*MUST-BUY* 1:16:48 - Dragon Quest 11 0:45:38 - Persona 4: Golden 1:19:46 - Zero Escape 0:19:01 - Persona 5 Strikers 1:09:02 - Ni No Kuni 0:09:58 - Voice of Cards 0:56:46 - Detroit: Become Human 0:54:43 - Final Fantasy 14 1:09:57 - Nier Replicant/Automata *Highly Recommend* 0:28:47 - Marco and the Galaxy Dragon 0:30:56 - Steins;Gate 0:27:11 - AI: The Somnium Files 0:13:35 - Ace Attorney 0:21:28 - Bravely Default II 0:50:14 - Final Fantasy X / XII 0:20:12 - Chrono Trigger 0:48:29 - Final Fantasy VIII / IX 0:43:51 - Monster Hunter Stories 2 1:14:50 - Tales of Arise/Vesperia 1:18:25 - Yakuza 0 / 7 *Recommend to Play* 0:03:14 - Persona 4 Ultimax 0:37:18 - Sumire 0:40:58 - World of Final Fantasy 1:05:32 - Okami 1:02:34 - Dragon Quest Builders 2 0:07:17 - Danganronpa Trilogy 0:33:02 - .hack//G.U. Last Recode 0:24:45 - Disgaea 5 0:35:30 - The House in Fata Morgana 1:12:47 - Shenmue 0:58:46 - Heavy Rain / Beyond Two Souls 0:06:01 - Valkyria Chronicles 1 / 4 0:04:35 - Octopath Traveler 1:04:31 - FF Pixel Remasters 1:07:07 - Kotoba no Puzzle (NOTE region locked) *Fun Immersion* 0:39:30 - Skyrim 0:22:56 - Grand Theft Auto V 0:25:50 - Biohazard Village 0:43:08 - Batman: Arkham Knight 0:52:04 - God of War 1:00:59 - Witcher 3 0:08:52 - Cyberpunk 2077 0:17:58 - Guardians of the Galaxy 0:16:39 - Assassins Creed 0:38:55 - Zone of the Enders 0:44:56 - Death Stranding 0:14:54 - METAL GEAR SOLID V 0:59:41 - Mass Effect *Depends* 0:46:22 - ICEY 0:52:46 - Nekopara
Gengosan, I would LOVE to get more and more reccomendations of great games to play on different platforms (such as Switch, DS, 3DS, Vita, PSP and so forth). Even though some of them are dead, we can always try emulating them or sth. Thanks in advance, GREAT list!
Dude this video absolutely RULES! I know you've had some recommendation videos before, but to hear your reasoning and comparison between them really puts things into perspective!
Great list! FFXIV is a super difficult game to learn Japanese with, even with JLPT N1. A lot of fantasy language, made-up language, intentional use of difficult kanji, etc. But with the help of modern OCR software dictionaries, it's definitely a good challenge for intermediate to advanced Japanese learners. For non-beginners, I highly recommend watching Let's Plays of the Yakuza/Metal Gear Solid series by Japanese streamers! They will read all of the non-voiced text for you. 🥳
I wouldn't be able to do it without OCR for sure. And yeah I mean, I now know words like "heretic" and "beast tribe"! But still, I can't bring myself to go back to english somehow even if it takes ages to get through. Listening to japanese VA I just HAVE to see the japanese text, reading english makes me mad ^^'
@@t00thr0t OCR is a godsend. It would take me 10 minutes to get through one quest dialogue before I found one. Yeah, never heard of those words before this game! My Japanese friends can't even understand the アシエン language without the voiceovers! 😆
You should become a Steam Curator. This is a good list, it'd be easier to browse on Steam though. Also as far as newer releases go, Star Ocean Second Story R has been pretty enjoyable for my skill level, though I've played the original PS1 game in English. (Rena playthrough) I'm doing a Claude playthrough and I've never booted this remake in English. Upsides: - Kanji is big, detailed, and easy to distinguish from other kanji - Cutscenes are (with scant exception) fully voiced. - Can press ALT to go through a log of the current cutscene and even replay voices [S-tier feature!] - Lots and lots of NPC banter which is repetitive, i.e. in the first town a bunch of people ask you to rescue (助ける) Rena in a Claude playthrough. Helps with memorization Downsides: - No furigana - No master log of cutscenes - Random NPCs not voiced. - There are some text-only micro skits that pop up, disappear too quickly, and can't be changed to last longer - (this is not a feature I want but) No push-to-change-languages or anything like that, can only do so when not in a dialogue or battle.
Have you heard of "Go, go, nippon"? It's a VN that is all about discovering real places in Japan, it has dual language text and really is low on the amount of "pervy stuff". It doesn't have voice acting, though. But I think it qualifies as a pretty decent game for learning japanese on steam.
Fun Fact: If you're just playing Cyberpunk 2077 for a little extra fun immersion, there is a language mod that will let you change the protagonist and all the Japanese NPCs to speak Japanese, but native Spanish speakers will speak that language, and so on. It's a subpar study method, but a fantastic way to immerse in Night City. You can change the text language to be Japanese as well, and it makes for a fun compromise between learning your target language and full immersion in the game's setting, with Johnny Silverhand speaking English to you in Keanu's voice with Japanese subtitles while V replies in voiced Japanese.
Your pronunciation of shenmue gave me an existential crisis for a moment so I had to look it up. It actually is pronounced like Shenmuu rather than how the title would suggest in Japanese, it doesn't use the え sound. It is worth noting the name is derived originally from Chinese instead of Japanese, but also supposedly the decision to spell it like Shenmue was to emulate English words like "Blue" for the sound at the end.
Hi Game Gengo! Thank you for this very in-depth list of games to help me learn Japanese. I have been studying 日本語, for一半年ごろ, and have taken two university-level Japanese Classes. I have done two, online exchange programs with 東洋大学 As well as studied the first 3 levels of WaniKani Kanji Study. I recently purchased Persona 5 Strikers based on your recommendation for learning Japanese. However, have found myself struggling with the kanji. Due to the lack of Furigana and Japanese game scripts available, (as well as sections that do not have Japanese voice-over), I have resorted to using an inconsistent onscreen translator to attempt to translate the kanji into kana so that I can then read, recognize and study from it. Is there anything you would recommend I do, when approaching these kinds of kanji with no voice-over and no furigana, so that I am able to better learn Japanese through my gaming experience?
A big thing about this list is how many of the games are also on Switch, even if I have to import them for the Japanese language option, like Great Ace Attorney, DQ 11S, Skyrim... Witcher 3... Final Fantasy IX... Ni no Kuni... Damn.
I see Valkyria Chronicles is on the list, but it should be noted that on Steam you only get Japanese language and English interface/text - they haven't included the japanese text in this port, which is extremely unfortunate
whew well what i thought was going to be an easy task... after looking at all the options and trying visual novels i've realized that a video game would be easier for me because of the shorter sentences than well... a visual NOVEL. FF7 seems to work nice with the script. it is pretty convenient having it right next to the game window. Still i feel its quite slow for me not knowing some core Kanji. So i'm making some flash cards of this Kanji book ive had for a little while - Japanese KANJI for beginners - on Quizlet. (just have to search for that name if anyone wants to use them. The decks are divided by lesson and i also added all the examples from the book for each Kanji which is about 5 Words for each Kanji) so now i'm just trying to find the easiest thing with short sentences and usable phrases... my GF conveniently has a switch that she doesnt play.. so looks like i'm going to be getting on some Animal Crossing.
This should be good. There are various lists out there like Jo-Mako's but I haven't seen a Tier List. I encounter the same problems you do with the North American version doesn't have japanese audio or only the switch version have furigana. I still hold to my FFX/X-2 remaster being God Tier though :P
@@GameGengo yo is there some way i can message you? I live in Japan and am going to be in Kyoto this week if you want to grab a beer or something. I'd love to pick your brain about learning japanese and even video games in general if possible. Not sure how i can prove i'm not a serial killer. TH-cam and Twitter don't allow private messages i guess.
Does anyone know the name of the game in the introduction of the video? Looks like it has voice acting as well as subtitles in Japanese and English, but it doesn't seem like he actually covers it at all in the video...
Can you do a list of games for learning Japanese. Like educational games designed for learning the language. I just got my ass handed to me trying to make it past the damn Privacy Policy screen on Ni No Kuni!
I’d say _Another Code: Recollection_ first of all, and then also _Natsumon!_ and _Crayon Shin-chan: Ora to Hakase no Natsuyasumi_ ! Granted, they’re only available on the Switch, but I’d say it’s worth getting one simply for playing these! And you’ll be getting access to _a lot_ more great games for learning Japanese, for sure :) It’s also really easy to set up a Japanese eShop account and buy the games that way, no VPN needed!
Steins Gate Elite is 50/50 It tries to be same as original VN, but cuts and censor much content and, well, it's not anime Sooo if you want to see anime you watch anime and if you want maximum content you read original VN
DISCLAIMER: The following games and recommendations are all based from the perspective of someone living in Japan. Unfortunately as Japan tends to region lock its language options this makes it a nightmare to figure out what is/isn't available. Some of these games won't be available in your region, some might require importing/JP account/playing on another platform. I am terribly sorry if there is an amazing game on this list that isn't available for you, and hope you manage to find a way to play it regardless! :)
Check the "Languages" panel carefully before buying. The biggest tragedy outside Japan is Dragon Quest 11 has Japanese audio but no subtitles / interface.
@@Metrionz That's cause Japanese version is a bit different from worldwide release. Japanese version has a more classical oldschool DQ looking UI that apparently wasn't cool enough for the rest of the world and few other minor differences. With that being said. It's possible to download Japanese version from Microsoft Store if you set your Windows location to Japan(no VPN or dummy accounts needed) and search for ドラゴンクエストXI 過ぎ去りし時を求めて S PS It's currently on the GamePass!
@@一本のうんち do you know how to make sure if you buy it from steam that it is the Japanese version? I’m in Japan right now with an NA steam account but the language section says it only has Japanese audio as mentioned above. Funny, the demo has audio and Japanese interface, I tried it last night.
Kotoba no Puzzle: Mojipittan Encore isn't available outside of Japan at all, but the Switch version is on the Japanese eShop, with a demo, so... there's that. You'd have to look up the JP title though so, for those wanting to check it out, here you go: ことばのパズル もじぴったんアンコール
Not on Steam yet, but there is a mod for the PC version of Final Fantasy 7 Remake that has it show both English and Japanese subtitles on the screen at the same. You can freely switch between languages for voice acting without modding the game.
DUDE honestly FF14 alone took me from like N5 to N3. Super hard but super worth the effort, and so unique in being able to let you play with actual Japanese people if you elect to create a character in that region. I really hope you find some time to play through it (also because the game's story itself is incredible) :)
I'm legit considering doing a let's play / let's learn of FF14 in Japanese/English just as a chill video series to share how I learn new language. It's very tempting...
@@GameGengo yooo honestly FF14's pretty hot rn, might get a little boost from the algorithm too :) and as the FF fan you are, there's so much fan service in the game from Heavensward on (content-wise, not エッチ) that it's a real blast! on top of that, the quality jump from Heavensward on is also *insane* and just gets better haha
I played from ARR all through the latest Endwalker. It took me little over a year but can confirm it has quite significantly expanded my Japanese knowledge. There's a very steep learning curve in the beginning not only in terms of kanji and grammar but also being overwhelmed by the multitudes of menus and settings and skills etc. but once you power through all of that though, the world opens up and it has been the most beautiful experience I've ever had playing games
Heads up to anyone buying ff9 on PS4 on the US store, changing the system language does NOT change the game language to Japanese , whereas FF8/7 will both switch to Japanese when you change the system language to Japanese.
Shame that DQ 11 doesn't support Japanese outside of Japan. Goes from god tier to Can't even play for most learners outside of Japan. I don't really understand games not supporting their native language it makes no sense as it can be added apart from the game install so it doesn't even bloat the install size.
Disco Elysium!!! I just found out: You can actually setup 2 languages in the options and switch with Q or E between them. Super handy for language learning! It's a text heavy game, so it has a lot of "learning material", but no furigana and voice over is only in english though. So either you know the kanji or you have to spend some time researching.
I try to learn using this game, it's good because we can easily transit between two language, too bad the translation isn't direct so it doesn't help much, cuz there are a lot of simile in that game.
I have plenty of games on my Steam account but, from your tier list, I only have Skyrim and Yakuza 0 🤷♂ I just added 20+ games to my wishlist, will buy them when on a sale! Not Japanese games, but literally games on the Steam store that help you learn the language: - Learn Japanese To Survive! Kanji Combat - very cheap, simple turn based RPG - Influent - you have to buy the Japanese DLC, also very cheap The one I was most interested in playing was Kotoba no Puzzle but unfortunately it's only available on the Japanese Steam Store... oh well. Thanks a lot for your hard work sharing this!
I have Influent and while it's fine, I personally didn't think it was that useful. It's library of words is way too limited to be much use in the outside world and their selection of grammar is about nonexistent. Its unfortunate because I like the idea behind it and the Dev seems to be a genuinely good guy but the whole game just feels unfinished and is only a game in the loosest sense of the world. It's much more like an interactive flash card deck.
What a fantastic video, ranking the games live like that is such a great idea. Plus gameplay footage as well! And happy to see FF XIV being discussed, I recently switched to Japanese myself despite still being beginner/intermediate. It's exhausting lol but really fun and it's so useful that during quest lines the same words get repeated, kinda like a lesson!
Just discovered your channel, but I really appreciate all the work you put into this list and everything else you do here. This really helped me with some Steam Winter Sale decisions!
@GameGengo , I don't know if you have done one yet, but a list of good live action TV and Movies(anime as well, but Anime is pretty easy and obvious which ones are good) would be great as well. A bit outside the scope of the channel, but why the heck not.
Fantastic list, great tier names and selections! I'm not like *shocked* you left this one off the list, but I think the Japanese translation of Undertale is actually a good one for new language learners. No voice acting, play at your own pace. The twist is much of the dialog is Hiragana-only which is its own challenge but I think more approachable for beginners than Kanji-only. Undertale and Ni No Kuni are the two I was able to make the most headway in as a beginner.
@@ShnaffelDaffel For anyone reading this and wondering the same thing: Ni no Kuni is REALLY hard to understand and definitely NOT meant for beginners. If you're just about to learn Japanese or only just started out, then you should definitely pick a game better suited for your level! Not only is it hard to understand the Kansai dialect used by the character "Drippy", like pointed out here in the video, but there are just sooo many "advanced" words that you won't know about even on N4 level. Heck I'm somewhere on (or really close to) N3 now and I still have trouble getting through the game without having to constantly look up words that are used in conversations. That being said, the game is absolutely fantastic and anyone interested in Japanese (and Japan) should play it! Simply play it with Japanese audio and turn on English subtitles; it’ll be like watching a Studio Ghibli movie but YOU are in control of the main characters :)
Civilisation 5. Great for learning tons of nouns in particular not so good for slice of life dialogue. Unless your daily life involves intimidating city states with gunboat diplomacy and denouncing the Mongols. Based on your recommendations I am going to try Ni no Kuni
Just my opinion on the games that are on this list the I have played. My criteria is differs in a few ways. 1. Lack of voice acting is not much of a negative at all. It just means more reading practice. 2. Furigana that you cannot disable is actually a negative. Furigana is bad for people who have already learned a good amount of kanji because instead of having to recall the meaning and pronunciation of kanji they can instead just look at the furigana. IMO, this is bad for everyone that is not very very new to reading Japanese. 3. Interesting stories are a huge plus. I know this is somewhat subjective, but I think most people could agree that something like Pokemon does not have an interesting story, while something like Nier has a great one. 4. Uninteresting stories is a huge negative. When a story is bad it’s hard to actually put forth the effort to comprehend what you are reading or listening to. 5. Lack of gameplay is a plus, while lots of gameplay is a negative. I also added a Switch game that I played from the top 60 switch games video. I am biased. If I don’t like a games story then I tend to skim read or play quickly. MUST-BUY AI: The Somnium Files - There is a ton of context. You can look around at the environment, point at things, characters have big reactions. Overall very easy to comprehend. No downsides. Danganronpa Trilogy - Great stories where you care about the fate of the characters. Compelling. Overall easy to comprehend. No downsides Steins;Gate Elite It plays like an anime but cut up into scenes that you can replay over and over again. Tons on context to help you learn. Sciencey words are somewhat difficult. This could be a plus or a minus depending on your level. Zero Escape (3rd game) - Everything is a movie that can be played over and over again. Great for both listening and reading practice. The House in Fata Morgana Amazing, compelling story. There isn’t much extra context to help you comprehend what’s going on since this game does not use 3D character models like or anything like that. The background is not as dynamic. I would say this aspect, and perhaps slightly more difficult language, makes this game a little more difficult to understand. Highly Recommend Nier Automata - I am very biased. I like this game so much that I recorded all the parts that had dialogue so that I could re-read or re-listen to these sections to make sure I understood the story. This game has a ton of gameplay, which is a negative for language learning, but it’s so compelling that I gave it my all and reviewed language multiple times in order to understand everything. Recommend to Play Ace Attorney - These games are similar visual novels, but with uninteresting stories. It’s harder to pay attention and care when 100% of the characters are just goofballs. Fun Immersion Witcher 3 - So much dialogue that goes by so fast. I agree that this is good for immersion. You probably will only understand the gist of what’s going on unless your Japanese level is really high. Not Recommended Okami - The story is not compelling. The game is so easy that you don’t really have to comprehend much to progress. Fire Emblem: Three Houses - I am biased against this game. I didn’t find this game compelling at all. Most everything the characters say in the school setting is inconsequential. The battles can take an hour to complete. There is too much time spent battling instead of reading or listening to Japanese.
Here is a wall of text for anyone interested. Visual novels are the best way to learn japanese. Many visual novels do have sexual content, but most of the good ones have it as a natural conclusion of a romance story, not at all like porn. Here is an example. I am currently playing one of the last titles of the Majikoi series. This series has a main game with around 60 hours of content. A sequel around 40 hours and 5 small "dlcs" with around 15 hours each. This is amazing for learning Japanese, because you get a LOT of content with similar vocabulary. It would be a problem if you pick something filled with slang, but most visual novels are fine in that regard. Let's stick with the original game. Currently average of 62 hours played on VNDB. This can double for language learners. You can repeat voice lines and use textractor to take the text to your clipboard. Anything on VNDB is tagged. Majikoi has the sexual content tag. The other related tags are "Low sexual content" "High sexual content" and "Nukige". Nukige ranges from porn with story to fully fledged porn. Are you wondering how much sexual content there is in a visual novel that isn't considered either low nor high sexual content? Visual novels usually have routes and the routes are often based on a romance target from the cast. Majikoi has 5 main heroines each with a route. I will take the "main" girl as an example. Kawakami Momoyo. Her route has 64745 words with 11734 sentences, 1725 unique kanji and 7988 unique words. Her route starts after a common route (no sexual content) of 69390 words. Her sexual content isn't even in her route, it's in a 9448 words afterstory. There are 3 sexual encounters with her in the entirety of the game. All this was to say: If you pick your visual novels well, you can go for a dozen hours with no sexual content. Visual novels wouldn't be so popular if they only had porn. The info on the words and sentences came from the website jpdb. It's a great resource for visual novel, anime, web novels and other stuff. You can get a deck with the words used and learn it. Now that I hopefully convinced you on this issue, here are a few recommendations. These are some of the top visual novels listed on vndb. I use it ordered by Bayesian rating to avoid low vote novels from showing at the top. Steins gate is at the top. Muvluv Alternative was one of the best things I ever read, and it is third on the list, away from steins gate by 0.01in rating. It has a prequel and it's a bit complicated to start, but you should read muvluv extra and unlimited first. It's really important. Be careful of spoilers, it could ruin things. You can get it on steam, all ages version. Fate/stay night is better than any anime adaptation. The routes are really good. Also has all ages version. Baldr sky is another masterpiece. Imagine a world where you can "dive" online with your mind, pilot robots to attack virtual places, and even die if you are destroyed on a no limit area. All that with a big mistery that spans through 2 games and 100+ hours of fully voiced content. Steam, all ages version Majikoi - I already mentioned it. It's a slice of life story with comedy and martial arts. It's a wholesome story about friendship before it even starts to develop romance into it. Only the first on steam, the rest were fan translated. Dies irae - Nazi germany had a special occult army and they managed to escape. They show up in modern day Japan with twisted plans and a hell of a soundtrack to follow. Steam, has all ages version. One little quirk of visual novels: Almost all good ones are almost fully voiced. There is a standard of not voicing the protagonist for most visual novels. The ones I listed almost all have fully voiced protagonists, but many good vns don't. Of the ones I mentioned, Muv-luv and Majikoi have no voice acting for the protagonist, but the rest of the cast is voiced. If you buy the original Majikoi translation, you may get a version where many characters are not voiced. This was a licensing issue, so I suggest you stick to the fan translation if you do it in english.
I gave Ni No Kuni a try but sadly the Japanese was too advanced for my c N4 Japanese, no idea what was going on despite copious looking up of words. It's also very text heavy at the beginning so didn't feel accessible at my level, and the cut scenes were too fast for me to understand.
This is a great video, but in a few cases the games don't have full Japanese support, at least in my region. For example, the newer Ace Attorney (大逆転裁判) does not have Japanese support in my region (according to Steam) while the older games (逆転裁判) do. Dragon Quest XI has Japanese voice but not the text and interface (again, according to Steam; I didn't buy the game because of that). I also couldn't find the word puzzle game mentioned.
Depends on the game! For Ni no Kuni you have so many “advanced” words (especially due to the setting) that even N4 level will leave you confused a lot of the times. I think this goes for a lot of the games that are up there; they’re not great for beginners IMO, due to their setting. But with the lately released Another Code: Recollection and Natsumon!, you’ll get really far with N5 and N4, and you’ll definitely be able to expand on your vocabulary by playing them and trying to remember the words being used! I’m 100% that both of these two would be “Must Buy”. Granted, they’re only available on the Switch, but I’d say it’s worth getting one simply for playing these two gems. For this list and Steam games, Dragon Quest does seem to have some pretty basic dialogue though, same with the Persona Golden, so N5 and N4 could possibly be enough to really enjoy those two!
Do you recommend that you should try to translate every dialog when playing a game in japanese or just continue playing until you like get stuck and force to figure out what to do next? I tried to play Paper mario and I felt kinda overwhelm trying to translate/read every dialog.
Not Game Gengo obviously, but from my experience you get more out of pressing on than you do spending 30 min figuring out the grammar or how a word is used. If it takes you a couple minutes to look it up on bunpro or find it on weblio that's totally fine. Or, if it is something that you feel like you HAVE to know, have at it. But after a certain point it's probably best to move. You might never seen that word/grammar usage again in the current media you're consuming but might see it later after your gain a better grasp of the language as a whole. It's really up to you how long you decide to spend on figuring out when to call it quits though.
Translation is a completely separate skill imo and shouldn't be the top priority when playing, otherwise you will overwhelm and burn yourself out. It's better to look at bits you don't know and are interested, and if you understand what's being said then move on and keep playing. I personally don't recommend translating every single line of dialogue, instead just get the gist/understanding :)
There is a simple rule for reading books. If you encounter several times some word/grammar in short amount of time, then look it up. So, you will be picking up most common language first.
Hey there! Yeah Steam is kind of like a PSN or Nintendo store but for PC games, suuuuuuuper safe, ive been using it for over 10 years! They often have game sales and is the No.1 most popular/common place people buy and play PC games :)
As a disclaimer zero time dilemma is the 3rd game in a series and things will probably be very strange and confusing without at least looking up the plot of the first 2 (but they are great if you're interested in playing them too) it's also unfortunately the weakest in the series by far I'd say
No FF15? Boy band road trip always getting left out lol. It's one of my favorites, but I know the wider FF community didn't like it as much since it's so different from the rest of the series.
Dragon Quest 11 Japanese version on Steam is region locked. That's so lame, although there is mod you can download to add Japanese to the International version
Bought the game through Steam based on it's number one rating here. Unfortunately no Japanese text. There is a mode but that has no furigana - I think for this reason it shouldn't be the top pick
Helloooo from Indonesia here. I'm a big fan of your channel. Your reference has been very helpful in deciding which one I would use to practice my JP. Would you kindly make review about these two games? 1) Genshin Impact. It took the world by storm in 2020 and still strong until now. I have been using it to practice my Mandarin (one of very few games with mandarin voice acting as one of the option). 2) Trails of Cold Steel 1. I'm currently trying it. The setting is steampunk military academy highschool. So the vocabulary range is very wide, from mundane everyday life like appraising tea, coffee, and dating (during leisure), to politics and military terms (during certain mission). Would really appreciate 😉
Just started AI Somnium File. I’m around N3 level and omg it’s hard. The logs are a blessing but it’s really chock full of tough vocab, it’s gonna take me ages to get anywhere.
Fantastic video! Looking forward to trying some of the games I had missed before out soon. One game I would toss in the list is Stardew Valley set to Japanese. It isn't voice acted, but if anyone wants a chill game with a ton of vocabulary, I highly recommend it.
You’re very inspiring Matt! I love your vids , I been learning Japanese since august and have been understanding a lot. I play a lot of your vids in the background to help me. Thanks a lot for making these 👍
This is such an enjoyable video. Hearing you explaining about the games and stuff haha! Also thanks for making me to actually taking a step into learning Japanese. Currently learning Hiragana, and after that will try to play games in Japanese
I like the persona games and I've beaten them all in Japanese. They're good for immersion, however, they're inferior to anime and manga in all aspects since when u're in dungeons you're actually not immersing that much, just playing a game normally, and that makes up for like 35% of the game maybe. Of course playing games here and there can be great for learning and I've used them a lot but maybe don't use them as your primariy source of learning but more like something you have fun doing while you learn at the same time.
i just had to ask for a refund for dragon quest XI because i didnt notice that it didnt have the option for japanese text... ONLY voice. damn it guess i'm going to have to use my vpn to buy it from a japanese account when i get the refund.. probably should have thought about that
That's a good-looking and well-explained list! I found many of the complaints associated with Dragon Quest Builders 2 to evenly match up with Doraemon: Story of Seasons, which (I found between the announcement and posting of this video) has furigana -but- also a 4-hour cutscene before you hit its first save point
Can you do this for 3DS? for how easy it is to jailbreak the 3DS and be able to download every Japanese game, a list of 3ds games to go with the kanken style games would be amazing
It's impossible to cover everything in one list, and this is a pretty great one, on a pretty epically wonderful channel, so I'm just gonna be a typical obnoxious jerk and say where's my main man Sekiro?
To see people typing in Japanese in FFXIV, do you have to play on the Japan data centers? Or can you connect to Japanese text channels even on American data centers or something like that
Thank you!!! I've started with little indie games, mostly from Western developers. Then I played almost exclusively visual novels for about a year (which worked great) Then a year ago I branched out and tried some non-visual novel games with hit-and-miss results. This list will be so helpful!
I was planning on playing Persina 4 Golden with a real time schedule ( 1 real life day = 1 game day) for learning Japanesee and wanted to see if it was a good game to learn and seeing it on the top spot in your list made me so glad lol
I succeeded, needed to use the search option but then it sometimes is in half width katakana for no reason so I enabled an option that transforms half width katakana into full width hiragana and katakana into hitagana.
I remember seeing some vtubers playing kotoba no puzzle (they called it mojipitan?). Unfortunately it seems to be region locked to Japan. Thank you for the list though! I have lots of stuff to check out now.
These are all really solid picks, had fun playing a lot of these in Japanese (although some of the EU editions of games force english subtitles...) I sort of agree about NEKOPARA, I see them more as daft fun if you don't take them seriously! I've only recently purchased Voice of Cards as the trilogy on steam sale, so that's going to be my next hit :)
@GameGengo as a follow on, do you happen to have a list of dual subtitle games? Found those are great for learning to match up English with Japanese text and audio
Maannnn, it has been hard to keep studying japanese I often get frustrated and then want to stop and just study by watching just a little anime now and then, I am already at a reasonable level I would say N3, so I am able to understand most casual talk. Do you think you can help me ? If soo put a response to this comment please, I love learning Japanese but my motivetion has been really down. Please if you Can send some advice or just say if you feel the same and why Thank you all
I think smaller goals are important Instead of thinking “I gotta pass N2” or whatever, just make a goal of getting through an entire game or anime and sentence mining the game Sentences that are overly hard can be left alone. Mine stuff you find useful or like for your first anime/game/book. Then rewatch it without subs/assistance after reviewing everything you’ve “mined” You can garner a ton of motivation this way and it can also be super fun
The most frustrating thing is when you stop for week or month and forgetting every recently learned stuff T_T. I am beginner, and to me it is difficult to pick up words from anime, reading is 100 times efficient. One more thing to mention, there are japanese gamers who read through entire game, so you can play and then watch walkthrough.
@@mickymadfree even if you listen to something for 30 minutes a day which requires very little setup, you can stay on track. You don’t have to understand everything. You’ll probably be curious about certain things that are being said and do a bit more. If you’re actually immersing then it’s not hard to keep consistent. Edit: and yes you’re right. Typing in the name of any game and then 実況 right after it will get you those let’s plays in Japanese
Yo, are you a mind reader? I was just in the process of trying to learn japanese grammar by finding some japanese games to play, then I found this video. This is extremely helpful.
Probably one of the best games is “13 Sentinels” since it has a backlog thing and just moving around has convos go, the flow seems extremely smooth for learning purposes. I haven’t played it enough yet. One I would also recommend is Touhou TOD reloaded 不思議の幻想郷 TOD RELOADED , this one is so cute and has all convos saved too and can even be replayed at anytime , also the rpg dungeon system is very very well thought out. Has an ancient Japan feel to the convos sometimes but it’s so cute. Also fully voiced. Another good game is レイジングループ horror mystery visual novel, fully voiced too but lots of novel style dialogue between voices too, which makes it better for advanced learners. Anyhow the Touhou game and 13 Sentinels are S tier to me. Also Kingdom Hearts has somewhat easier Japanese too and I remember my Japanese improved a lot as I finished the 2nd game. Although I was studying other ways too at the time, but it felt like it wasn’t too hard compared to other games.
Oh yay the video is back \o/ Let’s see if I can roughly recreate my comment. Perfect timing! I’ve just been talking to people about how to get into Japanese gaming which included linking to a bunch of your content, so I’ll definitely be passing this along. It’s been amazing watching your channel expand and grow, and your work is such a huge boon to the Japanese language learning community. Thanks for consistently making such high quality content!
Thanks a lot for the recommendations!! I’m probably still a few months away from being able to play any of these (almost done with n5 grammar and around ~250 kanji). Funnily enough, I started learning Japanese because I love visual novels haha. I do get why you might not like (most of) them though! I also have to agree with your FFXIV and addiction comment. I had to quit it for that reason (but it helped me SO.MUCH with English, so there's that).
*MUST-BUY*
1:16:48 - Dragon Quest 11
0:45:38 - Persona 4: Golden
1:19:46 - Zero Escape
0:19:01 - Persona 5 Strikers
1:09:02 - Ni No Kuni
0:09:58 - Voice of Cards
0:56:46 - Detroit: Become Human
0:54:43 - Final Fantasy 14
1:09:57 - Nier Replicant/Automata
*Highly Recommend*
0:28:47 - Marco and the Galaxy Dragon
0:30:56 - Steins;Gate
0:27:11 - AI: The Somnium Files
0:13:35 - Ace Attorney
0:21:28 - Bravely Default II
0:50:14 - Final Fantasy X / XII
0:20:12 - Chrono Trigger
0:48:29 - Final Fantasy VIII / IX
0:43:51 - Monster Hunter Stories 2
1:14:50 - Tales of Arise/Vesperia
1:18:25 - Yakuza 0 / 7
*Recommend to Play*
0:03:14 - Persona 4 Ultimax
0:37:18 - Sumire
0:40:58 - World of Final Fantasy
1:05:32 - Okami
1:02:34 - Dragon Quest Builders 2
0:07:17 - Danganronpa Trilogy
0:33:02 - .hack//G.U. Last Recode
0:24:45 - Disgaea 5
0:35:30 - The House in Fata Morgana
1:12:47 - Shenmue
0:58:46 - Heavy Rain / Beyond Two Souls
0:06:01 - Valkyria Chronicles 1 / 4
0:04:35 - Octopath Traveler
1:04:31 - FF Pixel Remasters
1:07:07 - Kotoba no Puzzle (NOTE region locked)
*Fun Immersion*
0:39:30 - Skyrim
0:22:56 - Grand Theft Auto V
0:25:50 - Biohazard Village
0:43:08 - Batman: Arkham Knight
0:52:04 - God of War
1:00:59 - Witcher 3
0:08:52 - Cyberpunk 2077
0:17:58 - Guardians of the Galaxy
0:16:39 - Assassins Creed
0:38:55 - Zone of the Enders
0:44:56 - Death Stranding
0:14:54 - METAL GEAR SOLID V
0:59:41 - Mass Effect
*Depends*
0:46:22 - ICEY
0:52:46 - Nekopara
Thanks, dude!
Appreciate your patient, thank you profoundly
Thank you!
You rock!
someone give this man head
Gengosan, I would LOVE to get more and more reccomendations of great games to play on different platforms (such as Switch, DS, 3DS, Vita, PSP and so forth).
Even though some of them are dead, we can always try emulating them or sth. Thanks in advance, GREAT list!
Dude this video absolutely RULES! I know you've had some recommendation videos before, but to hear your reasoning and comparison between them really puts things into perspective!
Great list!
FFXIV is a super difficult game to learn Japanese with, even with JLPT N1. A lot of fantasy language, made-up language, intentional use of difficult kanji, etc. But with the help of modern OCR software dictionaries, it's definitely a good challenge for intermediate to advanced Japanese learners.
For non-beginners, I highly recommend watching Let's Plays of the Yakuza/Metal Gear Solid series by Japanese streamers! They will read all of the non-voiced text for you. 🥳
I wouldn't be able to do it without OCR for sure. And yeah I mean, I now know words like "heretic" and "beast tribe"! But still, I can't bring myself to go back to english somehow even if it takes ages to get through. Listening to japanese VA I just HAVE to see the japanese text, reading english makes me mad ^^'
@@t00thr0t OCR is a godsend. It would take me 10 minutes to get through one quest dialogue before I found one.
Yeah, never heard of those words before this game! My Japanese friends can't even understand the アシエン language without the voiceovers! 😆
@@micchii3366 What OCR do you use? KanjiTomo? Game2Text?
@@zombieshavebrains I've been using KanjiTomo, but haven't tried the other one!
To sum it up: any game can be good to learn Japanese if the community is passionate enough to write a game script.
You should become a Steam Curator. This is a good list, it'd be easier to browse on Steam though.
Also as far as newer releases go, Star Ocean Second Story R has been pretty enjoyable for my skill level, though I've played the original PS1 game in English. (Rena playthrough) I'm doing a Claude playthrough and I've never booted this remake in English.
Upsides:
- Kanji is big, detailed, and easy to distinguish from other kanji
- Cutscenes are (with scant exception) fully voiced.
- Can press ALT to go through a log of the current cutscene and even replay voices [S-tier feature!]
- Lots and lots of NPC banter which is repetitive, i.e. in the first town a bunch of people ask you to rescue (助ける) Rena in a Claude playthrough. Helps with memorization
Downsides:
- No furigana
- No master log of cutscenes
- Random NPCs not voiced.
- There are some text-only micro skits that pop up, disappear too quickly, and can't be changed to last longer
- (this is not a feature I want but) No push-to-change-languages or anything like that, can only do so when not in a dialogue or battle.
Have you heard of "Go, go, nippon"? It's a VN that is all about discovering real places in Japan, it has dual language text and really is low on the amount of "pervy stuff".
It doesn't have voice acting, though. But I think it qualifies as a pretty decent game for learning japanese on steam.
Fun Fact: If you're just playing Cyberpunk 2077 for a little extra fun immersion, there is a language mod that will let you change the protagonist and all the Japanese NPCs to speak Japanese, but native Spanish speakers will speak that language, and so on. It's a subpar study method, but a fantastic way to immerse in Night City.
You can change the text language to be Japanese as well, and it makes for a fun compromise between learning your target language and full immersion in the game's setting, with Johnny Silverhand speaking English to you in Keanu's voice with Japanese subtitles while V replies in voiced Japanese.
Your pronunciation of shenmue gave me an existential crisis for a moment so I had to look it up. It actually is pronounced like Shenmuu rather than how the title would suggest in Japanese, it doesn't use the え sound. It is worth noting the name is derived originally from Chinese instead of Japanese, but also supposedly the decision to spell it like Shenmue was to emulate English words like "Blue" for the sound at the end.
Hi Game Gengo! Thank you for this very in-depth list of games to help me learn Japanese. I have been studying 日本語, for一半年ごろ, and have taken two university-level Japanese Classes. I have done two, online exchange programs with 東洋大学 As well as studied the first 3 levels of WaniKani Kanji Study. I recently purchased Persona 5 Strikers based on your recommendation for learning Japanese. However, have found myself struggling with the kanji. Due to the lack of Furigana and Japanese game scripts available, (as well as sections that do not have Japanese voice-over), I have resorted to using an inconsistent onscreen translator to attempt to translate the kanji into kana so that I can then read, recognize and study from it. Is there anything you would recommend I do, when approaching these kinds of kanji with no voice-over and no furigana, so that I am able to better learn Japanese through my gaming experience?
A big thing about this list is how many of the games are also on Switch, even if I have to import them for the Japanese language option, like Great Ace Attorney, DQ 11S, Skyrim... Witcher 3... Final Fantasy IX... Ni no Kuni... Damn.
I see Valkyria Chronicles is on the list, but it should be noted that on Steam you only get Japanese language and English interface/text - they haven't included the japanese text in this port, which is extremely unfortunate
Great video. Tier is fun
whew well what i thought was going to be an easy task...
after looking at all the options and trying visual novels i've realized that a video game would be easier for me because of the shorter sentences than well... a visual NOVEL.
FF7 seems to work nice with the script. it is pretty convenient having it right next to the game window. Still i feel its quite slow for me not knowing some core Kanji.
So i'm making some flash cards of this Kanji book ive had for a little while - Japanese KANJI for beginners - on Quizlet. (just have to search for that name if anyone wants to use them. The decks are divided by lesson and i also added all the examples from the book for each Kanji which is about 5 Words for each Kanji)
so now i'm just trying to find the easiest thing with short sentences and usable phrases... my GF conveniently has a switch that she doesnt play.. so looks like i'm going to be getting on some Animal Crossing.
This should be good. There are various lists out there like Jo-Mako's but I haven't seen a Tier List. I encounter the same problems you do with the North American version doesn't have japanese audio or only the switch version have furigana. I still hold to my FFX/X-2 remaster being God Tier though :P
I hope you enjoy the video! It's certainly fun trying to see how you'd place games against each other!
FFX really is god tier hehe
@@GameGengo yo is there some way i can message you? I live in Japan and am going to be in Kyoto this week if you want to grab a beer or something. I'd love to pick your brain about learning japanese and even video games in general if possible. Not sure how i can prove i'm not a serial killer. TH-cam and Twitter don't allow private messages i guess.
Any suggestions on how to get your hands on kotoba no puzzle? Steam is not cooperating because of region locking
Does anyone know the name of the game in the introduction of the video? Looks like it has voice acting as well as subtitles in Japanese and English, but it doesn't seem like he actually covers it at all in the video...
That's Marco and the Galaxy Dragon! :)
When will you do a series for android?
I can finally play Nekopara now that I have a plausible excuse when someone asks
Can you do a list of games for learning Japanese. Like educational games designed for learning the language. I just got my ass handed to me trying to make it past the damn Privacy Policy screen on Ni No Kuni!
you should do a tier list for Playstation and Nintendo exclusives
Should have Fallout 4, just so that you can meet ghoul Kazuma Kiryu.
I’d love a similar list for consoles.
It's definitely coming!! ;)
So which games are good for beginners?
I’d say _Another Code: Recollection_ first of all, and then also _Natsumon!_ and _Crayon Shin-chan: Ora to Hakase no Natsuyasumi_ !
Granted, they’re only available on the Switch, but I’d say it’s worth getting one simply for playing these! And you’ll be getting access to _a lot_ more great games for learning Japanese, for sure :) It’s also really easy to set up a Japanese eShop account and buy the games that way, no VPN needed!
This is the Best!
Nekopara has double translation? Sold!
Game gengo is sleeping on nekopara he needs to open his eyes and realize it's the best game ever
Are there any mobile games you'd recommend? e.g on Android
53:00 HEAR ME OUT
Bro where are the games from The Legend of Heroes saga!
I can't belive Persona 5 Royal is still not on PC
I agree. Tales is a Beast game.
Steins Gate Elite is 50/50
It tries to be same as original VN, but cuts and censor much content and, well, it's not anime
Sooo if you want to see anime you watch anime and if you want maximum content you read original VN
it cuts like 1 hour from 1 optional route and that's it...
Visual novels are best
6:00
sheesh... any gba games?
;)
The amount of work you put into the channel is just insane. This channel is gonna grow more than you expect, I'm sure
DISCLAIMER: The following games and recommendations are all based from the perspective of someone living in Japan. Unfortunately as Japan tends to region lock its language options this makes it a nightmare to figure out what is/isn't available. Some of these games won't be available in your region, some might require importing/JP account/playing on another platform. I am terribly sorry if there is an amazing game on this list that isn't available for you, and hope you manage to find a way to play it regardless! :)
I think Steam has an option to change the game to japanese (text) if the game does not have it built in. It worked for me in Valkyria Chronicles 4
Check the "Languages" panel carefully before buying. The biggest tragedy outside Japan is Dragon Quest 11 has Japanese audio but no subtitles / interface.
@@Metrionz That's cause Japanese version is a bit different from worldwide release. Japanese version has a more classical oldschool DQ looking UI that apparently wasn't cool enough for the rest of the world and few other minor differences.
With that being said. It's possible to download Japanese version from Microsoft Store if you set your Windows location to Japan(no VPN or dummy accounts needed) and search for ドラゴンクエストXI 過ぎ去りし時を求めて S
PS It's currently on the GamePass!
@@一本のうんち do you know how to make sure if you buy it from steam that it is the Japanese version? I’m in Japan right now with an NA steam account but the language section says it only has Japanese audio as mentioned above. Funny, the demo has audio and Japanese interface, I tried it last night.
Kotoba no Puzzle: Mojipittan Encore isn't available outside of Japan at all, but the Switch version is on the Japanese eShop, with a demo, so... there's that.
You'd have to look up the JP title though so, for those wanting to check it out, here you go:
ことばのパズル もじぴったんアンコール
Oh man, I'm excited. I love Steam, I love learning languages, and I love tier lists
hahaha then you'll love this video
@@GameGengo Already loving it. Man, the amount of work you put into these videos is insane. Even a complete timestamp list, thank you so much!
@@thejuiceweasel TILL ALL ARE ONE
Not on Steam yet, but there is a mod for the PC version of Final Fantasy 7 Remake that has it show both English and Japanese subtitles on the screen at the same. You can freely switch between languages for voice acting without modding the game.
That's awesome, let me know if you come across any other games with similar mods.
this out yet?
For the remake or the original one?
DUDE honestly FF14 alone took me from like N5 to N3. Super hard but super worth the effort, and so unique in being able to let you play with actual Japanese people if you elect to create a character in that region. I really hope you find some time to play through it (also because the game's story itself is incredible) :)
I'm legit considering doing a let's play / let's learn of FF14 in Japanese/English just as a chill video series to share how I learn new language. It's very tempting...
@@GameGengo yooo honestly FF14's pretty hot rn, might get a little boost from the algorithm too :) and as the FF fan you are, there's so much fan service in the game from Heavensward on (content-wise, not エッチ) that it's a real blast! on top of that, the quality jump from Heavensward on is also *insane* and just gets better haha
I played from ARR all through the latest Endwalker. It took me little over a year but can confirm it has quite significantly expanded my Japanese knowledge.
There's a very steep learning curve in the beginning not only in terms of kanji and grammar but also being overwhelmed by the multitudes of menus and settings and skills etc.
but once you power through all of that though, the world opens up and it has been the most beautiful experience I've ever had playing games
@@GameGengo i would absolutely love that! I’m a big ff14 fan and it’d be awesome to have that here
@@GameGengo Casual, faster-paced let's play style videos would definitely be nice! Or even streams. :)
I've been in such a learning slump after 2 years thank you for some fun immersion outside of Anki for me to sink into!
no way this channel only has 70k subs.... this is wack
Heads up to anyone buying ff9 on PS4 on the US store, changing the system language does NOT change the game language to Japanese , whereas FF8/7 will both switch to Japanese when you change the system language to Japanese.
この動画は日本語の勉強にとても役にたちました。自分が楽しい方法で勉強した方がいいと思います。
Shame that DQ 11 doesn't support Japanese outside of Japan. Goes from god tier to Can't even play for most learners outside of Japan. I don't really understand games not supporting their native language it makes no sense as it can be added apart from the game install so it doesn't even bloat the install size.
Just emulate the jap version
Disco Elysium!!! I just found out: You can actually setup 2 languages in the options and switch with Q or E between them. Super handy for language learning!
It's a text heavy game, so it has a lot of "learning material", but no furigana and voice over is only in english though.
So either you know the kanji or you have to spend some time researching.
I try to learn using this game, it's good because we can easily transit between two language, too bad the translation isn't direct so it doesn't help much, cuz there are a lot of simile in that game.
I have plenty of games on my Steam account but, from your tier list, I only have Skyrim and Yakuza 0 🤷♂
I just added 20+ games to my wishlist, will buy them when on a sale!
Not Japanese games, but literally games on the Steam store that help you learn the language:
- Learn Japanese To Survive! Kanji Combat - very cheap, simple turn based RPG
- Influent - you have to buy the Japanese DLC, also very cheap
The one I was most interested in playing was Kotoba no Puzzle but unfortunately it's only available on the Japanese Steam Store... oh well.
Thanks a lot for your hard work sharing this!
I have Influent and while it's fine, I personally didn't think it was that useful. It's library of words is way too limited to be much use in the outside world and their selection of grammar is about nonexistent.
Its unfortunate because I like the idea behind it and the Dev seems to be a genuinely good guy but the whole game just feels unfinished and is only a game in the loosest sense of the world. It's much more like an interactive flash card deck.
What a fantastic video, ranking the games live like that is such a great idea. Plus gameplay footage as well!
And happy to see FF XIV being discussed, I recently switched to Japanese myself despite still being beginner/intermediate. It's exhausting lol but really fun and it's so useful that during quest lines the same words get repeated, kinda like a lesson!
頑張って光の戦士よ
Just discovered your channel, but I really appreciate all the work you put into this list and everything else you do here. This really helped me with some Steam Winter Sale decisions!
@GameGengo , I don't know if you have done one yet, but a list of good live action TV and Movies(anime as well, but Anime is pretty easy and obvious which ones are good) would be great as well. A bit outside the scope of the channel, but why the heck not.
Dragon quest 11 is on Xbox game pass!!
Fantastic list, great tier names and selections! I'm not like *shocked* you left this one off the list, but I think the Japanese translation of Undertale is actually a good one for new language learners. No voice acting, play at your own pace. The twist is much of the dialog is Hiragana-only which is its own challenge but I think more approachable for beginners than Kanji-only. Undertale and Ni No Kuni are the two I was able to make the most headway in as a beginner.
Hi! When you started to play Ni No Kuni, what did you know beforehand? Have you done any textbooks or played other games in Japanese before?
@@ShnaffelDaffel For anyone reading this and wondering the same thing: Ni no Kuni is REALLY hard to understand and definitely NOT meant for beginners. If you're just about to learn Japanese or only just started out, then you should definitely pick a game better suited for your level!
Not only is it hard to understand the Kansai dialect used by the character "Drippy", like pointed out here in the video, but there are just sooo many "advanced" words that you won't know about even on N4 level. Heck I'm somewhere on (or really close to) N3 now and I still have trouble getting through the game without having to constantly look up words that are used in conversations.
That being said, the game is absolutely fantastic and anyone interested in Japanese (and Japan) should play it! Simply play it with Japanese audio and turn on English subtitles; it’ll be like watching a Studio Ghibli movie but YOU are in control of the main characters :)
@@ConraDargo found out that after getting to the first village with the lazy guard 💀 switched to english. Wayy to early for my part to try this game
Civilisation 5. Great for learning tons of nouns in particular not so good for slice of life dialogue. Unless your daily life involves intimidating city states with gunboat diplomacy and denouncing the Mongols.
Based on your recommendations I am going to try Ni no Kuni
Just my opinion on the games that are on this list the I have played. My criteria is differs in a few ways.
1. Lack of voice acting is not much of a negative at all. It just means more reading practice.
2. Furigana that you cannot disable is actually a negative. Furigana is bad for people who have already learned a good amount of kanji because instead of having to recall the meaning and pronunciation of kanji they can instead just look at the furigana. IMO, this is bad for everyone that is not very very new to reading Japanese.
3. Interesting stories are a huge plus. I know this is somewhat subjective, but I think most people could agree that something like Pokemon does not have an interesting story, while something like Nier has a great one.
4. Uninteresting stories is a huge negative. When a story is bad it’s hard to actually put forth the effort to comprehend what you are reading or listening to.
5. Lack of gameplay is a plus, while lots of gameplay is a negative.
I also added a Switch game that I played from the top 60 switch games video.
I am biased. If I don’t like a games story then I tend to skim read or play quickly.
MUST-BUY
AI: The Somnium Files - There is a ton of context. You can look around at the environment, point at things, characters have big reactions. Overall very easy to comprehend. No downsides.
Danganronpa Trilogy - Great stories where you care about the fate of the characters. Compelling. Overall easy to comprehend. No downsides
Steins;Gate Elite
It plays like an anime but cut up into scenes that you can replay over and over again. Tons on context to help you learn. Sciencey words are somewhat difficult. This could be a plus or a minus depending on your level.
Zero Escape (3rd game) - Everything is a movie that can be played over and over again. Great for both listening and reading practice.
The House in Fata Morgana
Amazing, compelling story. There isn’t much extra context to help you comprehend what’s going on since this game does not use 3D character models like or anything like that. The background is not as dynamic. I would say this aspect, and perhaps slightly more difficult language, makes this game a little more difficult to understand.
Highly Recommend
Nier Automata - I am very biased. I like this game so much that I recorded all the parts that had dialogue so that I could re-read or re-listen to these sections to make sure I understood the story. This game has a ton of gameplay, which is a negative for language learning, but it’s so compelling that I gave it my all and reviewed language multiple times in order to understand everything.
Recommend to Play
Ace Attorney - These games are similar visual novels, but with uninteresting stories. It’s harder to pay attention and care when 100% of the characters are just goofballs.
Fun Immersion
Witcher 3 - So much dialogue that goes by so fast. I agree that this is good for immersion. You probably will only understand the gist of what’s going on unless your Japanese level is really high.
Not Recommended
Okami - The story is not compelling. The game is so easy that you don’t really have to comprehend much to progress.
Fire Emblem: Three Houses - I am biased against this game. I didn’t find this game compelling at all. Most everything the characters say in the school setting is inconsequential. The battles can take an hour to complete. There is too much time spent battling instead of reading or listening to Japanese.
@Game Gengo what is the ゲーム in the intro???? THAT game looks nice because of it having both English and Japanese displayed at the same time :)
This is Marco & The Galaxy Dragon :) if you are still searching for it.
Here is a wall of text for anyone interested.
Visual novels are the best way to learn japanese. Many visual novels do have sexual content, but most of the good ones have it as a natural conclusion of a romance story, not at all like porn.
Here is an example. I am currently playing one of the last titles of the Majikoi series. This series has a main game with around 60 hours of content. A sequel around 40 hours and 5 small "dlcs" with around 15 hours each.
This is amazing for learning Japanese, because you get a LOT of content with similar vocabulary. It would be a problem if you pick something filled with slang, but most visual novels are fine in that regard.
Let's stick with the original game.
Currently average of 62 hours played on VNDB. This can double for language learners. You can repeat voice lines and use textractor to take the text to your clipboard.
Anything on VNDB is tagged. Majikoi has the sexual content tag. The other related tags are "Low sexual content" "High sexual content" and "Nukige". Nukige ranges from porn with story to fully fledged porn.
Are you wondering how much sexual content there is in a visual novel that isn't considered either low nor high sexual content?
Visual novels usually have routes and the routes are often based on a romance target from the cast. Majikoi has 5 main heroines each with a route. I will take the "main" girl as an example. Kawakami Momoyo.
Her route has 64745 words with 11734 sentences, 1725 unique kanji and 7988 unique words.
Her route starts after a common route (no sexual content) of 69390 words.
Her sexual content isn't even in her route, it's in a 9448 words afterstory.
There are 3 sexual encounters with her in the entirety of the game.
All this was to say: If you pick your visual novels well, you can go for a dozen hours with no sexual content. Visual novels wouldn't be so popular if they only had porn. The info on the words and sentences came from the website jpdb. It's a great resource for visual novel, anime, web novels and other stuff. You can get a deck with the words used and learn it.
Now that I hopefully convinced you on this issue, here are a few recommendations.
These are some of the top visual novels listed on vndb. I use it ordered by Bayesian rating to avoid low vote novels from showing at the top.
Steins gate is at the top.
Muvluv Alternative was one of the best things I ever read, and it is third on the list, away from steins gate by 0.01in rating. It has a prequel and it's a bit complicated to start, but you should read muvluv extra and unlimited first. It's really important. Be careful of spoilers, it could ruin things. You can get it on steam, all ages version.
Fate/stay night is better than any anime adaptation. The routes are really good. Also has all ages version.
Baldr sky is another masterpiece. Imagine a world where you can "dive" online with your mind, pilot robots to attack virtual places, and even die if you are destroyed on a no limit area. All that with a big mistery that spans through 2 games and 100+ hours of fully voiced content. Steam, all ages version
Majikoi - I already mentioned it. It's a slice of life story with comedy and martial arts. It's a wholesome story about friendship before it even starts to develop romance into it. Only the first on steam, the rest were fan translated.
Dies irae - Nazi germany had a special occult army and they managed to escape. They show up in modern day Japan with twisted plans and a hell of a soundtrack to follow. Steam, has all ages version.
One little quirk of visual novels: Almost all good ones are almost fully voiced. There is a standard of not voicing the protagonist for most visual novels. The ones I listed almost all have fully voiced protagonists, but many good vns don't. Of the ones I mentioned, Muv-luv and Majikoi have no voice acting for the protagonist, but the rest of the cast is voiced. If you buy the original Majikoi translation, you may get a version where many characters are not voiced. This was a licensing issue, so I suggest you stick to the fan translation if you do it in english.
I gave Ni No Kuni a try but sadly the Japanese was too advanced for my c N4 Japanese, no idea what was going on despite copious looking up of words. It's also very text heavy at the beginning so didn't feel accessible at my level, and the cut scenes were too fast for me to understand.
This is a great video, but in a few cases the games don't have full Japanese support, at least in my region. For example, the newer Ace Attorney (大逆転裁判) does not have Japanese support in my region (according to Steam) while the older games (逆転裁判) do. Dragon Quest XI has Japanese voice but not the text and interface (again, according to Steam; I didn't buy the game because of that). I also couldn't find the word puzzle game mentioned.
Commenting in 2023 from the UK, it's still the case for DQXI.
Do I have to learn at least N5-N4 before playing the must buys in japanese?
Depends on the game! For Ni no Kuni you have so many “advanced” words (especially due to the setting) that even N4 level will leave you confused a lot of the times. I think this goes for a lot of the games that are up there; they’re not great for beginners IMO, due to their setting.
But with the lately released Another Code: Recollection and Natsumon!, you’ll get really far with N5 and N4, and you’ll definitely be able to expand on your vocabulary by playing them and trying to remember the words being used! I’m 100% that both of these two would be “Must Buy”.
Granted, they’re only available on the Switch, but I’d say it’s worth getting one simply for playing these two gems.
For this list and Steam games, Dragon Quest does seem to have some pretty basic dialogue though, same with the Persona Golden, so N5 and N4 could possibly be enough to really enjoy those two!
Do you recommend that you should try to translate every dialog when playing a game in japanese or just continue playing until you like get stuck and force to figure out what to do next? I tried to play Paper mario and I felt kinda overwhelm trying to translate/read every dialog.
Not Game Gengo obviously, but from my experience you get more out of pressing on than you do spending 30 min figuring out the grammar or how a word is used. If it takes you a couple minutes to look it up on bunpro or find it on weblio that's totally fine. Or, if it is something that you feel like you HAVE to know, have at it.
But after a certain point it's probably best to move. You might never seen that word/grammar usage again in the current media you're consuming but might see it later after your gain a better grasp of the language as a whole. It's really up to you how long you decide to spend on figuring out when to call it quits though.
Translation is a completely separate skill imo and shouldn't be the top priority when playing, otherwise you will overwhelm and burn yourself out. It's better to look at bits you don't know and are interested, and if you understand what's being said then move on and keep playing. I personally don't recommend translating every single line of dialogue, instead just get the gist/understanding :)
There is a simple rule for reading books. If you encounter several times some word/grammar in short amount of time, then look it up. So, you will be picking up most common language first.
What is steam and do you buy games from there and play on the computer? Is it safe? Sorry for the newbie question :)
Hey there! Yeah Steam is kind of like a PSN or Nintendo store but for PC games, suuuuuuuper safe, ive been using it for over 10 years! They often have game sales and is the No.1 most popular/common place people buy and play PC games :)
@@GameGengo Harry Gateux!
As a disclaimer zero time dilemma is the 3rd game in a series and things will probably be very strange and confusing without at least looking up the plot of the first 2 (but they are great if you're interested in playing them too) it's also unfortunately the weakest in the series by far I'd say
Voice of cards is for me also a must buy!
wonderfull for japanese learners :)
Part 2 is coming on 17.2 :D
This is actually pretty remarkable that you’ve done all this work.
No FF15? Boy band road trip always getting left out lol. It's one of my favorites, but I know the wider FF community didn't like it as much since it's so different from the rest of the series.
Dragon Quest 11 Japanese version on Steam is region locked. That's so lame, although there is mod you can download to add Japanese to the International version
Hey all, Dragon Quest XI doesn't have japanese text on steam available, but there are mods you can find that will fix that (maybe check reddit)
Bought the game through Steam based on it's number one rating here. Unfortunately no Japanese text. There is a mode but that has no furigana - I think for this reason it shouldn't be the top pick
Helloooo from Indonesia here. I'm a big fan of your channel. Your reference has been very helpful in deciding which one I would use to practice my JP.
Would you kindly make review about these two games?
1) Genshin Impact. It took the world by storm in 2020 and still strong until now. I have been using it to practice my Mandarin (one of very few games with mandarin voice acting as one of the option).
2) Trails of Cold Steel 1. I'm currently trying it. The setting is steampunk military academy highschool. So the vocabulary range is very wide, from mundane everyday life like appraising tea, coffee, and dating (during leisure), to politics and military terms (during certain mission).
Would really appreciate 😉
Just started AI Somnium File. I’m around N3 level and omg it’s hard. The logs are a blessing but it’s really chock full of tough vocab, it’s gonna take me ages to get anywhere.
Fantastic video! Looking forward to trying some of the games I had missed before out soon. One game I would toss in the list is Stardew Valley set to Japanese. It isn't voice acted, but if anyone wants a chill game with a ton of vocabulary, I highly recommend it.
You’re very inspiring Matt!
I love your vids , I been learning Japanese since august and have been understanding a lot.
I play a lot of your vids in the background to help me.
Thanks a lot for making these 👍
This is such an enjoyable video. Hearing you explaining about the games and stuff haha! Also thanks for making me to actually taking a step into learning Japanese.
Currently learning Hiragana, and after that will try to play games in Japanese
How's it going? 👀
Furigana
Mh stories
Okami
Dq builder 2
Dq 11
Ni no kuni
Game scripts
Chrono trigger
Ff 891012
I like the persona games and I've beaten them all in Japanese. They're good for immersion, however, they're inferior to anime and manga in all aspects since when u're in dungeons you're actually not immersing that much, just playing a game normally, and that makes up for like 35% of the game maybe. Of course playing games here and there can be great for learning and I've used them a lot but maybe don't use them as your primariy source of learning but more like something you have fun doing while you learn at the same time.
i just had to ask for a refund for dragon quest XI because i didnt notice that it didnt have the option for japanese text... ONLY voice. damn it
guess i'm going to have to use my vpn to buy it from a japanese account when i get the refund.. probably should have thought about that
Backlog grows!!!
That's a good-looking and well-explained list! I found many of the complaints associated with Dragon Quest Builders 2 to evenly match up with Doraemon: Story of Seasons, which (I found between the announcement and posting of this video) has furigana -but- also a 4-hour cutscene before you hit its first save point
Can you do this for 3DS? for how easy it is to jailbreak the 3DS and be able to download every Japanese game, a list of 3ds games to go with the kanken style games would be amazing
It's impossible to cover everything in one list, and this is a pretty great one, on a pretty epically wonderful channel,
so I'm just gonna be a typical obnoxious jerk and say where's my main man Sekiro?
Great video, Gengo. How do you feel about Persona 5 Royal and FF7 Remake for learning Japanese?
To see people typing in Japanese in FFXIV, do you have to play on the Japan data centers? Or can you connect to Japanese text channels even on American data centers or something like that
Voice acting is very nice, but furigana is simply vital to me, and I guess many others.
Thank you!!!
I've started with little indie games, mostly from Western developers.
Then I played almost exclusively visual novels for about a year (which worked great)
Then a year ago I branched out and tried some non-visual novel games with hit-and-miss results.
This list will be so helpful!
I was planning on playing Persina 4 Golden with a real time schedule ( 1 real life day = 1 game day) for learning Japanesee and wanted to see if it was a good game to learn and seeing it on the top spot in your list made me so glad lol
Is Persona 5 Royal as good as Persona 4 Golden from a Japanese learning perspective?
Damn, you even mentioned Zero Escape. So high tier content you make
I absolutely adore the Ookami game! As well as the Persona games! I’m so glad you included them!❤
did someone achieved to use textractor on zero escape? Or found a transcript somewhere?
I succeeded, needed to use the search option
but then it sometimes is in half width katakana for no reason so I enabled an option that transforms half width katakana into full width hiragana and katakana into hitagana.
Dragon quest 11 is total skip bullshit, dragon quest 7 was the real master peace
I remember seeing some vtubers playing kotoba no puzzle (they called it mojipitan?). Unfortunately it seems to be region locked to Japan.
Thank you for the list though! I have lots of stuff to check out now.
I think so. This is what steam shows me:
"An error was encountered while processing your request:
This item is currently unavailable in your region"
just went ahead and bought loads of games xD I don't understand anything lmao
These are all really solid picks, had fun playing a lot of these in Japanese (although some of the EU editions of games force english subtitles...) I sort of agree about NEKOPARA, I see them more as daft fun if you don't take them seriously! I've only recently purchased Voice of Cards as the trilogy on steam sale, so that's going to be my next hit :)
@GameGengo as a follow on, do you happen to have a list of dual subtitle games? Found those are great for learning to match up English with Japanese text and audio
Maannnn, it has been hard to keep studying japanese I often get frustrated and then want to stop and just study by watching just a little anime now and then, I am already at a reasonable level I would say N3, so I am able to understand most casual talk.
Do you think you can help me ? If soo put a response to this comment please, I love learning Japanese but my motivetion has been really down.
Please if you Can send some advice or just say if you feel the same and why
Thank you all
I think smaller goals are important
Instead of thinking “I gotta pass N2” or whatever, just make a goal of getting through an entire game or anime and sentence mining the game
Sentences that are overly hard can be left alone. Mine stuff you find useful or like for your first anime/game/book.
Then rewatch it without subs/assistance after reviewing everything you’ve “mined”
You can garner a ton of motivation this way and it can also be super fun
@@AkaiNiwatori1 that's helpful man thanks
The most frustrating thing is when you stop for week or month and forgetting every recently learned stuff T_T. I am beginner, and to me it is difficult to pick up words from anime, reading is 100 times efficient. One more thing to mention, there are japanese gamers who read through entire game, so you can play and then watch walkthrough.
@@mickymadfree even if you listen to something for 30 minutes a day which requires very little setup, you can stay on track.
You don’t have to understand everything. You’ll probably be curious about certain things that are being said and do a bit more.
If you’re actually immersing then it’s not hard to keep consistent.
Edit: and yes you’re right. Typing in the name of any game and then 実況 right after it will get you those let’s plays in Japanese
@@mickymadfree what the hell are there people that do that?I didn't know what do I search online to find that?
大好きな
Yo, are you a mind reader? I was just in the process of trying to learn japanese grammar by finding some japanese games to play, then I found this video. This is extremely helpful.
Probably one of the best games is “13 Sentinels” since it has a backlog thing and just moving around has convos go, the flow seems extremely smooth for learning purposes. I haven’t played it enough yet.
One I would also recommend is Touhou TOD reloaded 不思議の幻想郷 TOD RELOADED , this one is so cute and has all convos saved too and can even be replayed at anytime , also the rpg dungeon system is very very well thought out. Has an ancient Japan feel to the convos sometimes but it’s so cute. Also fully voiced.
Another good game is レイジングループ horror mystery visual novel, fully voiced too but lots of novel style dialogue between voices too, which makes it better for advanced learners.
Anyhow the Touhou game and 13 Sentinels are S tier to me. Also Kingdom Hearts has somewhat easier Japanese too and I remember my Japanese improved a lot as I finished the 2nd game. Although I was studying other ways too at the time, but it felt like it wasn’t too hard compared to other games.
Oh yay the video is back \o/
Let’s see if I can roughly recreate my comment.
Perfect timing! I’ve just been talking to people about how to get into Japanese gaming which included linking to a bunch of your content, so I’ll definitely be passing this along.
It’s been amazing watching your channel expand and grow, and your work is such a huge boon to the Japanese language learning community. Thanks for consistently making such high quality content!
Thanks a lot for the recommendations!! I’m probably still a few months away from being able to play any of these (almost done with n5 grammar and around ~250 kanji). Funnily enough, I started learning Japanese because I love visual novels haha. I do get why you might not like (most of) them though!
I also have to agree with your FFXIV and addiction comment. I had to quit it for that reason (but it helped me SO.MUCH with English, so there's that).