Atelier Iris
You say: Ate-lear Iris
Should be: At-ill-yay Iris
Japanese, Latin, now the French have some fun at our consonant-pronouncing expense. Atelier is far from an uncommon word even in English, but, as was the case with the NES, millions of gamers first system was a PS2, and atelier isnt a word youd expect a kid to nail the first time. From there you keep calling it the incorrect name even though you know its wrong. Kinda like Street Fighters Ryu we know its closer to Roo or even Ree-you, but well never, ever call him anything but Rye-you.
Xexyz
You say: Ive never heard of this game before.
Should be: Zex-iz
Lets assume youve heard of Xexyz. If you came across it at an early age, odds are you crinkled your nose, furrowed your brow and wondered what in Eternia/Thundera/Cybertron/The Mushroom Kingdom it was supposed to be. Weve heard Exes and Zezzez as first tries, but thankfully the sweet ass commercial cleared it all up. Go buy a vowel!
Gaiares
You say: Guy-uh REZ Should be: Guy ARE ess
Even though this Sega shooters name looks to be Gaia and Ares blended together, its not pronounced as such. Instead, its trying to be like Xexyz and the next entry and have some quirky-cool shooter name thats 100% unique. Makes searching for them online incredibly easy though, so thanks for that.
Axelay
You say: Axel-ay, Aches-lay
Should be: Axe-lay
Yes, this ones as simple as it seems. Just Axe and Lay put together, not some weird combination of the two. To be fair, we dont have a 100% confirmation on any pronunciation for Axelay, but the majority has decided on that name. Far more important is how ass-kickingly awesome this game really is. Check it out on Virtual Console pronto.
Tatsunoko vs Capcom
You say: Teh-san-ooki, others probably
Should be: Tat-su-no-ko, just like it is
More Japanese, and a totally unfamiliar word on top of that. Wed wager not many reading this article have a problem saying Tatsunoko, but weve already heard reports from the retail frontlines of name mangling, our favorite being Teh-san-ooki. Mostly a case of Americans seeing a Japanese word and not even trying to work it out.
Shenmue
You say: Shen-moo-eh
Should be: Shen-moo
You say may be a bit harsh in this case, as the only people who insist on calling it moo-eh are those whore trying to sound overly Japanese. Youre not in on some crazy translation quirk, it really is just moo. Just ask this guy.
Heiankyo Alien
You say: Im 9 and cant read that.
Should be: Hey-on kyo Alien
Isnt that the most goddamn horrific box youve ever seen? That hairy alien thing has arms growing out of its head and its halfway buried in the ground! Only after digesting this nightmare can we even begin to tackle the name, which in our youth might as well have been written in Mars-man language. Still dont know whats going on in that picture
Ephemeral Fantasia
You say: Effa Meryl
Should be: Effem er-ul
Not the most common word in everyday language, ephemeral is usually handled one of two ways, which weve outlined above. The real fun comes when everyday shopper-person cant process the word and ends up tripping on Fantasia as well. Effa Meryl Fanastasia was one of our mid-2000 favorites.
PoPoLoCrois
You say: Poop Lacrosse, according to an old comment on the site
Should be: Popo Lo Croi
PoPoLoCrois is such an initial challenge because of the distractingly unnecessary intercapping and fusion of Japanese and French terms. The Japanese name, PoPoRoKoRoisu, doesnt help us much either. Just call it that PSP game no one remembers.
Disgaea
You say: Diss gay-uh, Diss gee-uh
Should be: Diss guy-uh
Its a bizarre word, possibly meaning against Earth, so youre forgiven for getting it wrong. We asked publisher NIS America what it meant a couple of years ago, and got this response: "From the developer side, Disgaea means absolutely nothing, it just sounded cool and different. We could say that their souls were actually looking for 'anti-earth' so Disgaea came to their mind even though they dont know English at all. It was the magic of Disgaea!"
