I tried Pokémon but it was all hiragana, which is torturous to read and I don’t feel that will help me learn as much. Something that will be challenging but not exhaustingly so for an N4-ish level (but I feel like my grammar is way higher)
This is a remake of an old 1983 nintendo game. It is now with AI and you can talk to the people in the game more freely. Actually, I never tried this one yet, but I remember I enjoyed old one a lot.
Pokemon should have options to play using kanji or hiragana
Not sure what systems you have but Game Gengo has a few recommendation lists that you can have a look through.
Ni no kuni 2 is great (tho no furigana) Rune factory 4 is great (also no furigana if iirc) I also liked Eiyuden chronicle rising (tho it has a non beginner friendly font)
if youre into gachas, i heavily recommend blue archive! (jp version)
i would consider the genre to be a mix of both slice of life and high stakes encounters, as well as a sprinkle of topics from a variety of subjects (politics, history, academics, etc)
Gyakuten Saiban (Ace Attorney)
– lots of text and mostly reading like a visual novel but has actual gameplay – quite easy grammar and sentence composition that was easy enough for me to read at ~N4 / end of Genki 2 level – story-based content where you have to understand to progress so you can’t just white noise most of it like Animal Crossing or play on autopilot like Pokémon – available natively on Steam (with soulless shitty art) or with emulation on 3DS or DS (with good pixel art)
animal crossing if you like the game
I like to recommend the first Ni No Kuni. It’s a long game, fun to play, lots of text, some voice acting, and best of all: furigana. The language I’d say is around N4-N3 and pretty manageable imo.
Any game that you have played before in English (or whatever language you are good at) and would like to replay.
persona series in japanese
Completely random and not a Japanese game but when I was learning I had fun playing Alba: a wildlife adventure.
Short-ish, cute, cheap, fun indie game with Japanese text. I liked this one because it was I was actually able to complete it in about a week.
Stardew Valley is working pretty well for me. But I’ve already played through it so that helps. it has kanji, but for more difficult words it has hiragana. I think. The Kanji are all pretty easy anyways.
Just enjoy a game that’s easy to play but has enough text for you to scan over too. The latest Zelda game is great for that.
The reality is you need to be closer to N3 headed towards N2 to start slogging through game text. So just keep it light and fun for now and pick something that you can skip the text in and not have it ruin the game for you.
Project Sekai jp version!
Pokémon, at least the switch versions have a “kana only” mode but also have some normal mode.
I checked out Pokemon Scarlett on the Switch recently to see if it was a good fit for a kid I know who started learning Japanese, and I think the kanji difficulty is well-suited for someone at an N4-ish level.
If you’re into that stuff, visual novels probably offer a better input/time ratio. A site like [jpdb.io](https://jpdb.io) will help you find VNs that are well-suited for your level. You can also filter by ratings so you don’t waste your time with bad/boring ones. You’ll be able to easily look up and copy-paste sentences with a combination of Textractor and Yomichan. https://www.jpdb.io/visual-novel-difficulty-list
Regarding your statement that reading hiragana will not help you learn as much: it’s probably a controversial opinion on this sub, but I actually think it can be helpful. If you don’t recognize a word written in Hiragana because you don’t have the visual clutch offered by Kanji, you will likely not recognize it when you hear it.
16 comments
[https://store.steampowered.com/app/2280000/SQUARE_ENIX_AI_Tech_Preview_THE_PORTOPIA_SERIAL_MURDER_CASE/](https://store.steampowered.com/app/2280000/SQUARE_ENIX_AI_Tech_Preview_THE_PORTOPIA_SERIAL_MURDER_CASE/)
​
This is a remake of an old 1983 nintendo game. It is now with AI and you can talk to the people in the game more freely. Actually, I never tried this one yet, but I remember I enjoyed old one a lot.
Pokemon should have options to play using kanji or hiragana
Not sure what systems you have but Game Gengo has a few recommendation lists that you can have a look through.
Here is a list of games for switch: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1VLPVWVhJy6QmjYAfSsLURGiqmLQ7bvR6Hux7OURv2pg/edit#gid=0
and a playlist of recommendation videos here:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLT12i1gB38HEakPT1dgOxtqk4rMYzL4UZ
Ni no kuni 2 is great (tho no furigana)
Rune factory 4 is great (also no furigana if iirc)
I also liked Eiyuden chronicle rising (tho it has a non beginner friendly font)
if youre into gachas, i heavily recommend blue archive! (jp version)
i would consider the genre to be a mix of both slice of life and high stakes encounters, as well as a sprinkle of topics from a variety of subjects (politics, history, academics, etc)
Gyakuten Saiban (Ace Attorney)
– lots of text and mostly reading like a visual novel but has actual gameplay
– quite easy grammar and sentence composition that was easy enough for me to read at ~N4 / end of Genki 2 level
– story-based content where you have to understand to progress so you can’t just white noise most of it like Animal Crossing or play on autopilot like Pokémon
– available natively on Steam (with soulless shitty art) or with emulation on 3DS or DS (with good pixel art)
animal crossing if you like the game
I like to recommend the first Ni No Kuni. It’s a long game, fun to play, lots of text, some voice acting, and best of all: furigana. The language I’d say is around N4-N3 and pretty manageable imo.
Any game that you have played before in English (or whatever language you are good at) and would like to replay.
persona series in japanese
Completely random and not a Japanese game but when I was learning I had fun playing Alba: a wildlife adventure.
Short-ish, cute, cheap, fun indie game with Japanese text. I liked this one because it was I was actually able to complete it in about a week.
Stardew Valley is working pretty well for me. But I’ve already played through it so that helps. it has kanji, but for more difficult words it has hiragana. I think. The Kanji are all pretty easy anyways.
Just enjoy a game that’s easy to play but has enough text for you to scan over too. The latest Zelda game is great for that.
The reality is you need to be closer to N3 headed towards N2 to start slogging through game text. So just keep it light and fun for now and pick something that you can skip the text in and not have it ruin the game for you.
Project Sekai jp version!
Pokémon, at least the switch versions have a “kana only” mode but also have some normal mode.
I checked out Pokemon Scarlett on the Switch recently to see if it was a good fit for a kid I know who started learning Japanese, and I think the kanji difficulty is well-suited for someone at an N4-ish level.
If you’re into that stuff, visual novels probably offer a better input/time ratio. A site like [jpdb.io](https://jpdb.io) will help you find VNs that are well-suited for your level. You can also filter by ratings so you don’t waste your time with bad/boring ones. You’ll be able to easily look up and copy-paste sentences with a combination of Textractor and Yomichan.
https://www.jpdb.io/visual-novel-difficulty-list
Regarding your statement that reading hiragana will not help you learn as much: it’s probably a controversial opinion on this sub, but I actually think it can be helpful. If you don’t recognize a word written in Hiragana because you don’t have the visual clutch offered by Kanji, you will likely not recognize it when you hear it.