Zan is force. Garu is wind. While in some games, they made Zan to look like Garu, Zan focuses more on sweeping force or cutting force. The Japanese word Zan/Kiru being its origin is actually is not too far off. In P2, Zan is an almighty magic. To note, in the Japanese version of these games, they use Maha-xxx and the localized version simplified it to just Ma-xxx. So you are right that they are referring to the Sanskrit word Maha.
@@shinyanakagawa8241 probably that this is literally what happened in Persona. P1 and P2 had both zan and garu, then got rid of zan because its redundant. Not really hard to figure out his point if you have two braincells to rub together.
@@fenixchief7 Redundant or not is beside the point. This video is discussing about the origin of the spell names. Zan in SMT is mostly Force created by the impact of blade slashes which is depicted in the elemental symbol itself . The Japanese word Zan/Kiru 斬る means to slice or to cut, which what Zan icon literally depicted as; A three crescent looking smears that looks like afterimage of sword being slash. Tony literally showed us the kanji character when he talks about Zan. I am just correcting him so that his point actually make sense rather than just him yapping about nonsensical wild guess. To add, Garu always had a tornado or cyclone like icon. Both are similar in game mechanic sense but different in concept, which is why Zan is mostly use in mainline SMT and most of the spin offs while Garu is only used in Persona and Strange Journey.
I can only think of the word fubuki (吹雪, meaning blizzard in Japanese) when trying to figure out bufu, as the kana for 'bu' is 'fu' with a diacritic (ぶふ in hiragana, ブフ in katakana) and they simply switch them around.
I was going to say I'm pretty sure I've heard something sounding like bufu in reference to ice while watching subbed media before. This checks out by me
I love Luster Candy. It was suppossed to be Ra-Su-Ta Candy since it provide the effects of those skills but it got mistranslated. A funny side effect of this is the spanish name "Caramelo rasta" or literally Rasta Candy.
Some P5 ones: Ayamur - signature skill of Baal, named after the club he used to fight Yam the sea god Laevateinn - signature skill of Loki. The name of Loki's sword/wand. Panta Rhei - ultimate wind skill. A simplified version of the Greek philosopher Heraclitus' teachings that means "everything flows." Amrita (from Amrita Drop/Shower) - Sanskrit word for "immortality" which makes sense as a healing spell that gets rid of afflictions. I love that the creators of SMT/Persona really did their homework for these games.
Recently while playing Vengeance, I realized all the elemental mid-damage skills have different suffixes: Agilao, Bufula, Zanma, & Zionga. Just thought it was odd considering the higher strength levels all share the suffixes of -dyne and -barion.
@@harrietr.5073 I am looking at the Japanese version. Agilao is アギラオ (agirao) Bufula is ブフーラ (bufuura) Zionga is ジオンガ (jionga) Zanma is ザンマ (zanma) Terazi is テラジ (teraji) Garula is ガルーラ (garuura) I could keep going, but I think we got the picture by now.
Spanish is my first language and when I played a SMT game for the first time I was confused why the healing spells were called dia (Spanish for day) and media (Spanish for half or sock) It's just a coincidence but I still find it kinda funny Also mudo means mute in Spanish
Ice in Hindi is बर्फ़, or "barf" (not pronounced like the English word barf, it's a little closer to rhyming with "Murph") If you were to write out बर्फ़ in Japanese it would approximate to バルフ -> "barufu". I'm positive this is where Bufu comes from. To be honest, I'm a little surprised that this wasn't one of the first obvious possibilites looked into for anyone researching this, given that Agi comes from the Hindi word for fire already, and so on. Getting to brhattuhinazarkara before the actual Hindi word for ice is crazy lol
The person who suggested brhattuhinasharkara just went to the Sanskrit to English dictionary website, looked for ice, and picked the first result with a B. Then everyone decided to just believe what some shmuck of gamefaqs said lol
Most of the Japanese etymologies don’t make a lick of sense to anyone who speaks Japanese either. (Japanese doesn’t just combine random unrelated fragments of sounds to make words.)
I thought in the earlier games Zan was moreso themed on "'cutting' and 'pushing' with supernatural forces" rather than wind, hence why in the mainline games the "wind" element is called force. So "slash" would make sense with the original intention behind the zan element. Even with the modern wind context for Zan, "slash" could still make sense since wind is often associated with sharpness and shredding.
I mean, in Persona 1 Zan skills are catergorized as "Blast" type, look like colorless shockwaves in some of the earlier hames, and was once actually named "Psy" in one of the versions of Megami Tensei which is where Persona 5 got the Psy line and Psychokinesis element from, take that as you will
Great video as always! I have one small correction however, the “Schütz” part of “Freischütz” translates to shooter or marksman, it’s referring to the person who actually shoots the bullets rather than the magic bullets themselves
the Freischutz backstory always stuck out to me for being the origin of Freikugel, an attack primarily associated with Demi-Fiend. Demi Fiend in most of his other appearances is implied to be post-TDE; his use of the attack is completely unhindered by the rules of it's namesake because his goals align with lucifer's. having prior knowledge of the story and seeing it named in game was really cool to me back then
I really don't believe bufu comes from brhattuhinasharkar. I am 100% sure the person who suggested that went to a english to sanskrit dictionary website, typed in ice, and looked for the first result that started with a b. Another tell for this is the fact the letter z to represent the ś, something that dictionary site does but isn't a standard way to romanize sanskrit words (sanksrit has no z sound). My personal guess is that it comes from either the Persian word barf which means snow. This word also exists in Hindi (with a slightly different pronunciation), so possibly while researching Indian words to use they could have come across it. Another thing is that I think most of the conjugations (agi => agilao, maragi => maragion) were just picked because they sound cool and not for any specific reason. The notable exceptions being ma- and -dyne. Lastly, I'm confused by when you said recarm comes from the sanskrit word meaning reincarnation. Reincarnation in sanskrit is punarjanman. Recarm sounds more like the english word than the sanskrit one lol.
I can't post links in youtube comments but there is a tumblr post by a user named rologeass from 12 years ago titled "What Do Shin Megami Tensei Persona Spell Names Mean?" I strongly believe this is the key source used for this video.
Before I fully got into the series, the first time I heard about the spell Agilao confused me a lot. "I already know about Maragion, so the normal version must be Agion. So what the heck does 'lao' mean?" is what I thought.
Not really related, but the only thing I remember when I hear zan for wind is Kamen Rider Kenzan, he has wind powers and cut things as faster as his assigned element
"Magic is putting one's own power into physical shape. Their own truth." That's very deep. Off topic but I thought of magic as "that gap between what you see and what you understand." But that would be from an external perspective.
In regards to some spells: Marin Karin = apparently in french "malin calin" can mean "malignant cuddle" Also "Dia" is the spanish word for Day, which could also make sense since its a healing spell.
About Bufu, it sounds a lot like "Bafo" that in portuguese means: "Air expelled by the lungs, blowing or puffing". Basically a cold icy breath (bafo gelado) It's more likely that Bufu descends from the same word from where Bafo came from, but here in Brazil isn't uncommon to use the expression "Bafo gelado" to refer to a current of cold air.
I gotta say the meme at 0:14 had me dying the first time I saw and I had a smirk on my face the when I saw you used in this video. Great video as always
Additional info on Morningstar: it is also in reference to Isaiah 14:12 which some scholars say is a passage about the planet Venus being visible in the early hours of the morning
In italian we have the word "bufera", which comes from the provencal/occitan word "bufar" (the word is very old, and similiar variants can be found in estearn languages aswell!). anyway, "bufar" means "ice storm", so it could definetly be the origin of the word bufu
when i took spanish a few years ago i would remember the word scarf “bufanda” as bufu from smt due to scarfs being worn in the cold typically and bufu being the ice spell
I really like the system of prefixes and suffixes that games like SMT and Dragon Quest. I don't know why I like it, I just think it's a neat little system.
If I recall correctly, Freishutz means Freeshooter, while Freikugel means Free Bullet. Also worth noting that the two games you get Freikugel are both games where Lucifer is pulling your strings to some extent, or is at least invested in the decisions you make as either Demi-fiend or Nahobino. (At least in Canon of Vengeance, I never played Canon of Creation but in CoV Beelzebub specifically says Lucifer has high hopes for you, even if you're Law aligned at the time)
"Freikugel" actually appears in more games than those two, but as "Riot Gun" The "two" skills have the same name in the japanese versions, they're not even written differently from each other (like with different kana or kanji or w/e) Maybe Atlus West does this to add further distinction for whenever it's doing Almighty vs. whenever it does Gun damage. This also makes for a weird situation where both versions of the same skill existed at the same time for SMT IV:A's Diamond Realm DLC
Nice!! One thing that I love about the franchise as soon as I started playing it was those weird names for spells, reinforced the mystic vibe and differentiate from other more basic magic systems.
Thank you for making this video. I just finished SMTV: Vengeance a few days ago and wondered what exactly could these names be derived from. I know it's not 100% accurate as stated in the video, but it was still entertaining nonetheless.
this is very informative and something Ive always wondered but also part of me wants atlus to just release a statement like "nah we just made up some nonsense words"
I would say for Zan, the use of a cutting/slicing, word/character for wind might be in reference to the kamatachi (wind weasel) which is said to use Air like sickle to cut the air. Or at least this is how it is presented in some stories, also funny enough the way the creature is deep tied looks a lot like how Inugami is depicted in SMT.
Hey Tony in your next video will you speak of the Qadištu or demons you wish would return? My personal favorite of the Qadištu is Agrat and a demon I wish would return to the series is Tamamo-No-Mae. Imagine her being given the same treatment in a future game’s story as Nuwa where she has different forms
For dia I always thought of diastole, the cycle of the human heart where the chambers of the heart fill up with blood before it beats and pushes the blood to the rest of the body (systole).
This was something that always fascinated me considering at the time I had only heard of the Final Fantasy names of spells which added Aga and Isa at the end to pretty much indicate higher tears. So the fact that literally you could tell what kind of spell it was based on certain words indicate if it was multiple targeting, a higher tier, or something that is offensive Levi or defensive Levi
I would love a part two or maybe another rapid fire round for some of the other skills you didn’t talk about such as the buff and debuff as well as some other persona specific skills as well as the p5 new elements
Really great video all around and its fun to see the more subtle aaspects of SMT's theology get a spotlight On the note dia's name , it may have another, much simpler source; the Irish word for God is Dia (probably related to what you gave anyway), appearing in phrases such as the Gaelainn equivalent of hello "Dia Duit" (Dia Dhuit in my neck of the woods), and parables such as "Níor chuir Dia sceach i mbéal an chuain riamh" (God never put a thorn bush in a harbour). It may also be based on the greek character Media, given the spell's plural form, which would fit her nature as a sorceress and how she aids jason in the Argonautica
Makrakarn is actually a derivative of macro and corn, referring to the real life occurrence of which one can summon a large corn cob with which they can defend themselves.
In case you didn’t know, to “beg the question” does not mean to “raise the question”. To beg the question is to assume the truth of an argument or proposition to be proved, without arguing it.
Begging the question can also mean to raise a question. Oxford puts the "raise a question" definition first before the assumption definition on its entry for the phrase "beg the question."
The "Ma-" prefix is actually just "maha" in Japanese (you can even see this in games in like P2EP on PSX where it's still translated "Maha Agidyne", for example), my best guess is "ma" is a way to save space and just stuck. Also, the Dia line is descended from "Medical" in the original ATLUS Megami Tensei games, and got shortened for lower power, hence "media" and then "dia".
Zan(aka Kiru) is more in line with 'cutting force' hence its origin from the Japanese language. Bufu was most likely a play-on of 'fubuki', meaning blizzard(by inverting either the hiragana and katakana in a diacritic fashion). Makes sense in context, aside from bufu also being a shortened abbreviation of brhattuhinasharkar in Sanskrit.
Regarding "bufu" origins, in italian we have the word "bufera", which translates to "storm", and most times refers to a snowstorm. The first occurrence of this word was in Dante's Inferno (V 31). There's a whole essay dedicated to the origins of this word, written by Luca Zuliani. Thought this could offer some insight.
Zan translating to cutting and usually being the wind stand-in despite not actually being wind unlike Garu may be in reference to the Kamaitachi. Kamaitachi would move as quickly as the wind to slash at someone's legs.
I always thought that agidyne came first, as I heard it was a song the Cherubim sing, that would burn all impurities from the mortal soul. Not sure where I heard it, but I had believed that for years until I saw this.
I've been very interested in RPG spell name origins for a good while, so this is a good opportunity to see the conclusions other people have come to. - I feel like you overcomplicated the origin of Hama. No need to talk about an arrow when the word itself in Japanese basically means exorcism. - "Mudou" in Japanese does not mean curse, but it's more along the lines of inhumane or inmoral; which in a way fits for a dark-elemental instant-death spell, a forbidden hex more aligned with the demons as opposed to the holy anti-evil technique that Hama represents. - Zan coming from "cut" might actually have some sense, and might also explain why its depiction often changes between a shockwave and a tornado. It's possible this line of spells was inspired by Dragon Quest's wind spell family Bagi (or Woosh in the English versions), which had its own history of being depicted differently in earlier games; before being tornadoes, they were described in manuals as vacuum blades, at one point even referencing the kamaitachi, whose varying translations always refer to a wind capable of cutting, and in a way a shockwave is basically a strong mass of air. - I think spells that start with Maka may be more likely to come from "makafushigi" (grand mystery), which in turn could be inspired by Dragon Quest's use of the word "fushigi" (mysterious) in relation to MP-based items, a detail that has been lost in translations. Synonyms for mysterious include mystical and arcane, which are nowadays associated with magic. - For Dia, I also have a much simpler theory: The word means "day" in multiple languages, and the sun is widely considered a symbol of life. It reminds me of a spell in Final Fantasy 1 also called Dia, which under a similar logic had the effect of dealing damage specifically to the undead (this was before the series allowed for targetting any side of the field, and by extension undead enemies' weakness to healing magic).
is it just me or is are the pictures that Tony uses getting more and more insane like I ain't complaining but like that A train appearing on my screening while learning about the funny spells from megaten is wild
YES! I was waiting for this video to come out. Thanks man! Also fun unrelated thing, but in our language Zio can be translated to uncle, so, do whatever you want to do with this information. (Also, my headcanon is that whenever Yu Narukami uses a skill, he mumbles something and that something sounds a bit like Zio)
I got Zan right away. It's a reference to the Kusanaki-no-Tsurugi, a sword famous for whipping up a windstorm in Japanese legend, as well as the Kamaitachi, winds which cut people.
in japanese, skills that would have the "ma" prefix would have the full "maha" prefix instead. so you're pretty much spot on with that one. ex. maragion = maha-agion in japanese
If you've played enough Persona 3, you understand that "marin karin" translates to "constant waste of mana". Great video Tony! Keep up the good work! 😃👍
That was a really cool origin for dia! Had no idea of the celtic connection at all. In modern times, dia in the Irish language has a few means. As a noun it can mean God but as a verb it can mean to bless. So using dia in the games could be seen as you blessing them to heal them. Hope you liked this!
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Post suggestions for future videos too!
what about -barion?
Thanks for covering shibaboo and tentarafoo, I'll definitely try to take part in more of the discord discussions.
Zan is force. Garu is wind. While in some games, they made Zan to look like Garu, Zan focuses more on sweeping force or cutting force. The Japanese word Zan/Kiru being its origin is actually is not too far off. In P2, Zan is an almighty magic.
To note, in the Japanese version of these games, they use Maha-xxx and the localized version simplified it to just Ma-xxx. So you are right that they are referring to the Sanskrit word Maha.
I think it's because in Japan they relate wind to cutting, hence the yokai kamaitachi. An incarnation of the cutting wind.
In many games, such magic are simplified to be as fire, ice, wind, thunder, light, and dark.
@@therealjaystone2344 your point being?
@@shinyanakagawa8241 probably that this is literally what happened in Persona. P1 and P2 had both zan and garu, then got rid of zan because its redundant. Not really hard to figure out his point if you have two braincells to rub together.
@@fenixchief7 Redundant or not is beside the point. This video is discussing about the origin of the spell names. Zan in SMT is mostly Force created by the impact of blade slashes which is depicted in the elemental symbol itself . The Japanese word Zan/Kiru 斬る means to slice or to cut, which what Zan icon literally depicted as; A three crescent looking smears that looks like afterimage of sword being slash. Tony literally showed us the kanji character when he talks about Zan. I am just correcting him so that his point actually make sense rather than just him yapping about nonsensical wild guess. To add, Garu always had a tornado or cyclone like icon.
Both are similar in game mechanic sense but different in concept, which is why Zan is mostly use in mainline SMT and most of the spin offs while Garu is only used in Persona and Strange Journey.
I can only think of the word fubuki (吹雪, meaning blizzard in Japanese) when trying to figure out bufu, as the kana for 'bu' is 'fu' with a diacritic (ぶふ in hiragana, ブフ in katakana) and they simply switch them around.
So the joke that "Bufu is a misprint of FUBU" is not entirely off
I was going to say I'm pretty sure I've heard something sounding like bufu in reference to ice while watching subbed media before. This checks out by me
This is most likely the correct interpretation LOL
Oh wow! That sounds most likely! Thanks for sharing 🎉
Bufu in Portuguese is a slang for when someone says something humiliating to another person in front of a group
I love Luster Candy. It was suppossed to be Ra-Su-Ta Candy since it provide the effects of those skills but it got mistranslated. A funny side effect of this is the spanish name "Caramelo rasta" or literally Rasta Candy.
Rasta Candy, also known as CBD gummies.
Wait, so you're telling me it didn't come from Rasta because the colour of Rakunda/kaja is red, Tarunda/kaja is yellow, and Sukunda/kaja is green?
I thought it was intentional wordplay instead of a mistranslation. Like the Manjoume san da/thunder thing from yu gi oh gx.
THATS SO COOL
The spanish name was unfortunately revised for Vengeance and is now called Shining Candy for anyone wondering
Some P5 ones:
Ayamur - signature skill of Baal, named after the club he used to fight Yam the sea god
Laevateinn - signature skill of Loki. The name of Loki's sword/wand.
Panta Rhei - ultimate wind skill. A simplified version of the Greek philosopher Heraclitus' teachings that means "everything flows."
Amrita (from Amrita Drop/Shower) - Sanskrit word for "immortality" which makes sense as a healing spell that gets rid of afflictions.
I love that the creators of SMT/Persona really did their homework for these games.
What about Agneyastra?
@@KINGOFTHESPARKS755cannon ball
PRECON DECON GUY??????????
@@mayaslug🎶 YOU'LL NEVER SEE IT COMIIINNNGGG🎶
@@Triceratoppinggodly weapon in hinduism
So early the mandala system hasnt start yet
Do you not wish to be free of the Mandala’s eternal machinations?
@@DrKozmikalThat sounds an awful lot like desire
Lucifer is still napping, bro hasnt booted up the mandala system yet
Honestly I’ve been playing smt for so long, I’ve just accepted these words as replacements. My house didn’t burn down, it was Maragidyned
You become a true SMT fan when you subconsciously use these words all the time
@@helpthereisaspiderundermyb9883 I deadass went to cook food today and told my brother to "Agi the stove"
in japanese they actually do use the full "maha-" for multitarget skills
so maragidyne in japanese is actually "maharagidain"
"Great Fire dyne"
Recently while playing Vengeance, I realized all the elemental mid-damage skills have different suffixes: Agilao, Bufula, Zanma, & Zionga. Just thought it was odd considering the higher strength levels all share the suffixes of -dyne and -barion.
Also MARAGI
They all have -rama in Japanese.
@@harrietr.5073 No they don't. The only spell with -rama as a suffix is diarama.
@@Felnal Check the Japanese version.
@@harrietr.5073 I am looking at the Japanese version.
Agilao is アギラオ (agirao)
Bufula is ブフーラ (bufuura)
Zionga is ジオンガ (jionga)
Zanma is ザンマ (zanma)
Terazi is テラジ (teraji)
Garula is ガルーラ (garuura)
I could keep going, but I think we got the picture by now.
"almighty is an attack type outside the regular element that cannot be resisted at all"
nocturne's lucifer: are you sure about that?
Devil Survivor 2 with Anti-Almighty passive: "Buenos dias"
SMT 5 Mitamas: Allow us to introduce ourselves
Spanish is my first language and when I played a SMT game for the first time I was confused why the healing spells were called dia (Spanish for day) and media (Spanish for half or sock)
It's just a coincidence but I still find it kinda funny
Also mudo means mute in Spanish
Also, in chilean spanish "Agilao" means stupid
Saludos desde Puerto Rico 😋
Dia was just medical in Megami Tensei
Dia
Media
Mediacol
Because this is the Romanisation of medical
Ice in Hindi is बर्फ़, or "barf" (not pronounced like the English word barf, it's a little closer to rhyming with "Murph")
If you were to write out बर्फ़ in Japanese it would approximate to バルフ -> "barufu". I'm positive this is where Bufu comes from.
To be honest, I'm a little surprised that this wasn't one of the first obvious possibilites looked into for anyone researching this, given that Agi comes from the Hindi word for fire already, and so on. Getting to brhattuhinazarkara before the actual Hindi word for ice is crazy lol
The person who suggested brhattuhinasharkara just went to the Sanskrit to English dictionary website, looked for ice, and picked the first result with a B. Then everyone decided to just believe what some shmuck of gamefaqs said lol
Someone who actually speaks the language would be very helpful in every discussion like the one that surely produced this video.
Most of the Japanese etymologies don’t make a lick of sense to anyone who speaks Japanese either. (Japanese doesn’t just combine random unrelated fragments of sounds to make words.)
I thought in the earlier games Zan was moreso themed on "'cutting' and 'pushing' with supernatural forces" rather than wind, hence why in the mainline games the "wind" element is called force. So "slash" would make sense with the original intention behind the zan element. Even with the modern wind context for Zan, "slash" could still make sense since wind is often associated with sharpness and shredding.
This gets finessed when the name for the heavy piercing skill is "Killing Wind"
I mean, in Persona 1 Zan skills are catergorized as "Blast" type, look like colorless shockwaves in some of the earlier hames, and was once actually named "Psy" in one of the versions of Megami Tensei which is where Persona 5 got the Psy line and Psychokinesis element from, take that as you will
There's even the presence of both Zan and Garu in old Persona games.
Great video as always! I have one small correction however, the “Schütz” part of “Freischütz” translates to shooter or marksman, it’s referring to the person who actually shoots the bullets rather than the magic bullets themselves
Yeah that was an oversight on my part, thanks for the correction
I remember asking about a video like that a long time ago. Glad to finally see the real thing. Great video Tony
*Bufu?* Excuse me, we've barely met.
Bufu deez
What, you won't Sukunda?
@@Fermin-hw5pdwhat is that?
@@edd4946 sukunda deez nuts
@@edd4946sukunda on deez nuts
The Ma- skill lines are actually all Maha- in japanese, confirming the reference.
the hell are these images💀
Gotta make em interesting and entertaining 😊
Ikr lmao
Bro brought out the Clash Royale Fireball
Goffy ahh pictures
He probably knows most of his viewers are probably just listening to the video rather than watching, and is just doing whatever.
18:01 💀💀💀💀
the Freischutz backstory always stuck out to me for being the origin of Freikugel, an attack primarily associated with Demi-Fiend. Demi Fiend in most of his other appearances is implied to be post-TDE; his use of the attack is completely unhindered by the rules of it's namesake because his goals align with lucifer's. having prior knowledge of the story and seeing it named in game was really cool to me back then
Just dont shoot it 7 times
@@alexmetaverse To be fair, if you use Freikugel 6 times without the fight being over, you've seriously messed up.
@@markcochrane9523
Or you're fighting Lucifer with his 65535 or however much HP.
@@espurrseyes42 Or about 100K if you're playing Chronicles, and I'm pretty sure he also resists Almighty in some capacity
@@alexmetaverse The urge to scream "PM mentioned!" is so incredibly hard to resist now
I really don't believe bufu comes from brhattuhinasharkar. I am 100% sure the person who suggested that went to a english to sanskrit dictionary website, typed in ice, and looked for the first result that started with a b. Another tell for this is the fact the letter z to represent the ś, something that dictionary site does but isn't a standard way to romanize sanskrit words (sanksrit has no z sound).
My personal guess is that it comes from either the Persian word barf which means snow. This word also exists in Hindi (with a slightly different pronunciation), so possibly while researching Indian words to use they could have come across it.
Another thing is that I think most of the conjugations (agi => agilao, maragi => maragion) were just picked because they sound cool and not for any specific reason. The notable exceptions being ma- and -dyne.
Lastly, I'm confused by when you said recarm comes from the sanskrit word meaning reincarnation. Reincarnation in sanskrit is punarjanman. Recarm sounds more like the english word than the sanskrit one lol.
I can't post links in youtube comments but there is a tumblr post by a user named rologeass from 12 years ago titled "What Do Shin Megami Tensei Persona Spell Names Mean?"
I strongly believe this is the key source used for this video.
Before I fully got into the series, the first time I heard about the spell Agilao confused me a lot. "I already know about Maragion, so the normal version must be Agion. So what the heck does 'lao' mean?" is what I thought.
@@bivcbmtgstgtssscqcrddgtrsm2257 my only guess is that they wanted it to have conjugation irregularities like real languages
Zan makes sense for wind. Cutting is often associated with wind in japanese anime and manga. The kamaitachi is a wind yokai and uses scythe.
Not really related, but the only thing I remember when I hear zan for wind is Kamen Rider Kenzan, he has wind powers and cut things as faster as his assigned element
I remember in persona 2 there were also Magna (for earth element) and Aqua, for water, Gry for Almighty and even Frei for nuclear element
And Persona 5 ended up bringing Psi for psychic damage, alongside Kou and Ei for normal light and dark damage.
Wouldn’t mind another video on this topic. My one request is to go over the buff/debuff spells
"Magic is putting one's own power into physical shape. Their own truth." That's very deep.
Off topic but I thought of magic as "that gap between what you see and what you understand." But that would be from an external perspective.
In regards to some spells:
Marin Karin = apparently in french "malin calin" can mean "malignant cuddle"
Also "Dia" is the spanish word for Day, which could also make sense since its a healing spell.
"Malin" is more like "sneaky" or "clever" with an undertone of "naughty". "Calin" is "hug".
About Bufu, it sounds a lot like "Bafo" that in portuguese means: "Air expelled by the lungs, blowing or puffing".
Basically a cold icy breath (bafo gelado)
It's more likely that Bufu descends from the same word from where Bafo came from, but here in Brazil isn't uncommon to use the expression "Bafo gelado" to refer to a current of cold air.
Caraca, eu nunca reparei nisso, que pika kkkkk
queisso! seria bizarro
Yay a new lore video finally!
Informative and hilarious! You've got yourself a new sub!
Welcome legend!
I gotta say the meme at 0:14 had me dying the first time I saw and I had a smirk on my face the when I saw you used in this video. Great video as always
love the imagery/visualizations in the video
Additional info on Morningstar: it is also in reference to Isaiah 14:12 which some scholars say is a passage about the planet Venus being visible in the early hours of the morning
i laughed so fucking much when the meme with the typing appeared for the bufu explanation
Great video tony, Thanks
Great comment Dina, thanks!
My man Tony you were cooking with the edits. The Riko one got me.
In italian we have the word "bufera", which comes from the provencal/occitan word "bufar" (the word is very old, and similiar variants can be found in estearn languages aswell!). anyway, "bufar" means "ice storm", so it could definetly be the origin of the word bufu
It's not surprising to me at all the spell/skill names come from various cultures, just like the the demon/Personas themselves.
Any little aspect of SMT can mean a lot, it's quite the series
when i took spanish a few years ago i would remember the word scarf “bufanda” as bufu from smt due to scarfs being worn in the cold typically and bufu being the ice spell
The Dyne spells also might be a play on the Dragon Quest naming convention, where the strongest spells would end in "dain".
2:39 that made me laugh so hard
Me too 😂😂😂
been waiting on this one ❤🔥
damn a couple days ago i was wondering what the spells names come from and now you upload this🙏the goat
Quite the coincidences, this was a request from my discord too lol
Great video. Only question is now where did the suffix "-barion" used in SMTV come from?
Barion comes from the Ancient Greek word barus which means heavy
@@yannickkani3753Thanks!
And ion is the superlative, so the heaviest @@yannickkani3753
@@yannickkani3753but the barion skills are severe skills
I really like the system of prefixes and suffixes that games like SMT and Dragon Quest. I don't know why I like it, I just think it's a neat little system.
3:25 i appreciate the little tangent about garuda here
oomfie...
My Tony the goat uploaded
It should be noted that in japanese, the multi target spells are indeed called Maha-spell
Yeah I realized after I should have mentioned this
I hope you do another one on unique skills
I'm especially curious on Anansi's "What Comes After Four"
An entire video going over more signature abilities would be cool
I’ve literally wanted to know this for SO LONG
May this serve as the answer for all the people who are curious
If I recall correctly, Freishutz means Freeshooter, while Freikugel means Free Bullet. Also worth noting that the two games you get Freikugel are both games where Lucifer is pulling your strings to some extent, or is at least invested in the decisions you make as either Demi-fiend or Nahobino. (At least in Canon of Vengeance, I never played Canon of Creation but in CoV Beelzebub specifically says Lucifer has high hopes for you, even if you're Law aligned at the time)
The same stands in Canon of Creation, you are Lucifer's investment
"Freikugel" actually appears in more games than those two, but as "Riot Gun"
The "two" skills have the same name in the japanese versions, they're not even written differently from each other (like with different kana or kanji or w/e)
Maybe Atlus West does this to add further distinction for whenever it's doing Almighty vs. whenever it does Gun damage.
This also makes for a weird situation where both versions of the same skill existed at the same time for SMT IV:A's Diamond Realm DLC
Honestly these are way more convoluted then I thought. I always assumed they were just direct translations in other languages. good work
ooo ive been wondering about this
Nice!! One thing that I love about the franchise as soon as I started playing it was those weird names for spells, reinforced the mystic vibe and differentiate from other more basic magic systems.
Freikugel could also be a replacement for Riot Gun. A skill of similar power thats also in the endgame in many SMT games
theyre the same skill in japanese versions
as in, literally the same name
Thank you for making this video. I just finished SMTV: Vengeance a few days ago and wondered what exactly could these names be derived from. I know it's not 100% accurate as stated in the video, but it was still entertaining nonetheless.
these were really cool thank you
Great job as always
this is very informative and something Ive always wondered but also part of me wants atlus to just release a statement like "nah we just made up some nonsense words"
I would say for Zan, the use of a cutting/slicing, word/character for wind might be in reference to the kamatachi (wind weasel) which is said to use Air like sickle to cut the air. Or at least this is how it is presented in some stories, also funny enough the way the creature is deep tied looks a lot like how Inugami is depicted in SMT.
Right on time man, I was LITERALLY thinking about this last night
hmm yes another fire vid took you so long
Hey Tony in your next video will you speak of the Qadištu or demons you wish would return? My personal favorite of the Qadištu is Agrat and a demon I wish would return to the series is Tamamo-No-Mae. Imagine her being given the same treatment in a future game’s story as Nuwa where she has different forms
AMAZING VIDEO!
Hot damn, these were ALL so interesting, Love the lore behind it. ❤
For dia I always thought of diastole, the cycle of the human heart where the chambers of the heart fill up with blood before it beats and pushes the blood to the rest of the body (systole).
Nice vid 🔥
5:55 I was not expecting to see Nina Bo’nina brown but here are
Also I always look forward to your uploads. Thanks
Thank you! Finally! Someone explains why they are called it!
3:58 so that’s why p3r Hama skills uses arrows in the animation
This was something that always fascinated me considering at the time I had only heard of the Final Fantasy names of spells which added Aga and Isa at the end to pretty much indicate higher tears. So the fact that literally you could tell what kind of spell it was based on certain words indicate if it was multiple targeting, a higher tier, or something that is offensive Levi or defensive Levi
I would love a part two or maybe another rapid fire round for some of the other skills you didn’t talk about such as the buff and debuff as well as some other persona specific skills as well as the p5 new elements
Really great video all around and its fun to see the more subtle aaspects of SMT's theology get a spotlight
On the note dia's name , it may have another, much simpler source; the Irish word for God is Dia (probably related to what you gave anyway), appearing in phrases such as the Gaelainn equivalent of hello "Dia Duit" (Dia Dhuit in my neck of the woods), and parables such as "Níor chuir Dia sceach i mbéal an chuain riamh" (God never put a thorn bush in a harbour). It may also be based on the greek character Media, given the spell's plural form, which would fit her nature as a sorceress and how she aids jason in the Argonautica
Makrakarn is actually a derivative of macro and corn, referring to the real life occurrence of which one can summon a large corn cob with which they can defend themselves.
In case you didn’t know, to “beg the question” does not mean to “raise the question”. To beg the question is to assume the truth of an argument or proposition to be proved, without arguing it.
Begging the question can also mean to raise a question. Oxford puts the "raise a question" definition first before the assumption definition on its entry for the phrase "beg the question."
Would be interesting to see these for the other spells in the series. Namely the Nuclear element Frei, I can't find anything about that.
This vid is AGIDYNE🔥
The "Ma-" prefix is actually just "maha" in Japanese (you can even see this in games in like P2EP on PSX where it's still translated "Maha Agidyne", for example), my best guess is "ma" is a way to save space and just stuck.
Also, the Dia line is descended from "Medical" in the original ATLUS Megami Tensei games, and got shortened for lower power, hence "media" and then "dia".
Zan(aka Kiru) is more in line with 'cutting force' hence its origin from the Japanese language. Bufu was most likely a play-on of 'fubuki', meaning blizzard(by inverting either the hiragana and katakana in a diacritic fashion). Makes sense in context, aside from bufu also being a shortened abbreviation of brhattuhinasharkar in Sanskrit.
Macca Beam origins: best SMT game ever made - RONDE :D
Regarding "bufu" origins, in italian we have the word "bufera", which translates to "storm", and most times refers to a snowstorm. The first occurrence of this word was in Dante's Inferno (V 31). There's a whole essay dedicated to the origins of this word, written by Luca Zuliani. Thought this could offer some insight.
the story about der freischutz was so cool
I think Mudo came from the word *Mutahar* from SomeOrdinaryGamers, who also appeared in SMT4: Apocalypse.
I never played SMT4A, was he really there?
I played SMT4A and Muta wasn't there. What is bro yapping about?
What is bro on about
@@KrimsonKattYTthe fuck do you mean? He shows up in ikebukuro after you get all the endings and he gives you a shout-out on his UA-cam channel.
Is there a lore reason to why mudo is based on Mutahar? is he a curse?
Zan translating to cutting and usually being the wind stand-in despite not actually being wind unlike Garu may be in reference to the Kamaitachi. Kamaitachi would move as quickly as the wind to slash at someone's legs.
Wind is associated with cutting in Japanese myth and pop culture (see Inuyasha, Naruto, or Bleach's Kazeshini). Primarily because of the Kamaitachi.
I always thought that agidyne came first, as I heard it was a song the Cherubim sing, that would burn all impurities from the mortal soul. Not sure where I heard it, but I had believed that for years until I saw this.
I've been very interested in RPG spell name origins for a good while, so this is a good opportunity to see the conclusions other people have come to.
- I feel like you overcomplicated the origin of Hama. No need to talk about an arrow when the word itself in Japanese basically means exorcism.
- "Mudou" in Japanese does not mean curse, but it's more along the lines of inhumane or inmoral; which in a way fits for a dark-elemental instant-death spell, a forbidden hex more aligned with the demons as opposed to the holy anti-evil technique that Hama represents.
- Zan coming from "cut" might actually have some sense, and might also explain why its depiction often changes between a shockwave and a tornado. It's possible this line of spells was inspired by Dragon Quest's wind spell family Bagi (or Woosh in the English versions), which had its own history of being depicted differently in earlier games; before being tornadoes, they were described in manuals as vacuum blades, at one point even referencing the kamaitachi, whose varying translations always refer to a wind capable of cutting, and in a way a shockwave is basically a strong mass of air.
- I think spells that start with Maka may be more likely to come from "makafushigi" (grand mystery), which in turn could be inspired by Dragon Quest's use of the word "fushigi" (mysterious) in relation to MP-based items, a detail that has been lost in translations. Synonyms for mysterious include mystical and arcane, which are nowadays associated with magic.
- For Dia, I also have a much simpler theory: The word means "day" in multiple languages, and the sun is widely considered a symbol of life. It reminds me of a spell in Final Fantasy 1 also called Dia, which under a similar logic had the effect of dealing damage specifically to the undead (this was before the series allowed for targetting any side of the field, and by extension undead enemies' weakness to healing magic).
is it just me or is are the pictures that Tony uses getting more and more insane like I ain't complaining but like that A train appearing on my screening while learning about the funny spells from megaten is wild
YES! I was waiting for this video to come out. Thanks man!
Also fun unrelated thing, but in our language Zio can be translated to uncle, so, do whatever you want to do with this information.
(Also, my headcanon is that whenever Yu Narukami uses a skill, he mumbles something and that something sounds a bit like Zio)
the only explanation is that Italian uncles have lightning powers, when your sibling has a kid you just start tossing bolts
Awesome video. Would have loved to hear the nomenclature behind de stronger version of Megido (Megidola, Megidolaon) though.
Alright but why does joker scream "extreme wind" when using shining arrows which deals bless damage. What are the lore implications here
@@NasuPrime Why does Joker say this? Is he stupid?
I got Zan right away. It's a reference to the Kusanaki-no-Tsurugi, a sword famous for whipping up a windstorm in Japanese legend, as well as the Kamaitachi, winds which cut people.
I love smt❤❤❤,was a fan for it even since persona 4 on the vita 10 years ago,never knew the spells were this deep
After two years of waiting woooo
Hope it was worth the wait lol
in japanese, skills that would have the "ma" prefix would have the full "maha" prefix instead. so you're pretty much spot on with that one.
ex. maragion = maha-agion in japanese
Bubbletea with the save
It actually makes sense with Freikugel given in both games it appeared in Lucifer needs MC to succeed one way or another
Wait so, that hama yumi 破魔弓 evil destructing bow, is it also the inspiration for the Light arrows in Zelda ???!
My favorite things from the video: Zio, Friekugel and Meggido's story 2:03 and the RE0 save room OST on the background.
Re0 save room music my beloved
If you've played enough Persona 3, you understand that "marin karin" translates to "constant waste of mana".
Great video Tony! Keep up the good work!
😃👍
That was a really cool origin for dia! Had no idea of the celtic connection at all. In modern times, dia in the Irish language has a few means. As a noun it can mean God but as a verb it can mean to bless. So using dia in the games could be seen as you blessing them to heal them. Hope you liked this!
Freikugel was definitely the most interesting one IMO, some of them I already knew like Agi and Megido.
What about the -barion ones in SMTV? And the special piercing variants of the elemental spells. And and and and and...