Help Coming up with Tiered Spell Names

[Vis_Mage 84]

Call me old fashioned, but I love the old school RPG styled tired spells. Stuff like Final Fantasy's Thunder-Thundra-Thundaga, or Dragon Quests Woosh-Wooshle-KaWoosh-Kawooshle. It has a certain charm to it, and makes it easy to tell how powerful a spell is at a glance. I know it's kind of a divided opinion whether this type of skill names are liked or not, but it's really nostalgic to me.

So, I've been trying to come up with a good sounding set of prefixes/suffixes for my own JRPG, but have been stumped on this for longer than I care to admit. :p

 

I currently am working with Flare-Flaremore-Flaremire, with either RaFlare or OmniFlare as a multi-target version of the spell, but it just doesn't feel right.

 

I'd really appreciate any brainstorming help here. Thank you :)

[Kayzee 4,032]

Thunder, Thunderer, Thunderist? :3

 

Okay okay maybe that's too silly... Though personally I always thought tiered spells were a little silly anyway... Not even just name wise I mean, I have just never liked the way JRPGs tend to give you stuff that becomes completely obsolete later on. I personally would rather see a smaller set of spells that you get better at using rather then getting new spells all the time that just are better then other ones that do pretty much the same thing, if only to save having to scroll through a huge list of spells half of which you don't ever use anymore.

 

That being said, magical nonsense spell names can sometimes be incredibly fun! Hehe, my favorite example of a game that uses them is Treasure of the Rudras, though that might be cheating because the whole gimmick of the game is that you can basically write your own spells (or mantras as they are called in game). There is a system at play for how the game interpreters what you put in though based on keywords and prefixes/suffixes. It's really cool to play around with and it teaches you more about the system aqs you play, but the downside is you can basically cheat with it because you basically can enter any mantra you want right away, so if you look up powerful mantras you can use them as soon as you have enough MP to cast them.

 

Speaking of mantras, if you want a more traditional example of crazy spell names, a lot of Shin Megami Tensei spell names use Sanskrit and I kinda think that's neat. You could always try using some other language roots in spell names. I could imagine using old english root words myself...  I mean, look at these different cases of the old English for fire: Fyr, Fyra, Fyrum... Danish has Fyret, Fyrene... I think they are pretty neat! But then I love that kinda language stuff and looking up word orgins and shush. Hehe...

Edited June 28, 2019 by Kayzee

[That One NPC 321]

For what my two cents is worth as a player, these systems are tragically outdated. They make your spell names very bland and unexciting, making your elemental magic system seem very basic and lacking creativity. It also robs each spell of any real identity and character, outside of the animations, of course.

 

I always love when spells evolve and change over time, because you anticipate the next spell so much more. I like spell trees that have individual spells with defining characteristics which are obvious within the name. Rather than calling the super Earth spell OmniEarth, or OmniRock (so fucking cringey) isn't it cooler and more distinguished to call it Meteor, or Comet?

 

I also try to take advantage of individual spells by making them very unique in their nature and applications. One thing I always hated about FF style spells, for example, is that they are all the same, just costing more or less MP, dealing more or less damage. So when you get Fire 2, or Fira, Fire becomes essentially useless.

 

But what if Fire 1 was Fireball instead? Now we can break it down on a conceptual level. It's a projectile of fire shot forth quickly by the caster. Maybe it has a lower hit% than most other fire spells, but when it lands, it has an area damage radius, burning nearby enemies in addition to the intended target. What if Fire 2 is Flare, which ignites the target in flames directly, having 0 chance of evasion, and applying the Burn status.

 

By giving your spells that much more character, you can have a lot more fun with them, and leave each spell with a given purpose or strategy until the very end of your game.

 

Most of you are thinking, "I can do that and use any spell name," but you might be thinking more as a dev than a player. We don't want to memorize the effects of every prefix, for every element, when you could have put just a tiny bit more thought into your spell trees.

 

 

 

Having said all that, allow me to attempt to assist you as requested.

 

 

Here are some suggested spell names for the classic elements. They may be basic or even obvious, but they will work well with various prefixes.

 

Fire: Flare

Ice: Frost

Thunder: Spark, Jolt

Earth: Geo

Water: Wave

Wind: Gale

 

Here are some prefixes using Frost as the given example. When using this system, I would go with logic and familiarity, vs nonsensical gibberish. It will feel natural and flow much easier for the player. You'll never have someone saying to themselves or Steam friends, "Wtf is a RaFlare?" You just want people to beat and enjoy your game.

 

 

Frost

DyFrost 

TriFrost

TetraFrost

PentaFrost

AllFrost

OmegaFrost

NegaFrost (The idea for this was a spell that applies damage to enemies who would normally be immune to the element, or heal from it.)

OmniFrost

 

 

Hope these helped give you some inspiration, at the very least.

Edited July 22, 2019 by That One NPC