Hi everyone!
I'm going to buy a PS3 next week, and was wondering if you guys could give me some recommendations for some good Japanese PS3 games? I'm especially interested in games that are good for language learning (a lot of text/voice-acting/etc).
I've always been a sucker for RPG's, and the Final Fantasy-series is the only reason why I'm able to write this post in English, hehe! That's the reason why I want to spend a lot of time playing video-games in Japanese as well. I'd love a good RPG for the PS3, but I'm open for anything, really...

I've been thinking about テイルズ オブ ヴェスペリア - anyone played this game?
It seems to me that there are a lot of Japanese PS3 games that are never released in the US / EU, so if you guys know of any "hidden gems", I'd be very glad if you shared those with me!
I'm also wondering - if I buy the Japanese version of Fallout 3 and Metal Gear Solid - will there be Japanese voice-acting, or just subs? I really don't want to buy games with English voice-acting, as that kind of defeats the purpose...

Thank you for your time!
Game on!

Zorlee...

I'm assuming you'll be getting Final Fantasy 13 then =)

There's a game called まいにちいしょ in the Japanese Playstation Store (Free). Basically there is a new "episode" everyday and these 2 cats talk about a different topic, usually about video games. Quite fun to read (no voice acting unfortunately).

You can also go on Home with a Japanese account.

I'm not sure about voice acting with Fallout 3... At least I know Oblivion just has subs. I'm pretty sure Metal Gear has Japanese voice acting.

OH yes! =)

Thank you! I didn't know I could register for Japanese Home account, that's great!
I actually found this:

Looks like I'll be getting Fallout 3 after all! =)

I love my ps3 for Japanese, on the jp PSN you can download a massive amount of ps1 games. A lot of these are classics, and great for learning. They have the japanese FF7 ^^

I like my PS3 a lot too. 戦場のヴァルキュリア was fun and there's currently a "The Best" version. I've heard トラスティベル is good too, however I haven't had a chance to get it yet. They recently released a "The Best" version. Recent as in a couple months, I don't remember when I saw it.

Okay okay, ya'got me. I'm cheap, but I have to be cheap to save up for FF13! =D

Yeh but a few quid for a classic game is better than 30-40 if you arn't exactly flush There are some awesome games out for the ps3 in Japanese. Disgaea 3 is cool, it's a sort of tactics game with rpg elements, I think it goes for cheap too. If you check the psn you can download a bunch of demos and see what you like.

龍が如く ４ is heavy on Japanese text. It's an action RPG set in Tokyo's Kabuki-cho. The game series is called "Yakuza" in the US, but this version won't be ported to English, so it's exclusively in Japanese.

I have a PS3 too, and I'm getting frustrated with all the games that don't have both dubs and subs in Japanese. Western games will usually only have one or the other, and Japanese games will rarely have Japanese subtitles, even though almost all English games have subtitles available.

龍が如く ４ is pretty sweet, it's just like Shenmue. There is a demo on the PSN, I think someone even posted a script for all the text in the demo. Theres a lot of it.

wow, Fallout 3 looks pretty darn sweet in Japanese...

Is that the PC version or the PS3 version? (Fallout 3)

i don't know but i think they both look about the same

I really don´t know. I hope it´s the PS3 version!

My experience has been that none of them are good for -learning- Japanese, but quite a few are good for practicing it. Afrika, Gundam Musou 1/2, Atelier Rorona (ロロナのアトリエ)... I especially like the Musou games.

And since these were all games made in Japan, then translated to English for the US market, you know it's 'real Japanese' and not a bad translation from English.

Mainichi Isshou, as mentioned above, is a good free one with daily content. (Plus, it lets you go back for (I think) 30 days, so you can absolutely flood yourself with content on the first day, if you want.)

I want to play Atelier Rorona...Viorate is one of my favorite games ever. I finally got Vesperia so I will have to by a PS3 soon.

To the OP: Vesperia can be good depending on your level of Japanese. What's nice about the game is that all the main plot dialogue is spoken and shown on the screen, and the game pauses after each dialogue bubble for as long as you want until you press circle, so you can look things up. There is also a large amount of text in the game as well. I don't know what your level is, but that might help. Plus Vesperia is just a good game in general.

Yeah, you can't go wrong with Tales of Vesperia, especially if you're any kind of fan of the Tales series at all. I think I sank over a hundred hours into that game on the 360, easy, and from what I can tell the PS3 release has even more content.

I made a post a couple weeks ago in the games thread about Tales of Rebirth, which I'm playing on the PSP. Fantastic voice acting- I'm tempted to get a PS3 just to play Vesperia...

However I'm moving to Australia early next year and not sure I want to tote a PS3 from Japan to Chicago to Australia Maybe I'll pick up a PS3 in a few years when I'm done moving around so much. PSP should do for now.

I bought one just a few weeks ago with that in mind too. Metal Gear Solid 4 has TONS of conversations, probably 3/4 of the game is just talking, no joke. I don't know if the subs are a direct transcript of the audio, tough.

Sadly, i bought Bio Hazard 5 expecting to listen some Japanese but it's in English...

A lot of the games mentioned are on the 'PS3 the Best' label now, so should be
http://www.jp.playstation.com/ps3/ps3thebest/

Certain games (Biohazard/Resident Evil, Devil May Cry, Silent Hill) have English audio in the Japanese version. Off the top of my head, Bayonetta (which is made by the creator of DMC and going to be released soon) will probably be the same. The demo audio was all English, and the trailers have been too. Siren: New Translation is, I think, partly in English but partly in Japanese (audio). MGS4 is purely Japanese, and AFAIR the subs are word-for-word accurate.

From looking at the trailer on the official site, the Japanese version of Fallout 3 is dubbed (Fallout 3　プレイダイジェスト, fourth from the bottom). At the end of the trailer it says PS3, the site doesn't seem to mention a Japanese PC version:
http://www.bethsoft.com/jpn/fallout3/trailer/index.html

For something that's text-heavy, there is a horror sound novel called 忌火起草（いまびきそう）. It also uses voice acting for the dialogue, which isn't subtitled normally but you can see the transcript of it using the backlog feature. There should be a demo available for it on the PSN. There's also another sound novel from the same company, a suspense one called 428 〜封鎖された渋谷で〜（よんにいはち 〜ふうさされたしぶやで〜）.

as i had said before though, games like Resident Evil/ Devil May Cry and most Capcom games in general on the PS3 have the entire Japanese versions on the American Blu-Ray discs.. all you got to do is just change the OS language to Japanese before you start the game. there is no need to buy the more expensive "PS3 the Best" versions when you can pick up a used copy for much cheaper.

But as for games that were originally out in america before japan, like fallout 3 for example are only in English so you should import them. (well for those people living in america anyways)

Hashiriya Wrote:as i had said before though, games like Resident Evil/ Devil May Cry and most Capcom games in general on the PS3 have the entire Japanese versions on the American Blu-Ray discs.. all you got to do is just change the OS language to Japanese before you start the game. there is no need to buy the more expensive "PS3 the Best" versions when you can pick up a used copy for much cheaper.

But as for games that were originally out in america before japan, like fallout 3 for example are only in English so you should import them. (well for those people living in america anyways)

Hmm any idea where there is a list that shows which American games will have the Japanese version on the disc?

I popped my 3 games in, and Ninja Gaiden Sigma plays in Japanese no problem.

I have tried to search the internet but apparently I fail at google ><

albion Wrote:428 〜封鎖された渋谷で〜（よんにいはち 〜ふうさされたしぶやで〜）.

I just recently... got this for my PSP. Unfortunately, I haven't had the leisure time to play yet; however, I plan to start it very soon. It looks amazing!

I don't know of a list of American games that play in Japanese but maybe we can start our own list? This is what I know that works on both languages so far:

Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2
Street Fighter 4
Resident Evil 5
Battlefield 1943
Lost Planet
Home
Devil May Cry

Alright, Going to get lost planet on payday then, and maybe streetfighter, now we need to track down more domestic Japanese games ^^

Alright - just placed my order for the following games:

Rorona no Atelier Arland no Renkinjutsushi (Normal Edition) (Japan Version)
Trusty Bell Chopin no Yume Reprise (Bargain Edition) (Japan Version)
Metal Gear Solid 4 Guns of the Patriots (Bargain Edition) (Japan Version)
Tales of Vesperia (Japan Version)
LittleBigPlanet (Bargain Edition) (Japan Version)

GAME ON!! =)

I want those games too.