Any ever play Tongari Boushi to Oshare na Mahou Tsukai (とんがりボウシとおしゃれな魔法使い)?

[darkenedforest]

I'm working on a fan translation of the game. Unfortunately, I don't read Japanese, so I am dependent on artificial intelligence to translate. Which works fine, for the most part. Since I can't play the actual game, I have run into something in the game text that makes me curious how it works in the game.

There are phrases in the text that are encased in {} and separated by a | like this: お{会|あ}いするデス
Based on the translations, it seems like maybe they represent the same meaning just in hiragana and katakana, or kanji. Maybe a different dialect, or regional thing? It looks like kanji is always on the left and hiragana (and katakana?) are on the right.

Anyway, what I was wondering specifically is what would tell the game which word to choose. If there is a setting in the game for something that would display the kanji word for example.
So if you have ever played the game and know how you might change a setting to tell the game to toggle from one set of words to the other, I'd appreciate an explanation.
Thank you for your time!

Here are some more example from the game:
{初|はじ}めて お{会|あ}いシマスネ
うちはお{金持|かねも}ちデスから
{覚|おぼ}えておいてクダサイ
{会|あ}うのは {初|はじ}めてだな
の{名|な}は
{仲良|なかよ}くしてくれよ
はじめて お{見|み}かけする
お{顔|かお} デスネ
の{名|な}は
{覚|おぼ}えておいて クダサイ
この{出会|であ}い
そなた {初|はじ}めて {見|み}る
{顔|かお}で あるな
{名|な}は なんともうす？
よい {名|な}じゃ
の{名|な}は
{今後|こんご}は よしなに
{名|な}は{何|なん}というのか！
{今後|こんご} よろしくたのむ！
あんたと{会|あ}うのは
{初|はじ}めてだな
の{名前|なまえ}は
{頭|あたま}が かたそうとか
{言|い}われるが
{頭|あたま}のかたそうなヤツに
{聞|き}いたぞ
ん？ あいさつしてない{顔|かお}だな
それで そっちの{名前|なまえ}は…
ふーん なかなかいい{名前|なまえ}だな
を{見|み}かけたら
{気軽|きがる}に{声|こえ}をかけていいぜ
キミの{名|な}は？
キミと{会|あ}うのは
{初|はじ}めて
なんて{名前|なまえ}
{友|とも}だちになるってことも

 

[Toritoribe]

The hiragana on the right side of "|" is furigana, i.e., the reading of the kanji on the left side of it. Kanji usually has multiple readings, for example 会う（あう）, 会釈（えしゃく） or 会合（かいごう）for 会, so furigana is used to give the correct reading of the kanji, especially for children who might not be able to read it.

Those examples are various ways of greetings when meeting for the first time. The wordings the speaker uses show their characteristics; their age, social class or the relation between the speaker and addressee (friendly, polite, haughty, frank, etc.). They are introducing themselves, asking your(= the player's) name, or like that.

 

[mdchachi]

If you want to see how furigana looks on modern computers you can look here.

NHKやさしいことばニュース | NEWS WEB EASY

「NHKやさしいことばニュース」は、日本に住んでいる外国人の皆さんや、子どもたちに、できるだけやさしい日本語でニュースを伝えるサイトです。

www3.nhk.or.jp

Are you getting the game text from the software itself or from the screen?
If the latter, there might be a way to turn it off/on in the settings. I looked at some game play on youtube and the furigana isn't shown.
Look for ふりがな or フリガナ.

 

[darkenedforest]

Thank you for the reply. I am getting the text directly from the game code itself.
This exactly what I am wondering. Is there a way to turn this off/on?

there might be a way to turn it off/on in the settings

 

[darkenedforest]

Here's an example where the game file has the furigana (thank you for the term btw) but the game itself does not display it. I can't find any settings in the game to enable it. My DS is a North American one, so my language settings may differ from a Japanese DS. But I know you can play games like Animal Crossing in Japanese on a North American DS and it will show the furigana. So I'm wondering if maybe they just never implemented it into the game, or if someone has played the game and knows how it works.

 

[mdchachi]

I thought maybe there are device settings (outside the game) where these might be set on/off. So it would make sense they are not available to you using an overseas device. But although you can set the language, I don't see any mention of a furigana setting in this manual.

https://www.nintendo.co.jp/ds/support/pdf/dsLitemanual.pdf

So maybe, like you said, this game doesn't support it. One last idea: can you change the device language to Japanese on your model? If so maybe the option will show up in the game if it detects the device is set to Japanese.

 

[darkenedforest]

I can not. All I get for languages is English, Spanish, and French. So, I guess it wouldn't really matter if that was how you "enable" it. Since the group the translation is for isn't likely to have a Japanese DS. Not a big deal any way. If I could figure out how to display the extra text I was going to hijack the system. Something like this:
{ Official translation | Snarky/sarcastic translation/internal thought related to official translation}.
So it might be like this:
{ It's very nice to meet you. | ...for the twentieth time today}
Then the player could toggle on or off my sarcastic humor. But alas, I guess it is not to be.
Anyway, thank you all for the help and input.