[Guest]

Unfortunately Imagine makes it very difficult to coordinate play, and especially difficult to register new klan members.

We play regularly (our activity icons are fully lit) but the odds of someone noticing a post like this and you being online when they do, and they happening to be logging into Imagine is pretty slim.

If you did not dig back to the last klan advert in the 3rdHome terminal, I encourage you to look all the way back. In the meantime it will be a while until the master will be able to get back to 3rdHome to make a new recruitment poster.

When we make the new klan, I will either have to setup a Master account just to sit in 3rd Home by the terminal, or we will have to make it Shinjuku based.

Increasingly as the game evolves its hard for any master to hang around 3rd Home (the beginner area)

Please don't blame us for difficulties -- feel free to blame the game! On the other hand, the klan really sucks, so I recommend you either join another klan or wait a little while -- an while your at it, make sure you really wanna play Imagine. Because so far players from this forum haven't demonstrated any follow through.

Of course whenever I login I will check if you are online!

On the plus side, I think we are setting up an IRC channel where all the klans can gather. Once the new wiki is up, we'll setup an irc page with a javascript applet for accessing the channel. In the meantime I'll let everyone know when the channel is setup in this thread (and most likely in a new thread)

The Megaten community always seems to suffer from people who have the gumption to create a fansite, but lack the committment to see it through day to day.

On the other hand, afaik Jose was just in the position to save the site from certain death, so you shouldn't lean on his case too much if you can help it.

PS: Just nitpicking as long as everyone is in reformation mode. How come there isn't a link to the main site from the BBS? Shouldn't the banner go to the main site? And is the guy in the grey suit up there really doing it for anyone? Couldn't he be airbrushed out of the graphic in the spirit of generic-ness (my sentiments if there is a fan fiction artist somewhere out there weeping atm)

Is desert4gecko96 your char name btw? A name like that doesn't exactly inspire confidence in a players committment to hte game!

[Hakamada]

I noticed a new hairstyle yesterday which must be pretty rare. It looks like it was an exclusive style for a while called Hakamada

Does Hakamada ring a bell with anyone? Maybe the nemesis from If?

I don't think its been long enough for the recruitment advert to expire, but atm the Master is too far from 3rd Home to renew it, and will be for a while likely. I will check for you when I'm online, but all the people recruited in this thread never login, so for now the DDDB klan is pretty much defunct. The founding members login regularly, but we are so disappointed with the turnout here, we will probably reconstitute the klan sometime not too long from now after we figure out where the wiki will be hosted. Probably as DBDB, because the user base here just doesn't participate!

One member I've seen on occasion even left the other day for greener pasture. The whole klan should commit seppuku at this point. The shame is unbearable.

[s]

Let's face it, this community is looking pretty dead on its legs. The administration is non-responsive -- fine for what it is, but no good for coordination with outworlders...

I've looked into different places to host a wiki. Wikidot looks really cool, but still has some room to grow. I've made a request with Wikia, but if they don't permit access to the install filetree, I would really rather not (update: they did not)

In any case, once we do find an ameniable situation, I think the new space will be called DBDB, and the klan started here will be reconstituted thusly. DBDB for Devil Busters Database, or just plain-old plural Devil Busters if you understand the quirky way Japanese creates plural words by repeating them twice.

So if Wikia doesn't work out. If anyone wants to step up and lend a host/install and give us full access/admin privileges, we'll be happy to work with you!

I'm sorry, but I've just lost all faith in this community after so long in its midst.


We should also have cooperation from other large klans in the effort. But I want to keep the DDDB klan concept together for all newcomers.


editted: I guess it would be cooler to have a unique user base. As opposed to sharing usernames with every wiki in a massive cluster of wikis!

Chronologically that means you don't kill him I guess :)

Its just a clever boss munster. Where is he fought btw? I remember him I think, but it couldn't have been in one of the towers, unless it was a mid-boss. And which tower was it with the dominatrix milk boarding Taro scene?

editted: Was he fought in the cafeteria at some point just after unlocking the SQQ?

Wow, that is really easily disturbed :)

This is the transformation GIF, should anyone want it.

Didn't do that yourself did ya? Are you working out those MIP gifs btw?

And don't forget, afaik every Super Famicom Jakyou was flanked by two saluting penii of varying design. If that tradition followed into SMT3 or any other game, I want screenshots :)

Sounds like you missed one in Nemesis. I played through Nemesis, and didn't receive one, which I have no idea why I did not, and neither could anyone or online guide explain why :(

editted: Also somehow I bungled my savegames so I pretty much just had to give up on that play through! I've had a bitter reaction to the thought of the SQQ ever since.

Sorry, this thread was duplicated erroneously. Please delete!

Also, other than bitching and nagging about purity! I plan to personally work on NPC dialog translation -- focusing foremost for now on episodes.

We will need help collecting cropped screenshots of the ingame dialog bubbles however. I probably have help with the episode dialogs, but anyone can help with side quests and static NPCs.

*Also some story arcs will be unavailable to us, so if you wanna help with that, check the wiki once we get started to see if we are missing anything you are in a position to provide along your way through the game (Hopefully a main page will be up soon)

The wiki has so far been slow in getting off the ground.

We have a mystery stranger with considerable experience who has volunteered to get the effort rolling who has yet to register afaik. If you have experience with wiki markup, please raise your hand, otherwise afaik we are all babes going in.

I've been asked to request the admin (is sysop the appropriate title?) to pre-install the Parser Functions which are supported by the brand of wiki so far installed. I apologize, but I can't really offer anymore helpful info atm.

We have spoke a little bit behind the scenes about what direction to take everything in.

Personally I feel very strongly localized games should not be used as primary sources, nor should popular culture be a definitive factor in resolving ambiguities.

Translation wise, Imagine is a Megaten game, which means it is set in Japan. So it is more appropriate I think to use Japanese words for proper names where complex concepts cannot be represented in a single English word. For example, 魔石, a classic figment of the Megaten universe, would by these terms be translated as "maseki", as opposed to 'magic stone' or whatever invention/convention might be employed by any given localization.

In general I'm prescribing a philosophy generally as respectful as possible of the original, similar to Remiel's SMT faqs/translations or high quality treatment of subtitled anime.

The demon races should be treated as proper names based on Romanji transposititons of the race names. However any spelling which might be misconstrued by or redundant to English speakers should be avoided, so some minor modulations have been facilitated.

Law
Majin MA ・魔神
Megami ME ・女神
Amatsugami AM ・天津神
Jashin JA ・邪神
Youma YM ・妖魔
Daitenshi DT ・大天使
Tenshi TS ・天使
Reicho RC ・霊鳥
Youcho YC ・妖鳥
Kyocho KC ・凶鳥
Chirei CR ・地霊
Jaki JK ・邪鬼
   

Neutral
Shinugami SG ・死神
Genma GM ・幻魔
Yama YA ・夜魔
Yousei YS ・妖精
RyuOh RO ・龍王
Shinjuu NJ ・神獣
Seijuu SJ ・聖獣
Majuu MJ ・魔獣
Youjuu YJ ・妖獣
Seirei SR ・精霊
   

Chaos
Kishin KS ・鬼神
Kunitsugami KU ・国津神
Jiboshin JB ・地母神
MaOh MO ・魔王
Datenshi DA ・堕天使
Ryujin RJ ・龍神
Jaryu JR ・邪龍
Kijou KJ ・鬼女
Youki YK ・妖鬼
Yuuki YU ・幽鬼
Gedo GD ・外道

The two character codes are abbreviations afforded people who just feel more comfortable with English characters. They should always appear in concert with Japanese characters. In general essential Japanese information should flow from the right, and English from the left.

The abbreviations would also be used for fusion charts, however a seperate kanji chart should always be available, as for many players the kanji  contain much more information and are much more recognizable than the abbreviations*

*editted: Or both could be combined thus:

M魔
A神

Also a demons name should always be preceeded by the race in full or abbreviated form.

Also 'demon' should be used in place of 悪魔 (akuma) and 'devil' should be used in place of デヴィル. Also, nakama (中魔) should always be used to refer to in party devils.

*Devil and Demon are not necessarily interchangable. Devil is a more personal term like Pokemon which denotes affection. Demon is a more general term which is better applied to hostiles. Devils plural denotes either a the full set of collectible nakama, or a players entire nakama stock. The word Devil should not be used in general, as in the states especially, "The Devil" has the connotation of pure "evil" etcetera -- Similarly the term Klan is closely tied to the KluKluxKlan(KKK), but that is perhaps unavoidable. Perhaps "klan" should always be written as Klan® (Perhaps Devil® should be written this way as well)


On demon names. Again localized games are not primary sources. Many demons have many names in many different languages attributed to them, many of which do not map well to the English tongue. In general, the original culture should be consulted first. If the title is ambiguous in one way or another respellings closer to the original should be consulted in that order.

For example, Keruberosu originates from the Greek Kerberos. Later the latin articulation Cerberus was attributed to this figure. Therefore by these terms we would adopt Kerberos as the Devil's name.

On the otherhand, by these same rules, Odin becomes Woden which predates the Norse adoption of Odin by serveral centuries. Woden has the same general physical characteristics of Odin, even though the Norse did appropriate Woden as a more prominent Deity (the chief of their pantheon)

Personally I have no problem with Woden. But I can understand if parties would like to rip into these distinctions. The point is however, for the point of the wiki, there must be one singular title for each demon which will be used wiki wide (other than the games kananized title which should always be nearby)

However similarly Valkyrie becomes Valkyrur and  afaik Valkyrur is unique to Norse mythology. And Imagine places these demons in a special effects group called Asgard. So again there is a fair argument for the title Odin over Woden. So as you can see, there are several factors which much be weighed in each consideration, and everyone will just have to collectively reach a conclusion regarding what trumps what in each case.

Finally I don't personally think Imagine itself should necessarily be the ultimate authority when cataloging these demons into English, as Imagine is largely based on a uniquely Japanese tradition of these largely foreign mythological figures, and often the kananized names of Megaten have little relationship at all to any source!

*When we get into mainland Asian mythologies these sorts of can become even more perplexing. I don't think the right reaction is to shrink inline with localized titles or literal interpretations of kana.