Why Aren't Thunder Spells Actually Called Lightning in the Game?

Greetings!

One of my FC members brought up this point last night. Thunder is the sound caused by lightning. We don't hit mobs with thunder (sound) but actual lightning. So why aren't the spells called Lightning I, I I & III?

They've been called Bolt, and Thunder but not sure about Lightning.

It's just the naming convention for FF.

Lightning = Thunder
Fire = Fire
Ice = Blizzard
Wind = Aero
Water = Water

The other 3 elements, Dark, Light, and Earth come in a lot more flavors throughout the series, so it's hard to give them a solid naming convention. The best Light spell is usually Holy, and Earth usually only comes from summons, or the Quake spell which I think is usually more of a Blue Magic spell in later games, earlier on I believe BLM got the stronger elemental spells like Tornado and Quake though.

Personally, I hope they remove the I, II, and III BS and actually start naming them properly. Thunder, Thundara, Thundaga, and so on and so forth.

Because that's never been the trend in FF games.

It was translated in some of the older games as LIT/Bolt but to my understanding that was only due to character space limitations, and that in the original (Japanese) games that family of spells has always had the same name.

Because Square doesn't want to risk an unintentional association with their hugely successful FF13 series maybe? I am actually more curious at this point when they even bothered naming them anything other than "Damage Spell 1", "Damage Spell 2", "Area Damage Spell 1". They have no elemental aspects, they gutted that all out. There is zero reason to call these spells anything other than the graphic they use.

because lightning is a ff character lol

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Originally Posted by Corfish

Personally, I hope they remove the I, II, and III BS and actually start naming them properly. Thunder, Thundara, Thundaga, and so on and so forth.

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Depends on the FF game you're playing. The rest is true, but this part is different from game to game. Amon in ST actually casts Thundaga and Blizzaga. In FFXI, the -ara -aga conventions only applied to AoE abilities. The rest were numbered. I want to say...FF4 followed the same convention. I know there's another one or two that do that.

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Originally Posted by Shadex

Because Square doesn't want to risk an unintentional association with their hugely successful FF13 series maybe? I am actually more curious at this point when they even bothered naming them anything other than "Damage Spell 1", "Damage Spell 2", "Area Damage Spell 1". They have no elemental aspects, they gutted that all out. There is zero reason to call these spells anything other than the graphic they use.

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Considering they chose Thunder / -ara / -aga (or numbers) over Lightning way before FFXIII came out... Invalid.

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Originally Posted by Clavaat

Depends on the FF game you're playing. The rest is true, but this part is different from game to game. Amon in ST actually casts Thundaga and Blizzaga. In FFXI, the -ara -aga conventions only applied to AoE abilities. The rest were numbered. I want to say...FF4 followed the same convention. I know there's another one or two that do that.

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In the *vast* majority though they're given the Thunder, -ara, -aga convention. Even the older games take on that naming convention in the remakes. Hell, even Kingdom Hearts uses it.

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Originally Posted by Alukah

Considering they chose Thunder / -ara / -aga (or numbers) over Lightning way before FFXIII came out... Invalid.

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Sorry, the other posters recognized the sarcasm. I will try and be more transparent about it in the future. :)

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Originally Posted by Corfish

In the *vast* majority though they're given the Thunder, -ara, -aga convention. Even the older games take on that naming convention in the remakes. Hell, even Kingdom Hearts uses it.

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Right, just saying it's not unheard of within the series. Since Amon uses these spells, it's possible they plan on using that at some point? I'd like to see them also.

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Originally Posted by Shadex

Sorry, the other posters recognized the sarcasm. I will try and be more transparent about it in the future. :)

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Add a sarcasm tag then :P

Nowadays with all the threads and posts around saying or suggesting the oddest things it's hard to identify sarcasm.

They probably chose thunder out of the established naming conventions, which were in turn chosen for the fact thunder is easier to slap "ara" and "aga" onto than lightning. Lightning would be more accurate though.

I think the main reason Lightning isn't used is because it wouldn't work with the spell naming conventions as well as Thunder. Lightningaga doesn't roll off the toungue as well as Thunderaga. Of course they could get rid of the -ing but it would sound like a holy spell instead of a lightning based spell. I also believe there was a enemy skill from the earlier final fantasys with Lightning as the name so it was also likely to avoid confusion.

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Originally Posted by KylePearlsand

Lightningaga doesn't roll off the toungue as well as Thunderaga.

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And even less than Thundaga :p

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Originally Posted by Reynhart

And even less than Thundaga :p

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Ladygaga?

/10chars

I hope you all know that the Japanese version of Blizzard I, II, and III are named Blizzard, Blizzara and Blizzaga in FFXIV:ARR. The reason it's named the way it is now is because the English translation crew wished it that way.

Source


ブリザガ=>Burizaga

They change it up every couple of games or so.

Thunder has been called Lightning, Bolt, and even Lit in the past. Its like they decided to go with the original Cure, Cure II, Cure III, instead of Cure, Cura, Curaga, and Curaja.

This is why it's called Thunder and not Lightning :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D1VF3pwLv2g

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Originally Posted by Kaethra

They change it up every couple of games or so.

Thunder has been called Lightning, Bolt, and even Lit in the past. Its like they decided to go with the original Cure, Cure II, Cure III, instead of Cure, Cura, Curaga, and Curaja.

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In some cases, it depends on the future plans for things. Saving names for future use is often something that is done when you need to plan ahead (obviously this is more towards things like MMORPGs than single player console games). Expect to see things with the -a, -ja, -ga in the future.

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Originally Posted by Exstal

I hope you all know that the Japanese version of Blizzard I, II, and III are named Blizzard, Blizzara and Blizzaga in FFXIV:ARR. The reason it's named the way it is now is because the English translation crew wished it that way.

Source


ブリザガ=>Burizaga

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They also pointed out that the -ra and -ga suffixes (and -ja, -na, and -da for that matter) are meaningless terms with no relation to any Japanese language conventions. Basically, a more faithful translation of the Blizzard line would be: Blizzard (no suffix), Blizzazzle, and Blizzeezy.

Also, I'm 100% in favor of bringing back Bolt.

For even further confusion, Japanese FF has always used the suffix naming system ever since the original FF1. It's just that the game could only allow four characters so the translations had to come up with a different standard.

As for why it's Thunder? Because it is. That's pretty much it.

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Originally Posted by Grey_Cain

They also pointed out that the -ra and -ga suffixes (and -ja, -na, and -da for that matter) are meaningless terms with no relation to any Japanese language conventions. Basically, a more faithful translation of the Blizzard line would be: Blizzard (no suffix), Blizzazzle, and Blizzeezy.

Also, I'm 100% in favor of bringing back Bolt.

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You're right. However, it's weird that it's not the same naming convention in for both versions. I'm not sure about German and French versions.

http://img2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb2...ES_Thunder.png

In german it is Blitz, Blitzra and Blitzga (blitz = lightning)

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Originally Posted by Exstal

You're right. However, it's weird that it's not the same naming convention in for both versions. I'm not sure about German and French versions.

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I think German used the JP naming convention, but French uses prefixes instead for names that translate to Extra Fire, Mega Fire, etc.
(Somebody managed to save Fernehalwes's explanation)

I also realized after posting before that the JP convention uses a single letter suffix, so the actual names for the Blizzard line would more likely be Blizzard, Blizzardr, Blizzardg, Blizzardj, etc. Personally, I'd rather have the -izzle and -eezy suffixes. >_>

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Originally Posted by Grey_Cain

I think German used the JP naming convention, but French uses prefixes instead for names that translate to Extra Fire, Mega Fire, etc.
(Somebody managed to save Fernehalwes's explanation)

I also realized after posting before that the JP convention uses a single letter suffix, so the actual names for the Blizzard line would more likely be Blizzard, Blizzardr, Blizzardg, Blizzardj, etc. Personally, I'd rather have the -izzle and -eezy suffixes. >_>

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I'm casting Firizzle my nizzle! Get out of the hizzle!

http://squareportal.files.wordpress....vqgio2_500.gif

Just wanted to point out that "Lightning" was only used within this game once and in that case it was referring to Claire "Lightning" Farron who obliviously wasn't part of Eorzea. The rest of the game uses an archaic form of the word: Levin. Hence Ramuh's title and certain abilities like Levinshower are named the way they are. So even if the Thunder spells are renamed, it would not be "Lightning", "Lightninga/ II" or "Lightningun/aga/ III" but "Levin", "Levina/ II" and "Levinaga/gun/ III" respectively

Its Thunder....

Lightning is saved for bland emotionless characters with pink wafty hair.

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Originally Posted by Exstal

I hope you all know that the Japanese version of Blizzard I, II, and III are named Blizzard, Blizzara and Blizzaga in FFXIV:ARR. The reason it's named the way it is now is because the English translation crew wished it that way.

Source


ブリザガ=>Burizaga

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Wonder if there is a way we could convince them to change that for the English version, or a toggle to switch between aga/numbered for people who prefer the numbers. I myself tend to say Firaga at times just out of habit.

It's been a while so I'm not sure if this is still prevalent or correct info.

Just like the Company King trying to get their hands on "Candy" so it would belong to them, Dungeons & Dragons (Wizards of the coast) had perhaps made the same thing with "Lightning" or "Lightning Bolt" (in English, not sure about other languages)

In this case, since Lightning refers to a name and not the spell, they might be ok blablabla..

Was looking for the info but I can't find it anymore (Too old I guess ^^) so please bear with me.

Here's for Candy:

http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/2...word_Candy.php

Other: https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20...rk-claim.shtml

And for "cloning" http://company.wizards.com/content/w...-entertainment

Sigh..

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Originally Posted by KingOfAbyss

It's been a while so I'm not sure if this is still prevalent or correct info.

Just like the Company King trying to get their hands on "Candy" so it would belong to them, Dungeons & Dragons (Wizards of the coast) had perhaps made the same thing with "Lightning" or "Lightning Bolt" (in English, not sure about other languages)

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Did Wizard threaten to sue those that refereed to Lightning in its original context (as a word to certain weather) because is so, the that would explain why SE is using "Levin" instead (well that and XIII)

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Originally Posted by Morningstar1337

Did Wizard threaten to sue those that refereed to Lightning in its original context (as a word to certain weather) because is so, the that would explain why SE is using "Levin" instead (well that and XIII)

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Heya Morningstar ^^

This is where I am not sure, as it's sooo complicated with all the little details even before publishing a game, a book, an Idea.. that you need researchers to collect "infringement" spots and then trying to circumvent else you risk being sued.

It's been ages, and I think I saw something as lightning bolt not being used hmm.. don't remember if it was Ragnarok Online or pure D&D.. I've recalled some games using Lightnin <-- missing G intended.

On big companies, other researchers might be on the lookout for these infringements.

So yeah, not only SE, which tries to protect themselves, as any good standing company should do, but everyone should learn and.. like Cryptozoic Entertainment and Hex Entertainment well.. good luck for them.

To give you quick examples of suing over what some considers trivial (Time to make our own games it seems ^^ ) http://onward.justia.com/category/in...tual-property/

for those who don't click on the link, at the bottom ^^

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Apple Snags Harley-Davidson Trademark Rights to ‘Lightning’ in EU
November 26, 2012 by Joel Zand (@jzand)

Apple acquired partial European trademark rights to the word “lightning” from motorcycle maker Harley-Davidson’s intellectual property unit, H-D Michigan, LLC, according to public filings with the European Union’s trademark and design unit (see below), and a blog post by Patently Apple. Apple uses the term Lightning to describe its proprietary connection interface for iPhone, iPad, iPod, and iTouch devices that…
- See more at: http://onward.justia.com/category/in....UiDbKi3i.dpuf

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Don't mess with the big Fruit ^^

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Originally Posted by Felis

http://img2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb2...ES_Thunder.png

In german it is Blitz, Blitzra and Blitzga (blitz = lightning)

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Which just sounds awesome.

I want to cast Blitz..

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Originally Posted by Exstal

I hope you all know that the Japanese version of Blizzard I, II, and III are named Blizzard, Blizzara and Blizzaga in FFXIV:ARR. The reason it's named the way it is now is because the English translation crew wished it that way.

Source


ブリザガ=>Burizaga

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If that's the case then the English crew are idiots. In every game prior to this one the single target spells were Fire, Thunder, etc. AoE spells were 'agas'. It's like they went out and hired people who had never played a Final Fantasy game in their lives and said "Ok, you develop our new game".

It's very counter intuitive as a career black mage to be casting Fire II as my AoE instead of Firaga.

Isn't because lightning is trade marked by FF13 developer?

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Originally Posted by myahele

Isn't because lightning is trade marked by FF13 developer?

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Yeah because SE is dumb enough to prevent the XIV devs from using the word when they trademarked it for their previous game:rolleyes: Not even Hasbro is that shitty with trademarks and they literally lose most of the name one after a generation of MLP and Transformers

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Originally Posted by Souljacker

If that's the case then the English crew are idiots. In every game prior to this one the single target spells were Fire, Thunder, etc. AoE spells were 'agas'. It's like they went out and hired people who had never played a Final Fantasy game in their lives and said "Ok, you develop our new game".

It's very counter intuitive as a career black mage to be casting Fire II as my AoE instead of Firaga.

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They are not idiots, not for this at least, they simply made a choice.

It's not like something was lost in translation like they did with elite S rank hints.

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Originally Posted by myahele

Isn't because lightning is trade marked by FF13 developer?

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^-----v

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Originally Posted by Alukah

Considering they chose Thunder / -ara / -aga (or numbers) over Lightning way before FFXIII came out... Invalid.

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(I hope you now see what I meant, Shadex)

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Originally Posted by Souljacker

snip

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Maybe this is how it worked in 11 (never played it, so I'm not sure), but you're wrong. In most Final Fantasys, all of three or four main elemental spells can be both single target OR multitarget. I know in 10 they were single target only. I don't remember for 12, and in 13 they were as you described.

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Originally Posted by Corfish

Maybe this is how it worked in 11 (never played it, so I'm not sure), but you're wrong. In most Final Fantasys, all of three or four main elemental spells can be both single target OR multitarget. I know in 10 they were single target only. I don't remember for 12, and in 13 they were as you described.

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I think that XII's case they were single target until the -a phase (except for Holy which I think is single target only) but it's been so long that i don;t know how the spells work)

Also i think Souljacker might be mistaking SMT/Persona with FF. the 2nd phase elemental spells are multi target but the 3rd tier spells are single target