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Recently, I have switched a video game I play, Rocket League, to Japanese to get some more exposure to the language. For those who may not know, it’s basically soccer with cars. In the game, players are able to quick chat to quickly communicate with each other. One of these quick chats is "I got it!", which communicates to other players that you intend to move to hit the ball, similar to when you would say "I got it!" in volleyball.

As for my question, when playing the game in Japanese, that quick chat is translated to "もらった！”. Does this translation seem to work in this case? To me, the phrase "もらった！” communicates more along the lines that you have already received the ball instead of you intend to hit the ball. Is this so? If that is the case, what phrase would you use instead to communicate you intend to hit the ball?

I feel as if I am likely wrong, and that ”もらった！” is a fine translation, just wanted to hear what others had to say about it.

Eddie Kal
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Matthew Wahner
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  • The problem is you don't know what language a person you're playing with it using, but I found that people who play RL in Japan seem to understand I got it (and by extension もらった) the way people use them generally, unless they are beginners. It ultimately only matters how it's used in game, but it would help beginners in Japan get acquainted quicker I think if it was more like the English meaning. – Leebo Mar 27 '21 at 06:16
  • @Leebo 洋ゲーマー need to get used to bad translations quickly :) – naruto Mar 27 '21 at 10:58

1 Answers1

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In general, Japanese もらった is more like an interjection said excitedly when the speaker thinks they have almost gotten a goal or something is "in the bag". You can think it's short for 勝利は(ほぼ)もらった or ゴールは(ほぼ)もらった. Since the implied object is usually not ボール, it does not mean the speaker is going to handle the ball, nor does it mean the speaker simply received the ball.

At least in volleyball, there is no special Japanese phrase that corresponds to this type of "I got it".

スポーツで使える英語～バレーボール

日本語だったら、シンプルに「はい！」とか「オーライ！」とかだと思うのですが、英語では、

「Mine!」
「I go」
「I got it」
「Got it」
「Me, me, me」

などと言います。

はい and オーライ work in volleyball, but they are too generic. A game of Rocket League seems to be less speedy than that of volleyball, so something like "行きます!" or "もらいます!" may be a reasonable option as a translation of "I got it!". Something like "俺が!" or "私が!" might work, but another problem regarding the choice of first-person pronoun arises.

naruto
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    「I go!」とか「Me, me, me」とかは、聞いたことがないし、もし聞いたらおかしいとは感じるでしょう。私はスポーツのファンではないんですが。 – Angelos Mar 27 '21 at 20:58
  • Bit of a stretch maybe, but I'm wondering if it makes sense to interpret the もらった！form in the same vein as the faux past tense まった！ – Will Mar 28 '21 at 05:14