Square's monster sources

[AngryTurnip]

I think I've found one of Square's primary sources for FF3j's monsters: The Book of Imaginary Beings by Jorge Luis Borges. Both the book and game contain the following monsters (not counting the oens carried over from FF1 and 2):

Abtu, Acheron, Anet, Azriel, Barometz, Burak, Crabuncle (debatable), Catoblepas, Cerberus, Chronus, Crocotta, Eater (well, the book mentions "the eater of the dead", could be conected), Garuda, Griffon, Haniel, Harpy, Haokah, Humbaba, Jinn, Lemure, Mandrake, Mermecolion, Remora, Rukh, Simurgh, Scylla, Uroboros.

Well, okay, it's really not surprising that some famous monsters such as the griffon or cerberus would appear in both, but what are the chances of Haokah, Humbaba and other obscurities overlapping?

The problem with the theory is that I don't believe that any foreign-language textbooks are translated into English unless they're really ground-breaking, so I'm guessing that it'd be the same for Japan. Still, maybe someone at Square read a Japanese book that borrowed a bit from this one.

Or maybe I'm just seeing what I want to see.

[Flying Mullet]

Well it's well-known fact that Square gets the names for a lot of its critters, item, weapons, armor, etc... from Norse, Greek and Roman mythology along with other religions such as Hinduism.

So it's just coincidence that Square likes using ancient names for things and that another guy wrote a book about ancient things coming from these religions.

[AngryTurnip]

But Square's character designers would have had have learnt about the monsters from books, and this could have been one of them if it was translated into Japanese. A lot of these names aren't the most obvious choices for monsters (Haniel, for example, is an angel of love).

Later on in FF3j there are a load of monsters with mythological names (Thor, Burak etc.) that don't look anything like their namesakes - Haniel is now a set of three tentacles, for example. Unless the guys creating these monsters were mythology nuts who had memorised a ton of creatures, they probably wouldn't have had such a diverse set of names at their disposal unless they had a couple of encyclopedias of mythical creatures like this at their disposal.

That said, this probably IS just a coincidence, but you've got to admit that it's a pretty hefty one...

[black orb]

>>> Besides of their original "creature" creations, I think Square borrow everything from everywhere..

[Stayin Dizzy]

I totally agree. Its a fantasy RPG. Thus the title Final Fantasy fits. It would make a lot more sense to put mythological, and fantasy type creatures in the game. Not to mention that coming up with names for thousands of monsters in thousands of games, and still having them sound like names instead of reading

ucvjxkdig9r8e7c (HP 10000, str, 200,....etc)

[Black Mage]

Humbaba is from the epic Gilgamesh. Gilgamesh and Enkidu killed Humbaba, the guardian of the Great Cedar Forest, near Uruk.

Haokah is the Thunder god of the Sioux Indians.

I find it highly unlikely that Squaresoft used that particular book for any of the names, as most, if not all of the names in that book are taken from myths and legends of old.

[DJZen]

Square also borrowed some from Tolkien and quite a bit from D&D.

[Daventhalas]

But Tolkien and D&D came up with new variants for the most part, rather then new ideas.


Hell, I believe most things are borrowed from somewhere else.

[eestlinc]

except Raistlin xD

that book, along with tolkien, D&D, etc allcome from various ancient mythologies.