Proto:Phantasy Star IV: The End of the Millennium/Names

This is a sub-page of Proto:Phantasy Star IV: The End of the Millennium.

Player Characters

Member	Japanese	Romanizations	Early	Final
	ルディ	Rudi, Rudy	Rudy	Chaz
	ライラ	Ryra, Lyla, etc.	Ryre	Alys
	ハーン	Hahn	Hahn	Hahn
	スレイ	Slay, Thray	Rein	Rune
	パイク	Pike	Pike	Gryz
	ファル	Fal	Fal	Rika
	フレナ	Flena, Frena, etc.	Rena	Demi
	フォーレン	Forren, Foren	Forn	Wren
	ラジャ	Raja	Raja	Raja
	シェス	Shesu, Shess	Sela	Kyra
	シアム	Siam	Siam	Seth

• Rudy, Pike, Fal, and Siam got to keep their original Japanese names in the May prototype, and "Ryre" is close enough to count. Hahn and Raja were extra-lucky and made it to the final game with names unchanged.
• Frena and Foren's names were shortened to Rena and Forn due to the four character limit.
• "Rein" and "Sela" don't seem to be based on the original Japanese names at all - seems they couldn't find a way to squeeze "Thray" and "Shesu" into a four-letter name and just made something up.

• There's one bit of "TALK" dialogue that refers to Sela/Kyra as Shesu in the May and August prototypes.

• Ryre was renamed Alys in the August prototype. This is almost identical to the name of the protagonist of the first game, Alis Landale, a character who is also referenced by name several times in this game. The name change creates a connection between the two characters that didn't exist in the original game.
• The same problem exists with renaming Foren to Wren. In Phantasy Star III, there's a similar robotic character that was originally named シーレン, or Shiren. In the English release, to fit the character limit, they changed the name to...Wren. So, it's obvious that they aren't the same character in the Japanese releases, but it's not as obvious in the English versions.

To be fair, there aren't a lot of different names to come up with that have "ren" at the end (to fit the "REN" series of androids found in the games), fit the four character limit, and make sense as names. They were in a tight spot here.

• The other name changes aren't too remarkable, though some of them seem pretty arbitrary. Rein and Sela, who already had their names changed by this point, changed again to Rune and Kyra.

Vehicles

There are three different vehicles in the game. In the Japanese version, these vehicles are called "ランドマスター" (Land Master), "アイスデッカー" (Ice Decker), and "フロームーバー" (Flow Mover) - the same vehicles found in the original Phantasy Star. In the English translation of that game, the vehicles were renamed to Land Rover, Ice Digger, and Hovercraft respectively.

In the May prototype, the vehicles kept their Japanese names: "LANDMASTER", "ICE-DECKER", and "FLOW-MOVER". Someone on the localization team must have recognized the reference(s), so, in later prototypes, they're called "LAND-ROVER", "ICE-DIGGER", and..."HYDROFOIL". Oops.

To be fair, it's hard to pass this thing off as a Hovercraft...not much they could do with what they were given. They did keep a reference to the old name in the item description:

A hover craft that can be driven over oceans.

Areas

• "Myst Valley" is shortened to "MYST VALLY" in the May script, and "MYST VALE" in the final script.
• The Dezolis and Motavia Spaceports are called Airports in the May prototype and the Japanese script.

Techniques & Skills

• The highest level techniques use the "LA" prefix in the May prototype, e.g. LAFOI, LAZAN, LAWAT, etc. This is also what the Japanese version uses (ラ).

Starting in the August script they use "NA", which is consistent with the English version of Phantasy Star II.

• The Flare Shot skill is shortened to "FLARE" in the final script, but it's called "FLARESHT" in the May prototype. Why this was changed should be self-explanatory.
• The enemy-only skill "WARNING" is misspelled "WARINIG" in the May and August scripts.
• The enemy version of the "SANER" technique is just called "NER" in the May and August prototypes.

Other

• Rika's class is "NEWMAN" in the May script and "NUMAN" in the later prototypes.

• Tinkerbell's dog, "Rocky", is consistently referred to as "Locky" in the May script.