エストポリス伝記ＩＩ
Chronicles of Estpolis II

While "temple" seems to be more standard, "shrine" is also an acceptable translation of 神殿, if something of an odd choice given the many ほこら in this game also translated as "shrine" (or sometimes "small shrine"). I'm more surprised that it wasn't changed to something less religious, like when the temples in Zelda 3 became "palaces" in the localization.

Possibly related to El Cid.

To Maxim, perhaps, but the people of Sandeltan would call it the cave to Elcid instead, wouldn't they?

Possibly related to political philosopher Michael J. Sandel, though it seems unlikely.

I find it interesting, and very realistic when I think about it, that so many of the non-town locations have such provincial names. The lake cave, for instance, isn't Sandeltan Lake Cave, or whatever. It's just the lake cave. If you asked the locals which lake they meant, they would probably look at you funny and say, you know, the lake. Similarly, other locations have names like the southeastern tower or the northern labyrinth. Few have proper names as such, and no one bothers to say what they're southeast or north of (why, here, of course!), though the game does helpfully include that information for reference... most of the time.

The little connecting buildings all over the world are called ほこら (hokora). I cannot find any possible meaning for that word other than a small shrine. Even so, it seems odd, considering NoA's practice of eliminating religious references, that they weren't called something else. Possibly gateways, given their function.

Incidentally, in case it's unclear, the "to" in all of these names is a "goes to" rather than an "is dedicated to". Do these shrines actually enshrine anything at all, and if not, why are they even called that in the first place?

This is one of a few entries where the name is simply blank. Based on its positioning, this entry likely goes with the Tanbel: Southeastern Tower exterior map.

Let's be consistent with how we handle ほこら, shall we? It's a brief term, so I'll stick with just "shrine", and never mind the smallness.

This town is inconsistently listed as "PERCELYTE" in the NA version's list of warp destinations.

Possibly related to cordovan, a leather used in luxury shoes.

This blank entry most likely belongs to the Gordovan: Western Tower exterior map.

As noted in the story section, I favor "Boundary" here since borrowed English words in Japanese are frequently shortened, and the direct transliteration, "bound", doesn't make much sense. On the other hand, maybe it's supposed to be the verb "bound", as in bouncing? It's certainly a lively place...

This blank entry most likely belongs to the Ruined Tower exterior map.

The section where Maxim goes to save Parcelyte after beating Gades is separate from the main tower, so the relevant floors appear twice.

This blank entry most likely belongs to the Northern Lighthouse exterior map.

Other possible real-world names that match the phonetics include Alaine, Alleyne, and Allain. None have any obvious relevance.

So. The NA version uses an arguably overly complicated pointer system in the place name table to repeat text used elsewhere and save a little ROM space. One part of the codes used for this system indicates how many bytes to copy (as a 4-bit value to which 2 is added), which allows for copying anywhere from 2 (for 0x0) to 17 (for 0xF) bytes at a time. However, here it tries to copy all 21 characters of "Phantom Tree Mountain" from the first entry at once (2 + 0x13 bytes). This doesn't work, for obvious reasons. Instead, only the first 5 characters (2 + 0x3 bytes) actually copy.

Fortunately, in this case, at least, all the duplicated names belong to interior maps and never actually display in-game.

This blank entry most likely belongs to the Sacrificial Tower exterior map.

Other possible real-world names that match the phonetics include Kerron, Chalone, and Karlone. The doubled 'o', though, simply doesn't work.

This town is inconsistently listed as "CARON" in the NA version's list of warp destinations.

From Spanish, that's a bullfighter. Again, the doubled 'o' doesn't work. Treadole would have been fine, though.

Blank name. This map is the labyrinth leading to the Lexis Shaia Research Laboratory.

レクサス usually refers to the Lexus brand of cars, but I've decided I prefer Lexis after all. That's a legitimate word, related to "lexicon", that refers to the total vocabulary of a language, and seems appropriate for a genius.

シャイア could also be Shire (as in a British county or a place in Middle Earth) or Shia (as in LaBeouf).

This location's name is abbreviated in the list of warp destinations as シャイアけん (roughly "Shaia Lab") or "SHAIA LABORATORY" depending on language.

質流れ is what happens when a pawn shop takes ownership of a pawned item that hasn't been bought back within the allowed timeframe. The proper English word for such goods is "unredeemed", but that's too likely to be taken in a religious sense without the necessary context, so we'll keep "forfeit" as less misleading.

Appears to be derived from Macau (マカオ in Japanese), a resort city in southern China known for its casinos.

The first game in the series has this same name in its location list, but not the location itself. Reportedly, a casino was planned but never implemented.

This blank entry most likely belongs to the Northeast Tower exterior map.

We'll stick with that, though either of the Spanish agrio (sour) or the Italian aglio (garlic) might fit better.

I'm not sure how "village" became "forest", especially since Merix Village got it right.

Note the lack of any へ. Unlike every other hokora in the game, this one actually enshrines something instead of connecting two places.

It might be related to Chinese political activist Rebiya Kadeer, but that seems a stretch. On the other hand, "labia" is much more obvious for ラビア; that, however, seems rather implausible for a town name. Then again, port towns do tend to have a lot of lonely sailors...

While you can debate the spelling, I can't see any possible way to get Kirmo out of that.

That looks like a more believable spelling, anyway.

Oddly, the translation made the name more religious instead of less.

This blank entry most likely belongs to the Tower of Truth exterior map.

I can't justify the superfluous 'e'.

Spanish for high tide. I'm guessing that's deliberate.

Blank name. This is the map with the Dual Blade, the one infamous for its jumbled appearance in the English version.

This is the version that's in ruins.

So. Remember that overly complicated pointer system? Here's where the problems get worse. The other part of the codes used for this system indicate where to copy from, as a 12-bit value. This isn't enough to specify an entire memory address, so the copy routine uses it as an offset from 0x878000. The problem is that the later part of the list of names extends beyond the 0x878000 to 0x878FFF window that allows for. The pointers for these locations want to copy "Gratze" from the Gratze Sth. Submarine Cave, but that's at address 0x879028. Instead, they get data from 0x878028, and whatever that data is, it's plainly not meant to be interpreted as text. The game can't even display half of what loads, and what does display looks like " '3y " (spaces added around quotes for visual clarity). For what it's worth, your browser renders the same non-text as "ò3�y�" under the settings used to display this paragraph.

In any case, グラッセ is the Japanese rendition of the French term glacé, which refers to glazing (as in glazed donuts, for example).

A similar error to the one above occurs when trying to copy "Narvick", but this text, at least, never displays. For what it's worth, your browser renders what copies as "��‘<" under the settings used to display this paragraph.

Regardless, Narvik is both a Norwegian city and a class of WWII-era German destroyer.

Blank name. One submap of the sealed tower on Chemin Island.

Blank name. One submap of the sealed tower on Chemin Island.

Blank name. The top floor of the sealed tower on Chemin Island.

While Shuman (assuming not too much emphasis is put on the 'u') does roughly match the pronunciation, that's an actual French word meaning "path" or "way". Are we looking at possible religious overtones here? Regardless, French spelling has never made sense to me.

Blank name. One submap of the sealed tower on Strada Island.

Blank name. One submap of the sealed tower on Strada Island.

Blank name. The top floor of the sealed tower on Strada Island.

Blank name. One submap of the sealed tower on Camino Island.

Blank name. One submap of the sealed tower on Camino Island.

Blank name. The top floor of the sealed tower on Camino Island.

"Towe" isn't, as I initially thought, a simple matter of cutoff due to the full names being too long to fully display. Even with the missing 'r', both of these are only 24 characters long, while several other names that display just fine, such as "Submarine Town of Preamarl", reach 26 characters in length. So what happened? It's that pointer system again. Whoever set up the pointer codes apparently missed that the copied text includes the space before "Tower", as these two names copy only five characters instead of the six needed. Oddly, even though the first of the three towers also copies from the same place, the length is set correctly there.

Blank name. The floating island outdoor map normally seen only in cutscenes.

Blank name. This is the map for the underside of the floating island, where Maxim goes after the final battle.

Note that the grave mark ` doesn't exist in the game font and therefore doesn't display in-game. I can't guess why they didn't just use a standard apostrophe, and beyond that, the possessive isn't really necessary to begin with.

Blank name. Presumably the submarine cave that connects to the following map.

These bad pointers want to copy "Capsul" and "nsters`" from "Capsule Monsters` Shrine", but run into the same address problem as the, ah, '3y Kingdom. The first chunk of junk displays in-game as a stack of four bars, a 'U', and a formation of dots, while the second displays as a 'V', a space, and a 'T'. Due to the readable portions of this, the location is sometimes referred to as the "U e MoV T Cave". For what it's worth, your browser renders the assembled entry as "£�U “e Mo�V ¹T
Cave" under the settings used to display this paragraph.

Also note that, even if the copying worked correctly, the ` still wouldn't display, since it still doesn't exist in the game font.

Curiously, the English version uses a different name for the cave here.