Looking for words commonly seen in video game menus, or dialogue, etc.
Right now i’m playing pokemon, and i’m also thinking about trying final fantasy, so i’d love some important words specifically for these games as well. Thanks!
Here’s some examples that i already know:
開始 = Start
設定 = Settings
勝負 = Match
進む = To continue
終了 = End
任務 = Mission/Task
魔物 = Monster
変更 = Change/Modification
相手 = Partner/Opponent
10 comments
not sure which FF you want but here is the script collection for FFIV
http://ff4com.s4.xrea.com/ff4conve/
You can see what kind of words they are using right there by reading it.
WARNING: Cid’s old-man-speak is a hazard!
someone had posted a spread sheet for fantasy vocab, it had like 400 words. Not sure how to find it anymore
To be honest, the best you can do is either use content that you like, or use vocabulary from specific work. While there is overlap in the same genre or similar genres, we are mostly talking about very big overlaps that include thousands of words and some are more popular in one, while others are more popular in another.
What works pretty well around N4-N3 stage, is simply to ditch any kind of intentional vocabulary learning and use content at least for 1-2 hours/day. You simply translate all unknown words, and grammar that you know is usually sufficient to understand what is going on in 9 out of 10 situations. You can do so for a very long time, like even 6-12 months will be fine. But after that depends a bit on what you like to do. If you primarily use the same genre and it doesn’t have huge variety, then typically you see huge improvements at first, like your reading speed will increase up to ~ 200 words/minute, you will translate less and even be able to understand many sentences without a dictionary at all and so on, but after that your progress usually slow downs a lot. And this is a stage when it’s good to bring intentional vocabulary learning back.
My personal approach is that if some word is common, then there is no meaning in using SRS for it, you will face it hundreds of times naturally. What is actually good to place into SRS are rare words. Something that you see like once in a year.
And before N4-N3 vocabulary is so common, that any kind of frequency list is going to work. Particles alone, there are like 100+.
Here’s a few off top my head to get you started, but honestly just making anki cards as you go is the best I think.
入る＝enter
でる＝leave
調べろ＝examine
かばん＝bag
はい=yes
いいえ=no
I remember seeing せってい in Pokemon and I thought it was an English loanword, from “settings”. And I wondered why hiragana and not katakana. Turns out it’s from Chinese and has nothing to do with English lol
I’m playing FFX right now and I just opened up the menus and translated all those words. So you’ll see stuff like 装備、召喚士、 攻撃 all the time and get familiar with it real quick. FFX is great btw because it’s voiced. Really enjoying it.
This is highly dependent on what kind of games you like, and also a lot of terms are just English borrowings (like you’re more likely to see セーブ and リセット than 保存 and 再開始, though both are possible).
Some more game-specific terms I can think of:
* ボス, ラスボス boss, final boss
* 雑魚キャラ weak regular enemies
* 面 stage
* 上書きする to overright
* クリア、突破、撃破 clear/beat
* 機 lives
* ロード、読み込む to load
Oh yeah Game Gengo has a database of game vocab and has an excellent series on youtube where he plays and translates games.
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1YxzcnaBZB_i1c8ohaM3fokLdCpWzk9CcY-mBn1hyVqU/edit#gid=0
有償、無償 if you play *those* kind of games 🙂
[100 Words You Need to Know to Play Pokemon in Japanese!](https://japanesetactics.com/100-words-you-need-to-know-to-play-pokemon-in-japanese)