Japanese Vocabulary List: Final Fantasy 1 words

By | April 15, 2014
11 Comments

This is my first post in a series containing Japanese vocabulary lists on different topics. If you enjoy it, please like it and comment if you have any suggested topic your want me to write up vocabulary lists for.

A great many people have gotten into Japanese via anime or manga. Another way is through Japanese video games, and the Final Fantasy series is one of the most classic and well-loved, especially for those who are in their late 20s to 30s.

This time I’d like to give a list of vocabulary words used in Final Fantasy 1.  These are just a small subset of all the words used, focusing on items, fighting, status, and other related words.

For games of that time period kanji was rare (mostly likely due to resolution and space limitations), and many of the words which would otherwise be written in kanji were written in hiragana instead. First I’ll list the word as it appeared in the game, followed by the most common Kanji reading in brackets, followed by the definition in English.

  • たたかう「戦う」- Fight
  • まほう「魔法」 – Magic
  • くすり「薬」 – Medicine/Potions
  • もちもの　「持ち物」 – Item(s)     (Also written as アイテム）
  • けいけんち「経験値」- experience points
  • ゴールド　- gold
  • ぼうぐ「防具」- (protective) equipment/gear
  • ぶき「武器」- weapon(s)
  • レベル – (experience) level
  • めいちゅうりつ「命中率」 –  critical hit rate  (クリティカル　ヒット　- critical hit)
  • かいひりつ　「回避率」 – evade rate
  • ちから　「力」- strength  (STR)
  • すばやさ　「素早さ」 – speed/agility    (AGL)
  • ちせい　「知性」- intelligence   (INT)
  • たいりょく　「体力」- endurance/stamina  (STA)
  • こううん　「幸運」 – luck (LCK)
  • ステータス　- status
  • つづく　「続く」 – continue (game)
  • やりなおし　「やり直し」- start (game) over
  • にげる　「逃げる」 –  run / escape (from a monster)
  • ミス – miss
  • ダメージ　- damage
  • モンスター  – monster
  • ぜんめつ　「全滅」 – all destroyed or killed (used for monsters)
  • たからばこ「宝箱」 – treasure (box)
  • ポーション – potion
  • どくけし「毒消し」- antidote
  • かいふく「回復」- recover (hit points)
  • まひ 「麻痺」 – paralysis (status ailment)
  • ねむり「眠り」 – sleep (status ailment)
  • くらやみ　「暗闇」 – darkness (status ailment)
  • ぬったげる　「塗ってあげる」 – to paint on or apply (used in the game to apply medicine to a party member)
  • そうび　「装備」- to equip (armor, etc.)

 

References

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x_K4QsM4IgI#aid=P9sgo_lPgBo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MhiXPcXp1VU

 

 

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11 thoughts on “Japanese Vocabulary List: Final Fantasy 1 words”

  1. Sandra Bogerd

    I’ve passed on your post to my Japanese-learning gamer friends. I run a vocal ensemble called MANGA that specialises in music from anime and computer games, and we have some Final Fantasy tunes in our repertoire. I’m only a dabbler in Japanese, but given a choice, I’d request words lists for songs from anime – though translations of lyrics are often available anyway. I notice in Japanese sheet music that hiragana typically gets used, due to the need to specify when each syllable is sung.

    Reply ↓
    1. locksleyu Post author

      Thanks much! Feel free to reblog my post if you like (:

      Your vocal ensemble sounds cool, if you have any links to videos that I can check out let me know.

      Also, if you have any requests for me (vocab lists, translations, etc.) let me know any time.

      Reply ↓
  2. Ashton

    What a wonderful choice. 🙂 I am actually doing my billionth (lol) play-through of final fantasy 9, and was toying with the idea of trying to play it in Japanese.

    I feel like RPGs would be a great way to extend your “fantasy vocabulary”, if I could recommend any other games, I would say ChronoTrigger (Plus it would show some more people about how amazing that game is).

    Another topic that might be pretty cool to see would be psychological-anime (Steins;gate?) or a computer-science related vocabulary list. 🙂

    Reply ↓
    1. locksleyu Post author

      Yeah maybe I can cover ChronoTrigger vocab sometime, though I haven’t played it too much myself.

      I’m not too familiar with psychological-anime, but maybe I can try the computer-science related vocab list. I was actually thinking of writing up one of those anyway.

      Reply ↓
  3. JB

    This is really cute XD I actually was thinking of downloading an FF game on my phone, but have been hesitant because my reading comprehension is pretty bad and much of the joy that comes from FF games (and RPGs in general) is the story…

    Reply ↓
  4. japanese

    まぼう「魔法」 (mabou)– Magic →ｘ

    まほう「魔法」（mahou）-Magic→○

    Reply ↓
    1. locksleyu Post author

      Thanks for the heads ups, I’m surprised I missed this one (:

      Reply ↓
      1. japanese

        I’m Japanese.and I study English.
        When I was studying English on the Internet,I just happened to find a mistake.

        Reply ↓

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