Preamble
I made this guide because there is clearly a large interest in Japanese within the Final Fantasy XI playerbase. Whether through gaming, anime or simple curiousity, there are many people looking to bridge the gap between the NA/EU and JP communities. The Auto-Translator can help but many find it useful to have a selection of Japanese phrases and notice that the JP players respond much better to them over the green/red brackets.
This guide will contain various phrases to use during casual meeting and party situations. I will add whatever I can think of, but I am open to suggestions from the community as well. You guys will know better than I what you most commonly need to say.
Beyond helpful phrases and sentences, this guide can serve as a database, displaying the terminolgoy of the game in English and Japanese, side by side. This will serve to people who delve into the JP game and need some assistance or even veteran students looking to expand their vocabulary and learn new kanji. I know I personally learned a lot from FFXI, and I learned even more sifting through the game and typing it up like this.
I’m including a lot of the in game descriptions as well for a few reasons. First, it’s neat for Japanese enthusiasts to peruse and soak up the terminology and readings. Second, there’s some interesting differences that get lost between the two versions. For example, there was a thread about Viper Bite where people were discovering that it multiplies your attack by 2. In the JP description it’s already clearly noted. Iron Tempest and Sturmwind also boost Attack Power with TP while the NA version says “Damage varies” like every other skill. Deodorize is also more specific referring to stopping an enemy’s pursuit rather than their ability to “detect” like with Sneak and Invisible. It’s nothing game breaking, but interesting nonetheless considering back in the day when some of this stuff was more of a mystery. Perhaps I’ll compile a section on those anomalies later.
There's still a long way to go...
There's probably mistakes and stuff, too
Here we go! (ノ ゜Д゜)ノ ==== ┻━━┻
I. Meeting & greeting
II. Countries & Languages
III. Directions
IV. Search Comments & Shouts
V. Starting a Party
VI. Coordinating a Party
VII. Assault
VIII. Jobs & Abilities
IX. Skills
X. Weapon Skills
XI. Magic*
XII. Merits
XIII. Areas
XIV. Weapons & Armor*
XV. ?
*in progress