Japanese or multilingual names in a survival Visual Novel ?

[Dear_Elise 36]

Hey !

So it's just like the title says,

 in a visual novel game which contains anime-like graphics, would you rather see characters with japanese names or names coming from different countries ?

I'm struggling between these two choices !

Knowing that the cast of characters is diversified (like some characters are blond, some dark-skinned, some colorful-haired etc...) is it better to give more diversity by giving names coming from different countries (like egyptian, french, british, russian and a few japanese names)

or is it better to give exclusively japanese names to the characters so that it will fit better the anime-like design?

 

Thank youuu~

[Traverse 144]

Depends on your story and who your target audience is. If your story is set in Japan or the character is meant to have a Japanese background then obviously the name should be Japanese, unless the character is mixed ethnicity or something. If the story doesn't matter but you are trying to market your game to a Japanese playerbase, you're asking in the wrong place, you need to go to some of the Japanese places like the official Japanese TKool forums or somewhere similar. I don't know whether Japanese players like exotic names or familiar ones more.

 

If you are trying to market your game to outside Japan, I can say that apart from anime/manga fans ("Western otaku") and maybe a few bilingual Japanese speakers, the names being in Japanese won't carry any meaning apart from telling people that the character has Japanese heritage. Because most people outside Japan won't understand Japanese or the meaning of the names unless you explain it outright.

 

To me, whether the art style is Japanese anime-like or otherwise doesn't really matter to names. Marvel superheroes have been drawn anime-style and Western style and Tony Stark is still called Tony Stark in Marvel Anime Iron Man (except written with katakana). RWBY is a Western series that uses anime-style graphics and the names of the characters are all based on colors (because of storyline reasons) but are also in a variety of different languages, some are English, some German, some Chinese, some Japanese, etc. So I don't think there's any point basing character names on art style. The meaning of the name and the storyline reason behind it is more important for me.

Edited March 4, 2018 by Traverse

[Dear_Elise 36]

8 minutes ago, Traverse said:

Depends on your story and who your target audience is. If your story is set in Japan or the character is meant to have a Japanese background then obviously the name should be Japanese, unless the character is mixed ethnicity or something. If the story doesn't matter but you are trying to market your game to a Japanese playerbase, you're asking in the wrong place, you need to go to some of the Japanese places like the official Japanese TKool forums or somewhere similar. I don't know whether Japanese players like exotic names or familiar ones more.

 

If you are trying to market your game to outside Japan, I can say that apart from anime/manga fans ("Western otaku") and maybe a few bilingual Japanese speakers, the names being in Japanese won't carry any meaning apart from telling people that the character has Japanese heritage. Because most people outside Japan won't understand Japanese or the meaning of the names unless you explain it outright.

 

To me, whether the art style is Japanese anime-like or otherwise doesn't really matter to names. Marvel superheroes have been drawn anime-style and Western style and Tony Stark is still called Tony Stark in Marvel Anime Iron Man (except written with katakana). RWBY is a Western series that uses anime-style graphics and the names of the characters are all based on colors (because of storyline reasons) but are also in a variety of different languages, some are English, some German, some Chinese, some Japanese, etc. So I don't think there's any point basing character names on art style. The meaning of the name and the storyline reason behind it is more important for me.

 

Really interesting reply ! 

But maybe I could clarify for you so you could give me a clear opinion ?

I want the game to be "marketed" in whichever country, I want everyone to be able to play it (with people translating it in their own language if needed).

Also the game does not happen in any specific country.

Next, the characters are coming from an organization spreading world-widely, with members coming from many different countries.

Now it's also on the aesthetic that I am asking this, like, you know ?

Seeing the list of characters coming from the game, with all the names including, is it more intriguing somehow to see exotic names or japanese-only names ?

On a hand, I feel like japanese names are interesting because you can easily search for the meanings of the kanjis (and it's exotic for non-japanese people, and japanese people can more easily figure out the meaning of the names), and on the other hand, it's interesting to have characters with different cultures and origins.

What do you think dear Traverse ?

[Traverse 144]

41 minutes ago, Dear_Elise said:

I want the game to be "marketed" in whichever country, I want everyone to be able to play it (with people translating it in their own language if needed).

Also the game does not happen in any specific country.

Next, the characters are coming from an organization spreading world-widely, with members coming from many different countries.

Now it's also on the aesthetic that I am asking this, like, you know ?

Seeing the list of characters coming from the game, with all the names including, is it more intriguing somehow to see exotic names or japanese-only names ?

On a hand, I feel like japanese names are interesting because you can easily search for the meanings of the kanjis (and it's exotic for non-japanese people, and japanese people can more easily figure out the meaning of the names), and on the other hand, it's interesting to have characters with different cultures and origins.

 

Firstly, if all the character names are in Japanese but they are meant to come from different parts of the world then I will not be able to immediately know they are foreign or their ethnicity by looking at the names. I will probably assume they are all Japanese because their names are Japanese.

 

Secondly, I hope you didn't mean you were going to leave the names written in kanji if you chose to go with Japanese names. I was assuming that if you went with Japanese names, you meant that you were just going to romanize the kana/kanji into English. I.E. I thought if you had a character named 花 you were going to just call her "Hana" in English instead of using "Blossom" or some other English word that represents the meaning. Leaving it in kanji/kana is a bad idea because I can tell you most people outside Asia won't be able to read the kanji at all. How do you pronounce a name written ""? How do you even type it on a keyboard if you want to search it? At least the romaji "Hana" can be easily searched. But even if it was written in romaji and I was able to type it, let's be honest, many people probably won't think about doing it. There will be many people who just play through the game without knowing what it means and won't care enough to check.

 

Thirdly, if you are to translate into other languages besides Japanese and English, again - you need to go ask the people who speak those languages. I can only tell you what it's like for someone who speaks English. And that is that if I see a Japanese name, I will think the character is Japanese or from Japan unless I get told otherwise...... and then I will wonder why they have a Japanese name if they aren't Japanese and have never been to Japan.

Edited March 4, 2018 by Traverse

[Dear_Elise 36]

Well obviously the names will be in romaji but some of the files and on some parts of the game, it will also contain kanji to show the meaning of their names.

But I see your point, thank you.