________________________________________________________________________________ Utawarerumono Liner Notes ~The One of Whom Legends Are Sung~ A mirror moon and Soylations Joint

Project ________________________________________________________________________________

Table of Contents _______________________________________ I. II. III. Introduction Utawarerumono Translation Notes Japanese Terms 1. Romaji 2. Some common honorifics and suffixes Special Messages From The Staff

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V. Credits _______________________________________

I. Introduction by Ryuusoul _______________________________________ Leaf's Utawarerumono is a combination strategy RPG and visual novel that follows Hakuoro, a man who wakes up in a tiny backwoods village near the mountains with heavy injuries, no memory, and a mask he cannot remove. After being nursed back to health by Eruruw, the girl who found him lying at the point of death in the forest, he starts to view the village as his new home. But when an oppressive ruler threatens the peaceful life of Hakuoro and his newfound friends and family, they find themselves hurtled towards war, chaos, and a destiny far greater than any of them imagined. Utawarerumono has enjoyed a popular anime adaptation, a top-selling voiced PS2 adaptation, drama cds, and a highly successful internet radio show. Now experience a world of creative depth in the original game which made it all possible.

II. Utawarerumono Translation Notes by Ryuusoul _______________________________________ First thing's first: the title. I chose to translate Utawarerumono with the subtitle of "The One of Whom Legends Are Sung". There are many translations of the title which exist, but I wanted one which contained the various nuances in the original Japanese. Utawarerumono literally means "one who is admired" or "one who is exalted". You can think of this as "one whose praises are sung". Nor is this a stretch of a translation. Japanese has numerous kanji (chinese characters) that are often pronounced the same and have almost the same meaning but with a different nuance. With different kanji, Utawarerumono can also mean "one who is being sung". And this doesn't seem too far off the mark, because

as mentioned before, you might sing someone's praises, or in an opposite case, someone might be an "unsung hero". Lastly, the world of Utawarerumono has a very heavy Ainu flavor. In language of the Ainu, an ethnicity native to Japan, the word Utawarerumono is used to refer to their oral traditions and histories which were often sung. And thus, "Utawarerumono: The One of Whom Legends Are Sung" was born. Speaking of Ainu, one of the biggest things anyone will notice about my translation is the... well, weirdness of the names. Eruruw!? Aruruw!? Urtoriy!? This was my attempt to give the game more of an Ainu feel. While not all the words, names, and places fit an Ainu convention, many of them did or were somewhat close. I will admit I heavily borrowed from zalas's naming convention, (thanks) although I threw in a few twists of my own. Japanese is a syllabic language, meaning they mostly pronounce words in syllables, as opposed to English, where there are words that can end in short syllables. This concept is best illustrated in how the Japaneses say McDonald's: Makkudonarudo. Thus when moving in the opposite direction, most of the "filler" vowel sounds have been removed. Mukkuru became Mukkur. Tusukuru became Tuskur. As an interesting note, tuskur in Ainu refers to a shamanistic healer, usually female. In other words, a medicine woman. This doesn't extend to all names, such as Hakuoro, Oboro, or Teoro, but the vast majority of them meet this convention. Yes, various fansub groups and fan sites have their own favorite versions of how these names should be spelled, but I went ahead with my own. For more on the pronunciation and how to read these words, see the next section.

III. Japanese Terms by Ryuusoul _______________________________________ In Utawarerumono, I did my best to try and maintain the feel of the original Japanese. For those unfamiliar with the Japanese language, it is heavily shaded with levels of politeness. There are different ways of talking to seniors, strangers, friends, and variations of intimacy within those levels. Since we wer e lazy... (I mean, since we wanted to keep the feel of the original Japanese), we decided to keep many of the suffixes or titles of address in Japanese. Consequently, a brief primer is necessary for those of you completely lost. This certainly isn't presented at the level of learning Japanese... just a brief introduction. 1. Romaji Romaji is just the term used to describe how one would write Japanese using the Western alphabet. Tips on pronunciation (using U.S. English pronunciation): a i u e o = = = = = hot heat hoop head hope

If you see two vowels next to each other, like in "Nii-san", it means the sound is "extended". You would hold the vowel sound twice as long as usual. In Japanese, that will change the meaning. To add to this convention, there are several twists to throw in. While the

following is not an exhaustive list, it is the convention I mainly used while translating: Original Japanese ii uu uu au ue ie Translation iy iw uw aw we iye

For the above, pronunciation would have a slight twist given by those extra letters. As a reminder, the pronunciation of the vowel sounds would still follow the "ah ee oo eh oh" pronunciation provided further above. The two "uu" entries are a result of a complexity in romanization that won't be understood unless you are familiar with Japanese script. uu=iw is used in cases where the extra "u" serves the purpose of "extending" the sound. uu=uw is used in cases where the extra "u" is "small". ch tsu tou (small u) vu And so on and so forth. 2. Some common honorifics and suffixes I mentioned about levels of formality and all that. One of those ways is by use of honorifics. In English, we have Mr., Mrs., and Ms., for example. In Japanese, th ey have a lot more titles. Here's a quick list of the ones used in the game. -san The suffix -san, such as "Smith-san" is a generic word for Mr./Mrs./Ms. It implies some level of formality or distance between the speaker and the perso n referred to. For example, Eruruw refers to Hakuoro as Hakuoro-san. She tacks on the "-san" for added formality and respect. -sama This is a much more polite term than "-san", and is reserved for people of a hig her status. This status could be based on relationship (i.e. a store clerk and a customer). Yuzuha, being very polite and well-mannered, calls Hakuoro "Hakuoro-s ama" when she first meets him. -kun This is a term generally reserved for males and those of a lesser standing. It is also more "familiar" term, so it may be used as a term of endearment for a younger person within an organization. Nuwangi's woptar is (somewhat jokingly) called "Uma-kun", or "Horse-kun". -chan This is a term generally reserved for younger females. It can denote a closer relationship between the speaker and the one referred to. Aruruw is called Aru-chan by her friends. c (i.e. "Cenma" is pronounced as "Chenma") ts tu v

Onii-sama, Nii-san, Onii-san, Nii-chan, Ani, Aniki, Anija These are all terms for "older brother". Depending on the suffix, it can be more or less formal. Yuzuha calls Oboro "Onii-sama." Onee-sama, Nee-san, Onee-san, Nee-chan, Ane, Aneki, Aneue These are all terms for "older sister". As with the above, varying levels of formality. Aruruw refers to Eruruw as "Onee-chan". When she isn't saying Erungaa , that is.

IV. Special Messages From The Staff _______________________________________ ------Ryuusoul: Hello everyone. I am very excited about Utawarerumono's release. I first got into Utawarerumono when I saw the anime. Later, my good e-friend and fellow translator TakaJun recommended I check out the Utawarerumono radio program which featured the voice actor for Hakuoro (Koyama Rikiya) and the voice actress for Eruruw (Yuzuki Ryouka) as the main personalities with periodic guest appearances from other members of the cast. I was skeptical at first, but the chemistry between those two is magic. Especially because in real life, Yuzuki Ryouka is actually head over heels for Koyama Rikiya. The radio show has an obvious Utawarerumono theme, featuring corners such as "Touka's Travels", but is more oriented towards their real life personalities, answering fan questions, etc. While it only lasted for about a year, it was immensely popular (the servers for the show crashed numerous times due to demand) and is directly responsible for me translating Utawarerumono. I sort of succumbed to marketing and ended up buying the game, which I liked so much that I decided a week later to start translating it. I did some searching around and discovered Soylations was already translating it, so I approached ktemkin and he agreed to a joint project. We did a little staff shuffling around to ensure everyone's skill sets were utilized most efficiently. Thanks to ktemkin for his script input and file packing utilities and to phiber for working closely with me to deal with Leaf's screwy picture and archiving format. Thank you roxybudgy for taking the time to map out all the scenes, it greatly speeded my process along. I was pleased to work with three great image editors, PhotonicGnostic, X-Calibar, and GQS. Their dedication and willingness to work allowed them to tackle the daunting task of editing all the images into English rather quickly (while dealing with Leaf's encoding). Thanks to Message and Archdemon for their tireles s work in the release engineering department. The lessons learned from using Utawarerumono as a testbed for the new installer should pay many dividends down the road. I had originally planned for Utawarerumono to be my last translation work, but I'm no longer so sure. Like an addict swearing off crack, I'm never really all that far away from it... At any rate, we still have to release Melty Blood Act Cadenza (and thanks to PhotonicGnostic and X-Calibar for joining our image editing team and helping to speed things along). I don't know if I'll go about tackling any new projects, but I'll probably continue to help finish up others. By the way, if you have some Japanese listening ability, I do recommend the Utawarerumono radio show. It is over now, much to my grief, but the cds are readily purchasable and worth the buy. Plus it's good listening practice... As a closing note, I really do hope you enjoy this game as much as I enjoyed

translating it. Please support Leaf and buy it if you haven't already! ------GQS: Hi. ------roxybudgy: In the beginning, a small group of people were brought together by the awesomeness of Eruruu's tail-grab scene. And so Soylations was born in order to create an English patch for the Utawarerumono PC game and spread the love for Eruruu to the English speaking world. Anyway, I hope you enjoy playing Utawarerumono as much as we did. ------X-Calibar: For the record I've never worked on a project like this before, nor have I had any text image editing experience not to mention... "I haven't seen the anime or played the visual novel yet! [Got it a few weeks ago] But, if you could use the help; then sure, I can see what I can do." ~X-Calibar But I am quite happy with the results! We were able to finish the hundreds of images within a month on our own free time from start to finish. All the while reproducing the feel of the original characters quite professionally, if I do sa y so myself. Hope it shows too! Well I must thank the other image editors, great work guys! Although we worked separately, love what I've seen and how it all came together. Nice job. GCS, Yo ! Good luck with the countless classes... I'll be rooting for ya! Oh and just so I don't forget, I WILL PLAY PLANESCAPE TORMENT! [sometime..!] Ryuusoul, gotta give you a big hand. Keeping it professional, spoiler-free and organized [not to mention translated] made my life easy! With Ryuusoul on the job, you know work will get done. [Just remember to choose the thumbdrive when faced with the choice!] "This is the Odyssey that is my life." ~X-Calibar of the X-Calibar Corporation - see you next game! ------Message: I hate NSIS.

V. Credits _______________________________________ Founder: ktemkin (Soylations) Executive Director:

Ryuusoul (mirror moon) Translation: Ryuusoul (mirror moon) Proofing: Ryuusoul (mirror moon) Tools/Programming: ktemkin (Soylations) phiber (mirror moon) Image Editing: PhotonicGnostic (mirror moon) X-Calibar (mirror moon) GQS (mirror moon) Release Engineering: Message (mirror moon) ArchDemon (mirror moon) Scene Mapping: roxybudgy (Soylations) Special Thanks: zalas (mirror moon) Kuyukly (Soylations) 0utf0xZer0 (Soylations) PrimarchBentley (Soylations)