I wanted to ask for some info about Persona 4, specifically the Japanese version. I found a thread about games in search, but didn't want to bump a thread from so long ago. Let's say I get a Japanese PS2 and a Japanese version of Persona 4. How great of a game is it for studying, what skill level would you classify it as, and are there any online resources for the dialogue to use so I can study words/kanji I don't know? (Which will be a lot for sure.) I know it has a huge amount of dialogue and plenty of scenes that wait for you to press "X" to continue.

I've started watching GiantBomb's endudrance run of it, which is where they play the entire game and post videos of them talking while playing it. Ended a while back so I'm just hopping on this train. I'll post a link if you're interested, but otherwise just looking for an answer to my previous questions.

I've actually played through the entire Japanese version, and it took a whopping 100 hours (for just a standard playthrough). It really didn't feel that long though, it's a great game. The language difficulty varies quite a bit. The main plot line I didn't have any trouble following as the important parts get repeated quite a bit, and there's voice acting for all the main scenes. Other stuff is kind of hit and miss, but it's all practice. There is a very large emphasis on reading/dialogue, even compared to other rpgs, but the rpg gameplay elements are still very well done. As for skill level, I'm not sure what to say, maybe about the same level as gyakuten kenji? Make sure you turn off the text autoskip option which is on by default.

Overall, it's an awesome game if you like rpgs, and better reading practice too.

If you're looking for a portable option, Persona 3 Portable (P3P) for PSP is great for gaming and learning on the go.