Posted by Gideon Zhi (131.128.141.192) on March 21, 2001 at 08:44:27:
In Reply to: Naming names posted by Shih Tzu on March 21, 2001 at 01:58:09:
> Well, I figured this should be discussed at some point, so why not now? Sylvan Tale's got a few katakana names that need some sort of standard romanization. I'll go through all the ones I can think of now in hopes of eliciting others' responses. In case anyone doesn't read katakana or can't on their browser, I'll put basic romaji equivalents next to the names:
> シσヴァラント (shiruvaranto) - name of the land which our hero valiantly struggles to save. Well, this one's actually romanized in the Manual as Sylvalant, which I like, so this one probably doesn't need too much work. (Interestingly, a line in the ending refers to it as シσバラント [shirubaranto]. Silly inconsistent Japanese katakanaizations ~)
> ゼッツ (zettsu) - our hero who burns with righteousness and all that. I've been calling him Zetts, and so has everyone else, and the world has proceeded harmoniously, so this one's probably also in the bag.
> σイ (rui) - the beautiful queen of Sylvalant and all that. Again, everyone's been quite happily calling her Rui, so this probably isn't an issue. It's not like she's going to be Queen Louie or anything.
> シ*[ド (shiido) - the treasure of Sylvalant, the force behind all of Zetts's abilities, etc. This one shows up in the manual too (or rather, "seed system), so there aren't too many issues. I was never sure whether to call it the Seed or the Seeds, but thanks to Jair's insight on how it works (it changes from Zetts' sword to his claws to his scales, etc.), I place myself in the singular camp.
> アン*Aゴσ*Aモア (an, goru, moa) - All right, this was the real reason I started this post. :) This is the evil triumverate behind all Sylvalant's troubles, and they need names. [an] is a woman in what looks like reasonably provocative attire, and she talks once about giving Zetts some of her lovin' (something along those lines). Jair suggested Ann or Anne, but I have reservations about whether that fits with her character. Other possibilities might be An, or Anh, or maybe Ang. I don't know.
> [goru] is the other floozy of the Emperor's; he(?)'s this ugly spidery thing and he's rather rude. He tricks you at one point, baiting you with the image of Rui, and later on he basically teases you about her death. Possible names could be Goru, Gor, Gol, Goll, Gore...
> [moa] is the evil badass Emperor who controls everything. He mostly exists so Zetts can fight something in the end; there isn't too much development of his character. From what few lines of his we get (and from what Rui tells us), we know that he wants the Prisms and the Seed, because of their power, I guess (I mean, who wouldn't want to be a cute li'l mousie!), and he thinks you're unworthy. As Jair notes, he makes a weak pun (and is likely amused by his own cleverness). Uh...that's about it. Anyway, I'd say possible names for our Emperor of Darkness could be Moa, Mor, Moah...
> It's probably best to consider their names all at once to make sure they all feel distinct. Heck, the easiest path might be just to go An, Goru, Moa, or something...but I actually kinda like Mor for the Emperor ^^; Makes him sound all deathy and stuff. But if he were Mor, that might be too similar to Goru or Gor, so that might want to become Goll...heck, I dunno. I like Mor, but honestly this is no big deal to me. These names hardly exist except as part of dungeon names (and one mention of [moa] by Rui). I just figured it'd be useful to start some discussion over the names and get other people to throw their ideas on the table.
> I guess that's about it. Has anyone seen any other names or katakanaisms worth looking at? Hardly any of the names from the manual show up in-game, so no need to debate Galshia or Poose or anything.
> Osoi kara ja
Well....
Anh sounds too... er... hentai ^^;
Ayn might work though.
Personally, I saw Gol at that labyrinth when the word popped up :P
As for the last guy... hmm. I dunno. 'sup to you guys I guess.
I wanted to bring up one more point though. On the save screen, we're limited to five characters for world names, so "Grass Country" is obviously not going to fit. We could always just call 'em "Grass", "Flower" and "Woods" or something, but that sounds kinda blah if you ask me... I was thinking of something along the lines of Terra for the Grass World, Flora for the flower world, and... erm, something for the forest world. Maybe Horta, but that sounds kinda weird too ^^;