#berry brambles

In Tales of Berseria, Laphicet copies one of Arthur's book to exchange it for a comb to give to Velvet. Additionally, Arthur also gives Velvet Celica's comb as a gift in the Tales of Berseria novella, A Witch's Tale: A World Full of Daemons.

If you studied Japanese it's probably not a good idea to give a comb to someone as a gift. The reason for that is due to the fact it's a homonym of suffer and die.

Comb in Japanese is 櫛 (くし) or kushi in romanization which is a homonym for

苦死

苦 (く) [ku] - pain, suffer, anguish

死 (し) [shi] - death

Throughout the narrative, the comb served as memory of Velvet deceased brother Laphicet, as well as her late sister Celica (in the novella). However, it could also be a foreshadowing of Velvet’s grim future from the time she was given the comb. Towards the end of the game, that comb breaking could possibly represent moving on from that grief or breaking away from her continuous suffering.

I always wondered why did the English Version change Moana's name to Kamoana?

What does Kamoana mean?

Moana in Hawaiian as well as other polynesian languages translates to "ocean". Ka [ along with Ke ] is used at the beginning translates to "the" which is an article in the Hawaiian language. Any word that starts with Ka or Ke basically means "the ___" hence Kamoana literary means "The Ocean".

It shouldn't change the meaning of the name but Moana would still be more popular in use. There are "Ka" Hawaiian names that are more common like Kaleo and Kainoa.

Why did they use Ka after Moana?

Moana is the heiress of her mother Mahina who is priestess of the Water Empyrean Amenochi. The usage of "Ka" could relate to Kamoana being in a role equivalent to royalty. For instance in Hawaii there was royalty such as Kaʻiulani, Kamehameha, Kalākaua or Kalani. [ note: it's not limited to Ka for Hawaiian royalty although it was more frequent there was also Liliʻuokalani and Lunalilo as well ]

Ka could also be a reference to the word Kahuna. Kahuna is a "a general name applied to such persons as have a trade, an art, or who practice some profession" (Lorrin Andrews Hawaiian Dictionary 1865).

"Kahuna...suggests more of the professional relation of the priest to the community " (J.S. Emerson). In the context of Berseria, Mahina's role as Kahuna can apply as being a Kahunapule [ which means priest ] or a Kahuna pule wahine [ or priestess ] or a Kahuna po'o [ high priest ] according to Ulukau dictionary.

Does "Ka" fit for Moana?

Although Moana is more common to use, Kamoana can work because it still does retain the meaning of her name. It can also work as having a connection to royalty or being equivalent to royalty. From what I've learned it would have been fitting if the english version had made usage of the articles with Mahina's name rather than Moana's name, at least in the context of referencing it to being a Kahuna.

References:

https://www.huna.org/html/kahuna.html

I love their eyebrows!!