Shmups names mispronunciation

[KAI]

I've been hearing some game titles being mispronounced for years, but did you guys know that:

Darius is pronounced Tha-rai-ass (ダライアス)

Gradius is pronounced Gra-dee-ooz (グラディウス)

Xevious is pronounced Ze-bee-ooz (ゼビウス)


and that XEXEX is just SexSex because it's basically a shmup with soft porn

[Shepardus]

Is this where we get to debate the correct pronunciation of "Galaga"?

[NTSC-J]

I've been hearing some game titles being mispronounced for years, but did you guys know that:

Darius is pronounced Tha-rai-ass (ダライアス)

Gradius is pronounced Gra-dee-ooz (グラディウス)

Xevious is pronounced Ze-bee-ooz (ゼビウス)


and that XEXEX is just SexSex because it's basically a shmup with soft porn

So is the joke that these are all wrong or do you just need to review your katakana?

[KAI]

Nah, we all know that not even jp people can pronounce those titles the right way, that's just simple spelling for english speakers.

[trap15]

And for the uninformed, it's shmups not shumps.

[FRO]

Funny, I was still thinking about this from conversations in the Discord. Something I've been wondering about is whether or not the pronunciation matters, in the long term. I mean, most of these names are made up, right? Do any of them have real significance? As a bit of a grammar nerd, I want to say things correctly, but in the grand scheme, it strikes me that this may be much ado about nothing...

[KAI]

in the long term

Go tell that to this guy, he has an Aycarumba and Greedy-ass tatoo on his arm.

[Kollision]

wait till you get to Gaiares

[zakk]

And for the uninformed, it's shmups not shumps.

I thought it was schumps?

[stryc9]

wait till you get to Gaiares

According to the shmuplation interview, didn't the name end up alluding to being without Gaia - so Gaialess? lol. People thought it might have been Gaia Rescue, but nope. Either way I had it wrong when I first heard of the game. I was pronouncing it Guy Are Reez or some shit.

What about Gynoug?

[KAI]

She-noug (ジノーグ)

[NTSC-J]

http://www.guidetojapanese.org/learn/grammar/katakana

[Mark_MSX]

I mispronounce shmup names all day everyday X-D. One of the silliest ones was when I was first getting into shmups (and hadn't heard the title pronounced before) I pronounced Dodonpachi DaiOuJou as DAY-AU JUS (like the dipping sauce ha).

[stryc9]

She-noug (ジノーグ)

No way.

Anything's better than Wings of Wor though, I suppose.

[WelshMegalodon]

I mean, it's closer to "JEEno-gu", but still the same general idea.

I agree that this wouldn't be an issue if more people had a basic grip on katakana.

[Shepardus]

For what it's worth, you won't have this problem if you never talk about shmups.

[EmperorIng]

I was pronouncing it Guy Are Reez or some shit.

Your fault for not paying attention to the ads.

Spoiler

[BulletMagnet]

So, uh, we're apparently supposed to use Japanese language rules as a template to pronounce made-up words rendered in English, or something?

[uchuukeibitaisdf]

i mean, i always just pronounced Gradius as GRAY-dee-us because it sounds way cooler to me than GRAH-dee-us does.

[Jeneki]

Raiden is another classic. Thanks Mortal Kombat!

[Triple Lei]

I heard one dude IRL pronounce Mushihimesama as "moo-shee-SHAW-mee"...

[null1024]

Wait, did I suddenly forget how to read katakana or...

[Despatche]

I feel like this thread was made to spite me...

Gradius is literally the sword but with an R in it; check out Gradius IV's title callout. I refuse to believe the developers didn't name the game after the sword, especially when they went and made a game called Falsion. I also refuse to believe the Gaiden developers did not deliberately design the Falchion Beta after the original ship, as the Lord British and the Falchion Beta look a lot like it...

Darius does indeed have a long I. I think it's modeled after older pronunciations, as English speakers are notoriously bad at getting foreign names right; see also Caesar.

Aleste is not some French E or whatever, but really a short A. Or, I guess, more like this without the R ending. Presumably the series was named after that concept. There's a theory that this was meant as a nod to a gohei with its jagged design and such. Games like Aleste Gaiden, Musha Aleste, the first Spriggan, and Dennin Aleste sure steer the theory in that direction too...

Somewhat related: the R in R-Type was always supposed to be short for Ray. This refers to all the laser-like main weapons. Delta even uses this term explicitly; check the end of stage results screens.

Also somewhat related: As we all know, Ray Force has a billion names. One of these is Gunlock, the name of the European arcade release. Another is Layer Section, the original name for the Japanese Saturn ports of Ray Force and Ray Storm. Turns out these were names considered in development of the original game, and weren't created after the thought. If I remember right, Layer Section was gonna be the Japanese name and Gunlock would be the export name.