This is a small glossary of recurring VIPRPG terminology which might help you to better understand and appreciate certain slang/memes/etc seen in Wind I Creator This is by NO MEANS comprehensive and attempts (poorly) to fit only within the scope of points of interest for Wind I Creator. Note that due to the ever-changing and memetic nature of VIPRPG characters, memes, slang, etc, these are not to be taken as an absolute, but as a general reference. Even VIPPERs themselves don't always hold strictly to any of these things, and like with any memes/tropes they are subject to subversion, inversion, and other manner of usage. --- Elementals / Materialized / Personified Characters --- An extremely common and recurring VIPRPG trope is personified, materialized versions of items, spells, and other things which are normally less concrete. Derived from "具体化" (gutaika) and "具現化" (gugenka) - embodiment, materialization, actualization, realization, taking form, taking shape Closely related to and, for the purposes of this document, more or less interchangeable with "擬人化" (gijikna)/personified/ anthropomorphized characters. I have elected to disambiguate this on a character-type basis. Thus, Elemental magic characters will simply be referred to as "Elementals" while other types of characters based on other things may be referred to differently. --------------------------- --- Elemental Character Names/Nicknames --- Elemental Magic characters are "officially" named after whatever spell they are based on. However, they are often called by abbreviated forms as well. Examples: Water I -> Watri/Wateri Wind I -> Windi Starlight I -> Lighti Burst I -> Bursti ...and so forth. Yes, the -i is intentional and based on the Roman Numeral I. This is accurate to the Japanese nicknaming arrangement where Wind I -> ウィンディ (Windi) in terms of phonetics. ...and so forth. Yes, this means some pretty unfortunate things for Darkness I's short name, but if you can't handle that, I don't know what to tell you. You could reasonably drop the -i and replace it with a 'y' but since this was clearly a deliberate choice by VIPPERs, it is difficult for me to argue y over i. Mileage varies on this, however, and the -y ending gets used fairly often. Unless explicitly written out -y in English and a core component of something, I'll tend to opt for the -i ending. Though this does not necessarily apply to Wind I Creator, the III-level spells have a similar naming wordplay theme. Wind III = ウィンドＩＩＩ = Wind San Wind III = ウィンドさん = Wind San Since 3 and the "san" honorific are both pronounced "san" there may be times when these characters are referred to interchangeably as one of several things: Mr/Ms/etc (Name) (Name) III (Name) Three All down to context and the exact usage in a given dialogue. --------------------------- --- Wind I / Windi --- The (arguably) heroine of Wind I Creator. Normally a sickly character who spends many a day in the hospital, and particularly in this game. She could be said to be the physical manifestation of both Wind and the Common Cold. Thanks, Japanese. 風 = Kaze = Wind 風邪 = Kaze = Cold To deal with this wordplay, I occasionally render her description as the "physical manifestation of the Ill Wind." Certain other VIPRPGs play up her illness more or less than others. Everybody loves Wind I. --------------------------- --- Heal III --- The (arguably) heroine of Wind I Creator. Just as the game portrays, she is a doctor, and the owner/operator of her clinic. Wind I is a recurring, and in some works, permanent fixture in her clinic. There honestly isn't that much I have to say about her. --------------------------- --- Alex --- Default Hero character of RPG Maker 2000. Serves as one of the random intruder encounters while working jobs in Wind I Creator. --------------------------- --- Linux --- JP Name: リナックス (Rinakkusu/Linakkusu) Is first thought to have appeared in the Fire Emblem-like RPG Maker 2000 SRPG, "Hanyou 6." Though not relevant to this game, she is often called by the nickname "リナ" (Rina) (リナックス->リナ) (Rinakkusu->Rina). In works where this nickname is used, it will be rendered as "Linny." --------------------------- --- Water I --- The youngest and most popular of the Water sisters. Was not originally that popular, but people seem to have become endeared to her more and more with each passing VIPRPG festival, which helped her ascend from throwaway character to one who appears regularly in many games. One of the companions you adventure with in Wind I Creator. --------------------------- --- Flame I --- A Flame series elemental who fashions herself a Heian-era noble. In the Japanese, refers to herself as 麻呂 = Maro = I/me. This is not only a very old style way to refer to oneself, but pretty much gives away the fact that a character is an aristocrat. And, even more specifically, aristocracy from Japan's Heian era. The rendering of her English speech is meant to capture that same aristocratic sense without going too hard into "screw you, look it up yourself" direction. However, the subtitled parts in blue for certain lines of hers ARE the same exact way in Japanese, though I'd be surprised if a native Japanese player needed those to know what 烏帽子 (eboshi) are, or who 紫式部 (Murasaki Shikibu) was. --------------------------- --- Darkness I --- JP Name: ダークネスI (Darkness I) Commonly referred to as やみいち (Yami Ichi) and やみっち (Yamicchi). 闇 = Yami = Darkness 一 = Ichi = One 市 = Ichi = Market There is wordplay in her nicknames which unfortunately is not easy to find an equivalent to in English, since Yamiichi is effectively both Dark 1 and Black Market. This has the unfortunate side effect of her abbreviated nickname being "Darki." (Dark I -> DarkI -> Darki). Unfortunate, but I'm not changing it. Yes, she engages in questionable avenues of commerce and is often shown to be willing to do any number of dark deeds for the sake of money. See games such as "Darkness I's Black Market Dungeon" (another EXCELLENT title by the creator of Wind I Creator) Is the protagonist AND villain in "Stars and Lights." Portrayed as something of a Yandere in certain works, but a real hard worker who sometimes has trouble accepting help from others... unless she's the one explicitly demanding that they help her. --------------------------- --- DL;OK --- Short for "Dark Lord; OK" DL;OK was chosen because of similar memetic shorthand such as TL;DR (too lazy, didn't read) and the like. Originally derived from "魔王把握" (Maou Haaku) which is the barest basic interaction possible between a protagonist and the King which kicks off a game. This is used as a noun as well as a verb at various times. If a game's main goal is not the Dark Lord, DL could be just about anything. An example of this can be seen in the very wonderful "Moshimon Quest Monsters" once the main quest is cleared. Long form: King "The Dark Lord has stolen our potato chips. Go take care of him." Alex "Understood." Abbreviated form: King "Dark Lord." Alex "OK." One of these does NOT happen in Wind I Creator, but amusingly Wind I can take jobs at the Dark Lord's Castle to be an enemy who might prevent the Hero from completing one of these. --------------------------- --- Potato Chips --- A recurring macguffin seen in countless VIPRPGs. When these get stolen, it tends to kick off a DL;OK. Derived from "ポテチ" (Potechi) which is indeed POTAto CHIps abbreviated in a manner extremely common in the Japanese language. Barely, if at all, referred to in Wind I Creator. --------------------------- --- Gomez --- Gay. Pirate. Enjoys buttfucking Alex. Yup. Many DL;OKs in shitpost games end with this. It's not always just Alex either. Does not make a major appearance in Wind I Creator. --------------------------- --- Dark Lord Army / Team Dark Lord --- Derived from "魔王軍" (Maou Gun). Yes, I know it can be "Demon King" and other permutations. I went with Dark Lord. Army/Team are used interchangeably depending on the mood/tone/character speaking and other factors. Characters in this category include, but are not limited to: Bosses/Big-wigs Dark Lord Dark Lord's Daughter (Mebius) Mrs. Dark Lord Lady Dark Lord (Female version of the Dark Lord himself) Team Dark Lord Elite "Four" (Yes, there are 5) The Fifth Reaper Daero Dragonath Nin-Nin Musha Lesser Characters Dragon/Li'l Dragon/Girl Dragon (Draco) Dragon Knight/Dragon Knightess Death Sheep Minotaur Other lesser characters/recurring monsters/etc appear as well. --------------------------- --- Knigh Army / Team Knigh --- Derived from "ナイ軍" (Nai Gun). Yes, it is really "Knigh." Scroll down to the Monsters Section and view Undead Knigh further for proof. Characters in this category include, but are not limited to: Bosses/Big-Wigs Undead Knigh Carbuncle Cait-Sith Team Knigh Elite "Four" & Others The Fake 5th Reaper Fake Daero Fake Dark Elf 2k3 Dark Elf Aubergonath Zan-Nin-Nin Fake Musha "Dark" versions of hero characters: Axel (Dark Alex) Erolia (Dark Lilia) Dark Daisy Diona (Dark Fiona) Dinux (Dark Linux) Dark Lenux Yeah, there's a LOT of characters. The 偽/fake/false characters are often, despite the title, fully-fledged characters in their own right and not just impostors/pale imitators. But that varies from work to work. --------------------------- --- Undead Knigh --- RPG Maker 2k3 introduced a foe called アンデッドナイト "Undead Knight." RPG Maker 2k3 also has a 7 Japanese charater restriction for hero names. So, when people went to use him as a character, they had to call him アンデッドナイ, dropping the last letter, resulting in Undead Knigh. This stuck as a name. CONVENIENTLY similar restrictions in English 2k3 make it so that trying to name a character "Undead Knight" is ALSO one letter too long, resulting in "Undead Knigh." One of the rare moments where the translation writes itself. Entertainingly, his sword suffers from a similar naming thing (アンデッドソード->アンデッドソー) which itself STILL works in English.... sort of. (Undead Knigh's sword is a Rapier) Undead Rapier -> Undead Rapie Japanese simply calls it "Undead Sword" which would be "Undead Swor" and, while that is more entertaining, is not the same at all since shortening that word would be arbitrary rather than forced. --------------------------- --- Harpagon --- Harpy + Dragonath JP Name: ハーナス (Ha-nasu) Abbreviated/Fused form of HArpy + DragoNATH English name rendered as fused form of HARPy + DrAGONath If you can think of a better way to render this in English, I'm all ears, so please let me know in whatever thread you found this game. Don't ask how this works, but in various VIPRPG works Dragonath and Harpy are depicted a couple, and this monster is the resulting baby. --------------------------- --- Mr. Batty --- Yes, same name as those from the Mother series games. --------------------------- --- Cheer Penguin --- JP Name: もちべぺんぎん (Mochibe Pengin) Mochibe = Motivation People who don't possess sufficient Mochibe don't make it in time/at all to submit their VIPRPG Festival Entries. Insufficient motivation is the #1 cause of games going Eternal. --------------------------- --- Nishiwaki Scizza --- JP Name: シーザー西脇 (Shi-za- Nishiwaki) Name could reasonably be rendered as "Caesar" but given that it's a crab with scissor-like claws, and a lack of evidence supporting that its name is Caesar, it's hard to justify such an angle. "Scizza" is meant to be prounounced like "scissor" in any case. A once-common and recurring ASCII art crab shitpost in dying VIPRPG dev threads. Though ASCII art hasn't fallen completely out of fashion on JP forums like it has on Western ones, its appearances aren't as frequent as it may have been before. Its appearance in VIPRPGs is also pretty infrequent, but this depends entirely on the creator's taste. (V) ∧_∧　(V) 　　ヽ(＾ヮ＾)ノ　 "I'll snip ya to ribbons!" 　　　ノ￣ゝ --------------------------- --- Aubergonath --- JP Name: ドラゴなすーん (Doragonasu-n) Dragonath + Nasu (Nasu = Eggplant/Aubergine) Hence: Aubergonath = AUBERgine + DraGONATH Yeah, that's the best I could come up with for the name. --------------------------- --- Canael --- JP Name: カナエール (叶えーる) (Kanae-ru) Kanaeru = to grant/fulfill (a wish/request) English name rendered as it is to evoke that sort of Biblical, angelic sense. It's a god, after all. The polar opposite of Kotowaru. Originally found at the following website: http://ganbaruzo.fc2web.com/kanaesetu.html The website explains that Canael is a granter of wishes and goes into significant details about wishing guidelines. Per the website, the name/design are based on: >The name and meaning of Canael is based on the phrase "Negai wo Kanaeru (Canael)" (grant a wish) >The yellow star represents the power of success, development, and growth >The red heart represents the power of love and marriage >The blue V mark represents the power of victory >The smiling face represents the power of peace, cooperation, health, and harmony --------------------------- --- Kotowaru --- JP Name: コトワール (断ーる) (Kotowa-ru) Kotowaru = to deny (a wish/request) A straight up transliteration of the JP word "Kotowaru." Sadly sounds less biblical than it could, but the only other alternatives I could think of sounded kind of like crap and it's hard to swing making "denial" sound similar without making it look and sound strange. (Deniael? Just looks odd) The polar opposite of Canael. --------------------------- --- Eternal/Nega-Eternal --- JP Name: エターナル (Eta-naru) Eternal The physical embodiment of the concept of "eternal." Derived from the VIPRPG verb エターなる which is a fusion of >eternal エター (Eta-) >become なる (Naru) When a game does not get completed, it goes eternally unfinished. Many submission pages for VIPRPGs do not feature download links to games, but instead read ETERNAL to denote that there was an attempt, but no finished product. Avoiding going eternal is the #1 goal of all VIPPERs. --------------------------- --- Dragon --- Often speaks in a hip-hop/gangster style with Japanese full-width capitalized ＹＯＵ/ＹＯ as well as Japanese sentence-end particles (Na, Ne, Sa, Ze etc). This is crudely approximated in English with S P A C E D typing, Y O ! Dragon is USUALLY the male RPG Maker 2000 RTP Dragon enemy in appearance, but often transforms into a diminutive girl dragon for various reasons. --------------------------- --- Draco --- Derived from ドラ子 (Dorako -> Draco) Dora = Dragon, abbreviated. 子 = Ko, Kanji for "child" but often a component of female names. Unfortunately some of this feminine image is lost on its way to English as Draco is traditionally a masculine sounding name, but what can you do? This is the female form of Dragon. Depending on the game, this can be a stand-alone character, or Dragon may transform into her. --------------------------- --- Dragon Knightess --- JP Name: ドナ子 (Donako) Dona = Dragon Knight, abbreviated (DOragon NAito) 子 = Ko, Kanji for "child" but often a component of female names. --------------------------- --- Daero/Dark Elf --- Dark Elf who is a hentai/pervert. Dark Elf + Ero -> Dark Ero -> Daero. Those with background in other VIPRPGs are well aware of Daero's obsession with certain female characters, especially Helen. --------------------------- --- The Fake 5th Reaper --- Japanese name: "偽死神五世" (Nise-Shinigami Gosei) The 五世 bit can be likened to a Roman Numeral V. 5th is what I have chosen because it seems to work better in a name and avoids potential ambiguity (Reaper VEE? Reaper 5? Reaper THE FIFTH?). Nickname: "Kiri" --------------------------- --- Trish --- Is best girl. Not originally from anything in particular, just kind of sprung up as a recurring character in the mid to late 2000s. I couldn't even tell you which game she first appeared in. Probably puts in more work than ANY of the other underworld characters combined, but who's keeping track? --------------------------- --- Hell --- Queen of the Underworld. Her love of potato chips is a recurring character trait in various VIP works. --------------------------- --- Mebius --- JP Name: メビウス (Mebiusu) The Dark Lord's daughter. Despite this, is often depicted as friends with Alex and Linux. Interchangeably called Mebius/Dark Lord's Daughter throughout VIP works. Shortened nickname in certain works (especially when hanging out with Linux) is "Meeby." Occasionally rendered as "Moebius," "Mobius," or "Möbius" depending on the work/creator. Indeed, the JP word メビウスの輪 (Mebiusu no Wa/Möbius Ring) is the correct technical terminology for this mathematical phenomenon. Also, I just prefer the "Mebius" rendering because of that god awful GBA Zone of the Enders title which features a character of the same name. --------------------------- --- Moshimo Force --- JP Name: もしもの力 (Moshimo no Chikara) Moshimo = If... Chikara = Power Moshimo is a common VIPRPG game title component which means If... And so common, indeed, that it is nearly synonymous with VIPRPGs. There is, after all, a long-running series of games/story collections which are simply "Moshimo X ga Y dattara" (If X was Y). Moshimo Force is the ultimate power, the realized form of Moshimo. It is the power to blow away a foe with a single touch. Many a DL;OK ends with the hero simply touching the Dark Lord once and sending him careening off-screen, never to be seen again.