Funnily enough I am way more familiar with the Japanese folklore that whatever they're trying to rebrand it overseas. Who would've thought that people who primarily play JRPGs are somewhat familiar with Japanese culture or at least interested in it.

If anything it's really distracting when you have the Japanese audio which references completely different names from what you're reading. They should've included alternative names for people who specifically downloaded the Japanese language pack. One could assume that those people can take a few Japanese names.

I am also familiar with the names, but they weren't necessarily aiming at those of us that have knowledge of the culture or myths of Japan, they mainly went for approximations and used their own and other western cultures as the reference points once again for gamers that may not be as aware. I wouldn't hold language pack against them, since it is very obvious they added that at the last minute and for the most part you don't often see them include different sets of subtitles even in most anime or games these days that match both the original Japanese track and one that reflects the localization.

It can be off putting but it is a minor annoyance. You have a worst example with Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE, where they left the Japanese audio in there (mainly to save money and not have to get English singers) but they didn't bother to sub the battle dialogue probably since in battle there is already text on the screen. Sometimes sacrifices are made for costs or game play or I think in regards to Xenoblade 2, they wanted to go for less of a Japan-centric tone and more of a mythical fantasy world tone, having the names of major characters be 85% Japanese doesn't really build toward that.

I'm at the final battle, and the game gets better and better as you go.  XB2 has turned out to e one of my favorite games of 2018.

I wonder what mythical reference the name of Poppi has. I mean, in japanese she is called Hana which means flower which is attached on her chest.

The Poppy flower.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poppy

The article goes over the mythical andsymbolic connotations with the flower, but I think related to the game itself the more recent affiliation with a version of the poppy flower being used for remembrance for fallen military might be why they chose that particular name.

In anime fansubs they're clever enough to leave Japanese names alone because they know how annoying it is. And because they know who their audience is.

I think it is very much irrelevant which mythology they take from. After all it is a fantasy world and you can name everything you want after anything you want. So why not just leave it as they are? It doesn't get more coherent just because you use western myths. And in this case they are even specifically built upon Japanese folklore, so why not use just that? I don't understand what's so bad or damaging to introduce people to different cultures, especially when the product they're consuming is made in that culture by people who live in that culture.

Final Fantasy is a great example here. They borrow from pretty much every mythology that ever existed but in all versions they leave the names intact because they specifically want to reference certain characters from certain cultures.

But to come back to the actual point of contention here; it's not about the reasons or motivations behind localization. It's about the annoyance of not being able to follow the Japanese dub because the subtitles say something completely different. Every time a new character is introduced I have a hard time understanding what their name in Japanese is because the subtitle prompts me with something completely different. It's not made better by the fact that they actually keep some of the names.

And while we're at it, there are no subtitles for dialogue outside of conversations. There are games that do that. They even have it in the options menu so you can turn on and off subtitles for battle dialogue. But not this one. Just another little oversight.

.....

damn. 

I do wish the Japanese subtitles used the original names, but it only really takes one scene for me to understand the difference. It's basically as annoying as when anime fan-subs don't translate certain honorifics or translate "aniki" into something else for characters that aren't related. I'm much more concerned with translations that actually impact the story than simple name changes.

That being said, so far Brighid/Kagatsuchi and Roc/Suzaku are the only names I prefer in Japanese. Homura and Hikari might have solid reasons for their names (fire and light), but they're also Japanese given names I've heard in half a dozen anime already, and neither exactly feel that original. Pyra and Mithra fit the high fantasy/western motif much better, and also stand out much easier to boot.

Personally I'm just grateful we get Japanese audio at all. This really needs to be standard for all JRPGs, and it disappoints me Nintendo lost sight of it for a while during the 8th gen (particularly with XCX and Fire Emblem Fates).

I must say I hate the game clock still running whiel in suspend mode and on home screen.

Seriously, I went home for the holidays and didn't bother taking my switch cause I knew I wouldn't have time to touch it. Came back and when loaded up switch, see the game is running, so obviously I save since can't remember when last saved. Then bam, apparantly I have now played the game 367 hours or something.

Well, there goes any point to that time. Now I have no idea how long I've played.

Was that updated in? I tested that out a few weeks ago and it did pause when I was on the Switch screen.