Hi all, I'm new to this site but I've been following this project on and off for a couple of years. This is my favorite game of all time and I think it's awesome that you all are putting such time and care into getting it just right. I see other fans of the project weighing on things here and there and I was hoping to do the same. If I misread that and this forum isn't for just anyone to put in their two cents feel free to let me know and I'll leave.
Anywho, in the new translation itself, I was wondering if Midgar shouldn't actually be rendered as Midgard. In the katanana, the "do" syllable is definitely left off at the end (ミッドガル middogaru), but it's also left off in Midgar
dsormr (ミドガルズオルム midogaruzuorumu). However, the katakana rendering for Midgardsormr is off course missing that extra lowercase "tsu" character that Midgar's katakana possesses, which may imply that they are meant to be different words and therefore rendered differently anyway (Midgar & Midgardsormr instead of Midgard & Midgardsormr).
I'm just worried "Midgar" could be a carryover from FFVII's original bad translation in the same vein as "Mideel." The Japanese also seem to have a tendency to fudge katakana when pronunciation would be particularly difficult (in the original Japanese version of the show Trigun, the currency "double dollars" is rendered as "dabudoru" if I'm not mistaken, instead of something more accurate yet lengthy like "daburu doraru," so an over-reliance on matching the katakana pronunciation isn't always the best way to go, IMHO). It wouldn't surprise me if they leave off "do" and "to" endings from certain locations, weapons, etc. in the game for the sake of easier pronunciation and flow.
Furthermore, unfortunately even Japanese official sources for things like this can also be wrong sometimes, since the people who create them don't always seem to "get" European languages or names (in another Square game, SaGa Frontier, the character Virgil's name is rendered as Vadjoueal in official sources, which is a ridiculous non-word:
https://tcrf.net/File:SGF-Art-Virgil.pngAnyway, rock on! Can't wait for the new Steam mod to come out.