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This page began as an exercise in translating the titles of video and arcade games and expanded from there. Some titles can't be translated as much as borrowed in transliterated form. What exactly is a "Bosconian", for instance? The word brings to mind the Italian word "bosco" (forest), but the game doesn't have anything to do with forests. So a title like this could just be borrowed as is. Making assumptions about the correct pronunciation, this could be "Baskónian" in Minza, but Minza goes with the spelling in this case and calls it "Boskóniæn". The exact form of the borrowing is decided on a case by case basis. Other names of this sort:
"Katamari Damacy" (塊魂 in Japanese) could be translated, but the title isn't translated in the English version, so why not just borrow the name directly in Minza? "katamari damaši" follows the Japanese pronunciation "katamari damashī" (Minza doesn't mark long vowels).
Then there are names which can be translated in part. "Pac-Man" could have the "man" part translated. "Pokémon" is short for "Pocket Monsters", which could be translated. But it might be best just to borrow these names: Pækmæn, Pokemon. (Pokemon follows the stress pattern of English /'pokiman/, since I don't know how the name is stressed in Japanese. But "poketto", the Japanese word for pocket, has the high pitch on the second syllable.)
"Sly Cooper" is the name of the main character of the game, so even though "sly" and "cooper" are English words, "Slay Kupør" seems like a more appropriate name. Other games named after the main character include:
"The Legend of Zelda" is "Zeruda no Densetsu" (ゼルダの伝説) in Japanese, which is simply Japanese for "The Legend of Zeruda" (Zeruda being the Japanese way of pronouncing Zelda). "Legend" translates as "ninzyl", but should it be "Ninzyl Zeldat" or "Ninzyl Zerudat"? Even though the game is Japanese, the name Zelda is borrowed in the first place, so it makes sense to just borrow the name Zelda as is: Ninzyl Zeldat
Other games which include a character name plus one or more words that can be translated:
"Baten Kaitos" is an interesting case. It happens to be the name of a star in the constellation Cetus. A book on star names that I have (Richard Hinckley Allen, Star Names: Their Lore and Meaning) gives the source of this name as the Arabic "Al Baṭn al Ḳaiṭos", meaning "the Whale's Belly". Final clusters in Minza are broken up by inserting "e" or "ø", thus "batøn" for Arabic "baṭn" would be appropriate. Minza doesn't have any of the emphatic Arabic consonants, so "Batøn Kaytos" or "Batøn Ketos" would work (depending on how the Arabic might have been pronounced). Since "Kaitos" looks similar to the Latin "cetus", the Minza name of the star (and the game) is Batøn Ketos.
There are so many things to collect in this game that it would take many pages to describe them all. Here I will focus on the names of the Prince's cousins and second cousins from both Katamari Damacy games. (Follow this link for pictures of these characters with their Japanese names.) Most of these names are fairly straightforward to translate, since they are the same in English and Japanese: Ace (エース), Lalala (ラララ), Nik (ニック), Johnson (ジョンソン), and so on. Even the names that are meaningful in Japanese, such as Ichigo ("strawberry") and Kinoko ("mushroom"), should probably be left untranslated. But there are a few names with slight differences between the English and Japanese versions. Huey is Wāi (ワーイ) in Japanese, possibly referring to his shape (which could be compared to the letter Y). Nutsuo is Natsuo (ナツオ) in Japanese, not Nutsuo (ヌツオ) as might be expected. This may be explained by the fact that Nutsuo is shaped like a peanut shell. And other names are totally different, such as Bosu (ボス) for the second cousin named Drooby in the English version. Another name of particular interest is not a cousin or second cousin, but the King of All Cosmos, Ousama (王様). In the "end credits" of We ♡ Katamari (the game's not over yet!), you can clearly hear the diphthong "ou" in Ousama pronounced as /ou/ rather than /o:/. The Minza translation Óusama follows this pronunciation.
Cousins
Second Cousins
The name "Pokémon" is a Japanese abbreviation of the English phrase "pocket monsters". Since "poketto", the Japanese word for "pocket", has a high pitch on the second syllable, it's possible that "Pokémon" could be stressed in the same way, but it's likely that the accent on the "é" is just there to remind English speakers to pronounce it as "eh". (The anglicized pronunciation of /ˈpokiman/ seems to be more common, though.) Following the English stress pattern, the Minza name of the game (and the monsters themselves) is Pokemon.
Translating the names of Pokémon can be as much of an interesting exercise as catching them. Many Pokémon have original Japanese names that are different from the translated English names, and the translations in German, French, and Korean are often quite different. As one example, the original Japanese name of Venusaur is フシギバナ fushigibana, which is said to be derived from 不思議な花 fushigi na hana, meaning "strange flower". The German, French, and Korean names are Bisaflor, Florizarre, and 이상해꽃 isanghaekkoch (Bulbapedia is my main source for the non-English names and their meanings.) These Japanese characters can be translated into luakí, resulting in the name Dažebirei as the Minza equivalent of "Venusaur". Similar translations can be done with other names; Machop for instance is ワンリキー wanrikī in Japanese, from 腕力 wanryoku (physical strength, literally "arm strength"). The luakí for "arm strength" is Tšalbar. But Pikachu is Pikachu in all languages (even Korean: 피카츄), so Pikatšu is the corresponding Minza name. It's tempting to translate it as something meaning "sparklesqueak", but everyone recognizes the Japanese name.
Examples of Pokémon names in English, Minza, and Japanese:
The Zelda games have a mix of names from various sources, including English (even in the Japanese version). For instance, the Master Sword is simply マスターソード masutā sōdo in Japanese. In cases like this, Minza follows the English pronunciation: Mæstør Sord. Other names are derived from mythology: Epona (Celtic goddess of horses), Anubis (Egyptian god of the underworld). If the original pronunciations of these names can be found, they can be used, but Epóna, Anúbis should be sufficiently recognizable. In other cases, the Japanese name clarifies the pronunciation of the English translation: Hyrule is ハイラル hairaru in Japanese, not ハイルール hairūru as might be expected. The Minza translation Xayrøl takes clues from both the Japanese and English spellings of the name. One surprise is that the "skull" in Skulltula and the "stal" in Stalfos come from what appears to be the same original Japanese element スタル sutaru. To emphasize this similarity, the Minza translations consistently represent this element as "stal": Staltšura, Stalfos.
Characters, people
Enemies, creatures
Weapons and useful items
See also the partial Zelda walkthrough, which gives a one-paragraph description of Kokiri Forest in an earlier version of Minza.
