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| Nobinobita 832th Post
  
Red Carpet Regular Member+
   
    
    
|  "Good Names" , posted Sat 23 Oct 12:53  
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As an aside, am I the only person who LOVES the different Zone names from Sonic games? Casino Night? Stardust Speedway? Even Green Hill! It's like the names alone make me smile in remembering the early 90's entries.
Scrap Brain Zone! All the time! What is it? Who cares! Take a ride on the Wing Fortress for fun, setting sail for Emerald Hill, which sounds like the most gorgeous place ever. I like the alliteration in Sonic CD, too.
:D
Those names are pitch perfect. They're elegant and evocative. Naming things really is an art.
I've come to realize I have a terrible habit of going way off topic in threads, so I figured I'd start a new one here.
Other things with great names off the top of my head:
Nintendo Games:
-Ripley - A monster with a gentleman's name
-Donkey Kong - A gorilla named Donkey. TOO GOOD.
-Pikachu (pika-pi!), Squirtle, Charmander, and basically every Pokemon including the obscure ones like Bronzong (a bronze "Zhong", or early Chinese bell)
Dragon Ball (best naming conventions ever):
-Dedoria (Durian), Raditz (Raddish), Vegeta (Veggies),
-Frieza, Coola, King Cold
-Oolong (black tea), Puar (fermented tea), Yamcha (Dim Sum)
-Trunks, Bulma,Dr Briefs etc
Rocky Series (Sly Stallone is a nomenclature genius):
-Rocky Balboa - scrappy blue collar underdog with heart of gold
-Apollo Creed - proud champion
-Clubber Lang - hungry upstart from the street
-Ivan Drago - Russian Murder Machine
Willow (coolest made up fantasy names):
-Willow Ufgood - unconfident Nelwyn (halfing) wizard who will save the world
-Madmartigan - scoundrel swordsman with a smidge of good in him
-Bavmorda - Evil Sorceress queen
-Elora Danon - child of prophecy destined to kill Bavmorda (I still think of her when I see yogurt)
-Fin Raziel - Good and wise sorceress, arch nemesis of evil queeen
-General Kael - Grizzled, noble, ruthless soldier, loyal to an evil queen
-Burgelkutt - asshole political leader of bumpkin halfings.
Names make a big difference. I can't tell you how many books/games I've turned down because I thought the names sounded dumb (particularly fantasy/sci-fi properties).
www.art-eater.com
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| Iggy 9192th Post
Platinum Carpet V.I.P- Board Master
     
     
 
| "Re(1):Good Names" , posted Sun 24 Oct 06:35
Most of the English Pokémon names pale in comparaison to the French ones.
Also, naming is vital, yes. Utena had clever naming (as well as clever everything else), with the hidden tree or flower kanji hidden in all names.
The best detail naming element was probably the 3 bitches of Nanami (Yűko, Keiko and Aiko), whose name were reminiscent of the shadow girls A-Ko and B-Ko (=>U-ko, K-ko and I-ko), nut spelling out the name of the director of the series, IKUhara.
And Keiko was the only one who had a flower-related character in her name, thus becoming Black Rose for a moment. Mmmmmmmmh.
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| Hagen de Merak 1071th Post
Red Carpet Premium Member
| "Re(1):Good Names" , posted Sun 24 Oct 14:17
quote:
Dragon Ball (best naming conventions ever):
-Dedoria (Durian), Raditz (Raddish), Vegeta (Veggies),
-Frieza, Coola, King Cold
-Oolong (black tea), Puar (fermented tea), Yamcha (Dim Sum)
-Trunks, Bulma,Dr Briefs etc
Not trying to be an ass or anything, but isn't it Freezer and Cooler? Japanese pronunciation makes it sound like its "Frieza" and "Koola". Kind like "Andore" in Final Fight, its Andre, but japanese pronunciation makes it sound like "andore" since the letter "d" can't be by itself in hiragana, so they add the hiragana character for "do" in replacement of "d."
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| Iggy 9193th Post
Platinum Carpet V.I.P- Board Master
| "Re(2):Good Names" , posted Sun 24 Oct 19:12
quote:
Kind like "Andore" in Final Fight, its Andre, but japanese pronunciation makes it sound like "andore" since the letter "d" can't be by itself in hiragana, so they add the hiragana character for "do" in replacement of "d."
Actually, "Andore" had more to do with the fact it would have been really dodgy to have a carbon copy of André the Giant called André.
I was about to say "I always found the naming system of DB lame", but then I have to admit it had its very good points. Vegeta would never have been as good with a regular, "let's try to find a good nemesis-sounding name for this guy".
Speaking of laziness turning into gold, how could I forget Jojo? The best part being that it fits perfectly in the whole "lame/ridiculous that somehow becomes insanely cool" aesthetics. And you know the naming system became super important when half of the tension is created by "how will his/her stand be called?", like when Killer Queen gets Bite the Dust; or one of the final cliffhanger of SBR being the name of D4C; or the real tension in the plane, when Trish FINALLY gets her stand, one on one against the strongest opponent of the season, all that to get it called "Spice Girl", and nonetheless being super awesome with it.
And even if the names are totally random, the rare moments when they match the character make it even better. Metallica? So he's doing stuff with metal, and WHAWHAWHAWHAWHAT? Notorious B.I.G. is so small, how come... oh, OK. King Crimson, simple and fantastic. Stone Free to escape the Stone Ocean. Etc, etc, etc...
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| Nobinobita 834th Post
Red Carpet Regular Member+
| "Re(3):Good Names" , posted Mon 25 Oct 18:18
quote:
Most of the English Pokémon names pale in comparaison to the French ones.
The French Pokemon names sound more dignified to my American ears, probably because so many of our more proper terms come from French (cow vs beef, chicken vs poultry etc), but the American names have a wholesome Saturday morning feel to them that i find pleasant.
quote:
I was about to say "I always found the naming system of DB lame", but then I have to admit it had its very good points. Vegeta would never have been as good with a regular, "let's try to find a good nemesis-sounding name for this guy".
I've always liked Toriyama's naming conventions. They are fun and playful (and not overly cute or ironic). Most importantly, they just work phonetically. For instance, in Toriyama speak, Brocolli becomes Brolly, the true super saiyan of lore. I realize that alot of it is just running English words through a Japanese filter, but it totally works.
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Jojo
Yup yup and yup. Vanilla Ice and Spice Girl should sound totally lame, but they work! "Stone Ocean" is such a mysterious, evocative name for the arc.
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Also worthwhile is attention to quality subtitles (if that's the word), both goofy and good. I remember it being Tactics Ogre~Let Us Cling Together and other Queen-inspired lyrical titles, which is outstanding. And I think that the subtitle on Lunar 2~Eternal Blue is among the most gorgeous I've ever heard. Dragon Quest has always done a nice job with this, too--there's a real feeling of storybook aventure unfolding with each subtitle description.
OOOooooo yeah subtitles!
"Eternal Blue" conveys a great feeling of wonder and tranquility. Really stirs my wanderlust in the way that every RPG ought to.
"March of the Black Queen"
"Journey of the Cursed King"
Really great, evocative titles!
Here are some other favorites of mine from literature.
Till We Have Faces - bitter emotional devastation
Raise High The Roofbeam Carpenters - nostalgic, neurotic, scholarly, and oddly sweet
Blood Meridian, or The Evening Redness In The West - PROFOUND VIOLENCE
The best titles are like shorthand poetry.
www.art-eater.com
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