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
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
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 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
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
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
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
"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.
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.
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
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
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"
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.
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
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).
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.
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.
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.
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
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
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.
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.
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".
To add a bit to Soma, in greek "Σώμα" (has the exact same pronunciation) is literally the word for "Body", so having it as an item revitalizing your whole body(spiritually and physically) always made sense to me
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.
Oh, so FREIKUGEL is from Deutsch after all. Now that you mentioned it, would it be cool if instead of a beam of light, we casted actual *frei kugels?* As, you know, _frei_ - fʁaɪ̯ - freedom and _kugel_ - ˈkuːɡl̩ - bullets.
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)
Wow here it was that I always that the names of spells where just made up words to make them sound more magical. Also this may be a longshot but I think Bufu is a corruption of Buru from Buruburu the Japanese onomatopoeia for shivering like in cold.
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
I love how SMT tries to incorporate as many mythos as possible even in the skills and abilities used in the game. Definitely unique among their peers. Still has nothing compared to Sizz, Crack, Zap and Swoosh though. It made learning things so much easier as a kid 😄
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.
I think the Garuda abbreviation make the most Sense for garu. Especially since it also is able to shatter petrified enemies almost as though it was striking with a tremendous strength eh.
You know, checking the original Japanese names for these isn't hard. So videos like this should consider the original version and not just the localized version. Considering that the chance of localizing messed up the details or context is pretty high (such as the change of Maha- to just Ma- in the localized version).
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.
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).
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
Let's not forget that most JRPGs that started in the 80s were following in the footsteps of Wizardry, which had made up names for spells and started the whole power level suffix thing. The healing spells are named dios, dial, dialma and madi, for example. Dia could easily be a nod to that. I suspect a lot of spell names in megaten are similarly made up words.
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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
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?
@@escahfaidhe755cannon ball
PRECON DECON GUY??????????
@@bleakslug🎶 YOU'LL NEVER SEE IT COMIIINNNGGG🎶
@@Triceratoppinggodly weapon in hinduism
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
in japanese they actually do use the full "maha-" for multitarget skills
so maragidyne in japanese is actually "maharagidain"
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
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
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
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.
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.
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
The Ma- skill lines are actually all Maha- in japanese, confirming the reference.
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
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 💀💀💀💀
*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 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
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
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 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.
"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.
I remember asking about a video like that a long time ago. Glad to finally see the real thing. Great video Tony
Wouldn’t mind another video on this topic. My one request is to go over the buff/debuff spells
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
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
i laughed so fucking much when the meme with the typing appeared for the bufu explanation
The Dyne spells also might be a play on the Dragon Quest naming convention, where the strongest spells would end in "dain".
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
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
"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"
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
"Lucifer" is not hebrew, it's latin. There's no Lucifer in the hebrew bible, it was a character created from a weird translation
It's over. It already become a tradition. Lucifer in the Vulgata Latina is also applied to Jesus.
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
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
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"
3:25 i appreciate the little tangent about garuda here
oomfie...
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.
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
2:39 that made me laugh so hard
Me too 😂😂😂
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
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).
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".
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.
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.
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 TH-cam channel.
Is there a lore reason to why mudo is based on Mutahar? is he a curse?
BUFU is the clothing brand in the movie How High
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.
love the imagery/visualizations in the video
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
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
Yay a new lore video finally!
I’ve literally wanted to know this for SO LONG
May this serve as the answer for all the people who are curious
Honestly these are way more convoluted then I thought. I always assumed they were just direct translations in other languages. good work
Macca Beam origins: best SMT game ever made - RONDE :D
been waiting on this one ❤🔥
the story about der freischutz was so cool
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
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.
Great video tony, Thanks
Great comment Dina, thanks!
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.
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".
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.
I think you went a little overboard with the out of context memes and gifs. I guess there was not much to use as visual aid for this video
To add a bit to Soma, in greek "Σώμα" (has the exact same pronunciation) is literally the word for "Body", so having it as an item revitalizing your whole body(spiritually and physically) always made sense to me
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?
If I'm correct in the 5 minute reserach I made, the new spells, -BARION means ultimate in greek too, so that's it lol
Informative and hilarious! You've got yourself a new sub!
Welcome legend!
My man Tony you were cooking with the edits. The Riko one got me.
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.
Zio is "jio" in Japanese. So you could also have translated it as "geo"
It actually makes sense with Freikugel given in both games it appeared in Lucifer needs MC to succeed one way or another
Oh, so FREIKUGEL is from Deutsch after all. Now that you mentioned it, would it be cool if instead of a beam of light, we casted actual *frei kugels?* As, you know, _frei_ - fʁaɪ̯ - freedom and _kugel_ - ˈkuːɡl̩ - bullets.
Freedom Bullets: Bullets that "free" others from their physical bodies.
these were really cool thank you
16:28 Willhelm? From the willhelm scream?
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
Wow here it was that I always that the names of spells where just made up words to make them sound more magical. Also this may be a longshot but I think Bufu is a corruption of Buru from Buruburu the Japanese onomatopoeia for shivering like in cold.
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
I love how SMT tries to incorporate as many mythos as possible even in the skills and abilities used in the game. Definitely unique among their peers. Still has nothing compared to Sizz, Crack, Zap and Swoosh though. It made learning things so much easier as a kid 😄
Freikugel was definitely the most interesting one IMO, some of them I already knew like Agi and Megido.
I read somewhere that Dia means song in Greek and that’s the reason why so many healing spells has music theming
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.
I think the Garuda abbreviation make the most Sense for garu. Especially since it also is able to shatter petrified enemies almost as though it was striking with a tremendous strength eh.
ooo ive been wondering about this
I think bufu is the sound we make when we are chilling heavily. buhuhuhuhuhu where "hu" and "fu" are similar or even the same in japanese phonetics.
14:04 WAR BROKE OUT IN HEAVEN
I am the bug inside you
You know, checking the original Japanese names for these isn't hard. So videos like this should consider the original version and not just the localized version. Considering that the chance of localizing messed up the details or context is pretty high (such as the change of Maha- to just Ma- in the localized version).
Considering how the demifiend was Lucifer's general and right hand man, freikugal may as well be because Lucifer completely trusts the Demifiend
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.
"Ice is the real odd one out but hey at least it sounds cool".
I see what you did there.
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).
Thank you! Finally! Someone explains why they are called it!
I was waiting slight info about Psio and Frei (first one is obvious, the second not)
Right on time man, I was LITERALLY thinking about this last night
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 love smt❤❤❤,was a fan for it even since persona 4 on the vita 10 years ago,never knew the spells were this deep
Wait so, that hama yumi 破魔弓 evil destructing bow, is it also the inspiration for the Light arrows in Zelda ???!
Let's not forget that most JRPGs that started in the 80s were following in the footsteps of Wizardry, which had made up names for spells and started the whole power level suffix thing. The healing spells are named dios, dial, dialma and madi, for example. Dia could easily be a nod to that. I suspect a lot of spell names in megaten are similarly made up words.
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
For me as a jojo fan I knew of hammon which I associated with light; so my brain just kept thinking of the same for hama spells in SMT