Royce, Phacia and Laike voices!!

[Silver Phoenix]

Spike Spencer voices both Nall, and Eiphel (Aiferun). I don't know how they ended up with Eiphel, because that name just sucks.

[Alunissage]

All they did was drop the last syllable and respell it. Pretty minor considering some of the name changes that have happened... like Zone Pharaoh to Zophar.

[ShindoW]

I always thought Zophar sounded cool... but so does Zone Pharaoh. lol

[Silver Phoenix]

I thought the omission of Emperor Tranny was the saddest part. Someone mentioned that it was always Zophar in Japan (Shiva, Temzin?), but the only place Zone Pharaoh is mentioned happens to be the Lunar I & II Artbook.

Eiphel just has no pizazz, and the spelling is just weird to me. Aiferun/Aipherun just works for me. I guess it's a good thing he barely has any time in the game.

[Kizyr]

I really like the name-change for Eiphel. Aiferun is a straight transliteration of the Japanese name and sounds stilted and unnatural. At least Eiphel looks like an actual name when put into English. KF

[Alunissage]

Yeah, Zone Pharaoh is only in the artbook. But I was trying to come up with an example that wasn't just localization, like Remilia > Lemia. Ruby was also named Mink in the early drafts.

I keep thinking of the Eiffel Tower, but maybe that's just me.

[Temzin]

I thought the omission of Emperor Tranny was the saddest part. Someone mentioned that it was always Zophar in Japan (Shiva, Temzin?), but the only place Zone Pharaoh is mentioned happens to be the Lunar I & II Artbook.

Yeah, Zophar is "Zophar" throughout the game. It would be natural if the original name (in Japanese, too) was meant to be Zone Pharaoh and was shorted when they were talking about/planning the game...and Zone Pharaoh into Zophar is exactly how you would abbreviate it in Japanese.

What's interesting is how Zone Pharaoh could get reduced into Zophar, a real live English (Biblical) name. Makes you wonder if the thought process went "Zophar, seems like a cool name---->let's expand it into Zone Pharaoh for something more interesting---->actually, that's too long, let's cut it back to Zophar," or whether it was originally envisioned as Zone Pharaoh and just had a miraculously perfect abbreviation into Zophar.

All of them look cooler in English than Eiphel Tower, though.

[Silver Phoenix]

I keep thinking of the Eiffel Tower, but maybe that's just me.

No, I'm definitely right there with you. As for Lemia, I thought her name should have been Lemilia because it just sounds like a prettier name.

[Alunissage]

It does make her name more distinct from that of her descendant Miria.

[ShindoW]

The name Mink reminds me of DragonHalf. I imagine if Ruby were human in an anime, she'd act a little like Mink XD

[Shiva Indis]

All of them look cooler in English than Eiphel Tower, though.

When the new character was revealed, one of my first thoughts was, 'I don't envy the person who has to localize this name'.

It does make her name more distinct from that of her descendant Miria.

I wish I knew how Lemia came to be her name in English...

The name Mink reminds me of DragonHalf. I imagine if Ruby were human in an anime, she'd act a little like Mink XD

"Banzai!"

[Silver Phoenix]

On the subject of Ruby, if Game Arts decided to develop a PSP remake of Eternal Blue I wonder if we'd finally get to see Ruby in human form ala the illustration in the Lunar I&II Artbook.

[ShindoW]

Making this the Let's Discuss Ruby topic XD Who else hated that she didn't revive characters like Nall? It's helpful when you've got maybe just Hiro but later in the game its kinda lame. I love using the Red Dragon Crest with Lemia though.. lol

[whitedragon_nall]

I did. She hardly ever attacked and the damage she did was never anything significant. Nall helped me out more times than I can count.

Nall FTW!!!

[Silver Phoenix]

Ruby would only attack I think if the enemy had 1 HP (Scratch Attack) or 4 HP (Fire Breath). I think she did occasionally wake characters from KO status.

[Alunissage]

Nall didn't do anything in battle in TSS at all except tap sprites on the head and make them disappear when they were knocked out. No revive in that game at all by any means. (Party members would recover 4HP at the end of the round if they were below 1/8th max HP, but that was nothing to do with Nall.)

Ruby in the SegaCD EB was therefore the first useful companion, as it were, and people who whine about her not being as effective are just showing their disregard of the series' origins. If an enemy had 3 HP or fewer at the end of the round she finished them off, with her threshold going up to 6 later in the game. I've read that she wouldn't do this against bosses, but I have a vague recollection of her doing so anyway when I first played the game. Maybe I'm imagining it.

She had a similarly low (though higher than in EB, maybe 30, and doubling later) attack in EBC, actually two types of attacks that were only different graphically, but under different conditions. She would attack at the end of the round according to a formula given in the beginning of the EBC strategy guide, which takes as an input the number of people in the party; she'll attack much more if it's only Hiro. She doesn't do any reviving. In the NA release, she will do in the Blue Spire Guardian under very specific circumstances, something WD added after one of their testers found that the battle would be unfinishable under those conditions.

[whitedragon_nall]

Ahhh, I did not know that. Another reason why I need to play the originals. Still doesn't change the fact that Nall is superior to Ruby though.

[Temzin]

Correct as usual, Alun! Though I guess TSS Nall did perform the valuable function of removing your tattered corpse from the cluttered battlefield... But yeah, Ruby's 3 pointers are actually really helpful earlier in the game when it's just Hiero walking home, and even when it's him and Gwyn. I thought it was a charming touch to have amp up to 6 later on. She doesn't revive people, though. My own experience aside, I distinctly remember a spot in the Lunar 1&2 Official Design Materials interviews where they mention that she won't attack bosses since it would be embarrassing if she killed Zophar. Though I think this would be awesome.

As for human "Mink," given how shockingly little effort went into the EB remake as opposed to TSS remake, I don't think we'll see any scenario changes in a hypothetical PSP remake in a billion years (beyond the wild missteps already made in the first EB remake). Like, if they can't be bothered to give the enemies' attacks names anymore, let alone draw quality faces in the animation, odds are bad!

I sort of forsee a future of fairly constant SSS remakes of varying quality, ala Ys.

[Silver Phoenix]

Where was it stated that she would only attack at 3, and later 6? I could have sworn I read something about 1 and 4 very early on in the beginning of the game before getting Ronfar.

[Temzin]

Where was it stated that she would only attack at 3, and later 6? I could have sworn I read something about 1 and 4 very early on in the beginning of the game before getting Ronfar.

Nah, it's always been 3, and it doubles to 6 after the Red Dragon Cave (we're talking about the Mega CD version, of course). You can read Shigema and friends talking about it in the KubookaXShigema interview: http://lunar-net.com/interviews/lunaripii4.php Or you can pop in and play to see with your own eyes, since it's easy to get early in the game when Hiero's just getting started.