Hi everyone! I’m currently shopping for a short to medium length game (15-25 hours would be the sweet spot) on the 3DS or Switch that I could use to help myself learn Japanese.
I’m thinking a JRPG that has plenty of dialogue as well as useful vocabulary within the menus I can use to help learn more grammar and kanji.
Obviously this isn’t the only thing I’ll do. This is just something to keep me entertained while still trying to learn.
I already own the Mana Collection, but I was debating starting a new save in FF Adventure in Japanese (idek of it’s possible tho). I also own DQ 11 S and don’t really plan on restarting my game again. Plus that game is absolutely huge and I fear I’ll lose interest midway through if I try anything like translating the entire thing.
Just turning the game language to Japanese I found has made me memorize the menu format and sound cues without actually absorbing any Japanese, so less time in menus would be a bonus.
I found myself really engaged with Three Houses recently, which has exactly what I’m looking for. Between fights players have the option to engage with characters and do side quests while exploring the hub world and leveling up units as well as strengthening relationships via interactions.
This is a fantastic and engaging section of the game that let’s us get to know every character and how they interact with one another.
I would really like something like this. I know Visual Novels are excellent when it comes to this sort of gameplay, but I would prefer the main chunk of the game (the reason you’re playing) to be actual gameplay rather than just interacting with characters.
Before you ask, yes I have Kanji Combat on Steam which has helped me learn some Kanji, but it feels less and less like a game as I play because I’m aware it’s main drive isn’t character interactions, but teaching me Japanese. As a result I’m not as invested in the characters and rather skip forward to lessons instead of really getting into the story.
Also voice acting would be fantastic so I can read along.
Any recommendations would be greatly appreciated and, again, this is for fun. Just to translate a game as I play it (which is why I want a shorter game), not to supplement any studying time.
Oh right and if the game has Furigana as an option I would absolutely love to check it out!!
Thank you for your time!
27 comments
Pokemon has the option for only hiragana as opposed to Kanji and is written to tsrget a younger audience.
Pokémon(easy), Animal Crossing (medium, lots of keigo tho) FF (medium hard), Fire Emblem (very hard)
I’d recommend dragon quest since you already are into jrpgs but it is a lot longer than 15-25 hours haha I do believe it has furigana though! Pokémon sword and shield aren’t bad but no furigana (only kana all kana or kanji options) Pokémon legends arceus does have furigana though and fits into that timeframe ^^ (at least the base game does) odyssey botw and basically any triple A game developed by Nintendo has furigana (don’t personally recommend zelda because it uses a lot of old language but still great) rythym heaven on the ds is loads of fun (some furigana but mostly just kana and kanji pretty basic language used over all) and that’s all I know of hope this was helpful ^^ oh and yo Kai watch on the 3ds also has furigana but the time it takes for you to beat the game really depends on how much you explore lots of little character interactions and it’s basically like “the chad version” of Pokémon lmao
Try the demo for Live A Live. It has menu-based language switching, and the stories are shorter because it’s basically a collection of short stories in the turn-based RPG format. That means you could try a story and take a break.
I also recommend the Ace Attorney trilogy. If you’re not reading and understanding the dialogue, you won’t progress. Don’t hesitate to consult a guide. Even with perfect understanding, it might not be clear at times how to progress.
Check out the indie game Dodgeball Academia. Not only is it very charming and reminiscent of classic shonen anime, it has a ‘learner mode’ in the language settings that will let you display the bulk of the text in Japanese while having English translations at the bottom of the screen, which you can hide at any time. You can also do the reverse and with other languages. Of course, there are going to be discrepancies in the localisation but that’s part of the fun, seeing where things differ and thinking about how they translate idioms and other expressions. I want to say English is the original language, I believe the devs are from Brazil.
I was kinda blown away when I saw it, to be honest – just a really ingenious thing to put in a game. It’s got the satisfaction of playing something in Japanese but with a guiding hand available so you’re not having to stop to look up words every five seconds.
The only good short JRPG for beginners is 13 sentinels. It has a Switch port now, but I don’t know if it gives you the option to do Japanese audio with Japanese subtitles. In the PS store, only the Japanese version of the game has both Japanese audio and Japanese subtitles, the US version of the game has both English and Japanese audio, but it only has English subtitles. If the Switch port allows for both JP audio and JP subtitles, then that’s probably your best option. Pokemon and Animal Crossing are easy games, but I don’t know if they would be JRPG-y enough for you.
Honestly Dragon Quest 11 is the next best JRPG starter game for your platforms. If you’re not interested in Dragon Quest, then the next thing would be the Persona series, but that’s a step up in difficulty, and those are also long games like Dragon Quest, so you might have the same problem. Jumping straight into an older FF game might be tough, but it might be doable if you watch a “Lets Play” in English while playing along in Japanese.
Pokemon and Animal Crossing are other possibilities, but I don’t know if they are JRPG-y enough for you.
13 Sentinels Aegis Rim
This is a common question here, I’m surprised it’s not a pinned item on the sidebar.
Shadowrun displays English and Japanese at the same time, its an action RPG
Yoshi’s Island is all kana
Final Fantasy 4 is pretty accessible even for beginners
Zelda no densetsu – kamigami no triforce has very easy japanese
Not sure about Dragon Quest but I’ve got good news for you
There’s actually a group of people that maintain a database of games and translate the entire game’s text here. Not sure if I have enough karma to post it, but if you google “List of Game Scripts” you’ll see some links to sites like Court Records (a Phoenix Wright forum) with a ton of recommendations
3DS: (SMT 4 and SMT 4 Final)
Switch: (Story of seasons Friends of Mineral town and 13 Sentinels Aegis Rim)
I like to use Lost Judgment.
Someone recommended Coffee Chat on here, and I have been thoroughly enjoying it! Not an RPG per se, but still helpful for language learning in my opinion.
Since it hasn’t been mentioned/asked yet, do you have a Japanese 3DS? 3DS is region-locked, so you need a Japanese 3DS or homebrew to play Japanese games.
Bravely Default is amazing.
My Japanese couch is a good game to pick up some vocabulary
Probably echoing most other commenters, but the Switch is so convenient for supplementing Japanese learning since the system and so many games can be switched to Japanese. Japanese-only games often come up for sale on the Japanese eShop too – you can probably still buy credit on various reseller sites.
Yo Kai Watch games were the ones I found most accessible BY FAR, the remakes of the Famicom Detective Club games were a nice challenge too. The new Crayon Shin-chan game was also very enjoyable and useful, although there’s a lot of quirky stuff that can be a little tricky to nail down. I tried Pokemon Legends Arceus but the story is so boring it became a slog to play through as a language supplement imo.
Keep in mind, these were played after having gone through most of the Minna 1/2 books and a good chunk of early Wani Kani, which meant I was still looking stuff up regularly and at points it was really, REALLY slow going. Still fun though. That’s the main thing, right?
Games were a great way to reinforce what I was learning and pick up new things. At the end of the day, it’s all cumulative. Have fun!
It really depends on your level. I studied in Japan for 3 years during language school and 専門. I used to play SMT and Personal when I moved to Japan.
I bought a Japanese 3ds and started Strange Journey Redux. It was daunting at that time. Then I bought Pokemon Omega Ruby. It was extremely fun! I played all Dragon Quests in Japanese when I was living in Japan. They are alright. Most have furigana. So, if you are n4-n3, Pokemon and DQ are my advice.
If you are N2, games like Final Fantasy 10, Ys 8, Ys 9, Tales of Vesperia are more playable. I have played all these games with N2 at the time and I had no problem.
Trials of Mana is a remake of the old Seiken Densetsu 3. There aren’t many cutscenes and the focus is the simple gameplay. So if you are around N3 level that might be a good idea.
If you are around N5. Just don’t play games yet. Study using the boring traditional form so you can at least have a base. I’m using the N levels for reference, but you don’t necessarily need them depending on the situation.
BTW, you can search for howlongtobeat on Google so you can know how long any game takes. That should makes your decision easier.
Game developer and critic Tim Rogers recommends SNES era Dragon Quest (5, if memory serves) for beginners and Tokimeki Memorial for intermediate readers. Both can be easily found and played in an emulator on a wide range of computers. TM is as much a management game as a visual novel which I hope is enough gameplay for you given that your goal here is to learn Japanese.
Can’t speak to the actual quality of the game since I’m considering getting it myself but Yo-Kai Watch is actually on sale right now on the Japanese EShop for about 1500 yen, so that might be good.
I liked playing RPGs in Japanese for practice, the last one I was playing was Tales of Arise.
In my case though I’d often get kinda bored of the gameplay itself, I was really there for the Japanese dialog and not for the game itself. So lately I switched to Visual Novels because they are more text heavy. Totally recommend this one:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/412830/STEINSGATE/
I mostly play Pokemon in Japanese. Those games are pretty simple to understand, and most of them offer the option to play with kana instead of kanji. Legends Arceus doesn’t have that option, but it has furigana for the dialogue.
If you have Switch online you can play the NES, SNES, SEGA, and N64 games in Japanese. You just need to download the software from the Japanese e-shop.
A lot of games also support Japanese play on switch but don’t have a language option. A good example would be Animal Crossing. You just need to switch the console language, and the game will also switch languages.
I quite enjoyed the demo for Doraemon: Story of Seasons (ドラえもん のび太の牧場物語) on the Switch. It’s similar to Stardew Valley, but aimed more at children, both in terms of gameplay and dialogue. Not sure if you can switch the English version to Japanese, but you should be able to get it from the Japanese Nintendo Shop using a prepaid Nintendo card (which you can purchase online).
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I’ve learned quite a lot playing Skyrim, simply by virtue of the amount of exposure one gets from a playthrough. Also, the voice acting was great.
That being said, I don’t think I learned a lot relative to the amount of time spent; it was effective, but not *efficient*. So, if you’re planning on playing it anyway, switching to Japanese is great way to add learning to your gaming, but it shouldn’t really be seen as “study time”.
When I get a VR headset, I’m thinking I’ll try Skyrim VR in Japanese; should be a fun time.
This guys channel is great, all about learning Japanese from games. This is his top 50 games on steam
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w_QrcROWKmA
Unfortunately a lot of the 3DS games won’t be available since it’s region locked, so you’d be limited to games with your region and Japanese as options, like Pokemon where you can choose your language. I’d really wanted to play Professor Layton games in Japanese. You can buy DS games and those will work fine, though.
I got Tales of Vesperia complete edition, and by changing language in Switch settings (like the whole menu is now in Japanese), the game will also chnage languages. I like that the game is narrated for most lines other than random NPC dialogue, but not all kanji has furigana. If something really stumped me, I just watched a walkthrough video in English and looked for that part.
Has anybody tried Genshin Impact?
I’ve never played it but I saw somebody playing it recently and it has a lot of features that looked nice for a studying a language. Voice acted dialog, subtitles, stops after each line giving you time to read it. And the whole gatch mechanic means you get to collect all the dialogue lines as well as phrases from the characters and go back and play them at will. And you get description cards for every item you collect.
I suspect the language in the game won’t be the easiest though.
I know a lot about JPRGs and 3DS – I have a Japanese 3DS but FYI take the following with the grain of salt because I don’t play games in japanese. The 3DS didn’t have the crazy number of turn-based RPGs like the DS did, but it can still play the DS games too if that’s you’re thing. The DS games are not region locked.
I’m currently playing the Japanese version of Ace Attorney Trilogy, which comes with both an English and Japanese version of the game (I think the English version does the same thing but not sure). They literally are two separate versions, because there’s no subtitles, no language track, and the save games are different (which may be a good or bad thing). For example, If I load Ace Attorney 1 in English, the game progress is completely only used in the English version of the game. If I switch to Japanese, it has a completely independent save game, and it’s like starting the game entirely over. So maybe it’s good that you can do a completely playthrough in English to get the gist, and then start over in Japanese.
So here’s the good/bad about the game as a language tool
* It’s almost entirely text dialogue. Very little of the text is description. Great if you like speaking, which I personally would find more interesting than reading by itself.
* They do talk in slang and idioms and use jokes, so I’m not sure how far that applies to your study goals
* It’s already mined if you want to srs the vocab [https://jpdb.io/anime/801/gyakuten-saiban](https://jpdb.io/anime/801/gyakuten-saiban)
* The game doesn’t move when you’re reading text (for the most part). You can spend as long as you want trying to grasp something
* The bad is that the game doesn’t go “back” in dialogue except in some areas or have a history. So you an’t review something if you want to see it again.
* The story is chapterized into digestible chunks
* It’s a visual novel rather than straightforward gameplay, and that took some time for me to get used to
As far as Dragon Quest and the Square Enix rpgs go, I dunno, the game is SO LONG, that it takes 80-100 hours as it is to play, I can’t imagine how long it takes as a language learning game. I like the DQ games but I hate the fact that you can “forget” what you’re supposed to do next, and the maps are so big, that it makes it hard to stop and pickup unless you’re focused to make it through the same playthrough.
My favorite games are the SMT Devil Survivor Overdrive and Strange Journey Redux games, but these games have a gigantic amount of descriptive text with little dialogue, and the game difficulty gets significantly hard towards the end.
I have no experience with Pokemon/Zelda as I didn’t f appeal to me. It largely depends on the content you want to experience though, so maybe you mind enjoy them in Japanese.
Honestly, I feel like Ocarina of Time 3D was pretty good for learning.
Nihongo quest is one I’ve seen and it’s been in development for a while, don’t know if it has been released yet but the demo looks like a retro Pokémon game. It is a game solely made for learning Japanese, give it a look
There are the 7 or 8 Yakuza games. I think it’s the most popular rpg in Japan