Anyone able to recognise these symbols?

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DomoArigatoMrPopo
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Anyone able to recognise these symbols?

Post by DomoArigatoMrPopo » Tue Aug 25, 2015 4:39 pm

I've been playing the Famicom DBZ RPGs lately, and I'm in the middle of ripping sprites, but as I was going through, I took notice of the Card Kanji symbols. The first DBZ RPG I played was Legend of the Super Saiyan on Super Famicom, and in it there were only a few card kanji, but when exploring the Famicom games "Kyoshuu Saiya-jin!" and "Ressen Jinzou Ningen" I noticed that they had more card kanji than their SNES successor. However, my knowledge of Japanese is lacking and I don't know how to translate them. I haven't ripped them yet, but I know that "DBZ Gaiden: Saiya-Jin Zetsumetsu Keikaku" has alternate kanji too.


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These are the Kanji from the SNES version. From a thread on this forum, I learned the following.

魔/ma, means “demon”
神/shin or kami, means “god”
界/kai means “world”
惑/waku is short for惑星/wakusei, which means “planet”. Hence it being used by aliens like the Namekians or Freeza and co.
超/chou means “super”. It's used by Super Saiyan characters and Piccolo, after he merges with somebody.
The V-shaped thing is the symbol that the Ginyu Force wears, hence it only being used by its members.
必/hitsu is short for 必殺技/hissatsu-waza, meaning a finishing move or other special attack. Hence it being connected with ki attacks.
助/jo means to help or aid. I guess the idea is that it’s used for items that are especially helpful.
気/ki refers to the sacred life force which DB characters use to blow stuff up.

These symbols are mostly from "Kyoushuu! Saiya-Jin" with a few from "Ressen Jinzo Ningen". I'm not sure if all of these symbols were actually used ON the cards but they were in the ROM and follow the same 16x16 style, so I've put them in a 16x16 box and given them the SNES's card colouring just for cohesiveness,

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I recognise one as being the Turtle symbol, but the meaning of the others eludes me. The first one almost looks like an alternate version of the Kami symbol which is interesting given how many symbols were copy+pasted into the newer games rather than redrawn, but it might not even be Kami so I don't know. Anyone able to help?

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TripleRach
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Re: Anyone able to recognise these symbols?

Post by TripleRach » Wed Aug 26, 2015 9:32 pm

I briefly played some of these games in the past, but I don't remember a lot about the card mechanics, and my Japanese was especially awful back then.

Anyway, the low resolution makes some of them a bit difficult for me to recognize, but I'll do my best.

神: shin or kami, meaning "god." It's the same one, not an alternate.
造: zou, meaning "make" or "build." I don't know how it's used in the game, but it might be worth noting that it's part of the word for android, 人造人間/jinzouningen.
怒: do or ikari, meaning "anger."
龍: ryuu, meaning "dragon."
仙: sen, meaning "hermit" or "magic." I would assume this refers to 仙豆/Senzu, but I'll elaborate below.
闘: tou, meaning "battle."
食: shoku, meaning "food."
Z III: More than likely from Dragon Ball Z III: Ressen Jinzouningen for Famicom, but I have no idea what it does in the game.
気: ki, meaning life energy and ki blasts and all that.
攻: kou, meaning "offense."
防: bou, meaning "defense."
無: mu, meaning "nothing" or "not." In the context of a game it might refer to something that cancels or nullifies.
術: jutsu, meaning "art" or "technique." In DB it tends to refer to supernatural or ninja abilities, as opposed to martial arts moves or ki blasts. The biggest example is probably the flight technique, Bukuujutsu (舞空術).
命: mei, meaning "life."
亀: kame, meaning "turtle."
封: fuu, meaning "seal" or "close," as in locking something away.
助: jo, meaning "help" or "aid."
化: ka, meaning "change (into)." It often works like the suffixes "ize" or "ify."
力: ryoku or chikara, meaning "power" or "strength."

As far as 仙/sen goes, it's part of 仙人/sennin, which means something like "wizard" or "sage" or "hermit." Kamesennin and Tsurusennin obviously have that status, but it's not as well known that Karin is considered a sennin as well. Senzu (basically "hermit/sage beans") derive their name from that fact, and a lot of objects at Karin's place have the 仙/sen character on them IIRC. I only bring all this trivia up because, without knowing what the cards do, there's a possibility they could be referring to Karin rather than the beans.
-Rachel

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Re: Anyone able to recognise these symbols?

Post by Herms » Fri Aug 28, 2015 1:38 pm

Haven't played the game, but I wonder if in this context 命 is short for 命中率/meichuu-ritsu, "accuracy", and so refers to cards that improve hit rate. Otherwise, I guess it would have something to do with HP.
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DomoArigatoMrPopo
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Re: Anyone able to recognise these symbols?

Post by DomoArigatoMrPopo » Sun Sep 06, 2015 11:14 am

Very much appreciated for the help, guys. I've gone ahead and ripped the symbols from each game, for translation purposes, but also for reference purposes. I'm not sure if I've ever seen translations for the symbols in guides about the games. The games share a lot of art assets, so a lot of them are already translated, but I felt for completion's sake I should put the duplicates in there.

Actually, as I've been writing this post, I've noticed that I actually missed quite a few of the games, so I'll post them in my next post, but for now, here are the ones I've ripped. Translations would be appreciated. After I post the next sets, I'll go through the game and try find the context for the symbols appearing. I know that the Dragon kanji appears on the Shenlong card and the Dragonball cards, for instance. Not sure about the Sen kanji, but I wasn't aware that Karin was considered a Sen'nin and didn't even make the connection between Senzu and Sen'nin.

Dragon Ball: Daimaō Fukkatsu
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Dragon Ball Z: Kyōshū! Saiyan
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Dragon Ball Z III: Ressen Jinzōningen
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Dragon Ball Z Gaiden: Saiyajin Zetsumetsu Keikaku
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