Tenkai's Name, Do You Want To Name It Or Do You Want Konami To Name It

[CAPTAIN PLANET]

Yeah, it would make voice acting a bit easier. That's another reason why I'd want that.
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ard says:
I'll yank your pigtails and call you heidi
Mirage says:
ard, save the dirty talk for when we meet!

[AKUMA X]

i prefer konami naming the tenkai star
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"To challenge me is to respect chaos, and to respect death!" - Akuma

[ferrouslupusrex]

It's better if Konami provides an official name
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- 108 Soldiers, 1 for EVERY star.
Keynes' (Chapter 1 Hero) performing his kata

[Finfreeze]

While having Konami prechoose an official name while still allowing the player to manually input a name would be a nice touch, I fear that they'd go along the Final Fantasy X route with the voice acting. In other words, never actually mentioning the character's name in cutscenes. Ideally, the Star Ocean: Till the End of Time method of handling voices would be best: the default name would be spoken in cutscenes, but you still get to rename your characters.

In the end, I chose to make names preassigned. It would guarantee that the Tenkai's name would be actually spoken in dialogue, instead of the silence (SIV) and the overuse of "prince" (SV) found in previous games. Additionally, having an official name for the hero at the outset of the game's release makes it easier to refer to him in conversation between fans. And finally, the designers can use the name to add a certain feel to the character—maybe one that is symbolic in relation to future events or one that conveys a general emotion or temperament.

I suppose the real reason I chose option 2 is because I'm not confident that Konami would get it right, given the up-and-down nature of the games.

[Overdose]

I think it should be the same as always where they have a name and you can change it.

I also thought, would it not be cool to create the tenkai hero?

I mean the story could be set out already but you change more about them then just there voice. I think it would be interesting, having your own created character as the tenkai.
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"In the rain, I'm calling you dear, find my way, can't you see me standing right here" ~ I.V - X Japan

FOREVER X!!!

[Phamex]

For the purpose of voice acting I can see the benefit of having an official pre-chosen name. But there are so many ways to easily get around it, why bother? I like to be able to name the hero myself. Using Tonberry's example of FFX, I don't understand why they couldn't say his name if you didn't change it. Something that small doesn't seem like it'd be too terribly hard to program, but then again, I'm not a programmer so I could be wrong.
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[Ujitsuna]

[Ikano]

For voice acting purposes I'd rather they have a pre-chosen official name....otherwise I'd like them to have the option of choosing the official name or making up your own name for the character.

I rather don't like how they reveal the name in a novel or someplace later cuz for one- it's not technically official and all and secondly it's after the game comes out. I more often then not wouldd really like to stick with official name if I could...personally speaking....
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[Onimaru]

I'm of the school that I want an official name to go on for my playthrough, but am unwilling to give up the option to give the character/castle/army/whatever else my own goofy names - I like to keep to released material, but other may not enjoy the restrictions.

it still irks me that there's no official name for the Flame Champion. Everytime I get hyped up to fire up SIII that's always a big let down.
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[Ezekiel]

[Shabadoo]

I'm a fan of continuing the tradition of a player chosen name. However I can definitely understand the official name for the sake of voice acting but somehow it would just feel a little less Suikodenish if you weren't suppose to name your own character.

[HarmonianHiccup]

As has already been said a hundred times, for the sake of voice-acting it would be nice for Konami to assign an official name. However, the mostly-silent nameless hero has been a trademark of the Suikoden series and I (the old dog who can't learn new tricks) would be sad to see it change. I like the fact that Konami has released official names after the fact, though. I usually end up liking those names better than the ones I come up with, anyway. Though it did take me a really long time to get used to the name Lazlo for Hero IV, though...
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Proud Owner and Operator of The Hiccup's Speciality Grassland Atelier, the only place to find Electric Whiffle Bats!

[Elc]

I'm not particularly fussy about the whole name issue, but in the age of voice acting in RPGs, it certainly does result in some awkward dialogue moments. The lack of an official name can be a bit annoying, though, particularly in conversations with others and people passing off a name of their choosing as "official" just because a small number of players agreed to it.

My official vote would have to be "I'm not sure" since I can see the need for an official name to make voice acting flow more naturally, but the option to change it to something more to your liking is a good feature as well.
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"You make me smash the clock and feel, I'd rather die behind the wheel.
Time was never on my side, So on I wait my whole lifetime."

[Dragonstar13]

I prefer having an official name. It becomes kind of annoying calling them the hero, or prince all the time IMO. Plus, I like doing fanart and fanfics of Suikoden heroes. When they don't have names, it annoys me trying to label them as Suikohero5.
I know it gives the whole feel of the character being you, but I'm sick of them having no name. I was thrilled when S3 had names for all their characters. Well except the FC, but he had a minor role in the story.
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[Sami]

Minor role? But the new FC could later adopt that name.

Having no name is a must!

Thinking about what kind of a name to give to the hero at the beginning of the game is an important part of Suikoden, and something you can do even before you have the game. But eventually, it all comes down to that naming scene, with the classic music (preferably) playing, and the hero displayed before a blank space for his name. There can't be a default name anywhere in that screen, not ready, not through a button press. It would make choosing the default name an easy copout, and especially if it was already written out, it would feel "established" and the player might have difficulty changing it.

If the player wants to have an "official" name, there must be a challenge to it. Hidden in the manual, written in a novelization, or whispered off-hand in a developer's blog, just as long as it requires research, and is not offered readily in the game. That gives the player time to digest the name, filter it through, either accept or deny it, and on that all-important naming screen, make an independent decision without being swayed too much by what the "official" name is. It can turn out strange as well, as with Suikoden V, where the official name as given by King was thought to be Faroush, but the novel had Freyjadour. All this means that there is no official or correct name, at best even the most official names are just suggestions, and that's how it should be. Giving a default name would go way beyond a suggestion.