Why do Japanese developers love giving foreign characters super complicated names?

[Satsuki]

I just noticed this, but a lot of foreign characters in VNs that I played have very complicated names, to the point that I just went "screw this sh*t, I won't even bother trying to pronounce her name anymore...", or maybe just sound really dumb.

Example 1

Example 2

Example 3

Example 4

I wonder why?

[Zebhra]

I can answer only for example №1, it is exactly how Russian names are look like, name, then your father's name, then surname, and thisone in example is pretty easy and common too

 

So to answer question "why" i can tell you "becase devs do their researches on the matter".

[Yuuko]

It's cool

[astro]

Because English names look like hieroglyphics to them, so they probably wanted gaijins to understand their pain

[Nimbus]

Perhaps it's revenge for us constantly pronouncing their names wrong.

[TexasDice]

There was that one guy in KiraKira and I only vaguely remember his name. It was written something like this: Tom

 

 

But don't ask me how to pronounce that.

[firecat]

cuz its more fun to mess with players then to mess with characters.

[Guest -Shizuku-]

Hee, those aren't really complicated tbh, well it might seem probematic to pronounce for english speakers since you can't use many sounds...

[Yuuko]

Hee, those aren't really complicated tbh, well it might seem probematic to pronounce for english speakers since you can't use many sounds...

Actually now that you say it, those are not hard to pronounce but the way Japanese pronounce it is hilarious xD

[Nosebleed]

Funny answer: because it's cool and hip

Real answer: because they think it's cool and hip

[Guest -Shizuku-]

Yea, if you ever talk with Japanese they'll tell you that they sometimes use english words cause it sounds more "cool"

[Satsuki]

It's not that I can't, it's just way too bothersome to figure out how to pronounce it right.

I'm not English speaker, btw.

[Yeah Way]

Just sounds "cool" to them. I can't imagine why else.

[Nosebleed]

It's the same reason why they sometimes use katakana or romaji instead of kanji and hiragana for certain words and titles (excluding puns), it's just "cool" for them.

[Flutterz]

>not mentioning Kudryavka Anatolyevna Strugatskaya

ಠ_ಠ

 

I'd imagine it might be to differentiate themselves for the millions of Rins, Sakuras, and other popular names. That way if someone googles the name of their character (if they can bother to remember it) they will get that specific character.

[Satsuki]

>not mentioning Kudryavka Anatolyevna Strugatskaya

ಠ_ಠ

I can easily pronounce that one specific name for "some reason"

[firecat]

or it has a meaning like in dark souls series, just because a name doesn't make sense it, doesn't mean there's a hidden meaning.

[Nosebleed]

or it has a meaning like in dark souls series, just because a name doesn't make sense it, doesn't mean there's a hidden meaning.

Nah, Japanese developers don't think that far 99% of the time.

And if there is a meaning to the names, it's usually really straightforward like a kanji pun.

[Fiddle]

It's just those doggone Russians.

 

[firecat]

Sofiya Alekseevna Feofanova:

 

Russian diminutive of SOPHIA. This is the name of a character in Leo Tolstoy's novel 'War and Peace' (1869, English translation 1886).

 

same has the character

 

ISAMI:

 

One famous bearer is Isami Kondō (近藤 勇), the leader of Shinsengumi, a pro-shogunate group that was around in the last decades of the Edo era (1603-1868).

 

same has the character

 

Yuki:

 

From Japanese 幸 "happiness" or 雪 "snow". It can also come from 由 (yu) "reason" combined with 貴 (ki) "valuable" or 紀 (ki) "chronicle".

 

same has the character

 

and so forth with more research

 

everyone else in the other examples have names that seems to be fake (they could be fake due to non-japanese native).

[Zalor]

It's just those doggone Russians.

 

 

Nah, they love using long German names as well:

 

[Conjueror]

Because in foreign countries people have complicated names? I knew a guy by the name of Note Niti Wattanasirichaigoon, and it's pretty common to have three names in Russia and Eastern Europe, too. Those examples are still pretty tame to what we have in the real world.

 

Also, Japanese love long foreign sounding words that they can't themselves pronounce.

[Eclipsed]

I forgot Kud's name was that long

[Kawasumi]

the same reason why there is german in every chuunige ever, because its hip and edgy

[Clephas]

Japan is the land of chuunibyou.  *states that as if it is the answer to everything*