Just want to say that if you have a non-japanese 3ds, you can jailbreak it and get rid of the any region lock pretty easily. Once you have it jailbroken, you can also "Acquire" japanese games for it and load them on via an SD card fairly easily too.
Welcome back, Andy! Sounds like you've been going through a lot. Hope you and your family are well now. Thanks for the video. I've found visual novels on PC to be an enjoyable way to study although they can be quite exhausting as they're often very long and use tons of uncommon kanji/vocab. It's too bad the eshop is going away. Hopefully emulation can help keep those titles alive.
I also am hopeful about emulation, and things like Homebrew. Thank you very much. It takes time, but my family is doing okay now. Agreed on VNs. I enjoy them, but it can be pretty overwhelming for awhile.
Cool video! I'd recommend the Shenmue series for upper beginners/intermediate. It's an old series, aside from the third game which was released three years ago. The game text is mostly dialogue of everyday language and it's possible to repeat a bunch of the dialogue so lots of repetition. Plus it's fully voiced, so good practice for listening. Shenmue 1 is based in a small town in Yokosuka and is open world. So you can spend time reading the shop signs/banners in a similar way to the Yakuza series, so it's great practice for reading too!
Using a Japanese 3ds for Japanese studying? Niice!! So glad to find someone else who plays it! I’m also glad you enjoyed your time! Import systems are fun!
Also, a free tip! There’s a lot of sales on the Japanese 3ds ESHOP right now, so if you want to get any good games, I suggest you get them now since the shop closes next year!!
Yup! It was a great time! I definitely need to hop back on the e-store and see what’s available right now. I have a bunch of points left over from this project, so I definitely want to pick some stuff up.
I am currently playing Pokemon Black on my Nintendo DS. Unlike previous Pokemon games, this one includes Kanji instead of just Hiragana, making it an excellent tool for practicing my reading skills. After I finish this game, I plan to play Final Fantasy 4 on the Nintendo DS. This game includes Furigana and is one of my favorite RPGs.
when it comes to pokemon, every game post gen 5 has the option of full kana or not, the former option intended for kids but is useful for any beginners too.
I'm a beginner basically (maybe N3) and I really enjoy あつまれどうぶつの森 because the vocabulary is very normal and easy. It's really good for vocabulary building and really cementing the basics. I always read the text aloud to practice speaking, too. The downside is there's no listening practice since they speak animalese. I also play the Pokémon games in Japanese but they use a lot of special words for Pokémon. In the newer version on Switch you can choose if you want hiragana only or Kanji with furigana. I think my next game goal is 二ノ国 or ルーンファクトリー
That's awesome! I've always been interested in trying 二ノ国. It looks super fun. Eventually I'll need to get around to it. I can definitely recommend Rune Factory though. I really enjoyed it on DS, and I'm sure it's great on Switch too. =)
@sakura san I said maybe N3 because I'm N3 on days my brain does good but I would say N4 on other days. In the range of N3 I'm definitely closer to N4 than N2. I would still consider this beginner area, although I'm entering intermediate.
Awesome I was planning to play dragon quest anyway and playing it in Japanese seems so much more beneficial. Thank you for the great video, Id love to see other videos on Japanese games for learners again
Thank you for watching! Lots more to come, as I actually already have 2 or 3 similar projects already planned. =) I hope you can get lots of fun and learning out of Dragon Quest! I really enjoy both 8 and 10!
ok, your lookup rate makes me feel a LOT better about my look up rate as a beginner playing Final Fantasy 1. I should track my own look ups tho. Thank you for the idea!
My son and I are enjoying 電車でGo! (Densha de Go!) on the Switch. It's a nice Tokyo rail sim, but the main point here is that it's ONLY in Japanese. Feels authentic and immersive. Great way to brush up listening and reading (especially katakana).
If you ever do something like this again it would be really interesting if you mixed in the Brain Age: Concentration training. Not only is it explicitly designed to train your concentration, but it also has writing, reading, and listening drills, which are of course in Japanese on the Japanese version.
I've been doing something similar for a while, just finished 世界樹の迷宮４ today, which is my 54th game completed in japanese. Most of the reading for it came from the item descriptions and monster 図鑑. 新女神転生４ was actually the first I've finished 😄 Looking forward to the day where I'll play games without ever needing to open the dictionary 🙂
Yo, heads up for anyone who has a 3DS, Japanese DS games are region free/unlocked when played on any 3DS. So you can't play Japanese 3DS games with an (let's say) American 3DS, but you CAN play Japanese DS games with an American 3DS (though note that an American DS wouldn't be able to as DS games are region locked if played on regular DS systems). This is a great little tidbit cuz there's so many super cheap DS games from Japan, many that teach Japanese even monolingually, so it's a great, cheap resource. That, aside, I think the strangest thing about the DS games that are solely about learning kanji was how they utilized very complex kanji for a lot of the necessary info to navigate and also to read a lot of the instructions and other things, without furigana. Now, I totally get having games that don't hold your hand cuz they expect you to be a certain level, but it felt really confusing to have a game start off with all these things you're there to learn, but it may be years before you reach that point. Like it expects you to know these super complex things that you likely DON'T know because, why else would you be there? I'd understand if it was for practice sake, but it might as well be hieroglyphics until you reach that appropriate level. Some of the games do understand this and have furigana or if you manage to make your way to the kanji reviews areas where you study 1st year/2nd year grade shcool kanji (for example), the language for the instructions sometimes adjusts to easier ones, but still.
This is really interesting because I use the same technique to learn Spanish. The words that I learn I write down in Obsidian and review them once in a while. In the beginning it was difficult but as time went on, I can pretty much understand 80% of the game in Spanish.
Hi! Really enjoyed this video and planning to get a Japanese 3DS now XD. Out of curiosity, would you consider doing another video similar to this but with different media's/consoles? For example, Japanese TV shows/movies, music, switch games ect.
Yeah, I definitely thought about picking up XI as well! But I'll probably end up playing that on a different platform. =) Really enjoyed these 6 weeks of the 3DS though. Was like I was a kid again. Thanks for watching! =)
The new "Famicom Detective Club" games (for Switch though) are really good for learning. They have full voice-over, Furigana, and you can even pause and re-listen/re-read everything that was said before. Only caveat... the EU/US version doesn't come with Japanese in it. for that you would need to buy the Japanese version (which is Japanese-only)
Even if you switch your Switch into Japanese? Most games tend to have a Japanese version if you change it over. I'll have to check them out, regardless. =)
@@ToKiniAndy Yeah, I often looked into that kind of stuff. In many games you can even select the language inside of the game's settings - only rarely you have to change your Switch's system-language. But unfortunately some games really do get a "Japanese-only" version in Japan and then an international version outside of Japan. I remember that Zelda game "Age of Calamity" also was like this. (I suppose they usually do this to keep the cartridge size small, as all these localizations take up a lot of space - especially the voice overs. and bigger cartridges are more expensive during production :D )
@@ToKiniAndy The good bit is that the Switch is not region-locked, so getting the Japanese game for an American or European Switch is not an issue in this case.
I love the idea with the japanese app for extra vocab lists per game. I will start using it. (It's not available for new android versions, but you can install it with 3rd party stores)
Visual Novels can definitely be really hard for beginners... I spent about a year or so reading the new 月姫 and it was *hell*. Really good story, and it bumped up my Japanese a ton, but I kinda wish I had worked my way up to it first, because I feel like I missed a lot. Guess it's just an opportunity to reread it soon!
did you ever re-read it? i've been learning japanese for the sole purpose of being able to read 月姫 as i played the arc route with MTL and there was no ciel route translation out at the time, so i just decided to learn the damn language (lol). i'm planning on reading it in a few months, i only know ~5000 words right now and VN lookups can be a pain
@@Julian-fs1uk I also decided to learn Japanese for 月姫, though I made that decision back when it was announced lol. Haven't re-read it yet, been busy and want to finish some much easier titles first. If you already know 5000 words, you'll get there in no time. I started reading it at probably ~4000, and I'm only at ~7000 now. If you're reading on emulator, there is actually a texthooker you can use for Yuzu to copy the text. I think it's called "Agent". I recommend it even if you own the console version- I tried to power through with handwritten lookups and OCR initially, but some of the later fights/lore dumps would have absolutely broken me if I kept at it. Regardless, Ciel route is absolutely worth the struggle. 頑張れ！
@@wertville This whole time basically the only thing holding me back is feeling like I wouldn't be able to do lookups with time-efficiently with Yuzu, I hate using anything OCR, simply because of how effective yomichan is. And I completely forgot about agent 🤦♂I had to use it extensively to translate with DeepL, so I really can't believe I forgot. You gave me some motivation. After I catch up on 呪術廻戦 then I will give it my best shot, especially since I've watched so many type moon works in the past with english subtitles and having already played the arc route I feel like I have a lot of the necessary context for understanding even if my japanese level isn't great. Thanks sincerely.
I don't know a lot of Japanese myself, but playing thru the Yakuza games I started understanding more and more words. Even picking up when people said numbers Taking a break atm from the series but it's def fun when you finally realise "Oh, I know what this word means now!"
These are pretty good ideas for when I’m closer to intermediate/advanced. I’m actually finding that 友達コレクション新生 is fairly easy since the mechanics are very repetitive and the flavor text dialogue you get can be looked up later since you can screenshot everything in the game with X and Y. The voice bank it uses is terrible though.
Great Video! I hope new people find this channel through this. If you ever want to continue this in any shape or form. I would recommend the Danganronpa series as it’s the perfect mix of „real game“ and visual novel :)
Wow so much work went into not only the project, but this video. It’s obvious how much you care. Fantastic editing, super cool idea, and love all the visuals. Deserves more views!
A great game for learning is the Zelda DS game Zelda : Phantom Hourglass or Zelda no Densetsu: Mugen no Sunadokei. It has a GREAT feature, where text appears normally as kanji, but if you're having trouble reading it, you can tap the text and it will show a furigana pop up. This is fantastic for making you actually read the kanji and recognize them, but giving you a little help if you need it.
Just wanted to add another option. The switch is region free. You can import games from Japan and other regions. You can also make a Japan eshop account.
I’m starting to move from N4 to N3 level, and this seems like something I would totally use to keep my vocab and reading comprehension growing. Looks like it’s time for me to import some DS and 3DS games from Japan
this was two years ago, but, i modded my 3ds around a year ago, and i decided to buy one more copy of my favorite games, animal crossing new leaf and pokemon sun, however, they were in japanese, and that decision made a hell of an impact when i was learning japanese
Dragon Quest VIII was voice acted for it's international PS2 release, but the Japanese voice acting is all new on 3DS. (Also, Jessica was recast and re-recorded in English for 3DS, despite this version re-using voice clips for other characters from the PS2 release.
i havent gotten to the level where i can actually read things so i cant confirm, but i would assume Radiant Historia: Perfect Chronology would be the perfect game for a challenge like this. lots of reading, voice acting, super fun, branching pathways that lets you revisit sections.
I'd highly recommend the Zero Escape series since 999 is on the DS and Virtue's Last Reward and Time Dilemma are both on the 3DS so you can easily get Japanese copies of all of them.
Very interesting. I tried learning through Super Famicom RPGs, and FFV was definitelly useful for quite a lot of words actually, but some of the more complex kanjis look so scuffed when pixelated that it made it hard to find them in a dictionary, and at some point in the game you spend too much time walking and fighting instead of reading text. Trying to find a modern alternative I tried Fire Emblem Engage and, but that was WAY out of my league. But I never considered 3DS games, so your list does seem interesting, even if for searching similar games on other platforms. And it's always a good thing to learn something new by doing something you can enjoy.
I got a 3DSLL and a bunch of games last spring when I visited Japan. SMT4 was the first one I played (I'd already played it a couple of times years ago), but I these days I'm mostly playing Kanken Premium. I want to get to ６級 or better before I throw myself back into one of the actual game-games I got over there.
Get 50% off your first month on ToKiniAndy.com with Coupon Code: NINTENDO3DS Keep in mind, I've been studying Japanese for MANY years, so this would be tough for a complete beginner. But you can get here too!
I should get back to this idea though I am a very much beginner learner. I learned a little bit of kanji and kana through an import JP game that was yet to launch in west, but never followed up on it and I stayed in that level, my kana reading turning only slower.
Hi Andy! Off topic but what kind of stand are you using to hold your 3DS on the table while filming? Thanks for making this video, you actually encouraged me to get back into my language studies with my 3DS. I'm working on Spanish and I'm playing games in said language. I'll try this with Japanese, too!
Im only a minute into your video but your production seems so high. I thought I was watching a more popular TH-cam channel, so its insane to me how you're not massive on the platform yet.
i do this with my phone. basically i’m used to playing this otome game (3 years maybe) and i challenged myself to also play the game but in jp ver. it’s like a visual novel but with no furigana and no voice acting😂 it was hellish at first and i can barely finish the daily 5 chapter tickets but im happy to say that at this point i can enjoy the story and kinda guess the kanji by context😅
I’ve played the entire ace attorney series several times so I thought “how bad could it be in Japanese lol?” And changed my switch’s system language to Japanese. BOY was I humbled by the opening scene in the waiting room with larry😂 the lack of furigana terrified me and I’m scared to go back😅 but yeah most other games that I have on my switch, I change the language to Japanese when I’m doing a second play through. Not that I’m actively test prepping but it’s been a nice brain exercise after not being in a class for 2 years. If you can’t go the 3ds route, take some switch games (if you have one) and either start a new game on a blank profile or switch your system language👌
Dragon Quest X is my favorite game of all-time! I've been playing the Offline remake lately, but I hope to re-sub to the Online version soon, when my budget allows.
8 bit Famicom RPG's are the one of the greatest learning tool for beginners. It'll build your hiragana & katakana recognition up. I beat the real cartridges of Final Fantasy II and Final Fantasy III with a walkthrough, I cannot read paragraphs, but i had no problem buying from shops and fighting battles.
I'm old enough to remember Mangajin, it was a great magazine with comics, articles and other types of printed material that had Japanese on one side and English on the other
what about a ps vita for studying, half of the catalogue are voice acted visual novels in japanese, plus you can play ALL the psp visual novels as well, without exagerating you can get thousands of hs of immersion
The Nintendo Switch is highly portable while having tons of games and built-in features. Things such as picking your language, having every keyboard regardless of region, and a wide variety of games is always welcoming. The fact that you can connect to any region across the world trumps the 3DS's abilities. Either way, this content is 100%
Any possibility you could do a Japanese 3DS and Wii U eShop exclusives video given the deadline is coming up on January 20th? I want to know what to buy and I have seen NO ONE covering the Japanese exclusive stuff.
Also, you can find great Japan game deals at Hard-Off, they have games for every system, including ds and 3ds (sorry bout that, I could go on and on and on and on and on about 3ds.. it’s so awesome.
Ah yeah, I went to hard-off recently to look at their DS games. There was SOOOO many. Next time instead of Amazon, I’ll probably just buy stuff there. =) Feel free to go on all you want! The 3ds is great.
I like the idea of using Japanese Visual Novels to improve your Japanese. But how can I buy Japanese games in the first place? Would buying from JP Amazon really be sent to my home despite living in U.S?
I own a Japanese New 3DS but I changed the system software to the NA software so the menus were in English haha. I do own a few Japanese games for it, and since the system is modded I can play them, but I'm still very much a beginner so I'm holding off until I finish learning the basics.
The most immersive game I had so far was Zangeki no Reginleiv for Wii. The story is delivered exclusively by voice dialogues, not texts. It may be hard for beginners, but it is great for listening. Earth Defense Force is also equally immersive, but I prefer Zangeki no Reginleiv.
@@ToKiniAndy I played both the original DS version of 999 and the remaster. I do prefer how they handled the final puzzle and how the narration was delivered through the DS version. However the remaster does win points for its quality of life improvements via the flowchart, voice acting and higher resolution sprites/backgrounds.
3:17 When I heard the voice I immediately went to google to see if that was the voice of Ryosuke Takahashi from Initial D (it was 😭) btw Initial D 10/10 🚗💨⛰
The 3DS is amazing but I would always prefer consoles with an hdmi output like the switch in combo with a capture card and PC oder Games for the PC itself because lookups are so much easier with an OCR Software, which simply doesn't exist on the 3DS. You could also emulate the japanese 3DS Games on PC and use them there with an OCR Software. I just feel like the fun gets a bit lost if lookups make the whole experience a bit jarring 😌
For sure. I always preferred on PC since you can use OCR and Textractor, but I have found both quite hit or miss. It's sooo easy to write in kanji you can't read on an iPad or smartphone now, that I didn't really find it to be too inconvenient. Much less than I expected at least. =) But I plan to do stuff like this on PC and other systems as well, regardless!
@@ToKiniAndy I'm currently enjoying Xenoblade Chronicles 3 in Japanese, can really recommend it! But there is a lot of exploration sometimes so as with Dragon Quest and the likes not always something to read
@@OpuYT When I finish these reading challenges I definitely wanna settle in with some games like that just for fun (and a little learning). Thanks for the recommendation! ☺️
Great video, it was extremely entertaining! Never thought that my old 3Ds could help me study a new language! :D By the way, since you mentioned that japanese games are restricted to a japanese console… You can actually mod your 3Ds and remove the geo-restrictions. In addition, you can simply download pretty much every single game within a few minutes on to your console, no matter the language. It takes ~30 minutes and really takes the 3Ds to a new level, I still remember how I did that a few years ago with my consoles, great memories haha Going through Genki 1 right now, surely gonna give those games a try once I finish Genki 2 in a few months or so. Have a good one! :)
I've heard about homebrew and stuff, and it sounds awesome! Sadly, Japan is VERY strict about that stuff, and people have been sent to jail over similar things. So I probably won't chance it. ='( Thank you for watching! Best of luck on Genki 1 and 2!
About the Japanese games only working on Japanese 3ds. With the end of the e shops and all, it may be worth to just circumvent that by hacking your 3ds, this way you'll probably be able to still play retail japanese cartridges but on your american or european or whatever 3ds. Just completely bypassing the region lock.
@@ToKiniAndy Yeah, granted I don't have a 3ds, but I do have a hacked DSI, and even if you're not using it to learn Japanese, it's a pretty amazing way to extract some extra life out of your old handheld.
I play a lot of JRPGs in Japanese and you do learn quite a bit. As a lot of words are constantly repeated so it gets drilled into your head. Same with the text
Awesome video! Another game I really like on my 3DS is Doramoji Nobita No Kanji Daisakusen. Its a Doraemon game thats designed for elementary school children to learn kanji. Its super simple in it's dialogue and mechanics, but its been pretty useful as a kanji learning tool and is a decent entry level kanji game if KanKen seems too intimidating. Plus its Doraemon! Another game that is a pretty good challenge is Dragon Quest 7. Its not voiced like DQ8 but DQ7 is famously SUPER long and very dialogue heavy. I like it a lot since you can stick with it for a long time and use it for reading practice. Its a shame its not voiced though. Another RPG that I like to play for study is Pokemon. All Pokemon games on the 3DS have an option to turn it into Japanese, even in the west. Weirdly though, the kanji in Pokemon doesnt have Furigana which is strange considering its age demographic but the kanji that IS used is very beginner friendly. For those who maybe dont play 3DS but play on PC and use steam, you can change games language options very easily. I like to change games that I play online into Japanese just for that little extra bit of immersion or just any game for that matter. There is a list of supported languages on every games steam page so see if Japanese is on there and go from there!
What an awesome video! It's unfortunate that the 3DS is on it's way out with the store closing. I would love to see something like this but using the Switch instead. :)
I'll definitely be doing more similar challenges. I just wish switch had something similar to that Kanken game! Then it would be perfect. =) Thank you for watching!
Just want to say that if you have a non-japanese 3ds, you can jailbreak it and get rid of the any region lock pretty easily. Once you have it jailbroken, you can also "Acquire" japanese games for it and load them on via an SD card fairly easily too.
Another immersion tactic : set a VPN to Japan, and now you will get Japanese ads in TH-cam. Turns them from annoyance to learning material.
give me free vpn
Best tip ever! lol
@@LilChicky I use Proton VPN and they have Japan for free!
@@LilChickyUrbanVPN
The quality of this video is phenomenal and the concept itself is as well. Great video!!!
Thank you Dash! I'm glad you enjoyed it. =)
Welcome back, Andy! Sounds like you've been going through a lot. Hope you and your family are well now. Thanks for the video. I've found visual novels on PC to be an enjoyable way to study although they can be quite exhausting as they're often very long and use tons of uncommon kanji/vocab. It's too bad the eshop is going away. Hopefully emulation can help keep those titles alive.
I also am hopeful about emulation, and things like Homebrew.
Thank you very much. It takes time, but my family is doing okay now.
Agreed on VNs. I enjoy them, but it can be pretty overwhelming for awhile.
I really love the editing of this video, so visually appealing!
Thank you Oscar! I’m glad you enjoyed it. =)
Bookmarking this as a future reference. This is a really awesome way to learn the language!
Thanks Kuni-chii! I hope you can find it useful one day! =)
Wow! The quality of this video is absolutely amazing. Keep up the awesome work Andy!
Thank you David! I'm glad you think so! =)
Cool video! I'd recommend the Shenmue series for upper beginners/intermediate. It's an old series, aside from the third game which was released three years ago. The game text is mostly dialogue of everyday language and it's possible to repeat a bunch of the dialogue so lots of repetition. Plus it's fully voiced, so good practice for listening. Shenmue 1 is based in a small town in Yokosuka and is open world. So you can spend time reading the shop signs/banners in a similar way to the Yakuza series, so it's great practice for reading too!
Yakuza and Shenmue are two of my favourite videogame series ever! I'll definitely replay them in japanese
Using a Japanese 3ds for Japanese studying? Niice!! So glad to find someone else who plays it! I’m also glad you enjoyed your time! Import systems are fun!
Also, a free tip! There’s a lot of sales on the Japanese 3ds ESHOP right now, so if you want to get any good games, I suggest you get them now since the shop closes next year!!
Yup! It was a great time! I definitely need to hop back on the e-store and see what’s available right now. I have a bunch of points left over from this project, so I definitely want to pick some stuff up.
this is really cool and motivates me to get to the point with japanese where i can start learning like this
I am currently playing Pokemon Black on my Nintendo DS. Unlike previous Pokemon games, this one includes Kanji instead of just Hiragana, making it an excellent tool for practicing my reading skills. After I finish this game, I plan to play Final Fantasy 4 on the Nintendo DS. This game includes Furigana and is one of my favorite RPGs.
when it comes to pokemon, every game post gen 5 has the option of full kana or not, the former option intended for kids but is useful for any beginners too.
I'm a beginner basically (maybe N3) and I really enjoy あつまれどうぶつの森 because the vocabulary is very normal and easy. It's really good for vocabulary building and really cementing the basics. I always read the text aloud to practice speaking, too. The downside is there's no listening practice since they speak animalese. I also play the Pokémon games in Japanese but they use a lot of special words for Pokémon. In the newer version on Switch you can choose if you want hiragana only or Kanji with furigana. I think my next game goal is 二ノ国 or ルーンファクトリー
That's awesome!
I've always been interested in trying 二ノ国. It looks super fun. Eventually I'll need to get around to it.
I can definitely recommend Rune Factory though. I really enjoyed it on DS, and I'm sure it's great on Switch too. =)
@sakura san I said maybe N3 because I'm N3 on days my brain does good but I would say N4 on other days. In the range of N3 I'm definitely closer to N4 than N2. I would still consider this beginner area, although I'm entering intermediate.
@@vikkumari I feel a little better now lol
Im like......N3, beginner!? O_o
@@vikkumari still not a beginner. You can call yourself intermediate until you think you are advanced but definitively not a beginner.
@@yuta5026I am only a beginner. I only have a PhD so far. 🔰
Kid Icarus Uprising is the best. Its full of great dialogue too.
Awesome I was planning to play dragon quest anyway and playing it in Japanese seems so much more beneficial. Thank you for the great video, Id love to see other videos on Japanese games for learners again
Thank you for watching! Lots more to come, as I actually already have 2 or 3 similar projects already planned. =)
I hope you can get lots of fun and learning out of Dragon Quest! I really enjoy both 8 and 10!
@@ToKiniAndy wow I cant wait for the new projects : D
Awesome video, content and quality are top notch. What’s the J-J dictionary you’re using?
@@ToKiniAndy I’m also excited to see more game related immersion projects, as they would be the most fun!
This video is super helpful. Thank you very much!
Thanks for this! I had this idea for Korean a few days ago, this definitely inspired me :)
ok, your lookup rate makes me feel a LOT better about my look up rate as a beginner playing Final Fantasy 1.
I should track my own look ups tho. Thank you for the idea!
My son and I are enjoying 電車でGo! (Densha de Go!) on the Switch. It's a nice Tokyo rail sim, but the main point here is that it's ONLY in Japanese. Feels authentic and immersive. Great way to brush up listening and reading (especially katakana).
That’s awesome. I’m glad you’re able to enjoy a game like that along with your son! =)
If you ever do something like this again it would be really interesting if you mixed in the Brain Age: Concentration training. Not only is it explicitly designed to train your concentration, but it also has writing, reading, and listening drills, which are of course in Japanese on the Japanese version.
I've been doing something similar for a while, just finished 世界樹の迷宮４ today, which is my 54th game completed in japanese. Most of the reading for it came from the item descriptions and monster 図鑑. 新女神転生４ was actually the first I've finished 😄
Looking forward to the day where I'll play games without ever needing to open the dictionary 🙂
Yo, heads up for anyone who has a 3DS, Japanese DS games are region free/unlocked when played on any 3DS. So you can't play Japanese 3DS games with an (let's say) American 3DS, but you CAN play Japanese DS games with an American 3DS (though note that an American DS wouldn't be able to as DS games are region locked if played on regular DS systems). This is a great little tidbit cuz there's so many super cheap DS games from Japan, many that teach Japanese even monolingually, so it's a great, cheap resource.
That, aside, I think the strangest thing about the DS games that are solely about learning kanji was how they utilized very complex kanji for a lot of the necessary info to navigate and also to read a lot of the instructions and other things, without furigana. Now, I totally get having games that don't hold your hand cuz they expect you to be a certain level, but it felt really confusing to have a game start off with all these things you're there to learn, but it may be years before you reach that point. Like it expects you to know these super complex things that you likely DON'T know because, why else would you be there? I'd understand if it was for practice sake, but it might as well be hieroglyphics until you reach that appropriate level.
Some of the games do understand this and have furigana or if you manage to make your way to the kanji reviews areas where you study 1st year/2nd year grade shcool kanji (for example), the language for the instructions sometimes adjusts to easier ones, but still.
I love this video so much, the editing was so well done!
Thank you Kaneki! I’m glad you liked it! I also enjoyed making it. =)
I still have my old 3ds from 2013 i cant wait to try this method with Persona Q2
This is really interesting because I use the same technique to learn Spanish. The words that I learn I write down in Obsidian and review them once in a while. In the beginning it was difficult but as time went on, I can pretty much understand 80% of the game in Spanish.
Man, I was looking for an alternative to the Japanese app and you mentioned it! Thanks for this!
Hi! Really enjoyed this video and planning to get a Japanese 3DS now XD.
Out of curiosity, would you consider doing another video similar to this but with different media's/consoles? For example, Japanese TV shows/movies, music, switch games ect.
I'm glad you enjoyed it!
Yup! I already have plans to do similar projects with many different media types. ☺️
Great project and good to see the 3DS getting some love. Don’t forget DQ XI is also on 3DS and is exclusive to Japan!
Yeah, I definitely thought about picking up XI as well! But I'll probably end up playing that on a different platform. =)
Really enjoyed these 6 weeks of the 3DS though. Was like I was a kid again.
Thanks for watching! =)
I didn't think DQ XI had furigana, but I guess it DOES on 3DS! That's kinda cool. AND it's 50% off on the e-store... hmmm Maybe I WILL play it on DS.
The new "Famicom Detective Club" games (for Switch though) are really good for learning. They have full voice-over, Furigana, and you can even pause and re-listen/re-read everything that was said before.
Only caveat... the EU/US version doesn't come with Japanese in it. for that you would need to buy the Japanese version (which is Japanese-only)
Even if you switch your Switch into Japanese? Most games tend to have a Japanese version if you change it over.
I'll have to check them out, regardless. =)
@@ToKiniAndy Yeah, I often looked into that kind of stuff. In many games you can even select the language inside of the game's settings - only rarely you have to change your Switch's system-language.
But unfortunately some games really do get a "Japanese-only" version in Japan and then an international version outside of Japan. I remember that Zelda game "Age of Calamity" also was like this. (I suppose they usually do this to keep the cartridge size small, as all these localizations take up a lot of space - especially the voice overs. and bigger cartridges are more expensive during production :D )
@@HaitaniMasayuki Yeah, that makes sense. Too bad though!
@@ToKiniAndy The good bit is that the Switch is not region-locked, so getting the Japanese game for an American or European Switch is not an issue in this case.
I love the idea with the japanese app for extra vocab lists per game. I will start using it. (It's not available for new android versions, but you can install it with 3rd party stores)
Visual Novels can definitely be really hard for beginners... I spent about a year or so reading the new 月姫 and it was *hell*. Really good story, and it bumped up my Japanese a ton, but I kinda wish I had worked my way up to it first, because I feel like I missed a lot. Guess it's just an opportunity to reread it soon!
did you ever re-read it? i've been learning japanese for the sole purpose of being able to read 月姫 as i played the arc route with MTL and there was no ciel route translation out at the time, so i just decided to learn the damn language (lol). i'm planning on reading it in a few months, i only know ~5000 words right now and VN lookups can be a pain
@@Julian-fs1uk I also decided to learn Japanese for 月姫, though I made that decision back when it was announced lol. Haven't re-read it yet, been busy and want to finish some much easier titles first.
If you already know 5000 words, you'll get there in no time. I started reading it at probably ~4000, and I'm only at ~7000 now.
If you're reading on emulator, there is actually a texthooker you can use for Yuzu to copy the text. I think it's called "Agent". I recommend it even if you own the console version- I tried to power through with handwritten lookups and OCR initially, but some of the later fights/lore dumps would have absolutely broken me if I kept at it.
Regardless, Ciel route is absolutely worth the struggle. 頑張れ！
@@wertville This whole time basically the only thing holding me back is feeling like I wouldn't be able to do lookups with time-efficiently with Yuzu, I hate using anything OCR, simply because of how effective yomichan is. And I completely forgot about agent 🤦♂I had to use it extensively to translate with DeepL, so I really can't believe I forgot. You gave me some motivation. After I catch up on 呪術廻戦 then I will give it my best shot, especially since I've watched so many type moon works in the past with english subtitles and having already played the arc route I feel like I have a lot of the necessary context for understanding even if my japanese level isn't great. Thanks sincerely.
I did exactly this but for AIR. It was difficult, but the Japanese level up was worth it IMHO.
I don't know a lot of Japanese myself, but playing thru the Yakuza games I started understanding more and more words. Even picking up when people said numbers
Taking a break atm from the series but it's def fun when you finally realise "Oh, I know what this word means now!"
These are pretty good ideas for when I’m closer to intermediate/advanced. I’m actually finding that 友達コレクション新生 is fairly easy since the mechanics are very repetitive and the flavor text dialogue you get can be looked up later since you can screenshot everything in the game with X and Y. The voice bank it uses is terrible though.
Great Video! I hope new people find this channel through this. If you ever want to continue this in any shape or form. I would recommend the Danganronpa series as it’s the perfect mix of „real game“ and visual novel :)
Thank you Christoph!
I actually own the first 3 Danganronpa games on steam, and look forward to playing them sometime soon! =)
Wow so much work went into not only the project, but this video. It’s obvious how much you care. Fantastic editing, super cool idea, and love all the visuals. Deserves more views!
Thanks Sarah! I'm glad you enjoyed it. =)
A great game for learning is the Zelda DS game Zelda : Phantom Hourglass or Zelda no Densetsu: Mugen no Sunadokei.
It has a GREAT feature, where text appears normally as kanji, but if you're having trouble reading it, you can tap the text and it will show a furigana pop up.
This is fantastic for making you actually read the kanji and recognize them, but giving you a little help if you need it.
As if I didn't already love the DS games enough, not you just made me love them even more.
Thanks for the video! I've always wanted to try game immersion but never knew how to start
8:00 "for a loss in my family" Sorry for your loss, and youd have been forgiven for not doig any that week, valid reasoning
Just wanted to add another option. The switch is region free. You can import games from Japan and other regions. You can also make a Japan eshop account.
Yeah, Switch is definitely the easier option these days for most games! =)
Came here for the experiment, stayed for the Dragon Quest song.
I’m starting to move from N4 to N3 level, and this seems like something I would totally use to keep my vocab and reading comprehension growing. Looks like it’s time for me to import some DS and 3DS games from Japan
this was two years ago, but, i modded my 3ds around a year ago, and i decided to buy one more copy of my favorite games, animal crossing new leaf and pokemon sun, however, they were in japanese, and that decision made a hell of an impact when i was learning japanese
Dragon Quest VIII was voice acted for it's international PS2 release, but the Japanese voice acting is all new on 3DS. (Also, Jessica was recast and re-recorded in English for 3DS, despite this version re-using voice clips for other characters from the PS2 release.
Omg love love love this video. Big fan of 3ds and using it to learn 😻
I'm glad to hear you enjoyed it! I'm a big fan now too. It was super nostalgic, while also being way more effective than I imagined! =)
your videos have improved a lot!
Thank you bird! =)
My brother loves rune factory lol. He got me into it years ago. Great franchise
i havent gotten to the level where i can actually read things so i cant confirm, but i would assume Radiant Historia: Perfect Chronology would be the perfect game for a challenge like this. lots of reading, voice acting, super fun, branching pathways that lets you revisit sections.
I actually picked that up on sale on the e-store recently! I gotta check it out. 😊
pronounce the final ni at the end of the higurashi no naku koro ni title or draw 25
I missed it every single time. I have sooo many cards now. haha
Yuki pointed that out to me too. (*´艸｀*)
3:14 OF COURSE! OF F***ING COURSE TAKEHITO KOYASU IS HERE!! He's in just about everything I swear.
I'd highly recommend the Zero Escape series since 999 is on the DS and Virtue's Last Reward and Time Dilemma are both on the 3DS so you can easily get Japanese copies of all of them.
This is a great idea, im just starting to study japanese and i love playing games, so its a great way to practice and learn. instant sub.
I did not expect to be recommended to read Higurashi so casually.
Very interesting. I tried learning through Super Famicom RPGs, and FFV was definitelly useful for quite a lot of words actually, but some of the more complex kanjis look so scuffed when pixelated that it made it hard to find them in a dictionary, and at some point in the game you spend too much time walking and fighting instead of reading text.
Trying to find a modern alternative I tried Fire Emblem Engage and, but that was WAY out of my league. But I never considered 3DS games, so your list does seem interesting, even if for searching similar games on other platforms.
And it's always a good thing to learn something new by doing something you can enjoy.
Nice. At the moment I’m using Bunpro for grammar and Satori reader for input
The same thing I did when I was learning English and… it does work and is more fun than just learning word by word
I got a 3DSLL and a bunch of games last spring when I visited Japan. SMT4 was the first one I played (I'd already played it a couple of times years ago), but I these days I'm mostly playing Kanken Premium. I want to get to ６級 or better before I throw myself back into one of the actual game-games I got over there.
Sorry for your loss.
I have my 3DS literally collecting dust, but you just gave me the reason to pick it up again !
I'm happy I was able to give that dusty machine new life! =)
Get 50% off your first month on ToKiniAndy.com with Coupon Code: NINTENDO3DS
Keep in mind, I've been studying Japanese for MANY years, so this would be tough for a complete beginner. But you can get here too!
;)
I should get back to this idea though I am a very much beginner learner. I learned a little bit of kanji and kana through an import JP game that was yet to launch in west, but never followed up on it and I stayed in that level, my kana reading turning only slower.
It would be great if you made a follow-up to this with Switch or PS4/PS5
Why didn’t you add Dio’s VA as the emoji movie poop
stuff like this is why ando really is one of the top japanese teachers on the YT
Hi Andy! Off topic but what kind of stand are you using to hold your 3DS on the table while filming? Thanks for making this video, you actually encouraged me to get back into my language studies with my 3DS. I'm working on Spanish and I'm playing games in said language. I'll try this with Japanese, too!
Did you ever finish 逆転裁判? That's one of my favorite games ever
This makes me want to play ACNH again but only in Japanese!!! Nice video!!
Do it! ACNH is super accessible in Japanese on both Switch AND 3ds! =)
Really good video
Thank you!
Im only a minute into your video but your production seems so high. I thought I was watching a more popular TH-cam channel, so its insane to me how you're not massive on the platform yet.
Thank you!
I’m pretty happy with where I’m at, but maybe some day! =)
0:48 RUNE FACTORY!!!!!
i do this with my phone. basically i’m used to playing this otome game (3 years maybe) and i challenged myself to also play the game but in jp ver. it’s like a visual novel but with no furigana and no voice acting😂 it was hellish at first and i can barely finish the daily 5 chapter tickets but im happy to say that at this point i can enjoy the story and kinda guess the kanji by context😅
I’ve played the entire ace attorney series several times so I thought “how bad could it be in Japanese lol?” And changed my switch’s system language to Japanese. BOY was I humbled by the opening scene in the waiting room with larry😂 the lack of furigana terrified me and I’m scared to go back😅 but yeah most other games that I have on my switch, I change the language to Japanese when I’m doing a second play through. Not that I’m actively test prepping but it’s been a nice brain exercise after not being in a class for 2 years. If you can’t go the 3ds route, take some switch games (if you have one) and either start a new game on a blank profile or switch your system language👌
Dragon Quest X is my favorite game of all-time! I've been playing the Offline remake lately, but I hope to re-sub to the Online version soon, when my budget allows.
might have to pick up a JP 3ds and some of these games next time I'm there. Thanks for the suggestions!
You're welcome! Thank you for watching! =)
8 bit Famicom RPG's are the one of the greatest learning tool for beginners. It'll build your hiragana & katakana recognition up.
I beat the real cartridges of Final Fantasy II and Final Fantasy III with a walkthrough, I cannot read paragraphs, but i had no problem buying from shops and fighting battles.
I'm old enough to remember Mangajin, it was a great magazine with comics, articles and other types of printed material that had Japanese on one side and English on the other
I’ve never heard of that, but it sounds pretty cool!
what about a ps vita for studying, half of the catalogue are voice acted visual novels in japanese, plus you can play ALL the psp visual novels as well, without exagerating you can get thousands of hs of immersion
I completely forgot about the list function!
Thanks 😅
The Nintendo Switch is highly portable while having tons of games and built-in features. Things such as picking your language, having every keyboard regardless of region, and a wide variety of games is always welcoming. The fact that you can connect to any region across the world trumps the 3DS's abilities. Either way, this content is 100%
Any possibility you could do a Japanese 3DS and Wii U eShop exclusives video given the deadline is coming up on January 20th? I want to know what to buy and I have seen NO ONE covering the Japanese exclusive stuff.
This is so epic!
Glad to hear you think of! I had a blast with both the DS AND with this video.
Also, you can find great Japan game deals at Hard-Off, they have games for every system, including ds and 3ds (sorry bout that, I could go on and on and on and on and on about 3ds.. it’s so awesome.
I also have that Japanese app you used to look up stuff when I need to know what a word means or kanji🤘🏻🤘🏻😎
Ah yeah, I went to hard-off recently to look at their DS games. There was SOOOO many. Next time instead of Amazon, I’ll probably just buy stuff there. =)
Feel free to go on all you want! The 3ds is great.
I like the idea of using Japanese Visual Novels to improve your Japanese. But how can I buy Japanese games in the first place? Would buying from JP Amazon really be sent to my home despite living in U.S?
I play Japanese games on my hacked 3DS 😅
Im tempted to play Dragon Quest VIII and X. Have you played Project X Zone 2?
I own a Japanese New 3DS but I changed the system software to the NA software so the menus were in English haha. I do own a few Japanese games for it, and since the system is modded I can play them, but I'm still very much a beginner so I'm holding off until I finish learning the basics.
The most immersive game I had so far was Zangeki no Reginleiv for Wii. The story is delivered exclusively by voice dialogues, not texts. It may be hard for beginners, but it is great for listening.
Earth Defense Force is also equally immersive, but I prefer Zangeki no Reginleiv.
Highly recommend the Zero Escape series as a VN starting with the first game 999. Also Ghost Trick (by the same director as gyakuten saiban)
I've played it on PC! I enjoyed it quite a bit. Do you think it is better on DS? I was considering getting it on there as well. =)
@@ToKiniAndy I played both the original DS version of 999 and the remaster. I do prefer how they handled the final puzzle and how the narration was delivered through the DS version. However the remaster does win points for its quality of life improvements via the flowchart, voice acting and higher resolution sprites/backgrounds.
3:17 When I heard the voice I immediately went to google to see if that was the voice of Ryosuke Takahashi from Initial D (it was 😭)
btw Initial D 10/10 🚗💨⛰
The 3DS is amazing but I would always prefer consoles with an hdmi output like the switch in combo with a capture card and PC oder Games for the PC itself because lookups are so much easier with an OCR Software, which simply doesn't exist on the 3DS.
You could also emulate the japanese 3DS Games on PC and use them there with an OCR Software.
I just feel like the fun gets a bit lost if lookups make the whole experience a bit jarring 😌
For sure. I always preferred on PC since you can use OCR and Textractor, but I have found both quite hit or miss. It's sooo easy to write in kanji you can't read on an iPad or smartphone now, that I didn't really find it to be too inconvenient. Much less than I expected at least. =)
But I plan to do stuff like this on PC and other systems as well, regardless!
@@ToKiniAndy I'm currently enjoying Xenoblade Chronicles 3 in Japanese, can really recommend it!
But there is a lot of exploration sometimes so as with Dragon Quest and the likes not always something to read
@@OpuYT When I finish these reading challenges I definitely wanna settle in with some games like that just for fun (and a little learning). Thanks for the recommendation! ☺️
Great video, it was extremely entertaining! Never thought that my old 3Ds could help me study a new language! :D
By the way, since you mentioned that japanese games are restricted to a japanese console… You can actually mod your 3Ds and remove the geo-restrictions. In addition, you can simply download pretty much every single game within a few minutes on to your console, no matter the language. It takes ~30 minutes and really takes the 3Ds to a new level, I still remember how I did that a few years ago with my consoles, great memories haha
Going through Genki 1 right now, surely gonna give those games a try once I finish Genki 2 in a few months or so. Have a good one! :)
I've heard about homebrew and stuff, and it sounds awesome!
Sadly, Japan is VERY strict about that stuff, and people have been sent to jail over similar things. So I probably won't chance it. ='(
Thank you for watching! Best of luck on Genki 1 and 2!
@@ToKiniAndyOh wow! That sounds pretty extreme that you can be sent to jail! Yikes! Thanks for the heads up!
Have you played through any of the Boku no Natsu Yasumi games?
Great video, quality and content are top notch. What’s the J-J dictionary you’re using?
Thank you! I had a blast with this.
The J-J dictionary was "Weblio".
I tried downloading True Remembrance onto a Windows 10 in the UK, hoping it might run in compatibility mode - but I couldn't get it to work.
Oh no! Is it only for an old Windows on PC? I didn’t realize that.
@@ToKiniAndy The version I could find was 1.05 at Vector, and it was for Windows 98 or 95. Maybe someone else can find a better link.
About the Japanese games only working on Japanese 3ds. With the end of the e shops and all, it may be worth to just circumvent that by hacking your 3ds, this way you'll probably be able to still play retail japanese cartridges but on your american or european or whatever 3ds. Just completely bypassing the region lock.
That is definitely what I would recommend now. I’ve hacked all of mine.
@@ToKiniAndy Yeah, granted I don't have a 3ds, but I do have a hacked DSI, and even if you're not using it to learn Japanese, it's a pretty amazing way to extract some extra life out of your old handheld.
New Love Plus has really helped with my Japanese. Would recommend if you like romance/dating sims.
How did you find the story of Higurashi no naku koro ni?
I got that game about a decade ago but ended up watching the anime instead
I just got a red 2ds for really cheap. Can’t wait to play the great game Darumeshi Sports-ten
I play a lot of JRPGs in Japanese and you do learn quite a bit. As a lot of words are constantly repeated so it gets drilled into your head. Same with the text
I'm halfway thru Genki 1, wanna get done with that and 2, and start playing some Animal Crossing, lol.
Right when you finish Genki 2 is a pretty good time to start I think! =)
Awesome video!
Another game I really like on my 3DS is Doramoji Nobita No Kanji Daisakusen. Its a Doraemon game thats designed for elementary school children to learn kanji. Its super simple in it's dialogue and mechanics, but its been pretty useful as a kanji learning tool and is a decent entry level kanji game if KanKen seems too intimidating. Plus its Doraemon!
Another game that is a pretty good challenge is Dragon Quest 7. Its not voiced like DQ8 but DQ7 is famously SUPER long and very dialogue heavy. I like it a lot since you can stick with it for a long time and use it for reading practice. Its a shame its not voiced though. Another RPG that I like to play for study is Pokemon. All Pokemon games on the 3DS have an option to turn it into Japanese, even in the west. Weirdly though, the kanji in Pokemon doesnt have Furigana which is strange considering its age demographic but the kanji that IS used is very beginner friendly.
For those who maybe dont play 3DS but play on PC and use steam, you can change games language options very easily. I like to change games that I play online into Japanese just for that little extra bit of immersion or just any game for that matter. There is a list of supported languages on every games steam page so see if Japanese is on there and go from there!
What an awesome video! It's unfortunate that the 3DS is on it's way out with the store closing. I would love to see something like this but using the Switch instead. :)
I'll definitely be doing more similar challenges.
I just wish switch had something similar to that Kanken game! Then it would be perfect. =)
Thank you for watching!
On the Ninendo Switch there are even more Visual Novels
I tried playing tokimeki memorial but I couldn't find the kanji even writing them in apps.
Interesting. Some of the name kanji probably wouldn’t show up in a dictionary easily, but the vocabulary seems fairly standard. Sorry you had issues!