, Lachesis, and Atropos- but it was also a sly reference to the Sega game Columns and its OST, where the first two tracks were named Clotho and Lachesis. Chroto is a weird translation but it also breaks the pairing between the NPCs.

Also, Cofy and Prin were originally named Koffie and Pudding, and renaming the two breaks the "snacktime" theme.

I'd like to see at least Chroto renamed back to Clotho, to save the pairing there. I understand that changing Cofy and Prin's name back to their originals would cause issues with guides already written, but Clotho I think is the one that bothers me the most.

In before they rename Cofy to "Proppa" and Prin to "Prim."

Cofy and Crem would have been better.

Croto is Croto in the Japanese version, check the credits to see the official name. Not saying that it is right, it is not, like many other western names written by Japanese sources, but it "is" the official name. Of course western localisations are there to correct their mistakes. Or to change them for completely different names, like they usually do.

@landman said in A handful of the changed NPC names break puns that were made in the JP version.:

Or to change them for completely different names, like they usually do.

I'm reminded of "Nald'thal" from FFXIV that was created solely because Koji Fox, the western localization lead wanted something to be catchy in terms of a swear. So "Thal's Balls" was made, then the god.

@landman English names written in Japanese are written phonetically using Katakana, most of the time. While "Chroto" is a 'correct' way to spell his japanese name, it's ignoring the reference his name is based on in the first place. Clotho would be a more correct translation because it's taking his English (or romanized, at least) name and presenting it as it was intended, as opposed to presenting it filtered through another language that isn't entirely compatible with Roman languages.

Clotho is clearly more correct, but I doubt they will change it. The names are the names, and we've just gotta live with it. In addition to the things with the Fates, most of the original (i.e. episode 1) PSO2 NPCs are named after minor planetoids.

They should at least give Puddin' her correct name (with years of localization precedent behind it): Jigglypuff.

i agree with this post

They should go and look at the fan translation.....heck maybe they should of hunt them down a hired them to do the translation I think they did a really good job with all the work they did

@SaviorZero82 said in A handful of the changed NPC names break puns that were made in the JP version.:

They should go and look at the fan translation

Which spelled it Klotho... Oops?

Also Rahgbelt. Pretty sure it's supposed to be Rogbelt because rock and rog sound similar. And then there's Phongurf, it's supposed to be Fangulf. Gulf: Wolf with a g. Fangulf: Wolf+Fang (granted I have no way of knowing if these have been fixed yet)

Don't tell me they went with Phongurful for the tundra version? It's supposed to be fur, that one's a gimme...

@Mattwo7 said in A handful of the changed NPC names break puns that were made in the JP version.:

@SaviorZero82 said in A handful of the changed NPC names break puns that were made in the JP version.:

They should go and look at the fan translation

Which spelled it Klotho... Oops?

Yep, even the fan translation got it wrong.

"Rahg" and "Rog" are presumably pronounced identically. It's just a stylistic choice.

"Klotho" is technically more correct than "Clotho" - it's Greek and Greek does not have the letter C.

I do have an explanation on why that is the case though it does require covering a bit of history.

Contrary to what many people believe, terminology changes are not only caused by localizers feeling like changing things up but also done at the request of the original Japanese owners.

In the case of PSO2, Sega of Japan's own internal English glossary for PSO2 which you can sort of see in the English names listed during JP's end credits and the names used in the English soundtrack:

Any of you who played the SEA version might pick up on a few of these names in the album and credits listing. The SEA version was in fact based off of Sega of America's script for the original 2013 release which did use these terms:

However for the SEA release, Sega of Japan (for whatever reason) requested AsiaSoft do some small changes such as the infamous "Force => Wizard" and "Monomate => "Health Drink" (My guess is they wanted to make the game accessible as no Phantasy Star game had been "officially" released in South East Asia in the past) and there was also the complication that Sega of America's translation was never fully finished (they supposedly only got up to Episode 1's story) so some other portions were in fact translated by AsiaSoft.

So to go over it real quick:

SEGA of Japan Terms

• Forest = Greenscape
• Caves = Cauldron
• Tundra = White Summit
• Desert = Lost Sea
• Darker = D-arker
• Campship = Gateship

SEGA of America's Terms

• Matter Board = Paradigm Matrix
• Room = Quarters
• Exploration Quest = Patrol Quest
• Just Attack = Perfect Strike (Inconsistent with PSU yes... but consistent with Phantasy Star Portable 2's "Perfect Strike")
• Oodan = Woodan

SEGA of Japan/AsiaSoft Changes:

• Photon Arts = Photon Moves
• Techniques = Photon Magic
• Monomates = Health Drink
• Force = Wizard
• Braver = Samurai

Now what's this got to do with the NPC names? well basically... majority of character names are the result of that being Sega of Japan's "official" English spelling:

• Gettemhult
• Melfonseana

However it does appear that PSO2 NA did have "some" degree of control over some localization choices:

• Pati and Tia's Sega of Japan English terms are "Patty" and "Tiea" (and "Patty" and "Tea" in the fan translation) despite the fact that officialy their names are meant to be a pun on "Patientia" (the language files even have a string entry for their two names combined in this manner... oddly). This name change was also one that was present in the SEA translation and which might have originally been done by Sega of America.

• Sega of Japan does have an official English term for Falspawn... "D-arkers" yet for some reason the current localizers went with neither the original version or Sega of Japan's localized term.

• Most of the area names use the original Japanese's versions displayed English name or make up their own.

• Perhaps one I gotta give credit to the localizers for but which may be a bit difficult to explain so please accept this description from tvtropes.org: In Japanese, each Dark Falz has both a kanji name and a katakana name. They are always referred to by their katakana name in voiced dialogue, but when referring to the specific Dark Falz the kanji name is used in text with the katakana pronunciation over it. The official English version consolidates the two by strapping the kanji's translation to the Falz's proper name as a title, i.e. "Elder the Gargantuan". (I might end up covering this as a separate topic with some examples of the Katakana / Kanji spelling for the Falzes)

So in terms of NPC names... it could really be one of the following:

• The localizers may not have been informed of the pun.

• Sega of Japan is enforcing a particular name be used and the amount of wiggle room on whether it can be changed may vary.

@Leonkh99 said in A handful of the changed NPC names break puns that were made in the JP version.:

Pati and Tia are officially spelled as "Patty" and "Tiea"