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Can we talk about Bad Videogame Titles?

2742961-rsz_natsuiro-high-school-seishun-hakusho_2015_04-16-15_001.jpg

Summertime High School: A Young Man’s Notes—How a New Exchange Student Like Myself Ran Into His Childhood Friend On The School Tour, Then For Some Reason Became Super-Popular With The Girls For His Daily Scoops On The School Photography Club Even Though He Only Takes Panty Shots, And What He Thinks As He Goes On Dates During His Summer Of Island School Life.

This is both amazing and terrifying. I thought you just added the second part as a joke, but no that's the actual full title. Crazy.
 
When I read the title Legend of Legacy I knew it was an anime ass game. Only Japan would name somethings Legend of Legacy or Tales of Destiny. They aren't BAD per se... just sort of nothing names.
 
I'm surprised nobody's mentioned this yet:

PlayStationAllStars.jpg


Playstation All-Stars Battle Royale.

It's awful on all fronts. It is literally just a description of the game with no creativity or though put into it. It's a mouthful to say. Even shortening it to "Playstation All-Stars" is a lot. Its abbreviation is also stupidly long: PSASBR.

It's like they put zero marketing into coming up with a decent title.
 
Japanese ones like Revengance, Infinite Undiscovery and Bravely Default are the worst.
Not speaking English at least gives them an excuse though.
 
I'm surprised nobody's mentioned this yet:

it has been mentioned. I assume they wanted to spin the concept off over multiple genres and that's why they tagged on "Battle Royal".


i always found "Jenseits von Gut und Böse" funny since as a saying it basically means "horrible".
 
What do you mean by "Bad Title" ? Because half of the posters are whining about how they never paid attention to Latin or French languages.
The other half are positing popular games just to be edgy.

My Criteria for a Good Video-Game Title:

1. Does it convey a theme?
2. Does it refer to a MacGuffin or place or object of importance in the game world?
3. Does it refer to the protagonist/antagonist?
4. Is the name easy to search on google?

If one of more of these criteria are met, it's a decent title.
 
2742961-rsz_natsuiro-high-school-seishun-hakusho_2015_04-16-15_001.jpg

Summertime High School: A Young Man’s Notes—How a New Exchange Student Like Myself Ran Into His Childhood Friend On The School Tour, Then For Some Reason Became Super-Popular With The Girls For His Daily Scoops On The School Photography Club Even Though He Only Takes Panty Shots, And What He Thinks As He Goes On Dates During His Summer Of Island School Life.

I oddly respect this. At least you know what you are getting when you pick up the game. Its like someone took a Steam Description and made it a subtitle.
 
I oddly respect this. At least you know what you are getting when you pick up the game. Its like someone took a Steam Description and made it a subtitle.

We could make a game out of this. Subtitle Summary!

Metal Gear Solid: An Old Soldier's Diary --- How a retired infiltration expert like myself who was enjoying his time training dogs in Alaska was called upon to complete one final mission to infiltrate a dangerous terrorist base to destroy a nuclear powered super weapon and take on my kooky former comrades where each one is weirder than the last but it's ok because I get help from an equally eccentric support team and an Otaku who pisses himself.

Mass Effect. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

It's a reference to what happens to Men's dicks and Women's vagina's when they see how awesome Garrus is.
 
Beyond Good and Evil

Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep
 
Atelier ''insert stupid made-up word''.

The "stupid made-up word" is the main character(s) name. Some of them rather nice sounding names too. I like Sophie and Marie. Those are nice names.

Anyway, atelier is a French word for a workshop, so the game titles literally mean <main character's> Workshop. Apt, succinct, and catchy. They're good titles.
 
Mass Effect. ¯\_(&#12484;)_/¯

It's actually pretty cool, because of its reference to the mass defect (the reason why there is energy to gain by nuclear fusion/fission) and the stupidity of old sci-fi operas.
Back in Asimovs days nuclear power (and the mass defect) were the technical standard to achieve new technical breakthroughs.
 
Everytime i mention Metal Gear Solid, my gf cringes. And rightly so, its a ridiculous title for anything.

The name Metal Gear comes from a Russian scientists's in-game dissertation where he proposes an idea for a weapon that links infantry and artillery.
A Metal Gear between the other two parts of the war machine. It's a very smart name. Also, Solid = 3D

For someone like me who likes the games, yes, it is a ridiculously awesome title. Its understandable that anyone else makes a lolwut face though!

It can't be helped that people don't know what role a gear plays in machinery. Metal is kind of redundant but Metal Gear sounds better than just Gear.
 
It's actually pretty cool, because of its reference to the mass defect (the reason why there is energy to gain by nuclear fusion/fission) and the stupidity of old sci-fi operas.
Back in Asimovs days nuclear power (and the mass defect) were the technical standard to achieve new technical breakthroughs.

I know we get the title and it sounds cool after you've played the game. But for an outsider it just sounds two words joined together because Sci Fi.

I tried to convince my friend to start with the series because of how interesting the worlds and the characters and the settings are, but he didn't because of the title. Now that I think of it, that was very shallow of him.
 
Tactics Ogre/Ogre Battle is pretty awful... and the second Tactics Ogre game "Let Us Cling Together" is just silly.

Game titles should stand on their own and in fact these titles give off a misconception like do battle ogres specifically or are you the ogre(s)? etc.
 
Tactics Ogre/Ogre Battle is pretty awful... and the second Tactics Ogre game "Let Us Cling Together" is just silly.

Game titles should stand on their own and in fact these titles give off a misconception like do battle ogres specifically or are you the ogre(s)? etc.

.

They used it because at the time the entire series' titles (main title and subtitles) were all the names of Queen songs.

For the curious:

Ogre Battle
March of the Black Queen
Let Us Cling Together
 
What about these games coming out that are like

GUILTY GEAR XRD -SIGN-
Blazblue Chrono Phantasma Extend
Ar nosurge Plus: Ode To An Unborn Star
Operation Abyss: New Tokyo Legacy
Hyperdimension Neptunia Re;Birth 3: V Generation
 
Bravely Default is by far the worst one.

I think it being "Bravely Default - Where the Fairy Flies" makes it even worse because...
...it contains an obvious Spoiler
bravely default - where the fAIRY fLIES.
They even wrote the letters "Airy" "Lies" in red... It spoiled me right before my second play session in the main menu, because I knew who Airy is.
 
What about these games coming out that are like

GUILTY GEAR XRD -SIGN-
Blazblue Chrono Phantasma Extend
Ar nosurge Plus: Ode To An Unborn Star
Operation Abyss: New Tokyo Legacy
Hyperdimension Neptunia Re;Birth 3: V Generation
How do you even pronounce XRD? What an abomination of a name.
 
Square Enix, a company that has been known in recent years for making not-so-great choices, decided to subtitle their most recent Star Ocean project, Integrity and Faithlessness. It's like SE is going straight meta.
 
Meh, can't say I ever gave it any thought... titles pretty much don't have any bearing on my playing and purchasing decisions. What would constitute a "good" video game title, and what are some examples?
 
idk I think a lot of you aren't great at recognizing the good bad names. Revengeance is awesome. I totally want more people to use that word in casual conversation so it can end up in the OED. And who the hell said Melty Blood? That name is amazing.

*Ctrl+C* - *Ctrl+V*
haha is that real what

DMC : Devil May Cry.

Why the abbreviation ? It's literally saying Devil May Cry : Devil May Cry.

Yeah, I get annoyed every time I drive past a "TCBY Yogurt"
 
The name Metal Gear comes from a Russian scientists's in-game dissertation where he proposes an idea for a weapon that links infantry and artillery.
A Metal Gear between the other two parts of the war machine. It's a very smart name. Also, Solid = 3D

That scene was in MGS3, which was the fifth (canonical) game in the series. It's definitely not what they were thinking when they named the original game or gave the third game the awkward title of "Metal Gear Solid".

I think it being "Bravely Default - Where the Fairy Flies" makes it even worse because...
...it contains an obvious Spoiler
bravely default - where the fAIRY fLIES.
They even wrote the letters "Airy" "Lies" in red... It spoiled me right before my second play session in the main menu, because I knew who Airy is.

Sounds like you got a used copy.
That only happens to the title screen once you reach one of the final chapters.
 
When I read the title Legend of Legacy I knew it was an anime ass game. Only Japan would name somethings Legend of Legacy or Tales of Destiny. They aren't BAD per se... just sort of nothing names.
Haven't played the game, but legend of legacy actually seems like a tasteful, whimsical anime than generic shounen anime game.
 
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