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Do Nonsense Words in Games Bother You?

A

Archtreyz

Member
Recently, I tried to go back to Final Fantasy XIII, wondering if being a few years removed from the game would improve my feelings towards it. However, after slogging through about 20 hours of the game, I've given up. The combat is fine, and even though half the characters are annoying, the thing that got to me the most was the made-up words for everything. L'cie. Fal'cie. Pul'cie. I don't know, but they kept using the same words a billion different ways and I just lost interest in caring about the game.
Earlier in the year, I played through Tales of Berseria, and while I found that game to be more enjoyable, it had the same problem of using make up words in weird ways that didn't seem consistent. Kingdoms of Amulur: Reckoning used a ton of made up words as well, but it didn't turn me off from the game like FFXIII did. Does using a lot of made up words bother you?
 
redfox088

redfox088

Banned
Only when it's overdone/overused while expecting the player to comprehend these words as if we use them irl.
 
O

Orb

Member
The names in FF14 are so unnecessarily complicated it legitimately makes me angry. They just insert more letters into normal names.

Then theres shit like MERLWYB and half the cast having a name starting with the letter y. Its frustrating
 
P

Piers

Member
If it's used sparingly, fine.
But booting up Skyrim for the first time, my brain filtered out about a hundred terms and words in the opening alone. The writers probably want players to become interested in what they mean but I cannot be bothered.

On the other end of the spectrum, Destiny is bad for being too dull and straight-shooting with its terminology.
 
S

super-famicom

Member
Orb said:
The names in FF14 are so unnecessarily complicated it legitimately makes me angry. They just insert more letters into normal names.

Then theres shit like MERLWYB and half the cast having a name starting with the letter y. Its frustrating
Click to expand...

What is that
 
1

13ruce

Banned
Woomy tho.

i don't mind it i even like made up gibberish or words i adored Midna's way of speaking and how Inklings do it. And nier Automata has made up lyrics wich i enjoyed.so ultimately i don't mind made up language or words or gibberish at all.

Ah and ofcourse Skyrim Fus Ro Dah!
Gimme dat Triforce.
I sure love those Metal Gear Mechs.
I really want a Keyblade to open up Kingdom Hearts.
Metroids sure are scary.

Sure some of these are mixed up words but still. I love em lol. You don't use these in real life.
 
1

120v

Member
jrpgs generally operate under the assumption any gibberish in english comes across as weighty and meaningful or whatever.

which, i guess goes for both sides. like a western developed game with some mcguffin with an cryptic asian sounding name probably doesn't seem as annoying to the english speaking audience
 
Strangelove77

Strangelove77

Member
I knew this would be about jrpgs.

And I agree. It seems they go out of their way to make words up. Like what they're describing is incredibly deep and complicated. Like there's no other word that they could use.
It's really annoying.
Western games do it to, but they tend to use established words with a changed meaning.

I really miss the days of ethers and phoenix downs.
 
A

Archtreyz

Member
NoKisum said:
How do you feel about games/media that use fictional languages?
Click to expand...
It just depends on how it's used. Oddly enough, The Lord of the Rings never bothered me with that stuff. I just feel like the only time it really gets to me is when I'm playing games.
 
L

Lord of Ostia

Member
Archtreyz said:
The Elder Scrolls series does this too, with Wood Elves, Dark Elves, and High Elves all being called gibberish names.
Click to expand...
That's a bad example, they are called Wood Elves, High Elves, and Dark Elves in the game as well, but those are considered imperial shorthand for their races, they don't refer to themselves as Elves. They call themselves Mer, which basically means elf in their own languages and culture.
 
S

SprachBrooks

Member
The problem with XIII's use of jargon is that they do not explain a lot of it. It's up to you to read bullshit logs to understand a lot of the lore, which many never do so they stop paying attention.

Jargon––or made up words––is fine and can flesh out the universe and make it more believable, provide it fits and is expanded on.
 
F

FRS1987

Member
Archtreyz said:
the thing that got to me the most was the made-up words for everything. L'cie. Fal'cie. Pul'cie. I don't know, but they kept using the same words a billion different ways and I just lost interest in caring about the game.
Click to expand...

This still pisses me off. It was to the point where it got confusing. Games shouldn't use that many made up words that all sound the same. I don't even remember what the game was even about.
 
C

chrominance

Member
I only really care if it makes your game incomprehensible. Final Fantasy XIII is the worst offender I've played. Tales of the Abyss isn't great either with its Fon Master and Fields of Fonons talk, but luckily that stuff isn't nearly as integral to the plot.
 
N

NinjaCoachZ

Member
Orb said:
The names in FF14 are so unnecessarily complicated it legitimately makes me angry. They just insert more letters into normal names.

Then theres shit like MERLWYB and half the cast having a name starting with the letter y. Its frustrating
Click to expand...

I thought the Roegadyn were supposed to be Welsh.
 
TissueBox

TissueBox

Member
It would if they were just tossed around... but if there's like an actual language system behind it then I can't really disrespect it as much, unless it's just straight up annoying to listen to. :p
 
J

Jakten

Member
The words themselves don't bother me it's when they overload you with names and terms for things that have no relevance to you yet (or ever). It especially gets annoying when making up names for political titles or things the explicitly need context to understand why that is important or where they rank in society. Fantasy novels and Sci-fi novels often suffer from this as well, I forget the specific term for it though. Like if the 50th Magistrate Dentarg of Millwhyth walks in dressed in the skin of a Bengol beast and uses his highly regarded Zeldarb Flaming Whistlewing spell, I have no context for what any of that is so there was no point in explaining it in detailed terms that I don't understand. Just say King Dentarg shot a fireball.
 
C

Conciliator

Banned
redfox088 said:
Only when it's overdone/overused while expecting the player to comprehend these words as if we use them irl.
Click to expand...

yes, and also if the language/lore is unique and not just like Tolkien madlibs.

Example of terrible use of fantasy names: Kingdom of Amalaur(even stupid title is unpronounceable)

Example of great use of fantasy names: Dark Souls.
 
S

Silvergun-Blue

Member
My personal problem is when they give spells and special attacks silly names. I love the Persona games, but they're bad for this. Make the spell name descriptive of what the spell does, not something like "Sukukaja"
 
M

Mephala

Member
Sometimes, usually when there are too many or I'm forced to sift through a menu to find the meaning (after the cutscenes which I can't rewatch to get a better understanding. If the world is hard for. me to pronounce in my mind I get a little annoyed at it. I remember when I was young I wasnt as familiar with other languages so if it wasn't strict English I found it difficult to digest and it took me out of my comfort zone. These days if it doesn't look like they should be named in English I find it odd when it is given common English names.
 
B

Booker Dewitt

Member
It's not a made up word but I always felt Persona 3's use of "transmogrify" was awkward given the level of the rest of the game's vocabulary.
 
A

Archtreyz

Member
Lord of Ostia said:
That's a bad example, they are called Wood Elves, High Elves, and Dark Elves in the game as well, but those are considered imperial shorthand for their races, they don't refer to themselves as Elves. They call themselves Mer, which basically means elf in their own languages and culture.
Click to expand...
True, but elves call other elves by Dunmer or Altmer or what have you even when talking to Imperials or other people that don't speak their tongue. Just call them dark elves.
 
C

Clessidor

Member
It really depents how it's done. Fantasy words and languages can really add a lot immersion to world. But if it's done the wrong way, then it's really confusing or just annoying.
But to honest from my experience it's mostly done right ingames and not annoying.
 
T

Thud

Member
chrominance said:
I only really care if it makes your game incomprehensible. Final Fantasy XIII is the worst offender I've played. Tales of the Abyss isn't great either with its Fon Master and Fields of Fonons talk, but luckily that stuff isn't nearly as integral to the plot.
Click to expand...

Abyss really sucks at this. Especially because it sounds so silly. Fon master is that a master of using föhns?
 
RainbowIslands

RainbowIslands

Member
Not Really. Thought they were pretty cool back when I was younger; I was super invested in the jargon in Tales of Symphonia and Tales of the Abyss. Nowadays I don't mind the extra terminology if it helps flesh out the world. FFXIII's world is much more interesting (and consistent) than Zestiria and Berseria's world imo, and the made-up jargon definitely helps. The storytelling and character issues though...

Speaking of which: SMT and FF series uses Zio, Agi etc. + suffixes (-Dyne, -ra) for magic and those counts as made-up jargon, too. Those were sometimes a pain to learn though: I still can't tell between all those Stat moves (Tarukaja, Sukunda etc.) in SMT games.
 
J

Jangowuzhere

Banned
It's only nonsense if it isn't explained properly.

SE doesn't bother giving the proper context for its sci-fi/fantasy terminology in FFXIII. They simply throw a codex at you and say "here, if you want to follow what's happening in this story, then read this crap."

Bad storytelling is the problem here, not "nonsense" words.
 
T

True Fire

Member
Silvergun-Blue said:
My personal problem is when they give spells and special attacks silly names. I love the Persona games, but they're bad for this. Make the spell name descriptive of what the spell does, not something like "Sukukaja"
Click to expand...

I disagree. Megaten's made up language follows typical language conventions. You just have to remember the prefexes, suffexes, and base spells, which is easy for 100 hour games.

It's also consistent between games, so if you spend 1000 hours in Megaten the spells are second nature to you.
 
A

Archtreyz

Member
True Fire said:
I disagree. Megaten's made up language follows typical language conventions. You just have to remember the prefexes, suffexes, and base spells, which is easy for 100 hour games.

It's also consistent between games, so if you spend 1000 hours in Megaten the spells are second nature to you.
Click to expand...
Final Fantasy's use of Fire-Fira-Firaga never bothered me much because it made sense in game. And the Persona games follow the same logical sense of progression with language conventions.
 
R

redcrayon

Member
Tales of the Abyss with all its Fonic this, that and the other, to try and make magic sound like a field of science, was pretty awful.

It's pretty much the same as FFXIII with its La'cie and Fal'cie, coming up with a load of nonsense terms to create a plausible mythology that at least sounds different rather than because it has any really interesting new ideas or depth to it.

I suppose just saying 'it's magic/ancient gods/pawns of the gods' just sounds a bit too pedestrian when trying to sell yet another rpg about the dangerous legacy of ancient civilisations, pseudo-science and memory loss.

In western sci-fi games the equivalent that makes me laugh is the twisting they have to do to make their specific advanced ancient civilisation sound special. Precursors, Forerunners, Ancestors, Protheans, Primogenitors, Old Ones etc etc. All to be spoken of in hushed tones and almost certain to have left cyclopean cities full of lethal weaponry and crystal technology all over the place. The bastards. :D
 
T

Tarextherex

Banned
RainbowIslands said:
Not Really. Thought they were pretty cool back when I was younger; I was super invested in the jargon in Tales of Symphonia and Tales of the Abyss. Nowadays I don't mind the extra terminology if it helps flesh out the world. FFXIII's world is much more interesting (and consistent) than Zestiria and Berseria's world imo, and the made-up jargon definitely helps. The storytelling and character issues though...

Speaking of which: SMT and FF series uses Zio, Agi etc. + suffixes (-Dyne, -ra) for magic and those counts as made-up jargon, too. Those were sometimes a pain to learn though: I still can't tell between all those Stat moves (Tarukaja, Sukunda etc.) in SMT games.
Click to expand...

Haven't played FFXIII but yeah this. Currently playing P3 and the spell names really took some adapting, especially when you can't look what a skill does on the persona menu. You need to go on the skill one

Other than that, so far I never played a game that goes really hard on terminology/foreign sounding words like some novels do
 
S

Spyware

Member
While I have not played later Final Fantasy games I had no troubles with Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning and I adore the rich lore and everything else in The Elder Scrolls. Dunmer is just leagues above "Dark Elf".
 
K

KeyBladerXIII

Member
I get a pretty quick grasp of the terminology in games. FFXII was no problem and I remember diving into Mass Effect 2 having not played the first one and sucking up everything from the data logs and managing it fine.

Orb said:
The names in FF14 are so unnecessarily complicated it legitimately makes me angry. They just insert more letters into normal names.

Then theres shit like MERLWYB and half the cast having a name starting with the letter y. Its frustrating
Click to expand...

I think in this case it's the fault of the Roegadyn race and their names like Slfysxtyr.
 
TissueBox

TissueBox

Member
Archtreyz said:
True, but elves call other elves by Dunmer or Altmer or what have you even when talking to Imperials or other people that don't speak their tongue. Just call them dark elves.
Click to expand...

It's relative to the culture though which is what the series is all about, each culture has different ways of speaking and terms giving each people a distinction, which can also help you point one out and in some cases ascertain social contexts. There is also a structure behind the words and phonetics used that have fixed meanings and can let you sort of try to understand it similar to an actual language in real life when they speak something other than English that is quite extensive while also being easy to comprehend and not too ridiculous imo.

Ayleid language basics
Dragon tongue basics
 
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