Comment on Anon makes games
rumschlumpel@feddit.org 1 week agoWait, they call it “rupee” but it somehow doesn’t relate to the currency of the most populous state in the world, whose currency is literally called “rupee”, which is etymologically related to silver, not ruby?
sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works 6 days ago
And it makes sense since Japanese doesn’t have a “B” sound and they look like gems, so ruby -> rupee makes a ton of sense.
rumschlumpel@feddit.org 6 days ago
Or they could have gone with the actual japanese word for ruby instead of picking one that sounds identical to a real-world currency that is not gem-based.
sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works 6 days ago
There isn’t a native word AFAICT, it’s a loan word. But taking real things and making a slight change to be something new is pretty common for games. For example, final fantasy uses “Gil,” which is abbreviated “G” and probably comes from “gold” (gil - > gold is a pretty easy jump), though the in-game explanation is different (name of in-game ruling family).
I think it’s highly likely Miyamoto didn’t know about the Indian rupee.