I was trying to watch K-On whilst also trying to play through a story part of FF8 last night and my gosh multitasking that was a bit hard. Haha. Everytime there was a pause in speech on the show I glanced across and read the next line of dialogue in the game haha. I think i'll leave show watching for leveling up or non-dialogue intensive parts.

I played through from getting on the train to timber up to meeting rinoa (whom I hate with a passion) to her explaining all about how to kidnap the president. I put 22 words into my SRS during that period

I agree about the time issue. If you didn't like the games, you wouldn't be playing them in the first place. Struggling through a novel isn't at all entertaining. Playing through a one of your favourite games in the original is a great way to give you motivation and exposure. The fact that you do battles in between the dialogues is an advantage, since it means the Japanese is given to you in chunks instead of continuously being crammed down your throat. It's also interactive, which means a lot of reading comprehension is involved. If you don't understand what was said to you, then you'll struggle to advance in some places.

Does anybody find the differences between the English and Japanese versions interesting, by the way? A lot of things didn't make it into the translation, like Cloud's 興味ないね catchphrase or Reno's と gobi. Just about all the characters in 7 have a very unique way of speaking in Japanese, but I don't remember that in the English version.

Javizy Wrote:I agree about the time issue. If you didn't like the games, you wouldn't be playing them in the first place. Struggling through a novel isn't at all entertaining. Playing through a one of your favourite games in the original is a great way to give you motivation and exposure.

I agree. Not to mention that "hundreds of hours" is a gross exaggeration. Even if you do the Ultimate & Omega Weapon stuff, FF8 is unlikely to last more than 60 hours. If you just want the story, it's probably doable in 30-40 hours, which is 2 hours a day for a fortnight. Hardly a massive time sink. However, I also agree with the person who said that a voiced game would probably be more useful. Something like Metal Gear Solid, perhaps.

I've heard of people who claim to have learnt English through playing video games, so I'm interested in trying this tactic out! I imagine that ones with text and sound would be best. When playing games I suddenly realise I've been playing for hours, it'd perhaps be a great way to get yourself immersed in Japanese.

Incidentally, I developed my reading comprehension considerably through video games -- I decoded my way through Tactics Ogre and Fire Emblem 6 when I had been studying for a few years, but then when I got to Japan I played a number of text-heavy RPGs with speech that really improved my reading comprehension a great deal (Star Ocean 3, FF X-2, Summon Night 3, Atelier Violet, Tales of Symphonia, Xenosaga 2, and various Super Robot Wars games).

I find them especially nice because you always have the game aspect there, so if you get tired of looking up kanji or words you can just move on with the game (assuming you're able to get the main idea without looking things up) and then start "studying" again when you feel like it.

(Now, this video game thing is not going to work starting from zero; you need some grammatical basis or you won't even make it past the opening story sequence.)

I'm absolutely loving making my way through it in Japanese XD. Played for a few hours without realising where the time went and added 20 new words to my SRS while I was at it!

Now that I've played the Japanese version I realise how flat the English version sounds compared to the way the speak in the Japanese version. In English it's just text, each character just says their lines and you read it how you want. In Japanese each character has their own style of speaking and it's all written exactly how they'd say it. Yes, it is interesting what makes it into the translation and what doesn't aswell as how things get translated.

It's a pretty big advantage to have played through this game about 4 - 5 times in English because if I can't work out something by the grammar because I know what it's supposed to say the grammatical construction is understood by working backwards and hence it's helping me learn some things i've been having trouble with.

Really pleased at how well i'm understanding the casual dialogue, it's as if Japanese is starting to feel natural. Also noticing an increase in my reading speed which is nice.

I think one of the main reasons video games can be so effective for learning is because you have the context of a story as well as the context of your actions. You have to read, comprehend and then act accordingly. The actions reinforce your understanding. I think the relationship between events that happen and things that get said really shines through in video games because you're actively involved in the process whereas drama is much more passive so the tie isn't so strong.

harhol Wrote:I agree. Not to mention that "hundreds of hours" is a gross exaggeration.

'Hundreds of hours' refers to the amounts of hours you spend playing the games altogether, not just one game.

Unless that game is FF12, that is. My bro had 100+ hours on that thing. w|;ﾟﾛﾟ|w

And I couldn't even fathom the sheer number of hours he put into Phantasy Star Online (dreamcast).

kazelee Wrote:

harhol Wrote:I agree. Not to mention that "hundreds of hours" is a gross exaggeration.

'Hundreds of hours' refers to the amounts of hours you spend playing the games altogether, not just one game.

That's now how I understood his post...

ghinzdra Wrote:what s really bothering me is the main feature of FF-like game
no matter how much gorgeous CGI they put into it,no matter how good it looks , no matter how intricate is the plot , in the end it all comes down to the battle system/leveling up .How do you do that ? by playing hundred of hours repeating the same pattern ,going through the same menu and command , killing the same monster for the umpeth time .... hundred of hours which could be devoted to watching a movie , reading a book, reading a japanese forum , writing an email ,etc... all of which much more effective to improve your japanese ability .

He's clearly comparing the merits of one "FF-like game" (he uses "it" rather than "they") with reading a book or watching a movie. The hundreds of hours cliché is often used as a way to undermine JRPGs by people who don't play them. The fact that he also describes the language typically used as "basic" is further evidence of his lack of knowledge. No doubt he also thinks that they all involve spiky-haired androgynous protagonists and villages being burned down... >_>

harhol Wrote:

kazelee Wrote:

harhol Wrote:I agree. Not to mention that "hundreds of hours" is a gross exaggeration.

'Hundreds of hours' refers to the amounts of hours you spend playing the games altogether, not just one game.

That's now how I understood his post...

If you play 10 RPGs at an average of 40 hours a piece, then hundred of hours is neither gross nor an exaggeration...

An argument against watching J-dramas instead of playing a game is that they're unbearably shite. You need to be extremely detached from Western culture not to cringe at the poor standard of scripting, acting, photography, etc. I don't even see it as an option. I occasionally watch educational programmes, news reports, variety shows (アメトーーク is good), but I can't even imagine why the word drama has been mentioned in this thread, unless most of the posters here are 40 year old women raised with Japanese values and a Japanese sense of what is acceptable on TV.

@Javizy

If you don't like something, that's your business. There is really no need to insult other members (or cultures).

Hey, all, I have a question that has been bothering me for a while. Just last week, I reeived a 60GB (backwards compatible) Japan version of the PS3. After hooking everything up, I decided to take a stroll in the PlaystationStore. In the store, they have many final fantasy games that have PSP/PS3 stamped on them. While I understand that this means they are playable on those platforms should they be bought, I don't really understand how one would go about getting it off the PS3 hard drive to the PSP. Does anyone know anything about this? I wanted to get FFVII and FFVIII so that I can play them on my PSP. Any info would be much appreciated.

Javizy Wrote:An argument against watching J-dramas instead of playing a game is that they're unbearably shite. You need to be extremely detached from Western culture not to cringe at the poor standard of scripting, acting, photography, etc. I don't even see it as an option. I occasionally watch educational programmes, news reports, variety shows (アメトーーク is good), but I can't even imagine why the word drama has been mentioned in this thread, unless most of the posters here are 40 year old women raised with Japanese values and a Japanese sense of what is acceptable on TV.

I'm detached enough from Western culture (crappy american tv) that I actually like the more simply produced Japanese shows. I agree some fall flat because of low production value but those are the sort of shows that need big budgets to be good and if you want those, then America pumps out plenty. If you like the more down to earth story based shows which don't go on endlessly making bad sit com jokes until they're cancelled or out of date then J-Dorama is actually quite enjoyable.

I think the most enjoyable shows are ones that are really about people interacting with people. Not shit like CSI or Lost... only American shows i'm fond of are House, Scrubs and Big Bang Theory. I stopped watching American shows years ago because I wound up super sick of the format. Still very much enjoy American movies but that's because a movie actually has a plot. On the contrary most Japanese movies i've watched are kinda rubbish and go for 2 hours which just grinds on me. I've seen a few good ones but only a few fit that bill.

Also, does anyone know where to find the scripts for these FF games online? I found the scripts to some of the earlier games, but I havent any luck with FF8 and up.

Heres the main page that lists all the final fantasy セリフ集 that the site has: http://members2.jcom.home.ne.jp/ffstory/ff/index.html

Heres the script for FF8:

http://members2.jcom.home.ne.jp/ffstory/...53d6%u6d88

harhol Wrote:Even if you do the Ultimate & Omega Weapon stuff, FF8 is unlikely to last more than 60 hours. If you just want the story, it's probably doable in 30-40 hours, which is 2 hours a day for a fortnight. Hardly a massive time sink.

Actually, one FF8 game of mine lasted over 100 hours. I was SUPER!!!!! determined to do everything in the game. But, I am part of the .001% of people who like FF8 the most out of all the other games in the series.

Javizy Wrote:An argument against watching J-dramas instead of playing a game is that they're unbearably shite. You need to be extremely detached from Western culture not to cringe at the poor standard of scripting, acting, photography, etc. I don't even see it as an option. I occasionally watch educational programmes, news reports, variety shows (アメトーーク is good), but I can't even imagine why the word drama has been mentioned in this thread, unless most of the posters here are 40 year old women raised with Japanese values and a Japanese sense of what is acceptable on TV.

I watch American and Canadian TV just as much as I watch Japanese TV and the differences, however vast they may be, have absolutely no effect on my viewing pleasure in any way. Maybe I have been watching Japanese TV for so long that it no longer affects me, but there have been a few dramas I couldn't tear myself away from.

I think certain dramas, such as Love Shuffle, Majo Saiban, Orange Days, Buzzer Beat or Akai Ito, would fit in pretty well with western TV.

I find it ironic that you bring up variety TV, because that, if anything, shows how different Japanese and Western cultures are. For one thing, most variety TV shows--at least almost all of the ones I've seen--only feature 芸能人. If they show real people, they're only on for a few minutes, or they're viewed as a sort of spectacle, like, look at this person!! He was 500 pounds!! But now, he is thin! Let's interview him. Or, my favourite, let's guess how much these transsexuals spent on surgery to change genders!

I have never seen anything like London Hearts, Ainori, Chimpan News Channel, Kuwazugirai or IQ Sapuri on Western TV.

mirina Wrote:I think certain dramas, such as Love Shuffle,........

Uhh.... if you say so >_>

mezbup Wrote:I stopped watching American shows years ago because I wound up super sick of the format.

I noticed a lot of shows follow the same format as well. Even more odd, I noticed hero followed the same format as a day soap opera (show every week). :O

fightswumbrellas Wrote:Heres the main page that lists all the final fantasy セリフ集 that the site has: http://members2.jcom.home.ne.jp/ffstory/ff/index.html

Heres the script for FF8:

http://members2.jcom.home.ne.jp/ffstory/...53d6%u6d88

Hey, thanks a lot for the scripts, but I just found out that I cant buy games from the Japanese PS Store with my U.S. credit card. Bummer...

KREVA Wrote:I cant buy games from the Japanese PS Store with my U.S. credit card. Bummer...

That's what PSN cards are for!

KREVA Wrote:Hey, all, I have a question that has been bothering me for a while. Just last week, I reeived a 60GB (backwards compatible) Japan version of the PS3. After hooking everything up, I decided to take a stroll in the PlaystationStore. In the store, they have many final fantasy games that have PSP/PS3 stamped on them. While I understand that this means they are playable on those platforms should they be bought, I don't really understand how one would go about getting it off the PS3 hard drive to the PSP. Does anyone know anything about this? I wanted to get FFVII and FFVIII so that I can play them on my PSP. Any info would be much appreciated.

You connect your PSP to one of the PS3's USB ports. PSP also has its own store now, but you'll need the newest (legal) firmware to be able to access it.

harhol Wrote:

KREVA Wrote:I cant buy games from the Japanese PS Store with my U.S. credit card. Bummer...

That's what PSN cards are for!

Or if you don’t have a PSN and PSP/playstation 3 you can download ePSXe so you can play it on your computer. How well the game will run will depend on the computer and it takes some experimenting to get it running well but if you have patience you can get it to work (unless your computer has an extremely crappy graphics card). There is a site (not torrent) that has the Japanese version of FF8 that you can play with the program but giving out where to find iso’s deals with copyright infringement issues which I don’t want to bring to this forum. This way you can at least play the game until the day you’re able to buy a legal copy of it in person.

pSX is a much better PS1 emulator than ePSXe. I felt like playing MGS the other day, so I downloaded pSX for my Vista laptop and it worked immediately & flawlessly, without having to configure anything. I can't ever recall having a problem with it, actually, and I've used it for years.

I'm pretty fond of CVGS but I have a real playstation 1 (not the slim kind either). Love the real deal, the only one nitpick is no state saves XD.

harhol Wrote:

KREVA Wrote:I cant buy games from the Japanese PS Store with my U.S. credit card. Bummer...

That's what PSN cards are for!

KREVA Wrote:Hey, all, I have a question that has been bothering me for a while. Just last week, I reeived a 60GB (backwards compatible) Japan version of the PS3. After hooking everything up, I decided to take a stroll in the PlaystationStore. In the store, they have many final fantasy games that have PSP/PS3 stamped on them. While I understand that this means they are playable on those platforms should they be bought, I don't really understand how one would go about getting it off the PS3 hard drive to the PSP. Does anyone know anything about this? I wanted to get FFVII and FFVIII so that I can play them on my PSP. Any info would be much appreciated.

You connect your PSP to one of the PS3's USB ports. PSP also has its own store now, but you'll need the newest (legal) firmware to be able to access it.

Yeah, I just went ahead and forked out 43 bucks for a 3,000 yen PSN card (I guess that shows you how much the dollar is suffering these days.) off from eBay and got the code instantly through an email. Now I am downloading FF8 off of PSN network. Thanks for letting me know how to do it. I guess it's uses the remote play function to transfer?

fightswumbrellas Wrote:

harhol Wrote:

KREVA Wrote:I cant buy games from the Japanese PS Store with my U.S. credit card. Bummer...

That's what PSN cards are for!

Or if you don’t have a PSN and PSP/playstation 3 you can download ePSXe so you can play it on your computer. How well the game will run will depend on the computer and it takes some experimenting to get it running well but if you have patience you can get it to work (unless your computer has an extremely crappy graphics card). There is a site (not torrent) that has the Japanese version of FF8 that you can play with the program but giving out where to find iso’s deals with copyright infringement issues which I don’t want to bring to this forum. This way you can at least play the game until the day you’re able to buy a legal copy of it in person.

Thanks for the info; perhaps you can pm me the details on how to go about doing that. I already paid for the PSN card and bought FF8 off the Japan PSN Store (downloading now), but there might be some other psone games out there I would like to try on the PC.

harhol Wrote:pSX is a much better PS1 emulator than ePSXe. I felt like playing MGS the other day, so I downloaded pSX for my Vista laptop and it worked immediately & flawlessly, without having to configure anything. I can't ever recall having a problem with it, actually, and I've used it for years.

hm, I’ll definitely give psx a try once I feel up to gaming again then. MGS and final Fantasy 7 were both nightmares to configure on ePSXe....

edit: if anyone else wants the link to the iso site, pm me and I'll send it