Lore, Translations, etc.

[Shvegait]

Hey, I'm new here. Doesn't seem very active nowadays, but the game is so old it's amazing this board exists

I've always found it interesting how 80+% of the names in the game come directly from Spanish, and most of the rest seem to come from Japanese (or maybe they are fictional, but since the game was originally Japanese, they are Japanese-sounding). Some of the words seem like English but their Spanish counterparts make more sense in terms of the game. I've also found it interesting how there are a number of things that got messed up from the translation. It's kind of funny when Spanish gets translated into Japanese and then back into Spanish again. These mistranslations seem to be most prevalent in the speech of the town's NPCs.

So, I don't know if people would be interested in discussing this stuff, finding all the mistranslations, etc. but I figured I'd post some of the stuff that I've looked up in my Spanish-English dictionary and some of the names that I haven't been able to figure out. Almost all the words are logical. If a word has multiple definitions, I'm just listing the one(s) that make(s) sense in context.

Spells:
Espada - sword
Saeta - arrow, dart
Fuego - fire
Lanzar - to throw, cast, fling, hurl
Rascar - to scrape, scratch
Agua - water
Guerra - war*

*Why didn't they use the spanish word for lightning?
Well, relámpago is a bit long don't you think? Besides there is already an R, Rascar.


Towns:
Muralla - wall, rampart
Satono - none*
Bosque - forest
Helada - frost
Tumba - tomb
Dorado - golden
Llama - flame
Pureza - purity
Esco - none**

*I have no proof, but I believe there was a little vowel mix-up. In spanish sótano means "basement", "cellar", or "vault". The name of this town should probably be Sotano but we got Satono instead.

**Escondite and escondrijo mean "hiding place" or "hideout", very appropriate for Esco village.


Caverns:
Malicia - malice
Peligro - danger
Madera - wood
Riza - curl/curly
Escarcha - hoarfrost
Glacial - glacial, icy (Glaciar - glacier)
Corroer - to corrode
Cementar - to case-harden, cement
Tesoro - treasure
Plata - silver
Caliente - hot
Reaccion - reaction (actually reacción)
Correr - to run, to flow (as in air currents. Current in Spanish is corriente)
Arrugia - gold mine
Absor - none* (??)
Milagro - miracle
Desleal - disloyal
Falter - none** (??)
Final - final, last

*I have no idea what these could be! Anyone have any ideas?

**Faltar means "to lack" and can also mean "to falter", maybe it could be that?


Bosses:
Cangrejo - crab
Pulpo - octopus
Pollo - chicken
Agar - a gelatinous material derived from certain marine algae (same in Spanish and English)
Vista - sight, vision
Tarso - tarsus*
Paguro - hermit crab**
Dragon - dragon (actually dragón)
Alguien - someone, anybody

I find Alguien to be quite a humorous name selection...

*I have a strong feeling that this is supposed to be Torso, since this boss has no head, and torso in Spanish is simply torso. Tarsus is a part of the foot, which does not make sense for this boss.

**Theory: maybe Paguro was supposed be a version of Cangrejo and not a version of Agar. It was changed later, but the name was kept. Maybe?

Misc.:
Almas - souls
Holy Water of Acero, Acero - steel
Magia Stone, Magia - magic


There may be a few things that I've missed. If someone wants to add or correct anything, go ahead. Most of the other names seem to be either Japanese or fictional. If anyone has any information on which come from Japanese, if any, post it!


As for the mistranslations or mistransliterations (that is, Latin characters -> Japanese characters -> Latin characters), I only remember a few right now:
Malicia is referred to at times as Maricia.
Silkarn is referred to as Shirukaano by someone in Dorado town.
Plata is referred to as Burata by someone in Dorado.
The statue referred to by someone in Dorado is "Taruso", but the boss is named Tarso.

There are more, though, I'm positive.

Btw, nice forum

[Mike]

THANX!!!
A great contribution!

[Jashiin]

Falter I believe is something like mistake, like you said "to falter". Maybe same word in spanish or they used an english name.

Satono might be related to Satan, dunno.

I believe Helada is how the romans called Greece. Could it be related to today's spanish word frost? LMAO. I guess it's the roman way to say "Greece is cool".

You're probably right about Torso - Tarso.

About the citizens, I think they are meant to say it wrong so that when you find it you know it was what they were talking about. They probably don't know it right. That's why they call the Enchantment Sword the "Sword of the fairy flame".

Any ideas about the shoes?

Ruzeria, Pirika, Silkarn, Asbestos, Feruza? Asbestos is fire-proof materia, Silkarn probably means silky - made of silk. Others?

[Shvegait]

I thought I said this. The word "falter" in Spanish is faltar with an "a" not an "e". It's not a big deal really, it's close enough...

Satan in Spanish is Satanás. Satanic is satánico

If you look at the names of the towns, they ALL (except maybe Pureza...) correspond to the area they are in. I don't think satanic fits for this area. Basement makes more sense because it is a dungeon below Muralla.

(Remember, this game was translated from Japanese so errors like these can happen!)


About Helada:

From Wikipedia:

Hellas/Ellas/Ellada (Greek name): means "land of light" and is related to helios meaning "sun".

The above makes more sense than frost/cool considering Greece's location and prosperity. But maybe they were making a double reference to Greece or something.


About the citizens, that's a nice little theory, but my guess is that they had different people doing the translations for the villagers and the caverns, etc. The people doing the caverns, etc. tried to retrieve the original meaning, while the people doing the villagers just did a transliteration (just taking the hiragana/katakana characters and turning them into the latin letters that would make the same sound in English).

Or you could say that maybe the current villagers are Japanese but their ancestors were Spanish


I couldn't find anything about the shoes, though. They're definitely not Spanish (they don't use the k character. And Silkarn doesn't sound Spanish anyway).

I did a Google search on "Ruzeria" and the only results (any language) were about Zeliard, so I'm guessing the names may have just been made up (except Asbestos of course), but really I have no idea.

[dantheus]

No real addition. Just wanted to discover other zeliard-er's. Zeliard Forever! I will pass this game down to my kids

[sagaris]

I have found that some monsters in the caverns were got from indean folklore. For example, the red toad that sets objects aflame with its gaze, the immortal flying head. And Alguien seems to be the close relative to Castaneda/Toltec "Guardian" which is a gargantuan mosquito. Dorado also hints to.