4th July 2008, 3:45 AM
And... you think that a name like Edward for a character in FFIV is "wrong"... because? You really never made that clear. Are you saying you find it "unbelievable" for some reason? I'm not sure I get you. It's not like FFIV is set in any ACTUAL time period, or even on Earth. It's a completely fictional world. How can a name, ANY name really, be "wrong" there? Heck I already told you they actually DO take the time to give names based on cultures. Baron and Damcian use English names, while the martial arts inspired country of... I forget use Chinese sounding names like Yang. Mysidia uses made up magical sounding names like Porom, and the summoner's valley (full of the race of summoners, as you might imagine) have a different sort of imagninary name, such as Rydia. Also, the Mooninites (Sorry, Lunarians) have their own style of name, like FuSoYa and Golbez.
So if you wanted well thought out naming convention based on culture even in the game world, a lot of them HAVE that. The only thing you have to remember is these ARE all completley fictional worlds. There's no such thing as a "wrong" name, just a stupid sounding one. I still don't get why not even one culture in one of these worlds can get away with using real names.
In FF6, a lot of characters have real enough names. Leo Christophe, for example (yes, I know that all our names have real world histories, and a name like Leo or any variation of Christ as a last name are probably unlikely, but for the purposes of a fictional world you can assume that those sorts of syllables came around through other circumstances, after all all the characters ARE speaking English and we always seem to let THAT slide). Edgar Figaro is another. However, again certain characters come from unique backgrounds and have unique names. Gau has only a first name because he's a wild boy, and that name is likely one he came up with himself (it actually sounds like some wild animal grunt he took as a name for himself). Relm and Strago come from a hidden village of magic users, and thus have their own sorts of names that sound more magical (in fact, the names of people there sound more like the names of the summons, which is fitting as their village is descended from a tribe of magic users that traces all the way back to the war of the magi). Mog is a moogle and all of them have their own unique naming style which, when you get 3 full parties of them, they actually stick to it's odd conventions very well. Umaro is another unique one, a Yeti. Gogo is another weird one, and in his case he's just completely weird.
However, all the ones that come from the primary inter-linked culture use english style names (with the exception of those names they randomly decided to change, oh and Mash...). So, we get Tina (Terra), Edgar, Locke (which, while rare, is an actual name), Rachel, Leo, Maria, Clyde, Darryl, and so on. We also get some odd ones like Banon, Mash (Sabin), Kefka, Setzer, and so on. I actually like those names you know.
So if you wanted well thought out naming convention based on culture even in the game world, a lot of them HAVE that. The only thing you have to remember is these ARE all completley fictional worlds. There's no such thing as a "wrong" name, just a stupid sounding one. I still don't get why not even one culture in one of these worlds can get away with using real names.
In FF6, a lot of characters have real enough names. Leo Christophe, for example (yes, I know that all our names have real world histories, and a name like Leo or any variation of Christ as a last name are probably unlikely, but for the purposes of a fictional world you can assume that those sorts of syllables came around through other circumstances, after all all the characters ARE speaking English and we always seem to let THAT slide). Edgar Figaro is another. However, again certain characters come from unique backgrounds and have unique names. Gau has only a first name because he's a wild boy, and that name is likely one he came up with himself (it actually sounds like some wild animal grunt he took as a name for himself). Relm and Strago come from a hidden village of magic users, and thus have their own sorts of names that sound more magical (in fact, the names of people there sound more like the names of the summons, which is fitting as their village is descended from a tribe of magic users that traces all the way back to the war of the magi). Mog is a moogle and all of them have their own unique naming style which, when you get 3 full parties of them, they actually stick to it's odd conventions very well. Umaro is another unique one, a Yeti. Gogo is another weird one, and in his case he's just completely weird.
However, all the ones that come from the primary inter-linked culture use english style names (with the exception of those names they randomly decided to change, oh and Mash...). So, we get Tina (Terra), Edgar, Locke (which, while rare, is an actual name), Rachel, Leo, Maria, Clyde, Darryl, and so on. We also get some odd ones like Banon, Mash (Sabin), Kefka, Setzer, and so on. I actually like those names you know.
"On two occasions, I have been asked [by members of Parliament], 'Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out?' I am not able to rightly apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question." ~ Charles Babbage (1791-1871)