Sorry for double posting on another room. I'm new here...
I'd like to talk to the translator. While I admire you for your hard work in translating this for no money, and I too admit that Woosley's translation was full of errors and lots of stuff was left out.... There are some issues with the translation fixes you made.
I realize you want to get the full meaning of what is going on in the Japanese text, but your translation often reads like it is a translation of Japanese. In fact, from reading your English, I can pick out the exact phrase that was used in Japanese without even looking at it.
An example:
「よう、クロノか！
どうした、剣でもならいに来たか？[END]
"Frog: Yo, Crono!
What's wrong, have you come to train swords
skill in swordplay? or something?"
よう is yo? Yea, I probably would have translated it that way too, or maybe just "Hey" or "Whassup?" either way, you need to be consistent because later we have...
カエル「何ッ……！？
王がたおれられた、だと……？[END]
Frog: What......!?
The king has fallen, you say......?
Yes, I know... "you say" is in there because of the だと……？ But people don't talk like that in English... especially if they start their sentences with Yo.
Even "Aw snap! Da king got his ass whupped?" is more appropriate.
I know that's not what you are going for, but when you translate, you still need the translation to sound like normal speech to the audience. It simply doesn't flow right.
That said,... I definately admire all the work you put into it, you fixed most of the major issues that the Woosley translation was lacking in... especially the One of you is close to someone who needs help line. I was thinking like WTF I already did all the optional stuff! Who's left? I always assumed it was refering to Marle's dad.
More suggestions for names... if I had done it.. Well I didn't do it, so i am not complaining, but hear me out.
Janus is not Jyaki, he's Jacky. Schala is Sarah. Just in the same manner that Seiraa Muun is Sailor Moon in English.
That said, if you are going for a more exotic name (which is why I think Woosley picked Schala and Janus) then Jyaki and Sara sound fine... but why bother changing Woosley's names in the first place?
マール (MAARU) I'd have done it as "Maryl". Marle read in English is too ambiguous. Is is Marl? Is it Marlay? Is it Marlee? "Marle" only works if read phonetically in which case it still doesn't look like "マール", rather "マーレ"
エイラ (Eira) I've always thought her name was アイラー in Japanese until I actually played the Japanese cart once. Ayla looks like that. EH-LA might have been good (for stereotypical caveman names like Zok, Boff, ROGG, etc). Not a biggy though.
ROBO... this is going to make people angry I know.. But they named him Robo because of the Japanese convention of taking foreign words and shortening them. EAAKON insteand of Air Conditioner (EAA KONDISYONAA), PASOCON instead Personal Computer (PASONARU KONPYUUTAA). English abbreviation for Robot is BOT! I'd have named him BOT....
Crono... sigh.. They should have allowed 6 characters so we could name him Chrono. Kurono.. We should have named him Blacky haha just kidding.
Lucca is fine, but in Italian versions of the game, that would mean her name is LUCHA.
BOSH TOSH GASH or whatever they are in JApanese...
I understand what Woosley was doing here. BOSH TASH AND GOSH are kind of names that aren't clearly recognizable to a Japanese audience, who would be used to non Japanese names like JAMES TIM NICK AND ROBERT... But they sound stupid in English, not exotic. Gaspar Balthasar and Melchior might not have been my pick, but they are certainly better than transcribing those names. Leonardo, Michaelangelo, Raphael? Sure why not.. That's as good as Woosleys...
Slash Ozzie and Flea. Hehe, Slash is Slash because he Slashes stuff with his sword. That's really the only one that makes sense. Flea? I don't think the bassist of Red Hot Chili Peppers is a crossdressing gayish man. Ozzie Osbourne isn't a bumbling idoiot who can't do anything right either... Hmm... this one is difficult. It's hard to capture the niuance of MAYONE... Slash, Flash and Crash might have been my choice for a retranslation. or maybe Cutty , Strutty, and Nutty. Naming them after condiments is silly in English though.
Masa and Mune.. this I always thought was so stupid because the sword isn't a Japanese sword, and because when you render it as Masamune in English, people say "Massmoon!" I'd have gone with Exca and Libur before Masa and Mune. I never saw the problem with Grand and Leon either.
Doreen.. I don't know if anyone's every gotten this but me, but I always thought it was supposed to sound like the English word "Dream" having been written in katakana. ドリーム... change the mu to an n and it's ドリーン it makes sense cuz she is always talking about dreams. I might be digging deep on this one, but I might have done it as DREAN.
Why would someone name their kids Masa, Mune, and Doreen? That's like ... Falcondra, Locquindar, and Fred.
Hmm anything else?
Woosley's "Eyes Cream" is hillarious.. Crepe is what they said, but give the translator the right to insert a joke here and there.
Your translation is good though... so don't get me wrong, I am not a hater, just keep in mind that sometimes you don't need to change things Woosley did just for the sake of changing them, (ie.. your take on Mt. of Woe.), you don't need to cram every little niuance of the Japanese into English... (such as datte becoming "you say" or "tteka" into "or something") and don't be afraid to add your own flare to it now and then.
Peace
