Hello, I need some clarification on how to properly localize games for several languages. Example: If I had a game written in English, and I wanted to translate it to French, would I need to translate *all* the words? Imagine that I had a combat unit named Rain, it's like a code name. Would french people prefer a proper translation? Or wouldn't they mind? I ask this because I see this as a cultural issue. I'm Portuguese and we use English a lot, so I really don't care. But other people, from France, Spain, etc, really prefer to consume content on their mother language. Any input on this?

The guy's code name is Rain, not Llueve or Kouu. So the artistic intent was apparently not to disguise (from the player) the meaning of the code name, but rather to have the meaning of the code name be clear and unambiguous.

Don,
Have you ever played a Japanese game, say a Nintendo game? Have you ever played with Pokemon cards?
Some names get changed and some don't. It's a call you can make on a case-by-case basis. No blanket principle can give you a one-way-or-the-other answer for all the names and terms.

Ditto what the others said. However there is a rather common practice with translateing nouns like names.

If the characters Rain call sign has anything to do with the weather and is further dependent on the plot (IE: the solution to an in-game puzzle is dependant upon knowing the definition of the characters call sign...the definition of the word 'rain' not why they are named that)...then maybe it would be wise to translate it.

However if the name was chosen for its "coolness" factor (IE: it sounds like a cool call sign) then its usualy okay to leave it be.

Ironically, many Japanese games have characters with English names (like Cloud Strife from FF7, aka Kuraudo Sutoraifu). I wonder if it wouldn't make some sense to translate names like that in the other direction during a localization.

For French, please make sure you read up on the Tubon law passed in France which requires all text to be translated in french. I doubt this applies to peoples' names, but probably applies to certain proper nouns such as country names, city names, and the like. Nick names, or call-signs, might be okay, but I'd highly suggest you verify this (or localize it to be safe).

Another note is that I don't know if this law applies to things that are distributed digitally.