FIRST OF ALL I'm NOT setting out to make better translations here.. I'm CLARIFYING the meanings and nuances behind the original text. If you say "but the official translations sounds better" you're a dumbfuck missing the fucking point. If you say "but you can interpret the official translation to mean the same thing" you're again missing the fucking point. If they mean the same thing that's confirmation. If it's not then well there's something wrong with the official translation. Either way I'm not fucking setting out to make a better translation. I'm just clarifying stuff. I'm explaining what things mean. I'm NOT looking for the right wording to convey nuances. That's not my fucking job, that's the actual translators' job. I'm just EXPLAINING what the nuances mean. NOTE: If you plan on saying something objectively inanely stupid (further note: You might think you're being clever. You're not.) then read the afterword at the bottom of the doc before doing so. Edit: Also it's been brought to my attention that some asshole chucklefucks on Fextralife are claiming credit for this (http://fextralife.com/forums/t38768/vaatividyas-dark-souls-2-lore--found-in-translation-video/). I don't go to that site and they can go fuck themselves. ========================================================================================== DARK SOULS 2 TRANSLATION ISSUES ========================================================================================== - *THE OLD IRON KING Iron King Hammer item description, English: "Great hammer forged from the soul of the Old Iron King. The tip is formed of molten rock. The corpse of the Old Iron King became the vessel that bred Ichorous Earth. The heavy rock tip is formed of cooled magma, with a still-smoldering core." Japanese: 鉄の古王のソウルから生み出された大槌 先端の岩は熔けた土が凝縮されたものである 熔けた土となった何かは 鉄の古王の亡骸を憑代にその身を得た 土は冷えて固まり、硬い巨石となったいまも その内に熱を帯びている A great hammer born from the soul of the Old Iron King. The rock at the end is the condensed form of molten earth. The thing that became molten earth gained a body by possessing the corpse of the Old Iron King. Though the earth has now turned to cold, hard rock, it still hides heat within it. 1) The English version implies there's some sort of being named "Ichorous Earth". There's no such implication in the Japanese version; "Molten earth" is a description. 2) The hammer isn't forged (implying actually made) from the soul but born (implying supernatural shit) from it. 3) The use of "molten earth" in the two spots suggests that the boss you fought was ITSELF transformed into the fucking weapon. 4) The last line in English just says it's magma with a hot core, while the Japanese version implies, once again, supernatural shit. Shalquoir (whose name in Japanese is closer to "Shalagore", incidentally) dialogue: English: It reminds me of someone who lived long ago. A vainglorious liar who ended up hurling himself into the flames. Now he's Ichorous Earth, if I'm not mistaken." Japanese: そういえば、昔もそんなのがいたわ。見栄っ張りの嘘つきで、最後は自分を火の中に放り込んだ。確かそうね、今は“熔けた土”になってるはずよ。 There was once a man just like that. A show-off and a liar, in the end he threw himself into the flames. Now he's become... what, was it, ah yes, "molten earth". Crown of the Iron King (item) English: The King sunk below the scorching iron, met the one whose name must never be repeated, and became Ichorous Earth. Japanese: 王は鉄に沈んだ後、名を禁じられた者と出会い、溶けた土となった After he sank into the iron, the king met one whose name is forbidden, and became molten earth. Old king's soul. English: Soul of the ineffable. Japanese: 名を禁じられた者のソウル Soul of one whose name is forbidden. Note that in Japanese, both "the ineffable" and "the one whose name must never be repeated" are actually the same phrase, 名を禁じられた者. Obvious Voldemort jokes aside, while "ineffable" suggests that the name must not be repeated because it's too great for human lips (also see: Life of Brian), "名を禁じられた者" could also suggest that it's the king himself (and in the cases of the other souls the dragon, and the witch, and that other one) who did something wrong and that his name was stricken from history as a result. - *BOSS NAMES The literal translations are to clarify what the original text was, not suggestions for alternate translations (every time I do something like this some retard starts yelling "hurrr but duh english names is better ur translations a shit". Way to miss the entire fucking point. English name/Japanese name/Literal translation/English name translated back to Japanese/Notes (if any) The Last Giant 最後の巨人 The Last Giant The Pursuer 呪縛者 Cursed One 追跡者 "Jubaku" implies being enthralled or controlled, anyway binded in some way, by the curse. 者 indicates that it is in fact a person and not an empty suit of armour or something like the Empty Guardians/Ruin Sentinels. Dragonrider 竜騎兵 Dragonrider Old Dragonslayer 古い竜狩り Old Dragonslayer Flexile Sentry 流罪の執行者 Executor of Exile 柔軟たる衛兵 T his guy isn't a guard, he's the guy in charge of sending hollows into exile. Due to how close "flexile" and "exile" are, the former could be a typo or spellcheck error. Ruin Sentinels 虚ろの衛兵 Empty Guardians 廃墟の衛兵 Empty because they're empty suits of armour. The actual word used is closer to "hollow" but I refrained from translating it to that because of the use of the word in the English version (in Japanese the "hollows" are actually 亡者/mouja, which are the wandering lost spirits of the dead in Buddhism) The Lost Sinner 忘れられた罪人 The Forgotten Sinner 失われし罪人 People keep speculating about what "Lost" means, coming up with ridiculous explanations. It means forgotten. That's it. Belfry Gargoyles 鐘守のガーゴイル Bell Guardian Gargoyles 鐘楼のガーゴイル Skeleton Lords スケルトンの王 Skeleton Kings Executioner's Chariot 刑吏のチャリオット Executioner's Chariot Could also be "Executioner Chariot" which would mean the chariot itself is the executioner. Covetous Demon 貪りデーモン Gluttonous Demon 強欲なデーモン Covetous implies just wanting something, while the nuance of "musabori" is gobbling stuff down like a pig. Mytha, the Baneful Queen 毒の妃ミダ Queen of Poison Mida 災いの女王ミサ That's pronounced "Me-dah". Which is nothing like Mytha. Smelter Demon 熔鉄デーモン Molten Steel Demon 製錬のデーモン Old Iron King 鉄の古王 Old King of Iron 古鉄王 Some people say he's the [king] of [old iron]. Nope. He's the [old king] of [iron]. Also "old" isn't old as in aged, but old as in "ancient". Scorpioness Najka 蠍のナジカ Nazika the Scorpion 雌蠍のナジカ Royal Rat Authority ネズミの王の試練 The Rat King's Test ネズミの王位官憲 Because the thing is a test. From the rat king. What the hell is a rat authority? Royal Rat Vanguard ネズミの王の尖兵 Rat King's Vanguard Prowling Magus & Congregation 彷徨い術士と信心者たち Wandering Magus and Followers "Jutsushi" (translated to Magus) has a slight cult-ish nuance to it. Don't have any suggestions for a better translation. The Duke's Dear Freja 公のフレイディア The Duke's Freydia 公爵の愛しいフレイヤ The Rotten 腐れ Rot 腐った者 Looking Glass Knight 鏡の騎士 Mirror Knight 姿見の騎士 Velstadt, the Royal Aegis 王盾ヴェルスタッド King's Shield Velstadt Just want to say that I really like "Royal Aegis". Vendrick ヴァンクラッド Vanclad ヴェンドリック Name is totally different for some reason. Similar case with Benhart whose name in Japanese is more like "Banholt/Vanholt". Darklurker 闇潜み Lurker in the Dark Demon of Song 唄うデーモン Singing Demon 歌のデーモン Guardian Dragon 護り竜 Guardian Dragon Ancient Dragon 古の竜 Ancient Dragon Giant Lord 巨人の王 Giant King Throne Defender 玉座の守護者 Defender of the Throne Throne Watcher 玉座の監視者 Watcher over the Throne Not part of the name but FYI there are no indications to the watcher's gender anywhere in the game (i.e. in the watcher gear item descriptions) Nashandra デュナシャンドラ Dunashandra ナシャンドラ There's an entire syllable missing from her name for no apparent reason. Inconsequential but it's really jarring for someone playing the game in Japanese; Since it's just a missing syllable and not the name completely different like Vendrick/Vanclad, I kept getting the feeling that my ears were missing a syllable over and over again. Elana, the Squalid Queen 穢れのエレナ Elena of the Filth 卑しき女王エラーナ "Kegare" (which I translated to "filth") has some special connotations in Japanese (Shintoism); It's not just a physical thing like dirt, but can also be used to refer to a stain on the reputation or even soul. It's a much more fundamental thing than just being dirty. EDIT (Dec 2014): So apparently there's an English wikipedia article on kegare, fancy that. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kegare Not all that informative but better than nothing I guess. Sinh, the Slumbering Dragon 眠り竜シン Sleeping Dragon Sin Sin/Sinh/Shin/Shinh whatever Fume Knight 煙の騎士 Knight of Smoke Sir Alonne 騎士アーロン Knight Arlon "Alonne" emphasises pronunciation on the "lonne" bit while the Japanese version has emphasis on the "Ah" bit (Are-lon). アーロン could also be "Aaron" but that's a pretty terrible name to use in Dark Souls. Might as well rename Vendrick/Vanclad to Robert or something. Also, it's worth noting that the naming scheme follows Artorius' in Dark Souls 1 (Kishi=Knight Whatever). All instances of this have kishi changed to "Sir" which makes far more sense in the English language. I'm not entirely sure on this, but AFAIK Japanese commonly substitutes instances of knights being addressed as Sir Whatever to Kishi Whatever because there's no real equivalent of Sir in Japanese. Nadalia, Bride of Ash 煤のナドラ Nadra of the Soot 灰の花嫁ナダリア Not a boss but I figured I'd include her here. She's also referred to as the "Bride of Soot" (煤の花嫁) in the description for her soul. I personally like the name change because of, you know, the ash all over the place, but at the same time soot is black which is more in line with the whole child of darkness thing. (All the references to ash in this context like in the Ashen Idols are also soot in the Japanese version FYI) - *WRITHING RUINS Freja/Freydia's soul, English: Soul of the Duke's loyal Freja, the Writhing Ruin's Keeper. The Writhing Ruin is an ancient thing whose shadow remains cast over the land. Tseldora is a place burdened by terrible misdeeds, and those who remained there were transformed beyond recognition. Japanese: 這う蟲の番人である公のフレイディアのソウル 這う蟲とはこの地に業を振りまく古きものである ジェルドラは業の宿る地とも呼ばれ、 そこに留まるものたちは異形へと姿を変えたという The soul of the guardian of the crawling mushi* (see below), the Duke's Freydia. The crawling mushi is an ancient thing that spread its sins over this land. Geldra is said to be a land where these sins lie, and all who stay in this place are transformed into grotesque monsters. Okay, this bit's pretty hard to translate. First things first- "Tseldora" is "Geldra" (or Geldora/Jeldra/Jeldora) in Japanese. It's possible that the translator was working off a faulty script or something because it's clear that they thought it was ツェルドラ when it's actually ジェルドラ. The "writhing ruin" is originally a "crawling mushi"; Both are vague descriptions and don't really matter, so the change is inconsequential. It should be noted that while frequently mistranslated to "insect" or "bug", in archaic Japanese "mushi" can refer any sort of animal, and while this is not usually the case in modern Japanese, it is in fact left over in the term 爬虫類/hachuurui (reptile). So this may or may not be suggesting that the thing we're talking about is a reptile. Also, lizards are reptiles. And dragons are sort of lizards. Just saying. What I translated to "sins", and the official English translation describes as "a shadow cast over the land" and "misdeeds" is "gou", a word hard to translate to English. It's the Buddhist concept of karma, but also carries similar nuances to what "sins" does in English. I actually think the English version of the game does a really good job of rewriting the text so that it's completely different yet carries the same nuances here; There are a lot of bad translations in this game yet also a bunch of good ones; Looking in the credits reveals that there were five English script writers and three translation companies working on it so that probably explains the differences in the level of quality. Shalquoir/Shalagore's line on this topic in English version is: Men develop the most peculiar fascinations. Sometimes their fascinations seem to take control. Till there's very little man left. Hee hee hee… Oh, it's like that awful traitor long ago. He coveted what he did not have, and it drove him mad. What a curious conundrum. Hee hee hee… The Writhing Ruin keeps searching as we speak. Searching for its heart's desire. And the Japanese text: 人間って、変なものを好きになるわよね、何かに憑りつかれたみたいに それとも、憑りついてるのかしら　フフフッ あの、醜い裏切り者もそうだったわ 他人のものが欲しくて欲しくて、しょうがなくて… 滑稽なこと　フフフッ あの“這う蟲”は、今も探してるの。自分が欲しいものをね Humans really do grow to like weird things, almost as if they're possessed. Or are they the ones doing the possessing? (Chuckle) That pathetic traitor was just the same. He wanted things that belonged to others so very, very hard... Truly hilarious (chuckle). That crawling mushi is searching, even now, for what he wants. Clarifications first: "Possess" in both cases is as in a ghost possessing a person, not as in taking possession of something. Also my translation and the official one both use "he" but the original text has no reference to gender. Biggest differences: The English translation has mention of "what he did not have" and "drove him mad" but that's not in the Japanese text. The English version clearly wants the players to think of Seath from Dark Souls 1, and while the general consensus among Japanese fans is that the "crawling mushi" is referring to him, the correlation is a lot less clear than in the English version. It has been pointed out though that he betrayed the dragons, so Shalagore calling him a traitor (especially with the nuances in her dialogue which has her seem to particularly hate him) doesn't seem to make sense. Unless cats are actually dragons. - *THE GIANTS Giant Lord's soul English: Soul of the Giant Lord, who once conquered Drangleic. The Giants landed on the northern shores, and set siege to King Vendrick's castle to claim an invaluable prize. Japanese: かつてドラングレイグを滅ぼした 巨人の王のソウル 北の彼方から現れた巨人は ヴァンクラッドの居城を目指していた そこにあるものだけが目的であるかのように The soul of the king of the giants, who laid waste to Drangleig long ago. The giants, who came from the far north, sought out Vanclad's castle, as if their objective was solely what was there. So yeah, he didn't "conquer" Drangleig. The giants didn't just land on the north shores, their home was to the north in the first place. The "Giant's Kinship", English: Each king has his rightful throne. And when he sits upon it, he sees what he chooses to see. Or perhaps, it is the throne, which shows the king only what he wants. The Resonance with the Giants, Japanese: 王たる者には、相応しい玉座がある そこから見えるものがなんであるのかは その座に相応しい者にしかわからない あるいは玉座とは、そこに座した者が望むものをみせるのだろうか There is a throne fitting for each king. The view from the throne is known only to the one who sits upon it. Or does the throne show he who sits upon it what they want to see? I've seen people draw some pretty ridiculous conclusions from the use of the word "kinship", saying it makes the player an honorary giant or have giant blood or whatever the hell but that's a load of bullshit. The word is "resonance". That's it. I've also seen the "he sees what he chooses to see" interpreted as the throne of want being a magic device that lets the user remake the world as he sees fit. Once again, not in the original text. - *THE PURSUER Ring of Blades description, English: The Ring of Blades is modeled after the mad knight of Alken's weapon of choice. Increases physical attack. The kingdoms of Alken and Venn long ago flourished on these very grounds. They were both founded by the same man, but were reduced to rivarly and spite. Blade Ring description, Japanese: アーケンの狂戦士として伝えられる アドガルズの得物を模した力の指輪 装備者の物理攻撃力を高める かつてこの地にあったふたつの国、 アーケンとヴェインは、その祖を同じくしながらも 激しく憎しみあう関係にあった A ring of power modelled after the weapon of Adgars, known as the Mad Warrior of Arken. Increases the equipper's physical attack power. Two countries, Arken and Vane, once existed on these lands. Though they shared the same origins, they despised each other greatly. The countries aren't referred to as kingdoms and Adgars isn't referred to as a knight (also, I translated kyousenshi to "mad warrior" but in fantasy stuff it typically means "berserker"). Also the English version drops Adgars' name for some reason. The English versions of the names are also, as is common in this game, completely different from what the Japanese version seems to be trying to convey. And it's blade, singular; The ring is modelled after Adgars' sword. And because he isn't named in the English version people says Velstadt/Raim/Orstein/whoever are the mad knight of Alken NO IT'S SOME GUY NAMED ADGARS SO SHUT UP. The Pursuer's soul, English: Soul of the Pursuer, who lurks in Drangleic. The Pursuer, who seeks the bearer of the sign, will not rest until his target is slain. The Cursed One's soul, Japanese: ドラングレイグの地を放浪する 呪縛者のソウル 刻印を持つ者を狩る名を与えられた呪縛者は 今もその役目を果たし続ける The soul of a/the Cursed One who wanders the land of Drangleig. The Cursed One, who was ordered to hunt those who bear the mark, even now carries out his mission. In Japanese it's unclear if the Cursed One is an individual or one of a group. Likewise, some details are gone- He isn't looking for the bearers of the mark of his own accord, but because he was ordered to do so. Once again, the sort of curse implied by "jubaku" is the sort that enthralls or binds a person, so it's possible that said curse is what drives him to go around hunting cursed undead. Pursuer's Ultra Greatsword, English: Ultra greatsword of the Pursuer. Known as the mightiest of the straight swords, it demands great strength and dexterity of its wielder. The Pursuer hunts down those branded by the curse, as if each Undead soul that he claims will atone one of his sins. Cursed One's Ultra Greatsword, Japanese: 呪縛者の特大剣 直剣の中では最大級の威力を持ち その分、高い筋力と技量を要求される 　 呪縛者は刻印を持つ不死を屠り続けている 自らの負った罪を購うかのように Ultra greatsword of a/the Cursed One. Though it is a straight sword with top-level power, wielding it requires high strength and dexterity. The Cursed Ones(s) continuously hunt and kill the undead who bear the mark, as if to atone for his/their own sins. Not much of a difference, aside from a bit of flourish. I really don't like the translation of tokudaiken to "ultra greatsword" (ULTRA? Seriously?) but can't think of anything better, myself. It's not said to be the "mightiest", just that it's among the best. The stuff about each undead soul is completely missing in the Japanese text. Pursuer's Greatshield, English: Greatshield of the Pursuer. For those who can handle the weight of this shield, it offers resistance to curses. The Pursuer hunts down those branded by the curse, as if each Undead soul that he claims will atone one of his sins. Cursed One's Great Shield, English: 呪縛者の大盾 その重量故に扱う者を選ぶ 呪いに対する耐性がある 　 呪縛者は刻印を持つ不死を屠り続けている 自らの負った罪を購うかのように Great Shield of a/the Cursed One. Few can wield it due to its weight. Has resistance to curses. The Cursed Ones(s) continuously hunt and kill the undead who bear the mark, as if to atone for his/their own sins. So yeah, that's the Pursuer/Cursed One's stuff. I realise I may sound a bit of a dick saying this, but to be honest, the vibe I get off these translations (especially bits like "as if each Undead soul that he claims will atone one of his sins") is that they were done by somebody who wants to be a writer but doesn't have the talent to do so, and instead gets their kicks from rewriting stuff they're supposed to be translating. While I don't like that sort of stuff myself, many people do (remember how popular stuff translated by Working Designs were?) so eh. But yeah, due to the nature of Japanese (don't ask me to explain, I'm not a linguist and don't know how to describe language shit), it's unclear if "Cursed One" is the title of an individual or a group, while the English version makes it clear that he's one guy. Also, the translation of the soul leaves out a very important detail- That he or they aren't doing this of their own accord, but because they were ordered to do so. That and they themselves are cursed in some way. - *WITHOUT TRULY KNOWING WHY I've seen people read in a lot into the Emerald Herald (Japanese: "Pilgrim clad in green" ) line "without truly knowing why". I just got the king's ring and in this case, at least, in Japanese it's "whether you wish it or not" (can't recall what the other instances of it were but they were probably the same). - *THE ANCIENT DRAGON Shalquoir's dialogue on the ancient dragon, English: You'll find a great creature far to the east. A colossal thing, with the strength to match its size. Or something playing the part at least Shalagore's dialogue on the ancient dragon, Japanese: 東の果てに、そいつはいるわ 大きな大きな者、そしてそれに相応しい強い力を持つ者 それのまがい物がね It's there, far to the east. A big, big thing, with the power to match its size. Or at least an imitation of it. Open the door, and venture past, and you'll smell even better. It's somewhat clear in English, but even clearer in Japanese; A magaimono is an imitation, a knockoff, a phony... whatever it is, it's not the real deal. So yeah, that ancient dragon isn't the real thing. - Edit: Cleared the Crown of the Old Iron King. *BEWITCHED ALONNE SWORD "Bewitched Alonne Sword"? What the fuck is going on with the grammar here? It seems like the item name was translated by someone who had no idea that Alonne/Arlon is supposed to be the character who owns the sword (judging from what I've heard of how game translation works, though, that was probably the case). So yeah, it's supposed to be Alonne's Bewitched Sword. And I thought I'd elaborate on the "Bewitched Sword" bit a bit more because it doesn't really convey the nuances the Japanese word, youtou has. The you (妖) in youtou (妖刀) is the same as in youkai or ayakashi (tou is simply katana which probably doesn't need explanation), and carries the nuances of "mysterious", "seductive" "creepy", "secretive" and "suspicious", amongst others. While "bewitched" does manage to convey some of the nuances, it may also be interpreted to simply mean a sword enchanted with magic, which isn't quite the case. Youtou is also occasionally translated to "cursed sword" which is also slightly wrong. In Japanese fiction, a youtou is typically a sword that (as according to Shintoistic beliefs) has gained sentience and a life of its own (possibly from being used to kill many people) and now seeks blood of its own accord, maybe even possessing its wielder and driving them to madness or death only to seek out a new owner to take control of. Youtou are said to have a mysterious, seductive quality to them, with regular people suddenly being driven to kill to take possession of one (the implication being that the sword itself has bewitched them). In many cases a warrior who is skilled enough will be able to remain in control of himself even while wielding a youtou, and this makes him even stronger because the sword's inherent magic makes it an extremely formidable weapon. In real life, there was said to be a single sword created by the swordsmith Muramasa that sought out and killed friends and family of Tokugawa Ieyasu, including his father, grandfather and nephew, known as the Youtou Muramasa. This is all folklore, of course, and a youtou may very well just be a regular sword to which people decided to attach a big scary backstory (kind of like the Hope Diamond). So yeah, Alonne/Arlon using a youtou is a much bigger detail than what the English version conveys. This is unfortunately not a translation issue but a cultural one, as it requires one to be familiar with the concept of youtou. Anyway, the implications boil down to that he's either being possessed by a cursed sentient sword, or he's so skilled that he can wield a cursed sentient sword without being controlled by it. Or maybe it's just a way of saying that it's a really fancy sword. Either way, it's not implied to be enchanted, and "Alonne Sword" isn't its name; It's his sword, and it's a youtou. - Edit: There's a lot of speculation over the name of the last batch of DLC, specifically the use of the word ivory. People are talking about its relation to bone and mammoths and whatever. *THE IVORY KING In Japanese it's "white". 白王の冠 Crown of the White King. Of course it could turn out to be about bones and elephants and whatever, but according to the Japanese text, at least, "ivory" is a fancy way of saying white. That's it. - Edit: Place names. Once again, the literal translations are only there to clarify what the intent behind the names are, and are NOT suggestions for alternate translations. *PLACE NAMES English name/Japanese name/Literal translation/Japanese translation of English name/Notes (if any) Things Betwixt 隙間の洞 The Grotto In Between 狭間にあるもの Majula マデューラ Madula マジューラ Forest of Fallen Giants 朽ちた巨人の森 Forest of Fallen Giants Heide's Tower of Flame ハイデ大火塔 Great Flame-Tower of Heide ハイデの火の塔 Cathedral of Blue 青聖堂 The Blue Cathedral 青の聖堂 No-man's Wharf 隠れ港 Hidden Port 所有者なき港 The Lost Bastille 忘却の牢 The Forgotten Prison 失われし牢獄 Belfry Luna 月の鐘楼 Belltower of the Moon Sinner's Rise 罪人の塔 Sinner's Tower Huntsman's Copse 狩猟の森 Hunting Woods 狩人の森 Undead Purgatory 不死刑場 Undead Execution Grounds Leaving 不死 as "undead" but the Japanese word is actually what is usually used to mean "immortal" and literally means "undying". Harvest Valley 溜りの谷 Pooling Valley 収穫の谷 "Harvest" is a complete and clear mistranslation; "溜り" means "to gather" but can NOT mean "harvest". The nuance of the word is that of liquid gathering into pools. This is obviously referring to the poison pooling in the valley. Earthen Peak 土の塔 Tower of Dirt 土の頂（いただき） Dirt/clay/earth/mud/whatever Iron Keep 熔鉄城 Smelten Castle Funny how the same word is translated into different ways. 熔鉄 is the same word as used in the Smelter/Smelten Demon's name. Belfry Sol 陽の鐘楼 Belltower of the Sun Shaded Woods 虚ろの影の森 Forest of Empty Shadows 影の森 Doors of Pharros ファロスの扉道 Door-Road of Pharros ファロスの扉 Brightstone Cove Tseldora 輝石街ジェルドラ Town of Brightstone, Jeldra 明石の小湾ツェルドーラ 輝石 (literally "shining stone") actually means pyroxene in real life, but this is clearly not the case here so I left it as "Brightstone". The name of the town was translated by someone who read it wrong; They clearly mistook it for ツェルドラ ("tserudora") when it's actually ジェルドラ ("jerudora"). There are many possible ways of transliterating the name, including: Jeldra, Jeldora, Geldra, Geldora. Lord's Private Chamber ジェルドラ公の隠し部屋 Duke Jeldra's hidden room 王の個室 For some reason even though "公" in all other cases is always translated to "duke", in this one case it's "lord" instead. Also, in other cases in the game, "lord" is the translation for "王" ("king", as in the skeleton kings or giant king), which adds to the confusion. Grave of Saints 聖人墓所 Saint's Grave 聖人たちの墓所 The Japanese name does not distinguish if "saint" is singular or plural. The Gutter クズ底 At the bottom of the rubbish どん底 One of the few GOOD translations in the game; The Japanese name is just a description, while the English name is a single word that combines both important bits (bottom + lots of rubbish) from the Japanese name. Black Gulch 黒渓谷 Black Gorge 黒峡谷 Shrine of Winter 冬の社 Shrine of Winter Drangleic Castle 王城ドラングレイグ Drangleig Castle ドラングレイク城 King's Passage 王の回廊 King's Corridor 王の回廊 (Completely subjective but I like the alliteration in "King's Corridor" more) Shrine of Amana アマナの祭壇 Altar of Amana アマナの社 "Shrine" is used in the English version for both the Shrine of Winter and Shrine of Amana, which some interpret to mean there's some sort of connection, but they're completely different words in Japanese. Undead Crypt 不死廟 Undead Mausoleum 不死廟 See Undead Purgatory notes on "undead". Throne of Want 渇望の玉座 Throne of Desire 欲の玉座 渇望 is literally "a thirsting desire". Aldia's Keep アン・ディールの館 Mansion of An-Dil アルディアの城 "Aldia" is originally "An-Dil" (which sounds completely unlike any other name heard in the game even though the guy was Vendrick/Vanclad's brother, which is possibly the reason for it being changed) Also, in the Japanese version, language used in the area name as well as in item descriptions show that "An-Dil" is for some reason used both as the name of the person as well as that of the building itself. Dragon Aerie 護り竜の巣 Guardian Dragons' Nest 竜の高巣 Dragon Shrine 祭祀場 Ritual Site 竜の社 Again with the word "shrine" being recycled for a totally different word. Dark Chasm of Old 古き闇の穴 Hole of the Old Dark/Old Hole of Dark 古の暗き裂け目 It isn't a dark chasm that's old, it's a chasm OF OLD DARKNESS. Memory of Jeigh/Orro/Vamar 巨人オジェイ・ロー・ワムダの記憶 Memory of the Giant Ojeigh/Rouh/Wamda 巨人ジェイ・オロー・ヴァマールの記憶 Name changes, plus the Japanese text makes it clear that they're giants (as if it isn't obvious from the context, but I've seen some people actually speculate about this so you never know with some people) Shulva, Sanctum City 聖壁の都サルヴァ City of the Holy Wall, Salva 聖域の都シャルヴァ Dragon's Sanctum 竜の聖壁 Holy Wall of the Dragon 竜の聖域 Dragon's Rest 眠り竜の褥 Sleeping Dragon's Resting Place 竜の褥 Cave of the Dead 死者の洞 Grotto of the Dead 死者の洞窟 Brume Tower 黒霧の塔 Tower of Black Fog 霧の塔 Iron Passage 鉄の回廊 Iron Corridor Memory of the Old Iron King 鉄の古王の記憶 Memory of the Old King of Iron - *DEMONS Edit: Got this question from someone: I was wondering if you had played DaS1, in DaS1 there is a very specific definition of Demons, a being born from chaos, this seems to go against the Covetous Demon and the Demon of Song in DaS2 which seem to have no link to any form of Chaos. So in short i wanted to ask you if Covetous and the Demon of songs names were in somehow different to the ones from DaS or even just the smelter demon, which actually seems to have links to chaos. My answer: I haven't played Dark Souls 1 yet, but the three demons in 2 all use the same word for demon (デーモン which is just English demon/daemon rendered in katakana). The names are Covetous demon: 貪りデーモン Singing demon: 唄うデーモン Smelter demon: 熔鉄デーモン Checking out the Japanese wiki for DS1 says that the bed of chaos does in fact use the same word when saying that it's the "mother of demons". http://seesaawiki.jp/project_dark/d/%BA%AE%C6%D9%A4%CE%C9%C4%BE%B2 デーモンの母たる、混沌の苗床 FYI the use of the same word is clearly intentional as it isn't something commonly used in Japanese, and especially stands out in Dark Souls where it's clear that the writing typically tries to avoid using katakana words aside from for names and such. However, it should be noted that the Titanite Demons from Dark Souls 1 which are seemingly completely unrelated to chaos also use this same word (楔のデーモン). The Crow Demons also from DS1 though are NOT referred to as demons in Japanese (ベルカの鴉人, "the crow-people of Velka"). - *SORCERIES, PYROMANCIES AND HEXES Edit: Just figured I'd say something about sorceries, pyromancies and hexes. Miracles in Japanese are "kiseki" (奇跡), which is pretty straightforward. They're miracles, as in stuff gods make happen, simple enough. Sorceries are "majutsu" (魔術)- Magic. Magic as used in fantasy is usually "mahou" (魔法), though, and "majutsu" has a darker occult nuance to it- Aleister Crowley, for example, would be referred to as a practitioner of majutsu, and not mahou. An English word with a closer nuance to the Japanese terminology used would be "witchcraft"- Though this of course doesn't match the lore of Dark Souls, where majutsu was made by a dragon and witches use jujutsu (see below). If you consider the background story, sorcery's a decent enough translation. Pyromancies are "jujutsu" (呪術), which carries a more primal, shamanistic nuance to it. Jujutsu is the kind of stuff practiced by fortune tellers and old ladies who live in the middle of swamps. The English term clearly draws inspiration from how most jujutsu spells revolve around fire, but as there are a few that are completely unrelated to fire (poison and acid) it's not perfect. "Hex" would actually be a better translation for jujutsu than for anjutsu. Finally, hexes are originally "anjutsu" (闇術). This is a pretty bad translation. This explanation will be a bit longer than the previous ones. First of all, "jutsu" (術) which is also used in the two terms above means "technique" or "skill". Ma(魔)-jutsu(術) is the skill of using magic (魔) while ju(呪)-jutsu(術) is the skill of using shamanistic magic (呪). Ninjutsu (忍術) is the skill of shinobi/ninja (忍), Ansatsujutsu (暗殺術) is the skill of assassination (暗殺), and so on. So, an-jutsu (闇術) is the skill of "an"(闇), which is an alternate reading of "yami" (闇), which means "darkness". This is what I don't like about the translation- The term "dark" pretty obviously has a very large signifincace in Dark Souls, and the English translation just decides to drop how anjutsu's name outright says that it's about using the dark. Basically, the name "anjutsu" suggests that it's a sort of magic that manipulates souls, humanity, and darkness. That's why there are spells that use up souls to cast. You can of course infer to all this from spell descriptions and people like Felkin and Grandal blabbing on about darkness all the time, but still, "hex" is pretty bad. - *THE DRAGON ACOLYTES Edit: Dragon acolyte stuff. Dragon Acolyte Mask, English Mask worn by acolytes of Aldia. Several of the greatest minds converged in Aldia to weave strange new rituals, but rumors suggest that during the course of their work their thoughts were not their own. The nebulous face of the mask is designed to deflect the ire of the ritual sacrifice Mask of a Student of the Dragon, Japanese アン・ディールの学徒の仮面 アン・ディールには多く知恵者が集い、 様々な秘儀が生み出された それが彼らの本意だったのかはわからないが その禍々しい面は、秘儀のために屠ったものの 呪詛を逸らすためのものである Mask of a student of An-Dil. Many intelligent people gathered at An-dil, and created many new [spells](see explanation), but it is unknown if this was intentional. This fearsome mask is said to deflect the curses from those killed for their spells. First of all, "acolyte" has a religious ring to it, while in Japanese it's clear that they're STUDENTS, not some weird cult. Likewise, the English version goes on about rituals and ritual sacrifice, but both are "higi" in Japanese, and "higi" is also used in Japanese fiction to refer to magic, specifically powerful, mostly unknown, possibly forbidden kinds. So basically they're MAD SCIENTISTS, not crazy cultists. Also, there is speculation that "greatest minds converged in Aldia" means that the guy merged other people's consciousnesses into his own (people point to Navlaan as proof of this) but nope, Aldia/Al-Din refers to the place, and the "greatest minds" is referring to these guys you're killing. "It is unknown if this was intentional" is slightly ambiguous- It could be referring to the creation of new spells (them making new discoveries was an accident and they were trying to do something else), or it could be referring to them coming to Al-Din in the first place (they were kidnapped). Dragon Sage Hood Hood worn by the Archmaster of Aldia. Hood of a Student of the Dragon, Japanese 竜の学徒のフード アン・ディールの学師のフード 位のひと際高い者が身に着けていたもの Hood of a teacher of An-Dil. It seems to have been worn by someone of a high rank. Once again with the cult bullshit. The "archmaster" is a teacher of An-Dil (the place, not the guy). Also "the Archmaster" suggests that he was one guy, while the Japanese is ambiguous. And finally, while the guy is a teacher of An-Dil, he's still a STUDENT of the dragon. Dragon Acolyte Robe This white robe is designed to bear the brunt of the ritual sacrifice's gushing blood. Dragon Acolyte Gloves These white gloves are designed to bear the brunt of the ritual sacrifice's gushing blood. Dragon Acolyte Boots These practical boots are designed to prevent the acolyte from slipping on the blood of the sacrifice. All of these references to ritual sacrifice are "秘儀のために屠ったもの" "those killed for the higi/spells". - *MAJESTIC GREATSWORD Majestic Greatsword, English An ancient greatsword of unknown origin. This sword was passed down through generations, until it reached Gordin, wandering knight of Forossa, and was lost upon his death. Uncannily, every last one of the prominent swordsmen who inherited this weapon was left-handed. Glorious Greatsword, Japanese (majestic is fine but I feel that it's a bit off because people might think majestic = majesty = royalty. Also I like alliteration) 由来の知れぬ古い大剣 数多の所有者を経てフォローザの放浪騎士ゴルディンに渡ったが彼の死を境に途絶えた 使い手は皆、名を馳せた騎士となったが彼らは左利きの剣士であったという An ancient greatsword of unknown origin. This sword was passed down through many people until it reached the wandering knight of Forosa, Gordin, and was lost upon his death. It is said that all of its user became famous knights, and were left-handed swordsmen. - *Regular enemy names English name Japanese name Literal translation Notes/備考 Foreign Wanderer 異国の放浪者 Wanderer from a foreign land Ogre オーガ Ogre Prowler Hound 彷徨い犬 Wandering dog Falconer 大鷹の戦士 Falcon Warrior Skeleton スケルトン Skeleton Undead Devourer 不死喰い Undead-eater Flame Lizard 炎トカゲ Flame lizard Heide Knight ハイデの騎士 Knight of Heide Hollow Infantry 亡者下級兵 Hollow low-ranking soldier Hollow Royal Soldier 亡者王国兵 Hollow royal soldier Ironclad Soldier 重鉄兵 Heavy iron soldier Old Knight 古騎士 Ancient knight Darkdweller 暗闇亡者 Dark hollow Hollow Varangian 蛮族亡者 Barbarian hollow Stray Hound 野犬 Wild dog Nimble Shadow 異形の影 Eldritch shadow "Igyou" (which I translated to "twisted" until someone reminded me that the word "eldritch" exists) means something extremely out of the ordinary (in a bad way). It's a bit hard to define but tl;dr it's a word frequently used to describe Lovecraftian horrors in Japanese. Gaoler 獄吏 Jailer Royal Swordsman 王国剣士 Royal swordsman Rupturing Hollow 破裂亡者 Bursting hollow Bell Keeper 鐘守 Bell guardian Undead Aberration 異形の不死 Twisted undead See notes for "igyou" (eldritch shadow). Prisoned Sinner 牢の罪人 Sinner of the prison Abandoned Hollow 棄てられた亡者 Abandoned hollow "Abandoned" as in "discarded" Executioner 刑吏 Executioner Hollow Mage 亡者魔術師 Hollow sorceror Same word as used in the starting class (majutsushi). Hollow Rogue 賊の亡者 Hollow bandit Poison Moth 毒蛾 Poison moth Undead Huntsman 不死狩り Undead-hunter As in hunter of undead, not a hunter who is undead. And to every single dumbfuck who comes up to me and says "hurrr but undead hunter can mean hunter who is undead!!!!11": fushigari CANNOT IN ANY FUCKING CIRCUMSTANCES MEAN "HUNTER WHO IS UNDEAD" YOU BRAINLESS STUPID FUCKS HOW MANY FUCKING TIMES DO I HAVE TO FUCKING SAY THIS FUCK OFF AND JUST FUCKING DIE YOU STUPID FUCKS Undead Laborer 囚人亡者 Hollow prisoner Banedigger 毒堀り Poison excavator Literally "person who digs up poison". Hammersmith 槌背負い Hammer-bearer Literally "person who carries hammer on back". Desert Sorceress 砂の魔術師 Sand sorceress Grave Warden 墓守 Grave warden Masked Manikin 仮面の傀儡 Masked puppet Poison Brumer 毒角蟲 Poison bug Entity of Avarice 貪欲者 Greedy one Hunting Rat 犬ネズミ Dog-rat Rat in the Grave of Saints. Name seems to have been swapped with that of the "mongrel rat" from the Doors of Pharros. Swollen Mongrel 膨張犬 Bloated dog Cragslipper 黒喰い Black eater Darksucker 穴蟲 Hole bug Great Giant Warrior 巨人兵 Giant soldier Basilisk バジリスク Basilisk Forrest Grotesque 森の異形 Eldritch thing of the forest "Igyou", see previous notes. Lion Clan Warrior 獅子族の戦士 Lion warrior "Lion" here is defined as a sort of species or race. "Clan" is a common mistranslation of "zoku" due to real world connotations, but in fantasy it's commonly used to refer to races/species and such. (e.g. "Shin-zoku" is "the race of gods", "ryuu-zoku" is "the race of dragons", "kyojin-zoku" is "the race of giants") Roaming Soul 徘徊霊 Wandering spirit Gyrm Warrior ゲルムの戦士 Gyrm Warrior Gyrm Worker ゲルムの民 (One of) the Gyrmic People Something-no-tami is a romantic way to refer to the people of a certain race. Because Japanese does not have to specify if something is singular or plural it can be used to refer to a single member as well. Real world example: Japanese translations of the bible refer to the Jews as "Yudaya no tami" ("the Jewish people"). Anyway they're not workers but regular people. Mongrel Rat 狩猟ネズミ Hunting rat Rat in the Doors of Pharros. Name seems to have been swapped with that of the hunting rat found in the grave of saints. Hollow Primal Knight 獣人騎士 Beastman Knight Ducal Spider 公の蜘蛛 Duke's spider Grand Tusk 牙獣 Fanged beast Hollow Peasant 農夫亡者 Hollow farmer Tseldoran Settler ジェルドラの民 (One of the) people of Geldora The guy in the duke's chamber. Geldra/Geldora/Jeldra/Jeldora whatever. Spider Drone 寄生蜘蛛 Parasite spider Alonne Knight アーロン騎士 Arlon Knight Alonne Knight Captain アーロン騎士長 Arlon Knight Captain Stone Soldier 石像騎士 Stone statue knight Syan Soldier ザインの兵 Zyne Soldier Pronounced like "sign" but with a Z. Aldia Warlock 彷徨い術師 Prowling Magus Same name as the boss. Amana Aberration アマナの異形 Eldritch thing of Amana Igyou of Amana. See previous notes. Amana Priestess アマナの巫女 Amana shrine maiden http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miko Archdrake Pilgrim 古竜院の巡礼 Pilgrim from the Ancient Dragon('s/s') Institution Most instances of "archdrake" are translations of 古竜院. The 古竜院/Ancient Dragon (or Ancient Dragon's or Ancient Dragons') Institution is some sort of organization that seems to both academic and religious overtones (院 is ambiguous as to what kind of institution it is so I'm leaving it at that), and judging from the name has links to an ancient dragon or the ancient dragons, but I haven't looked into the other stuff yet so I'm leaving it at that for now. Leydia Pyromancer レディアの呪術師 Ledia Jujutsushi A jujutsushi is a practitioner of jujutsu, which is translated to "pyromancy". See previous post for notes on jujutsu. Leydia Witch レディアの魔女 Ledia Witch Undead Crypt Knight 不死廟の騎士 Knight of the Undead Crypt Not a crypt knight who's undead, but a knight of the undead crypt. Wall Spectre 壁憑き Wall-haunter Dragon Acolyte 竜の学徒 Student of the Dragon Dragon 護り竜 Guardian Dragon Same name as the boss. Dark Priestess 亡者司祭 Hollow priest(ess) (No gender distinction) Dragon Knight 黒竜の騎士 Black dragon knight \ Drakekeeper 竜の番兵 Dragon guardians "Drakekeepers" suggest that they're people who take care of the drakes in the aerie, while the original name suggest that they're, duh, the ancient dragon's bodyguards. Witchtree 妖木 Living tree 妖/you is the same word as used in Arlon's youtou (see stuff on Arlon's sword in previous post). The nuance is that it's an ancient tree that has gained sentience and now has supernatural powers and whatever. Basically just a tree monster. Dark spirit 闇霊 Dark spirit All the non-red phantoms (including those in the dark chasm) do not have names. "Chip Off the Ol' Rock" and such do not exist in the Japanese version- They are nameless. NPC red phantoms DO have names. See below. - *Red phantom/dark spirit names. As the names (but not titles) are written phonetically, there are multiple ways of romanizing them: For example, aside from the official translation's "Rhoy" and my "Roy", that same guy's name could also be: Lhoy/Llhoy/Loi/Roi/Royh/Loyh/See what I mean? I'm just going with what comes natural to me. If the name is COMPLETELY different though there's an asterisk in the note field. English name Japanese name Literal translation Notes/備考 Vorgol the Sinner 罪人フォーゲル Vogel the Sinner * (German pronunciation so it's "foh-gel" with a hard G) Merciless Roenna 無慈悲なリュース Luse the Merciless * Bowman Guthry 射手のガイラム Gyram the Marksman * Rhoy the Explorer 探索者ロイ Roy the Explorer Melinda the Butcher 肉断ちのマリダ Marida the Meat-cleaver * Nameless Usurper 無名の簒奪者 Nameless Usurper Peculiar Kindalur 奇妙なキンドロ Kindro the Odd * Aslatiel of Mirrah ミラのアズラティエル Azratiel of Mirrah Dragonfang Villard 竜の牙ウィアード Weird the Dragonfang Yes that's a guy whose name is "Weird" or at least something close to it. Weerd? Wierd? Wiyered? Anyway if you pronounce "V" as a W like reverse-German and the "ll" as a Y like Spanish then yes, it's Villard. Royal Sorcerer Navlaan 宮廷術師ナヴァーラン Court Magician Navaaran * Note that he is markedly NOT a sorceror (majutsushi) but a "jutsushi" (see my previous post on sorceries/pyromancies/hexes), and WHAT jutsu he uses isn't specified. He could be a practictioner of any of the types of magic, or all of them, or maybe even an entirely different kind. Edit: Ruin sentinel stuff Ruin sentinel soul, English: >Soul of the Ruin Sentinel, a creation of the Jailer. Empty guardian soul, Japanese: > 牢主の被造物である虚ろの衛兵のソウル >Soul of an Empty Guardian, a creation of the master of the prison (Considering how there are multiple jailers, and how they're just random mooks, I think it's safe to assume that the master of the prison is someone above them.) Edit: Nashandra 王妃デュナシャンドラ Queen Dunashandra "Queen" is typically 女王/joou. While a joou can be taken as a queen regnant, while an 王妃/ouhi however is clearly distinguished as a queen consort. I'm not bothering to take a look at the English version this time so as to keep it from influencing what I see in the original text. Dunashandra's dialogue, first time you meet her: "You have done well in overcoming many trials to come here, cursed undead. I am Dunashandra, queen of Drangleig. A king is one who bears the [karma]*1 of souls. The former king of this country, whose name was Vanclad. He gained power and became a king of man, and in order to fight the coming cursed ones... He sought more power and tried many things. But in the end, he never reached the [Throne]*2." *"Inga", like "gou" (see the previous stuff on the Withering Ruin/Crawling Mushi), is a Buddhist concept that has become a regular Japanese word. It can also be interpreted as something like "cause and effect". Either way it's really vague here. *Throne here has quotation marks around it in Japanese which means it's something special, hence why I capitalised the word. Second time you talk to her: "Go to Vanclad." Third time: "We do not need two kings." After getting the king's ring: "Drangleig has been destroyed, here and now." After getting the king's ring 2: "Undead, seek the Throne. Follow the [proof of the king]* and do what you have to do." *Can't think of anything better for 王の証 = something that proves that a king is a king. After getting the core of ashen mist: "Undead. What did you hear from that dragon? It is a false thing. A false god. Do not let it fool you." After getting the core 2: "Head towards the forest. Where [that horrible giant sleeps]*." *With this wording it's vague if she's saying where "that horrible giant" sleeps (implying she's referring to a single giant) or "that horrible place where the giants sleep". Final battle: "Undead. You who have passed the trials. Now you become one with the darkness..." 古の竜 Ancient dragon Dialogue: "That which was stagnant has started to move... It moves again... For as long as to seek is to live... There is no escape... But, that is why... They seek the answer hidden in the mist." *Japanese does not need to specify a subject, and the ancient dragon certainly doesn't. It's thus unclear if he's talking about the player character, or maybe Dunashandra, or even living beings in general. ("They" isn't in the original text) - BONFIRE NAMES English name Japanese name Literal translation Notes Fire Keepers' Dwelling 火守女たちの住処 Home of the Fire Keepers The Japanese word for "fire keepers", 火守女, specifically indicates that they are women. The Far Fire 果ての篝火 The bonfire at the end The end as in "the ends of the earth". The Crestfallen's Retreat 心折れた者の逃げ場所 失望した者たち隠れ場所 The place those whose spirits have been broken ran to Cardinal Tower 主塔 Main tower Soldier's Rest 兵の避難所 Soldiers' emergency shelter The Place Unbeknownst 誰も知らない場所 A place nobody knows of Heide's Ruin ハイデの廃墟 Ruins of Heide ハイデの滅び Tower of Flame 大火塔 Great Flame Tower The Blue Cathedral 青聖堂 Blue Cathedral Unseen Path to Heide ハイデへの隠れ道 Hidden path to Heide Exile Holding Cells 流刑者の牢 Exile Holding Cells McDuff's Workshop マックダフの作業場 McDuff's Workshop Servants' Quarters 従者の間 Servants' Quarters Straid's Cell ストレイドの牢 Straid's Cell ストレイド/"Strayed" is the name of the default AC in Armored Core: For Answer, also by From. The Tower Apart 離れの塔 Annex tower 離れ does mean "away" or "apart" but in architecture it refers to a building separate from the main one. Upper Ramparts 城壁屋上 Rampart roof The Saltfort 塩の塔 Tower of salt Undead Refuge 不死の隠れ処 Undead hiding place Bridge Approach 橋のたもと The foot of the bridge Undead Lockaway 不死牢 Undead cell Undead Purgatory 不死刑場 Undead execution ground Poison Pool 毒溜り Poison Pool The Mines 採掘場 Mine Lower Earthen Peak 土の塔・下層 Tower of Dirt: Lower levels Central Earthen Peak 土の塔・中層 Tower of Dirt: Middle levels Upper Earthen Peak 土の塔・上層 Tower of Dirt: Upper levels Threshold Bridge 入口の橋 Entrance bridge Ironheart Hall 鉄の炉の棟 Iron furnance [hall] (A 棟 is actually a single building in itself but I can't think of an appropriate word so I'm leaving it as "hall" for now. If this were a contemporary setting I'd go with "block", but that's obviously not right here.) Eygil's Idol エギルの鉄像 Egil's Iron Statue エイギルの神像 It's pronounced "Eh-gill" (gill as in fish gills). Belfry Sol 陽の鐘楼前 Before the Belltower of the Sun Old Akelarre 魔女がいた場所 Where the witches once were / Where the witch once was Ambiguous if singular or plural. Ruined Fork Road 分岐路の遺跡 Ruins of the fork road The word used for ruins, 遺跡, suggest that they are ancient; This is a word used for places Indiana Jones might explore. The word used for Heide is 廃墟 which suggests they're more recent; While it CAN be used for ancient ruins, it can also be used for, say, an abandoned ravaged town in a warzone. Shaded Ruins 虚ろの遺跡 The empty ruins Same "empty" as in "the forest of empty shadows". The word's nuances are closer to "hollow" but it's unrelated to the word hollow (hollows=亡者) as used in the English version. Gyrm's Respite ゲルムの憩いの場 Gyrms' resting area Gyrm is pronounced "Germ" with a hard G. Ordeal's End 試練の休息所 Resting place before the test The test being the boss, the Rat King's Test. Royal Army Campsite 王兵の野営地 Royal soldier campsite Chapel Threshold 礼拝堂前 Before the chapel Lower Brightstone Cove 輝石街・下層 Brightstone Town: Lower levels Harval's Resting Place 聖職者ハクバルが眠る地 Hakbal/Hakval the holy man's resting place His name is changed, the Japanese text specifies that he was a holy man (but doesn't call him a saint which would be 聖人), and "resting place" means this is where his body is (duh) and not that he rested here or whatever. **I previously messed up this bit by confusing somehow confusing it with Roy's resting place; The original text does not indicate that Hakval died here. (Roy's resting place does indicate that he died there)** Grave Entrance 墓所入口 Grave Entrance Upper Gutter クズ底・上層 Gutter: Upper levels See previous posts for notes on "the gutter". Central Gutter クズ底・中層 Gutter: Middle levels Black Gulch Mouth 黒渓谷・入口 Black Gorge: Entrance 黒峡谷の口 Hidden Chamber 隠し部屋 Hidden room King's Gate 王の扉前 Before the king's gate Under Castle Drangleic 王城・地下 Royal castle: Underground Forgotten Chamber 忘れられた部屋 Forgotten room Central Castle Drangleic 王城・中層 Royal castle: Middle levels Tower of Prayer 祈りの塔 Tower of Prayer Crumbled Ruins 崩れた遺跡 Crumbled Ruins The word used is "iseki" indicating ancient ruins. Rhoy's Resting Place 探索者ロイの最期の地 The resting place of Roy the explorer "Saigo no chi" indicates that this is where he died. Rise of the Dead 死者の塔 Tower of the Dead What is this, a zombie movie? Undead Crypt Entrance 不死廟・入口 Undead Mausoleum: Entrance Undead Ditch 死者の捨て場 Dead dump It's a dump, as in a place to throw away rubbish, except instead of rubbish it's for the dead. Foregarden 前庭 Front garden Ritual Site 秘儀の棟 [Higi] [hall] See previous post for notes on "higi". Also see ironheart hall for notes on "棟". Dragon Aerie 護り竜の巣 Guardian dragon nest(s) Shrine Entrance 祭祀場・入口 Ritual site: Entrance Sanctum Walk 聖壁への道 Path to the Holy Wall Tower of Prayer 祈りの塔 Tower of Prayer (Yes, exact same name as the other bonfire in Japanese too) Priestess' Chamber 巫女の間 The [miko]'s chamber http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miko Hidden Sanctum Chamber 聖壁の隠し部屋 Holy wall's hidden room Lair of the Imperfect なりそこないの住処 Lair of [the imperfect] A "narisokonai" is something that was meant to become something but failed. A mad scientist's experiment at creating something that failed and results in some sort of abomination? That's a "narisokonai". Sanctum Interior 聖壁内部 Inside the holy wall Sanctum Nadir 聖壁底部 Bottom of the holy wall Throne Floor 玉座の層 Throne level Upper Floor 上層 Upper levels Foyer 中心部 Central area Lowermost Floor 最下層 Bottom levels The Smelter Throne 熔鉄の玉座 Smelten throne That's the same smelten as in "the smelten castle" (iron keep) or smelten demon (smelter demon). Iron Hallway Entrance 鉄の回廊・入口 Iron Corridor: Entrance =============================== On dragons/wyverns/drakes/wyrms/whatever Wrote this since I encountered someone insisting that Dark Souls clearly distinguishes between dragons, wyverns, drakes and wyrms, yet I've seen people confused about the terms and I don't recall the game in Japanese really bothering with all that. Translation - Japanese (literal translation) (Literal translations are for CLARIFICATION and are NOT suggestions for alternate translations like) Dragon - 竜 (ryuu = Dragon) Ancient dragon - 古竜 or 古の竜 (koryuu/inishie no ryuu = Ancient Dragon) Wyvern - 雷の飛竜 (ikazuchi no hiryuu =Flying Dragon of Lightning) Hellkite Dragon - 飛竜ヘルカイト (hiryuu Herukaito = Flying Dragon: Hellkite) "Drakes" mentioned in drake sword name/description, as well as the valley of drakes - 飛竜 (hiryuu = Flying Dragon) Guardian Dragon - 護り竜 (mamori ryuu = Guardian Dragon) Dragon aerie - 護り竜の巣 (mamori ryuu no su = Guardian Dragons' Nest) "Wyrms" the dragonriders are said to have used - 地竜 (jiryuu = Earth Dragon) Drakewing Ultra Greatsword - 翼竜の特大剣 (yokuryuu no tokudaiken = winged dragon's greatsword) "Drake" as used in the drakewing ultra greatsword's description is also 飛竜. Paledrake - 白竜 (hakuryuu = white dragon); Also "Seath the scaleless" is originally 白竜シース/White Dragon Seath. So yeah, the "wyverns" and "hellkite dragon" and "drakes" are all in fact the same sub-species of dragon, the hiryuu ("flying dragon"). They're all offshoots: The "wyverns" are in fact a type of hiryuu that has something to do with lightning (hence them shooting lightning at you), while the Hellkite is either the name of a specific specimen, or another different offshoot of the sub-species. "Guardian dragon" seems to be more of a description of their role (guarding the ancient dragon's house) than of their species name, and the sword seems to indicate that they're also hiryuu. The dragonriders' jiryuu (earth dragons) are seemingly another, completely different type of dragon (there aren't many details on the things). So yeah, in Japanese they're all dragons; It's just that they're shitty descendants of the REAL dragons, the Ancient Dragons. Hiryuu is almost always translated to "drake" but it looks like the confusion comes from how the translation is somewhat inconsistent (hellkite DRAGON, and the ikazuchi no hiryuu ought to have been Thunderdrakes or something instead of an entirely different word). And I can sort of see what they were trying to do with jiryuu to wyrm: Wyrm sounds like worm and worms are associated with Earth, right? But people familiar with fantasy take "wyrm" to just mean "dragon" which had people thinking the dragon riders rode drakes of maybe even actual dragons when they in fact rode big lizards that crawled around (see the concept art) which is something that comes across fine in the original name (they're EARTH dragons, as opposed to FLYING ones). =============================== AFTERWORD First of all: I don't have any credentials in translation, as I'm not a translator by profession. Nor do I purport to be anywhere as good as a professional translator. But English is obviously my first language, and I've had well over a decade of proficiency in both professional Japanese as well as in the language found in fiction, and have been living in Tokyo for half a decade working for a Japanese company, and am also paid to write articles in Japanese. And anyway, these are clarifications of what the original text said, not suggestions for alternate translations. The SOLE purpose of the text here is explaining the meanings and nuances of the original text. I am explaining what was lost in the translation to English. NOT re-translating. Also I've been seeing people going "but From approved the translation therefore it has to be 100% correct wahhhh!". Yes they hired people to translate the text from Japanese into English because they couldn't do it themselves because they don't understand English. Which means they approved text they didn't understand. The dialogue being in English is a fucking design choice. That's how things work over here. English isn't supposed to mean anything to a Japanese audience, it's a fucking decoration. That's why there are song lyrics that go "dead heat no I love you" and "we are going to the space over the future". From oversaw and approved the translations, yes. That doesn't mean a fucking thing. Tolkien oversaw the Japanese translations of LotR and nitpicked through the translations of individual words and names and it's ENTIRELY thanks to him that the Japanese version is filled with ridiculous shit like Sting becoming "Tsuranuki-maru" (you really need to understand Japanese to get just how absurd it is). Tolkien may or may not (depends on who you ask) have been a great writer and a crazy linguist but he certainly wasn't fluent enough in Japanese to understand how hilarious he made his own books sound. TSURANUKI-MARU, NAGURI-MARU, HASEO, wow. Anyway, From actually bothered to hire real translators to translate the text properly. They thus probably assumed that the text was, in fact, translated properly, by real translators. But aside from stuff like localisation (there's no way to convey all the nuances in "youtou" to one or even a few English words) it's pretty clear that there are bits where the text was in fact NOT translated properly. Dropping details for no reason (Adgars), adding details for no reason (a lot in Shalquoir's lines), plain fucking mistakes (Shishizoku to "lion clan", harvest valley, Tseldora), inconsistency (youtetsu being translated into, what, three completely different things? Both duke and king being translated to "lord", 名を禁じられた者 being translated into two different things, something like a dozen different words all being translated to "shrine", etc.) and the list goes on. This is all pretty standard for a translated game, of course, and it's certainly way better than what we used to get in the 16/32-bit eras. Hell, even today Japanese translations of English games and movies are fucking terrible (Bruce Wayne saying "millionaires are so last year" being translated into "I was (literally) a millionaire up till last year but am a billionaire now", shit like ミレルーク and 至高のオーバーロード, "guardians of the galaxy" being translated to two completely different things and ruining the entire climax scene...) in comparison. But judging it on its own as a translation of something- Well, it's still pretty bad. Oh and that one fucker who ALWAYS shows up and says something like "but harvest valley makes sense because it looks like they're mining stuff so by harvesting they could be harvesting minerals or something" is a fucking idiot. - IN DEFENSE OF THE TRANSLATORS, THOUGH, a lot of text in From's stuff is deliberately ambiguous, and uses aspects of the Japanese language which simply don't exist in English (like being able to completely leave the subject out of a line) that help to add to that ambiguousness, which makes for hard translation (as I'm not doing real translations but setting out to clarify nuances I can just explain what's ambiguous in the Japanese text and leave it at that) . Also, while I don't have any first-hand experience, it's pretty well-known that game translators are commonly just given text files with no context and are expected to be able to do a decent job which is pretty silly, and in a lot of cases they're forced to make their own assumptions- For example, look at "breath" being translated to "bracelet" in Final Fantasy Tactics- That's the sort of mistake that can only be made when the translator is given only the attack names and nothing else, not even the detail if it's an attack or item; ブレス could be breath, bless, or bracelet and the translator took a gamble and lost. Of course FFT's translation was total garbage otherwise, but this particular instance wasn't their fault. In Dark Souls 2, the text on the Throne Watcher's equipment does not specify a gender, and the translator probably just took the 50/50 chance and wrote them down as a "he", possibly expecting quality control to pick up if it was clearly wrong, so if anyone's to blame it's QC and whoever decided not to fix it in a patch even after people pointed out how stupid this was. Also you'll notice how I mentioned that I'm adept at "both professional Japanese as well as in the language found in fiction" in the foreword- Stuff like the nuances behind "youtou" or the way "zoku" is used aren't things you can pick up from any amount of classes or even total immersion in a business atmosphere for years, they're things you actually have to discover for yourself in fiction. Your vocabulary expands in different ways based on what you read, and I just happen to read (and play, and watch) a lot of stuff that's relative here. A translator of the highest level who's used to handling real-world news articles or physics papers or whatever would certainly be puzzled by some of the stuff in here; Professional translators tend to specialise in a certain field because there's way more money to be made from translating non-fiction. I'm not a translator, though, and this is just an offshoot of my hobbies, so I'm free to expand my totally-useless-in-the-real-world vocabulary of words used primarily in fiction with RPGs all I want. That being said though I'm not saying the translation work here is, overall, good. A lot of the stuff in here IS just inexcusably bad. I'm just saying that there are mitigating circumstances in quite a lot of cases. - HALL OF FAME OF DUMBFUCKS http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ThBhOTF6jfk/VCWzFL1cSDI/AAAAAAAANY0/YjHgbuDYW6g/s1600/retard.png http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-YZe-Wulr37g/VCWzMsAy63I/AAAAAAAANY8/O0CpG1EwI8s/s1600/stupidfucker.png http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-1XmcmU0FZ-c/VCWzMgIKqGI/AAAAAAAANZA/U96JPp7JHJk/s1600/racistcunts.png http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-M924KGvbTE8/VCW8Aj-a3OI/AAAAAAAANZU/wv69jAT8bAI/s1600/fuckoff.png Edit: And here's a new one http://www.reddit.com/r/TwoBestFriendsPlay/comments/2hnt7c/best_friends_play_dark_souls_2_part_50/ckuirg0 >If you're referring to that mistranslation pastebin, be careful with that. It's some guy who isn't super sure himself with his translations I never said that you fucking retard. I said that these AREN'T FUCKING TRANSLATIONS, THEY'RE FUCKING CLARIFICATIONS. JESUS FUCKING CHRIST I HAVE A WALL OF FUCKING TEXT AND THESE STUPID FUCKERS JUST DON'T FUCKING GET IT WHY CAN'T THEY ALL JUST FUCKING DIE Edit: New addition! https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-eEXejeDDctc/VshD0EMj2UI/AAAAAAAAQFE/UkXIHw6FOx4/s1600/retarded%2Bfuck.png "durhur japan doesn't have a th sound so D is the same thing as th also O is the same thing as A" Also I said nothing of that sort about Seath so this retard is just straight up spewing bullshit from his face.