Translations pages are a special type of article on the wiki. Their purpose is to document the different names assigned to things in the in-scope translations of the in-scope releases that the wiki covers. When releases are yet to be receive an English release, Translations pages also serve as a place to document the English translations that the wiki uses.
Translations pages exist as subpages named "Translations" of their respective release. They are usually linked to in infoboxes and column headers referencing alternate names.
Covered translations[]
Official translations[]
An official translation is any Japanese or English release authorized by Square Enix. There is typically less deviation in different versions of the same release in Japan, unlike there has been in English, so the Japanese column is rarely split in two.
English releases with the same translation can be covered in the same column, although subtle differences are reason enough to split a new column in the table. The table often uses the console shorthand for releases of games, although in this may not be done in articles. For example, the table may use "GBA" for the original Final Fantasy and Final Fantasy II, but articles will refer to it as the Dawn of Souls version of the game.
Unofficial translations[]
The Translations pages covers various unofficial translations, most of which derived from the original Japanese by an unofficial source. Columns for unofficial translations are denoted by their header being put in italics.
Rōmaji[]
For every release with a Japanese translation, there is a Rōmaji column. The Rōmaji column is a romanization of the Japanese. The wiki uses modified Hepburn, as used on Wikipedia (Google Translate uses a subtly different romanization system so it cannot reliably be used for romanizations, http://www.romaji.me/ does not use Modified Hepburn so don't get your translations from there either).
Literal[]
For every release with a Japanese translation there is a Literal translation if it is ever applicable. Names of people and places often do not have literal translations unless it is a name imported from another language (such as Nibelheim). Puns in the Japanese language are usually not assigned literal translations. When there is no literal translation this column usually mimics the Rōmaji column.
Translation[]
If a release is released in Japan but does not have an English translation, it uses a Translation column. The Translation column is for the wiki's translation and thus up for more debate than other names.
The Translation column may feature small parts officially translated by Square Enix (characters and locations are often given English names; even the entire Type-0 playable cast were referred to by these names in the menu in-game) and literal translations, but the aim of the wiki translation is to follow how Square Enix would translate it. フェニックスの尾 (Fenikkusu no O?, lit. Phoenix Tail) will always be translated as "Phoenix Down", and in the context of Tidus's weapon, アルテマウェポン (Arutema Wepon?, lit. Ultima Weapon) will always be translated as "Caladbolg".
When an in-scope translation comes along, this column can be removed, although it will be useful to keep temporarily to help convert over names from the wiki's translation to the new translation.
Fan-translations[]
If a fan-translation exists of a release when there is no English release in the same medium, then that is used. A column exists for it like any other. The name of the column is named after the translation project or the translator group, and not after the name of the console. At the time of writing, the Pixel Remasters have made this policy superfluous for all main-series games.
Covered content[]
The translations pages primary focus on terms used in gameplay. They do not exist to translate the script. However, particularly for releases that are not games, most translations will be terms extracted from the script. Sections for other nouns that only appear in dialogue should be included separately.
For example, the playable character names that appear in menus, the speaker names in dialogue, the menu names of items, the target names of enemies, and the names of abilities, are all things that are listed. This includes anything that is given a name in the data, so many enemy abilities in Final Fantasy VII can not be seen in the game, but are named in the data, and therefore belong on the page.
The translation page is not for names found outside of the release or its data. This means the surnames of characters only ever stated in guide books and supplementary material does not belong on these pages.
Page structure[]
The page has the {{navbox translations}} navbox at the top. The opening paragraph should be a short explanation of what the translation columns on the page are.
The page should have its release navigation at the bottom, put in its release's category (sorted by Translations), and the Category:Translations category.
Sections[]
The page should be divided by their source. Enemy names and Item names naturally get their own section. These are sometimes sub-divided by classifications for easier navigation, such as by weapons, and then by types of weapon.
Names from different sources should avoid being mixed to avoid confusion. Terms used in dialogue should not feature in the same table as terms used in menus.
Table Format[]
Each table should have the table, full-width, and sortable classes, as well as the codename for the release being covered.
On pages with many columns, the table should have the style
{font-size: 10px;}.
Rowspans and colspans should not be used so the table can be sorted.
Columns are ordered by release date. For most releases, this means the Japanese column is first. The Rōmaji and Literal columns then follow this.
The first row should have the a class. The names of the translations go in this row, using abbreviations where possible. Unofficial translation columns should have their names italicized.
For each row of the table, the column for the primary Japanese column used in articles (usually there is only one) should be given the b class. The English translation used in articles (usually the rightmost column) is also given the b class. These rows are still table data cells (begin with a pipe (|) rather than a exclamation mark (!)).