As I was playing Persona games, I was always curious about the meaning and the origin of Skill names used in Megami Tensei series. It uses a specific terminology that is unique to the franchise and is used in all main titles of Megami Tensei and it's Spin-offs.
Megami Tensei uses weird skill names that need explanation of their effects unlike popular JRPGs series which uses skill names intuitively indicative of their nature. Final Fantasy for example uses Fire, Blizzard and Thunder and adds "a" for second tier skills (Fira, Blizzara.) Third tier adds "ga," and so on. It's easy to know the element of each skill from the name alone without reading the description... Skills of Megami Tensei like Agi, Bufu, Garu & Zio, feel random in comparison...
So I've done a small research on the meaning behind Megami Tensei's skill names, and I believe I found a satisfying answer.
Most of the magic names are taken from the names of deities and figures (usually from Hindu beliefs or the Greek mythology) related to the element/effect of the skill. Megami Tensei franchise is based on myths/religions and it makes sense for the skill names to be based on that.
Elemental Magic
The four traditional elements of Megami Tensei are Fire, Ice, Electricity and Wind. There are also Light and Dark elements, and depending on the game there are additional elements. For example Persona 5 adds Psychosis and Nuclear elements.
The basic Fire Magic in Megami Tensei is: Agi. The name seems to be based on Agni a Hindu God of fire and sacrifice.
Basic Ice Skill is: Bufu. It seems to be a shorter of a Sanskirt (old Hindu language) phrase (which is bRhattuhinazarkara, I can't pronounce that,) and it means Lumps of Ice.
The electricity basic skill is called: Zio. Which is another name for Tyr the god of thunder in Nordic mythology... I think Zio can also be based on Zeus the God of thunder in Greek Mythology. Fitting, because Zio is basically a thunder attack!
The basic skill for Wind is: Garu. It's most likely based on Garuda, a Hindu deity often illustrated as a bird/human hybrid. It represents violence and speed and it fits being a wind attack. (Some Megami Tensei name the Wind attack Zan but I didn't have info about that one.)
Healing Magic
There are many skills for healing, buffing and nerfing. Buffing in Megami Tensei franchise works and it's essential to beat certain foes.
The basic healing magic in the franchise is: Dia. The name could be based on few sources but it seems to be either the name of one of Zeus lovers or Dia Greine the Sun goddess in Nordic mythology. There are a lot of possible meanings for pDia, even the wikipedia page](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dia_(mythology)) for it isn't short.
The revival magic is: Recarm. Which is obviously based on Reincarnation. It's very fitting for a magic that revives KO'ed party members.
Second & Third Tier
Every magic skill in Megami Tensei has a version that attacks/heals multiple target. These versions add the "Ma-" prefix to the skill's name. Ma is probably taken from "Maha" which means Great in Hindu.
So Mabufu attacks all enemies with Ice Magic. There are also variations of this prefix as in the Fire Magic Maragi and the healing Media.
All the basic Magic skills have a second tier which adds the "-rama" suffix. Rama is another name for the Hindu god Vishnu. I don't understand why this was chosen Diarama is a stronger healing magic than Dia. Rama suffix also has variations like the la in skills like Bufula.
As for the third tier. There's -dyne suffix which means Power... Agidyne, Bufudyne, Garudyne and Ziodyne are the strongest skills of the basic magic of each element respectively.
Other Magic Attacks
The insta-kill skills Hama and Mudo are Japanese words. The former is a type of exorcism in Shinto and the latter means Curse. They work as the light and dark elements and both magic skills have second and third tiers like other elemental magic.
Many of the max level magic are based on Events or Locations with religious significance. The strongest Ice skill is Niflheim which is a realm of Ice that's covered in mist in the Norse mythology.
Megiddo is the origin word for Armageddon which is a mountain in and is significant in Christianity as the place where the final battle between good and evil will happen. This
Conclusion
While writing this article I noticed that most of the skill names are based on Sanskirt/Hindu or Greek languages and religions. I think it's weird but cool for them to name magic attacks over this.
There are a lot of skills that I haven't found the meaning or the origin of their names but even with these small list I learned a lot and the Magic in Megami Tensei makes more sense now. I still wish I found something about the buff/debuff skills though.
What do you think?
Do you like (Shin) Megami Tensei franchise? Do you favour Persona more like me? What do you think about the skill names? Did you learn anything from this article. Please tell me so in comments!
Cover image is taken from here. Second image from this video. Third image is from SMT IV Apocalypse. Last image is taken from this SMT: Nocturne's LP.
Sources: This YouTube video and this thread.
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