Japanese basics for overseas CCJP users: (Part 3 - understanding skills/kizuna abilities)

When people pull a new character from the gacha, the first response is always much excitement (as there should be!), followed by confusion. "What's their name?", "What does this character do?", "Should I keep him/her?".

The question I would like to help you answer, through this post, is the second one.

What does this character do?

• What is their special?
• Their passives?
• How about the kizuna ability?

Related: What is this weapon's ability?

Being able to recognise key words in the special skill description, card description (in the tavern) and on Japanese wikis should clue you in. Don't expect to memorise this in one go but, with use, recognition should get a bit easier!

Common nouns to describe characters/items

• 自身 - self (common modification: 自分以外 - everyone else)
• 仲間 and 味方 - friend/ally (common modification: 味方全員 - all allies)
• 敵__体 - x number of enemies (or 全ての敵 - all enemies) 
• ボス - boss
• メインパーティ - main party
• サブパーティ - sub party
• 戦士 - soldier
• 騎士 - knight
• 弓使い - archer
• 魔法使い - mage
• 僧侶 - cleric
• マナ - mana 
• 宝箱 - treasure chest (assume an increased drop rate)
• ゴールド - gold (usually when you see this, assume it's an increase unless you have Knuckle v2 who sacrifices gold for experience)
• 経験値 - experience (assume increase)
• スクラップ - scrap metal (common modifications: スクラップを生成する - produce, スクラップを破壊する - destroy)

Common nouns used to describe character actions

• 攻撃力 - attack power (this is sometimes written as 攻撃時の威力 - power at time of attack)
• 必殺技 - special attack
• クリティカル - critical hit
• クリティカル率 - critical hit rate
• 防御力 - defence
• 移動速度 - movement speed
• 特大, 大, 中, 小ダメージ or 回復 - extreme, large, moderate, light damage/heal
• 一定時間 - for a fixed time period
• 一定確率 - fixed percentage/chance
• 通常攻撃 - regular attack
• 遠距離攻撃 - ranged attack
• ランダム - random

Status ailments (__状態)

• 毒 - poison
• 暗闇 - blind
• ダウン - daze
• スロウ - slow
• 呪い - curse
• 衰弱 - weakness

Types of specials

• <舞> - dance
• <歌> - sing
• <爆弾> - bomb
• <砲撃> - bombarding
• <領域> - effect domain
• <連撃> - continuous attack
• <返還> - return (in reference to mana, I believe it's only used on Totori so far)
• unusual: <地形変化> - transform surroundings
• unusual: <変身> - transform 
• <溜める> - gather (in reference to an attack where the character has to wait/gather attack strength before dealing damage)

Common verbs/phrases used to describe actions

• ダメージを与える - deal damage ( may be modified to 与えたダメージ which means the same thing. A common modifier: ダメージを__回連続 - __ number of times in a row.)
• ダメージを受ける - take damage (may be modified to 受けたダメージ)
• 回復 - heal/reverse ailment (possible modifiers: 徐々に回復 - gradual heal, 長時間回復 - heal over an extended period of time, APが回復する - recover AP)
• 上昇, 増加, 増える - increase 
• 減少 - reduce
• 弾き飛ばす - knockback
• 戦闘を開始する - begin battle
• ___炎・氷属性にする - applies fire/ice element to attack
• 炎・氷属性の__ダメージを与える - deals fire/ice damage
• 炎・氷属性攻撃に強くなる - reduced damage take from fire/ice attacks
• 一番体力の低い仲間１人のHPを回復する - heal the party member with the lowest HP
• 残りHPが Y 分の X 以下の場合 - When the remaining HP is under X/Y (special modification: 半分 - half)
• バリアーをはる - put up a barrier
• 離脱 - retire from battle
• 狙撃 - sniping attack 
• 移動不能 - unable to move
• 攻撃受けるごとに＿＿回復 - heal every time he/she is attacked
• 敵に近づくまで姿が見えなくなる - transparent until he/she approaches an enemy
• 止めを刺した場合、その敵を貫通する - If the attack takes down the enemy, it pierces through to hit the enemy behind.
• 一定時間無敵になる - cannot be attacked by enemies for a fixed period of time

Common words used to describe attack range

• 範囲 - attack range (common modification: 範囲内 - within attack range)
• 直線範囲 - straight line attack (two common modifications: 直線範囲の全員に - attack all enemies in a straight line and 直線範囲上にいる敵１体 - attack the first enemy ahead)
• ダッシュ範囲 - within dashing range
• 接触している敵 - enemy within touching distance
• 前方範囲内 - within range ahead (can also mean enemies at the vanguard vanguard)
• 前方の敵１体 - attack one enemy ahead
• 自分中心の範囲内 - attack areas surrounding you
• 広範囲内 - within a wide range
• 目の前にいる敵 - enemy directly in front
• 一番奥にいる敵 - enemy furthest away
• 回復範囲が広がる - healing range increases

Common location names

These are usually phrased as: ____での戦闘時に (when battle occurs on/in/at ____)

• 市街 - urban areas
• 街中 - city/downtown
• 洞窟 - cave
• 高地 - plateau
• 雪山 - snowy mountains
• 砂漠 - desert
• 砂浜 - beach
• 森林 - forest
• 船上 - boat
• 海中 - under the sea
• 海洋 - ocean
• 戦場 - battleground
• 荒地 - wasteland
• 城中 - castle 

Common enemy types

Usually phrased as ____種に対して (.... against ____ species.)

• 黒の兵士 - black army
• ドラゴン - dragon
• ビースト - beast
• ゴーレム - golem
• トカゲ - lizard
• exception to format- 魚人系の敵 - fish type enemy
• exception to format- 鬼族 - demon type

Useful phrases

• _____にならない - will not be affected by ___ (usually found in the middle/end of sentences)
• マナを__つもった状態で戦闘を開始する。- begin the battle with X) mana.
• _____そして元の位置に戻る - ___ and then returns to its original position

Phrases to watch out for

• status effect Aするがstatus effect B - although status effect A occurs, so does status effect B 

Let me know if I'm missing anything and thanks for reading!