"Ball's in your court..."

[MiraiKishi]

Is it just me or was anyone else just blindsided out of the moment by that line Zephyr made to Alphen at the beginning of the game?

How would anyone in a world that, for three centuries now has been under the control of an oppressive regime, know what that phrase means or even where it came from?

I highly doubt Basketball ever existed in that world, much less existed in Zephyr's lifetime.

I know it really doesn't matter in the greater scheme of things, but I just found it weird that type of phrase being used in a setting such as a Tales of game.

[TotemMX]

I think is a localization thing. Im pretty sure it was different in other languages. I did play in spanish, so I dont remember that dialogue.

[Zombina]

yeah I heard too but you know a lot of stuff doesnt make sense in that lifetime as well like a lot of stuff (hamburger,alien ships and technology ) but I guess they wanted to make it fun you know

[Minneyar]

It is a little weird to have real-world metaphors in fictional worlds where they wouldn't make sense... but also consider that the word "Zephyr" comes from "Zephyrus," the Greek god of the west wind, and Greece definitely doesn't exist in the world of Arise.

[Stormy Dawn]

Yeah. That one made me raise my eyebrow, too.

I don't mind when a localization team takes some creative liberties here or there, but it's never good when you use idioms, especially ones culturally dependent. That's honestly just lazy localization on their part, or an attempt to be funny, but instead is really just unprofessional.

[Sishiya]

Originally posted by MiraiKishi:

Is it just me or was anyone else just blindsided out of the moment by that line Zephyr made to Alphen at the beginning of the game?

How would anyone in a world that, for three centuries now has been under the control of an oppressive regime, know what that phrase means or even where it came from?

I highly doubt Basketball ever existed in that world, much less existed in Zephyr's lifetime.

I know it really doesn't matter in the greater scheme of things, but I just found it weird that type of phrase being used in a setting such as a Tales of game.

ToA is rife with idioms and other colloquial phrases that are sorely out of place. I'm not sure if it's a writing failure and/or a localization one, but it's weirdly jarring and speaks volumes about the lack of experience and professionalism of whomever handled it.

One I just saw tonight was: "Watch your footing or it'll be curtains for you." - what would they know about stage theater, much less an expression referring to it?

[Elrodeus]

Originally posted by Sishiya:

One I just saw tonight was: "Watch your footing or it'll be curtains for you." - what would they know about stage theater, much less an expression referring to it?

I agree with pretty much everything everyone is saying here about how much better it would be for them to write sayings/phrases that exist solely within the fictional world, but I'm just going to say that I think it was Tales of Xillia (which had a very similar two world setting) where you actually had a whole set of side quests where you were performing a play. So that one isn't particularly impossible.

[Phishfood]

if you're upset with that little bit of crappy writing then you're in for a wild ride

[Altemeus]

I'm sure there are plenty of phrases that could be poked at. Speeches in general get stale when idioms are taken out of use. And despite that, there's nothing stopping the phrase from being in use despite the unusual universe, potentially through ancient Dahnan tongue , such as a customary court-based game (like Hopscotch?), or Renan influence, even somehow as part of the Crown Contest.

Is it a stretch? Sure. But I don't need conversations like:
"Will you help us? It is your choice."
"Well, I dunno. Been a slave for so long"... etc.
"It would mean everything to our people. But the choice is yours."
"... Yeah, I know, my choice. You told me that."

I don't need to know that the etymology of each phrase and word that had no logical bearing on this universe. The odds of them speaking anything relatively English is basically zero in the first place. As far as I care, they can name the realm dungeons "Dr. Evil's Lair", "Trump Tower", "Taj Mahal", "The Titanic", and "Venice Castle". Obviously they won't, for some ability to relate to the new world, but pretending they can't use an idiom because it wouldn't exist is simply too far.

[It´sAllAimAssist]

well they speak english/japanese w/e translation your playing. These languages would not exist in the context of the game world anyway.

I would be bothered if it was a historical game going for some sort of accuracy vibe with anachronistic sayings but as this is an alien world with space magic energy ,monsters and star ships I just imagine they are not actually saying the words they are actually speaking but their own NOT English(!! since ENGLAND or JAPAN never existed in their world) language and what I´m seeing/hearing is just how I would understand it. And pretty much any anime game is campy enough anyway by nature of being anime stuff like this really does not bother me. Anime is just about the story , rule of cool and feels. Realism and accuracy (or mostly logic) is not often a priority.

And our entire languages today are full of sayings and expressions from bygone eras some of which does not even make sense today. I how many people actually know the origins of the term “Take It With a Grain of Salt”?
+ ball games go back thousands of years in OUR world.

Then again if I was playing a game with a more serious tone set on earth or at least some in some sort of quasi realistic setting and some knight just went "hey what´s up my guy?let´s rock!" that would bother me...then again that´s a bit hypocritical because most games and shows don´t use middle English,Latin or whatever the actual language would be at the time they are supposed to be set.
Real vikings for example did not speak modern american English with a weird accent like in the show. Though the only historically accurate parts of that show is that they where people with boats.

[RDG]

Sounds like someone trying to adapt a japanese line to english while under heavy drugs and forgetting to take into account that said metaphore would not make any sense in the universe they are in.

It is also probably only in english, game has been localized to over 9000 other languages, I did not play it in english but when I sometimes set it to portuguese for a while the subs were spot on with the japanese dialogue.

[Endarion]

welcome to modern localization, where sticking to what the writers wanted "may offend someone" or "may be hard to understand" so everything get's changed into ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

[MiraiKishi]

Originally posted by Phishfood:

if you're upset with that little bit of crappy writing then you're in for a wild ride

Not specifically upset, I was just really taken out of the moment of the story when Zephyr said the idiom. Y'know, the whole "SNAP BACK TO REALITY" Eminem meme and everything. lol
I still enjoy the game.

[GeminiEclipse]

Well you can either go the route of things that make sense to us the players even if they make no sense in the world. Or come up with things that make sense in the world but we as players have to figure out.

The "wheat's in your armpits" might be something that makes sense to them, but what would that mean to us? No idea.

[ΛΞL™⚡]

Well this game is one of these were you turn your brain off and enjoy the story without thinking too hard about it and if that bothers you just wait for the second half of the game any logic or sense just goes out of the window.

[burdfishdemon]

I mean this game is fiction, but...

Mesoamerican cultures used ball games for ritual, proxy for warfare, etc since at least 1650 BC. To this date, we have found over 1,300 such ball courts. Although they varied in shape, they are masonry ballcourts. The two most popular formats of the ball games resembled basketball, volleyball, and/or racquetball, albeit with a very heavy ball that could bruise you.

These ballcourts were more prevalent in areas with less strong centralized states, ones that often had to contend with many other cultures and peoples (thus necessitating a means of resolving conflict without mass bloodshed). In some Mesoamerican civilizations, the game's emphasis was more ritualistic and oriented toward human sacrifice.

On the whole, the ball games served to obviate mass bloodshed. Further, in key ceremonial districts, the ball game served as a mythical underworld portal, and taking part in the game would be viewed in this context as a battle for cosmological goodness over evil.

Therefore, to merely let a "ball be in your court" and do nothing is to shirk responsibility toward the greater good.

For real though, the writing does seem sophomoric and leans heavily on idioms.