I am intrigued by the Moe Way recommendation of using Visual Novels to boost Japanese reading speed.
The first one I tried was the Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney series, which was fun, and as the Moe folks predicted, allowed me to read for much longer periods without getting tired.
However, I found PWAA a little too simple. Usually just 1 or 2 sentence bites of basic vocabulary and grammar. (FWIW, I have passed N1.)
Any recommendations for an interesting, more challenging, but not impossible VN?
I would prefer to keep it on the Steam platform, because I can play in full Japanese mode without completely redoing the administrative language settings (Windows 11) and potentially causing conflicts with other programs/apps.
I checked the jpdb database, and none of the VNs rated 8 or higher for difficulty appears to be available on Steam.
Thanks!
5 comments
JPDB’s database for difficulty seems to be based on sentence length and Kanji. Though I doubt much will actually bother you if you are N1+ anyways. Youtube has some great play and reads to get a preview of the material before you commit. I did not need to switch languages for Umineko to work, but I needed to for Clannad. That’s about my experience with VNs.
Dies irae is rated 8 on jpdb and is on steam, common route free. Unfortunately the only version they offer doesn’t have a good hook code
Ryūkishi07’s stuff is known for its difficulty (particularly qua kanji usage) and it’s mostly on Steam. Higurashi and Umineko are each over 1 million words long.
Stein gate?
With the current exchange rate, purchasing VNs from Japanese sites can be remarkably cheap at the moment. Steam seems to be particularly bad at actually providing multiple languages, which is annoying to say the least.