I'm not talking about kanji study games.

Would love to see a sticky thread listing games that are good for words
related to specific subjects (law, medicine, sports, etc). Seems like a great
way to learn technical vocab is to play games that put those technical terms
to good usage.

One game that I came across is called "Zettai Zetsumei Toshi 3" for PSP.

It's an 3D adventure-type game that is all about disaster recovery(earthquakes, fires, etc). The game is filled with some great vocab specific to disaster recovery procedures, tools, and things about dealing with life-or-death situations.

Even better is that a lot of notes are placed into your "manual", which contains important points on procedures and tools to use in case of natural disasters.

Some great vocab I've learned so far:

生き埋めになる = to be buried alive (like when a building collapses on people)
被災者 = sufferer, victim (in the case of disasters)
避難 = taking refuge
注意点 = important point to make note of
挟まる = to be caught in between

Anyway, I'm making an Anki file as I play through this game. For now, I'm just taking vocab from the "manual" and not the actual game dialogues(since it would really take the fun out of playing the game if I had to pull out my dictionary for every word).

Wow, after looking at few trailers that game looks quite good =D Yay for voice acting =D

I've recently found a game for PSP too. ドラゴンクエスト&ファイナルファンタジー in いただきストリート ポータブル. Quite an odd game, imagine Monopoly, only with Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy characters.

There the text is fairly easy to understand, and I there are a load of finance related words to learn in there.

The only reason I found it was because I like to download random games of Perfect Dark =D

chamcham Wrote:Would love to see a sticky thread listing games that are good for words
related to specific subjects (law, medicine, sports, etc).

I agree, that would be a great idea =D

Xenogears

Trauma Center is obviously good if you want to get into medical vocab (and you can stomach following the dumb plot), but mainly I guess you'll be looking at RPG with lots of voice-acting. The Persona games are good for school stuff and if you join the corresponding club (music, sports...) you can get a bit of hobby-related vocab too. Sadly only the cutscenes - talking about persona 3 and 4 here - are voice-acted (except for the "ああう" "だいようぶ？" etc), but there's a lot of talking so if you want to improve your reading in an interesting setting while having fun and usually with a very clear context, Persona is good.

Xenogears... I dunno, it's a very good game but I think playing it in Japanese might be annoying because there's so much game-specific lingo and a fair bit of technobabble. Also no voice-acting. Though there is a lot of talking so if it's your kind of game, sure.

Disgaea though, I'd say heck yes. Best is probably Disgaea 3rd because it has loads, loads of voice-acting, 2nd is meh, 1st is good too. The 1st is available for well everything, PS2, DS, PSP. 2nd PS2, PSP - as far as I know. 3rd only PS3 but trust me, in spite of the 'lazy' graphics for a PS3 game, it's totally awesome. Really any of the Nippon Ichi games work, the dialogues are very good and are bound to keep you interested, there are different ways of talking - some characters speak very messily but eh, I wouldn't worry about it being harmful, it's so wacky you'll know it's 'wrong'. If you already have/can only play the english version, flip on the Japanese VA at least. Of course there's not much talking during the normal battles but just have some background j-pop or whatever playing and you're ready to go. Granted, all this is assuming you like SRPG.


Me, I want to find Japanese freeware/indie PC games, supposedly the scene is HUGE. I just don't know where to get them... All I ever find are dating sims that usually bore me to tears (also lol raep, "unf unf unf" in Japanese is something to learn too but come on)... At least Tsukihime is supposedly a good adventure game, you can even *gasp* turn off the badly drawn 18+ scenes! Still. Where all the good freeware RPG's at? Of course, big Japanese PC games would be nice too. Especially online games that are popular in Japan now, playing with Japanese people would be very good for learning and won't feel as forced as language exchange (for me, this is later on but I figure lots of people could use this). There's always WoW but A) it's boring dude B) something more casual and laid-back is probably better when you're learning the language while playing.

(okay I found the link in the sticky about text adventure games that's something at least I'm sorry for not reading the stickies first as I should I'm sorry no don't hit me please no pleaouch)

The Gyakuten Saiban series helped me a lot in learning law related vocabulary. Nothing too special, but it proved to be pretty useful when watching news and the like.
No voice acting, but the story makes up for it.

Surreal Wrote:Me, I want to find Japanese freeware/indie PC games, supposedly the scene is HUGE. I just don't know where to get them...

you've heard of cave story, right?

Yes. Already played it (in English like two years ago), too. And well I've also played my fair share of shmups but I was thinking more of games that are a bit heavier on text/speech content. In my searches today I have found out that the Falcom games are supposedly amazing and pure fun-injecting - not freeware/indie but they seem good anyway and are something that just wasn't available to me before because loads of the games haven't been translated.

Oh but thanks anyway, cave story shouldn't go unplayed by any indie game junkie so still a good tip.

Anyone know any good Japanese mmorpgs? I tried playing on the FLYFF Japanese servers, but apparently they IP block any non-Japanese IP's...

Tales of Vesperia is coming out for PS3 this year in Japan... they are doing the entire thing in voice-over this time around... i'll be picking up a copy as i played through it in english on xbox 360 already

Hashiriya Wrote:Tales of Vesperia is coming out for PS3 this year in Japan... they are doing the entire thing in voice-over this time around... i'll be picking up a copy as i played through it in english on xbox 360 already

Yay, RPG's for the playstation =D I don't know what they were thinking releasing all those RPG's for the 360... Last generation every other game on the PS2 was a JRPG, but now most games are FPS's =(

The RPGs are all coming for the DS. The modest graphics, price and install base are more attractive to the RPG creators. Btw, have you checked the trailer of project TRICO?

mentat_kgs Wrote:The RPGs are all coming for the DS. The modest graphics, price and install base are more attractive to the RPG creators. Btw, have you checked the trailer of project TRICO?

Whoa! That looks pretty awesome =D

Actually, I was thinking about getting a DS, however I saw the screen size difference between the DS lite and the DSi and now I can't bring myself to by a lite, so I'm saving up for a DSi (though I'll probably get a pandora first =D)

*edit*
Does anyone know where I can get the PSP or Linux port of cave story in Japanese? All the links I've found have been in English...

The windows version works perfectly well with wine.

mentat_kgs Wrote:The windows version works perfectly well with wine.

I tried using it with wine, however the game just gets slower and slower until it crashes...

bombpersons Wrote:Anyone know any good Japanese mmorpgs?

Shin Megami Tensei: Imagine perhaps?
I've not played it myself but it's MegaTen so it must be good...

bombpersons Wrote:Yay, RPG's for the playstation I don't know what they were thinking releasing all those RPG's for the 360... Last generation every other game on the PS2 was a JRPG, but now most games are FPS's

Yeah I remember sitting there staring at Motorstorm and thinking, "Wait... what? Why the hell am I playing a driving game?"

Sony are gradually getting back on track, though, porting stuff like Eternal Sonata and Tales of Vesperia (and apparently The Last Remnant) and also releasing the likes of White Knight Chronicles, Cross-Edge and Demon's Souls. I guess you could also include Valkyria Chronicles and Disgaea 3, even though they aren't RPGs. But I'm annoyed I didn't get to play Infinite Undiscovery or Star Ocean, being a huge Tri-Ace fan. Oh well, perhaps I'll get a 360 eventually...

This generation as a whole has been depressingly one-dimensional for the most part. Whereas with PS2 you could just ignore the mainstream and focus on whatever Atlus, SE or NIS were putting out, now I find myself waiting weeks & months for a game that interests me. Although having said that, the PSP has more TRPGs & JRPGs than you can shake a stick at. For anyone wanting games in Japanese, just go to PSPiso or hako and there are dozens.

yeh and they made an R4 cart for the DSi now too... i can confirm that it works well

the DSi not only has a bigger screen, but the sound quality from the speakers is much better as well... however, be aware that you can only access the Japanese Nintendo store only if you have a JP DSi.... the American one only works on the american store... but other than that, the games are region free...

I've just discovered you can get nice, pre-made debs for Cave Story (32 and 64bit), but they're in English :/ How disappointing.

harhol Wrote:Yeah I remember sitting there staring at Motorstorm and thinking, "Wait... what? Why the hell am I playing a driving game?"

Me too =D

harhol Wrote:Although having said that, the PSP has more TRPGs & JRPGs than you can shake a stick at.

Yeah, I'm quite glad I've got a PSP. Loads of good RPGs and they are very easy to get in Japanese. Also emulators make it very good for playing retro snes and nes rpgs =D (Mother 2 anyone?)

If anyones interested heres a list of some of the RPG's I have on my PSP at the moment:
Final Fantasy 1 & 2 Anniversary Edition
Star Ocean remakes
Disgaea 1 and 2 (If they count as RPG's
Final Fantasy Tacticts

Games that are good for building vocabulary? Anything with text!

I've been playing FF6 (a game I've played to death in my younger days and know like the back of my hand) lately, which been a lot of fun, especially considering the diversity in personalities and speech quirks in characters. For example, Cayenne (Cyan) and his archaic samurai-speak has taught me a good handful of words I can only dream of having the opportunity to use in real life (but invariably will, likely to shocked reactions and many laughs). Gau is another example, with a very simplistic, "foreign" style of speaking that omits a great deal of grammar (yet makes him very easy to understand for a gringo like me).

Chrono Trigger is similar, with archaic language (Frog and the middle ages), caveman-speak (Ayla and her time period) and robotic-speak (Robo, et al), as well as being, of course, one of the finest games ever created. While not so heavy on complex vocabulary from what I've played so far, the diversity in dialect definitely makes up for it.

For a real kick in the beanbag, try playing Oboro Muramasa. Incredible, beautiful game (if you're familiar with Odin Sphere, it's very similar) with tons of archaic dialect and kanji in practically every place possible. A very humbling experience, to say the least.

Burritolingus Wrote:Oboro Muramasa

Wow... this looks amazing. I'm seriously considering getting a Wii specifically to play this game (well... along with NMH & Madworld). Are there many obscure or niche Japanese games on the Wii like there are for other systems? I've paid hardly any attention to the Wii since it was released, so I only know about the major titles.

i've been planning on getting Oboro Muramasa as well

harhol Wrote:

Burritolingus Wrote:Oboro Muramasa

Wow... this looks amazing. I'm seriously considering getting a Wii specifically to play this game (well... along with NMH & Madworld). Are there many obscure or niche Japanese games on the Wii like there are for other systems? I've paid hardly any attention to the Wii since it was released, so I only know about the major titles.

There are definitely some goodies that have yet to (or almost assuredly will never) come to our regions. Captain Rainbow for example, a bizarre game featuring some of Nintendo's more obscure, "loser" characters. There's also 零～月蝕の仮面～ which may become vaporware outside of Japan, as well (which makes no sense to me, considering the shovel loads of crap this console gets).

But yeah, I highly recommend Oboro Muramasa. Once I'm able to understand a good portion of that game, I can finally feel comfortable with my level of Japanese, I think. It's a doozy!

I'm into Visual Novels, since the gameplay consists entirely of text, but it's not as mentally tiring (for me) as reading an actual book or whatever. Gyakuten Saiban, mentioned somewhere above, is a good example (though not a standard representation of the genre).

Surreal Wrote:Me, I want to find Japanese freeware/indie PC games, supposedly the scene is HUGE.

The scene is absolutely GIGANTIC! For example, have you heard of 東方? That is probably one of the most popular fan made games, and there are a lot of fan made spin offs of even that series. That game is just a bunch of shooters with excellent music though (and highly addictive game play!). There is some story and text, but not as much as you'd want for language learning.

However, where do get these things? Well, Akihabara, of course! I've only recently found this scene (through my Japanese friend), but I will be sure to let you know where the good stores are! Just look for any store advertising 東方 and you should be in the right place.

If you go now, there is a store on the main strip, kind of close to the Don Quixote, that will have TV screens outside. One (a big one) should be advertising a SRPG called Battle Moon Wars 銀 (ザ　ベスト) - which, in case you can't guess, involves all the Type-Moon guys. I just bought the game, but haven't played it yet. This is the store you want. These are all the fan made games.

Plus, the good news - they are super cheap. The most expensive will be around 3000円, but I got the SRPG for only 1500円.

P.S. - Across the street from the don ki in akiba is an side street. Down the side street is a ramenya called "九州じゃんから”. If you like ramen, go. It's the best place ever.

Not to be like that, but Touhou is really easy to find on various torrent sites.