RResidents in Japan

Switch games for decent Japanese Practice?

I use Japanese daily at work and have N1, but we all know this means nothing and I still need

to use Japanese as much as I can to keep learning.

On Switch I only have games like Mario Kart and Smash bros that I play with my friends back home online, but I want to get stuck into an RPG with some Japanese to read. I read Japanese books but I feel like this could be a fun way to shake my studying up.

I’m thinking wither Fire emblem, Pokemon or a Zelda game. I want a decent level of dialogue like daily Japanese is fine without it being too baby-ish or also too ridiculously hard and fantasy-ish.

Any games you’ve personally played that you feel benefited your Japanese that you can recommend would be great.

Thank you!

25 comments

  1. 13 Sentinels

    This game has a very good storyline and it will be good for practicing Japanese. If you love to read and enjoy a good game, I will highly recommend this game to you.

    The game battle mechanics are like tower defense and not extremely difficult.

  2. Zelda doesn’t have a whole lot of dialogue. Pokemon is very child focused, so the dialogue is simple and also not too common if you’re not the type to speak with every NPC – stats reading also won’t help a whole lot with real world application.

    Fire Emblem should be nice, same as farming games and any story heavy games. If you have N1, you should be able to tackle anything so just go with what you like and that seems to have a high amount of dialogue or text.

  3. Xenoblade

    You can buy it used fairly cheap in a lot of places. Decent story in an interesting world setting. Just remember game Japanese and real world Japanese is quite different but good kanji practice. With N1 I think pokemon and zelda will not be worth playing. (Don’t get me wrong! I love those games but if your looking to keep learning then, no)

  4. Hey, I’m pretty bad with languages (Stressed af with n4 this Sunday despite how many people telling me how easy it is (Actually makes it a bit worse ‘-.-))
    Does anyone have game recommendations for the lower end of Japanese abilities?

  5. When I was studying Japanese, Dragon quest was great for that. And other classic JRPGs

  11. i dont have a suggestion but you can use dekudeals to easily find which games are on sale and get alerts for when specific games go on sale. much better than browsing through the nintendo eshop

  13. I use the Phoenix Wrigth Ace attorney series to practice, I think it’s fun! Not exactly RPG, but maybe you’ll like it anyway.

  14. Animal crossing – but maybe too easy for your level. Could be good for intermediate learners tho

  15. Ace attorney is pretty good I think. Each character have their own way of speaking which is good for varied sentence patterns and styles.

  16. As someone who made games for Nintendo, don’t buy first-hand Nintendo IP game if your intend is to learn Japanese along. Those game are suppose to include kintergarden kids as a playerbase.

  17. As my first game that I played from start-to-finish in Japanese, Ni No Kuni offered the ideal mix of challenge and enjoyment. I would say this is more N2 level though.

  19. It’s MMO tho. It’s FFXIV. They have free trial until level 60 but the free trial is basically forever. You can opt for Japanese subtitles, Japanese dubs, Japanese UI. They sometimes use difficult words for certain characters because they have “antique” personality.

    Also, bcoz it’s MMO you can talk to JP ppl and play content with em.

    I’ll post the meme here, it’s a copy pasta

    **Have you heard of the critically acclaimed MMORPG Final Fantasy XIV? With an expanded free trial which you can play through the entirety of A Realm Reborn and the award-winning Heavensward expansion up to level 60 for free with no restrictions on playtime.**

  20. Ace Attorney is so much fun. I have “studied” in the past using old games like Bahamut Lagoon and Recettear. I have to be 100% honest and admit that I clicked through most of the dialogue though… 😏

  21. I played through final fantasy x and x-2 back at launch. They are both on switch now. I played them fine and don’t have N2 or N1.

  22. persona games are more helpful for learning day to day japanese imo, compared to other fantasy games like zelda or fire emblem. visual novels and text heavy games like ace attorney are also great practice

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