DS Daily: Please enter your name

by Chris Greenhough on Aug 30th 2008 10:30AM

When you're playing a fantasy adventure game or RPG such as, say, Zelda or Etrian Odyssey, what do you call your character? Do you have a single pseudonym you use for all games, do you have several, or do you tap in your own name? Whenever I play a Zelda title, I use "Link," for three reasons:

I am horribly unimaginative.
I want to play the game as the creators intended, and in my head, using "Link" somehow achieves that goal.
"Chris" just doesn't fit very well into the Zelda universe, does it? It's not very Zelda-y.

Maybe you're really lucky and have a name that is both yours and really suitable for a fantasy setting. Maybe you're called Zagaroth or something. Any Zagaroths out there?

Reader Comments (96)

First?? Anyway, Genicus works for me, all the time.

^ That one, or a variation, pretty much anytime I am online or in a game. If others think it's weird, meh. I sometimes come up with a reason why my character is named that. :P

My characters in Zelda are called NOP, because when the original Legend of Zelda first came out way back, my friend and I just wanted to play and didn't want to figure out a name, so we hit the N and then just did O and P next to it.

All other characters are always their in-game names if they have one, or Fred if they don't.

I always name the hero in Zelda Link, except in Link to the Past. I usually name him "dmmy;", which is what my friend and I got hitting random letters when we were little.

Other than that, my hero is usually named Matt, my real name.

I was actually taken aback the first time I started playing a Zelda game, put in my name and started having the NPCs talk to me. It felt like one of those personalized storybooks they had for kids back in the 70's (I'm sure they have them now too but I was a kid in the 70's.)

So I use Link. And I think if I ever run into another game that uses the name I choose in the in-game dialogue, I'll still use Link, even if it has nothing to do with Zelda. I'm unimaginative that way.

I use my own name.

Can occasionally feel weird, as my head still refers to the little blonde dude in green as 'link' but yeah.

I only change one character: the L becomes a P. It's funny to see everyone call him Pink.

My friend always names the lead character after himself, and all the other characters after his friends, including me. I think that's weird.

With Zelda and Final Fantasy, I tend to use the original hero names. For everything else, though, it's usually Elle or Cain.

Russell or Russ seems to fit very well into the Zelda universe. in fact, wasn't one of the characters in twilight princess named Rusl?

My characters in Etrian Odyssey are named:
Medic
DarkHunt
Ronin
Landsckt
Survivor
Protectr
Beast
Alchemst
Hexer
Gunner
and Bard (just to be different)

Oops, forgot:
War Mage
:)

You're not even trying, are you? :)

I just type in random combinations of letters and vowels that sound suitably unique, like Fala, Exarr, Kedli, Tequul, etc.

haha... same here, same here!!!
i also always use the name LINK whenever i play zelda. it will be the same as any other game, say for example your character is sonic and the game calls you something else that does not fit into the game's storyline. it will sound soo funny if i choose sonic and the game calls him by my name.... weird.

If I have the option to change names, I usually leave them. If I'm going to talk about a game with friends, I can't say, "And then [Insert name here] did this really cool attack!" and everyone's all, "Who the hell are you talking about?" But I see games more as a story that I'm not allowed to be in. :c So they all keep their original names, like in Golden Sun.

I did that when I first played Final Fantasy, I named Cloud as SAM(I was reading LotR at the time) and it just made things really confusing when I tried to talk about the game with my friend who introduced me to it because in my head everything happened to SAM not someone named Cloud.

HairyBalls or just Zach works for me.

For my games, i usually name all the characters after other characters from the same publisher. For ex., my clan in FFTactics is Zanarkand with Tidus as the main guy. Then for FFIII everyone has Kingdom Hearts names.

Well it might not be Zagaroth exactly...but I do tend to use my real name, Orie. It does indeed seem to fit in whatever universe I try to put it in, so I am content.

Also, "I want to play the game as the creators intended"? If changing the name wasn't what they intended, why put in the input box :P

It depends on the game.

If it's a game like Zelda, where the main character does have a name, I usually put Link, but that's for 1st games.

If it's a game like Pok�mon Mystery Dungeon where you are the main character, I just put my own name, RupeeClock. (Harry the Chikorita? Hell no.)

If it's a game that has no bearing on the username at all, like Super Mario RPG (save for a "password",) I just put whatever I might like, like Lucario maybe.

i named myne queer because its just so funny.

Online, roto13. Offline when naming characters, whatever their default names are. Offline when naming files, my real name.

If the game doesn't have the name(s) already in it, then I use link.

I usually use my name. It seems to work best.

I often use my own name (Kimiko) for game characters if they're female (which sadly is still rare), or the original if they're male. For Etrian Odyssey 1 and 2 I used my name for the Survivalist ('cause archers are cool) and made up names for the others.

for some reason I always call myself Johan in RPGs. my name is john so I added an a...maybe i was a brilliant composer in a previous life lol just kidding.

In TLOZ :OoT, I once named Link as "Mr. Bond".

Think about the dialog in that game. Now add "Mr. Bond" to it.

Exactly.

I lol'd.

I always use Texas, because that's my nickname in real life. I have a friend that named the horse in Twilight Princess "Yerpants"; that put an interesting spin on the dialogue.

well for me I usually stick to just one name, metici, it fits into just about any universe. and if I have to name other side characters. I leave them their original name.

In most games I just use "Shortbread" or my name if that wont fit.

However link gets the privilige of being called "I say!" it makes everyone speak like foghorn leghorn

I almost invariably go with the default name. I have a really dorky first name in real life, and it's never really suited any video game environment that requires a named character, with the exception of Pokemon. Yellow was my first real game and I used my own name in it, as I was young and really didn't see the virtue of a default name. Since then using my name has become more of a tradition in subsequent Pokemon games than something I do because it actually sounds good.

Iconic characters such as Link I always leave as Link. It's his official name and just feels so much a part of his character by now that the thought of changing it seems strange and unnatural.

Persona 3 really threw me a curveball when I first played it by being a game in which there is no default name but the player is forced to come up with one anyway. I eventually came up with something great...until I found out afterward that the entire game took place in Japan and I hadn't used a Japanese name. I'm not making the same mistake again come this December.

I put in Charlotte in those few games that support it. I put Char mostly, though. And in Final Fantasy, I leave the names as they are. You can't name a male Char after all. :)

unless it's charizard. :p

Is this some sort of running gag now?

If I play LoZ, I make the first file I play named Link. If I play through it twice or more, which I usually do, I name the second file James(my real name) and the other ones after Link.

I usually go with Psi for the Hero and Rho for the Heroine. Exept in the case of Link, who I name MAH BOI whenevr possible.

your link name made me lol
I might have to steal your idea next time I play a LoZ game ;)

Most of the time, it's my nickname: bull

For worms: Open Warfare( the only game I own that have many characters), I have a team of Hitler, Stalin, Bush, Bin Laden ... under my command.

For female characters, I use the default name or just any girl's I can think of.

that list made my day lol

I like Mario RPG, because you can name the save file without naming the character.

I have 3 different naming schemes I use, depending on whichever seems most entertaining at the time.

1) main character is Morose or one of my other assorted nicknames, other people keep the default names
2) whole cast gets names from a book I enjoy. The Hitch-hiker's Guide to the Galaxy is a frequent choice, with Zaphod as the hero.
3) if the game supports long enough names, I use favored spiritous beverages. Johnny Walker, Drambuie, Bacardi, etc.

I always call my Legend of Zelda characters "Thief".

I always name the Guy in Zelda Stink. :P

In Final Fantasy, It's usually the Default name.

In Pokemon, I usually name him some edible object, like Ketchup, or Bread.

Only one person so far makes up names for games with a big cast of characters? (Like Final Fantasy?) Making up names used to be my favorite part of RPGs as a kid -- they were the only console games that let you customize anything!

I use lots of names I've gotten used to over the years for fantasy games, like Talis, Arren, Alic (I used to think Alec was spelled that way), Derek, Dren (usually for orc characters), and Gareth.

Some of my favorite names though come from recently replaying a lot of the Final Fantasies with my girlfriend. She gets to come up with the names, for the most part.

In Final Fantasy 9,
The little black mage boy was Yulio,
The main character with the tail was Palique,
the princess was Coralyn,
and the little girl was Illium.
and I might have to check the save game for more.

I can't remember the names for 6 because we stopped a little before the floating continent, so we didn't play it as much. God I love that game. Still have to convince her to play Chrono Trigger.

The first Final Fantasy I played (VI) I named the entire cast after friends at the time. That was pretty confusing so after that I left the names at the default my first time through any game.

Final Fantasy VIII got particularly interesting one time as I even went so far as to think up creative names for each and every single one of the Guardian Forces. Names of pets, mostly, but that's a lot of names.

I also had a friend play through Wind Waker as "Spatula".

I used my first name for Ocarina and Majora but I used Link for TwiPri. Actually in every RPG I played when I was a kid, I used my first name. Now I just use the default name, because it fits the story.

i named the rival in pokemon gold ????
four question marks is what i named him.
otherwise i go for default

I tend to use the name given in RPG's and everything is is whatever i feel like

Alex is what I usually choose and it worked really well in Mario Tennis...

Otherwise I like to use:
Alexander - if it can fit within the character limit, it sounds a lot more fancy than just Alex .
Zeus - which might be a little over the top for most games.
Tevye - from Fiddler on the Roof, which is a good name for humble hero.

Then in games where you have a large number of characters (Disgaea), pets (Harvest Moon), small armies, or any large groups I like to theme all of my character names. Like names of sodas, cookies, candies, television station letters, each one starts with a different letter, and once I named every Pokemon I caught in the game Billy.

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DS Daily: Please enter your name

Reader Comments (96)

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