Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey, perhaps more than any other core Shin Megami Tensei game, is designed for an international audience. Players interact with a hodgepodge crew featuring characters from various nations, most of which have their names written in katakana.
In a developer diary, Nich Maragos, Lead Editor, details how tricky translating katakana to English can be, especially when you’re dealing with world mythology. Some names like Williams immediately click. Others like “Sukuugusuroo” or Skogsra, the name of a Sweedish forest spirit, require extra work and J.A. Coleman’s The Dictionary of Mythology to decipher.
The post is worth a read, at the very least, to appreciate the headaches the localization team at Atlus went through to ensure Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey was properly translated.
