Eyes on Final Fantasy Forums > Final Fantasy: The Quickening > Final Fantasy VII > Retranslation Project of FF7 IN PROGRESS

[seiferalmasy2]

That is no typo, seems to be more the level of education the translators were at

[Zeromus_X]

Tbh, I'm not sure why you wouldn't use "element" for zokusei. Many games use elements that aren't the "classical elements", and the word element still makes sense in this case; element doesn't have to just refer to those. I'd go with "element" or "attribute" for that since anything else just wouldn't make much sense.

RPGs commonly translate it as "element" or "attribute" or similar to begin with, so calling it a mistranslation or fault of FFVII's localization crew is a bit of a stretch. Here's an example of a Tales game translating the word (from two different translations):

[seiferalmasy2]

There is no "element" in the translated word....therefore to call it that (when ebverybody knows the 4 elements) can't be seen as anything other than erroneous imho

[Zeromus_X]

The "attribute" meaning of the word can certainly be "element", and in video games, this is precisely what elements are and the word is often translated as (again, the word element doesn't always refer to the four classical elements, in fact another meaning of the word is attribute). It just seems rather silly to not use the word element when the word is commonly translated that way just because "it's incorrect".

[seiferalmasy2]

There are many things that have become the norm, but had they meant element, they would have used the japanese symbol for it (they must have one)

I have no authority to go with it because it is commonly used. From day 1, I have made sure to stick to accuracy over canon....

(there are some exceptions with 1 or 2 character names)

[The Summoner of Leviathan]

Did a quick bit of research, ぞくせい (zokusei) can be written in a few ways in Japanese. While the game may utilize kana to spell the word, the listing above consisted of translations of a homonyms. The kanji make the difference clear.

Note, all these words are "zokusei" but just different ways to spelling it (i.e. homonyms):

属性 -attribute
族生 -growing in clusters (plants), growing gregariously
俗世 -this world, mundane world, earthly life
俗姓 -secular name (priest's)

So given the context, like Zero said "attribute" is a good translation. Also, "element" works fine. "Element" traditionally means a part, aspect, an attribute of something. It can mean the classical elements but that is just one meaning. Also, the Japanese have 5 elements based on Buddhist ideas (earth, fire, water, air, and void/space). The "Classical Elements" (earth, fire, water and air) are products of pre-Socratic Greek philosophy as far as I can remember.

Also, dictionaries are not the be-all-end-all for translations, sometimes being less literal helps people understand better.

Oh, and for them not using the "Japanese symbol" (i.e. kanji) for "element" or whatever they wanted "zokusei" to mean, it has to do with the target age of the game. Simply put, the older the audience the more kanji they use. Also, it could simply be convention not to us kanji for that word to. Hard to know which.

[seiferalmasy2]

ah yes. Element of something rather than "element"

The problem lies that "element" will always be confused with the classical elements and since the game is using these classical elements as well, it gets tricky to use that word.

Attributes seems much better as it leaves no ambiguity.

I haven't checked the dialogue yet to see how it is referred to there. This was only taken from "elemental" materia... so in this case it is clearly making gravity an "element" whereas I think attribute would be more logical.

[seiferalmasy2]

Another translator joined the team He concurs with Attribute because they would have used another word for element.

Any case, Ryu, I hope you will give your input to the items that need to be voted upon.

I will go with a majority ona few things. There are 3 main translators. So if the vote is tied I will decide.