PC Educational Japanese Learning Games

[SpikeSlania]

I'm 37 and have always wanted to learn Japanese mainly to play obscure untranslated games but have never really put the effort into it. Especially with the older I got the more I'm thinking I'm too old to learn a second language. Have been seeing Wagotabi: A Japanese Journey pop up in Steam so now I'm debating on maybe trying it. Is there any other game options to possibly consider for learning purposes? I see in the similar game recommendations on the page include So to Speak a Japanese learning.

 

[Nebulon_Galaxy]

Learn Japanese to Survive games on Steam are fun.
I heard Pokemon is a good starting off point in dabbling Japanese since they use Furigana on Kanji. Makes learning Kanji easier.

 

[SpikeSlania]

Learn Japanese to Survive games on Steam are fun.
I heard Pokemon is a good starting off point in dabbling Japanese since they use Furigana on Kanji. Makes learning Kanji easier.

I see 3 different games in that series. Out of curiosity do you know which one would help me to play Ghiren's Greed? :P I want to guess the Kanji one but google isn't being helpful.

 

[Nebulon_Galaxy]

help me to play Ghiren's Greed? :P

Whoa, Gihren's Greed is more in line with N3 Japanese level. You'll won't be able to understand or play the game very well if you decided to just pick up Japanese tomorrow.
If you really want to play it there is only 2 options:
1. Play the Menace fan translation version
2. Hook a phone on a tripod and have it auto translate the game in real time.
Or take the long route and learn japanese for a couple years and then you can play it.

 

[SpikeSlania]

Whoa, Gihren's Greed is more in line with N3 Japanese level. You'll won't be able to understand or play the game very well if you decided to just pick up Japanese tomorrow.
If you really want to play it there is only 2 options:
1. Play the Menace fan translation version
2. Hook a phone on a tripod and have it auto translate the game in real time.
Or take the long route and learn japanese for a couple years and then you can play it.

My hopes and dreams! Will have to see how well I would take to learning/picking up a second language. Definitely don't see myself using my phone translating thingie. I might have a couple of years left in me to try to learn :P

 

[prnzoDraGoonZweiOrta]

I can read/write all hiragana n katakana, but that's just the tip of the iceberg. I am currently tryin to focus on 2 kanji a day - with mixed results. I can't write them out worth a shit - especially now with everpresent motor control issues... but I have Rosetta Stone for eigo-to-nihongo n a large stack of Japanese learning, reference, n cultural insight books I've accumulated over the years - n I am not gonna stop hittin these books (take THAT, ADHD!!!) until I've made some serious progress n breakthroughs of better clarity n understanding... idk why I said "I won't stop unTIL..." when it's more like "I won't stop, period" ...unless my life stops. but even I'm gonna come out my grave-spot n zombie-shuFFLe my way to hit the books again. ppl screamin n running. DO THEY MIND? I'M TRYING TO LEARN HERE!!

*thus begins Night of the Learning Dead saga... spoilerz: the ending SUX. avoid like if the zombie were tryin to benkyou shimasu on your desk n bloody the desk while unDEADly moaning about the more confusing kanji n multiple meanings/context confusion tail-chasing utter shit*

 

[bjork]

I've played a little of Shashingo: Learn Japanese with Photography, and I think it's more vocabulary and less sentence structure, but it was very mellow and you can go at your own pace.

 

[hanni-ho]

No exact game recommendations but I once found a Google Spreadsheet by Game Gengo that goes really in-depth with Japanese game recommendations for learning the language. Found it helpful for games I want to try playing in Japanese. Includes text options, voice acting, and Furigana support: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/14TKRFvnDmBsgfxCJzkaNKTKmx4qDcsv7QSmfyzIKxQ4/edit?gid=0#gid=0
Here's also a video embed for an in-depth discussion from the author:

 

[J.B’s rabbit den]

Boy I can only image the amount of speechless and beyond confused children who left their computers pondering their future and existence when all they wanted to do was learn English with this one

 

[Adrastia]

I can read/write all hiragana n katakana

At one point I had memorized hiragana, due to of all things, the partial fan translation of Tomodachi Collection for DS. The hiragana keyboard was not translated. Forcing me to actually learn it in order to use it and play some mini games like butt writing. Yes that was a mini game. Miis spell out words by wiggling their butts in the shape of hiragana.

It helped me with Mystic Ark 2 as I was able to translate the menu and some items. I remember how amazed I was when I could find the pine torch in the inventory.

Maybe you could try it?

Anyway, after my things were stolen and bad stuff happened to me I never got back into it because I didn't have my DS Lite anymore (although I still have the R4) and I didn't have a PC for several years. I'd like to try again with some of those learn Japanese games. But I think I'm way too old to learn a new language at this point. Not sure how excruciating it would be. My brain might not be as blunted out as I think it is though.

 

[Nebulon_Galaxy]

No exact game recommendations but I once found a Google Spreadsheet by Game Gengo that goes really in-depth with Japanese game recommendations for learning the language. Found it helpful for games I want to try playing in Japanese. Includes text options, voice acting, and Furigana support: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/14TKRFvnDmBsgfxCJzkaNKTKmx4qDcsv7QSmfyzIKxQ4/edit?gid=0#gid=0
Here's also a video embed for an in-depth discussion from the author:

Based Hanny

 

[Scotty]

I'm 37 and have always wanted to learn Japanese mainly to play obscure untranslated games but have never really put the effort into it. Especially with the older I got the more I'm thinking I'm too old to learn a second language. Have been seeing Wagotabi: A Japanese Journey pop up in Steam so now I'm debating on maybe trying it. Is there any other game options to possibly consider for learning purposes? I see in the similar game recommendations on the page include So to Speak a Japanese learning.

I'm in a similar boat. I want to learn Japanese for a number of reasons (mainly to experience media that have yet to be translated), but I haven't really put much time into studying the language. I looked up "best ways to learn Japanese" and was overwhelmed by how many different methods people have used to learn it relatively quickly.

I'd like to learn Japanese through immersive means as that's regarded the best way to learn a new language. What games support furigana, voice overs, text, etc?

As of now, I can read hiragana, katakana, some kanji, and I know a decent amount of phrases. But that's about it.

 

[Netra]

My Japanese Coach (USA) DS ROM – RGT Repository

My Japanese Coach (USA) DS ROM Languages: English. For the NDS.

retrogametalk.com

This one for DS I the only one I know, never play it but maybe it can help you with the basics.
I try to learn Japanese years ago but I get bored, it's a language to complex for this century, all languages evolve but this one is stuck in the 1600.

 

[Egg (McMuffin) Man]

I'm too old to learn a second language

Nobody is too old to learn a language. Babies do it, and they're fucking stupid.

Is there any other game options to possibly consider for learning purposes?

Yes, there's much better resources. Just play normal games in Japanese and look up the words you don't know. If you play them on PC it becomes easier because you can use programs like Textractor to extract the text and send it to a browser window where you can scan it with dictionary tools like 10ten or Yomichan. From there you could make flashcards or whatever you want.

My suggestion is to learn the basic grammar patterns and learn the most common X number of words (some people like to do the 2000 most common words). You can get this from a textbook and flashcard decks or similar. After that, start playing games and look up whatever you don't know; this allows you to learn the language directly from whichever games interest you. Dating Sims and ADV games are the best if you want to learn fast but they require patience in the beginning as will have to look up basically everything at first, but as you continue looking up and learning words it becomes progressively easier in time.

Personally I have kinda moved away from dating sims and ADV games (I got bored) and just play whatever now and read ebooks. That being said, I played the Famicom Detective Club Remake back in May and had an absolute blast with it. Pretty soon I'm planning to play part 2 and the new game also.

My credentials (lmao): I've been living in Japan for 9 years now and play games solely in Japanese. If you listen to anyone's advice, listen to mine.

Also, don't waste your time on stuff like Duolingo.

 

[Max]

I think wagyan land count as educational, kinda