Learning Japanese Through Xenoblade Chronicles

Bet you didn't know this: those strange symbols that appear on your sword in Xenoblade Chronicles? They have a name: kanji. (Although I imagine they could also be hanzi, given how kanji were formed, but for now, I'll proceed on the assumption that they're kanji.) OK, you probably knew that already, but do you know what that shit means? Exactly. Well, I'm here to chronicle what these symbols mean with this very list. Now, then, as I'm still playing through the game, this isn't going to be complete, at first and will be updated rather sporadically. Also, given my lack of skill with Japanese and the fact that a lot of these kanji are pretty stylized, these may amount to nothing more than educated guesses (albeit very carefully taken educated guesses). That in mind, let's dive right in.

Update: when searching for "Xenoblade Chronicles list of kanji" on Google, this is the first result. Truly, I have arrived.

Yet another update: I've just noticed the lack of a spoiler warning of any kind up until I added the last kanji. The hell's wrong with me?

List items

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  1. Reading

  Kanji in question: 読.<p><p>

  Meaning: Read.<p><p>

  Used for: loading screens. My guess is that it's saying that it's reading the disc.

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  2. Shield

  Kanji in question: 盾.<p><p>

  Meaning: shield.<p><p>

  Used for: the Shield art, predictably. Turns out those symbols wouldn't be so mysterious if Shulk had access to a dictionary.

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  3. Buster

  Kanji in question: 斬.<p><p>

  Meaning: slash.<p><p>

  Used for: the Buster art, AKA "the one art you'll use 90% of the time simply because of the damage it dishes out".

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  4. Enchanter

  Kanji in question: 機.<p><p>

  Meaning: machine, mechanism, opportunity.<p><p>

  Used for: the Enchant art. Gotta give the developers credit for choosing a kanji that works so well with this situation. (The Enchant spell allows you to damage Mechon, and is always the first Monado art you use in a fight against them.)

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  5. Speed

  Kanji in question: 疾.<p><p>

  Meaning: rapidly.<p><p>

  Used for: the Speed art. Really not a lot to say about this one.

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  6. Vomiting

  Kanji in question: 破.<p><p>

  Meaning: break, defeat, destroy, frustrate, rend, rip, tear.<p><p>

  Used for: the Purge art, which is the Telethia version of Enchant. Wow, this was a hard kanji to find. Usually, I have some idea as to where to start with these, but this one was so stylized that I had to go look it up in a Japanese Xenoblade wiki.

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  7. Human

  Kanji in question: 人.<p><p>

  Meaning: person. <p><p>

  Used for: I'm not sure, actually. I haven't seen it used with any abilities, but it does show up when Shulk unlocks the full power of the Monado and all those plot twists are thrown at him. So...there's that.

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  8. Cyclone

  Kanji in question: 轟.<p><p>

  Meaning: boom.<p><p>

  Used for: the Cyclone ability. Come on, Xenoblade! This was WAY too stylized for me to make out. That curve at the bottom shouldn't be there! I thought 求 was part of this one, somehow!

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  9. Hair Attack

  Kanji in question: 神.<p><p>

  Meaning: god.<p><p>

  Used for: jamming the Monado into Zanza's Panzer-Dragoon-plagiarizing ass, er, head. And we finally return to a kanji that I could actually read without resorting to wikis of any kind. Why are there as many story-only kanji as there are?

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  10. Vore

  Kanji in question: 喰.<p><p>

  Meaning: eat.<p><p>

  Used for: the Eater ability, which I'm just now finding out is a thing I missed. Turns out I skipped the hell past it in my playthrough. Does that mean there are other things I missed? Does Shulk get more arts? Does Riki get a cutscene that makes him important to the plot? WHAT AM I MISSING!?

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  11. Armor

  Kanji in question: 鎧.<p><p>

  Meaning: to put on armor. (It's not the type of kanji that's used in words...<a href="http://jisho.org/kanji/details/%E9%8E%A7">or ever.</a>)<p><p>

  Used for: the Armor ability, which is what Shield should have been in the first place. How many effing Monado arts did I miss? Hopefully, this is the end of it.