2nd July 2008, 7:50 PM
I'm absolutely not joking, I find it pretty boring when fantasy stories use normal, real-world names... when naming characters in fantasy games I NEVER use normal English names. I always try to come up with something new or use something interesting.
The Japanese agree, of course. You said it yourself, the reason they used those names was because to them they are foreign and intresting. The same goes for Final Fantasy VI, where Terra was originally called "Tina"; they changed her name because they wanted to keep the exotic quality, and Tina certainly is not an exotic name in America.
As for Edward, etc, obviously they thought that one of the main characters was most important... you are right that it's interesting that the other names didn't get similar treatments, though.
Some games kept standard names, like Lloyd in Tales of Symphonia, but that should be taken as a case of why you shouldn't do that...
The Japanese agree, of course. You said it yourself, the reason they used those names was because to them they are foreign and intresting. The same goes for Final Fantasy VI, where Terra was originally called "Tina"; they changed her name because they wanted to keep the exotic quality, and Tina certainly is not an exotic name in America.
As for Edward, etc, obviously they thought that one of the main characters was most important... you are right that it's interesting that the other names didn't get similar treatments, though.
Some games kept standard names, like Lloyd in Tales of Symphonia, but that should be taken as a case of why you shouldn't do that...