Hello everyone,
I have been studying japanese by myself since 3 years, and I think I'll try the jlpt 3 this year.
Can you advice me some good videogames in order to "exercise" my japanese? I have these consoles: nintendo ds, psp, ps2, gamecube, dreamcast, personal computer (xd). I like jrpg with some love story.

Sorry for my English.


皆さん、こんにちは＾＾
３年前から独学で日本語を勉強しているイタリアの２０歳男性です。今年の１２月に日本語能力試験の三級を受けようと思って、ビデオゲームで楽しみながら、練習したいんです。そこで質問です。皆さんはお勧めのゲームがありますか？以下は僕の持っているゲーム機です。

・ニンテンドーds
PSP
プレイステーション2
ゲームキューブ
ドリームキャスト

因みに、恋愛要素のあるJRPGが大好きです！ｗｗ

日本語が下手で、すみません。

I never finished playing it, because its really freaking long, but my top recommended game for someone at your level is Little Charo for DS.
I have posted a spreadsheet with scripts for the first 2 chapters so you can see how the language is : http://forum.koohii.com/showthread.php?tid=7326
There's something like 30 more chapters though.
The only downside is that there is no Japanese audio.

Too many games to recommend. Could you be more precise on which kind of RPG you enjoy, which ones you've already played, and which you'd like to try out ?

RPG's are good, especially the horror ones. I just finished "Ib" and am currently playing ”偶弦~人形の糸" They're both pretty easy to understand

[RawToast]

Zarxrax Wrote:I never finished playing it, because its really freaking long, but my top recommended game for someone at your level is Little Charo for DS.
I have posted a spreadsheet with scripts for the first 2 chapters so you can see how the language is : http://forum.koohii.com/showthread.php?tid=7326
There's something like 30 more chapters though.
The only downside is that there is no Japanese audio.

I've just checked that game out on Youtube, it's a shame about the audio. With audio it would be a perfect (if you like dogs) first game.

Linval Wrote:Too many games to recommend. Could you be more precise on which kind of RPG you enjoy, which ones you've already played, and which you'd like to try out ?

I'm enjoying dragon quest VIII, Final Fantasy X, Tales of Rebirth and Wild Arms 4 I think Dragon Quest VIII is a good game to learn japanese.

http://i.imgur.com/qvZBni5.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/MCaxIob.jpg

I'm searching some good game like dragon quest VIII.

junior600 Wrote:

Linval Wrote:Too many games to recommend. Could you be more precise on which kind of RPG you enjoy, which ones you've already played, and which you'd like to try out ?

I'm enjoying dragon quest VIII, Final Fantasy X, Tales of Rebirth and Wild Arms 4 I think Dragon Quest VIII is a good game to learn japanese.

http://i.imgur.com/qvZBni5.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/MCaxIob.jpg

I'm searching some good game like dragon quest VIII.

You can't go wrong with Chrono Trigger, the DS remake is really cool. You can also give FFIV a chance. I'm not a big fan on the Tales Of ... games, so I couldn't help you on that.

If you like tactical RPGs, Disgaea DS (a remake of the original disgaea) is a good choice for the DS. Final Fantasy Tactics A² is great as well (for the gameplay, the story sucks rather hard).

The PSP has the first two disgaea as well. You could also consider Final Fantasy Crisis Core, Persona 3 portable (highly recommended) and Kingdom Hearts Birth By Sleep. The psp also has the FFIV complete collection, which I find superior to the DS version.

You could also turn to emulation, it's really easy to find japanese roms to great classics like FFVI, Chrono Trigger or the Mother series, or even FFVII / VIII/ IX & co.

If you have a japanese dreamcast, Shenmue is the way to go. Skies of Arcadia is worth your time as well.

My 2 cents.

If your 18 up you can play eroge with computer translator(Atlas).

If you play eroge with a translator you are exposed to native japanese sounds, lots of sentences, english translation, parsing individual meaning of each word. You can even add words you did not encounter to anki. A very great exposure to the japanese language.

Basically these games are mostly text(with lots of pictures and sprites) and you can make choices that can change the story. The art is like japanese anime. But there are many out there with RTS and STBS elements.

Good Eroge= Majou Koi Nikki, Reminisece, Reminicesce Recollect, Akatsuki no Goei trilogy, Natsyume Nagisa,

If your interested you can start here = http://amaenboda.wordpress.com/2012/03/2...ing-atlas/

If your below 18 you can play PSVITA,PSP or PS3 galges...

Psvita= Oregairu, IS Ignition Hearts, Ciel Norsuge...

PSP= Oreimo, Toradora etc. . . .

Well youll have to play this with no translators so when playing console galges you need to be exposed to lots of japanese be it anime or J drama

Hi, first of all congratulations for owning a Gamecube.

That being said Playstation 2 has probably more (and more interesting) jrpgs, and psp too.
I heard somewhere you can also play psx games on psp and that's great because psx has got some really good jrpgs (like Final Fantasy from VII to IX, or Xenogears, to name a few).


Anyway, I'm Italian too so feel free to email me for anything

Love plus is a kind of fun girlfriend simulator
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LovePlus

The first half of the game has lots of good dialog that is normal and fairly easy to understand.

sunehiro Wrote:I heard somewhere you can also play psx games on psp and that's great because psx has got some really good jrpgs (like Final Fantasy from VII to IX, or Xenogears, to name a few).

If it wasn't released on PSN, then you have to use a certain program to convert the image and repackage it so that it can be read by your PSP (basically makes an EBOOT file and other necessary PSP file structures); of course, you have to run a CFW in order for it to work, but is there anyone who owns a PSP that doesn't?

But yes, if you do this, consider the Summon Night series. I'm playing the first one now and it's pretty fun (I've played the spin-off games for GBA, which is why I'm trying the main games); quite extensive voicing for a PlayStation RPG. They aren't necessarily easy, being RPGs, but they aren't too hard either.

Tales of Phantasia is pretty good as well; I played the GBA re-release, if it matters. The language used isn't too difficult, but there are some places where it's almost impossible to read a character, which probably isn't a problem if you can work it out with context.

If you like tactical RPGs, you could any of the Fire Emblem games, but the language is much more difficult than the other games I've mentioned, due to the medieval-like setting. These are Nintendo exclusive games and the first game was re-released for the DS (there was another title released for the DS in Japan, but despite my love of the series, I've yet to play it).

Though I haven't played it in Japanese, Yggdra Union is also a good tactical RPG. I can't imagine the language being too difficult (by the translation), but it could be. It was available for GBA and PSP.

Not an RPG, but 僕の私の塊魂 is great fun. It's also really good for katakana practice, since the King speaks with katakana. Unfortunately, the text auto-scrolls (it's not really fast or anything) and I never found a way to make it stop, so if you're a slow reader, you won't get much out of the text portions (which can be as entertaining as rolling up all the things). It's for PSP.

Also not RPGs, but the Professor Layton games are pretty fun and require reading comprehension for the gameplay (well, unless you just sit there and guess a bunch, but that defeats the purpose of a puzzle game). The language isn't difficult, but if it helps, they released 'friendly' editions, which added furigana over everything, which makes dictionary searches easier. For the DS.

I can't say that any of those games will give you the romance element you were looking for, but they're great games and have enough mandatory reading to be good practice.

.

Skyrim. Just buy it on steam and switch the language in the settings.

I'm having a hard time finding PC games in Japanese though. Torrents are basically non-existant... heck, even if a game is only in Japanese I can only find fan-subbed English torrents. I don't have any consoles, if I only had moar money 責.

I played a bit of oblivion years ago, so skyrim sounds like a good suggestion. Legendary edition is 25 € on amazon.de, which is still expensive for me atm but I might risk it.

Helltrixz Wrote:I'm having a hard time finding PC games in Japanese though. Torrents are basically non-existant... heck, even if a game is only in Japanese I can only find fan-subbed English torrents. I don't have any consoles, if I only had moar money 責.

If you're into oldies and retro-gaming, emulation makes it super easy to play games in Japanese.

The only PC-game I have in Japanese at the moment is Skyrim, but when using the language search function in Steam you get precisely 304 games with "japanese text or audio".

http://store.steampowered.com/search/?so...ASC&page=1

Then you can narrow it down into whichever genre/-s you prefer. I'll shortly be using it myself to add some extra games and try them out in Japanese.

RPGじゃないし恋愛要素はほとんどないですけど、「日本語を勉強する」ことが目的ならアドベンチャーゲームやシミュレーションゲームがいいと思います。フィールドを調べることができたり、何かの施設を運営したりするゲームで、幅広い分野の単語を覚えられるでしょう。

たとえば、部屋に閉じこまれたところから始まる「脱出ゲーム」は部屋を調べてアイテムを拾ってパズルを解くゲームですから色んな物の名前と関連する動詞を勉強することができます。具体的なおすすめは、「極限脱出　９時間９人９の扉」（DS）でしょうかな？　実は自分もやっていないけど続編は楽しかったです。（ちなみにパズルの部分を取り除いた、ストーリーだけ楽しめるiOS版もあります。）

「ポイント＆クリック」風のアドベンチャーゲームでも、周囲を調べることによって「こんなものはなんて言う」か勉強することができるでしょう。「クロックタワー」シリーズ（PS1・2）や小島秀夫の「スナッチャー」（PS1）があります。まだ未プレイですけど、自分もかならずいつかプレイします　orz　

「テーマ」シリーズなどのシミュレーションゲームでは、様々な分野のいろんな言葉を勉強できるしょう。たとえば「テーマホスピタル」（PS1）は病院を運営するゲームで、病院に関する言葉がたくさん使われています。他にも遊園地とかお店とかゲーセンとか、本当にバラエティ豊かなジャンルです。それに、料理をテーマにするゲーム（DSソフトの「クッキングママ」など）や庭いじりを扱うゲーム（「ガーデニングママ」）もありますから、それらで日常で使えそうな言葉を覚えられそう？　虫を収集するゲームをプレイして虫関連の単語を勉強したり、ファッションゲームで衣装のボキャブラリーを増やしたり、

RPGならオープンワールドで拾えるアイテムが多いものがいいでしょう。例としてエルダースクロールズやドラゴンズドグマがあります。拾っても大した用途もない無駄なアイテムでも、日本語の単語を覚えるきっかけになるかもしれません。価値のないものを集めることも楽しくなる！（かも？）　調合・錬金システムがあるといいかも？　基本的にアイテムが多いでしょう、そういうの。

Go! Go! Nippon! ~My First Trip to Japan~ is on Steam and displays simultaneously japanese and english text.

albion Wrote:「ポイント＆クリック」風のアドベンチャーゲームでも、周囲を調べることによって「こんなものはなんて言う」か勉強することができるでしょう。「クロックタワー」シリーズ（PS1・2）や小島秀夫の「スナッチャー」（PS1）があります。まだ未プレイですけど、自分もかならずいつかプレイします　orz　

俺もスナッチャーに一票。たまには小島監督なりの難しい専門用語は出てきたりするけど（特にナビゲーターの化学分析に）、話自体が非常に面白くて雰囲気も最高。個人的にPS版よりPCエンジンの方をオススメしたいんですけどね、検閲ないし音楽もこっちの方が好み、そして何よりもあの巧妙なドット絵はたまらんわw。監督といえばメタルギアシリーズがピンと来るだろうけど彼からそれしか知らない人には是非ともやってほしい作品です。

メタルギアも、僕的には、メインストーリーについていけるけど無線とかの専門的な会話は「え、何それ、なになに？」の連続です。まあ大まか分かると思いますがちょっと苦労します（っていうか英語でも理解しがたいもんが多く出るから）。

でもスナッチャーのPS版の移植、ソニーからの規制とかもあるらしい（グラフィックスにモザイクかけたり）。PS版を買った最大の理由は大きなな画面で遊びたかったから。（そう言いながら遊んでないが。）PCでゲームをするのは苦手な人なので。究極の「スナッチャー」のためならガマンするかな。

でもそのグラフィックに惹かれたねー、いますぐ遊びたくなってきた。

kasugano Wrote:If your interested you can start here = http://amaenboda.wordpress.com/2012/03/2...ing-atlas/

Good advice there. No problems getting things running on Win8, but ITH needs to "run as administrator." It makes me wonder what kinds of games this will work with.

jcdietz03 Wrote:

kasugano Wrote:If your interested you can start here = http://amaenboda.wordpress.com/2012/03/2...ing-atlas/

Good advice there. No problems getting things running on Win8, but ITH needs to "run as administrator." It makes me wonder what kinds of games this will work with.

You have trouble using ITH ? You can use Visual Novel Reader. VNR does not need you to be an admin to make it work. Also it is more compatible with many eroge engines. But when ITH does work I prefer using it because of the interface.

英雄伝説　空の奇跡ＦＣ (released as "Trails in the Sky" in english)
Is a good choice. Aside from being a great RPG, it's available for PC, and the scenario book containing all of the dialogue in the game can be ordered as well. I believe it is one of the most text-heavy games ever made, only surpassed by later entries in the same series.

I've enjoyed Animal Crossing and Harvest Moon in Japanese. Fun games and lots of daily conversation practice for every situation you can think of. I've used pretty much every phrase I learned playing those games in "real life" in Japan, unlike a lot of the dramatic and perhaps more violent/rude/fantasy-based stuff I've picked up playing jrpgs. (Of course, if your goal is watch shounen anime without subtitles, then of course play jrpgs.)
My preference is Harvest Moon over Animal Crossing. The Animal Crossing animals usually have some weird speech tic, which is easy to notice and ignore so it's not like you'll learn anything wrong, but still, it kinda gets in the way. Harvest Moon doesn't have furigana so it can actually be pretty challenging. Overall the kind of game you like more is the most important factor...personally I can't stay interested in Animal Crossing for very long, and the lack of plot doesn't help. But Harvest Moon, although still not plot-oriented, does have character arcs and you can court someone and get married, etc, so there's dozens of hours of different situations to progress through.

Other games...Hm...

I like the Tales Of series, so I'm re-playing my favorites in Japanese (Tales of the Abyss for the PS2 or 3DS, and Tales of Symphonia for the Gamecube or PS3). There's a lot of voice acting too (almost every scene) so that's great. The language is complicated sometimes and there's no furigana, but I already know the story from playing the English version before and it's overall great practice. I don't know that's particularly good for learning Japanese but I'm enjoying it! Any game you've played before in your native language and want to play again is a good starting point for playing games in Japanese.

Oh! Ni No Kuni, Ghibli's game, is adorable and lots of fun. There's furigana and some voice acting.

jessem, is there any particular harvest moon game you can recommend over the others in that series?