[Overview/landing page](https://lostinlocalization.com/hm64-variety/) (skip this text post if you read this) or [Part 1](https://lostinlocalization.com/hm64-variety-1/) of the translation.
Hey there, /r/LearnJapanese! I’ve been working on a line-by-line translation of the Variety Channel for Harvest Moon 64. You might also know it by the fan-preferred name of Entertainment Channel. In brief, if you’re unfamiliar, it contains 7 shows that exist for the purpose of entertainment, rather than for gameplay-related reasons. It was cut in localization due to memory limitations, and to my knowledge has never been translated, until now.
While you may not be a huge fan of Harvest Moon/Story of Seasons/牧場物語, you probably ARE interested in learning Japanese! I’ve wanted to understand these shows for a long time, and I finally feel like I can understand it well enough not only for translation, but also to help other people learn Japanese! To that end, I expanded the scope of this translation project to also be a “study guide” of sorts.
Not only do I have a **line-by-line translation** as well as **cultural notes** and **deeper breakdowns of difficult terms**, but I also created an **item-by-item spreadsheet** for every single term and grammatical structure that appears in the shows, as well as an **Anki deck** complete with external links to better explanations than my own on sites such as Maggie-sensei, briefjapanese, Tofugu, etc.
People often want to put their Japanese-learning to use with video games, but I’ve found that the amount of new grammar, dialectical speech, and game/setting-specific vocabulary make it almost impossible to fully understand. For example, I usually see Pokemon suggested as one of your first Japanese games, but aside from it being kana soup, one of the first lines of dialogue contains the phrase そういえば, an N2 grammar point a new learner would almost certainly not know. Challenges like that *can* speed up your learning, but I think it’s better to know what’s coming to reduce frustration.
My hope is not only that this becomes a good starting point for those who have learned their kana and become familiar with some kanji, but also that it carries forward the inquisitive spark I had when first playing this game as a child in the 90s. This game is probably the first time I became aware games weren’t all made for English-speaking kids like me, and actually changed quite a bit when coming overseas. I’d say it’s the genesis of my Japanese-learning journey, so hopefully it becomes the same for someone else.
I hope some of you find it useful. I am also definitely still learning not only Japanese, but article-writing and how to create effective study materials, as well. So if you have any feedback at all, I’ll certainly appreciate it.
2 comments
love blogs / sites like this, thanks!
When a phrase like そういえば appears, and you’re a beginner, just hold down shift while hovering over it and your Yomichan will pop up an English definition of the phrase.