こんにちは！ I was wondering if anyone knew some good Game Boy / Game Boy Color games to help a beginner learn Japanese. I’ve looked online but haven’t found much information about what I’m looking for. I’m thinking something with a decent amount of text that is not too difficult, no kanji (or kanji with the kana above it), and vocab that would be useful in everyday life in Japan. I have a flashcart to put the ROMs on, so anything goes! ありがとう!
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The original Pokémon didn’t have enough memory capacity to add kanji, it has a decent amount of dialog too
Harvest moon! (牧場物) There’s three GB games from the series, with the first being very simple and then increasing in complexity.
Also Survival Kids: Kotou no Boukensha. Not exactly totally everyday life stuff, but one of the best games on the gameboy color. If you like it theres a sequel “Survival Kids 2: Dasshutsu! Futago Shima”
If you want super simple, there’s also a variety of Hamtaro games on the gameboy.
Games for children are your best bet. Pokemon is good. Probably Kirby and Zelda are decent too but I haven’t played them in Japanese.
Ferret Monogatari
I did a similar research once and most people seemed to have recommended Pokemon franchise as a good starting point. As for me, I already settled for Pokemon White/Black to be my first imported game, once I feel confident enough. Apart from language accessibility, the main factor in decision was absolute bonkers prices of EU copies, especially for DS generation installments.