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Why did they call gestahl gastra in another version?

Why call kefka cefka?

Why change the names of the espers?

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We are stardust.Our bodies are made from the guts of exploding stars.

Neil Degrasse Tyson.

Because translation from Japanese to English is not an exact science, and everyone who knows Japanese thinks they can do it better than the next guy. Pretty easy, really, and I doubt either one of your first two examples is "wrong."

I don't remember seeing "Gastra" and "Cefka" in any official version of the game, but I do know that my Kefka statue says "Cefka" on its box.

Simple answer, though, is in my first paragraph. Why would someone do it? Because they think they can do it better. There's a lot of that in Final Fantasy VI circles in particular.

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"To create something great, you need the means to make a lot of really bad crap." - Kevin Kelly

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Which in turn implies its due to inconsistencies in staff. I highly doubt Ted Woosly, as infamously "terrible" as he was would flip-flop between spelling it with a K and a C: It'd just be a rather indecisive, pointless and unprofessional thing to do.

Since the "Final Fantasy VI Grand Finale" soundtrack spells it Cefca, I'd say the translator(s) who handle the related merchandising department may very well be a different person than the person responsible for making the game. They may have different preferences or have a interpretation of the pronunciation. More importantly, since they're uninvolved with the main line of products, I'd presume they might not be so skilled as the person who's officially responsible for translating the games themselves, as a method of cutting corners for products that're not as wordy, more easily overlooked and less profitable in nature.

In my own opinion, Kefka looks to fit the aesthetic qualities of the english language better and leaves no ambiguity as to the pronunciation. Kefka himself also seems to be a more european person, at least to me, so a western stylization is probably preferable. Additionally, since the main game has recently had a major translation overhaul and kept the original spelling, it's most likely the most correct way to translate it. For all of these reasons, I'd personally just consider Kefka to be the official translation of his name and just chalk up the other spellings as a mistake/oversight, only paying them mind to refer to the exact product in which they were used.

This post has been edited by Tonepoet on 3rd February 2010 21:01

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Role reversal at its finest.

Quote (Rangers51 @ 3rd February 2010 16:13)

Because translation from Japanese to English is not an exact science, and everyone who knows Japanese thinks they can do it better than the next guy. Pretty easy, really, and I doubt either one of your first two examples is "wrong."

I don't remember seeing "Gastra" and "Cefka" in any official version of the game, but I do know that my Kefka statue says "Cefka" on its box.

Simple answer, though, is in my first paragraph. Why would someone do it? Because they think they can do it better. There's a lot of that in Final Fantasy VI circles in particular.

Yeah, and Woolsey took quite a bit of liberty at certain parts, but I guess the only way we could know how much is by learning Japanese. When you think about it, since it's a fantasy game, there's no reason not to use Gastra. But I suppose Gestahl sounds better than Gastra in the English language.

As for Kefka versus Cefka, there are two posible reasons that I personally could come up with. One reason may have been a simple stylistic choice, since he is the villain and "K" has a more course sound than "C". Another reason, however, may be that they used K instead of C to make his name more like Kafka. Franz Kafka seems to have a few ties with Kefka, the name being one, and the other being Metamorphosis (title of a piece of music in FFVI, and the title of one of Kafka's books).

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Praise Be To Helix!

Quote (BlitzSage @ 3rd February 2010 16:03)

Yeah, and Woolsey took quite a bit of liberty at certain parts, but I guess the only way we could know how much is by learning Japanese.

My point is that it's not even that simple. Even people who know Japanese wouldn't necessarily agree 100% on any translation. Even translators going from western language to another, with all the common roots, don't necessarily agree all the time. The thing is that every translator thinks he or she is the one that's right, when there's only different interpretations of what is "right" a lot of the time.

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"To create something great, you need the means to make a lot of really bad crap." - Kevin Kelly

Why aren't you shopping AmaCoN?

In Japan, they called him "Cefca" because they couldn't really say "K" or that's what translated reviews from gamer magazines say. They also mentioned that it was a more popular version of "Kefka".

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I find that to be a highly dubious reasoning, mostly because the Japanese are entirely capable of pronouncing the K sound. Neko is the japanese word for cat, Sakura is the word for cherry blossom, Kirin is the name of a japanese mythical beast that appears as an Esper in Final Fantasy VI, -ko is also a commonplace ending for a girl's name and Marisa Kirisame's surname would be rather hard to come up with, as would Kiki's Delivery Service. This is to all to say nothing of Kiki Kaikai, which would be almost completely and utterly unitelligable to them.

It's rather funny really because I had an entirely different post lined up to illustrate plausible deniability to the idea that a creator's linguistic skills determined the limits to a character's name solely to what they can think up, right up until I remembered this. I'd post it still since it's a point I've brought up in other discussions of the sort before but it's not really something that's relevant to this discussion yet so I won't, at least not now anyway.

This post has been edited by Tonepoet on 4th February 2010 05:57

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Role reversal at its finest.

The games in English have been consistent about character names. I'll be suprised if there are any official products intended for the English speaking markets with the words 'Cefka' or 'Gastra' on them. As for Espers, for some reason their names were not considered too classic to change, so some names were put more in line with the Japanese version.

Next topic: linguistics and Japanese. The letter 'c' is weird in English. You can substitute it with something else and preserve the pronunciation. In all the schemes for Japanese-English transliteration that I know of, the letter 'c' only appears in 'ch-' morae (cha, chi, che, cho, chu). For everything else, 'k-' or 's-' is more sensible. 'Kefka' as we're accustomed to it is more standard, for as much as it matters.

I don't know how Japanese people percieve the letter 'c'... maybe it seems exotic?

But anyway... Kefka is Cefka because someone in Japan liked it that way. It's kind of peripheral, really; it's more important that 'Kefka' is 'ケフカ'. And Gastra is Geshtahl in English because Woolsey liked it that way. It wasn't a bad idea.

This post has been edited by Shiva Indis on 4th February 2010 18:00

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"Cavefish is delicious, but only if cooked."

Hmm ok the liking the name makes sense.

Why change the name of the espers though?

migdar instead of terrato and i don-t remember the others.


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We are stardust.Our bodies are made from the guts of exploding stars.

Neil Degrasse Tyson.

I figured you weren't reading my posts...

Quote (Shiva Indis)

As for Espers, for some reason their names were not considered too classic to change, so some names were put more in line with the Japanese version.

Okay, no more snark from me... time to try and make the post meaningful. Terrato is Midgardsormr because it's closer to the Japanese version that way. Same with how Palidor is Quetzalli, Starlet is Lakshmi, etc.

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"Cavefish is delicious, but only if cooked."

English is not my first language so when I see Cefka I pronounce it Sefka, Kefka is the same. Tidus surprised me, it's pronounced the same way I read it, instead of Tie-dus or I don't know how it would be.

About the espers, I'm not going to repeat what Shiva said, instead here is a question: which version do you like better?

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"Love, and do what you will" Saint Augustine

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I find that to be a highly dubious reasoning, mostly because the Japanese are entirely capable of pronouncing the K sound. Neko is the japanese word for cat, Sakura is the word for cherry blossom, Kirin is the name of a japanese mythical beast that appears as an Esper in Final Fantasy VI, -ko is also a commonplace ending for a girl's name and Marisa Kirisame's surname would be rather hard to come up with, as would Kiki's Delivery Service. This is to all to say nothing of Kiki Kaikai, which would be almost completely and utterly unitelligable to them.

It's rather funny really because I had an entirely different post lined up to illustrate plausible deniability to the idea that a creator's linguistic skills determined the limits to a character's name solely to what they can think up, right up until I remembered this. I'd post it still since it's a point I've brought up in other discussions of the sort before but it's not really something that's relevant to this discussion yet so I won't, at least not now anyway.

I said they used "C" because it was a lesser used version.

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They also mentioned that it was a more popular version of "Kefka".

I have to agree with Shiva Indis. He/she sorta cleared up what I meant by it:

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I don't know how Japanese people percieve the letter 'c'... maybe it seems exotic?

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A Magitek Elite knight! :P

Bringing back what crashed. A FFVI community!