It gets abstract debating names and realism. I'm an amateur writer myself, so I've some mind on this, but mostly it's mixed feelings. I haven't played Taming Dreams or watched much of it, but I agree with your sentiment on flowery dialogue. I like dialogue where people talk "normally", with occasional exceptions to emphasize certain oddities.
I have divine characters that talk with bourgeois vocabulary, and a Wizard that inexplicably always talks in rhymes, even when having mundane conversations:
"Two things," he said. "A compass ring, and shoes with wings." [...] "The Compass Ring will point you to Somar, the Pegasus Shoes will carry you in a blur."
It's strange, and I just HAD to have the other characters acknowledge how strange it was (both characters here are divine beings):
She chuckled. "Y'know, I've been eavesdropping on your quarrel, and I have to ask, do you *have* to rhyme *everything* you say? Were you cursed to sound imperious? So you'd be ostracized?"
"A word that flies dies. Forced reprises make the words wise."
"Orange!" she shouted, "Orange, orange!"
"Trying to destabilize me, is it on what you hinge? At this rate, you'll barely mobilize me."
She burst out laughing. "How do you do that!?"
And I kinda like that, although it's definitely on the fringes. My point? Uh... I guess I agree, maybe, it depends. Full realism is almost always bad or impossible, and voluntary excess in irrealism can be interesting.
Most things tend to have roots that are transformed variations of a word, or words, in some other language. Latin and English are just the most obvious ones when we think of this, and by being more obvious, they usually have a more "fairy-tale" or "new age" feeling, I find. I also know the sound "k" is usually the most memorable sound, but it also feels more gritty, like "r". "Orc", "Mordor" I actually found it more difficult than expected to find examples, oh well. Maybe the resistance to terms like "Divine Dreams" is that it just evokes such a radically different area of ideas than the typical D&D concepts (war and blood, black magic and barbarity). Divine Dream is spelled with D and D as well... but it evokes to me more things like souls, fate, predestination, emotions, inner energy. It's very different, and the appeal will be different too, but because it's artistically aligned with what Divine Dreams is, I think it's fine.
It's difficult to find objectivity in art, but I think consistency is at least one where we can agree with (unless the inconsistency is for effect, in which case... waaaaaaaahhhh).
4
JohnnyBoi45~4Y
I love those dialogue examples! They're really quite fun. I agree that "full realism" is often ill-fated. You bring up an interesting point about the phonetics of "Divine Dreams." I personally have no problem with that as a title, but it does make me think a bit about other names like Gemsand, Honeyblood, Fathom, etc, which also use those softer consonants. In my latest reply to Tobias I recognized that there's truly no issue with any of these names from a "realism" standpoint, so any remaining issue I have with them is basically "I don't like how this sounds," which is subjective. At this point, the only thing left to say is that I hope Tobias recognizes how some of these names might come off, not just to nostalgia-riddled players of the original Mardek, but new fans who might see Anvilicious [LINK] names such as "Heropolis" or "Godsbod" and judge the game poorly based on that. It seems small, but these surface-level details can make a big difference to an outsider.
2
Tama_Yoshi82~4Y
I don't know about you, but when I read Heropolis, I immediately thought about the Mighty Heroes, which were absolutely on the nose. "Gosh, they were so arrogant, they named a city after themselves." If that were the case, wouldn't it be pretty appropriate? :P
2
JohnnyBoi45~4Y
I actually mentioned this in a different comment! I had forgotten that Heropolis is now the capital of the "Bold" race, so it actually could be appropriate if that's how they are personality-wise.
I have divine characters that talk with bourgeois vocabulary, and a Wizard that inexplicably always talks in rhymes, even when having mundane conversations:
"Two things," he said. "A compass ring, and shoes with wings." [...] "The Compass Ring will point you to Somar, the Pegasus Shoes will carry you in a blur."
It's strange, and I just HAD to have the other characters acknowledge how strange it was (both characters here are divine beings):
She chuckled. "Y'know, I've been eavesdropping on your quarrel, and I have to ask, do you *have* to rhyme *everything* you say? Were you cursed to sound imperious? So you'd be ostracized?"
"A word that flies dies. Forced reprises make the words wise."
"Orange!" she shouted, "Orange, orange!"
"Trying to destabilize me, is it on what you hinge? At this rate, you'll barely mobilize me."
She burst out laughing. "How do you do that!?"
And I kinda like that, although it's definitely on the fringes. My point? Uh... I guess I agree, maybe, it depends. Full realism is almost always bad or impossible, and voluntary excess in irrealism can be interesting.
Most things tend to have roots that are transformed variations of a word, or words, in some other language. Latin and English are just the most obvious ones when we think of this, and by being more obvious, they usually have a more "fairy-tale" or "new age" feeling, I find. I also know the sound "k" is usually the most memorable sound, but it also feels more gritty, like "r". "Orc", "Mordor" I actually found it more difficult than expected to find examples, oh well. Maybe the resistance to terms like "Divine Dreams" is that it just evokes such a radically different area of ideas than the typical D&D concepts (war and blood, black magic and barbarity). Divine Dream is spelled with D and D as well... but it evokes to me more things like souls, fate, predestination, emotions, inner energy. It's very different, and the appeal will be different too, but because it's artistically aligned with what Divine Dreams is, I think it's fine.
It's difficult to find objectivity in art, but I think consistency is at least one where we can agree with (unless the inconsistency is for effect, in which case... waaaaaaaahhhh).