Learning japanese in videogames

[thecurious]

Hi All,

I am 'thecurious' from Puerto Rico, thanks for reading my post.

I am a videogame fan. The other day I downloaded 'Princess Maker 2' for PC from the underdogs website, and I liked it a lot, mainly because of the originality. I have heard that there are many original and fun Japanese video game titles, but I never learned of them because they do not get published over here.

I want to learn Japanese with main focus to play Japanese video games, and also, I thought maybe in the future I could become a video game translator. But I am not sure. Right now I am just 'experimenting'.

This means my first focus is to learn to read and write. Later on I would learn to talk and listen. I know there are various Japanese 'dialects' (is that the correct term?) and I will want you to tell me which one do I need to learn.

Also, if you can recommend some good and hopefully fun software to learn Japanese, I appreciate it. This computer I am using right now, this is Windows 98, but I can upgrade if absolutely necessary.

I am also curious to know if there are websites with information about the best Japanese-only old-school video games that were never translated to the 'West'. But I would be interested in those games where I have to learn Japanese anyway, not just deducting everything from the graphics, understand?

My thanks go to you for being able to help me.

Cheers,
thecurious

 

[Kamisama]

find video game roms and emulators with nihongo in them.

 

[thecurious]

Is nihongo the more prevalent dialect? What are the others?
Do you know of any good software to learn nihongo?
Is also dawned on me that I need to buy a nihongo keyboard, is that true?

Cheers,
thecurious

 

[Reiku]

Ah, unless I am mistaken "nihongo" is Japanese for, well, Japanese--it is the Japanese word for the language, not a dialect of it...

...as far as written text, there are Kanji, Katakana and one other which I can't spell correctly right now because I've been up all night. These aren't really dialects either, but rather different sets of symbols for different uses: In general, Kanji are symbols that represent words or concepts, while Katakana symbols represent sounds, like the english alphabet does.

You're probably better off asking in the section of this site titled "Nihongo Forum", as the posters there are usually happy to answer some questions about the Japanese language...

 

[thecurious]

Good explanation, I appreciate your response. I think I am going to enjoy this! I will post in the Nihongo Forum as you suggested. Thank you!

--thecurious

 

[PaulTB]

I am a videogame fan. The other day I downloaded 'Princess Maker 2' for PC from the underdogs website, and I liked it a lot, mainly because of the originality. I have heard that there are many original and fun Japanese video game titles, but I never learned of them because they do not get published over here.

True.

I want to learn Japanese with main focus to play Japanese video games, and also, I thought maybe in the future I could become a video game translator. But I am not sure. Right now I am just 'experimenting'.

Expect to take a long, long time to get to 'video game translator' status.

This means my first focus is to learn to read and write. Later on I would learn to talk and listen.

You can probably get away with learning to read and type although I'm not sure I should recommend that.

I know there are various Japanese 'dialects' (is that the correct term?) and I will want you to tell me which one do I need to learn.

You don't need to worry about dialects for ages yet.

Also, if you can recommend some good and hopefully fun software to learn Japanese, I appreciate it. This computer I am using right now, this is Windows 98, but I can upgrade if absolutely necessary.

Not necessary. If I was you I'd start with NES (old, old Nintendo) Emulator and RPG games. The really old Japanese games don't use any kanji (because the system wasn't up to displaying them) so you can play them even when you don't know any kanji.

Early Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy games - that sort of thing.

I am also curious to know if there are websites with information about the best Japanese-only old-school video games that were never translated to the 'West'.

Less than half the Final Fantasy lot got translated.

But I would be interested in those games where I have to learn Japanese anyway, not just deducting everything from the graphics, understand?

Again RPGs like Final Fantasy. You don't need to read most of the stuff - but it's a good way of getting familiar with Japanese text and it sure helps if you can tell a 'Fireball' from a 'Lightning' when you're fighting some monster.

 

[thecurious]

Thank you for replying. I have been studying Japanese and I like it a lot. I probably want to learn some more before I get started with the games.

But, before that, I have more questions: Do games have Kanji? Or are they only written in Kana? Also, can you recommend games that we never saw in the 'West'? I like Final Fantasy, but I have played them before (about five of them; my favorite is FF9... I didn't play any beyond that). I also would like to ask for recommendation on games with unusual playstyles. For example, Princess Maker 2 was very unusual, yet much fun.

窶堙ｭ窶堋ｽ窶堋ｵ窶堙娯?堙遺?堙懌?堋ｦ窶堙哉檀ﾆ誰ﾆ椎?ﾆ停?｡ﾆ脱ﾆ湛窶堙??堋ｷﾂ。窶堙ｭ窶堋ｽ窶堋ｵ窶堙坂?堙俄?堙吮?堙ｱ窶堋ｲ窶堙ｰ窶堙冷?堙ｱ窶堋ｫ窶堙･窶堋､窶堋ｵ窶堙懌?堋ｷﾂ。

In the future, I will post in the Learning Japanese forum.

Cheers,
thecurious

 

[ohayo]

my way was that I buy a Japanese Dictionary, japanese manga and japanese movie
and when ever I think about a word I go and search in the Dictionary

If you would like this is a good dictionary

 

[BrennaCeDria]

Download Japanese copies of Final Fantasy 1-6 (1-3 are NES and 4-6 are SNES; 4 and 6 I particularly recommend just as games in either language). Like was said above, most older games don't use kanji, and when I played Chrono Trigger, at least, quite a lot of it was loan words from English, so if you can pronounce katakana script, you can read it with little practice.

 

[Kuro Matsuri]

Just so you know, learning how to read and write (or type) Japanese before learning how to speak it is very, very, very difficult. You will most likely have a higher success rate if you learn how to speak and listen while you learn how to read and write. Learn Katakana and Hiragana first, work on Kanji later. Also, video games can help a lot, but you most likely won't be able to learn Japanese solely through video games. Just so you know, I speak of all of this from personal experience ^^

Good job with the Hiragana sentences.
窶堙壺?堋ｭ窶堙娯?堙遺?堙懌?堋ｦ窶堙債坂?｢ﾂ催?窶堋ｭ窶堙ｫ窶堙懌?堙や?堙ｨ)窶堙??堋ｷﾂ。ﾂ 窶堙壺?堋ｭ窶堙?窶愿ｺ窶怒ﾅ津ｪ(窶堙俄?堙吮?堙ｱ窶堋ｲ)窶堙ｰ窶堙冷?堙ｱ窶堋ｫ窶堙･窶堋､窶堋ｵ窶堙懌?堋ｷﾂ。ﾂ 窶堙ｦ窶堋ｭ窶堙??堋ｫ窶堙懌?堋ｵ窶堋ｽ窶堙?

 

[airforce1st]

it's very good,and i want to download from the internet

 

[Chiaki_Kuriyama_Fan]

learn japanese through bishoen and manga comics much better!!!

 

[Nightwalker]

I find it helps a bit but in Dead or Alive their translations aren't that great. They over do it a lot on those translations. Like I odn't even know Japanese all that much and I know that it's not right...Sad!

 

[Tsuyoiko]

Arc the Lad I, II and III RPGs have English subtitles, but the battle dialogue is in Japanese, so they are cool for a bit of listening practice. And they are enjoyable games anyway.