#so the cafe and special episodes are not NEARLY as hardcoded into my brain as everything else

[yo9urt]

another JPMD update post before i put it off again...! possibly a bit shorter this time but STILL LONG

ok i got up to the part right after waterfall cave which means MEETING TEAM SKULL SOON YAYYYYYYYYY well we already met koffing and zubat and as i noted in post 1, they sounded exactly how i thought they would, but im reaaally curious about skuntank honestly im half expecting him to just talk like a yakuza or something lol

notes:

loudred, like croagunk, uses the わっし pronoun (EDITING TO SAY: it's possible he was actually using あっし, the working man pronoun that bidoof uses, and i misread the screenshot?); loudred, like croagunk, never read as an old man to me in the english version at all so i'm really curious about that. if anything his shoutiness always made me think of him as being younger (more impetuous, impulsive, etc.)

speaking of old men, torkoal DOES talk like one based on my extremely limited knowledge of how old men talk in japanese. he speaks politely and uses a lot of archaic words/phrases/verb forms and sounds pretty grandfatherly in the japanese version, just like in the english version!

chatot continues to perplex me...he uses 私 presumably as a formality but also uses だ instead of です, and i also caught him using the ず negative of a verb which is something i see occasionally in music but have yet to learn the real implications of. it seems a bit poetic or old fashioned to me but i could be completely wrong...he also uses ぞ but jisho says that indicates command which does make sense because he's allowed to give commands and his english speech always did sound a little bossy lol

the protagonist's way of...not speaking i guess but the way they talk in their thought bubbles is really interesting. to me it reads as much simpler and simultaneously much more complex than the other characters' speech, simpler because they tend to use a lot of the same words over and over as well as relatively simple words without a lot of flair like the other characters have, but also complex because it's these same words that make me scratch my head. i can't really explain it without an example but protag's speech is just kind of confusingly simple, so simple it becomes difficult lol

partner's speech has a bit more flair and personality to it (lots of elongated vowels, usage of 僕、etc.) but is also pretty simple like protag's. i guess protag talking simply makes sense because 1. from another world & 2. they play a bit of a self-insert role so it's better to give them a more bare bones speaking style instead of forcing players to align themselves with a personality they might not feel connected to (plus, again, kids' game, and kids are not going to be throwing around big words and sentences like adults do). partner's speech being simple makes sense for a similar reason i think, makes them a little easier to connect with, sympathize with, and cheer for (as noted by me finding them EXTREMELY endearing in the previous posts)

not a dialogue note but you know how in the english version they have those berries that are fake oran berries that actually hurt you? and they named them like Oren Berry or something? in japanese, oran berries are オレン (oren) and their evil counterparts are オレソ which is SO RUDE because my katakana is really bad and i suck at those 2 characters especially 😭

also not a dialogue note but i've noticed the ingame menu text often refers to protag+partner as "(protag's name)たち” and chimecho, in dialogue with both (but primarily talking to the partner) said "(partner's name)たち" which is kind of cute but also interesting. i was wondering how 2nd person plurals were handled (and 3rd person, outside of situations like 彼ら, やつら etc.)

it's still hard and there are still MANY moments where i look at a sentence, puzzle out a few words i know, try really hard, and then go "man i have no idea what you're talking about" and press A and move on. BUT i'm having a lot of fun and i do feel that with each repeated exposure my grasp of things is getting stronger every time!!!!!!

SENTENCES I WAS PROUD OF

こんなにいきおいがあるとはおもわなかったよ ~= "i didn't think anything could even be this strong" (said by partner at the waterfall; lit. "to-this-extent force SUBJ exists COND TOPIC think-NEG-PAST NEW")

すごい！こんなおおきなほうせきみたことがない！= "wow! i've never seen treasure this big before!" (said by partner at the waterfall cave gem; lit. "amazing! like-this big-IS treasure seen-thing SUBJ exist-NEG!")

これをもってかえったらみんなびっくりするよね！= "if we bring this back, everyone will be so amazed!" (same as above; lit. "this OBJ carry-return-COND everyone surprise do.NONPAST NEW CONFIRM!")

せっかくあたらしいばしょをはっけんしたとおもったのに。。。= "even though i thought we'd worked so hard to discover a new place..." (said by partner after finding out the truth about the waterfall; lit. "with-great-pains new place OBJ discovery do.PAST QUOTE think.PAST even-though...")

actually not sure if せっかく is "with great pains" or "rare/valuable" here it could be either one...

たんけんだけじゃなくいろいろなことにやくだつのうりょくだよ！これは！= "this ability isn't just useful for exploring, it could be used for all kinds of things!" (said by partner while chatting with protag about the dimensional scream (not that they know its name yet); lit. "exploration limit/only is NEG CONN various-IS things TARGET be.useful.NONPAST ability is(copula) NEW! this TOPIC!")

easily the proudest sentence in this post