Introduction: I’ve been learning Japanese for 2 months now, but it is mostly focused on grammar and only a little on vocabulary. Even so, there is still a lot of shit I don’t understand. One of the objectives I set out to achieve was to be able to play “Pokémon Yellow” in Japanese. Not only this will still take a lot of time, I’ve also felt that my vocabulary is very weak. Because of that, I’ve decided that I will try to translate this game, a bit every day, and by doing this I will learn new words, expressions and such.
This was also inspired by a topic on WaniKani called “Let’s play in 日本語”, where one of the members of the site is playing a game in full Japanese and doing a good ol’ forum let’s play.
The text will be divided in three parts: First the original in Japanese, with the words separated by spaces; then the semi-literal translation; finally, the localization, with notes, when needed, for the changes.
I also decided to add a link to the first appearance of every noun, particle, verb, adjective etc., in case my future self ever needs it. Some of the vocabulary is actually very simple, but it is always nice to have something to back you up.
Note: “Pokémon Yellow”, being so old, is one of those games that used a lot of kana instead of kanji, which is both good and bad. It is good because it is easier to search words in the dictionary, but it is bad because seeing the kanji helps determine the meaning of a word.
Part 1: ポケットモンスタア 「ピカチュウ」
Main Menu:
つづき から はじめる – Start from the continue – Continue your game
さいしょ から はじめる – Start from the beginning – Start a new game
せってい を かえる – Change settings – Change settings
Settings:
はなし の はやさ 「おそい」「ふつう」「はやい」 – Speed of conversation (Slow)(Normal)(Fast) – Text speed (Slow)(Normal)(Fast)
Note: はやさ is the noun form (さ-form) of はやい (い-adj)
せんとう アニメ 「とばして」「じっくり」 みる – Watch battle animations (Skip)(Thoroughly) – Animação no combate (Ativo)(Pular)
Note: とばして is the gerund (て-form) of the verb とばす (to ignore).
しあい の ルール 「いれかえ」「かちぬき」タイプ – Rules of the combat (Substitution)(Knockout) type – Battle type (Free)(Fixed)
Note: Before translating I had to research what those types meant (since I never changed them). Basically, one allows to switch pokémon after defeating the enemy, and the other doesn’t.
サウンド 「モノラル」「イヤホン1-2-3」 – Sound (Monaural)(Earphone) – Audio (Mono)(Dual)
プリント の こさ 「やや うすい」「うすい」「ふつう」「こい」「やや こい」 – Darkness of printing (Somewhat light)(light)(Normal)(Dark)(Somewhat dark) – Print color (Lightest)(Lighter)(Normal)(Darker)(Darkest)
おわり – The end – Exit
Next: Professor Oak welcomes us to the world of Pokémon!