I do want to point out that while the term Aegis doesn't particularly have any correlation to the Holy Grail, the concepts that the master blades embody IS actually reflected in how the Aegis is described and viewed in Greek Mythology, specifically in the Iliad. Most obviously is that it's a major attribute of the divine, specifically of Athena and Zeus, the wisest and the ruler respectively, a reflection of the Aegis's relationship with Klaus, the Architect. In addition, Homer describes the Aegis in the Iliad as "the precious aegis which is ageless and immortal", as well as describing its fearsome nature in battle and how its appearance reflected immeasurable worth, both in cost and in divinity. These traits are all embodied by the Aegises we see in Xenoblade 2 to varying degrees, especially the ageless and immortal aspects that apply to the Master Blades the most out of every blade in the game.
don't they show a literal "goblet of fire" (lol) looking vase/amphora... and Malos destroys it (because he's a massive douche)... and they call it "aegis" and it makes absolutely no sense what the F are they talking about? (in Torna Golden Country I think) >:D Kinda weird calling it aegis (a "shield" but not really - a defensive item), when Pyra is a blade (a sword - an offensive/attack item/weapon)... I don't hate it, just sayin' ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
@@ArinJager1 I won't deny that, after all the scene and models were made with the term "Holy Grail" in mind. That's not a fact I denied, but I stand by it being a generally better localisation. To address your points, yes, Malos (who, by the way, at this point is a pure reflection of Amalthus's hatred of the world, so if you wanna blame anyone, blame him) destroying the cup and proclaiming himself an Aegis does evoke some dissonance due to the physical appearance of the cup. However, from a symbolic standpoint, the Aegis of Greek myth is a symbol of the divine, an artifact that both serves as the wielder's greatest offense and defense (unless you're Zeus and have your thunderbolts). Along with the other points I've mentioned earlier, I believe this symbolically represents the Aegises far more than a term like "Heaven's Holy Grail" (and easier to say too). And I touched on this earlier, but the Aegis of myth served as a shield or armour, and in all of those iterations it also serves as a near unrivaled offensive tool. In addition, from a symbolic standpoint within the story, one of the major conflicts is what to use one's power for: to destroy, or to erase? In the case of Pyra and Mythra, they eventually come to the conclusion that they can and will use their power to protect, fulfilling the protective role of the Aegis.
As someone who has only payed attention to english xenoblade stuff I cant understand how someone could dislike a name as cool and fitting as amalthus lol. Weebs be weird
I figured they changed Sharla's name because the game was translated in the UK, which has a high South Asian population, and "Carna" sounds identical to "Karna", one of the semi-divine heroes of the most famous Indian epic, and very male to boot. It'd sound as bizarre as if they renamed Meleph/Morag to "Achilleez".
4:53 Marubeni just sounds like a flipped version of the Japanese name "Benimaru", which means Deep Red/Crimson (Beni) Circle (Maru) Probably in reference to how much blood is spilt because of him and the rituals things he does with core crystals respectively. Basically it foreshadows that despite being spiritual, he causes who knows how much bloodshed and his rituals involve messing with the lives of other beings (the blades) as well.
resident italian here to comment on the italian surname thing ^^ While yes, those are not italian words on itself, rather than a surname , i would say it has more to do with latin than italian. as mentioned, maru might be a japanification of Mal - meaning bad, while beni is the opposite, meaning good (neither precisely, but its the same concep as pyra being not precisely the greek word for fire) that way, the idea behind the name would actually be something along the line of " the bad in the good" , hinting at the corrupt side of an organization that is perceived as pure. or, both words, again assuming maru is just a japanese thing, are the roots from the words benedizione ( benediction) and maledizione (malediction) , with the name revolving around the concept of duality between blessing and curse. that being said, i 100% agree the name is better in the localization, same as the aegis'
Wow. Somehow I didn't put together the connection between Amalthus and Malthus, but it makes way too much sense. I just thought the "amal-" in his name came from "amalgam," referencing how he incorporates core crystals into his body.
Looking up Malthus also returns a Demon of Goetia named Halphas (an alternate spelling) who was an earl that supplied weapons. This can be a possible inspiration as well as Amalthus used Indol to traffic core crystals before reissuing them to both The Ardanians and Uryans militaries
This is a cool video, but I have to say that my most anticipated video is still yet to come - the xenoblade 4 luxin tweet universe explanation. I’ve been waiting 4+ months for the video that might explain what the armstrong company did to cause massive homeowners insurance premiums and I need to know
Xeno does a really good job with localization though. They actually incorperate jokes between cultures in a way that works. Especially with the "Turtle - Penis" joke in XC2 somehow working from Japanese word play into English Word play
Amalthus’s Japanese name is actually really funny and I’m surprised no one got it yet. It’s name isn’t suppose to represent anything or mean anything, which is what Amalthus believes in. He believes in nihilism. He believes there’s no point to anything. That very belief continues with his name not meaning anything. It’s a stretch to be sure, but it makes sense for me.
oh holy shit, ive been trying to spread the malthus connection since i realized it but ive never actually seen the other half. super glad theres now a video i can just point to instead of explaining it from scratch every time lol
Thank you for this video. I can't take these "localisation purists" seriously, because they just seem unable to understand that localisation is more involved than just translating words and transcribing names. Nintendo of Europe in particular has to come up with names that make (at least some) sense in all of their target languages at the same time, which is not just a pretty difficult task, but a form of art in itself. As long as the localisation teams are part of the same company or working under the original creators' supervision/guidance, it's best to view their work as one of many parts of the creative process that results in the final game - there's simply no reason to believe the localisation goes against the developers' wishes if they are producing or at least overseeing localisation themselves.
I always get a good laugh from people who adamantly claim that the Japanese version is superior just because it was the original language. Bonus points when they don't actually understand Japanese. I had someone tell me that Pyra is a bad name because it just means "fire" which is "boring" and that they prefer her Japanese name, Homura. That same person also preferred Hikari over Mythra since hikari means "light" which "makes more sense for her character."
The problem isn’t when they have to make changes to better adapt the story to a western audience so they can understand it better. The problem is when they change the original dialogue to something completely different by introducing shitty memes, completely changing the context, removing entire modes from the game (Fire Emblem Fates) and inserting the localizer’s politics into it, even if they have nothing to do with the original story
I think that in this case the biggest issue is that it would have been difficult/impossible for the English VAs to correctly pronounce most of the original Japanese names. While I unquestionably prefer the JP for XC2, I don't think they had any choice other than changing the names for the English voice-acting. People need to ask themselves which is worse - some names maybe losing significance (and the localized changes usually tried to keep the significance, successfully more often than not), or constantly cringing at names being poorly pronounced. Also, the JP voices are fortunately always still a choice. It's a little annoying having to get used to the different names being used in speech vs in text, but it's not too hard.
tldr: i think amalthus's japanese name means something like "bad-good" hi, i think i can help with amalthus's japanese name. you've said it's "marubeni." the youtube captions conveniently split it into "maru beni." the first thing i notice about it is "maru." from what i understand about japanese transliteration, an "l" will turn into "r," because japanese doesnt have "l" and their "r" is similar to it. so "maru" is like "mal," which you might recognize as the latin root for bad. then "beni," especially in the context of a religious leader, brings to mind the word benediction and associatedly the latin root "bene," which you might recognize as meaning good. so if this is all the intended meaning, then amalthus's japanese name means something like "bad-good." that's boring and very NES-era, so i'd like to say it could also be something like "false good" or "bad benediction," but nothing in the name supports these more descriptive names
The Bene could also have been short for Benedict, referencing Pope Benedict IX to tie in Amalthus being a reference to the Pope. Benedict IX was seen as one of the worse Popes in history who gained his position through bribery, was described as "if a demon from hell, in the disguise of a priest", and was one of the the Popes written about in the novel The Bad Popes aka, Mal Bene.
I think this is the most likely explanation considering that other names in the japanese version are latin words pronounced the japanese way (take Mor Ardain for example: in japanese it's called "Superubia" which is the japanese pronounciation of the latin word "Superbia" which literally means pride in english)
I knew the his name was prob a combination since it was practically hard to find what it meant as well as that Maru was prob Mal but never could find out what the second half meant. This makes a lot of sense and I can for sure see this what they intended.
Noted, my bad. I can't find any direct correlation between Sharla and the Mahabharata character, but I have always interpreted her and Juju as being Indian so that may have actually been the original intent.
I've even seen "Karna" being used in a localised game - in Ys Memories of Celceta. It puzzles me why translators couldn't have gone for a different spelling, if innuendo worried them that much.
Maru could have a few meanings, like circle or round. Meanwhile beni means a deep red or crimson. A few ways to interpret that would be that his name means he is of pure blood, or he is part of a cycle (circle) of blood. Either way the color crimson is definitely being used to represent blood. Furthermore Benimaru is a Japanese name, though it isn't very common. The intent in Amalthus's original name could be an attempt at foreshadowing and showing the duality in his nature (don't think I'm phrasing that correctly). Funny enough, the meanings of those two words are also associated with opposites, a circle typically being associated with being correct, and the color red being associated with something being incorrect. So the pun in his name could also be he's trying to be "correct" while also being "incorrect", or do what he thinks is good in the wrong way. Or I'm looking to deep into this lol
Amlathus is an incredible villain that is the perfect foil to Rex in every way. Rex still believes in the good in people and that the world of Allrest can still be saved despite how cold it's become. Amlathus has grown to hate people because of his experiences, he's already decided Allrest is beyond saving and only seeks to selfishly impose his will on it during the time it has left. Amlathus disrupts the cycle of Blades and Drivers because he sees no value in it, Blades are just trinkets to him. He sees no value in life because in his mind the world is doomed anyway. To him the struggle to find a better future is pointless because everyone and everything will just end up dying anyway. His entire worldview boils down to this- "Everything will end no matter what so I might as well do whatever I want, even if it hurts others."
localization purists seem like the kind of people that would throw a massive fit of anger at Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky localizations despite the fact it is mostly agreed that the localization actually improved the base product by a significant margin by making the main character having that iconic tomboy and outspoken personality that everyone loves so much and not every treasure chest telling you "the chest is empty" when checking it a second time.
No. More often than not,most localization is ass and the hate is well deserved. I can see why AI is welcomed along with journalists losing their jobs to AI. People prefer a cold and unbiased machine to people in some fields.
Maru Beni is just Benimaru backwards; Benimaru of which means "Deep Red" or "Crimson" which is probably another Color Wheel joke. all of the Xenoblade games in particular use colors as a plot device, either to show forms of evolutionary cycles, or as means of showing relationships. assuming Crimson is to be considered the equivalent of Red, then it stands next to Purple and Orange, it's also the color in Xenoblade 1 which represents Zanza, while standard Red represents Shulk. (Blood)Orange = Ontos, and (Dark)Purple = Logos, so it could be a way of showing Klaus' more gentle affinity with Alvis' ideologies, while also drawing the parallel between the Zanza side of Klaus and Amalthus' ideologies. The usage of the 'Blood' and 'Dark' in Logos and Ontos serve to show the developments they have with other characters in their respective plots, but I'm not gonna bother going over that. Point is, it could easily just be another color wheel joke. but that's about the most I got out of the original name. I agree that Amalthus is WAY better a name though.
I personally prefer Marubeni; however, I still do like his name as a localization cuz of its relation to aegis. The idea that amalthea’s skin was used to forge the Aegis in some traditions fits well into the story as amalthus is the one who brought forth the aegis. Also since they localized Holy grail to Aegis which makes it fit more. And the Thomas Malthus part also fits him. Usually I do not like localizations that just decide to match based on the character. Say Ursula which means ‘little she bear’ which fits perfectly and personally really do like it but it doesn’t keep the meaning from JP. However, Marubeni I believe is based on how he is in the game so amalthus being the same is no problem to me. EDIT: from reading the comments I was able to figure out what marubeni's full meaning prob means. I figured it prob was a combination of words since it was hard to find. I knew the first part 'maru' might be an L instead of R cuz of the whole swap deal and that the u might be a japanese phonetic thing however I never knew what the second part meant. But seems like Beni might come from bene which comes from the latin word that means 'Well'. That would mean Marubeni is bad-good (mal bene) which fits with his whole shtick of being someone who is bad but acts good. I guess you could say amalthus fits that part as well since he also is made up of two words with Malthus being the 'bad' part while Ig you could say amalthea is 'good' as her name means tender mother so it still fits the pun in ENG sorta.
I never thought that people wouldn't know where "Marubeni" came from so here's my two cents, as someone who studied Latin: I see Marubeni as two parts: マル (maru) and ベニ (beni), which are the words Mal (literally means bad or evil, is in Malos's english name) and Veni (from the verb Venio, to come, arrive). I always took it as meaning "the source of evil" or "the evil arrives" Though I can't say this is confirmed in any way, this has always seemed like a very logical origin of the name for me, specially after learning about Amalthus's influence on Malos, I don't think it was random in the slightest
I'm also surprised watching this video that apparently no one knew what this meant? I never looked into it until right now, but there aren't many names Marubeni could be read as, especially considering all the other latin names in the game. And googling it, "Malveni" is an actual name, too.
@@silentlore2458 someone on Twitter got mad that Junipers name was localized so much compared to someone like Isurd, and that started a thing about localization that thankfully barely lasted.
@@silentlore2458 It's not super bad, but unlike most of the other character names in the game (Lanz and Noah come to mind) Yuzuriha isn't just a katakana approximation of some English or generic fantasy name, it's an actual proper Japanese name. It'd kind of be like localizing the names of the characters from Demon Slayer - the only point would be to turn something that's obviously ethnically Japanese and paper it over with English. I'm a bit disappointed with it myself, but not really surprised. Fits with what they did for most of Xenoblade 2, maybe hurts a little more because Agnus has feudal Japanese DNA in its character designs, as opposed to Mythra or Pyra who don't immediately seem Japanese even if they both have bona fide Japanese names pre-localization.
Isn’t Marubeni, isn’t just the combination of the Maru and Beni, Maru being a weird version of Mary and Beni coming from the Bene, meaning good? Edit: Beni could also be the Japanese word for deep red. Some maybe is something related to blood. Maybe amalthus is just Bloody Mary.
I think Maru comes from the Latin "mal" which means bad, and I too think the bēni part comes from the Latin "bene" which means "well." So Marubēni is literally "Badwell".
@@snsnsnsn2922 Ah. Mr Badwell. This is just hammy enough to be a Saturday Morning Cartoon Villain. XD Edit: a random Google search says "beni" means crimson or deep red. Praetor Bad Crismon Or Praetor EvilRed Mal Red Red Evil Vile-Red /Vilered
"Mal veni" could mean "bad is coming", (from the latin word malos and the latin verb venire), which fits Amalthus really well, since his whole thing is "we're all gonna die anyway".
Always thought that the Beni was in reference to the numerous Pope Benedicts there have been. And Maru, to my knowledge means circle, and there's a lot of cycles or circles in Xenoblade 2's world that are coming to an end.
Funnily enough, the word Aegis also has roots in norse mythology... The term has it's origins in the nordic word Ægir, who was the god of the seas, and one of three gods who lived along the Asgardians, without being Asgardian themselves. The direct comparrison is dodgy, but like the three Aegis cores of Ontos, Logos and Pneuma, they are also responsible for powers that both create worlds and nurture life, or destroy the world outright. So in a way, much of the plot in XC2, has always seemed like this (arguably, probably incidental...) look at a world where the natural powers are out of line to me, as if the god of the oceans, fire or air suddenly vanished like Ontos did, and now the other two forces of nature have to find a new balance among the remaining two forces, and we get the conflict between Malos and Mythra as a result. As i said, it's kind of a thin premise, but the connection can be found there too...
"Asgardians" Marvel has led another soul astray. (The actual mythological name for the people of Asgard was Aesir [Ice-ear] unfortunately Marvel has gotten a lot of Norse mythology wrong over the years)
@@TheiaOfTruth Oh, i know all that, but i suspected that not everyone else on the planet did, so i decided to use a term that was more widely known to most people... It wasn't an entirely correct term of course, but it's the one that most people would recognize
@@skynet0912 ah okay that makes sense. Still though the term Asgardian pains me because at least to me Aesir is a much more unique sounding name for a group of super powered aliens
@@TheiaOfTruth Understandably so! It's like being from Scandinavia, and listening to Thor not even be able to correctly say the name of his own hammer!
@@ninjapotatolorf6237 From what I got, it's someone who has the potential to attain spiritual enlightenment. Which, if Amalthus's JPN name is altered as an anagram, that would symbolize that he thought he attained enlightenment but it was the wrong message.
@@ninjapotatolorf6237 It's a name, it means crimson circle, Kanji in backwards (maru beni) means the same thing, I don't really know what where they trying to reference.
Im thinking the two countries at war in XB3 represent the first two games...like maybe when Rex and Shulk both defeat the final guy, the world was reformed, maybe the two worlds merged, each becoming it's own nation? You look at Noah, Eunie and Lanz, they look like the 3 races from XB1, Hom, High Entia and Machina, where the other three, from the other nation seem to be 3 of the races from XB2, Hom, Gormotti and Blade.
Very cool analysis. To me Amalthea brought to mind The Last Unicorn, as the transformed unicorn took on the name of a legendary one horned goat. In the same way Amalthus also has a lone horn of a sort, which he kept hidden.
It is the year of our Lord 2023....and it is ONLY JUST NOW rewatching this video that I FINALLY understood what the whole "cleansing core crystals" thing was about. HOLY. SHIT. was this post point poorly explained...
Marubeni COULD be a combination of Bene (meaning good) and Mal (read as maru here and meaning evil) as a way to foreshadow the twist that he was a villain and also a reference to the duality being his post as the praetor and the fact that he was actually a bad guy
I always associated Mahlos with Malice since their only one phonics apart. That makes him seem like he's trying to bring despair to the world, which is what he does. Malice: the intention or desire to do evil; ill will. He's essentially a bad guy.
The only localization name changes that bug me at all are the various blades that are named after prominent mythological figures, though I still think they made the right decision for the simple reason of "the English VAs would probably pronounce them badly." Amalthus never really bothered me, because I never recognized the significance to his JP name. I'm sure there is some (since there is for pretty much every name in this series, localized or not), but without knowing I just interpreted them both as different fantasy names. My bigger issue is that I think the English voice acting in XC2 is dramatically worse than the JP. I don't feel this way about XC1 (which has amazing English voice-acting) or XCX (where both the English and JP are sort of equally okay, though I might give the English a small edge due to Vandham sounding much better). The main issue with XC2 is that there are simply too many bad/poorly directed voice lines that just take me out of any scene in which they happen. With the JP I never have to worry about that - everything is just universally solid and always fits the characters in question. Also English XC2 doesn't get kansai dialect Zeke/Pandoria, which is a grave crime.
Sure, the Japanese dub is "objectively" better than the English dub (outside of Azurda and Tora which I genuinely can't stand) but it also sounds... kind of generic to my ears (a good example is Nia who went from sounding like "generic anime cat girl #386" in Japanese to "welsh cat noises" in English). Ultimately, I'd much rather use an "inferior" English dub where I can actually notice stuff like people from different titans having different accents (which I personally can't notice in Japanese) and where I'm able to understand dialogue that isn't given subtitles.
@@TheIvoryDingo I'm probably biased some because I know Japanese pretty well (so details about the way people speak are more obvious), though I've heard similar opinions from people who don't as much. I think that most of the dub voices are completely fine and that the thing with the different accents was a neat idea. There's just something "off" about the voice direction that wasn't a problem in XC1 (which had one of the best English dubs I've encountered in a JRPG, surprising given the relatively niche nature of the game when it originally came out).
@@BenkaiDebussy The reason some of the lines in XC2 aren't so good is because it was the first major role for most of the main cast, including the person who played Rex, who is the biggest person people complain about. This is also why the quality of the voice work is higher at the end of the game than the beginning - they recorded their lines in order, so they were litterally better at voice acting when they recorded that part of the game. Note that some of the VAs were veterans of the industry (for example, the Tantalese palace guards have lines recorded by Shulk's VA), which is why some characters are more consistently played well, including many of the people with less screen time.
@@TheIvoryDingo I've heard this complain about Nia's japanese voice being "generic" so many times but I have to disagree, her voice is GREAT in japanese and it actually fits her character design, which in English it actually doesn't, at all. Her English voice and accent can be very unique but it's too deep for her character. And don't get me wrong, there are plenty of good voices that fits their character in the game, but Nia isn't one of them (the other one it's Adam which sounds way too older than his actual age in Torna).
@@andr0zzsenpai "Too deep for her character"? Really? That's the argument you're going with? Because I would say I prefer what we got over someone speaking as high pitched as the Japanese version (works fine in Japanese but often just sounds really off in English). Heck, I've met girls in high school who had deeper voices than Nia (while still looking "normal").
I mean I can understand it in some cases (like I got introduced to digimon through finnish dub that used japanese names, so those just make more sense to me :p and english version is very different in tone) but at same time I find localization purists kinda annoying because they tend to take radical stance of "0 changes". When this is really one of those "somewhere between faithful to original and adapted to audience is best" things.
I wouldn't say ALL of the aegis have invented names. Pneuma and mythra (based on Mithra) are real words that work well as names due to the elements that they represent. Although I assume you already know this
Please let's just not call "localization purists" people who evidently don't have a clue what localization is supposed to do. Using the exact same names that derive from symbolism referencing a culture that is literally all the way across the world without a modicum of cultural adaptation is not "purist localization", it's copy-pasting.
I always read it as A-mal-thus, as in without malice, as if the name was a title he took on after he resonated with Malos and transferred the evil in his heart into his blade. Though given what happened obviously that didn't actually work
This is similar to what I thought. It initially supposed to be like amal, a as in without, without malice, without bad. But with the possible meaning of a mal, a as in being, a malice, a bad. And "thus" is simply a word
Not watched vid yet(will be back,busy) but I call dib on that you will talk about Malthusian Theory on Resource etc cause I was studying it VS Boserup's Theory. Just wanted to do this for no reason.
If you really wanted to shoehorn it in you could make a point for ama (as in amare) and altus or a play on alter, (as in high and other, or others), making it a bit punny because his leading position in Indol and his facade being someone who loves people and wants to help them. But that's just me reading too much into it besides the amalthea and malthus explanation
After checking out other comments. I think Marubeni could be read as "Malubeni". Mal (u) beni. Could mean "bad crimson" But assuming it isn't actually Japanese... Mal = bad, evil. Or crazy. Or wrong (all depends on the language (French) beni = blessed, or to bless. His name could've been "bad blessing" Or "badwrong". "Evilwrong" ill blessing. Crazy blessing. Or maybe in an alternate timeline his name would've been Praetor Malibu?
Destruction is Mallus power. Also fits with his ending being him wanting to destroy the world to prove its worth saving. His basically a combination of Jesus and Shiva. Mallus is a tad to absolutely bad for someone that isn’t bad or good. So destruction fits his actual character a bit deeper just way less subtle. Though Yin and yang kind of lost in translation in blade 2 and in one is so vague you have to google the actual definition and how Zanza and Mayneth play with that troupe.
Now that I think about it, "malveni", pronounced in japanese "marubeni", sounds like a japanese pronounciation of french "mal béni", literally "badly/wrongly blessed", and could be used as an expression to say someone's unfortunate, ill-fated. Though I really doubt that's what they were going for, it's still weirdly fitting.
In terms of voice acting i always prefer the English cast for Xenoblade, its nice to hear my native accent for once instead of the usual generic american cast that voices everything outta Japan, it gives the game a unique feel to it unlike any other JRPG out there and has honestly helped it establish its own identity
Pyra works as a name, as, like Homura, it references fire. Mythra however does not have any obvious reference to light in the English-speaking world, while Hikari does in Japanese.
My understanding is that Marubēni is a combination of the Latin roots "mal" (bad) and "bene" (well) to signify the complexity of Amalthus's character. It's not really a reference. Edit: that's to say the Japanese name DOES have a meaning, and a pretty relevant one at that. It's not some nonsense or a simply Italian sounding name. So the English localization doesn't really "add" meaning to the name. It simply changes it, like some other names that you talked about in the video, so I respectfully disagree with the idea that the name Amalthus is superior in that sense. But I appreciate the dive into localization--it's a really hard job and many really overlook the complexity that gets involved.
@@regionfuego6 the difference is that Malos leans into the "Over-the-Top Villain" trope with his obviously evil name, and is an absolute ham for the entire game. He's entertaining to the point where I nearly forget he's supposed to be the big bad
Poppi is another good change. Her Japanese name, Hana, means "flower". Just flower. Compared to "poppy", a spesific type of flower, which is more interesting. The only problem I have with the name changes is Tora and Torna. Tora stayed the same, but "ira" was changed to "Torna" which creates too similar name to "Tora". And even Tora's name means "Tiger" (His skin is a tiger skin, and his mini game called "tiger"). They should have a least change Tora's name too.
Marubeni could be a few things imo. It could be a bastardization of a japanese name referencing another language, in this case, Beni being Beni(ficial) or Beni(diction)[another pope reference] and Maru being a popular suffix in male japanese names, so Benimaru, but backwards because, y'know, he bad. Or engrish for Marvin, cuz he look like a Martian lmao
So if someone's name is "Tyrone" what retarded "Hidden meaning" does their name have so when it's changed to a non black name like Kevin we can make sure it's the right one? Or do we only change Asian names?
@@Jourmand1r Its not because its asian its because its in a jrpg thats high off its own symbolism and most of the important character names have some sort of outside reference. Maybe you could have came to that conclusion yourself if you spent more than two seconds rubbing your extra chromosomes together
marubeni マルベーニ sounds like benimaru like the name of a character from fire force ベニマルor slime isekai Benimaru ( 紅丸 ( ベニマル ) , benimaru, lit. "Crimson Circle"
I'm a big fan of localization and especially dubbing as an art form. Some of my actual real life heroes are dub actors, like Mario Castañeda (the Latin American voice of Goku).
Haven't watched the video. I have no problem with name localization, but they have to find how to not make it confusing for people who play with Japanese dubs and English text.
Yeah, occasionally English translators/localisation teams can do a much better job than the original Japanese - just look at Pokémon Gen 1 for example; Articuno, Zapdos, Moltres? In Japan, they're literally Freezer, Thunder, and Fire - LAME. Charmeleon and Charizard are Lizardo and Lizardon; boring. Kakuna, Beedrill, Pidgeotto? Cocoon, Spear, Pidgeon; yawn.
Mar(u)beni... Mal... Ben... "Evil" and "good" caked into one name, so a sort of "Beyond Good and Evil" character? Both at the same time because twinity needs to be a thing? I dunno, I still prefer Wilhelm as a character.
People don't find names offensive or weird anymore, and you have to do the same search about Amalthus, Marubëni, or any other name out there except very common ones so i really don't see the point doing this with names. We are a google search away from preventing any misunderstood or weird choice cringe. Come on Japan, it's 2023. People could learn a thing or two in the process too! I feel like there is no need to do this kind of thing anymore, but japanese developers are overly concern about this things. Maybe an habit from the past.
Funny thing about the Spanish localization of Malos, they added an H to his name (Mahlos) so as to not literally name him "bad guys" lol.
See, in fiction within the Spanish language, "los malos" is an all encompassing term to refer to the villains, literally translates to "the bad guys"
Mah (=my) Loss! >:D
Could also simply be similar to Malus in latin literally meaning "Evil".
In French it's Malhos
@@nexusruben137 Yep !
I do want to point out that while the term Aegis doesn't particularly have any correlation to the Holy Grail, the concepts that the master blades embody IS actually reflected in how the Aegis is described and viewed in Greek Mythology, specifically in the Iliad. Most obviously is that it's a major attribute of the divine, specifically of Athena and Zeus, the wisest and the ruler respectively, a reflection of the Aegis's relationship with Klaus, the Architect. In addition, Homer describes the Aegis in the Iliad as "the precious aegis which is ageless and immortal", as well as describing its fearsome nature in battle and how its appearance reflected immeasurable worth, both in cost and in divinity. These traits are all embodied by the Aegises we see in Xenoblade 2 to varying degrees, especially the ageless and immortal aspects that apply to the Master Blades the most out of every blade in the game.
Damn, the references in these games just keep going! Thank you for this information!
Also in the Bible the Holy Grail is just a cup there's nothing really presses about it.
@@fearfulharmony94 Yeah, as far as Christianity goes, isn't it just supposed to be the cup Jesus used in the last supper or something like that?
don't they show a literal "goblet of fire" (lol) looking vase/amphora... and Malos destroys it (because he's a massive douche)... and they call it "aegis" and it makes absolutely no sense what the F are they talking about? (in Torna Golden Country I think) >:D Kinda weird calling it aegis (a "shield" but not really - a defensive item), when Pyra is a blade (a sword - an offensive/attack item/weapon)... I don't hate it, just sayin' ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
@@ArinJager1 I won't deny that, after all the scene and models were made with the term "Holy Grail" in mind. That's not a fact I denied, but I stand by it being a generally better localisation.
To address your points, yes, Malos (who, by the way, at this point is a pure reflection of Amalthus's hatred of the world, so if you wanna blame anyone, blame him) destroying the cup and proclaiming himself an Aegis does evoke some dissonance due to the physical appearance of the cup. However, from a symbolic standpoint, the Aegis of Greek myth is a symbol of the divine, an artifact that both serves as the wielder's greatest offense and defense (unless you're Zeus and have your thunderbolts). Along with the other points I've mentioned earlier, I believe this symbolically represents the Aegises far more than a term like "Heaven's Holy Grail" (and easier to say too).
And I touched on this earlier, but the Aegis of myth served as a shield or armour, and in all of those iterations it also serves as a near unrivaled offensive tool. In addition, from a symbolic standpoint within the story, one of the major conflicts is what to use one's power for: to destroy, or to erase? In the case of Pyra and Mythra, they eventually come to the conclusion that they can and will use their power to protect, fulfilling the protective role of the Aegis.
As someone who has only payed attention to english xenoblade stuff I cant understand how someone could dislike a name as cool and fitting as amalthus lol. Weebs be weird
Plus, Lora’s accent makes her pronounce Malos “malice” which also fits his character
I figured they changed Sharla's name because the game was translated in the UK, which has a high South Asian population, and "Carna" sounds identical to "Karna", one of the semi-divine heroes of the most famous Indian epic, and very male to boot. It'd sound as bizarre as if they renamed Meleph/Morag to "Achilleez".
Achilleez sounds like something Zeke would name a special move
his real name is Garbulio
Can confirm
Garbulio! The Gatchapon pope!
fr can confirm, garbulio 4eva
GARBULIO NOOOOO
4:53 Marubeni just sounds like a flipped version of the Japanese name "Benimaru", which means Deep Red/Crimson (Beni) Circle (Maru)
Probably in reference to how much blood is spilt because of him and the rituals things he does with core crystals respectively.
Basically it foreshadows that despite being spiritual, he causes who knows how much bloodshed and his rituals involve messing with the lives of other beings (the blades) as well.
resident italian here to comment on the italian surname thing ^^
While yes, those are not italian words on itself, rather than a surname , i would say it has more to do with latin than italian.
as mentioned, maru might be a japanification of Mal - meaning bad, while beni is the opposite, meaning good (neither precisely, but its the same concep as pyra being not precisely the greek word for fire)
that way, the idea behind the name would actually be something along the line of " the bad in the good" , hinting at the corrupt side of an organization that is perceived as pure.
or, both words, again assuming maru is just a japanese thing, are the roots from the words benedizione ( benediction) and maledizione (malediction) , with the name revolving around the concept of duality between blessing and curse.
that being said, i 100% agree the name is better in the localization, same as the aegis'
I love the "bad in the good" and the duality concepts you came up with. Benissimo, amico!
Wow. Somehow I didn't put together the connection between Amalthus and Malthus, but it makes way too much sense. I just thought the "amal-" in his name came from "amalgam," referencing how he incorporates core crystals into his body.
Looking up Malthus also returns a Demon of Goetia named Halphas (an alternate spelling) who was an earl that supplied weapons. This can be a possible inspiration as well as Amalthus used Indol to traffic core crystals before reissuing them to both The Ardanians and Uryans militaries
This is a cool video, but I have to say that my most anticipated video is still yet to come - the xenoblade 4 luxin tweet universe explanation. I’ve been waiting 4+ months for the video that might explain what the armstrong company did to cause massive homeowners insurance premiums and I need to know
Xeno does a really good job with localization though. They actually incorperate jokes between cultures in a way that works. Especially with the "Turtle - Penis" joke in XC2 somehow working from Japanese word play into English Word play
Something I had found while looking into demonology that might be what Amalthus is referencing is a demon by the name of Malphas
kinda sounds like "malice", too (or...?)... or Avarice (aka greed - which is the japanese name of Argentum: Avaritia)
Amalthus’s Japanese name is actually really funny and I’m surprised no one got it yet.
It’s name isn’t suppose to represent anything or mean anything, which is what Amalthus believes in. He believes in nihilism. He believes there’s no point to anything. That very belief continues with his name not meaning anything.
It’s a stretch to be sure, but it makes sense for me.
oh holy shit, ive been trying to spread the malthus connection since i realized it but ive never actually seen the other half. super glad theres now a video i can just point to instead of explaining it from scratch every time lol
Thank you for this video. I can't take these "localisation purists" seriously, because they just seem unable to understand that localisation is more involved than just translating words and transcribing names. Nintendo of Europe in particular has to come up with names that make (at least some) sense in all of their target languages at the same time, which is not just a pretty difficult task, but a form of art in itself. As long as the localisation teams are part of the same company or working under the original creators' supervision/guidance, it's best to view their work as one of many parts of the creative process that results in the final game - there's simply no reason to believe the localisation goes against the developers' wishes if they are producing or at least overseeing localisation themselves.
I always get a good laugh from people who adamantly claim that the Japanese version is superior just because it was the original language. Bonus points when they don't actually understand Japanese. I had someone tell me that Pyra is a bad name because it just means "fire" which is "boring" and that they prefer her Japanese name, Homura. That same person also preferred Hikari over Mythra since hikari means "light" which "makes more sense for her character."
The problem isn’t when they have to make changes to better adapt the story to a western audience so they can understand it better. The problem is when they change the original dialogue to something completely different by introducing shitty memes, completely changing the context, removing entire modes from the game (Fire Emblem Fates) and inserting the localizer’s politics into it, even if they have nothing to do with the original story
Holy shit it’s Helsionium
I get arguments people have against it, but also i dont think i can personally take "xenoblade 2 de-localization patch" that seriously
I think that in this case the biggest issue is that it would have been difficult/impossible for the English VAs to correctly pronounce most of the original Japanese names. While I unquestionably prefer the JP for XC2, I don't think they had any choice other than changing the names for the English voice-acting. People need to ask themselves which is worse - some names maybe losing significance (and the localized changes usually tried to keep the significance, successfully more often than not), or constantly cringing at names being poorly pronounced.
Also, the JP voices are fortunately always still a choice. It's a little annoying having to get used to the different names being used in speech vs in text, but it's not too hard.
I’d actually say that new titans probably do happen (possibly rarely) - it’s the lack of CONTINENT class Titans that’s an issue.
tldr: i think amalthus's japanese name means something like "bad-good"
hi, i think i can help with amalthus's japanese name. you've said it's "marubeni." the youtube captions conveniently split it into "maru beni." the first thing i notice about it is "maru." from what i understand about japanese transliteration, an "l" will turn into "r," because japanese doesnt have "l" and their "r" is similar to it. so "maru" is like "mal," which you might recognize as the latin root for bad. then "beni," especially in the context of a religious leader, brings to mind the word benediction and associatedly the latin root "bene," which you might recognize as meaning good.
so if this is all the intended meaning, then amalthus's japanese name means something like "bad-good." that's boring and very NES-era, so i'd like to say it could also be something like "false good" or "bad benediction," but nothing in the name supports these more descriptive names
The Bene could also have been short for Benedict, referencing Pope Benedict IX to tie in Amalthus being a reference to the Pope. Benedict IX was seen as one of the worse Popes in history who gained his position through bribery, was described as "if a demon from hell, in the disguise of a priest", and was one of the the Popes written about in the novel The Bad Popes aka, Mal Bene.
Those do make sense. He is a bad person pretending to be good. Specifically a bad priest which fits the part about benediction.
I think this is the most likely explanation considering that other names in the japanese version are latin words pronounced the japanese way (take Mor Ardain for example: in japanese it's called "Superubia" which is the japanese pronounciation of the latin word "Superbia" which literally means pride in english)
I knew the his name was prob a combination since it was practically hard to find what it meant as well as that Maru was prob Mal but never could find out what the second half meant. This makes a lot of sense and I can for sure see this what they intended.
This is my theory as well, I'm surprised Luxin didn't find this.
Karna is a real name, it’s an Indian name. It’s the name of a character from mahabarta.
Noted, my bad. I can't find any direct correlation between Sharla and the Mahabharata character, but I have always interpreted her and Juju as being Indian so that may have actually been the original intent.
I've even seen "Karna" being used in a localised game - in Ys Memories of Celceta. It puzzles me why translators couldn't have gone for a different spelling, if innuendo worried them that much.
@@xellis8434 yup the only karna i know is from celceta haha
It also likely forms a duo with Rein (Reyn), to form Rein-Carna. Like "reincarnate".
@@TARDISES, You are correct, Carna is a heavy gun wielding bracer from the Ruan Guild branch in Sky.
Maru could have a few meanings, like circle or round. Meanwhile beni means a deep red or crimson. A few ways to interpret that would be that his name means he is of pure blood, or he is part of a cycle (circle) of blood. Either way the color crimson is definitely being used to represent blood. Furthermore Benimaru is a Japanese name, though it isn't very common. The intent in Amalthus's original name could be an attempt at foreshadowing and showing the duality in his nature (don't think I'm phrasing that correctly). Funny enough, the meanings of those two words are also associated with opposites, a circle typically being associated with being correct, and the color red being associated with something being incorrect. So the pun in his name could also be he's trying to be "correct" while also being "incorrect", or do what he thinks is good in the wrong way. Or I'm looking to deep into this lol
"Maru beni" seems to me like a transcription of the Esperanto word "malbeni," which means 'to curse.' "Beni" in Esperanto means 'to bless.'
Amlathus is an incredible villain that is the perfect foil to Rex in every way. Rex still believes in the good in people and that the world of Allrest can still be saved despite how cold it's become. Amlathus has grown to hate people because of his experiences, he's already decided Allrest is beyond saving and only seeks to selfishly impose his will on it during the time it has left.
Amlathus disrupts the cycle of Blades and Drivers because he sees no value in it, Blades are just trinkets to him. He sees no value in life because in his mind the world is doomed anyway. To him the struggle to find a better future is pointless because everyone and everything will just end up dying anyway.
His entire worldview boils down to this-
"Everything will end no matter what so I might as well do whatever I want, even if it hurts others."
localization purists seem like the kind of people that would throw a massive fit of anger at Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky localizations despite the fact it is mostly agreed that the localization actually improved the base product by a significant margin by making the main character having that iconic tomboy and outspoken personality that everyone loves so much and not every treasure chest telling you "the chest is empty" when checking it a second time.
I personally just don't like the english language
No. More often than not,most localization is ass and the hate is well deserved. I can see why AI is welcomed along with journalists losing their jobs to AI. People prefer a cold and unbiased machine to people in some fields.
Wow, that's super cool actually. Good job, localheads.
Maru Beni is just Benimaru backwards; Benimaru of which means "Deep Red" or "Crimson" which is probably another Color Wheel joke. all of the Xenoblade games in particular use colors as a plot device, either to show forms of evolutionary cycles, or as means of showing relationships. assuming Crimson is to be considered the equivalent of Red, then it stands next to Purple and Orange, it's also the color in Xenoblade 1 which represents Zanza, while standard Red represents Shulk. (Blood)Orange = Ontos, and (Dark)Purple = Logos, so it could be a way of showing Klaus' more gentle affinity with Alvis' ideologies, while also drawing the parallel between the Zanza side of Klaus and Amalthus' ideologies. The usage of the 'Blood' and 'Dark' in Logos and Ontos serve to show the developments they have with other characters in their respective plots, but I'm not gonna bother going over that. Point is, it could easily just be another color wheel joke. but that's about the most I got out of the original name. I agree that Amalthus is WAY better a name though.
I personally prefer Marubeni; however, I still do like his name as a localization cuz of its relation to aegis. The idea that amalthea’s skin was used to forge the Aegis in some traditions fits well into the story as amalthus is the one who brought forth the aegis. Also since they localized Holy grail to Aegis which makes it fit more. And the Thomas Malthus part also fits him. Usually I do not like localizations that just decide to match based on the character. Say Ursula which means ‘little she bear’ which fits perfectly and personally really do like it but it doesn’t keep the meaning from JP. However, Marubeni I believe is based on how he is in the game so amalthus being the same is no problem to me.
EDIT: from reading the comments I was able to figure out what marubeni's full meaning prob means. I figured it prob was a combination of words since it was hard to find. I knew the first part 'maru' might be an L instead of R cuz of the whole swap deal and that the u might be a japanese phonetic thing however I never knew what the second part meant. But seems like Beni might come from bene which comes from the latin word that means 'Well'. That would mean Marubeni is bad-good (mal bene) which fits with his whole shtick of being someone who is bad but acts good. I guess you could say amalthus fits that part as well since he also is made up of two words with Malthus being the 'bad' part while Ig you could say amalthea is 'good' as her name means tender mother so it still fits the pun in ENG sorta.
I'm probably gonna forget about this after a bit, but holy crap that's actually really cool!
I never thought that people wouldn't know where "Marubeni" came from so here's my two cents, as someone who studied Latin:
I see Marubeni as two parts: マル (maru) and ベニ (beni), which are the words Mal (literally means bad or evil, is in Malos's english name) and Veni (from the verb Venio, to come, arrive). I always took it as meaning "the source of evil" or "the evil arrives"
Though I can't say this is confirmed in any way, this has always seemed like a very logical origin of the name for me, specially after learning about Amalthus's influence on Malos, I don't think it was random in the slightest
I'm also surprised watching this video that apparently no one knew what this meant? I never looked into it until right now, but there aren't many names Marubeni could be read as, especially considering all the other latin names in the game. And googling it, "Malveni" is an actual name, too.
Funny how you make a video about localized names the same time people are getting mad about Yuzuriha/Juniper.
?
@@silentlore2458 someone on Twitter got mad that Junipers name was localized so much compared to someone like Isurd, and that started a thing about localization that thankfully barely lasted.
@@thepixelman4776 ah
@@silentlore2458 It's not super bad, but unlike most of the other character names in the game (Lanz and Noah come to mind) Yuzuriha isn't just a katakana approximation of some English or generic fantasy name, it's an actual proper Japanese name. It'd kind of be like localizing the names of the characters from Demon Slayer - the only point would be to turn something that's obviously ethnically Japanese and paper it over with English. I'm a bit disappointed with it myself, but not really surprised. Fits with what they did for most of Xenoblade 2, maybe hurts a little more because Agnus has feudal Japanese DNA in its character designs, as opposed to Mythra or Pyra who don't immediately seem Japanese even if they both have bona fide Japanese names pre-localization.
I think the Juniper case is funny because that's Decidueye's Japanese name so we literally have a Xenoblade/Pokemon crossover
Isn’t Marubeni, isn’t just the combination of the Maru and Beni, Maru being a weird version of Mary and Beni coming from the Bene, meaning good?
Edit: Beni could also be the Japanese word for deep red. Some maybe is something related to blood. Maybe amalthus is just Bloody Mary.
which has strong Xenogears/Xenosaga implications
his mom actually calls him mary in jp, so that’s actually a possibility
I think Maru comes from the Latin "mal" which means bad, and I too think the bēni part comes from the Latin "bene" which means "well." So Marubēni is literally "Badwell".
@@snsnsnsn2922
Ah. Mr Badwell.
This is just hammy enough to be a Saturday Morning Cartoon Villain. XD
Edit: a random Google search says "beni" means crimson or deep red.
Praetor Bad Crismon
Or
Praetor EvilRed
Mal Red
Red Evil
Vile-Red /Vilered
"Mal veni" could mean "bad is coming", (from the latin word malos and the latin verb venire), which fits Amalthus really well, since his whole thing is "we're all gonna die anyway".
Mythra is the name of a Parthian god of light, though most people don’t know that.
Wow, mind-blowing Luxin, very cool
Always thought that the Beni was in reference to the numerous Pope Benedicts there have been.
And Maru, to my knowledge means circle, and there's a lot of cycles or circles in Xenoblade 2's world that are coming to an end.
Funnily enough, the word Aegis also has roots in norse mythology...
The term has it's origins in the nordic word Ægir, who was the god of the seas, and one of three gods who lived along the Asgardians, without being Asgardian themselves. The direct comparrison is dodgy, but like the three Aegis cores of Ontos, Logos and Pneuma, they are also responsible for powers that both create worlds and nurture life, or destroy the world outright.
So in a way, much of the plot in XC2, has always seemed like this (arguably, probably incidental...) look at a world where the natural powers are out of line to me, as if the god of the oceans, fire or air suddenly vanished like Ontos did, and now the other two forces of nature have to find a new balance among the remaining two forces, and we get the conflict between Malos and Mythra as a result.
As i said, it's kind of a thin premise, but the connection can be found there too...
"Asgardians"
Marvel has led another soul astray.
(The actual mythological name for the people of Asgard was Aesir [Ice-ear] unfortunately Marvel has gotten a lot of Norse mythology wrong over the years)
@@TheiaOfTruth Oh, i know all that, but i suspected that not everyone else on the planet did, so i decided to use a term that was more widely known to most people...
It wasn't an entirely correct term of course, but it's the one that most people would recognize
@@skynet0912 ah okay that makes sense. Still though the term Asgardian pains me because at least to me Aesir is a much more unique sounding name for a group of super powered aliens
@@TheiaOfTruth Understandably so!
It's like being from Scandinavia, and listening to Thor not even be able to correctly say the name of his own hammer!
*Le Gasp* Luxin has his OWN thoughts and opinions about Xenoblade???? The AUDACITY. How DARE he think for himself.
Have you considered his Japanese name is some sort of anno gram? Like it could derive from Benimaru
Non-Japanese Speaker wishes to know what benimaru means?
@@ninjapotatolorf6237 From what I got, it's someone who has the potential to attain spiritual enlightenment. Which, if Amalthus's JPN name is altered as an anagram, that would symbolize that he thought he attained enlightenment but it was the wrong message.
@@ninjapotatolorf6237 It's a name, it means crimson circle, Kanji in backwards (maru beni) means the same thing, I don't really know what where they trying to reference.
I knew about Malthus, but not the Amalthea connection which is way more mysterious and interesting!
Im thinking the two countries at war in XB3 represent the first two games...like maybe when Rex and Shulk both defeat the final guy, the world was reformed, maybe the two worlds merged, each becoming it's own nation? You look at Noah, Eunie and Lanz, they look like the 3 races from XB1, Hom, High Entia and Machina, where the other three, from the other nation seem to be 3 of the races from XB2, Hom, Gormotti and Blade.
Very cool analysis. To me Amalthea brought to mind The Last Unicorn, as the transformed unicorn took on the name of a legendary one horned goat. In the same way Amalthus also has a lone horn of a sort, which he kept hidden.
I didn't know that, thank you!
It is the year of our Lord 2023....and it is ONLY JUST NOW rewatching this video that I FINALLY understood what the whole "cleansing core crystals" thing was about. HOLY. SHIT. was this post point poorly explained...
Oh my god, Amalthus video
Never heard of MaruBeni before, but a ton of characters are named Benimaru xD
Could his name be Malveni - from latin mal = bad and venire = to come, like the one that took the wrong path?
I just assumed it was done like that just to foreshadow his relation to Malos.
Marubeni COULD be a combination of Bene (meaning good) and Mal (read as maru here and meaning evil) as a way to foreshadow the twist that he was a villain and also a reference to the duality being his post as the praetor and the fact that he was actually a bad guy
The more I reflect on xc2, the more amalthus rises in my favorite characters.
My friend is really annoyed at a ton at the localization (blushy crushy, QTπ), but hopefully he will like this one?
I always associated Mahlos with Malice since their only one phonics apart. That makes him seem like he's trying to bring despair to the world, which is what he does.
Malice: the intention or desire to do evil; ill will.
He's essentially a bad guy.
malbeni
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Contents
1 Esperanto
1.1 Etymology
1.2 Pronunciation
1.3 Verb
1.3.1 Conjugation
Esperanto
Etymology
From mal- (“opposite of”) + beni (“to bless”).
Pronunciation
IPA(key): [malˈbeni]
Audio:
0:02
Rhymes: -eni
Hyphenation: mal‧be‧ni
Verb
malbeni (present malbenas, past malbenis, future malbenos, conditional malbenus, volitive malbenu)
to curse
Antonym: beni
this is so appropreate after seeing the hate Junipers getting for her english name
9:04 what are you talking about with the Holy Grail? There was no Holy Grail in the game.
this was a good video
but now i just want to call him Marvin. Praetor Marv.
Dang. Metsu is something I know. I'd have liked that name more.
Also, wow. I didn't know about Amalthea. That name is used in The Last Unicorn.
The only localization name changes that bug me at all are the various blades that are named after prominent mythological figures, though I still think they made the right decision for the simple reason of "the English VAs would probably pronounce them badly." Amalthus never really bothered me, because I never recognized the significance to his JP name. I'm sure there is some (since there is for pretty much every name in this series, localized or not), but without knowing I just interpreted them both as different fantasy names.
My bigger issue is that I think the English voice acting in XC2 is dramatically worse than the JP. I don't feel this way about XC1 (which has amazing English voice-acting) or XCX (where both the English and JP are sort of equally okay, though I might give the English a small edge due to Vandham sounding much better). The main issue with XC2 is that there are simply too many bad/poorly directed voice lines that just take me out of any scene in which they happen. With the JP I never have to worry about that - everything is just universally solid and always fits the characters in question.
Also English XC2 doesn't get kansai dialect Zeke/Pandoria, which is a grave crime.
Sure, the Japanese dub is "objectively" better than the English dub (outside of Azurda and Tora which I genuinely can't stand) but it also sounds... kind of generic to my ears (a good example is Nia who went from sounding like "generic anime cat girl #386" in Japanese to "welsh cat noises" in English).
Ultimately, I'd much rather use an "inferior" English dub where I can actually notice stuff like people from different titans having different accents (which I personally can't notice in Japanese) and where I'm able to understand dialogue that isn't given subtitles.
@@TheIvoryDingo I'm probably biased some because I know Japanese pretty well (so details about the way people speak are more obvious), though I've heard similar opinions from people who don't as much. I think that most of the dub voices are completely fine and that the thing with the different accents was a neat idea. There's just something "off" about the voice direction that wasn't a problem in XC1 (which had one of the best English dubs I've encountered in a JRPG, surprising given the relatively niche nature of the game when it originally came out).
@@BenkaiDebussy The reason some of the lines in XC2 aren't so good is because it was the first major role for most of the main cast, including the person who played Rex, who is the biggest person people complain about. This is also why the quality of the voice work is higher at the end of the game than the beginning - they recorded their lines in order, so they were litterally better at voice acting when they recorded that part of the game.
Note that some of the VAs were veterans of the industry (for example, the Tantalese palace guards have lines recorded by Shulk's VA), which is why some characters are more consistently played well, including many of the people with less screen time.
@@TheIvoryDingo I've heard this complain about Nia's japanese voice being "generic" so many times but I have to disagree, her voice is GREAT in japanese and it actually fits her character design, which in English it actually doesn't, at all. Her English voice and accent can be very unique but it's too deep for her character. And don't get me wrong, there are plenty of good voices that fits their character in the game, but Nia isn't one of them (the other one it's Adam which sounds way too older than his actual age in Torna).
@@andr0zzsenpai "Too deep for her character"? Really? That's the argument you're going with? Because I would say I prefer what we got over someone speaking as high pitched as the Japanese version (works fine in Japanese but often just sounds really off in English).
Heck, I've met girls in high school who had deeper voices than Nia (while still looking "normal").
Out of all the Knights of the Round why did they go with Percival? There were other options for tortured wandering nights.
I mean I can understand it in some cases (like I got introduced to digimon through finnish dub that used japanese names, so those just make more sense to me :p and english version is very different in tone) but at same time I find localization purists kinda annoying because they tend to take radical stance of "0 changes". When this is really one of those "somewhere between faithful to original and adapted to audience is best" things.
I wouldn't say ALL of the aegis have invented names. Pneuma and mythra (based on Mithra) are real words that work well as names due to the elements that they represent. Although I assume you already know this
god i love garbulio
His name is Garbulio
Please let's just not call "localization purists" people who evidently don't have a clue what localization is supposed to do. Using the exact same names that derive from symbolism referencing a culture that is literally all the way across the world without a modicum of cultural adaptation is not "purist localization", it's copy-pasting.
I always read it as A-mal-thus, as in without malice, as if the name was a title he took on after he resonated with Malos and transferred the evil in his heart into his blade. Though given what happened obviously that didn't actually work
This is similar to what I thought. It initially supposed to be like amal, a as in without, without malice, without bad.
But with the possible meaning of a mal, a as in being, a malice, a bad. And "thus" is simply a word
Not watched vid yet(will be back,busy) but I call dib on that you will talk about Malthusian Theory on Resource etc
cause I was studying it VS Boserup's Theory. Just wanted to do this for no reason.
If you really wanted to shoehorn it in you could make a point for ama (as in amare) and altus or a play on alter, (as in high and other, or others), making it a bit punny because his leading position in Indol and his facade being someone who loves people and wants to help them. But that's just me reading too much into it besides the amalthea and malthus explanation
Does anybody know who named the blades? Do they come to life with the name or is it given to them?
After checking out other comments.
I think Marubeni could be read as "Malubeni".
Mal (u) beni.
Could mean "bad crimson"
But assuming it isn't actually Japanese...
Mal = bad, evil. Or crazy. Or wrong (all depends on the language
(French) beni = blessed, or to bless.
His name could've been "bad blessing"
Or "badwrong". "Evilwrong"
ill blessing.
Crazy blessing.
Or maybe in an alternate timeline his name would've been Praetor Malibu?
Destruction is Mallus power. Also fits with his ending being him wanting to destroy the world to prove its worth saving. His basically a combination of Jesus and Shiva. Mallus is a tad to absolutely bad for someone that isn’t bad or good. So destruction fits his actual character a bit deeper just way less subtle. Though Yin and yang kind of lost in translation in blade 2 and in one is so vague you have to google the actual definition and how Zanza and Mayneth play with that troupe.
Now that I think about it, "malveni", pronounced in japanese "marubeni", sounds like a japanese pronounciation of french "mal béni", literally "badly/wrongly blessed", and could be used as an expression to say someone's unfortunate, ill-fated.
Though I really doubt that's what they were going for, it's still weirdly fitting.
and so he managed to make a non xenoblade 3 video. Good shit.
In terms of voice acting i always prefer the English cast for Xenoblade, its nice to hear my native accent for once instead of the usual generic american cast that voices everything outta Japan, it gives the game a unique feel to it unlike any other JRPG out there and has honestly helped it establish its own identity
Yo it's Garbulio
marubeni could have been a play with the Latin words for good and bad, Malo, Beni
What were the original face names’ translations.
Marubeni could be an attempt of merging the italian/Latin words "Male" (bad) and "bene" (good).
What are Perceval’s Xenoblade X references?
I don't really care about localized names tbh I mean half the time I like them more just sucks to have character art split between names
Amalthus = Marvin
Pyra works as a name, as, like Homura, it references fire. Mythra however does not have any obvious reference to light in the English-speaking world, while Hikari does in Japanese.
That's because they changed the names to be white friendly. The "retaining their meanings" shit is stuff they just made up.
I assumed that Malos comes from "malice"
My understanding is that Marubēni is a combination of the Latin roots "mal" (bad) and "bene" (well) to signify the complexity of Amalthus's character. It's not really a reference.
Edit: that's to say the Japanese name DOES have a meaning, and a pretty relevant one at that. It's not some nonsense or a simply Italian sounding name. So the English localization doesn't really "add" meaning to the name. It simply changes it, like some other names that you talked about in the video, so I respectfully disagree with the idea that the name Amalthus is superior in that sense. But I appreciate the dive into localization--it's a really hard job and many really overlook the complexity that gets involved.
Okay but in all fairness, if Amalthus was named something like "Badgood", it'd be near-impossible for me to take him seriously.
@@ninjapotatolorf6237 that's why good localization is still important and it's great that his name isn't Badwell.
@@ninjapotatolorf6237 as opposed to Malos who's literally called "bad"
@@regionfuego6 the difference is that Malos leans into the "Over-the-Top Villain" trope with his obviously evil name, and is an absolute ham for the entire game. He's entertaining to the point where I nearly forget he's supposed to be the big bad
The name Benimaru from Japanese translates to "Crimson Circle."
Poppi is another good change. Her Japanese name, Hana, means "flower". Just flower. Compared to "poppy", a spesific type of flower, which is more interesting.
The only problem I have with the name changes is Tora and Torna. Tora stayed the same, but "ira" was changed to "Torna" which creates too similar name to "Tora". And even Tora's name means "Tiger" (His skin is a tiger skin, and his mini game called "tiger"). They should have a least change Tora's name too.
While that is a fairly good point, I don't believe anyone ever confused the name of a perverted Nopon to that of a terrorist group in-game.
What is this??? A video not focused on Xenoblade 3 update? That’s Crazy!!!
ehy, italian here
as far as i know we don't have a single last name that sounds remotely close to marubeni/malveni/malwhatever, i'm sorry
"Spoilers for no other game in the xeno series"
Spoils gears a minute later 😭 I just started playing that shit too
Marubeni could be a few things imo.
It could be a bastardization of a japanese name referencing another language, in this case, Beni being Beni(ficial) or Beni(diction)[another pope reference] and Maru being a popular suffix in male japanese names, so Benimaru, but backwards because, y'know, he bad.
Or engrish for Marvin, cuz he look like a Martian lmao
So if someone's name is "Tyrone" what retarded "Hidden meaning" does their name have so when it's changed to a non black name like Kevin we can make sure it's the right one?
Or do we only change Asian names?
@@Jourmand1r Its not because its asian its because its in a jrpg thats high off its own symbolism and most of the important character names have some sort of outside reference.
Maybe you could have came to that conclusion yourself if you spent more than two seconds rubbing your extra chromosomes together
Damn, Thomas Malthus was really ahead of his time.
marubeni マルベーニ sounds like benimaru like the name of a character from fire force ベニマルor slime isekai
Benimaru ( 紅丸 ( ベニマル ) , benimaru, lit. "Crimson Circle"
I'm a big fan of localization and especially dubbing as an art form. Some of my actual real life heroes are dub actors, like Mario Castañeda (the Latin American voice of Goku).
Haven't watched the video. I have no problem with name localization, but they have to find how to not make it confusing for people who play with Japanese dubs and English text.
Context. It can't be that hard to figure out who's who
@@thomastakesatollforthedark2231 not when they changed literally every singe foreign sounding name lmao
Garbulio
instead of change I read cheese
Yeah, occasionally English translators/localisation teams can do a much better job than the original Japanese - just look at Pokémon Gen 1 for example; Articuno, Zapdos, Moltres? In Japan, they're literally Freezer, Thunder, and Fire - LAME. Charmeleon and Charizard are Lizardo and Lizardon; boring. Kakuna, Beedrill, Pidgeotto? Cocoon, Spear, Pidgeon; yawn.
yes I am a localisation purist, as in i support every change they make and don't care at all what something is called in Japanese :)
Really takes me out when they get rid of all the Ultraman references.
Mar(u)beni... Mal... Ben... "Evil" and "good" caked into one name, so a sort of "Beyond Good and Evil" character? Both at the same time because twinity needs to be a thing? I dunno, I still prefer Wilhelm as a character.
Just I prefer the english translation for the aegis's name. I can't take Homura or Hikari seriously. Sorry...
Hum... I fell that Sharla is a waste name change. Karna really don't work here too but Carla do. And it is a real name and fits her perfecly.
IDK WHAT THIS GAME IS but sounds cool
Wait, Amalthea cleanses core crystals? How? You get them straight from enemies! If that was a plot point in the game, I completely missed it.
It very much was. Cleansing them makes it so it's easier for people to resonate with them.
And also other reasons, I think.
People don't find names offensive or weird anymore, and you have to do the same search about Amalthus, Marubëni, or any other name out there except very common ones so i really don't see the point doing this with names. We are a google search away from preventing any misunderstood or weird choice cringe. Come on Japan, it's 2023. People could learn a thing or two in the process too! I feel like there is no need to do this kind of thing anymore, but japanese developers are overly concern about this things. Maybe an habit from the past.