Menu, menu, menu. Everywhere you turn, there’s a menu. It’s been a while since I’ve had some spare time, but let’s dive in. I need to finish this game!We’re out of the woods with the “main menu” now, but of course there’s some additional screens that need attention here. We’ve got the “Pause” menu with some warnings in it, and we’ve got some hints being thrown at us so we can understand how to play the game. Let’s take a look!
First let’s take a look at the Pause Menu:
There’s not a whole lot that’s new here. 戻る (もどる) has already been looked at. It’s the text that appears in the bottom right on the main menu. So combine it with ゲーム (and don’t forget that に particle) and you’ve got “Return to Game”.
チェックポイント is new, and stands for “checkpoint”, while から means “from”, and 再 (さい), which we briefly looked at when I got ambitious with Human Japanese, means “again”. So, “チェックポイントからさいスタート” would mean “Restart from checkpoint”.
再 － 再スタート － common – restart;
| 再（さい） | 6 strokes. JLPT N2. Jōyō kanji, taught in grade 5 | again, twice, second time | Kun: ふたた.び | On: サイ、 サ |
あそびかた （遊び方）& オプション is familiar, and means “How to Play” & “Options”. 実績 （じっせき） is also familiar, and means “Achievements”. メインメニュー does just as the sounds indicate… it takes us to the “main menu”.
Let’s examine the メインメニュー option:
These long sentences are brutal because I don’t trust the translation in the game. I have no way of knowing if this is a coherent sentence at this point. Which is a little disappointing. But the key words are as follows:
-
メインメニュー :: main menu
に :: at
戻ってしまい :: return
と :: and
ゲーム :: game
再開 :: resume
は :: is
最後 :: right after (often having negative consequences)
に :: at
たどり着いた :: to barely managed to have reached
チェックポイント :: checkpoint
から :: from
となります。 :: it will be
よろし :: ok
ですか。 :: is it?
So “Return to main menu, and the game will restart from the last reached checkpoint. Is that ok?”. Isn’t that confusing? The menu both uses 再スタート in the previous screen and 再開 to mean restart. I wish I understood that these translators were thinking… it seems like you would want to use as little vocabulary as possible in a UI. Use restart, or resume, but not both. No? At any rate, we’ve got a couple of new kanji in there!
開 － 再開 － さいかい － common – reopening; resumption; restarting;
| 開（かい） | 12 strokes. JLPT N4. Jōyō kanji, taught in grade 3 | open, unfold, unseal | Kun: ひら.く、 ひら.き、 -びら.き、 ひら.ける、 あ.く、 あ.ける | On: カイ |
最後 － さいご － common – no sooner than; right after (often having negative consequences)
| 最（さい） | 12 strokes. JLPT N3. Jōyō kanji, taught in grade 4. | utmost, most, extreme | Kun: もっと.も、 つま | On: サイ、 シュ |
| 後（かい） | 9 strokes. JLPT N5. Jōyō kanji, taught in grade 2. | behind, back, later | Kun: のち、 うし.ろ、 うしろ、 あと、 おく.れる | On: ゴ、 コウ |
たどり着いた － たどりついた － common – to have barely manage to have reached (past tense);
| 着（つ） | 12 strokes. JLPT N4. Jōyō kanji, taught in grade 3. | don, arrive, wear, counter for suits of clothing | Kun: き.る、 -ぎ、 き.せる、 -き.せ、 つ.く、 つ.ける | On: チャク、 ジャク |
Alright, well the last menu option here is: “チェックポイントからさいスタート” or “Restart from checkpoint”. Let’s see what happens when we choose that option:
So this gives us a long script, and then the accept (選択 – せんたく) and return (戻る – もどる) options.
再スタート － restart
する － make/do
と － also
最後 － last
の － connects two nouns
チェックポイント － checkpoint
以降の － since; thereafter; on and after (temporal noun)
の － connects two nouns
進行は － progress
失われます。 － it will be lost
再スタート － restart
しますか？ － will you do?
I’m not 100% sure on the われます。 above.. It seems that 失う is the actual verb,and I understand ます。, but the われ is… lost on me. I can find it being used in other sentences, but, I don’t know where it’s coming from :/ I guess I’ll have to come back to that. Grammar is very much lost on me at the moment. Let’s track the kanji:
以降 － いこう － common – on and after; as from; hereafter; thereafter; since
| 以（い） | 5 strokes. JLPT N4. Jōyō kanji, taught in grade 4. | by means of, because, in view of, compared with | Kun: もっ.て | On: イ |
| 降（こう） | 10 strokes. JLPT N3. Jōyō kanji, taught in grade 6. | descend, precipitate, fall, surrender | Kun: お.りる、 お.ろす、 ふ.る、 ふ.り、 くだ.る、 くだ.す | On: コウ、 ゴ |
進行 － しんこう － common – moving forward (e.g. vehicle); onward movement
| 進（しん） | 11 strokes. JLPT N3. Jōyō kanji, taught in grade 3. | advance, proceed, progress, promote | Kun: すす.む、 すす.める | On: シン |
| 行（こう） | 6 strokes. JLPT N5. Jōyō kanji, taught in grade 2. | going, journey, carry out, conduct, act, line, row, bank | Kun: い.く、 ゆ.く、 -ゆ.き、 -ゆき、 -い.き、 -いき、 おこな.う、 おこ.なう | On: コウ、 ギョウ、 アン |
失われます － うしなわれます － common – to lose; to part with
| 失（うしな） | 5 strokes. JLPT N3. Jōyō kanji, taught in grade 4. | lose, error, fault, disadvantage, loss | Kun: うしな.う、 う.せる | On: シツ |
HOORAY!! We’re done with the menus! I don’t think there are any more menu screens I need to deal with! That means it’s time to start actually playing for realsies!
Ok, so I guess there’s some slight tutorial screens here and there that will help explain the controls if you didn’t already spend hours studying the options. (Tsk tsk, I might add if you haven’t). Let’s see what we’ve got here…
トリガー － Trigger
ブタン － button
を － article that specifies the subject
押し － push
続ける － to continue
と － used to mean together
アクション － action
So roughly: “Continue to push the trigger buttons for ‘action'”
押 or お was used on the title screen (please push start – START を押してください)
続ける － つづける － common – to continue; to keep up; to keep on
| 続（つづ） | 13 strokes. JLPT N3. Jōyō kanji, taught in grade 4. | continue, series, sequel | Kun: つづ.く、 つづ.ける、 つぐ.ない | On: ゾク、 ショク、 コウ、 キョウ |
Kind of boring that they would give essentially the exact same “tip” twice within a couple of minutes… but moving on…
Is that it? No more new kanji! Nice! We’ve got:
LB － left button
または － or
RB － right button
ボタン － button
で － ”at” or “in”
カメラ － camera
を － specifies the subject
回転 － rotation
So roughly, The LB or RB buttons rotate the camera.
Oh man, oh man, oh man. I get to actually play the game now. Well. Actually, it’s 1AM now… so I’m going to sleep. But… Some day very soon, I get to play it.