The Game Menu of Romancing SaGa 3
Words/kanji learned: 装備: equipment 技: technique, art, skill, move. 術: magic. 持ち物: one's belongings. 戦闘陣形: battle formation. 環境設定: user preferences 冒険: adventure 記: record or history
So カタリナ is pondering whether or not to hide all of her 装備, and since we are カタリナ, we get to make the decision. In order to make the most informed choice, let's go into the menu and look at exactly what that equipment is! On Steam, I press the Y button on my gamepad, and this takes me to the following screen:
Let's learn all of these things!
装備(そうび) – we learned this yesterday. Pay attention, yo! OK, it means equipment – I'll restate it here, so this blog post can be a one-stop source for the RS3 menu. 技(わざ): technique, art, skill, move. This covers weapon/physical techniques that the characters can learn, excluding magic. I know other games use this same term (Chrono Trigger for example) but sometimes include magic under it as well. 術(じゅつ): magic. It can mean other things – like art/technique, or trick/trap. In this case it's definitely magic. 持ち物(もちもの): one's belongings. In this case it means inventory or items. Going here shows both usable items and every unequipped piece of equipment too, so it's not just consumables. 戦闘(せんとう)陣形(じんけい): battle formation. The first two kanjis mean “battle/combat” and the second two mean “tactical formation”. Think of this as a more elaborate version of putting people in back or front rows, like in FF1-9. You learn new 戦闘陣形 by recruiting more characters. 環境設定(かんきょうせってい): user preferences, environment settings. My second post on this blog covered 設定, but this is more specifically for user preferences. セーブ: save. In this game, you can save anywhere outside of battle and cutscenes. A good rule is to leave one save in a safe place, like a town, and another save in more dangerous areas like a dungeon.
Below that, we have a couple of カタカナ phrases: フリーファイト: free fight. In this case, it's a 戦闘陣形 where everyone stands equally in the middle. It's our only option for a 1-person party, but it's a bad idea for more than 2 or 3 people. When we change our 戦闘陣形, the name here will update. ロアーヌ侯宮殿: something like Loanne marquis palace. None of my translation services could get a bead on it, but I recognized the letter for marquis at least and the other kanjis both basically mean “palace”. When we visit other locations, the name here will update.
On the lower left, by an X-button icon, are some relatively tiny kanjis: 冒険(ぼうけん)記(き): adventure + record. Like an adventure log or quest log. Jisho says that 記 can be used as a suffix, which makes sense here. In this game, the various quests and adventures you go on are noted when you go to this menu and press the X button. As RS3 is a non-linear game, this is a pretty useful feature.
That's the menu screen! And I highly suspect that some of these terms will be useful in other JRPGs as well, so it's worth putting in some time to remember them.
Author: @WolfeReader@freeradical.zone
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