Good games for beginner Japanese?

So basically I’m still at a pretty beginner level, but I’ve realised being ‘immersed’ in Japanese stuff is one of the best ways for me to learn and stuff actually sticks in my memory, for example having conversations in Japanese, or watching videos where dialogue is repeated here and there. I don’t mind having to stop and search words I don’t know, and I feel when I search them in this way I remember them better?

So basically I was wondering if there was any games I could possibly play in Japanese, maybe it would be easier to play a game I’ve played before or multiple times? Or just any game where I’d be able to take the time to search stuff and not remembering something on the spot wouldn’t continuosly ruin the game

Any suggestions are really appreciated!! I had the idea for this due to playing persona 5 and reading signs in game and other Japanese words and realising it was actually helping me remember them a lot better than the likes of flashcards

I just wanna add too that I won’t be using this as a form of learning on its own, and I understand language used in games and media aren’t always the same as Japanese used irl. I use a lot of different forms of studying such as anki, genki, wanikani, kaizen and also listening to beginner friendly podcasts and watching children’s anime such as shirokuma cafe

3 comments
  1. Pokemon is an obvious choice. The sentence structures are mostly basic and you can even toggle between Kana/Kanji in the newer games (older games are Kana only).

  2. ぼくじょうものがたり(Story of Seasons/Harvest Moon) has been pretty good to me. Not a lot of dialogue coming at your constantly, time to look it up and it’s structured more like actual human speech instead of anime-type. Plus it’s a life-sim so it’s mostly day-to-day items to learn (granted about farming but still) and you get to see how dialogue changes as you get to know the townfolk.

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