Help with your Japanese game titles.

[kinougames]

I've seen a lot of games with incorrect Japanese titles, and I thought I'd post this to assist those who want to make sure 100% that they have a title that effectively says what they want.

Feel free to post if you have an idea but aren't sure!

[fortaat]

If you don't live in Japan and can't even write proper Japanese, you shouldn't write about Japan.
Since no one ever listens to the former advice, at least avoid having a Japanese title. The rest of your game doesn't have any Japanese in it, so why should the title be any different?

[Aleema]

If you don't live in Japan and can't even write proper Japanese, you shouldn't write about Japan.
Since no one ever listens to the former advice, at least avoid having a Japanese title. The rest of your game doesn't have any Japanese in it, so why should the title be any different?

It's a stylistic decision, like when Japanese games have English in their titles. They don't care, nor do their players, that their titles could be considered "Engrish". I don't even care, and it's my native language. It's a title, where you can have anything you want. Writing gibberish is fine for titles in any language, since the point is only to have a name to reference the project by.

[fortaat]

The Japanese tendency to use English in titles looks dumb for the same reasons. The players being ok with it isn't the issue, since those who do complain wouldn't play the game (or buy it).
The title isn't only meant for reference, it's part of the final product/artistic act. Mrs Dalloway would have been a significantly different book if it had been named after a different character, or titled Crazy Adventures in Space.

[Jake]

the point is only to have a name to reference the project by.

While I agree that it's kind of silly to get wound up about people using words from another language for their titles, I think it's a bit unfair to say that the point of a title is only to have a name to reference the project by. If that was the case, people would just call their games "Tom's Game Number 3". A lot of titles - the better ones, if you ask me - reflect the story as a whole, or sometimes are a metaphor or complement for the plot or themes within.

Classic example? The Crucible - a story about witch hunts, both in colonial America and allegorically in modern times, it's not anything about chemistry or metalwork (or snooker) and it's not just got a generic thoughtless name like "Salem Witch Hunt" or "John Proctor's Problems". The title is a metaphor for the events of the play, and it works well.

To me, if I sigh at a title there's usually one of two reasons. Firstly because someone's given something a title which I can't relate to the story, like it's just been applied thoughtlessly because they thought it sounded cool or because they didn't care about it at all. Secondly, because it looks like someone's given something a pretentious title which is supposed to impress people rather than mean anything. It's true that foreign-language titles are more likely to fall into one of these two categories, but it's not just because they're not written in English.

And as a further example: Baccano, the anime series, seems to me to have a pretty apt title from what understanding of Italian I have. The fact that it's in Italian doesn't make me think any less of it at all, because it seems like the person who named it picked an appropriate word... and since half the characters are supposed to be Italian-American mobsters, there's no particular reason not to use that language, either. (A lot of the character names, on the other hand, are noticeably ridiculous even to my novice eye. :P)

[kinougames]

If you don't live in Japan and can't even write proper Japanese, you shouldn't write about Japan.
Since no one ever listens to the former advice, at least avoid having a Japanese title. The rest of your game doesn't have any Japanese in it, so why should the title be any different?

This comment is extremely gratuitous, as people will do what they want anyway.

At the very least, I can offer to fix their work for them.

Furthermore, unless you have never, ever written a situation that you haven't personally experienced every moment and aspect of, you probably shouldn't make any comments about others doing it.

At any rate, I'm offering this because no matter what you call something, even if you don't know the language, if it's flat out wrong/not understandable, there's not really an excuse.

[fortaat]

Don't take it personally, your offer is very nice. My comment wasn't pointed at you, but rather at the writers who might need that service, asking them to consider if it's really necessary.

Furthermore, unless you have never, ever written a situation that you haven't personally experienced every moment and aspect of, you probably shouldn't make any comments about others doing it.

Slippery slope

[Enigma]

Rather than taking sides in the argument, I'll actually use the service offered. I have a game I've been working on that I called Asu no Arashi intending it to mean Tommorow's Arashi (Arashi being a name) or Arashi of Tommorow. So, was I correct?

Also, if I were to input on the argument I'd say Japanese, English, or Italian, if you can pick a title that works use it. I mean, several English works use Latin, French, or Spanish titles.

[kinougames]

Don't take it personally, your offer is very nice. My comment wasn't pointed at you, but rather at the writers who might need that service, asking them to consider if it's really necessary.

I wasn't taking it personally, since I know Japanese.

Furthermore, unless you have never, ever written a situation that you haven't personally experienced every moment and aspect of, you probably shouldn't make any comments about others doing it.
Slippery slope

Wikipedia is not a good source for full information on fallacies; the fallacy was a tongue-in-cheek response to your own slippery slope: 1) Living in Japan doesn't mean you know Japanese and 2) "Writing Japanese properly" is highly dependent on who you talk to and exactly what you want to say. For example, I just recently corrected someone who wrote 空の果てしない as the title to her game. This COULD have been correct, depending on what the person's implication by the title was.

Not to mention that you don't have to go to Japan or learn Japanese fluently to write about the country.

I think people should obviously research things like this heavily, but don't throw a ridiculous comment if you don't want one as a retort.

[kinougames]

Rather than taking sides in the argument, I'll actually use the service offered. I have a game I've been working on that I called Asu no Arashi intending it to mean Tommorow's Arashi (Arashi being a name) or Arashi of Tommorow. So, was I correct?

Also, if I were to input on the argument I'd say Japanese, English, or Italian, if you can pick a title that works use it. I mean, several English works use Latin, French, or Spanish titles.

Mmmm. My instinct is to use 明日 pronounced as "ashita", which would then be 明日の嵐 (Ashita no Arashi), because I assume you mean to be somewhat poetic by it, but let me do a little more research as far as the subtlest implications in the "asu" pronunciation before I give you a definite.

[Enigma]

Thanks

Another quick question

would 天破 be pronounced Tenha, and does it translate to Heaven Breaking

Another thing is that I like to put Arashi in katakana as アラシ, it's another style choice beacuse I think it looks cooler with three symbols to one, and because the name really isn't meaningful.

[kinougames]

Thanks

Another quick question

would 天破 be pronounced Tenha, and does it translate to Heaven Breaking

Another thing is that I like to put Arashi in katakana as アラシ, it's another style choice beacuse I think it looks cooler with three symbols to one, and because the name really isn't meaningful.

It can be pronounced "tenha", however...the meaning is not really "heaven breaking" in the way you probably prefer...

You can put "arashi" in katakana if you want.

[Enigma]

what would 天破 really mean then. I understand that 天 can actually mean sky or void if that's the part you're refering to.

[kinougames]

No, 天 pretty strictly means heaven when by itself, but drafting words together with kanji doesn't really work as simply as "this means this and this means that so put together they get what I want." Doing that is similar to taking the words "mic" and "hell" and then saying that the name "Michell" means "the mic is hell".

Even outside of that, the usage that 破 comes from is active, so if I had to desperately pin a meaning to it, it'd be more like "heaven(ly) destruction" and I'd call that gratuitous.

[Melkoshi]

Thank you for the offer. I'm on the fence about using a japanese game title, but i'd like to least have one ready. :3

My rpg game is named "Jewels of Sytinane", I played around with translations abit, but I'm unsure on how to put the name Sytinane. It's made up due to the language/gods in the world the game is in. It's said "Si-ti-na-ne". I know using katakana is how non japanese words is written, but i'm not sure on how to write it in katakana. XD

I dont have it in copypaste format, but this is what I had comeup with ages ago. it's an image file. http://www.sytinane.zombiefire.com/top.png

if you could translate it properly, i'd be thankful. :3