As many here will know, the Golia hunters and trackers have different names when fighting them and when viewed in the defeated enemy data.
In the defeated enemy data record for the Golia Tracker it says:
“Golia Trackers are similar to Golia Hunters, but instead of bounding through the forests, they fly above the trees, and search for victims.”
However, both the tracker and hunter fly above the trees. One hangs from a glider, the other sits on a floating device, as shown here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VlEYA3OCoX4)
Is there any reason to believe that one of these forms is the Tracker rather than the other?
Interestingly, this monster is called Hanuman in the Panzer Dragoon Zwei guidebook. Perhaps there is a third type that stays below the forest (although presumably they are all the same species, Hanuman in the Japanese version, Golia in the English versions).
I’m guessing that the glider Golia is meant to be the Tracker, since the floating slab Golia only seems to hover just over the tops of the trees.
The “Hanuman” moniker comes from a Hindu deity. There are actually many instances of this when you start looking at the Japanese names of enemies.
Drenholm was the Nrisimha (Narasimha), the Behemoth was Vritra, the Deathmaker was Varaha. There are others, as well, but as for WHY?
Shrug.
Interesting. The lathum is named Zeus too. Maybe Team Andromeda were just interested in religion.
I?d say the hunter is the one that hangs from the black automaton-thing (the latter itself being something I always wonder about), given that the reference to bounding through forests may not make sense in the context of Saga but does when it?s extended to Zwei, whose Golia uses the same kind of craft to fly from Lundi?s village to the forest, before dropping down and?? bounding through the forest! Logical?
There seems to be something to that theory, Ancient Weapon. If I create an encyclopedia entry on the golias (one big entry for all the types), I’ll include a screenshot of the golia in Zwei’s first episode and mention this take on the golia names.
Glad I can contribute in some (minute) way! But the entire thing is confusing and lacking sense. I suppose my suggestion might be considered fairly logical, or rather the least illogical option, for the reason that it at least draws on previous canon to choose the name. No Golia runs beneath the canopy in Saga, but a previous game has shown one doing so after using one of the black gliders. This assumes the gallery is more reliable, simply because its names are accompanied by text that provides any context, however inaccurate.
I just read the other day that Mel-Kava is a Kabbalah symbol (chariot of the gods).
I really need a new PDS playthrough (it’s been quite a while) and pay more attention to such things to see if there are any more interesting correlations.
That makes a lot of sense. It’s even called “God?s Carriage” in the game, and the audio track is called “Holy Chariot”.
Do you have a source for the Mel-Kava Kabbalah symbol? I couldn’t find anything on Google. It would be good to reference this in the encyclopaedia.
Some guy on youtube posted a comment mentioning it (obviously I meant to say chariot of god and not gods, in my previous post).
When I read the guy’s comment I realized Mel-Kava (the way it’s written in the english version of the game) seems to be an honest mistranslation of Merukaba. Since japanese don’t pronounce L’s they would have probably written it “Merukaba” if they wanted to say MelKava, but in this case they were actually probably referencing Merkabah, the chariot of God from Jewish mysticism; which…they would also have to say Merukaba, since just an R wouldn’t be a syllable, and japanese make that kind of approximation when using foreign words.
I just googled Merkaba and got this wikipedia entry - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merkabah_mysticism - and other stuff.
Thanks. I’ve added the following to the encyclopaedia entry for Mel-Kava:
“Paet informed Edge that Mel-Kava was also known as ?God?s Carriage?. It appears that Mel-Kava is based on the word Merkabah, which is a Hebrew word for chariot. When left untranslated, Merkabah refers to the throne-chariot of God, featured in the visions in Ezekiel chapter 1 of the Hebrew Bible.”
Sound okay?