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Topics - IceBurner

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Retranslation of Chrono Trigger / The racing cat
« on: October 02, 2007, 06:11:09 pm »
If I may: Regarding the racing kitty at the Milennium Festival; "Thrown-Down Dinah" is pretty awkward.  After reading the translation notes on this, I would liek to suggest that there's an English term that is much less a transliteration, makes a good deal of sense when read, and even has professional precedent: "turnabout".

While I can't say for sure they are the same Japanese term (I haven't seen both Japanese scripts), Capcom uses a word with a very similar meaning in Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney.  The titular character, Phoenix, is known for turning a hopeless situation into a sudden, amazing victory; coming from behind and winning.  Capcom's chosen, very natural English term for this is "turnabout".

All of the cases in the Ace Attorney games are titled "Turnabout" something-or-other in English, and I remember translation notes by knowledgable players who had imported the bi-lingual Japanese DS versions that the Japanese case names included a word that had many potential meanings but in this context referred to unexpectedly pulling ahead from behind to achieve victory (also why the main character was renamed "Phoenix", though the rebirth thing is less obvious).

Purely out of curiosity, I wonder if this kitty's name uses the same term as what was translated as "Abandon" for the Ninja's evasion-raising counter-ability in FF Tactics.  I seem to recall "to throw down" being one of many possible meanings given by people trying to make sense out of the pile of "Engrish" that made it into the original release by retranslating the oddball words and phrases.

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