OK Holla Forums, you're so smart about translations, solve this!
A scholar named Verne (seems to be a reference to Jules Verne, but he's located in Canada for some reason) helps the party build a drilling machine (pic 2) called the 地底探検車 (literally Depths of the Earth, Exploration, Vehicle).
What the fuck do you call this thing when translating the game to English? The only remotely natural thing I can think of is "Digger" or "Digging Machine" which is never going to flow well in conversation.
Deep Earth Digger
You're not paying me so fuck you come up with it on your own you lazy intern.
Subterranean Exploration Vehicle
Mantle Exploration Drill/Vehicle.
Deep Earth Exploration Vehicle.
Deep Earth Exploration Vehicle. Easy peasy. Are you retarded, user?
DotEEV
hole penetrator
Not exactly a translator here, but it strikes me that the context might help in deciding. How often is the term actually used? Is it mainly used with people that are already aware of it? Strikes me that if it's not used frequently and only within a set group of characters, shorthanding or abbreviating it after the initial use could possibly work. Maybe even better with something that still equates to digging even in shorter form.
If he's actually fan-translating something, it might be a matter of a lack of character space to write it out easily. Kanji can say a lot more in a lot less space than English (compare the character count of five moonrunes there to thirty-nine English characters for "Depths of the Earth, Exploration, Vehicle" subtracting the commas).
Also, what is the actual function of that device? Is it just to get characters or something from one place to another? Is there some actual sort of goal of research into the unknown? What does the game actually use it for in gameplay or lore?
Earth Rapist
you are the super retard
You could simplify or remove some of the text when the character is introducing the drill with whatever English name he comes up with followed by an abbreviation like "Mantle Scouting Drill or MSV".
every fucking time
Use the first instance of the word to give the player/reader/whatever the full meaning(Deep Earth Exploration Vehicle) and instantly introduce an acronym, such as "DEEV".
Use the acronym every other time it appears.
That's what I was kind of thinking up there (something like "Deep Earth Research Transport", which could feasibly be shorthanded as "D.E.R.T.", though again, whatever name is actually chosen would actually have to fit the function of the device, if perhaps not an absolutely literal translation), though again, it depends on how often it's used in dialogue. If it's with the same core group of people and they all know what it is, calling it with shorthand would work for later instances, but if it gets brought up among characters that wouldn't know what the shorthand means, that might prompt needing to add additional lines, as logic would dictate that the new character would need to have the acronym explained.
If you need space efficiency call it the D.E.E.V or DEEV. Just elaborate on the acronym once and you're right as rain.
That would be 7 characters while the original is 5, I offered a three digit abbreviation so they would have the choice to expand it to 5 using periods or keep it at 3 and save the extra characters in future translations.
Deep Earth Rapid Penetrator: D.E.R.P. brb, sending my application to Treehouse
Depths of the Earth Exploration Vehicle
Make it a backronym of DEEP or some other digging/depth related term.
Make the name of the vehicle another Jules Verne reference. You could use Deep Earth Exploration Vehicle as an extended title or an alternate title. Just like how the Wings of Time is also called the Epoch.
2-Stage Depths of the Earth Exploration Penetrator, or 2DEEP for short.
Deep Earth Exploration Panzer : D E E P
...
Wait, does it look like a fucking tank?
This is important.
That's what I just thought. But seems like OP is a faggot again and won't respond
So, a retard decides to not call a Drill a Drill.
Ok, I'm gonna call it a Drill.
What a beautiful DUWANG.
chew
Why not just use the original nipponese phonetics? It HAS to sound cool in their language, otherwise they wouldn't use it
What is the name of the vehicle in "journey to the center of the earth"? Does using other Jules Verne terms work? Could you call it the terrulus/terralus because it explores the depth of the earth, instead of the depths of the sea?
Fuckoff Joel
You reading old memes makes it unfun
There was no vehicle. Not in the original story.
...
The DEV: Depths Exploration Vehicle
or the NEET: Nethers Earth Exploration Vehicle
There was no vehicle they just went down a motherfucking volcano
Meant Transport on the second one, fuck
This went better than I expected it.
Acronym actually works fairly well. Would fit
Terralus as a play on Nautilus is a pretty interesting option too.
When used on the right volcano it takes you from the normal overworld to a (small) subterrian overworld (walking around which will kill party members that aren't wearing light clothes).
It really doesn't, and it's stupidly long that way.
Okay, I solved the dilemma in your pic.
...
Now solve this.
So it's an excavator?
call it a drill rig
Thats a very common name for a machine with a drill
Or, a subterra? (instead of submarine), considering its an subterranean explorer, i dunno that sounds kinda gay
how about drill probe?
Core probe?
I tried
D.E.E.V
You lose a lot of the joke when you "fix" it.
Try changing Apollo's text to
Or something shorter if it doesn't fit, like
It works!
So what does the chinese "OBOJ!" looking thing actually translate to? n-no reason…
Youve got 2 options depending on how cheesy the rest of the game is.
Serious translation would be "Subterranean Exploration Vehicle", that you can shorten up with SEV.
Cheese translation would be "Deep Earth Exploration Vehicle", short DEEV.
Thats the closest you can get to both the original and an english equivalent without pulling shit out of your ass.