The first town! 鳥爾 (part one)

And now we arrive at Luneth’s town, 鳥爾.   When you first enter, someone tells him that the elders are looking for him.  But before talking to any of the NPCs though, it’d probably be a good idea to get all the names figured out.   

Reference2.1
魯內斯; lǔnèisī; Luneth
托帕帕;  tuōpàpà; Tuopapa
妮哪;  nīna; Nina
鳥爾;  niǎo’ǔr; Ur
帕美尼; pàměiní; Parmeni
薩斯嗯;  sàsīen; Sasune
卡茲斯 ;  kǎzīsī; Kazus

Also, if you decide to go shopping, here is what the shops are selling at this point.

VocabList2.1 （“想買點什麼嗎？”）
武器店； wǔqì diàn；weapon shop
短劍; duǎnjiàn； short sword
長劍; chángjiàn；long sword
短弓;  duǎngōng；short bow
手杖;  shǒuzhàng ；cane
木箭; mùjiàn；wooden arrow
防具店; fángjùdiàn; armour shop
皮鎧； píkǎi ; leather armour
皮帽；pímào; leather cap
銅手鐲；  tóng shǒuzhuó; copper bracelet
解毒； jiědú; to detoxify

Man, imagine having a Chinese class about shopping  with this vocabulary. I could just imagine how the homework would be to create some skit about bargaining… 

“Excuse me!  I have need of some quality weapons for I am off to fight a DRAGON! Sell me your finest blade!”
請問，我快要去找一條龍， 為跟它戰鬥！ 我需要師傅最尖的刀！

“How about this short sword?”
那，看看這把短劍。 您覺得怎麼樣？

“You think I’m off to fight a dog?  I need a real sword!”
短劍？！ 難道你以為我敵人是一只狗嗎？  這不行啦！

“Then how about a longsword?”
這長劍呢？

“…It’ll do.  How much?”
… 還可以。 多少錢？

“10,000 元.”
一萬元.

“10,000? That’s more than two times the price of a short sword! How can it be that expensive?!”
一萬元？！ 價格比短劍的大了兩倍多！ 怎麼那麼貴？

“It’s not expensive at all! See this? It’s real gold.  You can’t get this in other stores.”
“不是啦！ 你看一下，這是道地黃金。 另外的武器店肯定沒有這樣的， 他們都只賣的是銅或鐵的.”

“With 10,000元, I could probably buy a sword and a shield at another store. How about 3,000?”
一萬元太過分了！  有這麼多錢的話，在另外個店不但會買一把劍而且會加一個皮盾.   便宜一點, 我給三千元，好吧？”

“No way. 8,000.”
不行。 八千元。

“Fine. I’m leaving.”
那，我走了。

Haha, so I got a bit carried away there.   And I’m pretty most of it is awkward and horribly incorrect Chinese, as it’s been a bit since I’ve been in a proper Chinese class.  But hey, that’s an idea!  If you’re looking to practice these vocabulary, write a bargaining skit!   And for even more fun, include lines from Russell Peters’ skit about bargaining.   

Anyway, it’s time to talk to the townspeople!  And they sure do have a lot to say:

“該死的大地震！ 鳥爾福山谷的人口被岩石堵住了，不能回迦南了.”

“我來給你講解一下你的職業。 自由人可以使用底等級魔法！ 但是因為能力值很底要特別小心.”

“接受了水晶之光的人可以依靠泉水恢復體力和無法戰斗的狀態.”

“被帕美尼山脈環繞的這片地區都在薩斯嗯王的統治之下， 她的城堡做落在西邊.”

“卡茲斯的鎮上好像被詛咒了… 很可怕的， 可不要去那裡啊.”

“在戰鬥中，不但可以通過點擊敵人的名字來決定攻擊目標， 還可以通過直接點擊書面上的敵人來進行攻擊。 另外， 在書面中沒有顯示出來的指令， 可以通過點擊三角標記來上下移動指令欄顯示出來.”

That last one was especially quite fun to figure out. (No. Not really. Not at all.)    But here’s the vocabulary list for all that to help you out.

VocabList2.2
岩石; yánshí; rock
堵住; dǔzhù; to block up
講解; jiǎngjiě; to explain
自由人; zìyóurén; freelancer
等級; děngjí; level, status
依靠;  yīkào ; to rely on
體力; tílì ; physical strength
山脈; shānmài; mountain range
環繞; huánrào; to surround
統治;  tǒngzhì; to govern
城堡; chéngbǎo; castle
鎮上;  zhènshàng; town
詛咒; zǔzhòu; to curse
戰鬥; zhàndòu; to fight
點擊;  diǎnjī ; to click (a button)
敵人; dìrén; enemy
攻擊目標;  gōngjīmùbiāo; attack
直接; zhíjiē ; directly…?
顯示; xiǎnshì; to show, to illustrate
指令; zhǐlìng ; order, command
三角; sānjiǎo; triangle
標記;  biāojì ; sign, symbol
欄; lán; column/row of text

Whew.  Can’t believe I just typed all that up.   I guess I really don’t want to do that homework…

Anyway, I’ve been seeing the phrases “可要” and “可不要” used a fair bit so far in the game.   I’m not really sure what the phrases mean exactly, but I’m guessing it’s something similar to “had better/better not do sth”.     So maybe it’s usage is similar to “最好”?  Like, maybe   could I say, “我今天可要幫她的忙，要不然她肯定熬夜睡覺了”?

Note to self: be on the lookout for sentences with 可要/可不要 and see how it’s used.

So, I think that’s enough vocabulary for one day!  I’ve gotta say, it’s kind of fun creating fake assignments for this blog.   Makes me wonder kind of writing assignment would be helpful for learning list2.2.    Hmm…

But anyway, to end with a pretty screenshot, here’s a preview for next time!   Luneth hears the truth about his past, Harry Potter style (well, sorta)!

The first dungeon! (part two)

Continuing from last time, here is poor Luneth who has randomly fallen into a cave.    For a recap, test yourself with the below image:

 Anyway… So while you’re wandering around, you start to come across these treasure chests, full of mostly useless things (game-wise and vocabulary-wise, haha…).  

VocabList1.4 (“寶箱中發現了…” )
皮盾; pídùn; leather shield
恢復藥; huīfùyào; restorative medicine
長劍; chángjiàn; long double-edged sword
南極之風; nánjízhīfēng; wind of the south pole (original Eng: Antarctic Wind)

Next there is a suspiciously sparkly boulder that the game tells you to pay close attention to.  

“用兩雙手指接觸屏幕， 擴大手指間的距離試試看…”  

Similarly, when you come across some sparkling water, Luneth gives you a hint that it might be something special by saying:

“泉水… 顏色有些奇特啊…”

VocabList1.5 (for special, sparkling things)
接觸; jiēchù; to touch, to contact
屏幕; píngmù; screen (TV, movie)
擴大; kuòdà;  to expand
泉水; quánshuǐ; spring water
奇特; qítè; peculiar, unusual

But wait!

 不明邪惡生物襲擊了魯內斯！

VocabList1.6 (aka nearly every word from the above sentence)

不明; bùmíng; unknown
邪惡; xié’è ; sinister
生物; shēngwù; creatures
襲擊; xíjī; surprise attack, raid

Which leads you an epic boss battle.  Okay, not really, it’s just a giant turtle.  It’s the part after that is my favourite: the giant, talking crystal and its very ominous monologue.  I just had to type up the whole thing.  Behold!

The Crystal Monologue!

你被選中了
來自暗之大地的來訪者啊
你已被選為傳遞希望之人
如今， 世界正在逐漸被黑暗所包圍
這樣下去世界將失去光明所有的平衡將被破壞
世界上有其它和你命運相同的同伴， 首先你要先找到他們
那時， 我將給予你們最後的明與希望的啓示
啓程吧！

I think it’s just me, but while I was reading (and furiously looking up every other word in the dictionary), I found myself speaking the whole thing dramatically  and it’s so much better outloud.  Like, it’s ridiculous, hilarious, and beautiful at the same time.  The only thing that could maybe make it better is hearing Don LaFontaine read a translation of it.

I mean, this poor kid, falls into a random cave, gets attacked by random monsters, and then there’s this giant creepy object telling him that if he doesn’t save the world, then darkness will take over:  ”The burden of the world is on your shoulders (along with three other people that you must find without any clue as to who and where they are).  And you can’t fail.  Otherwise the word ends.  Yeah. Sucks to be you.”  Whoo, gotta love those RPG plotlines…

Ahem.

Anyway.

VocabList1.7
水晶; shuǐjīng; crystal
選中;  xuǎnzhòng; to settle upon, to decide a candidate
來訪者; láifǎngzhě; visitor
傳遞希望之人; chuándì xīwàng zhī rén; person who passes along hope (original Eng: Bringer of Hope!)
如今; rújīn; nowadays
逐漸;  zhújiàn; gradually
包圍;  bāowéi; to encircle, to surround
平衡;  pínghéng; equilibrium
破壞; pòhuài; to destroy; to wreak
命運; mìngyùn; destiny
啓示; qíshì; enlightenment, revelation
啓程吧; qǐchéng; Go forth! (young grashoppah!)

Okay, to be honest, there’s a bit in the monologue I don’t really get.  (See below image)

For example, “來自暗之大地的”?  Is that supposed to mean… people who came from a dark earth? And then there’s the last sentence, “我將給予你們最後的明與希望的啓示”.  I’m guessing something like “I’ll give you the last revelation of luminance and hope”, but that just sounds odd .  But I forgot what it said when I replayed the scene in English, and I’m too lazy to go through the boss battle again so… Yeah. Queer translations.  I’ll work with that.

*9/1/11 – Okay,  so I replayed the beginning in English.  Here are what those two sentences were originally: “Warrior from the land of darkness” and “I will bestow upon you our last light, our last hope.”

And there we go!  We are done with the first dungeon!  Later on, the game actually becomes an SRS for some words, because the townspeople start to give little tutorials about 職業, or the descriptions for healing potions talk about 狀態, so that’s kind of fun.  Plus, not to mention after endless battles, if you’re not button-mashing too much, you’ll probably be able to memorize the characters like 攻擊 and 防禦 without any studying.

Also, Luneth’s actual dialogue is all pretty simple, which is always an wonderful confidence boost after lines and lines about 命運 and 希望.     Well, his dialogue has mostly been “這是甚麼東西啊” and the like, but it’s still nice to know I know basic, conversational Chinese at the very least.   Whoo!

So, to celebrate getting through the first dungeon, let’s end with my favourite line from it all~

The first dungeon! (part one)

So let me start this off by saying how incredibly awesome I felt when I understood the first words out of the character’s mouth.  Though to be fair, it was something like: “好痛好痛… 這下麻煩了， 這裡居然有個洞.” (he basically just fell down into a cave. you know how people work, they just don’t notice holes big enough to fall through when they’re walking around)

And then the next part was this piece of work:

邊境上的鳥爾村的少年
是由托帕帕和妮哪
共同撫養大的孤兒
好奇心十分旺盛
在跑出村子晚耍的時候
掉入了大地震造成的洞中

This was 魯內斯/Luneth’s introduction*.  Already, I can see just how many useful words this game is going to teach me<sarcasm>.  

Vocab List.1.1:
邊境; biānjìng; frontier, border
少年; shàonián; youngster
共同; gōngtóng; jointly, together, collaboratively
撫養; fǔyǎng; to raise, to foster
孤兒; gū’er; orphan
好奇心; hàoqíxīn; inquisitive
十分; shífēn; completely, utterly
旺盛; wàngshèng; exuberant
村子;  cūnzi; village
耍; shuǎ; to play…? 
大地震; dàdìzhèn; earthquake
造成; zàochéng; to bring about

*oh, the fun I had when I tried to figure out the English names.   妮哪 is obviously Nina, but  托帕帕? 魯內斯? 鳥爾?  I just had to replay the beginning in English, if only to see what the names were originally transliterated from.

Now for the menus:

When you’re walking around, there’s a button on the right that says 選項 (xuǎnxiàng) which is your Options menu, obviously.   Open it up, and you’ll see these options:

VocabList1.2:

道具; dàojù; items
魔法; mófǎ; magic
裝備; zhuāngbèi; equipment, outfitting
狀態; zhuàngtài; status
隊形; duìxíng; formation
職業; zhíyè; job, class
設定; shèdìng; preferences
中斷; zhōngduàn; to break off, discontinue
儲存; chǔcún; to stockpile (save)

It’s kinda surprising how many words I recognized in this part–while I might not know these specific combinations of the words, I still can recognize some of the individual components.  Like 隊形 I was able to figure out because I knew the individual characters from 樂隊 and 形式.  So hey, even if these specific words I will probably never use in natural conversation, still knowing what meaning certain characters relate to will probably be useful.

Anyway, there’s also another important menu to learn, which is the battle menu!  Here we go!

Vocablist1.3

攻擊; gōngjī; attack
防御; fángyù; defend
后列; hòuliè; draw back
逃跑; táopǎo; escape

And then when you grow a level….

魯內斯熟練度上升了！shúliàndù shàngshēng; Luneth’s class leveled up!
魯內斯升級了！shēngjí; Luneth leveled up!

And this basically gets you through the first dungeon up until after the boss battle.  That’s when the talking crystal comes in and you get some really wonky translations of “bringer of hope”… but anyway.  That’s for next time.