I used to search like mad for games to learn Japanese.  I eventually gave up.  Here are the two points as to why:

1) Just as a matter of the time it takes to learn, flash cards (e.g. Anki, etc) are a much more efficient way to learn vocabulary (no time wasted walking around a slime forest).

2) If you want to "immerse" yourself in something fun to learn Japanese, a good book provides infinitely more depth and breadth of Japanese language experience than a video game, so rather than playing games, reading is probably a more effective tool for language study.

However, when video games might be helpful is if you cannot make yourself sit down and open your flashcards or crack open a book, it might give you some Japanese practice you might not have gotten otherwise. 

But so far, the games that teach Japanese aren't really even worth your time. I've tried them all:

slime forest
http://lrnj.com/, 

japanese kanji game pack
http://www.download.com/Japanese-Kanji- … l?hhTest=1

Knuckles in China Land
http://www.kicl.info/

JRPG
http://chaosforge.org/taw/jrpg/

Kanji trainer penpen
http://www.coolest.com/penpen/

(also some teach to type programs, Nintendo DS games - not the Japanese flash card type - flash cards are more helpful - but actually games like the Kanji Kung Fu ones). 

I would actually say the best of the bunch is not Knuckles or Slime Forest but JRPG. 

Maybe it would be different if someone actually made a fun game that could really make kanji or vocabulary stick in a way that was superior to just good old fashioned flash cards or books, but so far none meet the mark, so I recommend either developing your own game and sharing with the rest of us (come on, there has to be some budding genius programmer who is also studying Japanese) or using the tried and true methods.

My 3 cents.

jaystarkey wrote:

However, when video games might be helpful is if you cannot make yourself sit down and open your flashcards or crack open a book, it might give you some Japanese practice you might not have gotten otherwise.

I'm just looking for something to keep me going for those times when I just CAN'T make myself open up Khatzumemo or the book, and I want to play a game, but I also want to keep my Japanese studies going.

Thank you for the links. JRPG looks cool.

I think the opinion of whether or not these types of games are "worth your time" is based wholly on your interests and expectations.  If you are the type of person that frequently has the urge to go back and play through old NES rpgs, then I would still recommend Knuckles.  I know a lot of people can't stand retro-style graphics and old-school grinding, but enough people do to warrant magazines and websites based on the subject.

As has been stated, these games should not replace an SRS, but they can be interesting diversions and have the added bonus of being occasionally useful.

As far as my own personal feelings, I will even commit the sacrilege of saying that Knuckles plays better today than FF1 does.  I would probably still be playing Knuckles today if there was any way to disable or speed up the battle animations.

I had never heard of JRPG either, but it looks interesting and I will give it a try soon.  I like the idea of seeing verbs in various forms of conjugation.

Last edited by Dragg (2008 July 14, 3:12 pm)

Eh? I thought you could disable the battle animations on Knuckles. I only played the game very briefly, though.

I see...heh, for me it gets tiresome after about 2 minutes. On top of the graphics and slowness, I don't want to learn kanji by drilling meanings and isolated readings, so I don't play Knuckles.

jaystarkey wrote:

come on, there has to be some budding genius programmer who is also studying Japanese.

He goes by "Fabrice".

*wink*

I found Slime Forest to be really useful in drilling the kana, way back when. I had to be fluent in reading all of the Hiragana and Katakana 2 weeks into my Japanese 101 class in University, and Slime Forest made that possible and fun. I hadn't learned about the Hesig method then, but drilling the Kana with Slime Forest worked quickly, and was completely free, unlike buying RTKana.

Slime Forest *does* have merit, but most people that play it (or, at least, that played it and posted on the old community that existed on that site) agreed that it could have done with allowing users to swap out the kanji/mapped word files. I think it was mostly so that they could add in Heisig-compliant files, though. (^_^)