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

[MizoreShirayuki]

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?

[Exstal]

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

[Corfish]

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.

[Fynlar]

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.

[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.

[AmnesiaHaze]

because lightning is a ff character lol

[Clavaat]

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.

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.

[Alukah]

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.

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

[Corfish]

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.

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.

[Shadex]

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

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