I wonder if the official guide lists the NPC’s wanikani level.
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This week feels like a long one, but maybe that’s just me being completionist about talking to NPCs. I’ll probably be done later today at least.
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Took me also a long time to get through this week’s assignment! more than 3 hours?
Considering that I will not vote for a pace increase lol.
Sorry for the long post, many of interesting comments I wanted to reply to!
Week 4
I keep thinking about starting to write down cool expressions and never do it.
Let’s change that! First two on the list: 案ずるより産むが易し , 危機一髪
A bit sad that I didn’t get to control the motocross in the desert :o
I like how the story gets more complicated. Two factions are already fighting over the prototype, when pirates appear to snatch it xD (not to mention the crazy scene with シタン in a different universe with people wanting to come back to paradise or something)
Language wise I find it quite difficult, but I guess I haven’t played a lot of games / read a lot of things yet where the theme is combats and war as a theme.
Damn, between that and Frieren, it looks like understanding Japanese better might be the one reason I would have to learn German. 
I enjoyed it too. It’s funny because I remember hating an RPG from a famous franchise (FFXIII) because I felt like you cannot go anywhere you want, you are forced to go one path. If I think about it this game has been pretty linear so far, but still, a lot happening and fun stuff, so I don’t mind at all. Wouldn’t even know where to go, having no memories and stuff.
xD
It was a bit funny in Japanese too to have the reverse kanji, even though it made sense.
Maybe the translation would have been better with “My father… Dad?? you know dad??” but also maybe not because he doesn’t remember his daddy so…
Thanks for the other explanations too!
I did talk to everyone! (or tried to). Sometimes I would get so confused as to where I was and couldn’t tell if I had visited the door next to me or not, that I went back to the beginning of the town again to reorient myself.
I also hadn’t understood before reading the comments here 
I like how you put it, I’m on that boat too.
Haha I also thought that exact same thing xD
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more children kana talk | Yotsuba uses Hiragana
It’s definitely a “children don’t speak in kanji” trope.
Maybe indicating language inexperience / childish way of talking.
Isn’t it usually in hiragana instead of katakana? I can’t find kid talk screenshots right now.
Iirc Yotsuba uses mostly hiragana, with some kanji sprinkled in, probably for readability. Or maybe using mostly hiragana is sufficient to create that style/characterization.
maybe Hiragana (soft) vs Katakana (hard) is also slightly a girl/boy thing, just speculating. Maybe it’s mostly hiragana.
仕事 being in kanji complicates the picture, but maybe as with Yotsuba using mostly katakana is sufficient for characterization.
btw at the start of Trails FC, kid Estelle uses full kanji, so, this is not universal.
(Can’t remember what the orphans use)
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I hated the same game for the same reason, but I think that Xenogears doesn’t feel that way because, while the story is very linear (at least so far), you still have some latitude to explore, talk to NPCs etc… The story is linear but the world feels three-dimensional. Most Final Fantasy games (with the notable exception of FF1) are like this, their stories are normally very linear with only minor optional sidequests available, but you’re still usually allowed to wander into the world and revisit past locations.
FFXIII is effectively a long series of corridors with the occasional cutscene. It looks fancy but it’s all just wallpaper functionally.
Full kana for kid talk is extremely common in games and manga, but I’ve never seen that weird “kana inversion”.
In my experience katakana-for-hiragana means that the character speaks a foreign language or speaks with a very strong accent.
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Is that… a kanji being used as furigana…? (家 with いえ appearing within the line)
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Honestly I have no idea what’s going on there, none of the ways I can think of reading this yield something that makes grammatical sense to me.
I did encounter furikanji a handful of times however:
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I’ve never seen “furikanji” over kanji.
I thought I remembered kanji over katakana, but it looks like it was the other way round e.g. in Trails FC to explain english words, like 導力機関 (read orbal engine).
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Hey hey hey, what is this slander? 
Only until you reach the Gran Pulse!
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You just made me buttmad in my bed at 8 in the morning, I hope that your happy!
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Upsetting photo related to above
My very last pickup right before boarding the train to the airport yesterday…
Can’t wait to play these with the FF club one day™. Best series of 7/10 games from Square Enix. 44.6% of the players on PS3 ever arrived on Gran Pulse according to the trophy data, so over half of players missed the real first game, never mind the two sequels.
I think there is a reasonable chance I will enjoy these games even more in Japanese. Certainly looking forward to hearing 坂本真綾 as ライトニング.
The Steam versions for FFXIII and FFXIII-2 are quite old (2014) and need to be modded to support Japanese UI text. This is my backup plan.
I was so happy to find クロノ・トリガー in the flesh as a last ditch effort from the very popular, very expensive スーパーポテト in 秋葉原.
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Week 4 content
Finally finished this week’s content, I feel like so much happened. I definitely struggled a bit with the text this week, when all the tecnobabble about cannons started during the pirate attack I definitely just kinda nodded my way along it.
That sand worm boss was miserable, it kept syphoning my fuel and I was just not doing enough damage (nothing seemed to work except the combo ending strike?) so I must have been doing something wrong.
It got to the point where I had to spend a turn defending to get some fuel back up and be stuck only have to do a couple weak strikes.
It thankfully died after just a couple of times after that.
I REALLY liked the music in ダジル, a bit too much actually, it was almost distracting because I would hum along and not be able to focus on the kanji… Fun little town.
I also noticed the kids speaking that katakana/hiragana jumble, and I interpreted as kids just kind of parroting those words back. They mention “ruins excavations” or whatever because that’s what they constantly hear the adults talk about, but they don’t really know what it actually is.
At least that’s the feel I got from it.
I kinda love the idea of グラーフ parking his giant mech perched precariously on a thin rock formation and then having it do a badass armfold so he can stand on it and look cool. With a badass red moon background!
He must have planned that one so carefully.
Also quite funny was Fei just running after those mechs in the desert, on foot, then complaining that it was getting dark. My guy, I’m not sure what you expected.
Citan keeps getting more and more mysterious. He not only knows how to pilot Gears in general, he knows the very latest military grade models, mmm…
Then there was that whole ominous scene with him speaking with… god?
AND now he knows the lady responsible for that pirate guy, which since he has a butler is totally not going to be actually a prince of some place or other.
Also I hope we get Citan as a party member again soon because wow was he strong.
Really curious about week 5 because it looks like it will be a dungeon that will have to be done completely with the Gears?
… Not sure how much I look forward to that considering having to manage fuel for the entire dungeon and the inevitable boss that we will encounter there.
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Same! Maybe that’s kind of intended/expected. Some attacks also did 0 dmg I think.
that’s a very good and plausible interpretation.
Yeah, his “dialogue box name” is 天帝, which can mean god, or something like divine/heavenly emperor. Or literally Shangdi, supreme deity in ancient Chinese religion, ruler of heavens and controller of natural forces like thunder, wind and rain.
Of course, it wouldn’t be literally Shangdi in this game, but I think it can be interesting to consider the inspirations, like Shiva from Final Fantasy being a Hindu deity (outside the game).
Considering he’s sitting on a throne-like structure, I find divine emperor fitting for now, with what we know so far. Maybe 天 here extends to outer space, too, maybe he rules the universe.
that would be fun. Secretly swashbuckling nobility is maybe an underused setup/trope, I’ve only seen it in 2 few games so far I think (within the Zelda series, in Wind Waker, and within the Trails series, in FC. Oh and in the Grandia series, in 2).
(I think calling it a trope is a bit reductive, since you can call anything like a desert city or a political intrigue a trope, and then every game and movie is just a sequence of tropes)
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I just kept spamming normal attacks until the worm died, didn’t run out of fuel.
So far the combat system is probably the weakest aspect of this game for me I think, but at least it’s not annoying so I can easily just ignore it.
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This is where the term “aura farming” makes sense to use haha. Dude wanted to make the coolest possible entrance
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If we ever reach that one with the club, I’m really debating if I want to even try playing it… #team-haters
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Back to the main topic - week 4
I was using the “magic” ability instead, that was quite efficient, 2 or 3 and it was dead.
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Just got to that part myself. I used Boost to raise my attack then used deathblows every other turn, using basic attacks on the others to raise attack level. It took 3-5 turns I think? If you didn’t know, you can click the right button for more battle commands both in gears and on foot. Also when you learn a deathblow on foot, it translates to a deathblow in your gear as well.
It’s…not well explained at all.
here's from the english walkthrough
Attack Levels are the systems by which Gears use better Deathblows. There is no AP-building this time; instead, attack levels are built up.
How do you raise the Attack Level?
First off, since the character and gear’s Deathblows are interconnected bit, the groundwork must be laid. Gears get two natural Deathblows per each Attack Level, and there are 3 Attack Levels. Basically, the character must have the 3rd Deathblow usable to get to LV2; the 5th Deathblow usable to access LV3. If you look at the Deathblow section in the Appendices, you can see a side-by-side comparison. The first Deathblow corresponds with the 1st G-Deathblow, etc.
Now, about raising attack level. Here’s how a normal battle will go:
- Battle starts [ATK LV: 0]
- Weltall attacks an enemy [ATK LV: 1]
LV1 Deathblow becomes available for use - Weltall attacks the enemy but does not use the Deathblow [ATK LV: 2]
LV2 Deathblow becomes available for use - Weltall attacks the enemy but does not use the Deathblow [ATK LV: 3]
LV3 Deathblow becomes available for use
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Ooh, that’s why I could only land that strong attack every other turn. I completely missed that mechanic.
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