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View Poll Results: Which title would you choose for KICA-7760?
Akumajo Dracula X ~Nocturne in the Moonlight~ Original Game Soundtrack 9 39.13%
Akumajo Dracula ~Gekka no Yasoukyoku~ Original Game Soundtrack 6 26.09%
Castlevania: Symphony of the Night Original Game Soundtrack 4 17.39%
Something Else (post) 4 17.39%
Voters: 23. You may not vote on this poll

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  #1  
Old Mar 24, 2010, 05:16 PM
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Default Submissions - Album Titles - Poll - Choose a Title for This Album

I thought I would try an experiment, in an effort to make some sense out of our attempt to standardize the album titles.

What I'd like you to do is choose the title that you think should be the display title for this album. Here's an explanation of the three choices. You can also write in your own suggestion.

Akumajo Dracula X ~Nocturne in the Moonlight~ Original Game Soundtrack
"Nocturne in the Moonlight" appears on the beginning of the end credits in the Japanese version of the game. Most western sources have been using this name for the album since its release.

Akumajo Dracula ~Gekka no Yasoukyoku~ Original Game Soundtrack
This is actually the official Romanization. It's also the only English title on the album (see the Back scan.)

Castlevania: Symphony of the Night Original Game Soundtrack
The official English localization title for the game.
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  #2  
Old Mar 24, 2010, 05:55 PM
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I voted for "Akumajo Dracula ~Gekka no Yasoukyoku~ Original Game Soundtrack"


because i changed my mind since the precedent debate (see old post)..

I think we should always go for Romanized tiltes when the origin of the album is Japanese/Chinese/Korean/whathever.. and not English... Until an English title is used on the front cover (or maybe the obi).

I also must admit it's also a personal choice.. i'd rather call my soundtrack "Ryuuko no Ken" and not "Art of Fighting".
It also shows directly on search results the release is from the eastern part of the world, and it does not add confusion with US releases of the album (that i definitely think should be called Castlevania)
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  #3  
Old Mar 24, 2010, 06:07 PM
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Darn, I didn't select to make votes public. Curse vB for making it (appear to be) impossible to fix that error. Oh well, I'll look the names up on the admin panel and post them.
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  #4  
Old Mar 24, 2010, 06:49 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Secret Squirrel View Post
Akumajo Dracula X ~Nocturne in the Moonlight~ Original Game Soundtrack
"Nocturne in the Moonlight" appears on the intro/title screen in the Japanese version of the game, though I've not seen this myself.
Like The Gambler said here, actually "Nocturne in the Moonlight" appears at the beginning of the end credits:

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  #5  
Old Mar 24, 2010, 07:49 PM
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Akumajo Dracula X ~Nocturne in the Moonlight~ Original Game Soundtrack

Akumajo Dracula - Japanese album correspondent with Japanese release name
X - There's clearly an X in the title
~Nocturne in the Moonlight~ - Very accurate translation of Japanese subtitle (above screenshot cements its authenticity)

The fact that a US version of the soundtrack exists should also keep out any thoughts of using Castlevania for this one, in addition to respecting the original release name. Circle of the Moon and Concerto of Midnight Sun's OST, however, is a more noteworthy example than this one, as English is used for the subtitle in both regions for the former and the latter features both series' names, with Castlevania appearing more prominent (the OST cover for CotM and CoMS reflects this, as well as including Castlevania instead of Akumajo Dracula for CotM in the obi [but not CoMS, indicating a lack of transition to the Castlevania name]).

http://www.gamefaqs.com/portable/gba...ta/449471.html ---> CotM info
http://www.gamefaqs.com/portable/gba...html?box=19698 --> CotM box
http://www.gamefaqs.com/portable/gba...ta/554981.html --> CoMS info
http://www.gamefaqs.com/portable/gba....html?box=7020 -->CoMS box
http://vgmdb.net/album/2947 -->OST

...
You know, sometimes I worry about you guys.

Last edited by kyubihanyou; Mar 25, 2010 at 05:22 AM.
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  #6  
Old Mar 24, 2010, 08:54 PM
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I vote for anything that's not Romaji, unless it's only the name of a game series like "Akumajo Dracula" or "Seiken Densetsu". I don't know what the hell a "Yasoukyoku" is.
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  #7  
Old Mar 24, 2010, 08:56 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Secret Squirrel View Post
Akumajo Dracula ~Gekka no Yasoukyoku~ Original Game Soundtrack
This is actually the official Romanization. It's also the only English title on the album (see the Back scan.)
I think the official Romanization is Akumajo Dracula ~Gekka no Nocturne~ Original Game Soundtrack. Or did I miss something?
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  #8  
Old Mar 25, 2010, 02:57 AM
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Voted for something else, and now I'm gonna try to explain how I would like to see the album title 'war' going on:

1. If the album has the name in english (romanized or not) either on obi/spine/tray, use that name. As with the poll album, it would be Akumajo Dracula ~Gekka no Nocturne~ Original Game Soundtrack (notice that the english side of hte spine doesn't have X)
2. If there isn't a english title found, then I'd would go strictly for romanized form only, which in poll case would be Akumajo Dracula X ~Gekka no Yasoukyoku~ OGS. Though, subtitles could be translated to english.

Sure, there's cases where things can be bit different, like I basically tag my albums by taking the name from the spine, but in case of Radiant Silvergun Soundtrack+, it would have been just Radiant Silvergun, even if cover/cd and other places do have that soundtrack+ so I added that.

Also, why not just make a new album title line which would have the album name as localized version, so Akumajo Dracula would be Castlevania: Symphony of the Night OGS. And use the display for what the soundtracks spine/obi/whatever says in english or in japanese.

And I'd rather stay away from fan translations unless they've became de facto ones, though can't remember any translations which could be like that.
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  #9  
Old Mar 25, 2010, 03:23 AM
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Hmm yeah i'd vote for: "Akumajo Dracula ~Gekka no Nocturne~ Original Game Soundtrack" not "Gekka no Yasoukyoku".
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  #10  
Old Mar 25, 2010, 03:24 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Revoc View Post
I think the official Romanization is Akumajo Dracula ~Gekka no Nocturne~ Original Game Soundtrack. Or did I miss something?
Looks like I totally missed that. I thought that issue was fixed a long time ago in the title.
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  #11  
Old Mar 25, 2010, 01:50 PM
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Here's the break down so far.

Castlevania: Symphony of the Night Original Game Soundtrack: Cedille Kaleb.G
Akumajo Dracula X ~Nocturne in the Moonlight~ Original Game Soundtrack: kyubihanyou NaturalChemical the_miker
Akumajo Dracula ~Gekka no Yasoukyoku~ Original Game Soundtrack: Myrkul
Something Else (post): Razakin
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  #12  
Old Mar 25, 2010, 10:22 PM
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Here are some thoughts on the greater issue.

For the main series title:

1) If the game was released in the west under a completely new name, use a romanization of the original name, i.e:

Akumajo Dracula > Castlevania
Biohazard > Resident Evil
Sekaiju no Meikyuu > Etrian Odyssey
Gyakuten Saiban > Phoenix Wright
etc

Same goes for titles where the change is very slight, i.e:

Genso Suikoden > Suikoden
Dragon Quest > Dragon Warrior
Eternal Arcadia > Skies of Arcadia
Street Fighter Zero > Street Fighter Alpha

It always helps if the original title is well known to western fans as in most of the above examples.

2) If the game has been released in the west under a name which fully retains the original meaning, I'd say typically it's alright to use the English title but this is perhaps best judged on a case-by-case basis.

The Legend of Heroes > Eiyuu Densetsu
Chocobo's Mysterious Dungeon > Chocobo no Fushigina Dungeon

3) If the game has not been released in the west, essentially always go with the original title unless the game has an official English name (preferably a direct translation) in which case it can be judged on an individual basis. There may be other circumstances warranting judgement as well.

As for subtitles, typically use the title for the same language as for the main title, but this can depend on what is commonly used, well known, etc.
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  #13  
Old Mar 25, 2010, 10:30 PM
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For this specific case - and it does seem like this series is what we're mostly discussing (no one has any problems with anything else? :b) - I don't personally have any problems with Akumajo Dracula X ~Nocturne in the Moonlight~. It appears in the end credits for the game, but more importantly it seems to be a rather well known title amongst fans. As far as I can see it has to be either that or a fully romanized title, Akumajo Dracula X ~Gekka no Yasoukyoku~.
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  #14  
Old Mar 26, 2010, 10:40 AM
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Personally, I don't like Castlevania: Symphony of the Night for the display title because the album was released in Japan and I think we should respect the original region release (I know at this moment some of my submissions don't respect that, but I can standardize). If we use the official English localization, track titles should also be localized. Imagine the mess that would be with any Street Fighter II album. We should change all Balrog / Vega / M.Bison track titles.

So I'm between Akumajo Dracula ~Gekka No Nocturne~ and Akumajo Dracula X ~Nocturne in the Moonlight~. I prefer Gekka No Nocturne because I think the album information should have priority and the game credits should be used only when there is no information available on the album.
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  #15  
Old Mar 27, 2010, 04:24 AM
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I'm rather surprised at the outcome. It looks like we're pretty split on how to treat this one (which ultimately explains why the discussion of this topic went the way it did.)

Nocturne in the Moonlight seems to have the edge, even with it's questionable pedigree. But as Seanne brings up, it's a title that is well known to its fans. We'll just have to figure out the best way to formulate this.
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Old Mar 27, 2010, 06:09 AM
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Something else: I prefer ~Gekka no Nocturne~ because it's written in the scans and other CV titles follow that wording (Akatsuki no Minuet, Byakuya no Concerto).

I don't think "Nocturne in the Moonlight" being in the staff roll means much - it's all in English so they just translated the title to go with it (they also left out the "Akumajo" part anyway), I'd treat it as any other CV fan translation. Not saying it can't be used as the display title, since it's so well known and all - just that it shouldn't be favored because of that. Just imagine they'd have translated it as "Moonlight of the Nocturne"; that title wouldn't be more valid than others.

While we are at it other CV albums aren't very standarized. Ex: CV Aria of Sorrow (western), AD Gallery of Labyrinth (jp official), AD Apocalypse (fan translation).
This album and others usually have this, in different orders:
- jp name ~official subtitle~ (sometimes jp+eng, ex gekka no nocturne)
- jp name ~romanized subtitle~ (gekka no yasokyoku)
- jp name ~(fan) translated subtitle~ (nocturne in the moonlight)
- western name
I say we pick a title order from the results here and extend it to other CV albums. (that'd mean adding/keeping fan translations to other albums when needed if "nocturne in the moonlight" is chosen here).
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  #17  
Old Mar 27, 2010, 07:20 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Dag View Post
I don't think "Nocturne in the Moonlight" being in the staff roll means much - it's all in English so they just translated the title to go with it (they also left out the "Akumajo" part anyway)
Good point. If we follow the game credits, the display title should be Dracula X ~Nocturne in the Moonlight~ Original Game Soundtrack. Akumajo Dracula X ~Nocturne in the Moonlight~ Original Game Soundtrack is only a combination of the scans and credits info. Also, I think the title most known amongst fans is not necessarily the most accurate.
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  #18  
Old Mar 27, 2010, 09:43 AM
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While I voted for "Castlevania: Symphony of the Night Original Game Soundtrack", I'd be just as willing to switch it to "Akumajo Dracula X ~Nocturne in the Moonlight~ Original Game Soundtrack". We already have a Romaji field and a Romaji title option. I'd like an alternative.
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Old Mar 27, 2010, 02:44 PM
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Akumajo Dracula ~Gekka no Yasoukyoku~ seems like the right choice for me.
Always employed this name to talk about the game -hence the soundtrack- (or just Castlevania: Symphony of the Night).

It makes no sense to translate the subtitle (i.e. Gekka no Yasoukyoku) and not the title itself.

Better call the OST "Devil's Castle Dracula ~Nocturne in the Moonlight~ (my translation attempt) in that case.

To sum my opinion up : either full translation, or no translation at all.

P.S. While we're onto this discussion, why wouldn't we stick with "Akumajou" instead of the overrated "Akumajo" as part of the title ?

Last edited by lenneth02; Mar 27, 2010 at 02:49 PM.
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  #20  
Old Mar 27, 2010, 03:36 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Dag View Post
Something else: I prefer ~Gekka no Nocturne~ because it's written in the scans and other CV titles follow that wording (Akatsuki no Minuet, Byakuya no Concerto).
I'm leaning towards this as well now - I didn't realize before that that's actually what the spine says (even though it also leaves out the X)...
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  #21  
Old Mar 27, 2010, 04:59 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by seanne View Post
I'm leaning towards this as well now - I didn't realize before that that's actually what the spine says (even though it also leaves out the X)...
I third that, as well. As long as it's printed on the cover, we should follow it.
Otherwise Gekka no Yasoukyoku should be it.
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  #22  
Old Mar 27, 2010, 08:56 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Dag View Post
I say we pick a title order from the results here and extend it to other CV albums. (that'd mean adding/keeping fan translations to other albums when needed if "nocturne in the moonlight" is chosen here).
Or it means we will end up giving up a standardized way to sort out Castlevania consistently, and have to discuss each album in a case-by-case basis (but isn't it actually the way we now do?) unless we have rather a complicated rule. For instance, even if we basically decide to place the Western name to the alternate title, I assume not a few people would oppose to the idea that the display title of this album should be Castlevania: Lament of Innocence, rather than plain Castlevania. I don't think Western names are always the best choices since there are some confusing cases (e.g. FFVI in Japan -> FFIII in US), but I went with Symphony of the Night because I didn't know Nocturne in the Moonlight was so popular among fans and I thought this album was best known as SotN, not NitM. As such, I still guess casual visitors who may or may not know how the game is originally called in Japan would prefer it's displayed as Symphony of the Night on the search result page, so my preference is to use the localized name if available.

Last edited by Cedille; Mar 28, 2010 at 05:12 AM.
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  #23  
Old Mar 28, 2010, 11:43 AM
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I voted for Akumajo Dracula ~Gekka no YasoukyokuNocturn~ Original Game Soundtrack since the original title of a product should be always used first.

But I also think it should not be the only one. Instead like with artist names it should include all possible variations in a way which makes the findable through the search. Maybe in the long run the order of such variations could be tweaked according to how many times they matched searches by visitors, thus reflecting popular readings of the product title.
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  #24  
Old Mar 29, 2010, 05:30 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Dag View Post
I don't think "Nocturne in the Moonlight" being in the staff roll means much - it's all in English so they just translated the title to go with it (they also left out the "Akumajo" part anyway), I'd treat it as any other CV fan translation.
This is very interesting. It makes me think that
Akumajo Dracula X ~Nocturne in the Moonlight~
was probably just a fan translation of the subtitle which just happened to match up with what was in the Japanese game credits. I'm sure nobody saw those credits for years anyway -- there was no YouTube in 1997.

So I agree with moving the official romanization (the one on the spine) up to the Display Title, and keeping this title in the alternates.
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  #25  
Old Apr 4, 2010, 04:56 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Cedille View Post
For instance, even if we basically decide to place the Western name to the alternate title, I assume not a few people would oppose to the idea that the display title of this album should be Castlevania: Lament of Innocence, rather than plain Castlevania.
Similar case:
The Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time Original Sound Track
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  #26  
Old Apr 10, 2010, 10:06 AM
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So getting back to this topic once again.

It seems like we're slowly moving away from some of these legacy translations for the display title. How does everyone feel about this:

Display: Akumajo Dracula X ~Gekka no Nocturne~ Original Game Soundtrack
Original: 悪魔城ドラキュラX~月下の夜想曲~ ORIGINAL GAME SOUNDTRACK
Romanized: Akumajo DRACULA ~Gekka no Nocturne~ ORIGINAL GAME SOUNDTRACK
Alternate 1: Castlevania: Symphony of the Night Original Soundtrack
Alternate 2: Akumajo Dracula X ~Nocturne in the Moonlight~ Original Game Soundtrack

I think 5 titles starts to be unwieldy, so we could probably drop out the Romanized title, since it's not much different from the display title.
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  #27  
Old Apr 10, 2010, 10:34 AM
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For display title, I would remove the "X" as the title that appears in the scan doesn't have X, despite the Japanese name be "悪魔 城 ドラキュラ X". I would vote to remove the title "Akumajou Dracula X ~Nocturne in the Moonlight~". For me, it's just a random fan title probably spread by some download site. Also, I would use Dracula X for Alternate 2. To summarize:

Display: Akumajo Dracula ~Gekka no Nocturne~ Original Game Soundtrack
Original: 悪魔城ドラキュラX~月下の夜想曲~ GAME ORIGINAL SOUNDTRACK
Alternate 1: Castlevania: Symphony of the Night Original Soundtrack
Alternate 2: Dracula X ~Nocturne in the Moonlight~ Original Game Soundtrack

Just my opinion.
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  #28  
Old Apr 10, 2010, 11:13 AM
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Agreed with revoc.
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  #29  
Old Apr 11, 2010, 03:57 AM
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I think "display" as an own kind of title could be dropped since all possible variations are already explicitly listed. Then which one variation is shown as display title could depend on the popular common reading, or as I wrote earlier:
Quote:
Originally Posted by Datschge View Post
Maybe in the long run the order of such variations could be tweaked according to how many times they matched searches by visitors, thus reflecting popular readings of the product title.
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  #30  
Old Apr 14, 2010, 03:14 PM
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So, it is done.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Datschge View Post
Maybe in the long run the order of such variations could be tweaked according to how many times they matched searches by visitors, thus reflecting popular readings of the product title.
I'm not so sure about this, as it could produce some unexpected and undesirable results.
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