PSO2 and other Phantasy Star series name origins and etymology

[King_Rappy]

There are a lot of planets and stars in the Phantasy Star games, and chances are you've wondered "What the heck kind of name is that?" or "Why does this sound familiar?" Some of them are probably made up, like Copto, Palma or Dezolis. But there are actually a number of them that have their origins in actual names or words, or even anagrams of each other.

ALGOL:

Spoiler!

The most obvious one is Algol, of course. Algol, or Beta Persei is a real star. Well, three of them to be specific. It's an eclipsing binary star system made of 3 different stars (A, B, and C), and because they overlap it appears to twinkle different colors in the sky. Because of its striking appearance, the early Arab astronomers coined it ra's al ghul, meaning head of the ghoul (demon), which later became contracted into Alghul, and then Algol. It was also associated with this in other mythologies: In Hebrew it was known as "Satan's head," in Latin "the spectre's head," and in Greece it was associated with the Gorgon. It is considered the "unluckiest star."


The real Algol.

As a star with a lot of mysterious and dark associations, it seems a perfect fit for the adventures of the original series. The phantasy of Phantasy star is the same as phantasm or phantom, after all. The one featured in the series doesn't seem to be a binary star, so it's always possible that it could be different from the one in real life.

PHANTASY STAR ONLINE:

Spoiler!

Phantasy Star Online takes place on a different planet: Ragol. According to one of the art books, Ragol is an anagram of Argol. (I can't seem to find any English sites with this information, but there are a ton of Japanese ones with it. Go figure.) There is no "R" or "L" sound in Japanese, only a sort of cross between the two that we write in English as "R." Because of this, it can be difficult for Japanese people to tell which is which in foreign words. So when deciding the name Ragol, they used the incorrect "Argol."
To be more basic: they rearranged "arugoru" into "raguoru."

The other planet featured in the PSO and PS0 mythos is Coral, homeland of the human/newman/android races. Unlike the above, here's no official word on this, so the following is speculation.

In Japanese, characters that when written phonetically start with the letters k, h, s, t, and u can be changed by adding accent marks of sorts. Example: ク (ku) グ (gu). So if you remove this "tenten" mark from Argol, you would get Arcol. (Or Alcor, which is actually another real star). You could then scramble the letters to make "coral." Of course, there's always the chance that they just named it after, well... coral.

PHANTASY STAR UNIVERSE:

Spoiler!

Gurhal isn't a real star. It may still be an anagram of sorts, however. Gurhal is pronounced "gura-ru" in Japanese, and would probably be best transliterated as "Graal." So why the weird spelling? There are a few possibilities.

The Gurhal system is a parallel/reboot of the Algol system, so it would follow that its name is somehow based on it. But the two aren't anagrams like with Ragol. But if you rearange the letters, you can get the name "Arghul." So, just like Argol is a corruption of Algol, Arghul could be a corruption of Algol's earlier name, Al Ghul.

Gurhal apparently means hibiscus in Hindi but I don't know if that's related.

Another possibility that I found posted on a Japanese message board is that it could be "GLAOR," (or Graol, more accurately.) Graol would probably be "guraoru" in Japanese, but PSU's "guraaru" does sound similar.

Or... arugoru->raguoru->graouru? Maybe?

PSO2:

Spoiler!

PSO2 also has names with clear origins. The planets in the game are all named after actual names of things. Similar to Algol's association with demons, Naberius and Amduscia are named after individual demons.

The Lesser Key of Solomon is a 17th century book (or grimoire) that contains a list of demons and spirits that King Solomon allegedly captured and controlled, along with how to summon them. In the section called the Ars Goetia, 72 demons are listed. These demons are commonly referenced in fiction and demonology, so they may be familiar to some of you. The Diablo and Shin Megami Tensei series, for instance, feature many of them. The planets Naberius and Amduscia are named after two such demons.

Naberius is the name of the 34th demon of the Goetia. It is a marquis of hell, and is also known by the names Nebiros, Naberus or Cerberus. If you couldn't tell from that, he is often depicted as the 3 headed dog, Cerberus, from Greek mythology.


Naberius's sigil. You know, in case you ever feel like summoning him.

Amduscia is named after Amdusias, who is also known as Amduscias or Amdukias. Amduscias is the 67th demon of the Goetia and a king of hell. He has absolutely nothing to do with dragons, so I'm not sure why they picked the name.


AMDUSCIAS: For all your musical unicorn needs.

Upon further research (I.E. Google image search), it turns out that there are also metal bands named Naberius and Amduscia.


Maybe someone at Sega is a black metal fan?

PSO2's other major planet, Lillipa, contrarily has a name entirely unrelated to demons. Lillipa sounds like it comes from the name Lilliput. Lilliput was a fictional kingdom of tiny people from the story of Gulliver's Travels. The English word lilliputian comes from that. Lillipa is home to the Lillipa tribe, tiny Jawa/Ewok-type creatures with a rudimentary civilization, hence the name.

The fleet that acts as the home of the ARKS is called ORACLE. Once again, it could be an anagram. it could be another Ragol/Argol type anagram but with the "g" changed once again to a "c," or it could be an anagram of Coral. ORACL[E]. As the human/newman/CAST home base it would make sense.

SPOILERS FOR THE NEXT PLANET:

Spoiler!

The new, watery planet that was shown in the CODE:Episode 2 trailer was found by Kion to be called "ウォプル." Wopuru is how you'd pronounce it. Wopal or Wopar are ways you could transliterate it, but what does it mean?

I did some searching and it turns out that there is a possible connection to the Goetia again. ウエパル (weparu) is the Japanese pronunciation of another demon from the Ars Goetia: Vepar. For some reason words with "v"s in them sometimes become "w"s when pronounced in Japanese. An example would be the Japanese word for virus: uirusu. So basically, it could be Vopar, but there's no way to know for sure yet.
The demon Vepar is depicted as a merman or mermaid, so it could be a reference to the planet's watery surface.

Hopefully you found this interesting! Are there any names you can pinpoint an origin or meaning to?

[Scale of Judgment]

Megid started out in Phantasy Star II, it was changed to Megido in Phantasy Star III, then back to Megid for IV.

[PrinceBrightstar]

While not tied to anything directly, each of the main series's names end with the letter L. Algol, Ragol, Coral, Gurhal, and if we take the original teaser, Oracl. Megiddo has biblical ties but it has different meanings depending on which faith you ask. Christianity looks at it as being the plain to the next city while Hebrewism has it listed closer as Har Megiddo meaning a place where people build and rebuild on top of the same spot over and over. Translated today it's known as armageddon.

[Gardios]

PSO2 mags are named after constellations. We had another topic regarding spell names as well, but I don't think we ever found anything meaningful regarding Zio and Barta.

Also your talk about Japanese hurts my kokoro, but that's just me being nit-picky. :V

[Zorafim]

Algo also means pain in latin, if I'm not mistaken. If not, Algophilia suddenly became a terrible thing to name my warlock.

I think you're reading too much into ORACLE. First off, I didn't know our ship had a name. Secondly, I'm sure it's named after an oracle. You know, a person of high status who speaks with the wisdom of the gods. It's a popular word in fantasy, so it's not surprising it'd be used.

Interesting thread. Let me see if I can add.

Foie started off in PS2, named Foi. I always assumed it was a mutation of the word "fire".
Resta started off in PS2 as Res, short for restoration (I'd assume).
Anti has been around forever, too. At first, however, it only removed poison. So I assume it's short for "antidote".
While Zan goes back to PS2, barta and zonde were names which started in PSO. Earlier games also had ice techniques, named WAT lol and THU. I assumed that zonde was named after ZAN, but I've started to doubt that now that we have both names in the same game. I don't know where barta came from.


Mine aren't as good, but I can at least point out where things started off in the series.

[Galax]

Algo also means pain in latin, if I'm not mistaken. If not, Algophilia suddenly became a terrible thing to name my warlock.

I think you're reading too much into ORACLE. First off, I didn't know our ship had a name. Secondly, I'm sure it's named after an oracle. You know, a person of high status who speaks with the wisdom of the gods. It's a popular word in fantasy, so it's not surprising it'd be used.

Interesting thread. Let me see if I can add.

Foie started off in PS2, named Foi. I always assumed it was a mutation of the word "fire".
Resta started off in PS2 as Res, short for restoration (I'd assume).
Anti has been around forever, too. At first, however, it only removed poison. So I assume it's short for "antidote".
While Zan goes back to PS2, barta and zonde were names which started in PSO. Earlier games also had ice techniques, named WAT lol and THU. I assumed that zonde was named after ZAN, but I've started to doubt that now that we have both names in the same game. I don't know where barta came from.


Mine aren't as good, but I can at least point out where things started off in the series.

The fleet is the ORACLE fleet, and I think the big ship in the middle is referred to as the ORACLE Mothership or something similar...I'd have to boot up the game to check that right now, which I'm not feeling up to. Nursing a major headache.

As to the theory on the fleet being named for an oracle, I could see that, considering the view in which people hold beings like Falz. Maybe it was named for something like the first person to communicate with Falz, and survive, perhaps to later strike Falz down/seal Falz away?

Or it could be...a surname, or an organization.

Or an acronym.

O.R.A.C.L.E. instead of ORACLE or Oracle.

Out Reaching Arks Claim Large Entities?

[Ceresa]

Foie started off in PS2, named Foi. I always assumed it was a mutation of the word "fire".
Resta started off in PS2 as Res, short for restoration (I'd assume).
Anti has been around forever, too. At first, however, it only removed poison. So I assume it's short for "antidote".
While Zan goes back to PS2, barta and zonde were names which started in PSO. Earlier games also had ice techniques, named WAT lol and THU. I assumed that zonde was named after ZAN, but I've started to doubt that now that we have both names in the same game. I don't know where barta came from.


Mine aren't as good, but I can at least point out where things started off in the series.

The names we are familiar with now, since PSO and PSU and on, are what they have always been since PS2 (Except Zonde which did originate in PSO). The English names in the original series was a result of your standard text limitations common in games of that era. Barta was always Barta. The Tsu/Thu line of techs was not ice, but light. Grants > グランツ > GuranTSU, Gra being already in use by the gravity series of techs.

And just throwing it out there, Rune's skills like Flaeli, Hewn, and Tandle, were the names of Alis and Lutz's attack spells in PS1.

[Punisher106]

The other planet featured in the PSO and PS0 mythos is Coral, homeland of the human/newman/android races. Unlike the above, here's no official word on this, so the following is speculation.

In Japanese, characters that when written phonetically start with the letters k, h, s, t, and u can be changed by adding accent marks of sorts. Example: ク (ku) グ (gu). So if you remove this "tenten" mark from Argol, you would get Arcol. (Or Alcor, which is actually another real star). You could then scramble the letters to make "coral." Of course, there's always the chance that they just named it after, well... coral.

Do keep in mind that PSZ DOES take place on Coral. Also, you neglect to talk about said planet's moon, Arca. I'm sure that has some significance.

[CocoCrispy]

Megid started out in Phantasy Star II, it was changed to Megido in Phantasy Star III, then back to Megid for IV.

I wonder if the "Megido" part of the word has any significance. Dracula in the Castlevania games is known to spam his own technique called Demonic Megiddo. Perhaps the dark type attack was inspired by the Christian site of the ruins of Megiddo, known for having a very bloody history, and could thus be linked to Armageddon? An attack so strong it wipes things out literally everything with a OHKO?

Bit of a stretch but I always wondered what in the world Megiddo meant in video games.

[Scale of Judgment]

- The super rare Rod that all forces wish to crave off Dark Falz is called the Psychowand that first appeared as a story vital weapon for Phantasy Star IV. Other weapons from Phantasy Star IV that has yet to make its debut are Elysdeon, Any Neiweapons, Laconian, or
- First appearance of a playable newman was in Phantasy Star II, First appearance of Cyborgs as playable characters was in Phantasy Star III. Phantasy Star I had the only game where you had a talking cat as a playable character. The talking cat is the newman ancestor more or less.
- Rappies were first introduced in Phantasy Star III(Edited for correction)
- Space Colonies were first introduced in Phantasy Star II. However the setting started in Phantasy Star III.
- Hunter guild missions only started in Phantasy Star IV
- Moondew and Star Mist were introduced in Phantasy Star II. They were converted to Moon dew, Star Dew, and new Sol Dew in IV. They became Atomizers in the Online series.
- Shortcakes been around since Phantasy Star I.
- Mother Brain originated from Phantasy Star II, variations came and gone but came back for PSU.