To Command and Conquer

I was given the idea, not so long ago, that it might be a good idea for me to put together a little Japanese gamer primer for the beginning importer who wants help finding their way through the menus of a text heavy game. After all, as the title of this post implies, to command successfully is to conquer in an RPG. So with that thought in mind, I went through the booklets for several prominent RPGs, compiling some common words that it might be useful for the player to know. Here are a few barebones terms, in some cases shown in both kanji and hiragana or katakana.

戦う / たたかう Attack

魔法 / まほう Magic

アイテム Item

防御 / ぼうぎょ Defend

召喚 / しょうかん Summon

特技 / とくぎ Special Skill

武器 / ぶき Weapon

防具 / ぼうぐ Armor

アクセサリ Accessory

I hope that this little list is of words is useful to whoever comes across it. I’ll be adding words to it as I think of them, so expect the occasional edit to be done to this post whenever a new word comes to mind. I’m sure that there are plenty of words that are important that I’ve forgotten to put on this list. If you have any suggestions, feel free to let me know.