The New Demo (Name Hype)

It was really neat! I mean, it's pretty much the same thing as the last one, but it's cleaned up really nicely. The people's names all fit them really well, and I actually laughed at AJ's. I expected it to be the same sort of thing, where it would be shortened to AJ, but nope, Anne. It's also nice to see Disgaea 2 get some notice with Rozalin Rosalyn is the MOST fitting of their names, I think. Paulina (still the best) actually shares a last name with me, sort of. Spelled differently, is the only difference, so that was really cool. It makes shipfics weird though.

Was the "Tai (Saito) / (Selena) Salomon" thing on purpose? I mean, the first Digimon series protagonist and a name ending in "mon". If it was, kudos, because that was awesome to see. It certainly makes Tai's relationship with the headmaster funnier.

I plan on making a video about the demo, to promote it and share more in-depth thoughts. This was just kinda where I wanted to talk about their names. What did you guys think of it?

I fell asleep before it came out, and had this sudden, totally random dream during which a humanized anime Twilight was talking to a bunch of multicoloured horses and asking them their names, and then suddenly running away from a carnivorous Brontosaurus at a public swimming pool with dinosaur-ized Luna following her and telling her to give up and stop running because it's no use.
I woke up really early, and had this feeling that I needed to check the site. I did so, and there it was. O.o

Some of the names were rather unexpected. One of my best friends, whom I'm sure most of the people in the Skype group know, bears the name ''Pálína'', which is the Icelandic equivalent to ''Poulina''. I just...sat there in shock, staring at the screen for awhile when the name showed up. I'm still not convinced that it was entirely coincidental. I went straight to the ask box on the dev blog to ask about it, and then decided not to, because that'd be very obnoxious.

Aside from that, I really liked the names. Annabelle-Jean's introduction was rather meh. Nobody says ''Oh, Annabelle-Jean''. The phrasing was VERY awkward, and it looked rather rushed. Like you just used the word replacing function in Ren'Py and went with that.
Same goes for Anna adding Rosalyn's nickname as a sort of afterthought when she had finished telling Tom that he can call her Anna. People don't really do that, do they? ''Oh, my name's Emma, but you can just call me Em. You can also call Natalie Nat.''

I'm also a little surprised about Tai being given such an Asian name. I wonder if there's a reason for that...
Rainbow Dash's name was flawless, as was Fluttershy's. Celestia's was strange at first...but that might have significance plot-wise, so I'll leave my comments on that one out. Both names and her original incarnation seem to be somehow sun-related. It wouldn't surprise me if she turned out to be some kind of sun witch.

Now that the worry about the name changes being awkward and unnecessarily idiotic has been diminished, all we can do now is panic about the question as to whether production will be slowed down at all. Because they obviously need to put the original story through heavy editing, and presumably change a few plot elements and make them into something completely different.

I'm not sure whether I want to sit and be excited or stomp around and curse Hasbro.

NemoTjan777 wrote:I fell asleep before it came out, and had this sudden, totally random dream during which a humanized anime Twilight was talking to a bunch of multicoloured horses and asking them their names, and then suddenly running away from a carnivorous Brontosaurus at a public swimming pool with dinosaur-ized Luna following her and telling her to give up and stop running because it's no use.

That's certainly... odd.

I agree with the phrasing issue, though since this is just a demo and they've said that it and the actual first hour of the game will be much different I'm not worried. One thing that really felt weird was that each still had the same initials. Tai Saito, Annabel-Jean, Rosalyn, Paulina Parks, Faith Summers, Robin Douglas, even Dixie whose last name was never shown.

TheHockeyGamer wrote:
I agree with the phrasing issue, though since this is just a demo and they've said that it and the actual first hour of the game will be much different I'm not worried. One thing that really felt weird was that each still had the same initials. Tai Saito, Annabel-Jean, Rosalyn, Paulina Parks, Faith Summers, Robin Douglas, even Dixie whose last name was never shown.

I'm aware that it's going to be different, I was just saying that they could've made it look less like they just smacked the names in to replace the old ones, and it looked lazy. I can't really blame them, though.

The first-name last-name thing was a clever-ish way to avoid sounding too different from the original without making it sound ridiculously similar (Twibright Spankle, Applesack, etc.)
You still get a similar feel from ''Tai Saito'' as you do from ''Twilight Sparkle'', but the names aren't so alike that you want to smack whoever made them. How do you think people would have reacted if Rainbow Dash had been named Sandra Berg?
It's also a quick way to get the names in there without completely randomizing them. You can tell that it came from the same place as the original ones did, so you won't feel completely alienated from it.
I think most of us would have done the same. I mean, what if you were put in charge of the names? You would have to find that perfect middle ground between ''Rainblow Sash'' and ''Sandra Berg'', and that definitely isn't easy.

NemoTjan777 wrote:

TheHockeyGamer wrote:One thing that really felt weird was that each still had the same initials. Tai Saito, Annabel-Jean, Rosalyn, Paulina Parks, Faith Summers, Robin Douglas, even Dixie whose last name was never shown.

The first-name last-name thing was a clever-ish way to avoid sounding too different from the original without making it sound ridiculously similar (Twibright Spankle, Applesack, etc.)
You still get a similar feel from ''Tai Saito'' as you do from ''Twilight Sparkle'', but the names aren't so alike that you want to smack whoever made them. How do you think people would have reacted if Rainbow Dash had been named Sandra Berg?

I understand that, but it makes it more difficult to get used to the names. I look at the characters I still see Rarity and Fluttershy, but I now have to get used to calling them Rose and Faith. I start saying "R" for Rose, and out pops Rarity still.

Also, who else now wants to call Robin "Sandra Berg", just as a fan nickname kind of thing? Anyone with me on that?

NemoTjan777 wrote:I think most of us would have done the same. I mean, what if you were put in charge of the names? You would have to find that perfect middle ground between ''Rainblow Sash'' and ''Sandra Berg'', and that definitely isn't easy.

Well, I wouldn't have named Paulina "Parks", because that's a bit too close to my last name. I don't want to ruin my self-insert ships. I know for a fact I wouldn't do any better, I'd probably come up with something like "Purplehair Withdarkstreaks" for Tai.

I'm not knocking the names, I like them. It's just a bit of a transition, and I'll have to get used to it. Also, Tai. Salomon. There is no way that is a coincidence.

TheHockeyGamer wrote:Also, who else now wants to call Robin "Sandra Berg", just as a fan nickname kind of thing? Anyone with me on that?

Oh dear, what have I done.
I'm totally doing this. That's the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard.

TheHockeyGamer wrote:I understand that, but it makes it more difficult to get used to the names. I look at the characters I still see Rarity and Fluttershy, but I now have to get used to calling them Rose and Faith. I start saying "R" for Rose, and out pops Rarity still.

Name changes like there are kind of a paradox. There is absolutely no one out there who could find new names that adequately fit the characters without sounding a little meh. Honestly, I was expecting this kind of change. Sometime during 2012, Zap Apple was going to call Rainbow Dash ''Rachael Dawson''...:/

NemoTjan777 wrote:

TheHockeyGamer wrote:Also, who else now wants to call Robin "Sandra Berg", just as a fan nickname kind of thing? Anyone with me on that?

Oh dear, what have I done.
I'm totally doing this. That's the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard.

Done and done. She is now Sandra Berg to me.  

NemoTjan777 wrote:

TheHockeyGamer wrote:I understand that, but it makes it more difficult to get used to the names. I look at the characters I still see Rarity and Fluttershy, but I now have to get used to calling them Rose and Faith. I start saying "R" for Rose, and out pops Rarity still.

Name changes like there are kind of a paradox. There is absolutely no one out there who could find new names that adequately fit the characters without sounding a little meh.

True. I feel like if we'd had these names since the beginning we wouldn't be talking about whether they fit the character or not. I also would've had time to figure out how to make my Polly ship work.

So Dixie, Anne and Rose's last names have been released on the Tumblr. As I expected, Dixie's last name also fits in with the scheme, being Hayes. Anne Smith I should have expected, because it's the only way to make Granny Smith not come out of left field. Rose Montgomery though? Again, it's the most fitting name, barring the common "Smith", but at the same time I would've never thought of it.

The best thing is that they confirmed my theory. Not the Digimon one, sadly, but that it's not a coincidence at all.

Glad everyone mostly likes the names. A few of them have been rolling around in our heads since we started. They weren't a last minute scramble for the most part.

NemoTjan777 wrote:Aside from that, I really liked the names. Annabelle-Jean's introduction was rather meh. Nobody says ''Oh, Annabelle-Jean''. The phrasing was VERY awkward, and it looked rather rushed. Like you just used the word replacing function in Ren'Py and went with that.
Same goes for Anna adding Rosalyn's nickname as a sort of afterthought when she had finished telling Tom that he can call her Anna. People don't really do that, do they? ''Oh, my name's Emma, but you can just call me Em. You can also call Natalie Nat.''.

I'm not sure how we're going to handle it yet, but in my head, Rosalyn is the only one who regularly calls Anne by her full name just to get under her skin a bit. That's why she fires back and tells Tom to call her "Rose".

Rainbow Wavedash wrote:Glad everyone mostly likes the names. A few of them have been rolling around in our heads since we started. They weren't a last minute scramble for the most part.

That means that some were, and I almost want to ask which ones...

Edit: Also, I've started recording the video. Just so I don't sound like an idiot, is it "Annabel-JEEN" or "Annabel-JAHN"?

TheHockeyGamer wrote:That means that some were, and I almost want to ask which ones...

More like, we had some ready, but we thought of some better ones after the letter from Hasbro. There's logic behind all the name choices. None of them were just slapped on because it sounded like it sorta works.

If you think you see a hidden meaning in the new names, you're probably right.

Except Digimon. Amazing how many people want to know if Tai and Headmaster Solomon are a Digimon reference. They're not. Sol means sun.

TheHockeyGamer wrote:Edit: Also, I've started recording the video. Just so I don't sound like an idiot, is it "Annabel-JEEN" or "Annabel-JAHN"?

JEEN, pronounced the same as "Billie Jean is not my lover."

In all honesty, the name changes don't bother me as much as i thought they would.
All in all though, running the first demo alongside the second one, you can really tell the second one is just more polished and things just look smoother. I shall be checking the site every five minutes for updates for the next month checking in most mornings like a normal person

Rainbow Wavedash wrote:Except Digimon. Amazing how many people want to know if Tai and Headmaster Solomon are a Digimon reference. They're not.

DAMMIT. *quietly scraps crossover fanfic*

Anyway, thanks for the pronunciation guide. I'll make sure not to balls it up.

I heard about this project a few months ago, and just found out about the name changes today. I played the updated demo and had a couple of comments that haven't been addressed yet in this thread.

Rainbow Wavedash wrote:Except Digimon. Amazing how many people want to know if Tai and Headmaster Solomon are a Digimon reference. They're not. Sol means sun.

So was "Salomon" in demo 1.1 a typo then?

Also, I found it ironic (or perhaps fitting) that her first name is now Selena as that was originally intended to be Luna's name according to Lauren Faust. There's also the fact that "Selena" is a form of "Selene". But it made me think Luna herself won't make an appearance...

Selena's sister was revealed in the New Year's post as "Lynette Solomon", and her design was shown for (I believe) the first time as well. It's crazy how she looks pretty much exactly like I'd imagine she would, though I'm curious as to how her role will play out in the story. Will she be sort of like a workaholic foil to the motherly Selena, will she have a minor or major role, etc. Definitely interested to see how they portray her! 

TheHockeyGamer wrote:Selena's sister was revealed in the New Year's post as "Lynette Solomon", and her design was shown for (I believe) the first time as well. It's crazy how she looks pretty much exactly like I'd imagine she would, though I'm curious as to how her role will play out in the story. Will she be sort of like a workaholic foil to the motherly Selena, will she have a minor or major role, etc. Definitely interested to see how they portray her! 

Since she hasn't been shown for so long, I sincerely hope she'll have a major role in at least one of the routes. She's sooooooo adorable in that picture, so I'd expect her to be noticeably younger than her sister. When I first saw her, I thought she was twelve, but then I looked up and realized that she was supposed to be one of the headmasters. For some reason, based on that picture, I took it that she was Selena's ill little sister whose growth has been stunted due to a serious disease. I have no clue why. She probably isn't and I've just been permanently traumatized by Kana: Little Sister.