Guidelines:Article Naming

The article naming policy of Megami Tensei Wiki defines how articles should be named on the site. As a result of the Megami Tensei franchise's large and varied history with media naming and localization, the naming policy is designed to keep page names consistent with one another while respecting localization choices where possible.

General

Stylization

In order to ensure that articles can easily be found where readers expect to find them, stylization of names and media titles; such as the use of dashes, lowercase subtitles, or having words entirely capitalized, should be avoided. These should instead be replaced with colons, as is common in English titles. As one example, Persona -trinity soul- is instead listed as Persona: Trinity Soul. The stylization of a subject's name or title can be noted in the article's lede instead.

Colons are also used generally for subtitles, such as in the case of Persona 4: The Magician.

Localization

As several brand names have been used for the franchise in localization over the years, localized titles of games and other media have a specific set of criteria to be used on the wiki, with the original Japanese titles often being preferred. These criteria are:

The title must not make a false statement about the installment within its series, such as the inclusion or exclusion of a numerical within the title. Under this rule, Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne becomes its Japanese title, Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne, as the localized title inconsistently omits the numerical. The opposite is true for Devil Summoner 2: Raidou Kuzunoha vs. King Abaddon, which becomes Devil Summoner: Raidou Kuzunoha vs. King Abaddon, as the localized title inconsistently adds a numerical to the game's title.

The localized title must also not include a series name that was not present in the Japanese title. Under this rule, Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 3 becomes just Persona 3.

The title must also not be inconsistent with the rest of its series, even if the majority of the series was not localized. Under this rule, DemiKids becomes Devil Children in all instances, as most of the other titles used on the wiki for the series will be under that name. Likewise, games that were localized under the Revelations series title retain their original Japanese names; Revelations: Persona becomes Megami Ibunroku Persona, and Revelations: The Demon Slayer becomes Last Bible.

If no localized title exists for a specific media, the title should remain untranslated in its original language. Sometimes, part of a title will be officially localized in English, such as the Shin Digital Devil Story books, which have New Digital Devil Story as an official translation. In these cases, the official translation of the title can be used, while the rest of the title is left untranslated, such as in the case of New Digital Devil Story 2: Hyōkai no Joō. Transcribed words in titles can also be used natively where applicable.

Localized titles should still redirect to the target page.

Discriminators

If two articles share the same target name, at least one of them will need to be given a discriminator in parentheses so as to differentiate them. In cases where three or more pages all share the target name, a disambiguation page may be necessary to accommodate for them all. In most cases however, the most commonly sought subject will take priority in the mainspace while the secondary subject is given a discriminator. The discriminator should reflect the subject's topic (Demon, Character, etc.) or otherwise the title of its source media. For examples: Fairy (Demon) is given the discriminator of (Demon) to specify the page's subject and to distinguish it from the Fairy Race page. Joker (Ronde) has the discriminator of the subject's media source to indicate that it is a character specifically from Ronde and to differentiate from other characters also named Joker.

For media titles, the discriminator should be of the media type, such as (Game) or (Manga). If two media share a title and are of the same type, the discriminator should instead be the name of the media's publisher, such as in the case of Digital Devil Story: Megami Tensei (Telenet). If one of the media in question acts as a source for other material published under the same name, it should not require a discriminator, as is the case for Persona 5. Priority is given to video games over other types of media.

Page Types

Characters

Characters should have their article titles arranged in the western name reading order in all instances. I.e. Ren Amamiya should be used instead of Amamiya Ren.

Formal titles, such as king or commander, should not be included in the character's article title.

Demons

In most cases, Demons, Personas, and Shadows should use their most recent or standardized localized name as their article title, where available. Under this criteria, Jack-o'-Lantern is used over the demon's older localized name Pyro Jack. All other names should redirect to the target page. For pages that list demons, such as Demon Listings and Race or Arcana pages, these should link back to the target page using the names as they appear in that specific media.

Some Demons, however, are inconsistently translated even in recent localizations; such as the case with Feng Huang who is sometimes mistranslated as Phoenix, and Zhuque who in past localizations has been called Feng Huang. In cases such as these, the wiki should use the Demon's name from its culture of origin or otherwise a direct translation of its Japanese name used in media. Under this rule, both Feng Huang and Zhuque use their origin names on the wiki (with the localization's spellings of these names). Demon Listings should still link back to these pages using the in-game localized names.