In a souls-like role-playing game as dense and enigmatic as Elden Ring, every name, description, and line of dialogue carries weight. From lore-heavy item text to the layered symbolism of boss titles, language shapes how players experience The Lands Between. For the game’s Latin American Spanish localization team, navigating that complexity for a new audience involved more than putting the game’s words into another language. In the end, it required making culturally resonant decisions—sometimes bold ones—to preserve the game’s tone, mythology, and emotional depth.
At the heart of these decisions lies a truth that localization experts know all too well: translated words might be technically perfect, but if they don’t land meaningfully with their intended audience, the translator has missed the mark.
From Marika to Márida: When a Name Demands Change
One of the most striking examples of effective culturalization in Elden Ring’s Latin American version can be found in the treatment of Queen Marika the Eternal character. While the name “Marika” reads neutrally in English, in many Spanish-speaking regions, it sounds dangerously close to “marica,” a term that ranges from casual slang to a deeply offensive homophobic slur, depending on the country and context.
The Latin American Spanish localization team knew all too well that in most parts of Latin America, the word can be strongly derogatory. The team also knew that in other regions, like urban Chile or some parts of Venezuela, the term might be used casually among peers in a manner akin to “dude” or “bro.” But even in those latter, less-offensive instances, the term still retains various gendered, socially loaded associations. Therefore, the term’s appearance in a solemn, fantasy narrative would run a high risk of distracting LATAM Spanish-speaking players from their gaming experience.
Rather than ignore that risk, the Latin American Spanish localization team made a bold and wise choice: they renamed the character “Márida.”
“This adjustment preserved a similar phonetic structure while removing the potential for misinterpretation,” explained Alexis Biro, Business Development Manager at Terra and souls-like games enthusiast. “It also gave the name a distinct identity within the localized lore.”
This strategic change allowed the character to maintain her gravitas, which ensured players stayed immersed in the mythology of the game instead of being distracted—or worse, alienated—by unintended connotations that her name might introduce.
The team’s decision also highlights the power of transcreation: adapting content so that it preserves emotional tone and narrative function, even when deviating from the original form.
Naming the Mythology: When Localization Reinvents Lore
Elden Ring is filled with mysticism, archetypes, and allusions, many of which come encoded in characters’ names themselves. A particularly interesting case is Margit the Fell Omen, who is one of the first major bosses that players face. In the European Spanish version of the game, the localization sticks closely to the original: “Margit, el Augurio Caído.”
But for Latin American Spanish, the localization team took a different route with its choice of “Margit, el Aojo Cruel.”
Why “Cruel, Evil Eye”? Because in Latin American cultures, the Evil Eye (or mal de ojo) is a widely recognized concept: a curse brought on by a malevolent glare. It’s sinister, folkloric, and immediately meaningful.
“It sends an instant message that this fight won’t be pretty, and this guy means business,” says Marina Ilari, who participated in the localization process. “It’s a culturally grounded interpretation that fits Margit’s role in the game and preserves its original menace.”
Choices like these, which might look like simple wordplay on the surface, are often, in truth, storytelling through localization. In this case, by leaning into myths and beliefs that were culturally familiar to Latin American players, the team made sure those fans felt the same sense of danger and mystery as they engaged in this boss battle, but through a more-resonant lens.
Tone and Style: Reaching for Old Worlds with New Language
Another hallmark of the original version of Elden Ring is its use of archaic or antiquated English. Characters speak in riddles, prophecies, and poetic metaphors. Recreating those elements in Latin American Spanish posed an interesting localization challenge.
“There are terminology and even grammar choices you can make to try to convey the intention and the weight of the original source text,” said Marina, who helped lead the project as linguist and CEO of Terra. “But perhaps one of the most challenging things about translating Old English is the risk of misinterpreting the intention of the text.”
Rather than default to forced or outdated Spanish as a solution, the localization team selectively chose sentence structures that suggested formality and grandeur, so their tone was similar to the Old English, but the words were highly accessible. They worked closely with glossaries, query sheets, and internal style guides to strike the right balance, with the goal, always, of keeping the player as connected and engaged as possible.
Localizing Across Borders: One Version, Many Cultures
Unlike regional dubs tailored for a single country, the Latin American Spanish version of Elden Ring needed to work across multiple nations, each country with its own idioms, slang, and linguistic preferences.
“Dialogues need to sound extremely natural, which is difficult to achieve when we are catering to different countries at the same time,” said translator Guido Bindi. “Our approach required investigation, consulting at length with colleagues from other countries, and doing everything we usually do to make sure our translations are understood in all of Latin America.”
Essentially, the team’s work meant walking a linguistic tightrope to avoid regionalisms that might confuse players, but still injecting the game with enough style to feel organic and immersive.
The Takeaway
The world of Elden Ring reaches players not only through its visuals or gameplay mechanics, but also through its language. The Latin American Spanish localization team’s job was to ensure that the magic of The Lands Between didn’t get lost in translation for LATAM players. The myriad of localization and culturalization decisions they made allowed the story to resonate with its audience because the choices were made with great care and deliberation. Never far from the team’s mind was the truth that in localization, the right word can preserve a story or legend for a region’s players—but the wrong word can shatter the entire illusion.
