Right, here's something that really washes my dogs: Square Enix's naming conventions, though to use the word "convention" when talking about Square Enix and names is like using the word "brevity" when talking about a conservative neoreactionary's YouTube video. When it comes to pretentious, waffly, purple prosey, downright insensible fucking game names, nobody is better at their terrible job than Square Enix.
Square Enix tends to be rather infamous for their... questionable game titles, which often range between awkwardly descriptive to generally incomprehensible.
- Final Fantasy: contrary to Common Knowledge, the first Final Fantasy was not called such because Square believed that it would be their final game. The creators simply wanted a name that would abbreviate to "FF".
It was originally going to be called "Fighting Fantasy" until they realized that title was already taken.- Some of the side-games have some impressively strange and difficult to understand names. Dirge of Cerberus refers to the main character's gun and symbol. Advent Children is an ironic comparison of Christ to Sephiroth (and there are also a lot of children). Revenant Wings might be referring to the lack of emotion of the winged-species, or perhaps the various undead winged-villains. Final Fantasy XV's old title Final Fantasy Versus XIII, and Final Fantasy Type-0 was Agito XIII.
- Agito XIII's subtitle was changed to "Type-0." Which also makes little sense. The word Agito would have referred to the title of a Savior in the game's mythology. The game did turn out to be about a team of students named "Class Zero" but that was always there anyway so what the Type is meant to be is unknown.
- Not to mention that the Final Fantasy XIII games come under the collective title of Fabula Nova Crystallis (Latin for New Tale of the Crystal), despite having very little to do with each other other than vague thematic and mythos connections.
- The "Versus" part in ''Final Fantasy Versus XIII'" refers to the game being Tetsuya Nomura's vision of Final Fantasy XIII, as opposed to Motomu Toriyama's game and its intended opposite, as shown by how white and black are used to symbolize both XIII and Versus XIII. The title also was about the opposing ideology of its two central protagonists Noctis and Stella and their world as a whole.
- Dissidia Final Fantasy. "Dissidia" is the Latin word for 'conflicts'. The prequel is called Dissidia 012: Final Fantasy, wherein 012 is pronounced "Duodecim"; Latin for the number twelve. It's about the twelfth iteration of the "Groundhog Day" Loop, but the name makes absolutely no sense to people who don't have it explained to them.
- Then there's the tie-in prequel, whose title reads Dissidia Duodecim Prologus 012 Final Fantasy. One assumes Square was by this point asking for mockery.
- Final Fantasy Tactics A2. The A2 obviously refers to the fact that it's the sequel to Final Fantasy Tactics Advance, but since it's on the DS rather than the GBA, they reduced "Advance" to "A" to avert Artifact Title.
- Theatrhythm Final Fantasy. "Theatrhythm" is itself a nonsense portmanteau of the words "theater" and "rhythm", referring to the stage play-esque presentation of the game and the fact that it's also a Rhythm Game. It got a few sequels which are further musical and stage references(Curtain Call and All-Star Carnival), but the latest installment takes the cake: Theatrhythm: Final Bar Line, which not only drops the "Final Fantasy" name (in reference to how it's more of a "best of" of Square Enix music rather than almost strictly Final Fantasy songs this time around) but also tacks on a new subtitle which refers to the last line of a musical composition (in reference to how Final Bar Line is supposedly the final Theatrhythm game). Unsurprisingly, Tetsuya Nomura himself bestowed the name Final Bar Line.
- Some of the side-games have some impressively strange and difficult to understand names. Dirge of Cerberus refers to the main character's gun and symbol. Advent Children is an ironic comparison of Christ to Sephiroth (and there are also a lot of children). Revenant Wings might be referring to the lack of emotion of the winged-species, or perhaps the various undead winged-villains. Final Fantasy XV's old title Final Fantasy Versus XIII, and Final Fantasy Type-0 was Agito XIII.
- The Bravely Default series is full of this:
- First, Bravely Default itself. Word of God says that it's supposed to mean "Have courage and renounce the promises and responsibilities that are expected of you," and the translation of that used in the English version of the game is "Have the courage to think and act on your own. And have the courage to disobey." It's technically correct English, as "default" can be a verb meaning failing to meet an obligation (even if that definition isn't often used outside of legalese), and the game is encouraging the player to do so bravely. The English version adds another meaning to the title by naming one of the game mechanics after it; "Brave" to take an extra turn and "Default" to skip your turn and save it for later.
- The first game also has the Japanese subtitle Flying Fairy, which on the surface refers to the heroes' Fairy Companion Airy but also is tied to a late-game spoiler: by taking away the "FF" - a reference to the Final Fantasy franchise that Bravely Default spun off from - it becomes "Lying Airy". The English translation of the subtitle, Where the Fairy Flies, carries much of the same meanings ("Airy Lies"). The Japanese version also got an Updated Re-release with the subtitle For the Sequel based on how some of the updates were borrowed from the sequel's development.
- The sequel is Bravely Second: End Layer. "Bravely Second" is not only the second work in a "Bravely" series, but it also refers to a "Bravely Second" game mechanic that debuted in the original game (though it's not clear why the mechanic was named that in the first place). As for "End Layer" - add "SP", which stands for the resource you spend to use the Bravely Second mechanic, and you get "Send Player" - which is what you need to do in order to rewind time.
- Kingdom Hearts has had some infamous examples. The first Oddly Named Sequel subtitle was Chain of Memories, which described Namine's ability to break the links of memories between people, and sounded pretty cool even before explanation. After Kingdom Hearts II, though, there was coded, which did kinda make sense, referring to how the game takes place in a virtual simulation of Jiminy's Journal from the first two games. Then came the DS and PSP games 358/2 Days (phrased "Three-Five-Eight Days Over-Two") and Birth by Sleep respectively. 358/2 Days is feasibly explained by the game taking place over the course of, well, 358 days for two people, with the significance of the number 358 being that it's one week short of a full 365 day year, with the last week taking place at the start of II. Birth by Sleep refers to the sleep (coma) of the main character Ventus, which led to the birth (awakening) of Sora as the protagonist of the events in Kingdom Hearts. There's also a Title Drop in the secret ending, when Ansem the Wise refers to those waiting for Sora to release them from their various fates as those waiting for 'their new beginning, their birth by sleep'.
- There's also Reverse/Rebirth (aka Riku mode) in Chain of Memories. There is a bit of logic to the title when taken separately (the player goes back to replay the events of the game, but from Riku's perspective, and it depicts his Redemption Quest) but when you put it together it makes no sense whatsoever. This is a "pun" that got Lost in Translation — if you transcribe them into Japanese kana, Reverse and Rebirth can be written the exact same way (リバース, ribâsu, is a proper transliteration for both). Of course, the game uses two different transliterations to make sure it still makes sense, but even then, the Japanese pronunciations are very close if not identical.
- The "3D" in Kingdom Hearts 3D stands for "Dream Drop Distance", and refers to "how deeply you drop into your dreams" or more clearly, "how far you fall into dreaming". It was chosen mainly to provide a Super Title 64 Advance.
- While the compilation that features the HD rerelease of the aforementioned 3D often gets made fun of for having a ridiculous name, its meaning is fairly clear. Kingdom Hearts HD 2.8 Final Chapter Prologue. The numbering of "2.8" is rather unusualnote , but it does make it obvious that it slots in neatly between 2.5 and III. "Final Chapter Prologue" references that the three parts of the compilation are directly setting up for Kingdom Hearts III.
- Possibly taking the cake for complex titles in the series is one game in the 2.8 compilation: Kingdom Hearts 0.2: Birth by Sleep -A fragmentary passage-. The "Birth by Sleep" part references the fact that it directly picks up where Birth by Sleep left off story-wise and is effectively an extension of that game's epilogue. The "0.2" numbering is as follows: Kingdom Hearts χ (detailed below) describes the earliest events in the series, therefore making it Episode Zero: The Beginning in all but name. Birth by Sleep is the next entry after that, making it 0.1, and this game comes directly after that, making it 0.2. "A fragmentary passage" refers to the Eldritch Location that the player traverses, made up of twisted bits of worlds from previous games.
- The now defunct browser game was originally titled Kingdom Hearts χ. This was mildly misleading because the series uses Roman numerals for numbered titles, so you'd be forgiven for reading it as "Kingdom Hearts ten." However, if you simply say the letter "X," you would still be wrong; it's meant to be pronounced "Kingdom Hearts Key," as in the Greek letter χ. Nevermind that the letter chi is only pronounced "key" in Japanese.
- The mobile phone version of the game was originally called Kingdom Hearts Unchained χ, which was fine because the "χ" was pronounced the same way it had been in the browser game. However, the game was later rebranded as Kingdom Hearts Union χ, in which "χ" is pronounced as "cross." Nowadays the titles of both versions are frequently written with the intended reading in brackets (i.e. Kingdom Hearts Union χ [Cross])—including on their logos, which looks as silly as it sounds.
- And if that wasn't enough, the game was rebranded again to Kingdom Hearts Union χ Dark Road to signify the addition of Kingdom Hearts Dark Road, a separate mode within the same app with its own story and gameplay but utilizing the engine and assets of Union χ.
- And let's not forget the game that started it all. Back then, who would have thought it would contain characters from both the Disney and Final Fantasy franchises?
- The World Ends with You's title is dropped and explained midway through the game- Mr. Hanekoma tells Neku that if he wants to enjoy life, he should broaden his horizons. The Japanese title, It's a Wonderful World, was also explained at the same point in the corresponding version. It's all about opening up as a person.
- Infinite Undiscovery. When one faux-profound word-concoction isn't enough, why not make it infinite?
- Octopath Traveler follows the travels of multiple protagonists, each with their own distinct stories. There are eight protagonists, thus there are eight such stories. So you have a game where you as the player effectively travel down eight different paths, and "octo" is Latin for eight; hence the title.
